天美传媒

Professor Kirsten Cater is based in the School of Computer Science where she works in the field of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and immersive technologies. Her focus is on people's experiences of using highly sensory technology and the associated ethical considerations. Professor Cater's research touches on location-based experiences, gamification, virtual reality, data collection through crowdsourcing, novel interactions with big data, and tangible user interfaces for the elderly. One of her core projects is Tangible Memories, which aims to help improve the quality of life for residents in care homes by building a sense of community and shared experience through a cooperative exploration of their life stories. Professor Cater's research and public engagement work in primary and secondary schools, as well as community centres, has attracted significant media coverage including a BBC news feature and a documentary for South Korea.

Education
2000 - BSc Computer Science, University of Bristol 
2004 - PhD Computer Science, University of Bristol

As the Executive Director of the Center for Advanced Entertainment and Learning Technologies, Charles Palmer oversees the design and development of ventures in new and emerging technologies. In 2015, Professor Palmer designed and developed the Interactive Media degree program, and continues to serves as the Program Lead. Outside of IMED, he is an adviser to the Learning Technology Masters of Science program and works closely with other HU faculty on the development of new program areas of study. For the past 11 years, he has coordinated the High School Gaming Academy, mentored students on research, work with students on the development of client-based projects, and served as a consult to the Central PA media outlets as a technology and social media expert.

Donald D. Hoffman is a full professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine, where he studies consciousness, visual perception and evolutionary psychology using mathematical models and psychophysical experiments. His research subjects include facial attractiveness, the recognition of shape, the perception of motion and color, the evolution of perception, and the mind-body problem. Hoffman has received a Distinguished Scientific Award of the American Psychological Association for early career research into visual perception, the Rustum Roy Award of the Chopra Foundation, and the Troland Research Award of the US National Academy of Sciences. He is the author of The Case Against Reality and Visual Intelligence, and the co-author (with Bruce Bennett and Chetan Prakash) of Observer Mechanics.

Climer studies memory's neural underpinnings. Neuroscientists agree that synapse changes help us acquire new memories, but researchers are just starting to understand what governs these changes and how they impact neural firing patterns. Little is known about the neurobiology of forgetting, a complex process critical for daily function. Climer believes there is a critical relationship between forgetting and continual learning, and that we can observe signatures of this using novel behavioral tasks and by recording neurons as memories develop and are forgotten.
To study neurons across a memory's lifetime, Climer studies mice as they perform tasks in virtual reality. VR allows mice to have experiences that are impossible or impractical in a laboratory setting, such as learning a new environment every day. Using two-photon imaging of calcium and neurotransmitter sensors, it is possible to record the same neurons and their inputs in live mice across days and weeks, allowing researchers to link changes in the neural code to changes in an animal’s ability to remember. We are particularly interested in the changes that occur at the end of the life of a memory: as animals forget.
Areas of expertise

Memory
Spatial navigation
Neuron computation
Statistics of neural data
2-photon imaging
Virtual reality in animals

Research Areas:


Electrophysiology


Neurophysiology 


Neurobiology


Behavioral Neuroscience


Research Interests:


Two-Photon Imaging


Virtual Reality


Computational Neuroscience


Learning and Memory


Imaging


Computational Neuroscience


Spatial cognition


Spatial navigation


Education


B.S., biology & biotechnology, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 2010


Ph.D., neuroscience, Boston University, 2016