On Monday, November 11th, 11:00-12:00, the group will be hosting a talk by Elaine M. Huang, a professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Informatics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. The talk will be at Wolfson Building for Mechanical Engineering, room 003/004 (take the stairs down from the lobby. The lab is on the right). Here are some details:

PDF Poster: Elaine Huang Talk

From Tech-Smart to People-Smart: Designing for User Needs in Smart Homes

Abstract: Smart and automated home technologies are becoming a reality. No longer available only to the extremely wealthy or extremely technologically-savvy, the emergence of smart home technologies among middle-class home owners presents the opportunity to explore how and why these technologies are being adopted and their effects on everyday life. Studying early adopters of such technologies provides us with insight into the future of home technologies and their potential to shape domestic practices.  It also points to the myriad challenges that need to be addressed in order to create systems that are not only well-engineered to function effectively, but also well-designed such to fit seamlessly with people’s lives and needs, supporting and enhancing domestic life rather than burdening and frustrating household members. In this talk I will discuss our field research of households equipped with smart home technology and the avenues for ubiquitous computing research that we derive from it.

Bio: Elaine M. Huang is a professor of Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Informatics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland. She directs the People and Computing research group and her current research spans a variety of topics including smart home technology, sustainable HCI, and technologies to support cross-cultural communication. She is active in the HCI and ubiquitous computing communities, serving in several organizational roles for conferences and publications. Prior to her position at UZH, she was an professor of Computer Science at the University of Calgary in Canada, and a senior staff researcher at Motorola Labs. She received her PhD in Computer Science from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2006.
Elaine Huang Talk