ICAT: "Open (at the) Source"

ICAT: Open (at the) Source presents pioneering approaches to public exhibits that use technology to deliver immersive and interactive experiences.

AI-Accessibility

Project Team Members

Andrew Gipe-Lazarou (co-PI), accessibility and design lead, School of Architecture
Luis Borunda Monsivais (co-PI), technical lead, School of Architecture
Meng Zhu (co-PI), marketing lead, Department of Marketing
Na Meng (co-PI), technical lead, Department of Computer Engineering
Abhijit Sarkar (co-PI), data and analytics, Virginia Tech Transportation Institute
Ralisa N. Dawkins (co-PI), accessibility, Department of Science and Technology in Society
Rishith Gandham, research assistant, Department of Computer Engineering
Shraddha Thanneeru, research assistant, School of Architecture
Erin Harrigan, research assistant, School of Architecture
Tamia Barnes, research assistant, School of Architecture
Zixi Li, research assistant, School of Architecture

AI-Accessibility brings together faculty and student researchers from architecture, computer science, human sciences, and marketing to design inclusive building elements and intelligent assistive technologies. This research tackles the critical challenge of navigational autonomy for individuals with vision impairments, an issue often overlooked by traditional design practices. As augmented reality and real-time environmental sensing become increasingly integrated into the built environment, this initiative emphasizes the need for responsible, human-centered AI. Through experiments such as the Blind Design Workshop, the team explores how AI can dynamically adapt to and anticipate user needs without overgeneralization or exclusion.

This work not only demonstrates the potential for technological innovation in architectural design, but also underscores the urgency of developing AI ethically. AI-Accessibility is a call to action: to co-design, collaborate, and create inclusive, AI-ready design standards that serve diverse communities.

Carving out Creativity

Project Team Members

Lisa McNair, professor of engineering education and deputy director, Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT)
Julia Basso, assistant professor, School of Neuroscience
David Franusich, multimedia designer, ICAT
Tanner Upthegrove, media engineer, ICAT
Linda Correll, backyard stone carver
Hiromi Okumura, collegiate assistant professor, School of Visual Arts
Dushan Boroyevich, University Distinguished Professor, Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Atlas Vernier, Industrial and Systems Engineering student

Step into the stone carver's brain.

This project — created by an interdisciplinary team of engineers, neuroscientists, and artists — was inspired by a community of sculptors in southwest Virginia, the Backyard Stone Carvers, who asked the question: What if you could share your art with someone in another location, in a way they could see, touch, and interact? And what kinds of connections happen when people create art together?

Researchers utilized advanced electroencephalography (EEG) technology to capture carvers' brainwaves as they transformed stone into sculpture, revealing that stone carving in group settings can boost mental health, strengthen social bonds, and even increase interbrain synchrony between artists working in a group setting.

This exhibit transports you into a stone carver’s mind — where sight, sound, and touch bring the experience to life. Using immersive technology, moving colors and spatial sound produce a visualized and sonified representation of data mapped from the sculptors’ brains. Swirling 3D point clouds of scanned sculptors and their stones create depth and texture.

Please touch: Place your hands on a carved sculpture here, and interact virtually with another sculpture at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia through a unique interface.

Engage your senses, explore how creativity links us all together, and immerse yourself in the art and science of connection.

Open the Gates Gaming

Project Team Members

Elizabeth McLain, Ph.D., School of Performing Arts and Academy of Transdisciplinary Studies
Christopher Campo-Bowen, Ph.D., School of Performing Arts
Alice Rogers, M.A., University Libraries
Ashley Shew, Ph.D., Science, Technology, and Society
Gustavo Araoz, B.F.A., ICAT
Caitlin Matinkus, Ph.D., Cleveland Institute of Music
Scott Hanenberg, Ph.D., Cleveland Institute of Music
Atlas Vernier, Ph.D. '29, Industrial and Systems Engineering
William Krise, M.Ed. '25, School of Education
Melissa Hernandez, BA '25, School of Visual Arts
Dakota Vaughan, BS '27, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Apurvaa Bala, BA '27, School of Visual Arts

Play is a human right, and Open the Gates Gaming (OtG) is dedicated to empowering individuals to share their stories through the medium of tabletop roleplaying games. OtG develops open-access tools that enable inclusive gameplay without modifying core game mechanics, enhancing the flexibility of systems such as Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition to improve accessibility. The adventures created by OtG serve as creative, arts-based research on opera, inviting participants not to passively witness or reenact a single author’s narrative, but to actively inhabit operatic worlds, engage with exclusionary themes, and construct their own hero’s journey.

Open the Gates Gaming Values:

• Everyone is a storyteller.
• Play is a human right.
• Systems have to be flexible to be accessible.
• There isn't just one hero's journey.
• We look to those most impacted for leadership.

Open the Gates Gaming is part of the Disability Community Technology Center. It has received financial support from the Mellon Foundation, ICAT, University Libraries, and the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design.