Student Showcase

Overview1

The Doug Engelbart Institute is proud to showcase these creative and insightful works by students, and to recognize their instructors who provided their enabling venue and inspiration! Our inspiration came from friend and colleague Professor Gardner Campbell of Baylor University who wrote in a recent tribute to Doug Engelbart: 1a

"it is good also to see and remember what school at its best can be, and is: a means of augmenting human intellect, a place for bootstrapping, a place for hearts and minds to work and play together. School’s not the only place that happens. But it can happen there, and I want to help make it happen there–to preserve the fragile magic that rests upon a flawed but vital infrastructure." read more

Our first showcased student project, Philip's Video Project (below), was produced by one of Dr. Campbell's first-year Honors students for his course From Memex to YouTube. 1b

College Level 2

Philip's Video Project 2a

Title: The Mother of All Demos:
An Animated Commentary
 watch his video | read his essay
Screenshot from video
watch video (4:39) | enlarge screenshot
By: Philip Heinrich, Freshman, Baylor University, Spring 2009
Major: University Scholars, Film & Digital Media
Course: From Memex to YouTube: An Introduction to New Media Studies
Assignment: Course and assignment described
Instructor: Dr. W. Gardner Campbell (blog)
Excerpts: From Philip's Project Writeup:
"My solution was to try for a little bit of technical introduction to demonstrate how Engelbart’s system was similar to what we have today, but focus on the goals behind his work, something that’s important to emphasize because our use of computers has yet to reach the potential Engelbart had in mind. [...] If my video gets anybody interested in learning more about what Engelbart was talking about, then the (external, non grade-based) purpose of the video has been achieved." read more
Press Coverage: Philip's project garnered some much deserved press! See Student’s work recognized by Menlo Park research institute in Baylor Proud (Oct 2009), and Lead innovator recognizes student in The Lariat (Oct 2009)

Graduate Level3

Christine's Essay 3a

Title: Douglas Engelbart: Augmenting Human Intellect and Bootstrapping
By: Christine Rosakranse, Graduate Student, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Fall 2009
Screenshot from blog
Click to read essay
Program: Master's in Human-Computer Interaction
Course: Theory and Research in HCI
Assignment: Short Historical Perspective Essay
Instructor: Professor Nathan G. Freier
Excerpts: From Christine's Essay:
"As coined by Engelbart, organizations can improve the process they use for improvement, thereby iteratively compounding the effect. As a goal for HCI, iterative progress towards making information more usable, intuitive, and effective would be the perfect compliment to Engelbart’s dream." read more

See also Christine's work on:
Augmenting Human Compassion, which expands on the concluding statement of her showcased essay:
"It seems that intellect’s final compatriots would be responsibility and compassion, and if this has not yet been addressed, perhaps it will be in the next iteration."













Salient Quotes

"My solution was to [...] focus on the goals behind his work, something that’s important to emphasize because our use of computers has yet to reach the potential Engelbart had in mind."
– Philip Heinrich, Honors Freshman, Baylor Univ. Spring 2009

"Doug thought at scale. He understood that a car is not simply a faster tricycle. He had faith that an augmented intellect, joined to millions of other augmented intellects, could clarify individual thought even as it empowered vast new modes of thinking, new modes of complex understanding that could grasp intricately meaningful symbols as quickly and comprehensively as we can recognize a loved one’s face."
– Gardner Campbell, Philip's professor

Class Blogs

Selected blogs from Gardner's Awakening the Digital Imagination faculty development seminar, having just studied Engelbart's 1962 manifesto Augmenting Human Intellect

• Another Leg of the Journey
• A Conversation with Christina Engelbart
• Family Ties
• About A Research Center for Augmenting Human Intellect
• On “Augmenting Human Intellect”
• You Gotta Respect the Man Who Invented the Mouse
• Notching Cards vs Augmenting My Intellect
• Week Three: Engelbart
• Comments on Englebart’s Article
• Technology is a Brick
• Links For Gardner’s New Media Seminar


[Source: seminar motherblog]