First-year CCT students showcase their de-blackboxed technology projects at the 2014 CCTP-506 poster session

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Fundamentals of Technology or CCTP-506 is a class that is dedicated towards investigating technology as a dynamic part of social life. The entire semester was spent understanding technology as a facet of culture and as an integral part of shaping daily human interaction. One of the key issues explored was how to ‘open the black box’ of technology rather than treating technology as exogenous to society.

Here is a sneak peak at fourteen projects from Spring 2014.

  1. “Open Street Map” is a project that aims to comprehend and analyze the importance of crowd sourced geographic data in a soci technical context. To know more about them follow their twitter handle : @openstreetmapGU and visit their website: http://openstreetmapgu.wix.com/osmgu
  2. “Composite Craft” aims to understand the social, technical and military implications of  carbon composite aircrafts. Given the vast environmental benefits of composite aircrafts, this project is relevant and extremely interesting. Follow them here : @compositecraft and  here: http://compositecraft.wordpress.com/
  3. “Nicotronic” is an exploration of the e-cigarette culture in US primarily. They aim to study the intersection of nicotine, technology, domestic policy and the culture of smoking. For more interesting bites on Nicotronic- visit their website: http://www.nicotronic.org/
  4. “Neurotouch” is a project which is an exploration of the science behind nuero prosthetics. As a group they have spent the entire semester demystifying prosthetic arms (DEKA) and the social/economic implications as well.To know more about them visit: http://neurotouch.wordpress.com/
  5. The “Bitcoin Byte” is a socio-technical research project that explores the myriad effects of this cryptocurrency on our ordinary lives. From understanding the technological make up of this innovation to figuring out the social, political and economical implications this project dives deeper into why Bitcoin should matter to you. To know why this matters follow them @thebitcoinbye on twitter and visit their website: http://thebitcoinbyte.wordpress.com/
  6. “Goodbye glass” aims to study the revolutionary technology of bionic contact lenses. Their research is an exploration that combines nano technology , biology and computer science. To follow them in their interdisciplinary journey of de black boxing bionic contact lenses visit their website: http://www.goodbye-glass.com/
  7. “Mission 543” is an academic and informational resource for anyone who wants to stay abreast of  the latest on commercial space travel and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo. Here is their website: http://mission543.wordpress.com/
  8. “What is Watson” is a project that explores to socio technical context of cognitive computing. To know more about this revolutionary new technology follow them on @whatiswatson and visit: http://whatiswatson.org/
  9. “BOSS” is an academic exploration of biometric optical surveillance systems.The project aims to study facial recognition technologies and seek to understand the privacy and social implications of such a tool in a public space. http://bossgu2014.wix.com/facialrecognition
  10. “Techstile” is a unique project whose mission is to understand the cons of using RFIDs through the usage of signal blocking fabrics. Their mission is to break down the socio technical systems embedded in these signal blocking devices. Here is their website: https://blogs.commons.georgetown.edu/techstiledc/
  11. The “Gene Factor Project” focused on the technology of genetic testing, particularly genetic testing that is oriented toward the consumer. This included direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing, which is marketed to average consumers as a way to investigate their own genetic makeup through highly commercialized means. http://thegenefactor.wordpress.com/
  12. “Quantified Self CCT” aims to understand the quantified movement which is a notion that describes the act of devices that track physical metrics. To know more about their project follow them on @quantifiedselfCCT and visit their website : http://quantifiedselfcct.wordpress.com/
  13. “Diving Deeper” is a project dedicated to understand Tor, an anonymizing technology, as a socio-technical system in relation to Internet regulations, big data collection and surveillance. To know more visit their website : http://divingdeeperproject.wordpress.com/about/
  14. The promise of virtual reality has intrigued researchers since the development of computer graphics. “vr360”, aims to explore the social and technical history of virtual reality technologies. http://vr-360.tumblr.com/