Category: Research

Faculty Amy Hurst

As the Internet and web-enabled technologies become ubiquitous and there is greater need for web-related jobs, there is a lack of diversity and representation by persons with disabilities. One factor contributing to this is that the production of web technologies presents various accessibility barriers for individuals that are blind or low vision. CSS and visual styling are areas of particular stumbling blocks that lacks easy, accessible, and comprehensive tools for nonvisual CSS validation. CSS is a core language and component of the web used to describe visual representations and due to the visual nature of CSS nonvisual developers struggle to with its use: often time relying on sighted third party member to assist with validating their CSS. In order to striving for a more diverse participation, better accessibility support, and greater independence of blind or low vision web developers we evaluated existing CSS tool to aim for creating a accessible CSS validation tool that would allow blind and low vision web developers to build, test, and produce websites and web applications with greater confidence and independence.

You can read the abstract of her 2011 paper at researchgate.

Check out Amy’s presentation discussing DIY practices for accessibility.

Integrated Digital Media Faculty: Tega Brain, Luke Dubois

With the increase in time people spend looking at screens, comes the necessity of better understanding how to deal with digital images and graphics. Knowing how to manipulate images through programming is an emerging way of digital design, which is why the p5.js team decided= to focus its efforts on effective ways of performing Image Processing. This project experimented with image manipulation in p5.js with the intention of creating example sketches and laying out a beginner friendly way of performing Image Processing. Using OpenProcessing, the team was able to generate easy to follow coding examples that are open resources to anyone interested in learning more about the subject. In addition to that, in-depth tutorials were published using GitHub pages so that students could have access to the back-end logic of Image Processing and apply that knowledge as their creativity desires.

Using the knowledge acquired through researching Image Processing, the team moved on to assist in the development of a Risograph Library for p5.js, with the intention of creating a platform, within p5.js, in which people could code while having the logic of Risograph Printing in mind

See the results of the riso and p5js print research.

Integrated Digital Media Faculty and PI Kathleen McDermott

The Sunbots project is an exercise in speculative design, centered on crafting robotic appendages for houseplants. The robotic base, recharged by solar panels, gives the plant autonomous motion to search for sunlight. As an open-source project, a core objective is to create a simple yet robust design that is both accessible for design changes, and easily replicable. Wireless communication was added to enable the robotic base to report light levels in order to facilitate group communication and collaboration. This network may facilitate future explorations of robot behavior that more closely emulate chemical communication among organisms in dense forests.

Further, specific high-humidity plants have been chosen for the robots’ terrariums, allowing the plants to be theoretically self-sustaining. A smaller, simplified version of the bots has also been designed, to allow lower-cost replication, as well as facilitate exploration of low-impact materials, such as mycelium, and wax made from recycled plastics. With global climate change, the accumulation of electronic waste worldwide, and the decline of biodiversity, Sunbots are an active exploration of our ecological future and changing relationship with both autonomous robotics and our environment. By situating the project within the DIY community, a broader audience is invited to participate in the conversation

History of what’s taken place with the Sunbot project and how Kathleen McDermott has been spreading the research.

Professors Elizabeth Hénaff, Tega Brain, and Andrea Silverman (From the Department of Civil and Urban Engineering) have won the second annual Seed Grant Award from the Marron Institute! Their proposal is focused on “The Impact of Flooding on the Urban Microbiome and City Residents’ Exposure to Sewage Pathogens.”

Working at a study location in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, the team will evaluate how urban flooding changes the microbial community of urban surfaces, investigate the ways in which the resulting microbial fingerprint evolves over time after a flood event, and determine how long it takes for the community to return to a pre-flood profile. The project team will focus in particular on human health considerations, specifically determining how long sewage pathogens may stay viable/infective after a flood event.

The NYU Ability Project, a joint research initiative with the Occupational Therapy Department (NYU Steinhardt) and the Interactive Telecommunications Program (NYU Tisch) supports research in client-centered, assistive technology and adaptive design for people with disabilities. 

The Ability Project is an interdisciplinary research space dedicated to the intersection between disability and technology.

It fosters collaboration between individuals with disabilities and engineers, designers, educators, artists, occupational and physical therapists and speech language pathologists.