School of CS newsletter

Innovation and technology - art or science? Speaker: Dr Andy Harter CBE FREng FIET FBCS In his lecture Dr Harter will discuss the role of “art” in innovation and technology including not only the aesthetic but also craft, design, skill, invention and intuition. Andy will draw on his own expertise and experiences in computing and ask if we can do more to appreciate and promote the importance of “art” as a feature on the interdisciplinary landscape? Speaker biography Dr Andy Harter CBE FREng FIET FBCS is a distinguished innovator and entrepreneur. He was Director of Research and Engineering at the influential AT&T Cambridge Laboratory where he led many hardware and software projects through to commercial exploitation. He was responsible for VNC software and its seminal role in establishing the remote access market. The technology is on over a billion devices, is on more different kinds of computer than any other application and is an official part of the internet. He has an MA and a PhD from Cambridge University, where he is a Fellow of the Computer Laboratory and chair of Cambridge Network. He has received numerous awards, including the Silver Medal and MacRobert Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Faraday Medal of the IET. In 2017 he was awarded a CBE for services to engineering.

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Abstract

The use of the senses of vision and audition as interactive means has dominated the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) for decades, even though nature has provided us with many more senses for perceiving and interacting with the world around us. That said, it has become attractive for HCI researchers and designers to harness touch, taste, and smell in interactive tasks and experience design. Despite the increasing interest in the different senses as interaction modalities in HCI, there is only a limited understanding of what tactile, gustatory, and olfactory experiences we can design for and how to integrate those sensory stimuli into the interaction with and through technology in a meaningful way. Within this talk, I will present a snapshot into the challenges and opportunities for multisensory HCI.

Biography

Marianna Obrist is a Reader in Interaction Design at the Department of Informatics, School of Engineering and Informatics at the University of Sussex, UK. Marianna is leading the Sussex Computer Human Interaction Lab (SCHI `sky? Lab), a research group dedicated to the investigation of multisensory experiences for interactive technology. The interdisciplinary SCHI Lab team explores tactile, gustatory, and olfactory experiences as novel interaction modalities. This research is mainly supported by a five-year grant from the European Research Council. Before joining Sussex, Marianna was a Marie Curie Fellow at Newcastle University and prior to this an Assistant Professor for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg, Austria. More details on her research can be found at: http://www.multi-sensory.info)

The fellowship awards are open to female early career researchers working in the field of life and physical sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer sciences. Five outstanding female early-career scientists will be awarded a bursary of £15,000.

Applicants should apply online at www.womeninscience.co.uk by the deadline of 16th February 2018.

Eligibility criteria and FAQs are available here: www.womeninscience.co.uk/faq

This unique award is designed to provide practical help to aid female researchers in continuing their cutting-edge research. The fellowship can be spent as the fellow wishes; it could buy a piece of scientific equipment, help to cover child care costs or be used to fund conference travel.

If you have any questions or feedback, please do not hesitate to contact ForWomeninScienceUK@loreal.com, and inform the Research Office if you intend to apply.

Like Atlas 1 last week, Atlas 2 is now equipped to support wired HDMI projection. Given that the AppleTV box, for wifi projection, is also on HDMI, there is a new, little switch box on the lectern. Switch position 1 is for wired and position 2 is for wireless. Thanks to Stephen Rhodes who has also rearranged the speakers and improved the wiring.