Event details

• When: 8th October 2019 09:30 – 15:15
• Where: Byre Theatre
• Series: Distinguished Lectures Series
• Format: Distinguished lecture

Speaker: Stephen Brewster (University of Glasgow)
Venue: The Byre Theatre

Timetable:

9:30: Lecture 1: The past: what is multimodal interaction?
10:30 Coffee break
11:15 Lecture 2: The present: does it work in practice?
12:15 Lunch (not provided)
14:15 The future: Where next for multimodal interaction?

Speaker Bio:

Professor Brewster is a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow, UK. His main research interest is in Multimodal Human-Computer Interaction, sound and haptics and gestures. He has done a lot of research into Earcons, a particular form of non-speech sounds.

He did his degree in Computer Science at the University of Herfordshire in the UK. After a period in industry he did his PhD in the Human-Computer Interaction Group at the University of York in the UK with Dr Alistair Edwards. The title of his thesis was “Providing a structured method for integrating non-speech audio into human-computer interfaces”. That is where he developed my interests in Earcons and non-speech sound.

After finishing his PhD he worked as a research fellow for the European Union as part of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM). From September, 1994 – March, 1995 he worked at VTT Information Technology in Helsinki, Finland. He then worked at SINTEF DELAB in Trondheim, Norway.

Event details

• When: Friday 25 October, 2-3pm
• Where: JCB:1.33B – Teaching Laboratory

Abstract: This talk will describe a range of our projects, utilising functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in HCI.  As a portable alternative that’s more tolerate of motion artefacts than EEG, fNIRS measures the amount of oxygen in the brain, as e.g. mental workload creates demand.  As opposed to BCI (trying to control systems with our brain), we focus on brain-based HCI, asking what brain data can tell us about our software, our work, our habits, and ourselves.  In particular, we are driven by the idea that brain data can become personal data in the future.

Bio: Dr Max L. Wilson is an Associate Professor in the Mixed Reality Lab in Computer Science at the University of Nottingham.  His research focus is on evaluating Mental Workload in HCI contexts – as real-world as possible – primarily using functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS).  As a highly tolerant form of brain sensor, fNIRS is suitable for use in HCI research into user interface design, work tasks, and everyday experiences.  This work emerged from his prior research into the design and evaluation of complex user interfaces for information interfaces. Across these two research areas, Max has over 120 publications, including a Honourable Mention CHI2019 paper on a Brain-Controlled Movie – The MOMENT.

Our school of Computer Science are looking to recruit two people to join us in this unique and captivating place. Seven centuries of history link the students with the town, leading to the ancient and yet modern institution where you will be at the forefront of topics in CS e.g Human Computer Interaction. https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk

1. Lecturer advertisement  
2. Associate Lecturer advertisement 

As noted in the School’s blog post on this, the school is particularly interested in recruiting someone with an interest in HCI into one of these posts.

The closing date is 25 October 2019

[1] The School of Computer Science is looking to recruit a lecturer as part of a large on-going expansion of our academic staff. We are especially, but not exclusively, interested in those working in Human Computer Interaction.    

We wish to appoint a Lecturer to join our vibrant teaching and research community that is ranked amongst the top venues for Computer Science education and research worldwide.  The successful candidate will be expected to have a range of interests, to be active in research publication that strengthens or complements those in the School and to be capable of teaching the subject to undergraduate and taught postgraduate students who come to us with a wide range of backgrounds.    

Candidates should hold a PhD in a cognate discipline. Excellent teaching skills and an interest in promoting knowledge exchange are essential.  You should also have some familiarity with grant seeking processes in relation to research councils and other sources.  The Lecturer comes with an academic promotion track to Senior Lecturer, Reader, Professor.

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Professor Aaron Quigley from SACHI and Professor Yoshifumi Kitamura (Tohoku University, Japan) are the general co-chairs for the ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in Yokohama in 2021.  CHI is hosted by the ACM SIGCHI, the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference for the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). This flagship conference is generally considered the most prestigious in the field of HCI and attracts thousands of international attendees annually.

CHI provides a place where researchers and practitioners can gather from across the world to discuss the latest HCI topics. It has been held since 1982 and this is only the second time CHI will be held in Asia.

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Congratulations to Guilherme Carneiro, Miguel Nacenta, Alice Toniolo, Gonzalo Méndez and Aaron Quigley who won the Best Student Paper award for their paper “Deb8: A Tool for Collaborative Analysis of Video at TVX 2019.

Deb8 is a tool that allows collaborative analysis of video-based TV debates. The tool provides a novel UI designed to enable and capture rich synchronous collaborative discussion of videos based on argumentation graphs that link quotes of the video, opinions, questions, and external evidence.

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This summer we are delighted to host Chhavi Sharma from The University of Hong Kong. Chhavi is the first international Laidlaw scholar the University of St Andrews has hosted and as a result she will also be the first international Laidlaw scholar in Computer Science. She will be supervised by Professor Aaron Quigley. Together they will be working on Blended Reality and Discreet Computing using the Magic Leap system for digital/physical interactions. MORE

Congratulations to Dr Daniel Rough who has been awarded a 24-month Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral Fellowship in Ireland as part of the EDGE Programme. The prestigious MSCA EDGE Fellowships are based within 10 academic institutions across Ireland and affiliated with one of three Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) Research Centres. The EDGE Programme also incorporates training and development in research, with a strong focus on industry engagement and impact, including a secondment with a relevant industry partner.
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Professor Aaron Quigley will take up the role of SICSA Director from July 2019. SICSA is the Scottish Funding Council Research Pool in Informatics and Computer Science comprising all 14 Scottish Higher Education Computer Science & Informatics Schools and Departments. SICSA promotes international excellence in University-led research, education, and knowledge exchange for Scottish Informatics and Computer Science and acts to cohere communities to help increase critical mass and to enable cooperation in research, teaching and Knowledge Exchange. The SICSA Director provides academic leadership for SICSA, working with the SICSA Directorate and the SICSA Executive.

“SICSA funding has enabled SICSA members to recruit over 90 high-quality Ph.D. students from across the world through our Prize Studentship Programme. Similarly, SICSA has provided SICSA member institutions with the opportunity to recruit some of the world’s best researchers to their Schools. SICSA delivers a range of programmes and activities to support Computing Science researchers at all levels in Scotland.”

As CHI 2019 is held just around the corner in Glasgow, SACHI will be in full force at the conference, and keen to engage and speak about collaborations and research visits at St Andrews.

Alongside 5 full papers, 2 workshop presentations and 4 student volunteers, we’ve also put together a SICSA poster that we will be giving away at CHI that represents and summarises HCI research in Scottish Universities!
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