Morning Keynote Speech

Prof. Brygg Ullmer (Clemson University, USA)

Toward diverse, heterogeneous cyberphysical interfaces that generalize compositionally

Abstract

Among books, we have grown accustomed to diversity and heterogeneity in both form and content. For physical editions, they are hardbound, softbound, ringbound, and looseleaf; large and small; occasionally jewel-encrusted; and sometimes incorporating pages with rich mechanics, electronics, and computing. Digital editions of books – whether plaintext or diverse hypermedia variations – richly complement (not strictly replacing) their physical editions. We will discuss efforts toward related ecologies for diverse, heterogeneous computational interfaces with both virtual and physical editions. We will further consider how network externalities, bringing the powers of synergistic exponential growth, might be reached through generalized composition, decomposition, and recomposition. As lenses and prisms, we will use medieval illuminated canon tables, Philips’ 1942 MONIAC, and Apollo mission control; Halasz and Berners-Lee’s Hypertext 1991 presentations; heuristics of Buxton and Dahlberg; and examples from our work and IHCI.

Biosketch

Dr. Brygg Ullmer is a Chair of the Human-Centered Computing (HCC) Division and Professor within the School of Computing at Clemson University, where he also leads the Tangible Visualization group. Ullmer completed his Ph.D. at the MIT Media Laboratory (Tangible Media group) in 2002, where his research focused on tangible user interfaces. He served as an Associate Professor at Louisiana State University, jointly within the CCT and Computer Science. Prior to that, he held a postdoctoral position in the visualization department of the Zuse Institute Berlin, internships at Interval Research (Palo Alto) and Sony CSL (Tokyo), and has been a visiting lecturer at Hong Kong Polytechnic‘s School of Design. His research interests include tangible interfaces, computational genomics (and more broadly, interactive computational STEAM), visualization, and rapid physical and electronic prototyping. He also has a strong interest in computationally mediated art, craft, and design, rooted in the traditions and material expressions of specific regions and cultures.

Afternoon Keynote Speech

Prof. Youngjin Yoo (Case Western Reserve University, USA)

Organizing in the age of Organic Machines

Abstract

Throughout the history, human design and use tools to augment or replace its innate abilities. In

this short essay, drawing upon the work Bergson and Deleuze, I will try to characterize the emerging socio-technical environments as organic machines and make a few speculative observations on new forms of organizing that is likely to replace digital platforms. A key defining characteristic of organic machines is their unrepeatability. I argue that the emergence of global digital infrastructure, autonomous algorithms, user-generated data and cloud-based computing resources create a condition for unrepeatable run-time computational performativity. I then argue that with the emergence of organic machines, organizations will need to acquire new types of capabilities. I suggest four such capabilities: inferential, predictive, generative, and embodiment capabilities. With these capabilities, firms will be able to identifying both structural and temporal contingencies of user needs, and being able to match precisely such contingencies by algorithmically mobilize material and non-material resources at or near the point of use. I refer to this emerging form of organizing as a meta-hierarchy as it envelops both a platform ecosystem as a quasi-market, with multiple traditional vertically integrated hierarchies and net-enabled Organizations.

Biosketch

Dr. Youngjin Yoo is the Elizabeth M. and William C. Treuhaft Professor of Entrepreneurship and professor of information systems in the Department of Design & Innovation at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. He is the faculty director of xLab. He is also a WBS Distinguished Research Environment Professor at Warwick Business School, UK, and a visiting professor at London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. He is an AIS Fellow. Before returning to Case Western Reserve University, he was the Harry A. Cochran Professor of Management Information Systems and the founding director of the Center for Design+Innovation at the Fox School of Business, Temple University, where he was also the founder and principal investigator of Urban Apps & Maps Studios, an interdisciplinary initiative for digital urban entrepreneurship in Philadelphia. Previously, he was the Lewis-Progressive Chair of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He has taught digital innovation strategy at the Indian School of Business, Aalto University in Finland, and the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. He was a summer research fellow at NASA in the summer of 2001 and spent a year as a research associate in 2003-2004 at NASA Glenn Research Center. He was also a visiting professor at the Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, Viktoria Institute in Sweden, Hitotsubashi University in Japan, Hong Kong City University, Yonsei University, Korea, and Tokyo University of Science, Japan. He was Innovation Architect at University Hospitals of Cleveland, overseeing the digital transformation efforts at one of the largest teaching hospital systems in the country.

Invited Talks

Invited Speaker: Dr. Jan-Willem van 't Klooster

Dr. ir. Jan-Willem van ’t Klooster is managing director of BMS Lab, the innovation lab of the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences (BMS) at the University of Twente. He is responsible for the lab staff of 12 FTE, over 600 m2 lab spaces, a mobile laboratory, and over 200 project requests from researchers on a yearly basis in (mainly ICT-mediated) behavioural science innovation. He has coordinated multiple national and European projects and work packages, including EFRO, EU, and EIP AHA research projects. He obtained a PhD in health informatics in 2013 on personalized sensor- and actuator-based e-health services and has (co)authored over 30 journal and conference publications.

Talk Title: Studying the Future of Work

Abstract

The convergence of 3-D user interface technologies, such as Augmented- and Virtual Reality, AI, and Internet of Things, leads to novel ways of working and fast opportunities to innovate both daily (remote) working life and research-over-distance. In the current timeframe, this is more needed than ever. In this context,  the innovation lab of the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social sciences (BMS) at the University of Twente provides a platform infrastructure with a plethora of opportunities to experiment and test new paradigms. In this presentation, we will explore these paradigms and demonstrate appealing examples.

Invited Speaker: Prof. Chakravarthy Bhagvati (University of Hyderabad, Inida)

Dr. Chakravarthy Bhagvati is currently the Dean of the School of Computer and Information Sciences at University of Hyderabad. His research interests are image processing, pattern recognition and deep learning. He published more than 75 papers in refereed conferences and journals. He also works with the School of Medical Sciences in investigating the impact of colour vision deficiencies on the ease of use of popular user interfaces and multimedia design. Dr. Chakravarthy Bhagvati received his PhD in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy (NY, USA) and M. Tech in Computer Science from University of Hyderbad. He received his B. Tech in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. He also spent about 5 years working in industry before joining University of Hyderabad in 1998. Dr. Chakravarthy Bhagvati worked on an OCR sytem for Telugu and is currently developing an LSTM-driven OCR system for high accuracy on degraded documents. His research scholars are also working on Telugu offline handwriting recognition. He has successfully supervised 12 PhDs and more than a 100 Masters students. In addition to his academics, he is a member of the Association of Hyderabad Amateur Astronomers (AHAA) and is an avid amateur astronomer.

Talk Title: Study of Cultural and Technological Aspects of Colour Vision using Deep Learning

Abstract

Colour is a fundamental feature of human vision system. Colour plays a very important role in human life from its use in the arts to its therapeutic uses. The science of colour is equally interesting and in his book, Kurt Nassau, talks about "fifteen causes of colour" showing its widespread influence in everyday life.

It is natural for Computer Scientists to study colour from an AI perspective given the popularity of AI today. The current revolution can be said to have started with the development of "Deep Learning" which itself was first applied to image processing and colour imagery. However, AI and deep learning have focussed more on image processing and pattern recognition applications than on the study of colour itself.

In today's talk, we look at what colour is and how AI can help gain a better understanding of colour. How do we study the cultural aspects of colour? Why do we perceive certain colours as "positive" and others as "negative"? Why do some colours soothe our feelings? How do we design experiments to deal with such questions?

Finally, we look at the solutions that a study of colour provides us. We look at designing spectacles (eye-glasses) that can improve certain vision impairments such as colour-blindness, tunnel vision caused by glaucoma, the inabilities to focus on objects at certain

distances or in the periphery, etc.