Human Computer Interaction (HCI) - Retrospective and Perspective

Staff - Faculty of Informatics

Date: 31 May 2022 / 09:30 - 11:30

USI Campus EST, room D0.03, Sector D

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser, TU Darmstadt

Abstract:
The talks will be divided into two parts: Part one will look into the history of Human-Computer-Interaction from the first multi-user computers until the recent advancements, with a focus on important interaction concepts. A few historic milestones will be reviewed, which are important for the understanding of  the essence of HCI. Part II will discuss important actual research and projects, which hint toward an increasing “convergence of bits and atoms”. The essence of this convergence will be introduced and the actual research will be related to it. A number of very recent or ongoing project at the presenter’s lab will be chosen as examples where appropriate, giving some insight into the work of the presenter who is currently a visiting scholar at USI with Prof s Santini and Langheinrich.

Biography:
Prof. Dr. Max Mühlhäuser is head of the Telecooperation Lab (TK for short) at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Informatics Dept. His lab conducts research on smart ubiquitous computing environments in the Future Internet – from smart mixed-reality rooms to smart cities and smart & resilient critical infrastructures. Novel scientific contributions to such smart environments are pursued by integrating four fields of scientific research:

  • Networks & distributed systems (e.g., highly adaptive Internet concepts, mission critical microservices for fog/edge computing);
  • Human Computer Interaction (e.g., XR, on-body, physiological, tangible, small/large-scale, and fabricated interaction, telepresence);
  • Proactive intelligent systems (e.g., multi-assistant platforms for ubiquitous computing, intelligent business process analytics, spatiotemporal mobility & activity pre-diction);
  • Privacy, trust & cybersecurity (e.g., anonymous communication, cooperative botnet / intrusion detection, trust based assessment of security settings).

Max leads or co-supervises various multilateral projects, e.g., on the Internet-of-Services, smart products, ad-hoc and sensor networks, and civil security; these projects are funded by the National Funding Agency DFG, the EU, German ministries, and industry. Max is heading the doctoral school Privacy and Trust for Mobile Users and takes key roles in cooperative centers such as the center for resilient digital cities “EmergenCity”, the national research center for Cybersecurity ATHENE, and the collaborative research center MAKI on the Future Internet. Max has also led several university wide programs that fostered innovations in E-Learning. In his career, Max put a particular emphasis on technology transfer, e.g., as the founder and mentor of several campus-based industrial research centers.

Max has over 35 years of experience in research and teaching in areas related to Ubiquitous Computing (UC), Networks and Distributed Systems, E-Learning, and Privacy&Trust. He held permanent or visiting professorships at the Universities of Kaiserslautern, Karlsruhe, Linz, Darmstadt, Montréal, Sophia Antipolis (Eurecom), and San Diego (UCSD). In 1993, he founded the TeCO institute (www.teco.edu) in Karlsruhe, Germany, which became one of the pace-makers for Ubiquitous Computing research. Max regularly publishes in HCI, Ubiquitous and Distributed Computing, Multimedia, and Securtiy/Privacy/Trust conferences and journals. He authored or co-authored more than 700 peer-reviewed publications. He was and is active in numerous conference program committees, as organizer of several annual conferences, and as member of steering and editorial boards or guest editor for journals like IEEE Trans. Multimedia, ACM IMWUT, Pervasive Computing, ACM Multimedia, Pervasive and Mobile Computing and the like.