The AME network has an underlying organizational structure that is conceptualized as a two-dimensional table. The research areas and sub areas are stacked horizontally with the application groups cutting vertically across research layers (see diagram above). This approach connects research strengths across application areas.

Each faculty or student joining the AME network chooses to work at an intersection of a research sub area and an application group. They become a member of the research sub area and application group associated with their choice. Students are co-supervised by one advisor from the research sub area and one from the application group.

Meetings and activities along the research dimension allow interdisciplinary solutions resulting from application-specific work to enrich discipline-centered research. For example, the movement-sensing team is developing a low-cost system that combines video, RFID and inertial sensors to track movements of objects and people. It is implemented in three of the four application groups: Embodied and Mediated Learning, Enactive Arts and Reflective Living.

Application areas link closely related research tasks, e.g. sensing with context, and across significantly different disciplines such as computer science and the arts.

To get a sense of the breadth of the interdisciplinary experience provided by these collaborative application groups, examine the composition of faculty and student members for the rehabilitation biofeedback group: three bioengineers, three computer scientists, four electrical engineers, a kinesiologist, two animators, two music composers, an interactive media expert, a fabrication expert, two physical therapists and three medical doctors.

Above all, AME is a transdisciplinary research and learning community. Connections among faculty and students emerge beyond the research and application groups’ context. These connections act as powerful cross-pollination links. Within this highly connected network, knowledge within each research area is advanced in a context that encourages transdisciplinary, holistic understanding of media.