Research Days 2019 Highlights

Click here to view the 2019 Research Days Program [PDF]

Paula Gaetano Adi, MFA

Associate Professor
Division of Experimental & Foundation Studies
Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)

Mestizo Robotics & Otras Especulaciones
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
11:30 a.m. - STEM Auditorium

The Keynote Speaker for the 2019 Kean’s Research Days will be Paula Gaetano Adi, artist and associate professor at the Rhode Island School of Design.  Gaetano Adi is best known for her speculative robotic sculptures and machines that explore the poetics and politics of technology by resisting the scientific conventions that dictate how to make, think, circulate, and operate technology. Over the last decade, Gaetano Adi has created robotic agents that call into question the arguments for disembodiment in the cybernetic tradition, performed absurd and poetic scenarios of machine and human encounters, and developed hybrid forms that employ a combination of robotic technologies with traditional crafts and vernacular materials and knowledges.

Gaetano Adi has exhibited her works internationally in locales such as Beijing, Stockholm, Madrid, New York, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Berlin, Moscow, among others. She received awards for her work such as the First Prize VIDA 9.0 by Telefonica Foundation, the First Prize LimbØ / Museum of Modern Art Buenos Aires, the National Endowment for the Arts. Visiting scholar at REMAP / UCLA, professor at UNTREF Electronic Arts, and resident at EMPAC Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, she has lectured and published worldwide contributing actively to the field of new media art.

Gaetano-Adi obtained a degree in Media Studies from Universidad Blas Pascal in Argentina and an MFA with emphasis in Art & Technology from The Ohio State University. She was visiting scholar at the UCLA REMAP, University of California Los Angeles, and artist-in-residence at Sachaqa Eco Art Center (Perú). She has served as a faculty for the Electronics Arts program at the Tres de Febrero National University in Buenos Aires and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, and she directed the undergraduate and graduate program in New Media Art at the University of North Texas. She is currently Associate Professor at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), in the Division of Experimental and Foundation Studies.

Ching-yu Huang, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, School of Computer Science
Faculty Research Mentor of the Year 2019

Since joining Kean University in the Computer Science worked extensively with undergraduate students, providing mentoring and research leadership.  He has co-authored a number of publications with students, and regularly presents his work with them at conferences and at Kean's Research Days.  Additionally, Austin oversees a group of students, "Code Samurai" in the Computer Science department, and schedules workshops and talks for all students, but particularly the Code Samurai, providing them with enrichment information about advanced tools and techniques they can use in the classroom and in their professional careers.   Austin is a mentor for Kean's First in the World Research Active Mentor grant, under the direction of Professor Rose Gonnella. 

Austin received the 2018 NY/NJ Computer Science Chairs award for his outstanding work with undergraduate students.   He has conducted summer research with Union County College and Kean students as part of the STEMPact program, and in 2018 he recruited two students to Kean from Union County College based on the superior mentorship and research guidance he provided.   Most recently, in February 2019, Austin arranged to take a group of RAM scholars, CS and IT majors and Kean faculty to IBM Labs. He accomplished this by making the acquaintance of a member of the Computer Science Department Advisory Board and following up, both with IBM and Kean, to make arrangements for a bus to take the Kean students and faculty to Yorktown Heights, NY.  It was an outstanding visit, with terrific photos, and it excited many students.  It also provided outstanding exposure for Kean students to IBM researchers, who were very generous with their time.  Austin created an inclusive, welcoming environment for our students while they visited this top-tier research lab. 

Austin has published with numerous undergraduate students in the International Journal of Computer Theory and Engineering, the International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering (three times), and the World Journal of Engineering Research and Technology. He has also published in conference at the Proceedings of 5th Annual Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence; the Proceedings of the International Conference on Pattern Recognition and Artificial Intelligence; the Proceedings of 2017 International Conference on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence; the Proceedings of 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Imaging, Signal Processing; the Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Frontiers in Education: Computer Science and Computer Engineering.

Isabel Morais

Senior, Computer Science Major
Undergraduate Research Award, 2019

Isabel Morais has participated in research projects with faculty and other students throughout her time as a Kean undergraduate student.  After attending the 2018 Research Day presentation by Dr. Marvin Andujar, Isabel was intrigued by the brain-computer interface (BCI) which Dr. Andujar had used as an undergraduate at Kean and continues to use in his research today.  Building on this idea, she collaborated with two other students to form a team and write a proposal for a year-long undergraduate research project, “Analyzing Student Understanding of Cyber Security Concepts Using a Brain Computer Interface (BCI)”, which was funded by the Computing Research Association’s Collaborative Research Experiences for Undergraduates (CRA-CREU).  With this funding, two BCI headsets were purchased for use with students in Project Adelante to measure changes in cybersecurity awareness in high school students. During the fall semester, a series of cybersecurity lessons were presented to Project Adelante high school students, and Isabel oversaw the pre- and post-test assessment and BCI assessments. Posters from this effort, both on the BCI activity and cybersecurity education, will be presented at Kean’s Research Days. 

Isabel’s work on the CRA-CREU project was preceded by her work on a 2018 Students Partnering with Faculty STEAMED project “Intelligent Wayfinding” (Dr. Patricia Morreale, Computer Science joint with Professor Ed Johnston, Design). Isabel was part of a team of four students, two from CS and two from Design, who prepared an enhanced website for Liberty Hall Museum and developed an augmented reality (AR) experience for Liberty Hall visitors.  Two papers from this work have been accepted for presentation and publication at an upcoming human computer interaction conference.  

In 2018, Isabel worked with Professor Mayra Bachrach on developing a curriculum for middle school teachers and presented the curriculum to teachers during a summer workshop and a follow-up event in January.  This research was funded by Prof. Bachrach’s Google Education grant.  The results from that research have been accepted for presentation at a conference in Princeton, NJ.  

Working with Dr. Daehan Kwak, Isabel prepared a poster for submission to the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), which will be presented in April. The poster was also accepted for presentation at Posters on the Hill in Washington, DC in April.  

Isabel is an outstanding student, NSF S-STEM Scholarship recipient, and has received scholarships to attend the Grace Hopper Conference (2017) and Women in Cybersecurity (2019). She has been the Treasurer for the ACM-W student chapter and was one of the founders of Kean's Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) Chapter. To date, three of Isabel’s research papers have been accepted for publication and presentation, with an additional two in preparation. Isabel has accepted a full-time job at Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, MI after graduation.