Projects
Current projects and activities
TORSC Wizard
Working with Dr. Gary Olson and Dr. Judy Olson on Theory of Remote Scientific Collaboration. Developing a web-based expert system, the Wizard, for predicting the success of a yet to form collaboration. The Wizard is still under development and an instance of it can be found here
Other people: Mark Madrilejo, Sajeev Cherian
doGooder - Volunteering + Social Networking
Working on developing an HCI solution to combat the problems of homelessness. Research revealed that one of the ways to help the cause is to help more people get involved in helping other people - volunteering. Proposed solution is a volunteering system built on the qualities of social networking, storytelling and group incentives. Please check out the project website or the Hi-Fi Prototype.Other people: Josh Morse, Jackie Cerretani, Melissa Perez, Jim Liang
World of Warcraft - Arena Team success
We have spidered tonnes of data off to capture a premium snapshot of entire World of Warcraft realms. We are interested in the question: What are the factors that lead to a successful arena team? Is it prior or current guild association? We are doing network analysis on the data. Stay tuned for the answers. Other people: Yarun Luon, John Suciu, Matthew Rubinstein
Past projects and activities
Usability Study of University of Michigan SI Computing Website
Studying the SI Computing website for it's usability. Performing ethnographic studies, personas and scenarios, heuristic evaluation, comparitive evaluation, lab test, vocabulary analysis.
The project files for this can be found here. The final report is still being developed.
Other people: Messeret Gebrekistos, Sunny Beach, You Yuanqing. Derek Cooper
!alone (not alone)
Developing a wireless node to be installed on all the University of Michigan Blue Bus Stops for collaborative gaming. Involves design of a collaborative game using a reduced simple interface, audio channels for content distribution and design of a cheap, replacable device with wireless capabilities. It is being designed to work in conjunction with the Magic Bus Project and will feature a live website showing real-time activity on all the nodes.
The project was initially a proposal for the GROCS 2007 projects. It is currently being funded by Prof. Paul Resnick. The initial proposal can be found here.
Other people: Arnab Nandi, David Hutchful
School of Information in Second Life
Establishing and developing a community area in the virtual world of Second Life for the University of Michigan School of Information.
Meeting Support Analysis for University of Michigan Board of Regents
The University of Michigan Board of Regents meets several times a year. Development and distribution of information relevant to the meetings is a complex cycle requiring collaboration between all the departments and other entities. We performed observations and ethnographic studies of how the current process occurs, we also studied how other universities perform the same activities. We provided recommendations for possible technological implementations to make the process more efficient.
Teledildonics - An ethical analysis
As part of a class on Ethics, Values and Social Dillemas, I did an ethical and legal analysis of the technology of teledildonics. It focuses on maintaining relationships online, effects of virtual environments like Second Life and also studies the various laws and policies and how they apply to these technologies. The final presentation can be found here.
Pariivartan
Pariivartan is a non-profit organization started by my friends and me back in India. Micromouse
An autonomous robot that can find it's way out of a maze!
Other people: Zaryab Khan, Waseem Khatri
Other people: Zaryab Khan, Waseem Khatri
© 2007 Sameer Halai. All rights reserved