Muireann leaving today...

Muireann O'Brien, secondary school teacher at the Carrigaline Community School in co Cork has spent 8 weeks with us this summer, working with the socGSD team as participant in the STARs SFI programme.

As time went by, she became part of the big IDC family...

Besides finding out about the collaboration challenges in Global Software Development from the members of the socGSD team, she also had the chance to familiarise herself with the work of the other groups in the IDC.

We all hope she's taking back to her school a bag full of stories and resources!

Good bye, Muireann! It was great having you around this summer!

Dr Eva Hornecker visiting the IDC

The IDC "Shared Worlds" project is hosting a Talk by Dr Eva Hornecker, Pervasive Interaction Lab, Open University, UK. The talk will take place on Wednesday, 11th of July, 2.30 PM, in ERO-008.

Title: "Social interaction in computer-augmented environments - towards an understanding of users' experience in interactive spaces"

Abstract: With technological advances, computing progressively moves beyond the desktop into new physical and social contexts. This talk will focus on the user experience in interactive spaces, which embed computing in the real world, and enable users to control and interact with computers through tangible devices and full-body interaction. Freeing users from the desktop and integrating computer output into the
everyday world in particular is expected to support collaborative activities and communication. Yet research so far has tended to focus on the technological opportunities and less on the user experience and the social effects of these new systems. The talk will explain 'tangible interaction' as an umbrella term encompassing different technical and disciplinary approaches. It will introduce a framework which contributes to understanding the user experience of 'tangible interaction' and to design approaches that address the social use context. This is exemplified through a range of practical examples.

Bio: Dr. Eva Hornecker is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Open University and member of the Pervasive Interaction Lab where she conducts her research project which centers on the talk's theme. She was program co-chair for the first international ACM conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI'07). Before coming to the OU she was acting lecturer at the Technical University in Vienna and at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and worked as a visting research fellow on the Equator project at the University of Sussex.