Lipari, Italy, the island where my father was born, from our family trip in June, 2006.
Union College
Computer Science Department
csc107: Creative Computing, Winter 2010, To be taught Winter 2011
csc80: History of Computing, To be taught Winter 2011
csc280: User Interfaces, Fall 2010, 2009
csc150L: Data Structures Lab, Spring 2010
csc497: Capstone Design Seminar, Spring 2010, To be taught Spring 2011
csc490: Independent Study on Mobile Computing, Spring 2010
csc385: Computer Graphics, Winter 2010
sch150: Scholars' Seminar on Technology and Autism, To be taught Spring 2011
Authorable Virtual Peers for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
Children with autism, and related pervasive developmental disorders, can lack the appropriate communication and social skills for peer social interaction that form a foundation for learning. My dissertation addresses the difficulty these children have accessing social and learning opportunities by introducing an Authorable Virtual Peer (AVP). The AVP combines two main features: First, it implements a collaborative storytelling task where the child and the virtual peer work together to tell a story. Second, it introduces tools based on the constructionist theory of learning through building artifacts that enable children to build and control the interactive behaviors of the virtual peer while it interacts with another person. My thesis describes the design and implementation of virtual peers, increases our understanding of specific social behaviors affecting peer social interaction, and implements and evaluates the AVP in a comprehensive group social skills program. This research was generously funded by Autism Speaks.
Video Model Maker
Video Model Maker draws motivation from video self-modeling, an autism intervention technique where children watch videos of themselves performing desired behaviors. Like the AVP, it also adds a constructionist component where children learn through the construction of artifacts - this time by working with a partner to create the video model. The goals of the project are: (1) develop child-friendly tools for creating effective modeling videos - the children work together to create a "script" for their video and then record the video; (2) create a social group intervention program designed to use the system; and (3) Provide evidence that the task of creating their own videos increases children's understanding and use of social and communication skills. This project was generously funded by the Union College Faculty Research Fund and the Union College Engineering Summer Fellowship Program for undergraduate student researchers.
Neural Basis of Social Perception of a Human versus Virtual Human Are virtual humans socially understood as human? In a collaborative project with Dr. Joan Chiao and the Social and Cultural Neuroscience Lab, we are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the neural correlates of perception and social evaluation of an Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA or virtual human) and a real human. Collaborative Storytelling with a Virtual Peer This project evaluates a virtual peer that engages in collaborative storytelling by modeling roles, speech acts and turn-taking behaviors that children use during improvisational play. It examines aspects of engagement and educational potential of the collaborative system.Tartaro, A. & Cassell, J. (2008). Playing with Virtual Peers: Bootstrapping Contingent Discourse in Children with Autism. International Conference of the Learning Science. Utrecht, the Netherlands. ACM Press. pdf
Merryman, J., Tartaro, A., Arie, M. & Cassell, J. (2008). Designing Virtual Peers for Assessment and Intervention for Children with Autism. Workshop on Designing for Children with Special Needs at the Conference on Interaction Design and Children. Evanston, IL. ACM Press. pdf
Cassell, J., & Tartaro, A. (2007). Intersubjectivity in Human-Agent Interaction. Interaction Studies 8 (3): 391-410.
Tartaro, A. (2007). Authorable Virtual Peers for Children with Autism. Doctoral Consortium Presentation at Human Factors in Computer Systems (CHI2007), Extended Abstracts. 16% acceptance rate. pdf
Tartaro, A. & Cassell, J. (2007). Using Virtual Peer Technology as an Intervention for Children with Autism. In J. Lazar (Ed.), Towards Universal Usability: Designing Computer Interfaces for Diverse User Populations. Chichester, UK: John Wiley and Sons.
Cassell, J., Tartaro, A., Rankin, Y. & Oza, V., & Tse, C. (2007). Virtual Peers for Literacy Learning. Educational Technology, Special Issue on Pedagogical Agents, XLVII, 39-43.
Tartaro, A. & Cassell, J. (2006). Authorable Virtual Peers for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Paper presented at the Combined Workshop on Language-Enabled Educational Technology and Development and Evaluation of Robust Spoken Dialogue Systems at the 17th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI06), Riva del Garda, Italy. pdf
Tartaro, A. (2005). Storytelling with a Virtual Peer as an Intervention for Children with Autism: Assets Doctoral Consortium. Paper presented at Assets: The Seventh International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, Baltimore, MD. Best Doctoral Candidate Award. pdf
Last modified: October 21, 2010.