One of the projects our lab has been working on is the POSE project. This project is a transition from the FunFitTech project where we were more interested with creating a proof of concept prototype that would motivate kids to play exercise. The POSE project focuses on looking for differences in how children and adults do these gestures. We are currently conducting a study on adults and children in which we are using the Kinect to track the motion of participants when performing gestures such as walking and running. This project is a collaboration with Dr Eakta Jain’s group jainlab.cise.ufl.edu.

I am a first-year Ph.D. student who joined the INIT lab this semester. My research interests include child-centered computing, machine learning, human-centered computing, and app development. The POSE project has helped in enhancing my interests in kids and HCC. I’ve learned that running studies with children is challenging because one needs to find the right approach to keep the children motivated during studies. It has been a great experience working on this project, and I am looking forward to continuing.