Sketching in Hardware is a three-day workshop from July 28-31, 2011 on the design, use and teaching of physical computing toolkits. It is the only annual gathering devoted exclusively to the discussion of digital hardware tools for non-specialists.
The development of digital hardware toolkits has motivated significant academic research in the past decade. However, though powerful, these toolkits are still in early stages of development, akin to the earliest Web authoring programs. This annual workshop brings together key researchers, designers, developers, manufacturers, users and educators for an intimate, hands-on discussion of tools for physical computing prototyping. Its goal is to create a dialogue between disciplines and thereby lower the barrier to entry to working with digital hardware for people without a formal engineering education into.
The 2011 workshop will focus on how tools build on each other, and how they work together to spawn new ideas. More specifically, it will aim to:
* Encourage development of new tools and expansion of existing ones; * Support the interconnection of existing toolkit technologies; * Create software that support explorations of electronics hardware exploration; by non-specialists through interfacing with familiar software creative tools; * Identify common challenges and create opportunities for collaboration in solving those challenges.
Every participant will give a 20 minute presentation, with an emphasis on topics that have not been presented publicly before. In the past these have introduced new and improved tools, demonstrated new techniques for teaching physical computing, and identified non-traditional areas where physical computing prototyping is important. In addition, there will be several guided discussions of major issues (determined in advance through email discussions). Several hours will be spent in breakout groups to introduce new toolkits and techniques.
Broader Impacts: The devices, software, techniques, and social connections presented and created during the workshop are highly influential across a broad range of disciplines and audiences. By bringing together individuals from a wide range of disciplines and career stages and emphasizing the relevance of work over seniority or background, the meeting brings talented young people and people outside the usual social networks into those networks. The published talk slides are downloaded thousands of times and passed around the Internet, while connections made at the event create lasting bonds and collaborations between researchers in disparate fields.
Intellectual Merit Sketching in Hardware 2011 was the sixth annual gathering devoted to in-depth discussion of prototyping tools, techniques and education in digital hardware development for nontechnical audiences. The event focused on tools for students, beginners and people from outside of engineering disciplines to learn how to create devices and experiences using embedded computing tools. As the "maker movement" in the US grows, tools and techniques developed by participants of Sketching in Hardware have become increasingly influential. The 2011 workshop introduced a new generation of tools, Upverter, Modkit, Fritzing, Rascal Micro, Web of Things that bridge Web-based cloud applications, designed along the lines of successful Web 2.0 services, with digital hardware. Some of these new services allow for the collaborative design of new electronics online, while others allow for the programming of embedded hardware devices from Web sites. Still others allow individual pieces of hardware to behave like Web sites. These tools, taken together, allow a generation of people raised on the Web to explore digital hardware the way they experience the Web. Broader Impact Many of the participants are educators from a wide variety of academic programs (art, design, architecture, computer science, robotics, mechanical engineering). The event has allowed them to collaborate and share knowledge widely and across many disciplines. In 2011 more than a dozen of the attendees collaborated on teaching projects that spanned institutions and disciplines. These collaborations introduced hundreds of students without formal technical backgrounds to tools and techniques that allow them innovate, explore and express themselves with digital hardware. In addition, the participation of entrepreneurs, educators, technologists and creative professionals created synergies that directly influenced the design, distribution and use of new technologies. Many of these projects were released as Open Source Software and Open Source Hardware, thus opening the doors to much broader impact as the technologies are distributed around the world. Publications Presentations from the workshop are available at www.sketching11.com/presentations/ 2011/2012 publications by Sketching in Hardware participants related to the topics covered in the workshop include: Baafi, E., and A. Millner. 2011. "A toolkit for tinkering with tangibles & connecting communities." In Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, 349–352. Fallman, D., and C. Moussette. 2011. "Sketching with stop motion animation." interactions 18 (2): 57–61. Gross, M.D., and K.E. Green. 2012. "Architectural robotics, inevitably." interactions 19 (1): 28–33. Guinard, D., V. Trifa, F. Mattern, and E. Wilde. 2011. "From the Internet of Things to the Web of Things: Resource-oriented Architecture and Best Practices." Architecting the Internet of Things: 97–129. Hartmann, B., M.R. Morris, H. Benko, and A.D. Wilson. 2010. "Pictionaire: supporting collaborative design work by integrating physical and digital artifacts." In Proceedings of the 2010 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work, 421–424. Heimerl, K., B. Gawalt, T. Parikh, and B. Hartmann. "Communitysourcing: Engaging Local Crowds to Perform Expert Work Via Physical Kiosks" presented at the CHI 2012. Igoe, T. 2011. Making things talk. Second ed. O’Reilly. Igoe, T., and C. Mota. 2011. "OPERATIONS & MANUFACTURING-A Strategist’s Guide to Digital Fabrication." Strategy and Business (64): 44. Lewis, S., Ugochi Acholonu, and Ju. 2012. "Using Low Cost Game Controllers to Capture Data for 6th Grade Science Labs." In CSCW 2012. Seattle. Mellis, D., and L. Buechley. "Collaboration in Open-Source Hardware: Third-Party Variations on the Arduino Duemilanove." In CSCW 2012. Seattle. Mellis, D. 2011. "Case Studies in the Digital Fabrication of Open-Source Consumer Electronic Products". Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Master's Thesis. Mellis, D.A., and L. Buechley. 2011. "Scaffolding creativity with open-source hardware." In Proceedings of the 8th ACM conference on Creativity and cognition, 373–374. Millner, A., and E. Baafi. 2011. "Modkit: blending and extending approachable platforms for creating computer programs and interactive objects." In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, 250–253. Moussette, C. "Learn to make, make to learn: Reflections from Sketching Haptics Workshops." In Proceedings of DeSForM 2012: Design and Semantics of Form and Movement. Moussette, C., and F. Dore. 2010. "Sketching in Hardware and Building Interaction Design: tools, toolkits and an attitude for Interaction Designers." Proc. of Design Research Society. Paulos, E. 2012. "You amateur!" interactions 19 (1): 52–57. Qi, J., and L. Buechley. "Animating paper with shape memory alloy." In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. Schweikardt, E., and M.D. Gross. 2011. "Experiments in design synthesis when behavior is determined by shape." Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 15 (2): 123–132. Trifa, V. "Building Blocks for a Participatory Web of Things: Devices, Infrastructures, and Programming Frameworks". PhD Dissertation, Zurich: ETH Zurich. Yun, R., and M.D. Gross. 2011. "The RayMatic: a thermostat with a human face." In Proceedings of the fifth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, 261–262.
