Learning for free? What does that mean?

On surviving a Ph.D.

Aug 10, 2010

I just discovered (H/T Daily Dish) Matt Might's website and his writings on graduate school, academia, and the professoriate. Matt is funny, cogent and most importantly insightful. I recommend his writing to anybody who is interested in getting into graduate school,...

SITE2022: San Diego

Apr 14, 2022

I sent the past week in San Diego at the SITE 2022 conference—first face to face conference in over 2.5 years. It was great to get out meet old friends, make new ones, and just spend time together. Below are (for the record) the papers and presentations that I was...

Dancing with words, Good/Evil in a new ambigram context

Feb 4, 2013

Many years ago I constructed an ambigram for the words "good" and "evil." The idea came to me while waiting for a traffic light to turn green. The memory of it is so vivid in my mind that even today when I come to that particular intersection I remember that moment...

Where do creative ideas come from? 2 articles

Jan 7, 2014

The new year begins with the publication of 2 key articles in our series Rethinking Technology and Creativity in the 21st Century. Co-authored with Danah Henriksen and the Deep-Play Research Group these two articles seek to develop a better understanding of where...

Hard hat area…

Jun 9, 2009

I am working on changing the layout of my blog... so be prepared for sudden and abrupt changes (as well as possible downtimes). Apologies to all but it has been a while since I played with the layout and its been getting kinda boring around here...

Quoted in the State News

Mar 22, 2013

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by Simon Shuster, journalist at the State News. A couple of quotes made it into the article. Here, for the record, is the link: Wired up, ready to go. Interestingly enough, this was the second story that Simon has written about...

Designing 917: A conversation

Mar 5, 2013

Danah Henriksen and I taught CEP917 (Knowledge Media Design) last semester. This was a somewhat unique class, with half the students being present here on campus and the other half online. We met synchronously once every two weeks and the rest of the class happened...

$Mathematical insight on reality & you (yes, you!)$

Mathematical insight on reality & you (yes, you!)

Jan 28, 2017

I have always been intrigued by the manner in which everyday ideas get "mathematicized" (if that's a word). For instance, the other day, on a bus-stop by my office I noticed an equation written on the wall. I have no idea why it was there, but...

Beauty in science

Aug 7, 2008

An evocative image from today's NYTimes about our improved understanding of the beautiful phenomena known as the northern lights. You can read the story here, but I would like to quote from the end of the article: The next time you see the northern lights, you’ll be...