Research and Development Labs

Collective Futures Film Lab

The Collective Futures Film Lab is dedicated to cultural change through transforming how films are imagined. Through grant-making, mentorship, education, and research, the lab aims to support traditionally marginalized filmmakers while codifying aesthetic and structural innovations that foreground an equitable, inclusive, and sustainable media ecosystem. The lab is co-directed by Jess King, Abby Plante and  Anuradha Rana.

Idea Realization Lab (IRL)

The IRL and IRL2 are student-driven makerspaces that encourage the pursuit of thinking through making. With locations in the Loop and Lincoln Park, IRL contains all types of creative equipment, from traditional woodshop tools to a variety of state-of-the-art fabrication tools, like 3D printers, thermal formers, laser cutters, sewing machines, and more. The Loop location also houses two stop motion animation studios.           

Jarvis Student Center for Innovation and Collaboration

The Jarvis Student Center for Innovation and Collaboration is an 8,000 square-foot open space where students and faculty come together to ideate and innovate. The Center focuses on multidisciplinary professional learning and industry partnerships fueled by emerging technologies and projects dedicated to societal needs and innovation. Located on the concourse level of the DePaul Center, the Jarvis Center currently houses DePaul Originals Game Studio and the interdisciplinary design PUSH Studio.

American Sign Language (ASL) Research

This lab enables the ASL research team to work toward automatic translation of English into American Sign Language, the language of the Deaf in North America. American Sign Language is not English coded as signs but an entirely different language from English with its own unique structure. Automated English-to-ASL translation will increase Deaf access to the hearing world. Recently, the team used the lab to allow members of the deaf community to test software that demonstrates fingerspelling. For more information visit the ASL project website or write asl@cs.depaul.edu. 

Center for Web Intelligence

The Center for Web Intelligence, directed by Professor Bamshad Mobasher, is a research group that focuses on the development of intelligent techniques and applications for the World Wide Web, including automatic Web personalization, recommender systems, e-business intelligence, Web usage and content mining, and intelligent Web agents for information filtering. The Center conducts and promotes research in these areas, as well as providing a central resource and repository for researchers and practitioners. The Center also aims to generate interaction with industry and peer groups through workshops, joint projects, and technology transfer.  

Computational Biology and Applied Bioinformatics Lab

The Computational Biology and Applied Bioinformatics (CoBaAB) laboratory’s main research interest is in developing computational processes for analyzing large scale omics data that are of importance to medicine, agriculture, and the environment. Currently, the team is working with sequence (Nucleic & Amino acid) and image data. Some of the ongoing research projects include phylogenomics, pangenomics, biofilm data analysis, and machine & deep learning approaches towards functional annotation of sequence data. This lab is directed by Drs. Thiru Ramaraj & John Rogers. Motivated, hardworking undergraduate and graduate students who are interested in joining the team and researching the field of Computer Science and Biology can email Thiru Ramaraj (tramaraj@depaul.edu) and include a brief description on how their interests align with CoBaAB’s research work. 

CyberLabs

In this new 11,000-square-foot suite of innovative spaces, students receive hands-on, real-world experience to become the engineers who will lead the next revolution in computing - one that will make smart devices and intelligent systems ubiquitous, safe, secure, and immensely impactful on society.       

Data, Infrastructure, Computation, and Environments (DICE) Lab

The Data, Infrastructure, Computation, and Environments (DICE) Lab aims to expand the understanding of issues relating to data, infrastructure, computational problems, and environments. The current focus is on provenance data, systems and infrastructure for computational reproducibility, optimization and decision problems arising within this data and systems, and exploration of a variety of virtual environments that are relevant for establishing computational reproducibility. The lab is managed by Dr. Tanu Malik.

DeMobile: 5G Cellular Network Lab

The DeMobile: 5G Cellular Network Lab supports research and experimental learning in the field of cellular networks. Two fully functional LTE/LTE-Advanced networks with additional SDR testbeds for 5G experimentation allow faculty and Ph.D students to explore various types of cellular network attacks, develop cellular network forensics tools, experiment with new radio access types for cellular Internet-of-Things, and create solutions for use of cellular networks for disaster management (e.g. flying cell-on-wheel, cell-on-light-vehicles). The lab is established and directed by Filipo Sharevski, Ph.D.

DePaul Center for Data Science (CDS)

The DePaul Center for Data Science (CDS) is a research, educational, and collaborative center that focuses on the applications of data science. The center is a joint venture incorporating faculty from several colleges and disciplines across DePaul University. The research focus of the Center is the development of innovative tools and methods in data mining, predictive analytics, and machine learning, as well as the application of these techniques in areas such as intelligent Web systems, social computing, business intelligence, healthcare, hospitality, marketing, image analysis, and more. The Center seeks partnerships with industry as well as educational and non-profit organizations to plan and conduct joint analytics projects that provide graduate students with an invaluable opportunity to work on real-world problems and to gain problem-solving experience in data science.;  

DePaul Originals Game Studio

DePaul Originals simulates a professional video game studio, where CDM work on small portions of a bigger game over multiple quarters. The studio focuses on Epic Games’ Unreal 5 as its main development tool. Interdisciplinary development teams are comprised of artists, designers, producers, and programmers. Early builds and content packs are released for public consumption as a resource for future classes. The studio produces and publishes work that will be shipped to publicly visible platforms like Steam, Xbox, PS4, and Switch as well as working with private groups to produce experiences. Students can contact Creative Director Allen Turner or Technical Director Will Meyers for more information.

Divergent Design Lab

The Divergent Design Lab is a research and design lab that focuses on emerging technology, user experience, and contemporary social landscapes. Current research involves cybersecurity, vulnerability, malware, and social cognition. Divergent Design Lab has been awarded funding from the NSA. The lab co-directors are Paige Treebridge, MFA, and Filipo Sharevski, PhD.

Idea Realization Lab (IRL)

The IRL and IRL2 are student-driven makerspaces that encourage the pursuit of thinking through making. With locations in the Loop and Lincoln Park, IRL contains all types of creative equipment, from traditional woodshop tools to a variety of state-of-the-art fabrication tools, like 3D printers, thermal formers, laser cutters, sewing machines, and more. The Loop location also houses two stop motion animation studios.           

The iD-Lab

The Innovation Development Lab (iD-Lab) provides students the opportunity to deliver innovative software while gaining practical development experience. We practice the Agile Methodology, to prepare our students for working on real world software development projects. The focal point of our research are the methodologies that foster innovation. The iD-Lab partners with a diverse range of firms such as Allstate and CareerBuilder. The foundation of this partnership is our ability in turning their innovative ideas into functional prototypes.

Jarvis Student Center for Innovation and Collaboration

The Jarvis Student Center for Innovation and Collaboration is an 8,000 square-foot open space where students and faculty come together to ideate and innovate. The Center focuses on multidisciplinary professional learning and industry partnerships fueled by emerging technologies and projects dedicated to societal needs and innovation. Located on the concourse level of the DePaul Center, the Jarvis Center currently houses DePaul Originals Game Studio and the interdisciplinary design PUSH Studio.  

Laboratory for Interactive Human-Computer Analytics (LIHCA)

Laboratory for Interactive Human-Computer Analytics (LIHCA) The Laboratory for Interactive Human-Computer Analytics (LIHCA) studies principally Human-in-the-Loop analytics (sometimes called Interactive Machine Learning or Human-Centered Machine Learning), a new field in understanding data by leveraging machine learning and interactive visualization simultaneously. We study ways to integrate these two types of tool, studying the types of visualization and interaction that can be fruitful for gathering human insight, the types of machine learning algorithm used to take advantage of them, and the implications of this technology for disparate application domains like bioinformatics, medical informatics, journalism, and urban communities. The lab is directed by Eli Brown.  

Mobile Commerce Lab

Members in the Mobile Commerce Lab conduct research projects in the general areas of information systems and human computer interaction. Recent research topics include technology adoption, digital innovations, smart home technologies, game enjoyment, and gamification. The lab is directed by Xiaowin Fang.  

Next Generation Networking (NexGeN) Lab

The Next Generation Networking (NexGeN) lab presents a research hub for novel directions in network development. The communications world is rapidly advancing with novel developments in the Internet of Things, Information Centric Networking and the advent of the Tactile Internet. Research activities in the NexGeN will leverage the international collaborations of its director, Dr. Sharief Oteafy, across the IEEE Communications Society and the IEEE Standards Association, to innovate in this fast-paced field.
  

PROVE-Lab

The PROVE-Lab, directed by Stefan Mitsch, studies logical foundations and tools for theorem proving, verified runtime monitoring, model validation, code synthesis, and safe learning for cyber-physical systems, such as autonomous cars, airplanes, robots, industry automation, and smart infrastructure. Formal verification plays a crucial role in making cyber-physical systems safe with strong guarantees about the system under a model of the system's behavior and its interaction with the environment. In cyber-physical systems, runtime safety is challenging because it requires predictions about physical dynamics to act ahead of time before physics makes violating the desired safety properties inevitable. Building and verifying formal predictive models of intertwined computational and physical behavior, however, becomes increasingly difficult, since systems operate (semi-)autonomously and often utilize poorly understood learning-enabled components in unconstrained operating environments.

RAISE Lab

The DePaul RAISE Lab (Responsible AI Systems and Societal Experiences) advances research, public knowledge, and innovation on the social and ethical responsibilities of computing and human-centered technologies. Through participatory research methods, interdisciplinary collaboration, and commitment to public interest innovation, lab members aim to ensure that computing systems serve the common good of humanity and the environment. Students interested in joining can reach out to lab director Jay Cunningham.  

Robotic Assisted Locomotion (RAL) Lab

The goal of the Robotic Assisted Locomotion (RAL) Lab, directed by Umer Huzaifa, is to develop robot devices to help people with limited mobility regain their freedom in movement. Lab members are currently studying locomotion in natural and artificial systems with legs to better understand the physical phenomenon involved in the coordinated movement of the joints transporting our bodies. The lab consists of a collegial group of students and professionals of different levels helping in embedded systems, mechanical design, and user testing of the robots.
 

The Secure Design Lab

Managed by Dr. Filipo Sharevski and developed as part of a grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) for implementation of the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP), the Secure Design Lab is equipped with state-of-the-art smart Internet of Things (IoT) home setups with wireless routers, home firewalls and IDSs, voice assistants, smart locks, thermostats, intercoms, CCTV, movement and temperature sensors, smart light bulbs, tablets, and smartphones. The work in the lab focuses on researching user-centered interaction design without compromising cybersecurity of smart devices while preventing the users of these homes to be security fatigued.;  

Visual Informatics and Data Analytics (VIDA) Group

The Visual Informatics and Data Analytics (VIDA) Group focuses on creating data mining and computer vision algorithms and developing systems for data processing, analysis, modeling, and visualization. Two laboratories, the Medical informatics (MedIX) Lab and the Intelligent Multimedia Processing (IMP) Lab, house state-of-the-art research that combines theory and experimental methodologies to provide novel solutions to challenging data problems. The research conducted in the labs is applied to various domains including medical imaging, neuroscience, cellular biology, psychology, security and urban studies.  

DePaul Instructional Game and Innovation Lab (DIGI)

The DePaul Instructional Game & Innovation (DIGI) Lab is an in-house educational game studio that collaborates with instructors, university partners, and external collaborators to create learning games and materials for the classroom, around campus, and beyond. DIGI creates games/experiences of all types, including XR (extended reality), analog (board/tabletop games), puzzle hunts, digital games, and more. Students who work with DIGI learn how to operate and work in a small game studio and get prepared to enter the games industry through their experience. DIGI is directed by Jes Klass.

DePaul Originals Game Studio

DePaul Originals simulates a professional video game studio, where CDM work on small portions of a bigger game over multiple quarters. The studio focuses on Epic Games’ Unreal 5 as its main development tool. Interdisciplinary development teams are comprised of artists, designers, producers, and programmers. Early builds and content packs are released for public consumption as a resource for future classes. The studio produces and publishes work that will be shipped to publicly visible platforms like Steam, Xbox, PS4, and Switch as well as working with private groups to produce experiences. Students can contact Creative Director Allen Turner or Technical Director Will Meyers for more information.
 

Design Research and Games (DRAG) Lab

DRAG, directed by Michael DeAnda, focuses on designing and studying games through human centered design approaches and histories. Current projects include archival research on LGBTQ histories and epidemiologies in board games.

Divergent Design Lab

The Divergent Design Lab is a research and design lab that focuses on emerging technology, user experience, and contemporary social landscapes. Current research involves cybersecurity, vulnerability, malware, and social cognition. Divergent Design Lab has been awarded funding from the NSA. The lab co-directors are Paige Treebridge, MFA, and Filipo Sharevski, PhD.  

Hybrid Experience Lab (HexLab)

The Hybrid Experience Lab (HexLab) is directed by Dr. Richard Wetzel and explores novel applications and games that sit at the intersection of opposites. Examples include games with a purpose other than pure entertainment; virtual reality with strong physical components; augmented reality situated in outdoor environments; or board games with digital elements. HexLab investigates how this hybridity shapes the user experience, and how to design effective and engaging hybrid experiences.    

Idea Realization Lab (IRL)

The IRL and IRL2 are student-driven makerspaces that encourage the pursuit of thinking through making. With locations in the Loop and Lincoln Park, IRL contains all types of creative equipment, from traditional woodshop tools to a variety of state-of-the-art fabrication tools, like 3D printers, thermal formers, laser cutters, sewing machines, and more. The Loop location also houses two stop motion animation studios.           

Jarvis Student Center for Innovation and Collaboration

The Jarvis Student Center for Innovation and Collaboration is an 8,000 square-foot open space where students and faculty come together to ideate and innovate. The Center focuses on multidisciplinary professional learning and industry partnerships fueled by emerging technologies and projects dedicated to societal needs and innovation. Located on the concourse level of the DePaul Center, the Jarvis Center currently houses DePaul Originals Game Studio and the interdisciplinary design PUSH Studio.;  

Matters at Play (M@P)

Matters at Play, directed by Lien Tran, is a transdisciplinary design lab focused on partnering in the creation of interactive advocacy solutions for positive social transformations - especially regarding social justice, health, and environmental issues. M@P both incubates and launches projects for real-world impact as part of a faculty-student collaborative as well as in the classroom context. Partners include advocacy, government, non-government, and/or academic organizations looking to use interactivity in both digital and analog contexts with the goal of informing and transforming society and its people.;  

PUSH Studio

PUSH Studio is an interdisciplinary design studio led by LeAnne Wagner where DePaul University students and faculty partner with industry professionals and social impact organizations to apply human-centered design methods to emerging technology challenges. The studio defines emerging technologies as technologies that are not fully realized in their current applications, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, and voice user interfaces. DePaul is uniquely positioned to provide these services because of the variety of relevant academic programs in emerging technology and human centered design, as well as the various focused labs (AR/VR Lab, Technology for Social Good, DePaul Originals Game Studio, Matters at Play).;  

Queering Futures Research Studio

Queering Futures Research Studio uses expanded mixed methods research practices and data-driven speculation to imagine and design systems and experiences. Queering Futures Research Studio is founded and directed by Mx Jess Parris Westbrook (they/them), MFA.  

Technology for Social Good Research and Design Lab

The Technology for Social Good Research and Design Lab brings together faculty, students, and other collaborators to design, build, and study tools with the goal of fostering equitable education and empowerment in urban communities. Taking a human-centered approach, research projects draw from fields such as learning sciences, computer science, human-computer interaction, experience design, data science, and psychology to address social issues, particularly in the areas of empowerment, learning, and human development. For more information, visit: tsg.cdm.depaul.edu.  

Virtual and Augmented Design Lab

Located on the concourse level of the DePaul Center, the Virtual and Augmented Design Lab (VAD) hosts classes and projects to research and develop experimental games on emerging platforms. VAD is equipped with Microsoft HoloLenses, AR headsets/visors, HTC Vives, VR headsets with hand and foot trackers, Oculus Rifts, iPhones for augmented reality development, and Macs and PCs. The lab is directed by Dr. Brian Schrank.