{"id":380842,"date":"2019-05-09T14:32:50","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T18:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=380842"},"modified":"2021-05-18T13:14:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-18T17:14:59","slug":"digital-media-studies-senior-capstone-projects-merge-technology-humanities-380842","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/digital-media-studies-senior-capstone-projects-merge-technology-humanities-380842\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior capstone projects merge technology and humanities through digital media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Making Their Mark<\/strong><\/a> is a Newscenter series of profiles celebrating members of Rochester\u2019s graduating class of 2019.<\/em><\/h4>\n

As the seniors of the Digital Media Studies program<\/a> go out into the workforce and some on to graduate school, they can say that they\u2019ve already put into practice what they\u2019ve learned.<\/p>\n

From virtual reality projects that aim to foster empathy for the deaf and hard of hearing community to a video game that supports English language learners, five teams of students approached \u201creal-world\u201d problems merging technology and humanities through the use of digital media.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of our team members had problems with reading and comprehension,\u201d says Lava Hong \u201919, who serves as project lead, researcher, and audio engineer for the team, \u201cCheshire.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tended to read the Chinese version of a book instead of looking at the English text,\u201d says Xinge Zhao \u201919\u2014game designer, tester, and animator for the team\u2014recalling a particularly challenging Shakespeare course. \u201cI was reluctant,\u201d she says. Zhao will graduate with a double major in English and digital media studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s because of vocabulary, grammar, language structure, and context,\u201d Hong says. \u201cWe thought these were the elements that we could put into our game to help people better understand literature and make them interested in reading. Hong will graduate this spring with majors in both digital media studies and psychology.<\/p>\n

While each student brings unique skills and knowledge to the group, they all have a love of playing video games. The team also includes Lu Nguyen \u201919, who serves as the game programmer and developer; Famous Clark \u201919, a game programmer, visual designer, and researcher; and Zhao, who served as a game designer, tester, and animator.<\/p>\n

\"One
Julia Tulke, a doctoral student in visual and cultural studies, tries out \u201cTeam Cheshire\u2019s\u201d senior capstone project, a game for ESL learners. Looking on, from left, are team member Famous Clark \u201919, visual technologist Jim Barbero, graduate student Helen Davies, lecturing professor Joe Loporacaro, and team members Lava Homg \u201919, Xinge Zhao \u201919, and Lu Nguyen \u201919. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The interactive video game design is based on the gothic short story \u201cTall Tale Heart,\u201d by Edgar Allan Poe. It\u2019s built to force a gamer to text the answers instead of using multiple choice, because \u201cpeople can guess,\u201d says Hong.<\/p>\n

Clark, a computer science and digital media studies double major, says the game is coded, so that if you put in correct keywords, the game will assume you\u2019re correct. \u201cIt\u2019s built to be intuitive for readers,\u201d he says. If you type in something similar to the word\u2013for example typing an \u201ci\u201d instead of \u201ce\u201d for the word \u201ceyelid,\u201d the game continues to move the player forward in the story.<\/p>\n

The capstone seminar course is taught by Stephanie Ashenfelder<\/a>, interim director of the Digital Media Studies Program and studio arts program manager in the Department of Art and Art History.<\/a><\/p>\n

The virtual reality project \u201cclEAR\u201d was the brainchild of seniors Kelly Thornton \u201919, Zhewen Guan \u201919, AJ Brown \u201919, and David Backer \u201919. Using a 360 camera, the team incorporated Oculus technology to create an interactive storyline for users to go through that would put them in real life scenarios for the deaf and hard of hearing. Their goal is to put people in the shoes of a person who is hard of hearing to gain a new perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a team of picky eaters,\u201d says Carolyn Zelicoff \u201919, team lead and UX\/UI designer for the team project called \u201cCurb.\u201d Also on the team is Michael Keane \u201919, who serves as visual designer and creative leader; Conley Ernst \u201919, who serves as technical lead; and Michelle Bushoy \u201919 who oversees marketing. Curb is a food truck app unlike any on the current market\u2014one with a user interface for both the user and the food trucks. Food trucks have the option to toggle their location on or off as well as change their daily menu. Users can filter trucks for dietary needs and restrictions, \u201cwhether gluten free, have a nut allergy, or pescetarian,\u201d says Zelicoff.<\/p>\n

\"students
Lecturing professor Joe Loporacaro, right, provides feedback to digital media students students, from left, Mojin Yu \u201919, Amina Shareef \u201919, Tallis Polashenski \u201919, Sarah Ogunji \u201919, and Verona Wang \u201919, on their project, \u201cPersonalizED,\u201d an app designed to help students identify and apply their learning strengths. (University of Rochester photo \/ J. Adam Fenster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cPersonalizED\u201d is a web application using Java that allows adolescent users to identify their learning strengths and help them boost their learning success with tips and techniques. The team consisted of Tallis Polashenski \u201919, Mojin Yu \u201919, Sarah Ogunji \u201919, Verona Shuwei Wang \u201919, and Amina Shareef \u201919.<\/p>\n

Gerardo Torres Davila \u201919 created the website called R2 that fosters collaboration and takes advantage of a free intercollegiate registration for students in the creative and visual fields at the University of Rochester and Rochester Institute of Technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe diversity of these projects speak to the interests of our students and the interdisciplinary nature of the major,\u201d says Ashenfelder. \u201cThese projects are ambitious and thought provoking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From virtual reality projects that foster empathy for the deaf and hard of hearing to a video game that supports English language learners, five teams of digital media students tackle real-world problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":236,"featured_media":380852,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[26692,16072],"class_list":["post-380842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-community","tag-class-of-2019","tag-school-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSenior capstone projects merge technology and humanities through digital media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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