BCNM Students Named Jacobs Innovation Catalysts
BCNM presented a strong showing in the inaugural Jacobs Institute Innovation Catalysts program, a new grant program that offered ten diverse student teams access to resources. The program offers two different grants: the Spark grant, worth up to $500, and the Ignite grant, up to $2000.
Spark Grant
BCNM's Soravis Prakkamakul (Information) was selected to explore how musicians could control audio effects with just their facial expressions.
Ignite Grant
BCNM's Tangible User Interfaces course, taught by Kimiko Ryokai, produced the Climate Kids, a project which focused on using gamified interfaces to educate children about climate change. Over the spring term they created an interactive board game.
BCNM's ever popular Critical Practices, taught by Jill Miller, produced the Bank of Hysteria (with team member Malika Imhotep, DE in New Media). They spent the semester working to refine and scale up an interactive installation they had created in the fall. Using Maker Pass resources, they created a more polished and automated version of this physical installation, which aims to validate female anger by collecting messages from women, femmes, and gender-nonconforming community members and printing them as “rage receipts.” They also strove to expand their project’s impact beyond campus, launching a digital home for message collection and resources for emotional support.
The program is offered by the the Jacobs Institute and the CITRIS Invention Lab (led by BCNM's own Eric Paulos) and is supported by the Eustace-Kwan Family Foundation. The grant was established in order to help student designers "unlock new potential in their projects."
Read more of the grant program, its initiatives, and how to apply for the Fall cohort here.