Prof. Dr. Jan Borchers
Head
Room 2207
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+49 241 80-21050
To set up a meeting, please see my basic schedule, then contact my administrator, Clarissa de Gavarelli.
Jan Borchers is full professor of computer science and head of the Media Computing Group, an endowed Chair in the Computer Science Department at RWTH Aachen University.
With his research group, he explores the field of human-computer interaction, with a particular interest in new user interfaces for 3D printing and personal fabrication, augmented reality, mobile, wearable, and tangible computing, interactive tables and surfaces, interfaces for software development, interactive exhibits, and time-based media such as audio and video.
Before joining RWTH, he held faculty positions at Stanford University and ETH Zurich, after receiving his PhD in computer science from Darmstadt University of Technology in 2000.
He is a member of ACM, SIGCHI, SIGCHI Germany, and GI, and has provided usability talks, trainings and consulting, as well as design, prototyping, and evaluation of user interfaces, for clients such as AirBus, Apple, ARD, Bayer, Children's Museum Boston, Daimler, Handelsblatt, OTIS, Scout24, TEDx, and Deutsche Telekom.
You can find him on Twitter at @borchers. For urgent matters, please contact his assistant, Clarissa de Gavarelli.
Publications
Talks
- Human–AI Interaction. Keynote, Inauguration Ceremony for Prof. Kay Schroeder, Zuyd Hogeschool, Heerlen, Feb 14, 2020.
- Digitale Fabrikation: Rapid UX Prototyping im Fab Lab. Invited speaker, 20 Jahre Gründerregion, aula carolina, Aachen, Sep 24, 2019.
- Best of CHI '19 for Makers. Aachen Maker Meetup, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Aug 21, 2019.
- Communicating with Artificial Intelligence. Keynote, IEEE ProComm 2019, Aachen, Jul 25, 2019.
- Greatest Hits & Misses: 10 Years of Aachen Maker Meetup. Keynote, Aachen Maker Meetup, Jul 17, 2019. (Video)
- Personal Photonics: Neue Benutzerschnittstellen für Open Innovation mit Photonik-Werkzeugen. Invited BMBF Research Project Overview, Laser World of Photonics Congress, Munich, Jun 24, 2019.
- Democratizing Hardware UX Prototyping. Invited Talk, Aachen Usability Meetup, Jun 18, 2019.
- How To Make (Almost) Anything Usable. Invited Recitation, Fab Academy 2019, Mar 11, 2019.
- Previous talks...
Professional Activities
- ACM CHI 2020 Associate Chair, Interaction Techniques, Devices and Modalities
- ACM UIST 2019 Reviewer
- ACM CHI 2019 Associate Chair, Interaction Techniques, Devices and Modalities
- ACM UIST 2018 Program Committee Member
- ACM CHI 2018 Associate Chair, Engineering Interactive Systems and Technologies
- Previous activities...
For Students
- Tips for taking oral exams (Schwerpunktkolloquien) at our group
- How to write your Bachelor/Master thesis with us
- A must-read when you join our group as Bachelor/Master thesis student or HiWi.
- What makes a good doctoral (PhD) student?
- Older materials for students...
For Industry
Jan frequently works for clients in industry and government as usability consultant, speaker, and trainer.
Some Research Pointers
- Jan's Top Ten list of books on Human-Computer Interaction
- Free booklet: Arduino in a Nutshell
- dementiatools.org: A non-profit collection of technical support tools for people with dementia (also in German under demenztools.de.)
- LumiNet: An organic illumination network
- Hardware prototyping toolkits for HCI: An overview (2012)
- The Sweet Spot and Baroque Phase of Interactive Technology Lifecycles: A manifesto for simple technology, and a rant against feature-bloat. Published in the March/April 2008 issue of interactions.
Useful Hacks
- Easier German umlauts on a US keyboard for macOS
- CHI Pages Template: An Apple Pages document template for archival Papers and Notes for the ACM CHI Conference Proceedings
- TimeStamper: A quick hack to capture time stamps into a text file while doing other tasks on macOS (useful for marking important moments while recording a screencast, for example).
- Function Keys: UI scripts to toggle between hardware and software function key mappings on macOS
- More on our group's software page
Administrative
- SInce 2015, Jan heads the Computer Science Department's Examination Board (Prüfungsausschuss). Please use that web site for all applications, appeals, and questions.
- Since 2010, he coordinates the Computer Science Department's public relations and web presence.
- Since 2003, he is the initiator and organizer of the Computer Science Department's weekly Faculty Lunch.
- From 2004–2010, he was the Computer Science Department's building coordinator (Baubeauftragter). The information is kept online for archival purposes.
Personal
- Portrait pictures for press use (borchers_7154.jpg, borchers_5126.jpg)
- I think eBikes are the best invention since sliced bread; here's more about them
- I play piano in the jazz sextet riffbereit
- SPIEL 2018 report
- Some Travel Disaster Stories
- Frontotemporal Dementia, notes about a rare illness that my former partner suffered from.
Older information on Jan's Stanford homepage, from his time at Stanford University (2001–2003).
Digitale Fabrikation
Rapid UX Prototyping im Fab Lab
| File | Description | File size | Downloads | Last modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 borchers_5126.jpg | 3022 kB | 10721 | 2010-03-30 12:21 | |
| borchers_7154.jpg | 5889 kB | 12918 | 2010-03-30 12:20 | |
 100114 Apple HigherEd Conference Borchers.pdf | 8121 kB | 9657 | 2010-02-02 16:54 | |
| iDiscover Aixplorer Talk.pdf | 7098 kB | 7673 | 2009-11-13 16:04 | |
| Toolkits.pdf | Presentation at UCSD, Jan 23, 2008 | 21982 kB | 10515 | 2008-01-24 23:42 |