Thad Starner   

Professor | Contextual Computing Group | College of Computing | Georgia Institute of Technology
Interfaces for Augmenting
Face-to-Face Conversation >>
  • Mobile Text Entry
  • Dual-Purpose Speech
  • Augmenting Conversation between
    the Deaf and Hearing Community


  • Gesture Recognition &
    Activity Discovery >>
  • Sign Language
  • Activity
  • Gesture


  • Previous Work >>
  • Face & Handwriting Recognition
  • Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality
  • Power & Heat
  • Agents & Ubiquitous Computing
  • Miscellaneous

  • Courses Taught
  • Current Course Spring 2012: CS6601 Grad Artifical Intelligence

  • Spring 2006 CS3600 Introduction to Intelligent Systems

  • Fall 2005 CS3600 Introduction to Intelligent Systems

  • Fall 2004 CS7470 Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing

  • Fall 2004 CS3600 Introduction to Intelligent Systems

  • Spring 2004 CS4600 Introduction to Intelligent Systems

  • Spring 2003 CS4803H/8803D Wearable Computing

  • Spring 2003 CS4600 Introduction to Intelligent Systems

  • Spring 2002 CS4600 Introduction to Intelligent Systems

  • Fall 2001 CS4600 Wearable Computing

  • Spring 2001 CS7470 Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing

  • Fall 2000 CS4495/7495 Computer Vision (with Aaron Bobick)

  • Spring 2000 CS7470 Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing (with Elizabeth Mynatt)

  • Fall 1999 CS4495/7495 Computer Vision

  • Spring 1999 CS4803/8113 Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing (with Gregory Abowd)

  • Winter 1999 CS4495/7321 Low Level Computer Vision

  • Seminars


  • Fall 2000 CS4801 Building Mobile and Ubiquitous Computers (with Cory Kidd)

  • Fall 2003 CS1801 Freshman Seminar


  • Curriculum Development  College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

    CS7470: Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing (1999-present)
    New graduate and undergraduate course introduced by Gregory Abowd and Thad Starner. The course was re-developed for semesters. Provides an introduction to the fundamental challenges of ubiquitous computing. Encourages students to examine every aspect of the field and research two topics deeply. In Spring 2001, a much more intimate version of the course encouraged one on one interaction, urged deep research, and rewarded creativity and inventiveness.

    CS3600/4600 Introduction to Intelligent Systems (2001-present)
    CS4600 is the introductory AI course at Georgia Tech. The course now requires programming in Lisp and aims to attract juniors and ambitious sophomores to encourage future enrollment in the more advanced IS classes. The Spring 2002 enrollment began to reect this effort. Presentation of course material encourages continued exploration through UROCs by pairing the book chapters with the research interests of current Georgia Tech faculty. In 2003, redesigned the course to include more numerical methods, reecting an update in the new edition of the Russell and Norvig text.

    Freshman Seminar (2003-present)  (with a team of faculty)
    The freshman seminar aims to improve retention of incoming computer science students by exposure to interesting research and by demonstrating the application of their classes to real-world problems. The class alternates between large lectures with the college's freshman class and 20 person interactive sessions based on current events in computer science.

    CS4801 Building Mobile and Ubiquitous Computers (2000)
    Extensive hands-on class, developed for early undergraduates and graduates (not registered) who desire to develop their skill sets. Class emphasized individual and team project work. Graduate students are urged to learn management skills for teams of undergraduates. Introduces the students to various research groups and resources on campus. Class projects demonstrated to over 500 people.

    CS4495/7495 Computer Vision (1999-2000)
    Re-developed for semesters integrating the content from the previous Low and High Level Computer Vision courses. The first semester emphasized fundamentals followed by higher level techniques as developed in the current literature. The second semester, co-taught with Aaron Bobick, concentrated on image processing. Students were encouraged, with good success, to develop class projects that could be submitted to full conferences.

    CS4803H/8803D Wearable Computing (2001)
    Developed a new graduate and undergraduate course that challenges students to examine wearable computing from every aspect: physics, systems, psychophysics, networking, HCI, and social issues. Student projects examined the current literature and developed research methodologies to extend knowledge in the field. One such project led to a highly reviewed paper in CHI2004. Merged with the Ubiquitous Computing course for the upcoming curriculum in 2006..

    Individual Student Guidance

    Post-Doctoral Fellows
  • Joseph Park, Spring 2004 - Spring 2005, Gestural communication.

    Ph.D. Students (Graduated)
  • Kent Lyons (CoC), Spring 2002-Summer 2005, Thesis: "Improving Support of Conversations by Enhancing Mobile Computer Input."

  • Ph.D. Students (Current)
  • Helene Brashear (CoC), Spring 2001-present, Sign language recognition.

  • David Minnen (CoC, with Professor Irfan Essa), Fall 2001 - present, Human activity discovery.

  • Tracy Westeyn (CoC), Spring 2002-present, Activity spotting using wearable sensors.

  • Valerie Henderson (CoC), Fall 2003-present, Communication interfaces for the deaf.

  • Seung Yon Lee (HCC), Fall 2005-present, Interfaces for deaf children.

  • Daniel Ashbrook (HCC), Fall 2005-present, Mobile interfaces.