WORKSHOP: Graduate Student Symposium at the 2019 ACM Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI)

University Of Colorado At Boulder, Boulder CO

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports the participation of promising United States graduate students and distinguished research faculty in a Graduate Student Consortium. The full-day event will take place on Sunday, March 17, immediately preceding and in conjunction with the 13th Association of Computing Machinery International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI), to be held in Tempe, Arizona. Launched in 2007, the annual TEI conference is about creating compelling experiences that bridge bits and atoms through research in human-computer interaction, design, interactive arts, tools and technologies. TEI brings together researchers, designers, engineers, and artists who provide an innovative and cross-disciplinary perspective on physical/digital interaction design and technological innovation. The intimate size of this single-track conference (about 250 participants in recent years) provides a unique forum for exchanging ideas through talks, interactive exhibits, demos, posters, art installations and performances. The theme of this year's conference is Hybrid Materials in light of the fact that over the past few years TEI research has increasingly embraced hybridity, whether through material explorations of composites such as bioelectronic, on-body, or active materials, or theoretical inquiries into socio-technical systems as hybrid assemblies. The 2019 TEI Graduate Student Consortium will immediately precede the conference, with follow-up activities during the conference's main technical program. Students will present their early stage research to their peers and the faculty mentors, who will constructively critique the students' work from diverse viewpoints. The students will also get to show their work in posters at the conference, and their short papers will be included in the conference proceedings. The day will end with general discussion, reflection, and career advice. The organizing committee has made a special effort to recruit a diverse set of student participants, particularly seeking persons with disabilities and members of underrepresented groups, or at institutions not historically represented at the TEI conferences. The GSC will sharpen the research skills of a new generation of scientists, engineers, and designers who will shape human-centered computing as it takes place in physical things and places. Already we are observing the impact of this field in our daily lives, as computing becomes embedded in our phones, our bus stops, and soon even our clothing. Now is a critical moment in the field, as a wave of early exploratory prototypes gives way to disciplined investigations, the development of toolkits, and more rigorous evaluation methods. Mentoring the next generation of TEI researchers is crucial if the field is to retain its vigor and openness in the future. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.