iHCI 2014 Conference report

The 8th annual Irish Human Computer Interaction (iHCI) Conference took place at Dublin City University, on September 1st and 2nd 2014. Organised by Insight Centre for Data Analytics, the conference featured presentations from NUI Galway, GMIT, UL, UMBC, TSSG, DCU, NUI Manynooth, as well as international speaker from the UK (University of Ulster). Since its inaugural event in 2007, iHCI key event that brings together a broad range of well-established academics (professors, lecturers, researchers, post-docs, research students) as well as industry and practitioners in the HCI domain in Ireland.

In iHCI 2014 at DCU, we chose “Shaping our Digital Lives” as a key theme that reflects how technology influences our personal and professional life, and the challenges associated in designing and deploying innovative and collaborative technologies that ultimately shape our lives. The organisation of iHCI around this theme has encouraged discussions around the modern research, industrial and market trends in this domain.

In order to push the Irish HCI community research and practice, this year, we  introduced two initiatives to the conference. The first one was the Masterclass. This set of masterclasses allows active newcomers to interact with experienced HCI researchers and industry partners:

  • Dr. Graham Healey –  “An Introduction to Brain-computer Interfaces and EEG”.
  • Dr. David Monaghan – “3D computing and Motion Capture technology for low cost HCI”.
  • Dr. Mark Hughes has shared his successful story in bringing Research to Product.

The second initiative is the invitation of keynote speakers who are well known in the HCI domain to bring exposure to the Irish HCI community:

  • Dr Mark Magennis: founder and Director of the Centre for Inclusive Technology.
  • John Wood, senior consultant at “IQ Content” digital design consultancy.
  • Chris Dancy “The Most Connected Human on Earth”, from Denver in the United States who shared his massive experience in personal sensing.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the authors who submitted papers; the programme committee for their reviewing efforts; Science Foundation Ireland for their generous support of the conference; Insight Centre for Data Analytics for their financial, logistic and organisational support; the Helix for their cooperation and active technical support; our inspiring Masterclass and keynote speakers; our Session chairs: Dr. Gavin Doherty, Prof. Alan Smeaton and Dr. Julie Doyle; and our local organisation team who worked behind the scene to make this event successful.

Finally we would like to congratulate the authors of the iHCI 2014 best paper,  “Evaluation Of Early Prototypes For Social Mobile And Pervasive Computing With Scripted Role-Play”, Edel Jennings, Mark Roddy, Alec Leckey and Guy Feigenblat, for their high quality and solid work.

We hope to meet all of you next year.

Rami Albatal & Nimah Caprani

11 September 2014

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