Ann directs the Craft Technology Lab, a space overflowing with objects as diverse as Arduino-controlled sunflowers; software-generated polyhedral paper sculpture; and RFID-augmented stuffed zombies. Her focus is the design and creation of objects that combine computation with real-world craft materials. Her background is in educational computing with an emphasis on math education and spatial cognition. The focus of the projects in her lab is one of playful design and exploration leading to meaningful educational experiences for both the project creators and the kids and adults who engage with their work.
Ann holds a PhDin computer science from , and a BSin mathematics from the University of Hawai'i. She has co-taught (with Mike Eisenberg) numerous classes in “Things that Think”, a hands-on computer science class where students combine computation with hand-built mechanical automata, soft toys, costumes, and objects from da Vinci’s sketchbooks. She has also taught classes in creative engineering at various K-12 schools in the Boulder/Denver area, in addition to workshops at the Denver Art Museum and the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum.
Projects
Publications (ATLAS-related)
Chris Hill*,Casey Lee Hunt* (*shared first authorship),Sammie Crowder, Brett Fiedler, Emily B. Moore, andAnn Eisenberg. 2023. “”. In:Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '23)(Warsaw, Poland, February 26 - March 1, 2023).
Chris Hill, Michael Schneider,Ann Eisenberg, andMark D. Gross. 2021. The ThreadBoard: Designing an E-Textile Rapid Prototyping Board. InProceedings of the Fifteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction(TEI '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 23, 1–7. DOI:(Salzburg, Germany (virtual)–Feb. 14-19, 2021).
Hill, C.,Schneider, M.,Eisenberg, A.,Gross, M.and Blum, A. 2020.A Wearable Meter That Actively Monitors the Continuity of E-Textile Circuits as They Are Sewn, InProceedings of the 2020 FabLearn- 9th Annual Conference on Maker Education (FabLearn '20).(New York–Oct. 10-11, 2020).
Schneider, M.,Hill, C.,Eisenberg, A.,Gross, M.and Blum, A. 2020. A Software Debugger for E-textiles and Arduino Microcontrollers, InProceedings ofthe 2020FabLearn- 9th Annual Conference on Maker Education (FabLearn '20)(New York–Oct. 10-11, 2020)