David and Helen Gurley Brown believed that magic happens through a unique kind of collaboration — when powerful (yet, untold) stories emerge through the creation of groundbreaking technology. It is in this spirit that the institute bearing their name offers “Magic Grants” to support small, interdisciplinary teams of graduate students or postgraduates inventing new ways to inform and entertain. Successful projects might continue as ventures outside the university, and the institute has various ways to help teams on that journey.

Art++ An augmented reality application that enlivens the museum-going experience and lets visitors look at art in new and unexpected ways. Team members: Jean-Baptiste Boin, María del Carmen Barrios Giordano, Asia Chiao, Skanda Shridhar, Tanja Aitamurto, Chris Alexander, Anna Toledano, Colleen Stockman. Advisors: Bernd Girod, Connie Wolf.

Cuba Interconectada Cuba Interconectada uses data and interactive features to tell the story of change in Cuba as its citizens adapt to new technology and an opening economy. Team members: Juanita Ceballos, Jika Gonzalez, Dave Mayers.

G-Drone G-Drone explores human-drone interaction through the use of drones as tour guides. Team members: Jessica Cauchard, Jane E.

Generating Emotional Impact in Narrative Generating Emotional Impact in Narrative is designed to identify what makes jokes funny and teach computers how to write them. Team members: Lydia Chilton

Mapping Monuments & Memory Mapping Monuments in Memory pairs journalism with landscape architecture to tell the story of Spomeniks, futuristic World War II monuments scattered across the six former republics of the former Yugoslavia. Team members: Jorgen Samso Nielsen, Mark Thomann, Kira Appelhaus, Iwan Baan.

Nueva Nación Nueva Nacion has built an interactive database of government information to help journalists tell the story of one of Latin America’s fastest growing economies. Team members: Ana Mendez, Alfonso Poschi, Gaspar Garcia de Paredes.

Open Contractors Open Contractors is an open-source web dashboard designed to enable journalists to easily analyze, visualize and interact with government contract data. Team members: Allison McCartney, Alex Gonçalvez

On the Brink of Famine On the Brink of Famine is an immersive documentary that used virtual reality techniques to tell the story of the famine in South Sudan. Team members: Marcelle Hopkins, Benedict Moran, Evan Wexler.