Workshop: Sensing the City with Arduino + Processing
Instructor: Jason Kelly Johnson (Future Cities Lab/CCA MEDIAlab) and Wendy Ju, PhD (Stanford / CCA Interactive), with presenters including Elizabeth Goodman (UC Berkeley / Confectious) and Andrew Wheeler, CTO of Adura Technologies.
Date: February 13-14, 2010 (10am – 5pm)
Location: California College of the Arts, Graduate Center, San Francisco Campus
Eligibility: Open to all design students and professionals
Cost: $100 for students, $200 for professionals.
Prerequisite: No Experience Required
Register Now! SOLD OUT!

Description: The Sensing the City workshop will cover the basics of experimental sensing technologies and their deployment in urban environments for both practical and creative purposes. Participants will learn entry-level electronics and programming using the open-source programs Arduino and Processing, and variety of sensors, actuators and LEDS. During the workshop students will work hands-on with the instructors on a series of exercises designed to give them both technical knowledge and a broad understanding of emerging interactive technologies in architecture, art, interactive media, and beyond. The workshop will be led by an architect and an engineer with years of experience working with creative designers. A series of short presentations will expand on workshop topics including, “Interactive Design for Urban Green Spaces” (Goodman) and “Wireless Sensing Mesh Networks in Urban Environments” (Wheeler). No prior experience is required. Student will be required to bring a laptop. If you have questions about the workshop please send an e-mail to: info@future-cities-lab.net

Software/Hardware: All workshop attendees should bring their own laptop with the workshop software pre-installed. Processing can be downloaded here and Arduino can be downloaded here. Participants should also bring their own Arduino USB Board or a full Arduino Starter Kit. A range of sensors and  associated hardware will be provided, but participants are also encouraged to bring components, tools or electronics they would like to use and/or share.

Jason Kelly Johnson is the co-coordinator of the CCA mLab, and an Assistant Professor at the CCA in San Francisco. He is a founding design partner of Future Cities Lab, an interdisciplinary design and research collaborative that was recently awarded the Van Alen NY Prize in 2009. FCL’s work has been awarded an Unbuilt Architecture Award from the Boston AIA and has been most recently published in Softspace: From a Representation of Form to a Simulation of Space, ed. by Lally & Young. Additionally they earned second prize in the 2005 Seoul Performing Arts International Competition. In 2008 an exhibition of their design work was mounted at the Extension Gallery for Architecture in Chicago. He was the 2008-09 Oberdick Fellow at the University of Michigan TCAUP, and a 2008-09 New York Prize Fellow at the Van Alen Institute in New York City. Most recently his research was published in the book Interactive Architecture by Fox/Kemp published by Princeton Architectural Press, and a forthcoming issue of AD magazine entitled, “Territories” (edited by David Gissen). Jason holds a Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University.

Wendy Ju is a PhD graduate of the Center for Design Research at Stanford University and the founder of Ambidextrous Magazine, Stanford University’s Journal of Design. Wendy’s work at the MIT Media Lab on an interactive kitchen counter was the direct predecessor to Microsoft’s Kitchen of the Future console, and her work with Remhi Post and Matt Reynolds on the Pengachu handheld Linux platform strongly influenced both Motorola’s Linux phone development and the MIT’s One Laptop Per Child initiative. She studied Product Design and Mechanical Engineering as an undergraduate at Stanford. Wendy’s current academic research harnesses people’s physical interactions to create novel and natural computer and machine interfaces. She currently divides her time between teaching at the d.school, at Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, at the California College of the Arts, and being a mother to her infant son Case.

Elizabeth Goodman is a PhD candidate at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Her writing, design and research focus on pervasive computing and the experience of everyday places — especially in cities. Elizabeth has a master’s in interaction design from the Interactive Telecommunications Program at New York University as well as a BA in Art from Yale University.

Andy Wheeler has a broad wireless technology and startup background, having researched sensor networks at MIT, designed cellular and RFID communication systems for Zipcar, and designed ZigBee-based residential energy management systems as the CTO of Tendril. Andy founded and served as the CTO of Ember Corporation, the leading ZigBee chipset and network stack supplier, and currently serves as the CTO of Adura Technologies, a commercial building energy management startup building wireless lighting control systems.