Arduemgers: a research group in interactive systems at the School of Design’s Fab Lab at the State University of Minas Gerais, Brazil

The research group was created in 2015 to explore physical computing platforms for research and product development in design. It is composed of undergraduate students and faculty in Design, Computer Science and Communication who are interested in the appropriation of open hardware/software as creative and critical tools for design practice. The group is coordinated by Fernanda Duarte since March 2016 and meets on Tuesdays (2-4pm for planning and discussion) and Saturdays (10am-1pm for prototyping). In Spring 2016, the group offered a series of introductory workshops on programming with Arduino. Current projects consist of a physical interactive game similar to pong, a data visualization tool for Twitter and a hybrid plant vase/light fixture (pictures to come). The group’s research agenda is defined as:

– Interaction design and interactive technologies: Investigates potential uses of open hardware/software, sensors and wireless networks to implement a systemic approach to interactive product design Keywords: internet of things, smart objects.

– Digital Narratives and hybrid spaces: Investigates interface design, data mining and social media to develop tools for data research and data visualization. Also investigates games, narratives and location aware technologies in mobile media applications, Keywords: data visualization, mixed reality, mobile interfaces.