STOC (Stock Ticker Orbital Comparison) is an interactive data visualization program created by UAT student James Grant with help from instructor Stephan Cady. Professor Todd Spencer served as faculty advisor on the project. The project was programmed in Processing, an open source programming language, using the metaphor of a planetary system, which maps parameters of stocks in the S&P 500 to animated visual outputs. STOC had its world premiere at the SIGGRAPH 2009 Information Aesthetics Showcase in New Orleans, LA.

The Arizona government commissioned the prototype network infrastructure along 30 miles of I-19 for first responders - ambulance, border patrol, firemen and police - and consumers. The goal was to provide emergency groups with a global communications system, and (eventually) schools, businesses, consumers and agencies with the convenience of internet access.

The ICARUS project was born during a meeting of DC480, an independent network security oriented group at UAT. During a discussion of the upcoming DefCon convention (think of it as the light side of hacking), UAT's IT Manager of Development, Ray Blackwood, asked if the group was entering the IP-enabled device contest.

The design process leading to the final plan was comprehensive. The group went through several ideas-with one consisting of a robot in a ball with omni-directional wheels to maneuver-before settling on the current idea, a pendulum as the basis of movement. "The concept behind the pendulum is to shift the ball's center of gravity around to get it to roll in that particular direction," Evans explains.

Using the clear acrylic ball, a drive shaft (controlling movement) is affixed through the ball's center. The drive shaft is connected to a platform via wheel bearings. A motor attached to the platform will connect with the drive shaft. A "u-shaped" swing arm (perpendicular to the drive shaft) connects to the platform by wheel bearings. A battery (fixed at the crest of the arm) and servomotor turn the swing arm into a pendulum, swinging left and right. The wireless 802.11 camera is fixed on the swing arm, providing a live video feed. An 802.11 receiver and controller board is placed inside the ball.

Regarding actual movement, the process is more complicated. When the user moves the device forward, the motor propels the drive shaft and attempts to lift the battery on the swing arm. Because the battery is being raised, there is less weight on the drive shaft, allowing for the device to move. For turning left and right, the servomotor and the swing arm come into play. The servomotor shifts the pendulum to the left and right. Before the arm swings the weight, the platform and drive shaft tilt in that direction, turning the ball.

The S.H.A.D.O.W. (Simulated Human Activity in a Dynamic Online World) engine is a detailed social simulation that will be created for the purpose of experimenting with the factors behind our technological, cultural, and political development. An innovative database-driven rules engine will generate believable complex models of real-world life, objects and behavior. By creating realistic models, the data output from the simulation can increase our understanding of how people and personalities interact in consequential scenarios. The rules engine will contain intelligent learning agents that will dynamically change their behavior based on the simulation state, past actions and results.

This program illustrates flocking behavior using a flock of sheep. The sheep run around on their plot of land, eating up the grass and flocking together because they all want the good grass. You can make the flock follow your mouse by offering them a flower or chase them away with your wolf. In 1986, I made a computer model of coordinated animal motion, such as bird flocks and fish schools. It was based on three-dimensional computational geometry of the sort normally used in computer animation or computer aided design. I called the generic simulated flocking creatures boids.

The basic flocking model consists of three simple steering behaviors that describe how an individual boid maneuvers based on the positions and velocities its nearby flockmates. Each boid has direct access to the whole scene's geometric description, but flocking requires that it reacts only to flockmates within a certain small neighborhood around itself. The neighborhood is characterized by a distance (measured from the center of the boid) and an angle, measured from the boid's direction of flight. Flockmates outside this local neighborhood are ignored. The neighborhood could be considered a model of limited perception (as by fish in murky water) but it is probably more correct to think of it as defining the region in which flockmates influence a boids steering.

Surface technology at its most basic is simply a touch screen. We've had them for years now in mall kiosks, ATM machines and other such devices. What's interesting about Surface is that it's a reinvention of the old, and in that reinvention there are some significant new implications. Today, Surface tech isn't just a touch screen, it also allows the user to move, grab, resize and overlay objects. And with that, a great many new possibilities present themselves. The most famous example of Surface computing is from the movie Minority Report, which gave viewers an example of how someone might interact with a computer in a whole new way (not to mention creating some serious monitor envy).

Students working with Professor Holly Rick developed a web fronted application that guides/facilitates planners through the use of storyboarding techniques. For the development, the students used an ASP.net front-end to be installed on a SQL server so it can be accessed on the Internet and programmed the back end with C# (“C sharp”). The work process of the class was also a first for UAT – a course being taught by a grad student, Greg Miranda, who taught remotely from his home in California. Clearly a case of modern technology being used to facilitate the development of even more advancing technology.

Kristine Smythe – online student – completed an iPhone application last semester as part of an internship.

Several UAT students - Michael Dresser, Herrick Erickson-Brigl, Jasmine Hegman and Kenneth Svehla - and alum Geoffrey Stewart are working on an iPhone game, Bar Fight. The open source application was awarded second runner-up in the category for "Cultural Innovation Event," October 28th at the Mobile Apps iteration of Disruptathon, a conference celebrating innovative thinking and offering support. According to game designer Erickson-Brigl, the first-person fighter uses a modified Quake III engine tailored for the iPhone/iPod Touch platform. Brawling in numerous bar settings, including country-themed and sports hooligan-type maps, will include opponents and melee weapons (beer bottles, pool cues) of various sizes and shapes at the player's disposal. The students are aiming for a December demo release on the iTunes store, a date Svehla feels confident in making and Erickson-Brigl is set on hitting.

Jordon Sargent - The Lindenmayer system, or L-system, is a set of simple rules or symbols that is usually used to model the growth of plants. This program could be considered a simple string manipulation program, but it demonstrates the concept of emergent behavior, which is an important concept throughout A-life. Given a starting point and applying some simple rules, you can obtain complex results such as the Fibonacci number sequence.

Typical commercial flight altitude is 30,000 to 40,000 feet. Near-space altitude begins at 65,000 feet. On September 6, 2009, students in Professor Ryan Clarke’s SCI388 special topics class launched Connery-1, their near-space altitude weather balloon fitted with a GPS and camera to retrieve flight data. Students tracked the balloon to its bursting point at 92,999 feet, a new Arizona record. On November 22, the team launched Connery-2, with a new flight plan to take pictures of the sun from a high altitude during sunset. The balloon soared 83,000 feet and was able to return with some stunning pictures.