HCAT lab goes to Sundance Film Festival every year. It’s a wonderful chance to see films, interact with media professionals, learn about emerging technologies, and cultivate relationships with talented individuals working in AR/VR content creation. In 2021, most film festivals were either partially or entirely virtual. We started the year with Sundance and Ended with…
Both Kevin John and I bought drones recently with an eye toward developing novel content and experiences for experimental research. Kevin’s drone was fast – perhaps too fast – as it ended up crashing into a tree branch one day. It spiraled out of control and was never seen again. But he was not deterred:…
The lab noticed lots of new chicken places and we decided it was time to start trying them. So, over Summer 2021, HCAT lab carried out a “Summer of Chicken.” We would gather once a week and try different chicken places. It was a nice way to eat chicken, try new restaurants, and chat about…
In 2021, Tribeca Film Festival was virtual. HCAT lab enjoyed the film festival including the VR/AR content. Virtual festivals are not the same as attending in person, but I like to put up the entire schedule on the wall of my house to make the fest come to life.
In June 2021, we hosted a summer writing retreat for faculty in the Nexus space. It was a time to learn about grant/fellowship writing, craft drafts of applications, receive feedback, and eat Duck Donuts.
I will be teaching COMM 3580: Strategic Communication & Pandemics for Fall 2021. The course is online and open to all University of Utah students. I set the seat cap at 200. Grab a seat before they are gone! Here is a flyer for the course: And here is the syllabus: If you have any…
Helen Lillie was awarded the prestigious Susan Cooper Jones Endowed Fellowship in Cancer Research. This award honors an outstanding fellow, PhD, MD or MD/PhD, who has performed exceptional cancer-focused research during their training at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. The award is made possible by the generosity of the family of Susan Cooper Jones, a young mother who lost…
Dr. Helen Lillie is an NIH Postdoctoral Fellow in HCAT Lab, and she has been publishing up a storm. Her primary research program focuses on communication and emotion. Helen has published lead-authored articles in Psychology & Health, Journal of Family Communication, and a book chapter in Communicating Science in Times of Crisis: Coronavirus. All of…
HCAT just won a Utah Grand Challenge grant. This mechanism provides funding for cancer researchers to address pressing cancer issues facing the state of Utah (and beyond). Utah leads the nation in Melanoma incidence (in a bad way). Given that, our project will develop and test and innovative approaches to melanoma detection in coordination with…
Due to COVID, Sundance 2021 was virtual this year. I miss the fun and excitement of Park City, but it was also nice to watch movies from the comfort of home. Several of us plan to attend virtual SXSW this year too, including Helen Lillie and Andy King. So, there are some positives about COVID.…
Led by Yelena Wu, we recently won an NIH R01 grant to support a 5 year health intervention targeting sun safe behavior in Utah adolescents. The goal of the grant is to evaluate a multi-school intervention designed to decrease skin cancer. The study will run from 2020 through 2025. The intervention includes multiple components including…
Helen Lillie and I created a new course for Fall 2020 – COMM 3580: Strategic Communication & Pandemics. It is an online course that is open to all students at the University of Utah. We are looking forward to teaching it!
HCAT won funding from the Immunology, Inflammation, and Infectious Disease Initiative (i3) at the University of Utah. The funding provides support for a repeated, cross sectional study that will track perceptions of COVID communication across 18 weeks. Notably, we are interested in whether people felt COVID messages were exaggerated. HCAT members Andy J. King (Iowa…
One of our passions is attending Sundance Film Festival every year. It’s actually a lab activity. This year, four of us enjoyed opening night Sundance. And Helen Lillie and I hit the festival pretty hard several days in a row, including one epic day where we tried to watch movies from before sunrise until deep…