CSC Lab members Katie Derthick and Behzod Sirjani were recently informed that their proposed mobile phone application, “Making Memories,” was selected as a runner up in the activity design contest sponsored by TORURG (the University of Toronto Ubiquitous Computing Research Group). The contest was a call for proposals of applications that would utilize the web-based activity service that TORURG members built, with the goal of exploring the possible applications that such a service could support.

“Making Memories” is an application developed to support reminiscence, in order to help users lead happier and healthier lives. It encourages users to participate in new activities; keeps a geo-tagged record of users’ activities, which users tag and annotate; and, in the future, sends memories of those activities to users, prompting them to reminisce or reflect.

Derthick and Sirjani will also participate in the CHI 2011 Workshop on Reminiscence to discuss their proposed application design, as well as other technologies that can support reminiscence. Derthick and Sirjani thank HCDE Professor Julie Kientz for her feedback and guidance in developing the proposal.