Past Recipients

Energy Policy Framework: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound Energy Policy Comparison Tool (SMART e-PC) (2012) 
Suchismita Bhattacharjee and Tarek Mahfouz, Construction Management 

This team plans to develop a tool that will allow for comparing the effectiveness of energy efficiency policies implemented in the United States and other countries. The proposed tool will evaluate the effectiveness of energy efficiency policies on how they target: (1) specific socio-economic factors that are known to impact energy consumption, and (2) factors that hinder the process of diffusion of energy efficient technologies.   

Digitally Recording the Past to Inspire Future Students: Computerizing Garments from the Beeman Costume Collection (2012)
Val Birk and Diana Saiki, Family and Consumer Sciences 

Using industry software, Lectra, Birk and Saiki plan to graphically redraw select garments from the Beeman Historic Costume Collection. This collection houses more than 3,000 dress items from 1800 to the present.  The computer-generated images will be used to creat a working catalogue of images suitable for study and redesigning purposes. The catalogue will eventually be connected to a gaming engine to enable study of the garments on a three-dimensional figure without touching the archived pieces and to fully view new creations made from the drafted patterns from the artifacts.  

Inquiry Science Apps for the iPad (2012)
Tom McConnell, Biology 

As iPads have been adopted in K-12 schools, educators are exploring ways to support learning in many subjects.  For sicence classrooms, programs available for the iPad represent passive learning tools and do not facilitate hands-on or inquiry-based science teaching.  In the proposed project, McConnell will collaborate with staff and students in Emerging Technologies to develop applications (apps) that facilitate inquiry by providing tools to record, analyze and communicate data collected during hands-on science experiments.  The apps will then be evaluated in science classrooms and revised based on feedback from teachers.  

Integrating Semi-Autonomous Humanoid Robotics Avatars in Building Construction (2012)
Josh Vermillion and Mike Silver, Architecture 

This team is investigating the integration of humanoid robots, on-site, in the building construction industry. Constructing buildings is a complex undertaking and the building industry is a large and, thus far, untapped potential market for robotic construction agents, particularly for construction site fabrication and assembly applications.  Bi-pedal robots could perhaps be future construction workers: augmenting human labor with precision and memory; querying and updating building design databases in real-time to manage complexity and reduce error; performing tasks that are dangerous, difficult or repetitive for humans with increased strength and dexterity; and negotiating terrain while working in teams and swarms all while communicating wirelessly.  However, the social and organizational implications need to be studied as well.

Election 2012 iPad Application (2012)
Brandon Waite, Political Science; Suzy Smith, Telecommunications; Dan Cooper, Center for Media Design

This team will develop a “second screen” interactive television application for the Apple iPad that aggregates “tagged” content from a number of sources relevant to the 2012 presidential contest including YouTube videos, Twitter feeds, news articles, fact-checking services and campaign financing information.  The application empowers users to immediately access relevant data while simultaneously watching televised presidential debates.  The team will conduct significant testing to better understand how information-aggregating second-screen applications are likely to change the nature of political debates, focusing on the impact such information technologies have on political awareness and preference shaping.  

Hybrid Indoor Location-Based Application: Campus Tour (2010-2011)
Paul Buis (Computer Science) and Vinayak Tanksale (Computer Science)

The researchers created a location-based application that works indoors. It will be a hybrid of Wi-Fi access point signal strenth for coarse-grained location (i.e., floor of a building) and Bluetooth signal strength for five-grained location (proximity of point of interest.) The system includes locating a relatively small number of Bluetooth transmitters near points of interest and writing an iPad application. 

Digital Daily Dozen (2010-2011)
Dom Caristi (Telecommunications) and Robert Yadon (CICS)

The Digital Policy Institute broadened the distribution of the Digital Daily Dozen (DDD), and e-newsletter about digital issues. With the assignment of a graduate assistant, DDD will seek out advertising and expand content to include video and weekly commentary. 

Virtual Middletown (2010-2011)
James Connolly (Middletown Studies; John Fillwalk (Hybrid Design Technologies) and John Straw (University Libraries)

This project created a pilot version of a virtual recreation of a Muncie, Indiana factory during the 1920s. The team used data and evidence compiled from the Middletown Studies to design an interactive, living-history museum-style virtual experience. The larger project, for which the team is seek external funding, will create at least six of these settings to be used as educational and public venues. 

Writing the Wave (2010-2011)
Paul Gestwicki (Computer Science) and Brian McNely (English)
This team developed a software system to enhance collaborative knowledge work. Their approach leveraged modern theories of rhetoric and writing, human-computer interaction, and the science learning. This project resulted in a prototypical software system, several scholarly publications, external grant proposals. 

Video Games for Sustainability and Design (2010-2011)
Martha Hunt and Christopher Marlow (Landscape Architecture) 

The primary goal was to explore the potential of using video games in landscape architectural and environmental design education. The project included a background study on the potential of games in teaching sustainability concepts in landscape architectural and environmental design education, and the assessment of four video games that address different aspects of sustainability. 

Personal Residential Automation Network Kit (PRANK) (2010-2011)
Mahesh Daas (Architecture) and Vinayak Tanksale (Computer Science) 

PRANK is a modular, expandable, scalable, portable, DIY system that allows one’s networks to be accessible from anywhere in your home or wherever you go. The team plans to take this invention through the prototyping process and pursue venture funding via Ball State Innovation Corporation. 

iMedia and Sports Link – Creating a new framework for delivery (2010-2011) 
Suzy Smith (Telecommunications); Jennifer Palilonis (Journalism) and 
Michael Hanley (Journalism) 

In this project, students and faculty designed interactive sports, information and revenue content aimed at specific audiences and developed specifically for various delivery methods including the iPad. 

Growing a Distributed Network for Workshops and Applied Research in Digital Design + Fabrication (2010-2011) 
Josh Vermillion and Kevin Klinger (Institute for Digital Fabrication) 

This endeavor created an infrastructure of workshops and course training modules to be delivered online, captured processes and methods of designing and making with emerging media tools to educate an audience of students and professionals. 

Interactive C-SPAN (2010-2011)
Brandon Waite (Political Science) and Vinayak Tanksale (Computer Science) 

This project was a continuation of an interdisciplinary course that resulted in the development of an interactive television application designed for specifically for political news. This grant funded additional usability testing to determine the application’s effect on users’ interest in, and knowledge of, the content they are viewing. 

An Interactive Geoinformatics Systems for Field Experience Sharing and Collaboration (2010-2011)
Yi-Hua Weng (Geological Sciences) and Fu-Shing Sun (Computer Science)

This project developed an interactive geoinformatics web system using Web 2.0 that allows online data sharing and collaboration within geo-community.

iInteract: Web 2.0 Real Time Audience Response System (2009-2010)
Todd Meister (University Computing Services); Sharon Van Hove and Linda Sweigart (Nursing) 

This project facilitated further development of iInteract, a real-time assessment application currently in the pilot stage of development. This Web 2.0 application leverages equipment the students already own (PDAs, laptops, and Internet capable cell phones) for real time assessment.

Digital Chicago Stock Exchange (2009-2010)
Michele Chiuini (Architecture); John Fillwalk (Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts) 

This project created a Web-based digital information system (DIS) for the 1894 Chicago Stock Exchange by Adler and Sullivan, which includes three digital resources: 1) digital models (via laser scanning) of surviving ornamental panels; 2) digital archives with historic documentation on the panels; and 3) a partial digital reconstruction of the stock exchange. 

Mobile Devices as Emerging Educational Tools (2009-2010)
Jay Bagga and Vinayak Tanksale (Computer Science) 

This team designed and developed three fully functional iPhone applications to be used as learning tools for college students in political science, chemistry and computer science. 

Development of a Virtual Convening Space for Parenting (2009-2010)
Sheron Fraser-Burgess (Educational Studies); Matthew Stuve (Center for Technology in Education), John Fillwalk (Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts)  

This project developed, tested, and promoted a Web portal to support parental engagement in schools and in the education of their children. Interactions range from simple discussion boards and podcasts to Second Life modules, all designed to provide a collaborative of local agencies with a platform to coordinate services, share resources, and engage parents and teachers in the process. 

Broadband Based Monitoring of Food and Water Related Behaviors of the Elderly (2009-2010)
Robert Yadon (Center for Information and Communication Sciences); Vinayak Tanksale (Computer Science) and Jane Ellery (Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology) 

The principal investigators used Ball State’s unique position in the broadband wireless world to design and test a new system that will remotely monitor intake related behaviors of the elderly who live in Delaware County, Indiana.

Kindle for Courses: Emerging Media and the Evolving Conceptions of Text Based Electronic Readers for Teaching and Learning (2009-2010)
Jon Clausen (Educational Technology) 

This study explored how student learners engage course-based texts through the use of the Kindle DX wireless reading device. 

LifeWerx: An Immersive Virtual Collaboration Environment (2009-2010)
Wayne Zage and Dolores Zage (Computer Science) 

Project LifeWerx created created a functional 3-D virtual collaboration environment to enhance the everyday work experience. 

Text Messaging: Themes, Traits, and Tendencies (2009-2010)
Thomas Holtgraves (Psychology) 

The principal investigator conducted initial investigations of the psychological and linguistic aspects of text messaging, laying the groundwork for subsequent studies of the social, psychological, and communicative aspects of text messaging.

DN NewsLink Community-Building Project (2009-2010)
Marilyn Weaver and John Strauss, (Journalism) 

The team studied Web usage among students to help understand video content selection and develop new video storytelling forms. The information was used to begin a new unified media operation on campus. 

Citizen Science, Citizen Sensors: Employing Social Media in Climate Science (2009-2010)
Petra Zimmerman (Geography)

This project explored the use of Twitter in climate-focused Citizen Science, providing richer and more finely resolved climate data while students learn climatology. Using inexpensive handheld thermometers/hygrometers and GPS devices, undergraduate students acted as mobile sensors and collect meteorological information (e.g., temperature, relative humidity), using Twitter to “tweet” the information.