Speaker: Dr. Brygg Ullmer
                 Visualization Department
                 Zuse Institute Berlin

Title: Tangible Interfaces for Computational Science

Date and Time: Friday, October 31, 2003 3:00 p.m.
Place: 152 Coates

Abstract:

This talk will introduce human-computer interface research upon "tangible interfaces," and will connect this with work in visualization, grid computing, and computational science. Tangible interfaces use systems of physical objects as a medium for interacting with digital information. These objects are typically integrated with sensing capabilities, and serve not only as a means for providing input, but also as interactive physical representations for digital systems.

He will support these ideas with examples from my doctoral research at MIT, as well as recent work at Zuse Institute Berlin (ZIB) and the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) that applies tangible interfaces to the computational sciences. As one example, he will discuss a collaboration with AEI astrophysicists upon "visualization artifacts" for manipulating visualizations of colliding black holes. This is based upon a system of physical pads, cards, and wheels that embody key digital operations, data, and parameters. These objects provide a simple means for collaboratively engaging with time, space, parameters, and information aggregates, which we believe will generalize over a variety of applications.He will also describe research that extends these approaches, and will discuss future research directions.

Some recent links relevant to the talk are online at:
http://www.zib.de/ullmer/internal/lsu/2003-10/

Speaker Biography:

Brygg Ullmer is pursuing a postdoctoral position involving visualization and grid computing at the Zuse Institute Berlin. He completed his Ph.D. at the MIT Media Laboratory in August 2002, where he studied with Prof. Hiroshi Ishii in the Tangible Media group. He also holds a B.S. in computer engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1994), and an M.S. from the MIT Media Laboratory (1997). He has been a visiting lecturer in Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Design (2002), and has held internships at Sony Computer Science Labs, Tokyo (2000) and Interval Research Corporation (1993-95). His research interests include tangible and graphical user interfaces for interaction with online media, complex infrastructure, biological systems, and group interaction contexts, as well as rapid physical and functional prototyping. His homepage is visible at:
http://www.zib.de/ullmer