Learn about Virginia Tech’s latest innovations combining science, engineering, arts, and design, and join panel discussions featuring industry leaders from companies including Google, Sony, and Microsoft during the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology’s annual ICAT Creativity and Innovation Day on May 1.

Interactive exhibits, talks, demonstrations, and performances will be offered throughout the Moss Arts Center at 190 Alumni Mall. All events are free and open to the public.

Exhibits will be available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., featuring research from Virginia Tech faculty and students who are crossing traditional boundaries to develop new possibilities for exploration, expression, and creativity. Discover how their work helps contribute to a sense of place – environmentally, historically, virtually, and culturally.

Travel to different places and times through virtual environments in the Cube that re-create the ruins of a World War I battlefield, and experience some of the smallest parts of the world from inside a virtual subatomic particle collider. Sense the real world through work that measures everything from volcanic activity to brain activity, combines technology and the outdoors, and creates musical robots that respond to sounds and touch. Projects designed to create online arts community networks, crowdsourced historical photos and documents, and electric guitars by high school students bring people together in a common space.

Special events include two panel discussions and a pair of performances.

Creative Technologies in Music at the Nexus of Arts, Science, and Entreprenuersip

Panel discussion

10 a.m., Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, Moss Arts Center

Technological advances in music have transformed the landscape of contemporary arts and research. This discussion will focus on the development of new creative domains that do not fit in traditional disciplines and bring together new ways of making creative products.

This panel is moderated by Ivica Ico Bukvic, associate professor of music technology and composition in Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts and Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology senior fellow.

Panelists include:

  • Miller Puckette, the creator of the Max and Pure Data real-time computer music software environments, which are taught and used by electronic musicians and artists worldwide
  • Pianist Shiau­-uen Ding, an energetic performer of traditional and contemporary repertoire who directed and co­founded NeXT Ens, the first chamber ensemble in the U.S. performing solely electroacoustic music with national recognition
  • David Zicarelli, the founder and chief executive officer of Cycling ’74, a company with an entirely distributed workforce devoted to research into interactive programming systems for music and media

Sense of Place: User Experience and Interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality

Panel discussion

2 p.m., Anne and Ellen Fife Theatre, Moss Arts Center

Industry experts on user experience and interaction research for virtual and augmented reality will discuss their own work and explore how people might use and experience these technologies in the future. This panel is moderated by Doug Bowman, professor of computer science and director of Virginia Tech’s Center for Human-Computer Interaction.

Panelists include:

  • David Eisenmann, producer and computer graphics supervisor with Google Spotlight Stories, which employs a team of engineers and artists focused on creating the future of virtual reality media and technology
  • Richard Marks, founder and head of the PlayStation Magic Lab at Sony Interactive Entertainment, which pushes the boundaries of play by investigating how technology can be used to create new entertainment experiences
  • Ivan Poupyrev, director of engineering and technical lead at Google's Advanced Technology and Projects group, where he focuses on interaction technologies and design for future digital lifestyle
  • Andy Wilson, principal researcher at Microsoft Research, where he focuses on applying sensing techniques to enable new styles of human-computer interaction

Digital Interactive Sound and Intermedia Studio Anniversary Concerts

April 30, 3 p.m., Cube, Moss Arts Center

On the day prior to ICAT Creativity and Innovation Day, two of the event panelists – pianist Ding and computer music pioneer Puckette – will join the Virginia Tech Percussion Ensemble and the Linux Laptop Orchestra (L2Ork) for a kickoff performance celebrating the Digital Interactive Sound and Intermedia Studio’s 10th anniversary.

May 1, 7:30 p.m., Cube, Moss Arts Center

The Digital Interactive Sound and Intermedia Studio’s anniversary celebration continues with an evening concert featuring Virginia Tech faculty and student computer music compositions.

ICAT: Open (at the) Source exhibition

April 27-May 20, Francis T. Eck Exhibition Corridor, Moss Arts Center

In conjunction with ICAT Day is ICAT: Open (at the) Source, “Sensing Place,” an exhibition designed to create conversation about how connections are made to a place through various means and will include sound recordings, visual images, laser scans, documentary footage, and field observations.

Parking is available in the North End Parking Garage on Turner Street. Virginia Tech faculty and staff with a valid Virginia Tech parking permit can enter and exit the garage free of charge. Limited street parking is also available. 

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please contact Kacy McAllister at 540-231-5300 or kmcallis@vt.edu during regular business hours at least 10 business days prior to the event.

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