The Media Computing Group at RWTH Aachen University

interactive. media. research.

The Media Computing Group, headed by Prof. Dr. Jan Borchers, conducts research in Media Computing and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) beyond today's graphical user interface and desktop metaphor. Grounded in Computer Science, we develop and study new interaction theories, techniques, and systems in the areas of interaction with multimedia, ubiquitous computing environments, tangible user interfaces, and HCI design patterns. Our goal is to make the Brave New World of ubiquitous multimedia technologies useful by making it usable. A recent overview of our research approach and research directions can be found here.

Our group is part of the Computer Science Department at RWTH Aachen University, Germany's top-ranked University of Technology and one of Germany's nine Elite Universities. Our group was established as an endowed chair by the German B-IT Foundation, and we also teach in the Media Informatics programme at the Bonn-Aachen International Center for Information Technology (B-IT Center). Our group was founded in October 2003, and has since become Germany's best-published research group at CHI, the premier international conference in the field.

We are a member of the RWTH UMIC Excellence Cluster in Ultra High-Speed Mobile Information and Communication and the eHealth and Brain|Concept|Writing research groups in the HumTec Center, all funded by the DFG, the German National Science Foundation through its Excellence Initiative. We are also a member of the international RUFAE network that conducts research on user-friendly augmented environments.

We offer several courses in Human-Computer Interaction. In this area of specialization, students can learn about how people interact with computers and technology, and how computer science can open up new ways of interacting with audio, video, and other media types. For more information please refer to the specialization information for Media Computing and HCI on the Computer Science Department's web pages.

Former Federal President Horst Köhler at the Silhouettes Interactive Experience at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai

Our presentations at CHI 2010

DragonFly	Dance Choreographies	Mudpad	PIMMail	Personal Chef
by Corsten	by Drobny et al.	by Jansen (award)	by Krämer	by Mennicken et al.

News & Events

We've collected some helpful information for students and RWTH institutes to get started as iPhone developers. (Aug 6, 2010) Madgets, our actuated widgets for interactive tabletops, were accepted as full paper at UIST 2010, and have been featured on Engadget, Gizmodo and elsewhere. (Aug 2, 2010) Our Silhouettes interactive experience at the World EXPO Shanghai 2010 was extended until EXPO closes at the end of October, thanks to its great success. (July 1, 2010) Our ThoMoNetworking cocoa framework for quick and simple communication on your local network is now available for all iPhone OS devices. (May 26, 2010). Germany's Federal President Horst Köhler visited the Silhouettes interactive experience at EXPO today. Over 60,000 people have enjoyed the exhibit to this day. Spiegel Online and other press outlets report (May 19, 2010). Today the Media Computing Group and the Chair for Computer-Aided Architectural Design launched the Silhouettes Interactive City Game at the World EXPO 2010 in Shanghai (May 1, 2010). Make your own light-up clothing: At this year's Girls' Day on April 22, we offered a very successful workshop to make your own T-shirt embroidered with interactive light-up effects. Read more (Apr 22, 2010). Yvonne Jansen receives CHI 2010 Student Research Competition Award: Yvonne Jansen, Diploma student at Prof. Jan Borchers' Media Computing Group, a B-IT endowed Chair at RWTH Aachen University, won the 2nd place in the Undergraduate Student Research Competition at ACM CHI 2010 today. Three undergraduate and three graduate (PhD) students received awards after a three-phase selection process from a total of 56 submissions. As a result, Yvonne received a medal and a monetary prize from ACM. Yvonne received the award for her work on Mudpad, a new technique to bring localized, active haptic feedback to multitouch tables and similar surfaces using magnetorheological fluid. Just for the competition, Yvonne created a small "travel" version of her table-size system, using the prototyping facilities at the group's Fab Lab. After Gero Herkenrath in 2008 and Marcus Reul in 2009, this is the third year in series for the Media Computing Group to bring home an award in this competition. CHI is the premier international conference in Human-Computer Interaction, organized by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), with a below-25% acceptance rate. The Media Computing Group conducts research in Human-Computer Interaction, and continues to be Germany's most successful research group in terms of archival publications at CHI (Apr 15, 2010). 3 Day Startup: start your own technology business over 3 days! We support creative new ideas and passionate students. First session will be at the beginning of June. Tom Igoe, Associate Professor from the renowned Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU, author of Physical Computing and Making Things Talk, and one of the co-founders of the Arduino project, will visit the Media Computing Group to teach a B-IT Research School Seminar in the second or third week of June, 2010. Topics will revolve around Physical Computing and Sustainable Technology. iPhone Application Programming lecture enters the Top 5 on iTunes U. (Feb 4, 2010). Screenshot Past news & events

Interested in HCI?

• Jan's Top Ten list of HCI books
• What makes a good PhD student? (Jan, Jan 25, 2006)
• HCI Journals and their Impact Factors (Jan, Jan 30, 2006)
• Other HCI- and Media Computing-related groups at RWTH Aachen University
• Join our low-traffic HCI Announcements list to be informed about HCI-related events at our chair, at RWTH Aachen University and in the area.

---