Keynotes

Opening Keynote

Immersive Competence and Immersive Literacy: Designing for Accessibility and Engagement in Mixed Reality

While immersive experiences mediated through near-eye displays are still a relatively immature medium, there are millions of consumer devices in use. However most members of the general public will have very little experience with such devices. This poses a number of challenges to experimenters  and designers. Increasingly in our own experiments we need to model the user level of experience as this can dramatically affect user response. Designers of consumer experiences need to deal with users having vastly different levels of expertise. We will explore this using terms we have coined recently: immersive competence and immersive literacy. We illustrate competency and literacy by reference to some of our own recent work on user responses in mixed reality. We will then suggest elements of a research agenda that can develop a better understanding of design for supporting user engagement and broader accessibility in the mixed reality area.

UP Keynote

Teammanagement-Highlights: Erfolgreiche Zusammenarbeit bei der BYTE Challenge

Diese Keynote präsentiert die erprobten Strategien und Techniken des Teammanagements, die während der BYTE Challenge – einer Lernplattform der Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V.  für Schüler:innen und Schulklassen – erfolgreich angewendet wurden. Erwarten Sie praxisnahe Einblicke in effektive Kommunikation, Zeitmanagement, Konfliktbewältigung, Resilienz, Work-Life-Balance und die Bedeutung mentaler Gesundheit für leistungsstarke, agile Teams. Die Zuhörer werden wertvolle Lektionen für ihre persönliche und berufliche Entwicklung mitnehmen und lernen, wie sie die Erfahrungen der BYTE Challenge für eine erfolgreiche Teamführung anwenden können. 

Closing Keynote

Enhancing and Supporting Human Conversation through Analytic and Generative AI

Effective communication is vital to human interactions. It enables individuals to express themselves, build relationships with others, and participate in society. Advances in analytic and generative AI hold great potential for improving communication by enhancing individuals’ perceptual and expressive capabilities. My talk will address the advances and applications of conversation-enhancing technologies, focusing on their potential benefits for people with various communication challenges. Applications developed in collaboration with and for users include signing avatars for the hearing impaired, more expressive voices for AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) device users, and mixed reality environments that promote motor training for children with autism. In my talk, I will discuss how the use of analytic and generative AI can bridge communication barriers, promote authentic and personalized expression, and support social inclusion. In addition to analyzing the potential of these technologies to support users with different communication abilities, I will address the challenges of an empathic design process to identify and address the specific needs of target audiences while avoiding reinforcing stereotypes.