Matthew Peterson, Ph.D.
Bio
Dr. Matthew Peterson (CV) is a researcher and educator with a professional background in graphic design and interaction design. He studies visual representation, especially in the context of novel user interface design in both established and emerging technologies. His recent research projects have fully funded the equivalent of seven student-years shared among six College of Design students in the MGXD and PhD programs, in addition to other student support. His projects have also resulted in the first academic publication for six College of Design students.
Peterson’s work is conducted almost exclusively in multidisciplinary teams. He has contributed to theory on the cognitive function of imagery in science education, on visual metaphor in communication and advertising, and on scale cognition.
Peterson is currently co-principal investigator (Co-PI) with PI Karen Chen (Engineering) and Co-PI Cesar Delgado (Education) on a $1.34 million NSF grant (#2055680): Virtual Reality to Improve Students’ Understanding of the Extremes of Scale in STEM. This project develops Scale Worlds (above), a virtual environment that connects scientific and standard notation to embodied experiences of shrinking and growing, far beyond the realms of everyday experience. Scale Worlds enables students to travel among many distinct “scale-worlds” separated by powers of ten, as they seemingly shrink or grow in tenfold increments to become the size of atoms, viruses, insects, planets, and stars. Brian Sekelsky (MGXD 2023) and Rebecca Planchart (MGXD) have served as design research assistants for this project.
GXD professor Helen Armstrong has traded PI and Co-PI roles with Peterson in a research team for two recent $200,000+ Department of Defense grants, in collaboration with the Laboratory for Analytic Sciences (LAS). With intelligence analysts, psychologists, and data and computer scientists at LAS, Armstrong and Peterson have explored how text-to-image generative artificial intelligence (AI) could be harnessed in interfaces that utilize AI-generated compact imagery to strengthen intelligence analysts’ memory traces to crucial intelligence information (above), and what new visual conventions might be developed to help analysts gauge the reliability of outputs from large language models. With student researchers Ashley Anderson (PhD in Design) and Kayla Rondinelli (MGXD 2024), they recently had an academic article published on a framework for semiotic control of generative AI outputs.
Peterson is invested in the maturation of design as a discipline, through mentorship of design students — including through his graduate seminar Scholarship & Pedagogy in Design — and dissemination to the design field. He has given a keynote address and had an academic article published on how design exploration can be integrated into STEM pursuits, and has another article that describes the challenges that design departments and design faculty face in effectuating such integration.
Education
Ph.D. in Design NC State University College of Design
Master of Graphic Design NC State University College of Design
Bachelor of Graphic Design NC State University College of Design
Area(s) of Expertise
Research interest areas: visual representation; visual metaphor; visual narrative; scale cognition; explainable AI; typography; image function; semiotics; the nature of design research and the nascent discipline of design
Technologies utilized in research and instruction: virtual reality (VR); augmented reality (AR); artificial intelligence (AI); and text-to-image generative AI
Publications
- Co-Designing a Science Lesson with VR in Middle School Science , Leveraging Embodied Cognition Using Virtual Reality in Middle School Science Education (related paper set). (2024)
- Does Shrinking and Growing in VR Induce Awe among Young Students? , Proceedings of the 18th International Conference of the Learning Sciences. International Society of the Learning Sciences (2024)
- Impact of VR Science Lesson on Students’ Knowledge of Scale , Leveraging Embodied Cognition Using Virtual Reality in Middle School Science Education (related paper set). National Association of Research in Science Teaching 2024 (2024)
- Impact of a VR Science Lesson on Reform-Oriented Nature of Science Instruction , Leveraging Embodied Cognition Using Virtual Reality in Middle School Science Education (related paper set). National Association of Research in Science Teaching 2024 (2024)
- Student Impressions about a VR Science Lesson , Leveraging Embodied Cognition Using Virtual Reality in Middle School Science Education (related paper set). National Association of Research in Science Teaching 2024 (2024)
- Designing and Developing an Instrument to Assess Scale Cognition , National Association for Research in Science Teaching (2023)
- Preserving theoretically-grounded functions across media platforms in interaction design , IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design (2023)
- Refining a Panel of Experts Validation Methodology for Instrument Development , American Education Research Association (2023)
- Scale Worlds: Iterative refinement, evaluation, and theory-usability balance of an immersive virtual learning environment , Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting (2023)
- Shrink or grow the kids? Scale cognition in an immersive virtual environment for K-12 summer camp , 2023 IEEE CONFERENCE ON VIRTUAL REALITY AND 3D USER INTERFACES ABSTRACTS AND WORKSHOPS, VRW (2023)