Transformative Student Research and Creative Projects Featured at U of A iShowcase
College of Information Science BA in Games and Behavior students at the Fall 2023 University of Arizona iShowcase. Photo by Michael McKisson.
At the end of each semester, the College of Information Science presents interactive research and creative projects by students in information science, game design and development, data science, digital storytelling and more. This fall, the University of Arizona iShowcase featured 40 student projects, including hands-on video, tabletop games, senior capstone presentations and interactive online stories.
“The iShowcase is an important milestone for students,” says Daniel Charbonneau, assistant professor of practice and the BS in Information Science, BA in Information Science and Arts and BA in Information Science and eSociety capstone coordinator. “The capstone is a truly unique experience where students work on a project entirely of their own design and direction. They bring all of that work into the light—showing off their project and accumulated skills—at the iShowcase.”
The event also provides an opportunity for College of Information Science faculty and students at large to “see what the rest of the class has been up to over the months leading up to iShowcase,” says Charbonneau. He recommends that first- and second-year College of Information Science students, particularly, attend iShowcase to see the types of work they’ll be capable of doing by the end of their degrees.
BS in Information Science student Kayleen Jansen shares insight from her team's capstone project with iShowcase attendees. Photo by Michael McKisson.
Immediate Feedback Provides ‘Most Useful of Shocks’
College of Information Science Lecturer Drew Castalia, who works with seniors in the BA in Games and Behavior and BS in Game Design and Development degrees, celebrates the iShowcase for the immediate feedback opportunity it presents.
“The iShowcase is a precious moment for students to have strangers scrutinize and test their games,” he says. “They’ve been playtesting each other’s work all year—first inside their own creative units and then with other game designers. Taking the leap that puts their creative work in front of an unfamiliar audience is the most useful of shocks. Committed and passionate student groups discover, after an initial terror, that there is nothing more edifying than having a stranger buy into, however briefly, a world born of their own imagination and fashioned out of their own considerable willpower and labor. The player gets to glimpse the empathetic power of games, which is part of our mission to convey at the College of Information Science, and game designers at every level of our game program get to see what magics they’ll be capable of mere months from now.”
A BS in Game Design and Development student demonstrates the interactive game created created in the Fall 2023 Game Development course. Photo by Michael McKisson.
True Stories, Digitally Told
This fall, the iShowcase displayed not only capstone projects, but also the interactive work of students in Adjunct Lecturer David Mondy’s Digital Storytelling course, which examines the rudiments of storytelling as expressed orally, in written form and, especially, digitally. The work created primarily by third-year College of Information Science students is featured online as The True Stories of UA Students!, and includes a sampling of digital stories by six students in the forms of a video memoir, interactive shelf, horror stories formatted for smartphones, interactive map, web comics and website memoir.
“Early in the course, students learn the essential principles of effective storytelling, and then they are set free to explore and master a vast array of digital storytelling tools, based on their own passion and curiosity,” says Mondy. “Students create interactive stories in digital forms they might not have imagined at the beginning of the class, stories that have personal meaning and, ideally, universal meaning, too.”
A TARS team representative discusses their capstone project during the Fall 2023 iShowcase. Photo by Michael McKisson.
TARS Takes iShowcase Senior Capstone Project Top Award
At the end of the event, College of Information Science Dean Catherine Brooks announced awards for the nine participating senior capstone projects, selected by industry representatives and College of Information Science lecturers Jack Myers and Jay Sampson as well as Jennifer Nichols, associate librarian and director of the U of A CATalyst Studio.
The third-place award was given to Revival, by students Alex M. Angel, Darien Connor Ferrill, Elaine Waddle, Ellie Victoria Martin and Yosef Paul Jacobson, while second place was awarded to CatGo, by Alexander Martin Strong, Eisa Ahmed AlDhaheri, Kelly Coloma, Revo Gopisetti and Van Dao Thanh Pham.
The top iShowcase senior capstone prize was awarded to TARS, the artificial intelligence project by Bhargav Sai Kumar Gullipelli, Ivan Denisovich Akinfiev, Ricardo Alexander Martinez and Yash Agarwal.
TARS is an advanced AI assistant designed to bridge the gap between human interaction and technology. It incorporates features like vision, real-time conversations, “infinite” long-term memory and automation. The team’s goal was to create an assistant that is not only technologically proficient but also intuitive and user-friendly.
“We want to create a ‘being’ inside a box,” says TARS team member Ricardo Alexander Martinez. “And soon that box will be able to move in a robotic form. That is our next step in this ambition of ours.”
For Martinez and his teammates, the award represents more than just the accolade itself. “This honor is not just a win for us,” he says. “It’s a celebration of tireless dedication, innovative thinking and the transformative power of technology. Our journey in developing TARS has been a rollercoaster of challenges, breakthroughs and learning experiences. To see our project shine amidst such a diverse and impressive array of creative endeavors is incredibly humbling and immensely gratifying.”
Members of the TARS team, which received the Senior Capstone Project First-Place Award for the Fall 2023 iShowcase. Photo by Michael McKisson.
An Opportunity for Industry Engagement
As the iShowcase moves forward, Associate Professor of Practice and Director of Undergraduate Studies Michael McKisson is working to expand exposure to—and involvement from—industry partners.
“As the winning capstone project TARS demonstrates, the U of A iShowcase brings together the next generation of creators and leaders in data and information science,” he says. “It presents an opportunity for our corporate partners and other industry representatives to not just witness the interdisciplinary skills our students have gained, but to engage in conversations with the students that can lead to internship and career possibilities, as well as industry-sponsored student projects.”
The next University of Arizona iShowcase will be held in May 2024. For additional information about sponsorship and other corporate opportunities, contact McKisson at mckisson@arizona.edu or 520-621-7556.