What’s coming up? UIST Day 1!
by Josh Urban Davis, Student Volunteer with the UIST Publicity team
Every year, we gather some of the most brilliant and innovative minds together for the User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) conference to share ideas on the bleeding edge of emerging tech. If this is your first time, or if you’re new to UIST, this conference is where technology goes wild. From Virtual Reality to Smart Clothing to Shape-Changing gadgets of the future, this is where breakthroughs in computer interface research are presented by some of the maddest scientists. Like all things in the era of COVID, the conference has been moved online this year, and will mostly be taking place across Discord, Zoom, and here on the UIST Medium Blog. So join us for the latest in breakthrough technologies of the future!
The opening plenary will be extra special this year, as it is being held in conjunction with our sibling conference, Computer-Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW). Originally, both conferences were intended to be held in the same city at the same time to encourage cross-disciplinary dialogue and collaboration. It’s lovely to see that this intention is being carried over (as much as possible) with both conferences moving to a virtual format. Opening remarks from our conference organizers will commence at 7:00 CT, and be followed by a joint plenary panel with UIST + CSCW. There is also a joint social party between UIST and CSCW being held on Zoom. The closing keynote plenary will be similarly shared with CSCW, and will feature a keynote lecture by Afua Bruce from DataKind entitled “Art of the Possible: Showcasing Data Science Solutions for a Better World”. The keynote lecture will commence at 11:00 CT, and will be followed by closing remarks from the CSCW organizers.
Do you like talks? We have PLENTY of talks! Throughout the day we will hear about exciting developments in the field of human-centered computing. If you’d like a rapid-fire briefing of all the talks for the first day, check out the video previews here (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqhXYFYmZ-Vctah4lD7anxeVlOKUsFN1P). Our first day is packed with exciting topics from shape-changing interfaces to multi-device interactions to smart-textiles and more! I can only assume the haptics for room-scale VR session will comprise inventions inching towards the holo-deck. Unsurprisingly, VR is making a heavy presence at the conference with sessions on VR/AR authoring environments, and head-mounted VR projectors, and haptics galore! Textiles are also making a strong presence at the conference again this year with sessions on actuated textiles as well as novel surfaces. I’m personally curious about BodyPrinter: Fabricating Circuits Directly on the Skin at Arbitrary Locations Using a Wearable Compact Plotter. Robots that print circuit tattoos directly on my skin? It’s a cyborgian hipster’s dream come true! We also have several sessions on data visualization ranging from topics such as visualizing programing languages, to complex data systems, as well as complex web behavior and analysis of visual media. Most curious is the session on Fabrication: Joints and Mechanisms, which should make the wood-workers and makers out there simply ecstatic. That’s only the first day, and there’s so SO much more. It’s looking to be a fascinating week of wild ideas and fresh perspectives and speculations of what the future could look like. Join us!
Hopefully Helpful Links
Full schedule https://uist.acm.org/uist2020/program.html
Preview videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqhXYFYmZ-VfoT2Z3CEDZos-RaHWipVW8
Plenary panel https://uist.acm.org/uist2020/panel.html
