Events

News & Upcoming Events

Past News & Events

• The iPhone Idea Generation Event will take place on Tuesday, December 14th at 7pm in the Super C. During this event we will bring our students from the iPhone Lab together with innovators from the industry to brainstorm ideas for their final projects.
• Prof. Jan Borchers was nominated CS Teacher Of The Year as one of four nominees selected among all faculty in the CS department, based on student nominations. Thanks for your support! (Dec 3, 2010)
• Our BendDesk multi-surface workstation is featured in Handelsblatt Online and receives over 200,000 hits on YouTube. (Dec 1, 2010)
• Yvonne Jansen and Thorsten Karrer win Best Note and Best Demo awards for their haptic multitouch feedback system MudPad at ITS 2010. (Nov 10, 2010)
• 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

• iPhone Application Programming lecture enters the Top 100 on iTunes U. (Dec 21, 2009). Screenshot
• In collaboration with the CAAD group, we are developing an interactive collaborative gesture-based experience for the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai.
• On Dec 7, the Media Computing Group opened Germany's first Fab Lab. These labs let anybody get from an idea for a new device to a prototype quickly, offering a glimpse of the future of personal fabrication in which 3d printers at home let you print out your personal cell phone cover in plastic. Fab Labs started at the MIT Media Lab and exist in many countries already - thanks to RWTH there is now also a Fab Lab in Germany. From soldering stations and Arduino microcontroller boards, to a PCB mill, 3D printer and laser cutter the Media Computing Group's Fab Lab offers a set of tools to turn ideas into prototypes in unprecedented ways. See the Fab Lab page for details on the opening and lab.
• Today, the House Of Music Vienna launched our redesigned Personal Orchestra exhibit. Using an infrared baton, visitors can conduct the Vienna Philharmonic by controlling speed, volume, and the emphasis of different instrument sections. The new system now features our PhaVoRIT continuous real-time high-quality audio stretching, six new recordings of the orchestra in full HD video, an electronic music stand displaying the score, and helpful hints by maestro Zubin Mehta. Our original exhibit was installed in 2000, and has been used by 1.5 million visitors since, making it the most successful station in the house, and a top tourist attraction. (Nov 27, 2009)
• Prof. Patrick Baudisch from the Hasso Plattner Institute Potsdam visited the Media Computing Group for a two-day compact seminar on Human-Computer Interaction. (Nov 3, 2009)
• Our assembler support becomes part of the official Arduino IDE for physical computing.
• BallMeR won the 2nd place in the UIST 2009 Student Innovation Contest in the category "Best Implementation".
• CocoaHeads meeting for all people interested in programming on Mac OS X and iPhone, on the last Thursday of each month.
• Dorkbot Aachen launched: Dorkbot is an international network of people doing interactive art and electronic hacks. Next meeting: Third Wednesday of each month.
• Benutzerfreundliche Technik: a talk by Jan Borchers about usability for everybody, as part of the Uni im Rathaus series, on Jun 25, 2009.
• Springorum Medal for Media Computing Group student: Christian Mattar, who did his final thesis at our chair, received the Springorum medal for graduating with distinction from RWTH Aachen University, at a ProRWTH event in the Audimax on June 19, 2009. In his thesis, Christian developed "Table Lemmings", a tabletop game that explores casual collaboration on multitouch table surfaces and became a successful exhibit for the Dutch Industrion museum. (May 27, 2009)
• Media Computing Group student Marcus Reul wins 3rd place in undergrad Student Research Competition at CHI 2009. 3 undergrad and 3 grad students were selected from a total of 93 submissions (see press).
• In the press: Die Tastatur denkt mit. Presentation of four projects at CHI 2009. (Mar 31, 2009).
• We are looking for student assistants to work as Infotrainer in the Route Charlemagne exhibition in the Aachen City Hall. (Mar 30, 2009).
• Professor Jim Hollan from USCD will be a visiting faculty at our group this summer (Mar 13, 2009).
• We are developing a series of interactive exhibits for the Route Charlemagne that rethinks the tourist experience in Aachen (Mar 13,2009).
• Anna Ostberg (UCSD) and David Haslem (Georgia Tech) will join our group as visiting students in the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) this summer (Mar 13, 2009).
• Tips for students taking oral exams at our chair (Mar 13, 2009).
• At CHI 2009, we presented 4 Full Papers and Notes, 2 also as Interactivity exhibits, and 6 additional submissions:
  • Fly, a concept-map based tool for presentations (Full Paper),
  • SLAP, rear-projected input devices from silicone and acrylic for multitouch tables (Full Paper and Interactivity),
  • Tactile Motion Instructions, using haptic feedback to correct posture errors (Full Paper),
  • TypeRight, a keyboard that makes keys harder to press when they would lead to a typo (Note and Interactivity),
  • Associative Personal Information Management (Doctoral Consortium),
  • CORONA, a virtual audio reality for the coronation hall in the Aachen city hall (Work in Progress),
  • Saltate!, a sensor-based system to support dance beginners (Work in Progress),
  • Systematic Usability Verification (Work in Progress),
  • Usability in Industrial Test Systems (Student Research Competition), and
  • Semantic Time in Interaction Design (Workshop Contribution).
• See TWEND and DRAGON in action at the inauguration ceremony of the new UMIC building for the Mobile Computing Excellence Cluster at RWTH Aachen University on Mar 18, 2009.
• Next NSCoder Night is on March 12, 2009
• The AATCe (Apple Authorized Training Center Education) at our chair is offering two courses, Mac OS X Support Essentials and Mac OS X Server Essentials, between March 2 and 12. (Feb 5, 2009).
• Media Computing Group extends its publication lead among German HCI research groups (Feb 2, 2009)

• TWEND will be one of the 28 exhibits on the MS Wissenschaft, a ship funded by the German government to present "research that will change our lives" on a tour throughout Germany throughout 2009. (Dec 19, 2008)
• Carsten Roecker joins the Media Computing Group as a DFG-funded postdoctoral researcher. He will be working on ubiquitous computing solutions for eHealth applications in a HumTec project team within the Excellence Initiative at RWTH Aachen University. (Nov 12, 2008)
• Register for our World Usability Day 2008 local event on Nov 13 with a whole day of talks and workshops on usability!
• As of September 2008, the Media Computing Group is Apple Authorised Training Center for Education.
• See our Table Lemmings exhibit, Wearable Snowboard Assistant and DRAGON video navigation system at the Studieninformationstag on June 11, 2008!
• On May 20th from 5:30pm on we are celebrating the "Abend der offenen Tür" at our group. Here, you can get to know us and what we do and there will be free drinks and snacks!
• Our group is the leading research institution in Germany in terms of archival CHI publications since 2003, when our group was founded.
• At CHI 2008, we presented:
  • a CHI Note that received a Best Note Award on DRAGON, a direct-manipulation technique for video navigation by Thorsten Karrer et al.,
  • a full paper on Sustainable Interaction Design for Mobile Phones by Elaine M. Huang et al. that received a Best Paper Honorable Mention,
  • a Work-In-Progress paper and a workshop submission on the Wearable Snowboard Instructor by Daniel Spelmezan et al.,
  • a Work In Progress on the Associative PDA by Eileen Falke and Jonathan Diehl,
  • a Student Research Competition entry on TWEND, a bendable user interface, by Gero Herkenrath et al. that became runner-up in the competition,
  • and Experiments in Media and Mobility: HCI @ Aachen, an overview of our research vision and process by Jan Borchers, in the Research Landscapes track.
• Our administrator is now Apple Certified Technical Coordinator (Feb 11, 2008)
• Purple Surfer: How to tether your iPhone as an EDGE modem with your Mac.
• We have 1 open PhD position available.
• Starting in WS08/09, we will update our lecture sizes (SWS) and contents to accommodate the new Bachelor/Master program.

• Info sheet for online registration for the CS labs.
• Cocoa Heads is a new regular evening meeting of people with a background and interest in Cocoa development for Mac OS X, sponsored by Apple.
• RWTH Aachen University was determined as one of Germany's 9 Elite Universities by the DFG's (German Research Foundation's) Excellence Initiative, receiving a strong boost in extra research funding (Oct 19, 2007)
• Soccer Magic: i10 Red Cards Bring Back Two Trophies! (Apr 16, 2007)
• Informationen zu der Wiederholungsklausur Programmierung - Java.
• Prof. Borchers is away from RWTH during a research semester in WS07/08. We are only offering some of our courses that semester, including DIS 1, see CAMPUS. Video podcasts for private study are available, however. Please take that into account as you are planning your studies.
• Jun 13, 2007: The "Studieninformationstag" took place on Jun 13, 9.30am - 15pm. We contributed with a presentation of Personal Orchestra.

• The Bauhaus Europe project has been stopped. We leave our materials online for archival purposes (Bauhaus Europe Pages) (Dec 11, 2006).
• Coverage of Personal Orchestra 1 in Vienna City Guides after 6 years
• Nov 14, 2006: Aachen local event for the World Usability Day
• Nov 1, 2006: Our chair is a member of the new UMIC Research Cluster on Ultra-highspeed Mobile Information and Communication, established as part of the German government's Excellence Initiative. UMIC is funding Thorsten Karrer's PhD work on Organic and Adaptive User Interfaces.
• Oct 01, 2006: In WS06/07, the DIS I lecture was moved to Tuesdays from 2-5pm to join Bonn and Aachen classes via video.
• Jul 10, 2006: Check out the DIS2 Project Competion Video and the DIS2 Project Websites.
• Jun 22, 2006: Our "Helle Köpfe" workshop for school kids took place this Thursday (22-06-2006). We demonstrated how to build your own music instrument with a computer.
• Apr 27, 2006: Poultry.Internet was a big hit at CHI 2006 Interactivity:
  • The Guardian
  • The Age
  • PC World
• Apr 22, 2006: Check out the CHI 2006 Interactivity sneak peek (med. res, high res), produced by the Media Computing Group.
• Feb 01, 2006: DIS student projects - Designing an Interactive Large Public Display Application

• Dec 2, 2005: We organized the annual Tag der Informatik this year. We also showed several of our research projects, and the DIS 2 student projects there.
• Oct 27, 2005: Top Talent Quality Seal 2005 for coJIVE, our interactive jazz improvisation system, as one of the top 42 out of 411 submissions.
• Oct 15, 2005: * Video podcasts of our lectures are now available, beginning with DIS 1.
• Oct 01, 2005: Important change in teaching schedule: Starting WS05/06, we offer DIS1, Patterns, the seminar and the "Softwarepraktikum" in Winter, and DIS2, Current Topics, the "Praktikum" and the "Proseminar" in Summer, in order to better suit our students' needs. See CAMPUS for details.
• Sep 26-27, 2005: We show various interactive demos at the http://www.gi-workshop-vrar.org/
• Sep 26, 2005: Details on the Sun-Softwarepreis 2005 are available now
• Jun 8, 2005: http://www.rwth-aachen.de/zentral/abt14_dl_workshops_schueler_dies.htm
• Apr 28, 2005: http://www.rwth-aachen.de/zentral/gsb_girlsday_index.htm
• We were the only German research group with a full paper at CHI 2005, the world's premier conference on Human-Computer Interaction. 2004 only had U Magdeburg, 2003 we were again the only ones (then still at Stanford), 2002 had no German full papers. (CHI acceptance rates)
• Apr 05, 2005: Check out the CHI 2005 Interactivity Venue sneak peek (med. res, high res), produced by the Media Computing Group.
• Mar 07, 2005: Schüler-Informationstag
• Register for our seminar (11-21.01.2005) or for our proseminar (12-20.01.2005) during the next summer term.
• Jan 27, 2005: Prof. Bernt Schiele from the Lehrstuhl Multimodale Interaktive Systeme, TU Darmstadt will be giving a talk on "Multi-Sensor Context Awareness for Ubiquitous and Wearable Computing". See the streaming video of the talk and the presentation slides.
• Jan 19, 2005: Personal Orchestra presentation at the User Centered Computing in NRW Event, NRW House, European Union, Brussels. (View the Flyer)
• Jan 13, 2005: CrossY talk by Georg Apitz in room 2212 at 13:00 hours today.

• Dec 03, 2004: See the videos from Tag der Informatik.
• The 1st annual DIS2 Project Competition was a huge success! Be sure to check out some of the great videos.
• Jul 14, 2004: Learn more about our field of studies at the RWTH Information Day (Studieninformationstag) for high school students
• Apr 08, 2004: B-IT receives 5 million Euros (in German; use Mozilla to view)
• Submit your creative multimedia project to the 2004 Europrix Top Talent Award Europrix Top Talent Award! 1st prize: 10,000 Euros. Deadline: June 30th. Contact Britta (gruenberg(at)cs.rwth-aachen.de) for the DVD of last year's top projects and more materials.
• May 14-16, 2004: Try out our You're The Conductor exhibit at the WIRED NextFest in San Francisco!
• Apr 22, 2004: Create your own music video in our workshop during the RWTH Girls' Day
• Apr 19, 2004: Dr. Trevor Pering from Intel Research Berkeley presents Intel's PersonalServer research project