Francesco Cafaro Author

Francesco Cafaro is an Assistant Professor in the School of Informatics and Computing (SOIC) at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Before joining SOIC as an assistant professor of human-computer interaction, Cafaro was a research assistant at the Learning Technology Group (Electronic Visualization Laboratory) of the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he served as a key collaborator on multi-disciplinary, federally-funded research projects. These efforts have produced prototype interactive exhibits for collaborative data exploration, first at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago, and then at the New York Hall of Science in Queens. His research interests include embodied interaction, interaction design, and informal learning. His work is centered on the use of novel interaction techniques in support of STEM informal learning and cultural heritage. Specifically, he investigates how theories from learning, cognitive, and computer sciences can provide the scaffolding for the design of intuitive, embodied interactions. Dr. Cafaro's multi-disciplinary research has involved the design and evaluation of prototype exhibits at Discovery Place in Charlotte, North Carolina, and for the Historic New Harmony program in southern Indiana.Jessica Roberts is an assistant professor in the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Prior to joining Georgia Tech, Dr. Roberts conducted postdoctoral research at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and the Tidal Lab at Northwestern University. She holds a Ph.D. in Learning Sciences with a concentration in geospatial analysis and visualization from the University of Illinois-Chicago and a B.S. with a concentration in theatre design from Northwestern University. Her research examines how people learn through, with, and about data in out-of-school environments such as museums and citizen science activities and how interactive technologies mediate social, informal learning experiences. Her work on the design of interactive learning technologies has been exhibited at venues including the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and the New York Hall of Science.