Anke Brocker
Research Assistant
Room 2209
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+49 241 80-21070
Office hours: 08:30 - 17:30 (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday)
I'm a research assistant at the Media Computing Group. My interests are personal fabrication and understanding how to empower novices to learn new processes, e.g. supporting children to learn embedded coding. I like to utilise fabrication techniques to build up new interface experiences. At the moment I focus on research regarding building toolkits to empower and support beginners when approaching a new domain. Topics for this vary from understanding different programming paradigms, investigating how other senses such as smell can be integrated into HCI experiences to designing tangible and shape-changing interfaces using soft robotics. I am interested in new ways of electronic toolkits that support novel user experiences and giving users a chance to build their own interfaces.
Research Projects:
Tangible Awareness: How Tangibles on Tabletops Influence Awareness of Each Other’s Actions:
Players are significantly more aware of other players’ actions using tangibles than those using pure multitouch interaction. (read more)
Paper at CHI 2018
Projects:
INSERTA: Interactive Sensor Feedback Dance Performance
Using sensors that tracks the movements of a dancer to have her influence the live musical performance.
Workshops
Workshop organized by Anke, Brocker, Jose A. Barreiros, Ali Shtarbanov, Kristian Gohlke, Ozgun Kilic Afsar and Sören Schröder about Actuated Materials and Soft Robotics Strategies for Human-Computer Interaction Design.
Discussed topics:
Fab:UNIverse Zukunftsvisionen der Maker Bewegung
Workshop organized by the VINN:Lab at TH Wildau about the future of Fab Labs with a university context.
Discussed topics:
- What is the difference from Fab Labs with a university context to general makerspaces
- Which chances are provided by the university context and how can we learn from each other
- Which purpose/function do we have in the maker movement and how can the movement evolve
Teaching
| Semester | Course |
|---|---|
| SS 2023 | Multimodal Media Madness Lab Tutor |
| WS 2022/2023 | Media Computing Project Lab Tutor |
| SS 2021 | Seminar: Post-Desktop User Interfaces Lecture & Lab Tutor |
| WS 2020/2021 | Seminar: Post-Desktop User Interfaces Lecture & Lab Tutor |
| SS 2020 | Current Topics in Human-Computer-Interaction Lecture & Lab Tutor |
| WS 2019/2020 | Media Computing Project Lab tutor |
| SS 2019 | Designing Interactive Systems II Lecture TA Lab tutor, with Sebastian Hueber |
| WS 2018/2019 | Media Computing Project Lab tutor, with Christian Cherek |
| SS 2018 | Multimodal Media Madness Lab tutor, with Jan Thar |
Thesis Students
| Name | Topic | Thesis type |
|---|---|---|
| Philip Le | BA | |
| Yash Joshi | MA | |
| Ioan Bratu | Which input method is more efficient - a comparison between mouse and controller | BA |
| Xenia Walow | Exploring SoRoCAD to Develop Teenager‘s Abstraction Skills in Soft Robotics | BA |
| Sören Schröder | Conveying Emotions through Movements and Materials of Soft Robots in the Context of Smart Jewelry | MA |
| Sarah Sahabi | SoRoCAD 2.0: Extending a CAD Tool for Soft Robotics | BA |
| Parth Wadhwa | Tackling Challenges in Design and Making of Smart Jewelry | MA |
| Ekaterina Nedorubkova | Evaluation of Shapes and Movement Mechanism Designs of Silicone Actuators | MA |
| Jakob Strüver | Evaluating SoRoCAD: Enable User to Design their own Soft Robotics | MA |
| Kirill Timchenko | SoRoCAD: A Tool to Design Shape Changes in Soft Robotics | BA |
| Ajay Jha | Exploration Of Application Areas Of Springlets | MA |
| Siddharth Mehrotra | Abhushan: A Design Exploration with Smell in Interactive Smart Jewellery | MA |
| Patrick Bayer | SoRoLib: Library of Building Blocks for Pneumatic Shape Changing in Soft Robotics | MA |
| Patrick Feser | Foundations of Interactive Jewellery: Understanding Crafting Practices | MA |
| Mitski Piekenbrock | Smart jewelry: Appearance changing necklaces & emotions | BA |
| Matthias Sokolowski | Wearable Motion Capture for Dancers | BA |
Student Assistants
| Name | Project |
|---|
Master's Thesis
Supervisor: Christian Cherek
My Master's Thesis: Tangible Awareness - How Tangibles on Tabletops Influence Spatial and Situational Awareness
Bachelor's Thesis
Supervisor: Christian Corsten
My Bachelor's Thesis: Repurposing Everyday Objects as Controllers Using Signifiers
Publications
An arrow marks a major peer-reviewed archival publication.
- Anke Brocker and Simon Voelker. Flowboard: Visual Flow-Based Embedded Programming for Young Learners. In 21. Fachtagung Bildungstechnologien (DELFI), pages 269–270, Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V., Bonn, September 2023.
- Anke Brocker, Ekaterina Nedorubkova, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Exploring Shape Designs for Soft Robotics and Users’ Associations with Them. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '23, pages 7, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2023.
- Jan Borchers, Anke Brocker, Sebastian Hueber, Oliver Nowak, René Schäfer, Adrian Wagner, Paul Miles Preuschoff and Lea Emilia Schirp. The Aachen Lab Demo: From Fundamental Perception to Design Tools. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '23, pages 4, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2023.
- Anke Brocker, René Schäfer, Christian Remy, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Flowboard: How Seamless, Live, Flow-Based Programming Impacts Learning to Code for Embedded Electronics. In ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, pages 36, number 1, March 2023.
- Ali Shtarbanov, Anke Brocker, Adriana Cabrera, Yuhan Hu, Heiko Müller and Alex Mazursky. Soft Robotics and Programmable Materials for Human-Computer Interaction. In Companion Publication of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, DIS '23 Companion, pages 110–113, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 2023.
- Oliver Nowak, René Schäfer, Anke Brocker, Philipp Wacker and Jan Borchers. Shaping Textile Sliders: An Evaluation of Form Factors and Tick Marks for Textile Sliders. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '22, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2022.
- Anke Brocker, Jakob Strüver, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. SoRoCAD: A Design Tool for the Building Blocks of Pneumatic Soft Robotics. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, CHI EA '22, pages 7, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2022.
- Siddharth Mehrotra, Anke Brocker, Marianna Obrist and Jan Borchers. The Scent of Collaboration: Exploring the Effect of Smell on Social Interactions. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, CHI EA '22, pages 7, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2022.
- Anke, Brocker, Jose A. Barreiros, Ali Shtarbanov, Kristian Gohlke, Ozgun Kilic Afsar and Sören Schröder. Actuated Materials and Soft Robotics Strategies for Human-Computer Interaction Design. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, CHI EA '22, pages 7, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, April 2022.
- Jan Borchers, Anke Brocker and Marcel Lahaye. Lernkarten-Set 3D-Druck. Bombini Verlag, December 2021.
- Iris Bockermann, Jan Borchers, Anke Brocker, Marcel Lahaye, Antje Moebus, Stefan Neudecker, Oliver Stickel, Melanie Stilz, Daniel Wilkens, René Bohne, Volkmar Pipek and Heidi Schelhowe. Handbuch Fab Labs. Bombini Verlag, August 2021.
- Melanie Stilz, Iris Bockermann, Daniel Wilkens and Anke Brocker. Fab Labs als neue Bildungsorte in der Hochschullehre. In Hochschulen im digitalen (Klima)Wandel Tagungsband zur 3. Online-Tagung Hochschule digital.innovativ, phbhochschulschriften, pages 117–123, E. Weber Verlag GmbH, Incollection, January 2021.
- Anke Brocker, Simon Voelker, Tony Zelun Zhang, Mathis Müller and Jan Borchers. Flowboard: A Visual Flow-Based Programming Environment for Embedded Coding. In Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA '19, ACM, New York, NY, USA, May 2019.
- Oliver Stickel, Melanie Stilz, Anke Brocker, Jan Borchers and Volkmar Pipek. Fab:UNIverse - Makerspaces, Fab Labs and Lab Managers in Academia. In Proceedings of the FabLearn Europe 2019 Conference, FabLearn Europe '19, pages 19:1–19:2, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2019.
- Oliver Stickel, Anke Brocker, Melanie Stilz, Antje Möbus, Iris Bockermann, Jan Borchers and Volkmar Pipek. Fab Lab Education in German Academia. pages 8,July 2018.
- Christian Cherek, Anke Brocker, Simon Voelker and Jan Borchers. Tangible Awareness: How Tangibles on Tabletops Influence Awareness of Each Other’s Actions. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI '18, pages 298:1–298:7, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 2018.
- Anke Brocker. Tangible Awareness - How Tangibles on Tabletops Influence Spatial and Situational Awareness. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, September 2017.
- Anke Brocker. Repurposing Everyday Objects as Controllers Using Signifiers. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, March 2015.