We're the Soft Interaction Lab.

WE ARE CREATIVE.

WE ARE INNOVATIVE.

WE CARE HUMAN.

ABOUT US

Soft Interaction Lab, led by professor J. Hwaryoung Seo, is an interactive art/design research group. We integrate physical and digital experiences experimenting soft/organic materials and tangible interaction techniques. Our primary aim is to engage diverse audiences who could get benefits from soft interaction through research and creative activities.

If you would like to join SIL as a graduate student or a undergraduate student, please contact Dr. Seo at hwaryoung@tamu.edu.

Interactive Arts

65%

Tangible STEAM Education

75%

Creative Health & Wellbeing

65%

Our Team

Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo, PhD

Director

Associate Professor VIZ

Brian Smith

3D Artist

MFA in VIZ student

Stephen Aldriedge

Developer

MS student in VIZ

Janelle Arita

UX Designer

MS student, VIZ

News

ISEA Workshop

December 9, 2022

Creative [Uses] of AI Image Generation Techniques for the 3D Art Pipeline

Creativity Student Fellowship

November 29, 2021

The Institute for Applied Creativity (IAC) is offering annual fellowships to Texas A&M Undergraduate and graduate students whose research relates to our mission. The fellowship program aims to attract scholars and artists from across a broad spectrum of academic disciplines, with an emphasis on creativity and innovation.

Key themes:

In general, the IAC student fellowships are awarded to research proposals that respond to one or more of the following themes:

Innovative approaches to arts and design
Creative methods to support education
Creative to support care and social justice
If you would like to suggest a different theme, you can do it.

Requirements:

Accepted students

must agree to produce one research paper or a creative work as part of their obligations
must report weekly progress at the group meeting
must present the research or creative project at the IAC Research Symposium.

Scholarship:

Undergraduate fellow: $300

Graduate fellow: $500

If you are interested in the student fellow program, please submit your application here by Dec. 20th, 2021.

Contacts:

Dr. Jinsil Hwaryoung Seo (director): hwaryoung@tamu.edu

Jennifer Robertson (coordinator): jrobertson@arch.tamu.edu

Undergraduate Research Opportunities (VIST491) in VIZ, 2021-2022

July 23, 2020

Hello VIZ Undergraduate students!

Are you interested in participating in research activities as an undergraduate research student?

Soft Interaction lab and Institute for Applied Creativity (IAC) invite both undergraduate and graduate students to innovative research projects exploring Virtual and Augmented reality. We frequently collaborate with other departments such as Nursing, Veterinary Medicine, and the Dance Program to identify unique challenges in education. Our applications look at how we might use immersive virtual environments to engage students in learning a difficult or complex subject.

If you are interested in joining the research team, please read through this email carefully and then submit an application using this link (https://forms.gle/HmHYm1N7126zcixw9).

We would like to share with you some of our current projects for the 2021-2022 academic year.

Nursing Education VR

This Virtual Reality application will help rural physician’s offices and clinics train their nurses for potential mental health-related scenarios they might encounter with patients on the job. Using digital avatars and an interactive virtual environment, users will be able to engage in a variety of situations that they normally would not be able to experience in person.

Work on this project includes:
- 3D asset creation
- Visual direction, design work
- UI/UX Design
- Development in Unity for Virtual Reality
- Working on the asset pipeline between Unity and 3D packages

Collaborative VR Research:

Collaborative VR became an effective tool for remote education. We are studying how avatar design, environment design would affect the quality of student’s learning in VR. Students will work on designing 2D, 3D assets including avatars, environmental assets. They will also be involved with testing the designs with users.

Team Lead: Brittany Garcia (PhD student)
Work on this project includes:
- Modeling, Rigging, and Animating in Maya or Blender
- UI/UX Design
- VR development
- User study

This is how the VIZ Undergraduate Research Program works once you are accepted.

We will define your role.

Undergraduate Research Scholar: for experienced seniors, 1-year thesis-based program
Research Student: semi-experienced undergraduate students (junior or senior)
Research Intern: freshmen or sophomore who never participated in research

You will register for VIST 491 with 0-4 credit hours. These are our expectations for your contribution depending on the number of credits.
1. 0 credit: This option is not encouraged but if you cannot take any credit hours, we can discuss this option. We still expect you to work for at least 5 hours/week towards research.
2. 1 credit: We expect you to commit 5 -7 hours/week towards research.
3. 2 credits: We expect you to commit 10 hours/week towards research.
4. 3 credits: We expect you to commit 13-15 hours/week towards research.
5. 4 credits: We expect you to commit 15+ hours/week towards research.
You will be assigned to a research team. This will be decided based on your interests and skills that you specify through your application.
You will share your progress at weekly meetings with the team and faculty mentors, get help and advice, and collaborate with your teammates to tackle various technical and design challenges.
Once the semester comes to a close, you will then submit a short research report about your contributions to the project.

If you are interested in participating in any of these opportunities or want to know more about undergraduate research, please submit your application using the submission link (https://forms.gle/HmHYm1N7126zcixw9) as soon as possible.

You do not need to be experienced in a specific field to work with any of the projects. You can use this as an opportunity to learn a new skill or program!

If you have questions, please reach out to us through email.

We look forward to working with you this coming semester!

Best,

Caleb & Hwaryoung

(kicklica@tamu.edu)
(hwaryoung@tamu.edu)

VR performance at TEI 2019 in Tempe, Arizona

March 2, 2020

We performed our VR performance project, Upwell at the Tempe Art Center in Arizona this week, as part of the arts track program at TEI2019 (ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction).
We appreciate all the positive feedback!
We feel extremely supported by the TEI community.

Congratulations to the team and contributors!
Austin Payne, Michael Bruner, Nathan Ayres from the VIZ department and Ashlyn Thompson, Kelsey Clark, Kali Taft, Hannah Juenke, Sarah Behseresht, Christine Simone Bergeron, and Alexandra PooWiler.
Ashlyn and Kelsey’s performance was exceptional at TEI.

I would like to thank the arts track and the local committees.
Without their endless care and support, this project wouldn’t be performed successfully.

Another note, this TEI was very special to me because we have a great SFU reunion with Huaxin, Josh and Karen.

It would have been perfect if I didn’t miss the connecting flight in Dallas. I am stuck in a hotel room tonight without my suitcase.