MAGIC Labs & Research Groups
The RIT Laboratory for Social Computing
The Lab for Social Computing serves as an organizing unit for faculty across multiple colleges and disciplines to work together on research and development projects related to a wide range of social technologies. Outside of RIT, LSC faculty regularly speak at conferences on social computing topics, raising the visibility of RIT as an important player in social computing R&D, with several recent and past projects of note. The lab is directed by Dr. Elizabeth Lawley, Professor in the School of Interactive Games & Media and a faculty affiliate of MAGIC.
The LSC also sponsors talks on campus by well-known authors and scholars in the field of social computing—recent speakers included Kevin Slavin, Thomas Malaby, Julian Dibbell, David Weinberger, and Kathleen Fitzpatrick. In addition, personnel from the LSC help organize the Microsoft Research Social Computing Symposium in collaboration with Microsoft Research FUSE Labs.
The FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) BOX
FOSS@RIT, is an initiative that grew out of the Department of Interactive Games and Media's course in educational game development for the OLPC. We bring FOSS speakers to campus, sponsor professional development opportunities for faculty, house externally sponsored and faculty and student created research and development, and run regional and national hackathons for humanitarian efforts all since January 2009. The FOSSBox lab in the Simone Center for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship is the initiatives’ home. FOSS@RIT is sponsored by a generous gift from Red Hat, Inc.
The Mobile ZoneThe LTL’s second lab in the Simone Center for Student Innovation and Entrepreneurship supplies mentorship, technical challenges and support for faculty and student projects centered around mobile phone and tablet technologies. The mobile zone is sponsored by a gift from Storm Frog, Inc. who generously places their own staff into the lab to mentor the RIT community.
The Laboratory for Technological LiteracyFounded in 2002 as the member of the Lab for Applied Computing (later CASCI) in GCCIS, this lab has been active in various initiatives since its original conception and later involvement with MAGIC. The Lab’s first initiative was the What the Tech?! radio show for WXXI. Since then, it has helped host POSSE at RIT, various events and efforts around the One Laptop Per-Child initiative, and now oversees the efforts of the FOSS BOX and the Mobile Zone.
The Museum Games & Technology InitiativeThe Museum Games and Technology Initiative (MGTI) at the Rochester Institute of Technology is a multidisciplinary community involving faculty and students from museum studies, computing, and art that focus on the integration of museum practice with games and technology. By conducting basic research and developing products, MGTI offers support and services to museum professionals and other cultural institutions. Participating faculty include Professor Elizabeth Goins (College of Liberal Arts), Christopher Egert (College of Computing and Info. Sci.) among many others. Projects range from onsite installations with participating museums and collections to game mods and curriculum in museum studies and computing. More in formation is available at the MGTI website.
