CHI 2008 – Florence, Italy
As some of you may know, I am in Florence, Italy for CHI 2008. If anybody is unsure, that is the premier Human Computer Interaction conference. I am a member of a team that designed a successful submission to the CHI Student Design Competition. Only 12 out of 40 teams were accepted to the conference. Last night we had a poster session where those 12 teams were judged to decide who would advance to the final four. Our team was selected, so now we get to give a 10-minute presentation tomorrow morning to compete for our rank within the top four spots.
The conference has been great so far and I have met many people from all over the world. I have also been working as a student volunteer, which has really facilitated networking. Iowa State’s name isn’t really out there very much in the HCI community and it has been great representing our program. Carnegie Melon has about 40 students in attendance and we only have 2. Hopefully when I get back I can help drive increased attendance at next year’s CHI in Boston. I would like to get a submission accepted obviously but, since it will be so much closer and cheaper, I would like to go anyway.
The picture above features me with Thad Starner. For the many of you who may not know, he has been wearing a computer since 1993. That thing that I am holding is the display. After this picture was taken, I joined him and a couple hundred of his friends for the Georgia Tech GVU reception. I was shocked at how many people were present and how awesome it was. I met many new people and got to know some a little better. Tonight should be even better, since there are about 5 parties to choose from, including the infamous Google party. Unfortunately I can’t be out too late, since we have our student design competition final presentation at 9AM.