Assignment 2: Idea Presentation #2 and Reading Gathering

Individual assignment

There are three parts to this assignment.

Part 1:

Review the presentations from your peers in the last class.

Pick one idea that someone other than you presented, or come up with a new idea that you have not proposed last week (in the presentation or in your write-up). Spend some time thinking it over, and then substantially improve the idea.

The same rules apply as in as assignment 1: Think big and out of the box, as discussed in Class 1. Think crazy, in the good way. Target high risk, high payoff ideas. Don't just think about death or disease, but all the other aspects of health discussed in Class 1 that could benefit from more attention. Be realistic ... remember we want to build something that works!

You must, in this assignment, include one or more slides that collectively answer the questions we discussed in Class 2: What is the problem to solve? Who are we talking to? You must also address the related questions about your solution: "What do they believe now?" "What is the timely cultural insight?" "What is the timely technical insight?" "What is the timeless human truth?" "What do we want them to believe?"

You need to flesh out the idea in enough detail so that you can talk about it convincingly. This will probably involve trying to specify what will be conveyed via the user interface, how, and when.

Next, develop an extended "elevator pitch" for one of the ideas. This will be twice as long as the prior presentation: a 2-minute pitch to describe the idea to the rest of the class as best as you can. As before, your goal is to convince us that you have come up with a great idea ... innovative, creative, appropriate for mobile devices, useful, engaging, addictive, and buildable in the span of a semester. Read up more on the technology platform you propose to use (e.g., Google Glass, Android Wear, Amazon Echo, etc.). Dig into the details a bit. Incorporate what you learn.

You will present your idea in class as part of our 2-Minute Madness Idea Pitch session in Class 3. Use this template. Your slides and presentation should be professional and engaging. Please read and make sure you follow this tips document, which should help.

Part 2:

Here you are going to develop a new idea to solve the problem emailed to you by Prof. Intille, using the technology platform he specifies. Exactly as you did in Part 1, you will develop an elevator pitch for this new problem (but using the provided technology platform). Use this template.

Part 3:

Using your best research skills, identify two articles that describe new opportunities created by novel user interfaces. Each article should be on a different interface technology. Ideally, these would be articles published in academic literature (i.e., journals or scientific conferences), but detailed articles from reputable newspapers or magazines might also be ok. You are looking for articles that discuss new technologies and why they are (or could be) revolutionary in how we use computers generally.

Finding these articles will require that you spend some time searching the NEU library databases and reading a bunch of articles. Good databases will be the ACM and IEEE digital libraries, as well as those that have articles from reputable sources such as the New York Times.

Hand in:

Email your slides as PPT named PHIDD-[YourFirstName][YourLastName].2mm-part1.ppt and PHIDD-[YourFirstName][YourLastName].2mm-part2.ppt to ...@neu.edu by the deadline so there is time to compile them before class. Also include the papers you found. The reference information and the PDF files (using Endnote's naming convention, discussed in class).

Please practice both your presentations and make a strong pitch!

You will be evaluated on whether your ideas reflect that you are reading the assigned materials, listening carefully in class, and doing enough background research on your own to support your ideas. You also must demonstrate that you have practiced and polished your presentation so that you can get your ideas across in a clear and compelling way.