nic lupfer
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Ph.D. Candidate, Computer Science & Engineering
nic ecologylab.net
@niclupfer
niclupfer.com
CV, Google Scholar

Nic is a PhD candidate at the Interface Ecology Lab at Texas A&M. I am an advocate of human-centered design and have strong skills in interaction design and programming. My expertise in full-stack web development allows me to implement complex and robust web applications. I combine this with my knowledge of qualitative and visual data methodologies to develop research which studies transformational effects of technology in real-world contexts. I enjoy teaching and empowering others and have earned recognition for excellence in mentoring. In my leadership role at the Interface Ecology Lab, I have mentored 16 undergraduate and master's students.

My current research investigates collaborative design curation. We define design curation as the ways in which designers organize artifacts to think about, represent, communicate, present, and archive design processes. I currently lead the design and development of the sustained research prototype, LiveMâché. LiveMâché is a real-time collaborative system which allows users to collect, organize, and exhibit content as creative free-form curations online. To date, LiveMâché has been by over 4000 students across 5 universities worldwide to engage in project-based learning activities.

I am also collaborating with researchers at the Data Analytics Lab at Texas A&M to investigate how explainable AI can help people identify fake news. In the past, I've collaborated with industry researchers at Microsoft Research.

Outside of research, I am an indepentent game developer and avid game jammer. Some of my games have been recognized in popular online game jams such as the Game Maker's Toolkit Jam and LudumDare. At Texas A&M, I've won, alongside my partner, Brieyh'leai Simmons, Best-in-Gaming in 2018 and 2019 from the Department of Visualization's annual student work showcase. You can check out our games online on our itch.io page. I enjoy teaching game design and development skills. I serve as a mentor for the local student Indepentent Game Developers Association chapter at Texas A&M.

interest areas

awards & activities

publications, presentations, and exhibitions

Britain, G., Jain, A., Lupfer, N., Kerne, A., Perrine, A., Seo, J., Sungkajun, A. Design is (A)live: An Environment Integrating Ideation and Assessment, Proc. ACM CHI 2020 Late-Breaking Work, in press [41.8%]. https://doi.org/10.1145/3334480.3382947
Lupfer, N., Kerne, A., Linder, R., Fowler, H., Rajanna, V., Carrasco, M., Valdez, A. Multiscale Design Curation: Supporting Computer Science Students' Iterative and Reflective Creative Processes, Proc. ACM Creativity & Cognition 2019, 233-245 [30%]. https://doi.org/10.1145/3325480.3325483
Lupfer, N. Collaborative Design Curation: Supporting Creativity in Teams, Proc. ACM Creativity & Cognition 2019, 691-696. https://doi.org/10.1145/3325480.3326562
Lupfer, N., Fowler, H., Valdez, A., Webb, A., Merrill, J., Newman, G., Kerne, A. Multiscale Design Strategies from a Landscape Architecture Classroom, Proc. ACM DIS 2018, 1081-1093 [25%]. https://doi.org/10.1145/3196709.3196812
Lupfer, N. Multiscale Curation: Supporting Collaborative Design and Ideation, Proc. ACM DIS 2018 Companion. https://doi.org/10.1145/3197391.3205380
Hamilton, W. A., Lupfer, N., Botello, N., Tesch, T., Stacy, A., Merrill, J., Williford, B., Bentley, F. R., Kerne, A. Collaborative Live Media Curation: Shared Context for Participation in Online Learning, Proc. ACM CHI 2018, paper 555 : 14 pages [26%]. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174129 [video]
Linder, R., Stacey, A. M., Lupfer, N., Kerne, A.,Ragan E. D. Pop the Feed Filter Bubble: Making Reddit Social Media a VR Cityscape, Proc. IEEE VR 2018.
Hamilton, W. A., Lupfer, N., Kerne, A. LiveDissent: A Media Platform for Remote Participation in Activist Demonstrations, Proc. ACM GROUP 2018, 257-66. https://doi.org/10.1145/3148330.3149406
Kerne, A., Lupfer, N., Linder R., Qu, Y., Valdez, A., Jain, A., Keith, K., Carrasco, M., Vanegas, J., Billingsley, A., Strategies of Free-form Web Curation: Processes of Creative Engagement with Prior Work, Proc. ACM Creativity & Cognition 2017, 380-392 [29%]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3059454.3059471
presentation mâché
Lupfer, N., Kerne, A., Webb, A.M., Linder R., Patterns of Free-form Curation: Visual Thinking with Web Content, Proc. ACM Multimedia 2016, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 12-21 [20%]. Best Paper Nominee (top 2%). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2964284.2964303
presentation mâché
Webb, A.M., Kerne, A., Linder, R., Lupfer, N, Qu, Y., Keith, K., Carrasco, M., Chen, Y., A Free-form Medium for Curating the Digital,in England, D., Schiphorst, T., Bryan-Kinns, N. eds. Curating the Digital Space for Art and Interaction, Springer, 2016, 73-87. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28722-5
Jain, A., Lupfer, N., Qu, Y., Linder, R., Kerne, A., Smith, S.M., Evaluating TweetBubble with Ideation Metrics of Exploratory Browsing, Proc. ACM Creativity and Cognition 2015, 178-187 [28%]. Best Paper Honorable Mention (top 2%). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2757226.2757239
presentation mâché | video
Linder, R., Lupfer, N., Kerne, A., Webb, A. M., Hill, C., Qu, Y., Keith, K., Carrasco M., Kellogg, E. Beyond Slideware: How a Free-form Presentation Medium Stimulates Free-form Thinking in the Classroom, Proc. ACM Creativity and Cognition 2015, 285-294 [28%]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2757226.2757251
Lupfer, N., Hamiliton, W. Webb, A., Linder, R., Edmonds, E., and Kerne, A., The Art.CHI Gallery: An Embodied Iterative Curation Experience, Interactivity Exhibit, Proc CHI 2015 EA. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2702613.2725457
Kerne, A., Webb, A.M., Smith, S.M., Linder, R., Lupfer, N., Qu, Y., Moeller, J., Damaraju, S., Using Metrics of Curation to Evaluate Information-based Ideation, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (ToCHI), 21(3), June 2014, 48 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2591677 reader's guide
Qu, Y., Kerne, A., Lupfer, N., Linder, R., Jain, A., Metadata Type System: Integrate Presentation, Data Models and Extraction to Enable Exploratory Browsing Interfaces, Proc. ACM Engineering Interactive Computing Systems (EICS) 2014, 107-116 [18%]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2607023.2607030 [video]
Webb, A.M., Kerne, A., Linder, R., Lupfer, N., Qu, Y., Keith, K., Carrasco, M., Multi-Scale Information Composition: a New Medium for Freeform Art Curation in the Cloud, CHI 2014 Workshop: Curating the Digital: Spaces for Art and Interaction, Toronto, Canada. [information composition]
Webb, A.M., Linder, R., Kerne, A., Lupfer, N., Qu, Y., Poffenberger, B., and Revia, C., Promoting Reflection and Interpretation in Education: Curating Rich Bookmarks as Information Composition, Proc. Creativity and Cognition 2013, 53-62 [32%]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2466627.2466636
Moeller, J., Lupfer, N., Hamilton, B., Lin, H., Kerne, A., intangibleCanvas: Free-Air Finger Painting on a Projected Canvas , Proc CHI 2011 EA, 1165-1170 [46%]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1979742.1979817
Kerne, A., Qu, Y., Webb, A.M., Damaraju, S., Lupfer, N., Mathur, A. Meta-Metadata: A Metadata Semantics Language for Collection Representation Applications, Proc ACM Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) 2010, 1129-1138 [12.7%]. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/1871437.1871580