If you\u2019re over the age of 25, it\u2019s likely you haven\u2019t figured out all\u2014or even most\u2014of the things your phone or the console(s) in your car can do. You\u2019re also probably not looking for new challenges.<\/p>\n
For members of Generation Z, however, electronic devices aren\u2019t a novelty or even a convenience. They\u2019re more of a requirement, which explains the burgeoning popularity of electronic arts and crafts and the creation of this year\u2019s \u201cE-Arts and Crafts\u201d May Experience (May X) class taught by Furman computer science professor Andrea Tartaro, Ph.D.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you think of art, computer science is not the first thing you think of, but there are opportunities there for that,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted them to do something fun and creative and kind of see a different side of programming, especially for students who aren\u2019t (computer science) students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arduino<\/a> devices \u201ccan sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect (their) surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators,\u201d according to the Web site, and its LilyPad<\/a> is \u201ca microcontroller board designed for wearables and e-textiles.\u201d That capacity gives clever users the ability to interact with their clothes or make a purse sparkle when talked to<\/a>, among many other things, as long as they\u2019re willing to do the work.<\/p>\n The LilyPad will only do what it\u2019s told through conductive thread, and learning to speak its language was the task given to Tartato\u2019s eight students, who were broken into three groups.<\/p>\n \u201cThey had to create an interactive art or craft project, however they define that,\u201d Tartaro said. \u201cThat\u2019s the lab part and the building part. In the class, we have been looking at research papers that describe the different kinds of interactive arts and crafts projects that use technology.\u201d<\/p>\n The LilyPad can read temperature, light and sound, and depending how it\u2019s programmed will react from the input with outputs such as LED lights, vibrator motors and speakers. The software is open source, meaning much of has been written and is available for download, but there\u2019s still a significant learning curve.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you were writing from scratch, the software would be somewhat complicated. But there\u2019s so much out there that they can get samples and modify it so it\u2019s not too difficult,\u201d Tartaro said. \u201cLilyPad was designed for kids to learn about programming and working with electronics. I\u2019m not much of a hardware person so that aspect of it was a little new for me.”<\/p>\n Austin Pretsch\u2019s group created a basketball goal that would illuminate upon a made bucket.<\/p>\n \u201cLearning how to program with the Arduin software was pretty great. That actually took a considerable amount of time for me,\u201d Pretsch \u201917, a computer science major from Memphis, Tenn., said. \u201cIt was a way to explore implementing current technologies in cool and interesting ways and as an art form.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAt first I thought it was going to be pretty easy, but the wiring was the hardest part,\u201d Chandler Register \u201917 of Atlanta, another member of Presch\u2019s group, added. \u201cWe had to re-wire a bunch of times, but other than that it wasn\u2019t too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n Another group made a doll that would light up when touched, while the third programmed the device to put on a light show based on the volume of songs it \u201chears.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t really have expectations. I didn\u2019t know what they would come up with, but I\u2019m proud of them for finding information by themselves,\u201d Tartaro said. \u201cTheir projects look really cool . . . I kind of see it as summer camp with computers. A lot of working with technology is finding solutions that you can adapt . . . I would not want them to use the internet, for instance\u2014that would be considered cheating. But this is an important skill for them too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you\u2019re over the age of 25, it\u2019s likely you haven\u2019t figured out all\u2014or even most\u2014of the things your phone or the console(s) in your car can do. You\u2019re also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":13219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,26,34,33,54,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-administrative","category-admission","category-computer-science","category-may-experience","category-parent-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}