PhD Students

Ivan Rosero -UCSD Department of Communications

 
Undergraduate Degree: B.S. Computer Science

Undergraduate University: Cornell University

Postgraduate Degree:  

Postgraduate University:

Email: irosero@ucsd.edu

Website: 

Advisor: 

Brief Bio:
I was born in Pasto, Colombia.  When I was nine, my family emigrated and settled in Miami, Florida, where I spent the next twelve years of my life.  Here’s that experience in a few words:  English, dancing, biking, car fixing with dad, and, swimming in the ocean.   Middle and high school fit somewhere in between. When I was twenty-one, I went to Cornell where I received a B.S. in computer science and Italian. Between the end of Cornell and the beginning of UCSD:  four jobs hacking code, a move to Seattle, and a really long drive down to San Diego.

I am a doctorate student in the Communication Department, focusing on conceptual (re)presentation, virtual worlds, and digito-material interaction between people and things.  I have been working at a low-income housing community, Town and Country Village Apartments (T&C).   With three other graduate students and a quarterly contingent of undergrads, I am working to create a sustainable, long-term collaboration between T&C and UCSD, focused on digital activities and understanding of science and mathematics, while investigating virtual and material "hybrids" (digito-material artifacts, such as a sensor laden garden that is also [re]presented in a virtual world) as affordances in these settings.  At CMBC I hope to extend this line of work to study how the marine environment and the Earth's climate can (or not) become part of the community imagination at T&C.

NOTE: On August 28, CMBC Sponsored a visit to the Birch Aquarium at Scripps for 26 students from the Town and Country Learning Center.  Ivan's website "An Ocean of Possibilities" describes the event.

Research Highlights:
While it is uncommon to hear 7-10 year old girls talk about zooplankton and bioluminescence, these are among the things discussed at Town and Country's Virtual Ocean Project.  The use of a virtual world and more traditional media such as books, crayons, poster
boards, and puppets, all come together in this project to explore the role of material and digital objects in the informal learning process of today's youth.  Although in its beginning stages, it is already clear that the kinds of interaction afforded through this synergistic mix of media are both highly engaging for the kids, as well as
counterparts to curricula-based notions of age-appropriate learning.

T&C's Virtual Ocean Project stems from an interdisciplinary NSF CMBC IGERT grant offered to Ivan Rosero, a member of UCSD's Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, to explore issues of public understanding of science and avenues of scientific outreach in under-served communities.

Publications: