Social Activities

Sean Upshaw joins HCAT as a Postdoc

  Dr. Sean Upshaw recently joined HCAT lab as a Postdoctoral Fellow after completing his PhD at Howard University in health communication. Sean has a background in graphic design and illustration with a BPS in Biomedical Illustration from the University of Memphis. As an HCAT Postdoctoral Fellow, Sean will work on designing and evaluating innovative…

March: Dogfight

If you ran into a lab member in March, then we probably looked busy. And Jake was definitely drinking some form of caffeine. That’s because we were working hard to get 7 article submitted to 2 different conferences.  The end of March is home to the submission deadline for the National Communication Association (NCA) and…

Sundance 2018

We love to go to Sundance Film Festival each year because (1) it is awesome, (2) it is nearby – Park City, UT), and (3) it is a wonderful opportuunity to learn about cutting edge communication technology (e.g., VR and AR).  Sundance is approximately 11 days long and the lab was out and about the…

2017 HCAT Writing Retreat – Adobe House

Once again, HCAT lab hosted a writing retreat in beautiful Park City, UT. The writing retreat was October 11th – 14th, 2017. The attendees were Lisa Guntzviller, Andy King, Courtney Scherr, Kevin K. John, Manusheela Pokharel, Chelsea Ratcliff, Kaylee Crossley, Katheryn Christy, Hannah Badal, Kevin Coe, and Brandon Rivera-Melo. We missed Rob Yale (a lot).…

The Dread Professor Jensen

Every HCAT writing retreat begins with an roundtable session where attendees detail what they will be working on. Typically, the roundtable is led by Jake, but this year, in honor of the 30yh anniversary of The Princess Bride, it was led by the Dread Professor Jensen. He told attendees to “work hard, submit manuscripts” as…

HCAT day retreat in Chicago

HCAT decided to host a day retreat during the AEJMC conference in Chicago. The retreat was held in Courtney’s lab space in downtown Chicago which happened to be a few short blocks from the conference hotel.  After writing all day, the lab ventured off to the Barcade for fun and drinks. We ate popsicles with…

HCAT goes to Sundance 2017

The Sundance Film Festival is a wonderful gathering of media and communication professionals in Park City, UT. As such, HCAT lab spends quite a bit of time going to shows, meeting with industry folks, and checking out the latest gadgets. For example, last year we were introduced to the Nokia Ozo camera at Sundance, and…

HCAT at BEA in Las Vegas

Mindy Krakow and I traveled to BEA this year to present research and receive a few awards. Mindy received an award for her dissertation (congrats Mindy!) and we won a top paper in the research division (congrats us!). We also enjoyed stopping by NAB and learning more about VR equipment. Nokia was there, so it was a great opportunity to chat with them about our new camera.

Plus we went to two great shows: La Reve and Ka.

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Dogfish Beer in Utah?

Woolrich – the flannel shirt maker – and dogfish head brewery recently formed a partnership. The Woolrich guys came out to salt lake city for the outdoor expo, and they also hosted a big sundance party in park city. For the party, dogfish head brewed a new beer called the Pennsylvania tuxedo, an IPA infused with spruce tips. After the party, 4 kegs were leftover. The Woolrich guys didn’t want to fly them back, so they gave them to the owner of the rental house.

That guy is my neighbor.

 

That’s how Mindy and I ended up with several kegs of Dogfish Head. The world needs to know.10968515_10104653968107420_6838496867614776779_n[1]

The Great Beard Contest

In May of 2014, Professor Kevin Coe challenged me to a “beard off.” A beard off is a contest wherein two people decide to grow beards and see who has the “best” beard at the end of the day. I agreed.

 

Typically, a beard off is started in the fall or winter. Why? Because beards are hot. And damn are they itchy. Especially when it is hot. But Coe wanted a beard off in the summer, so we did it.

 

On August 8th, 2014 we declared an end to the beard off. We took these photos, then immediately went home and shaved. “Never again,” we both declared.

 

The photos were posted to Facebook. In a close vote, Coe was declared the beard winner. His prize? Never to grow a beard again. 🙂

 

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HCAT goes Curling

HCAT wanted to go curling. But you have to take curling lessons before you can officially join the league. Oh, and you better bring your own stone. League stones are for chumps.

 

We had a few drinks before curling lessons. Everyone but KKJ. Only one person fell on the ice and seriously hurt his back. You guessed it: KKJ. 🙂

 

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