Undergrad (grad) research?

(From an email to a student…)

I’m being selfish next semester and only taking folks on in two capacities:

A) I am trying to assemble a group of folks to help think about computing within the school and department. Some possibilities:

1. Revamping, redesigning, adding to the Web site
2. Establishing research blogs / k-logs for use among the faculty and grad students
3. Creating scheduling systems that actually work for the faculty (no one’s using the Lotus calendar)
4. A number of potential applications for tracking grad students, etc., among faculty
5. Looking at moving beyond the first few steps Liz has taken with UBLearns to better network undergrads, and to include things like class requests, etc.
6. Surveying the grad TAs about how better to meet their computing needs
7. Specing a Wi-Fi network for the 3rd floor: think cheap and mobile
8. Getting my bio off the web and doing one for someone else in the dept
9. A review site for elective courses for and by students (grad and/or undergrad)
10. A survey of other schools around the world to see what cool ideas we can steal… er, borrow
11. Other possibilities (fairly open ended)

B) I’ve had a back-burner project that I want to start collecting notes on. It will be a history of wearable technologies. This includes the obvious (wristwatches, eyeglasses, sidearms), and the not-so-obvious. I am looking for someone to help do some of the library work on this. Some of it may include more recent devices, but I am thinking a long history here, starting with ancient wearables.