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Center for Creative Instruction causes stir at conference |
| By
Kim Harvey |
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Aug 7, 2008
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| Meet EmC (pronounced “em-cee”), a 914 PC-BOT robot that gives presentations to prospective students with the help of handler Nick Morgan, assistant director of undergraduate admission. |
Employees from the Center for Creative Instruction took a special guest to the New Media Consortium’s annual conference in June.
The guest, a 914 PC-BOT robot named EmC (pronounced “em-cee”) created a stir among participants after a presentation by Ted Ronau, manager of technology development, and Brian Szabo, software engineer. The robot, a modified version designed to be more interactive than the original, perfectly demonstrated the reason its creators were invited to present at the conference, which took place at Princeton University.
“The name of our program was ‘A Dynamic Duo — Robotics and Enhanced Presentations,’” Ronau said. “We talked about how we had modified this computer on wheels so he could be used in everyday presentations to prospective students. Our goal was to make these presentations unique and different so people wouldn’t walk away thinking, ‘That’s one of five other colleges I just saw.’”
With EmC as an ambassador, CCI has given its presentation a kick in the robotic pants. Housed primarily in Rocket Hall, EmC accompanies handler Nick Morgan, assistant director of undergraduate admission, to address potential students. CCI personnel enhanced the robot with interactive features, including a monitor with a “face” and a projector that plays video. EmC’s movements are remotely controlled.
“He’s brought a lot more interest to presentations,” Ronau said. “The comments I hear are, ‘It was neat,’ ‘It was cool,’ ‘It was different.’ People even say they’re going to bring their friends back to see him.”
Which, Ronau pointed out, was the purpose of creating EmC in the first place.
Ronau and Szabo explained the art of developing innovative presentations. CCI colleague Brock Clagg, graphic designer/multimedia specialist, also discussed “Flash on Steroids,” a review of how CCI stretched the software program to its engineering limits, with Szabo.
“We’ve worked quite a bit with the Flash program to do much more than its typical 2-D animation functions,” Ronau said.
Examples included CCI’s series of videos illustrating a diagnostic procedure called transesophageal echocardiogram, its
Anatomy & Physiology Revealed program and an intranet site for the Honors Program.
The Honors Program site can be viewed at www.utoledo.edu/honors/explore.
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