Human creativity is perhaps our world’s greatest resource, yet it remains poorly understood and even stifled by traditional academic programs, training, and dogma. The Expressive and Creative Interaction Technologies (ExCITe) Center at Drexel University aims to stimulate creativity through multidisciplinary collaboration, enabling new pathways for students and faculty to pursue innovative work. Directed by Dr. Youngmoo Kim, the Center engages designers, scientists, performing artists, engineers, and many others, to create an environment for true collaboration and groundbreaking products like smart bio-sensing clothing, pianos that vibrato and continuously shape sound, and humanoid robots for limitless practical and personal applications. Weaving art into technology and technology into art, the Center is yielding solutions that are more broadly relevant and useful for individuals and society. Ultimately, the Center is shifting cultural paradigms in approaching real-life problems, for greater understanding, empathy, and impact.

Founded in 2012, the ExCITe Center has already facilitated new advances in truly wearable and fashionable technologies (smart fabrics), video games for education and public art, and musically-aware expressive robots. The Center has added about one faculty member per year, and aspires to encompass  20-30 of Drexel University’s most innovative and entrepreneurial faculty laboratories, working together to invent and showcase the future. Currently, it has a strong collaboration with Shima Seiki, manufacturer of digital knitting machines, and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), where humanoid robots, or HUBOs, are designed and manufactured. Students can benefit from the facilities and programs made available by these unique partnerships. The Center’s highly multidisciplinary approach advances education beyond STEM into STEAM (STEM+Arts), with multiple active outreach programs to inspire students in both technology and art.

Current interests and advances include:

• Wearable Technologies: Supported by a groundbreaking, $1 million partnership agreement with Shima Seiki USA in 2012, the Shima Seiki Haute Technology Laboratory at the ExCITe Center is a state-of-the-art digital knitting facility dedicated to advancing the field of wearable and other textile based technologies. Founding Director Genevieve Dion, a faculty member in Fashion Design, and a multidisciplinary team of Drexel graduate and undergraduate students explore modular and flexible production methods, mass customization of wearables, and the development of knitted electronic components in textiles For example:
  • The Bellyband, a comfortable, fabric band that provides 24/7 prenatal monitoring via a knit RFID antenna.
  • A knit glove incorporating haptic (force) feedback for virtual reality and physical therapy applications.
  • A fabric “skin” for robots, providing better protection from impacts and the environment (keeping sensitive components free from dust, dirt, and water).
• The ExCITe Center’s Entrepreneurial Game Studio (EGS) is dedicated to the development of student-founded digital game companies in the Philadelphia region. Through a broad range of gaming-related explorations, EGS encourages students to bring the games they develop to market, providing them with practical tools to turn their ideas into businesses. Led by co-founder of the Drexel Game Design Program, Frank Lee, in 2013 the Studio also pursues ways to engage the public and inspire a broad audience to learn to code by creating their own games. Example activities:
  • A world record for the largest video game in history by recreating the classic arcade game Pong using the lights of the Cira Centre skyscraper, topped the following year with Tetris played on both faces of the building.
  • Multiple student-authored mobile games in the iOS and Android App Stores.
  • “Serious Games” for health, learning, behavior management, and public engagement.
  • Partnerships with the Girl Scouts and TechGirlz to encourage middle school girls to pursue computer science and technology.
• The Music and Entertainment Technology Laboratory (MET-lab) at the ExCITe Center is devoted to research in digital media technologies that will shape the future of entertainment. Founded by Youngmoo Kim, Director of the ExCITe Center and faculty member in Electrical & Computer Engineering, MET-lab has produced a series of unique technology-enhanced music performances, including collaborations with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Opera Philadelphia. The lab’s showcase projects at the ExCITe Center include the following:
  • The Magnetic Resonator Piano augments a grand piano with electromagnets to allow a performer to continuously shape the sound of every note, enabling unique effects such as vibrato, crescendo, and pitch bending.
  • Hubo, an expressive, adult-size humanoid robot that dances and also plays simple musical instruments.
  • LiveNote is an app that provides synchronized program notes and annotations on your phone during select Philadelphia Orchestra concerts. With LiveNote, concert attendees are able to learn about the music as it is performed and gain a deeper understanding of each piece.
• Since the ExCITe Center’s inception, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Design, and Mathematics) has been at the foundation of our efforts. They believe the framework of STEAM offers the greatest potential for advancing learning at all levels. But at ExCITe, STEAM is more than education. It’s the belief that the creativity and “maker” spirit that is common to both the Arts & Design and the STEM fields provides a relentless source of inspiration and innovation. And most importantly, the convening of diverse perspectives spanning STEM and the Arts offers unique opportunities to share ideas, form new connections, and sow the seeds of transformation. Example STEAM efforts:
  • The Center hosts the Summer Music Technology program, a unique one-week learning experience for high school students that uses music technology to motivate interest in science and technology.
  • Outreach activities in partnership with the Girl Scouts and TechGirlz to encourage middle school girls to pursue computer science and technology.
  • Tours and hosted visits to highlight the intersection of fashion design and technology for future wearables.
  • Augmented music concerts for the Philadelphia Science Festival with world-class performers that enable audiences to visualize the scientific and acoustic principles behind timbre, rhythm, and harmony.