In Summer 2009 I participated in the NSF-funded SURF-IT (Summer Undergraduate
Research Fellowship in Information Technology) at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
This REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) involved creating an iPhone/iPod
Touch application called Teenvity that is designed to motivate teenagers to exercise by
playing games that require movement. The application is molded to the user’s personality;
the system selects an agent, motivational phrases, and games to suggest to the user based on a
short personality test.