The IC² Institute is pleased to announce the research projects that will receive funding from its 2014 Research Call on Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth.
The call funds collaborations between IC² Institute researchers and UT Austin professors across all disciplines investigating key topics of interest to the Institute. The projects may also include collaborators from outside the University.
New Tools for Certification in Game-based Learning
António Coelho, Assistant Professor of Informatics Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal
S.Craig Watkins, Professor of Radio-Television Film, UT Austin
Marco Bravo, IC² Institute
“The primary aim of this proposal is to develop the ideas, mechanics, and analytics to design game-based learning and assessment platforms… Platforms that can credibly identify and support the development of specific competencies, provide in-game feedback, make learning a more flexible and personal experience and scale will gain increased value in a rapidly evolving educational and jobs market landscape.”
The Interaction between New Media and Message: The Effects of Multi-Sensory Experiences on Millennial Consumer’s Advertising Evaluations
Isabella Cunningham, Professor and Department Chair of Advertising, UT Austin
Matt Kammer-Kerwick, IC² Institute
“Since the advent of tablets, online audiences have been shifting away from PCs, and advertising revenue losses are incurred with each user that shifts… With advances in technology and projected increases in spending on video mobile advertising formats, the question now becomes, how can new media advertising be optimized across more mobile media devices?”
From Assembly to Innovation: Lessons from the Birth and Development of a High-Tech Region
Elsie Echeverri-Carroll, IC² Institute
David Gibson, IC² Institute
Michael Oden, Professor and Associate Dean, School of Architecture, UT Austin
“The development of the Austin regional economy and the rapid evolution of its high-tech industries over the course of the last 45 years is a unique story that remains somewhat understudied in the scholarly and professional literature… This proposal brings together three leading academic researchers who have published important articles and monographs on the birth and evolution of the Austin economy. The aim is to produce a more rigorous and comprehensive understanding of the Austin ‘miracle’.”
Empathic Lead User Techniques for Promoting User-Centered Innovation
Carolyn Conner Seepersad, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, UT Austin
Art Markman, Professor of Psychology and IC² Institute Research Director
“The objective of this proposal is to experimentally investigate an empathic lead user technique for stimulating user-centered innovation. The empathic lead user technique guides designers through a series of challenging interactions with a product to be (re)designed, so that the designer empathizes with lead users who push the product to its extreme and experience a variety of needs prior to the general population… The experiments will investigate not only the impact of empathic lead user techniques on the ideas generated by professionals, but also their impact on the very definition of the design problem itself and the customer needs articulated by the designers.”