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.
My vCard (internal access only).
Jan Borchers is full professor of computer science and head of the Media Computing Group 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. He received his PhD in computer science from Darmstadt University of Technology in 2000, and is a member of ACM, SIGCHI, BayCHI, SIGCHI Germany, and GI. He 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.
For urgent matters, please contact his assistant, Clarissa de Gavarelli.
Research pointers
- Free booklet: Arduino in a Nutshell
- My Top Ten list of books on Human-Computer Interaction
- 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.
For industry
I frequently work for clients in industry and the government as usability consultant, speaker, and trainer. More information
For students
- A must-read when you join our group as Bachelor/Master thesis student or HiWi.
- Tips for taking oral exams (Schwerpunktkolloquien) at our chair.
- How I run the student mentoring program (in German)
- How to write your Diploma thesis.
- What makes a good doctoral student?
- Older materials about student selection programmes (in German): StudierendenAuswahl
Useful hacks
- CHI Pages Template: An Apple Pages document template for archival Papers and Notes for the ACM CHI Conference Proceedings
- Function Keys: UI scripts to toggle between hardware and software function key mappings on Mac OS X
- Purple Surfer: How to tether your iPhone as an EDGE modem with your Mac.
- Easier German umlauts on a US keyboard for Mac OS X
Administrative stuff
- Information related to my role as building coordinator for the CS department: Baubeauftragter
- Faculty Lunch at the RWTH Computer Science Department
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
- My unused blog
- Some Travel Disaster Stories
- Frontotemporal Dementia, notes about a rare illness that my former partner suffered from.
Older information on my Stanford homepage, from my time at Stanford (2001–2003).
Publications
Published book: A Pattern Approach to Interaction Design
For a list of all published papers see my Publications Page.
Selected Talks and Presentations (until 2013)
2013
- Nov 8, 2013: "3D-Drucker und die nächste digitale Revolution." RWTH-Wissenschaftsnacht, RWTH Aachen University.
- Jun 27, 2013: "Personal Fabrication und Personal Design". Invited Speaker, IT Management Workshop, Stuttgart
- Jun 25, 2013: "Von 3D-Printing und Personal Fabrication zum Personal Design: Benutzer als Produzenten der Zukunft." Invited talk, WirtschaftsWoche Conference "Digital Customer & Connected Consumer", Frankfurt
- Jun 11, 2013: Usability. Invited Speaker, IT Management Workshop, Hamburg
- Apr 28, 2013: "A Personal Design Manifesto." Fab@CHI Workshop, CHI 2013 Conference, Paris
- Apr 24, 2013: Invited Speaker, IBM / Telekom Germany Summit, London
- Jan 29, 2013: "Usability-Bootcamp und Forschungstrends 2013". Invited Speaker, 19. Handelsblatt-Tagung, Munich
- Jan 31, 2013: "Learning with Apple Technologies". Invited Speaker, Apple Authorised Training Centers for Education (AATCe) Event, London
2012
- Nov 21, 2012: "Von 3D-Printing und Personal Fabrication zum Personal Design: Benutzer als Produzenten der Zukunft." Invited talk, iteratec Workshop 'IT-Management in der Praxis', Offenbach
- Nov 7, 2012: "Usability: Die geheime Zutat erfolgreicher Technik", Faszination Technik (teacher education seminar), RWTH Aachen University
- Oct 24, 2012: "Beyond the Smartphone: Neue Ideen zur Mobile Interaction", Invited talk, Scout24 Mobile Day, Munich
- Oct 17, 2012: "Von 3D-Printing und Personal Fabrication zum Personal Design: Benutzer als Produzenten der Zukunft." Invited talk, iteratec Workshop 'IT-Management in der Praxis', Munich
- Sep 14, 2012: "The Media Computing Group: A Research Overview", Invited talk, Adobe Systems, San Francisco, CA
- Jul 20, 2012: "From Personal Fabrication to Personal Design", Conference talk, Sketching In Hardware 2012, Portland, Oregon
- Jun 20, 2012: "From 3D Printing and Personal Fabrication to Personal Design: Users as Makers", SandCHI Talks, ACM SIGCHI Chapter San Diego, CA
- Jun 5, 2012: "Media Computing Research Madness", Ubicomp & Social Dynamics Group, Dept. of Computer Science, UCSD, San Diego, CA
- May 24, 2012: "Research Overview & The Silhouettes Interactive Exhibit", Invited guest lecture, Designing Gesture-Based Interfaces (Spring 2012 Class COGS160), Dept. of Cognitive Science, UCSD, San Diego, CA
- Apr 18, 2012: "Media Computing Research Madness", DCOG-HCI Meeting, Dept. of Cognitive Science, UCSD, San Diego, CA
- Jan 25, 2012: "From Personal Fabrication to Personal Design". Invited Speaker, 18. Handelsblatt-Tagung, Munich
- Jan 16, 2012: "Campus im Vergleich zu den Universitäten in Hamburg und München: Welche Stadt braucht die Universität? Welche Universität braucht die Stadt?", Discussion Panel Member, Aachen Fenster, SuperC Building, Aachen.
- Previous Talks...
Selected Professional Activities
- ACM CHI 2018 Associate Chair, Engineering Interactive Systems and Technologies
- Lots of stuff for 2014-2017 that I haven't gotten around to listing here
- ACM Multimedia 2013 Program Committee, Multimedia HCI
- ACM UIST 2013 Program Committee
- ACM CHI 2013 Papers Associate Chair, Interaction Techniques and Devices
- Engineering Patterns Workshop Organizer, ACM EICS 2012, Copenhagen, June 25, 2012.
- Pervasive Health 2012 3rd Int. Workshop on User-Centered Design of Pervasive Healthcare Applications (UCSD, May 2012): Technical Program Committee Member
- HCI Journal Reviewer
- ACM CHI 2012 Papers Associate Chair, Interaction Techniques and Devices
- ACM UIST 2011 Papers Reviewer
- Pervasive Health 2011 2nd Int. Workshop on User-Centered Design of Pervasive Healthcare Applications (Dublin, May 2011): Technical Program Committee Member
- Engineering Patterns for Multi-Touch Interfaces 2011 Workshop Organizer, ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, 2011
- ACM CHI 2011 Interactivity Co-Chair
- ACM Ubicomp 2010 Papers Reviewer
- ACM UIST 2010 Papers Reviewer
- PEICS Patterns Workshop Program Committee, ACM SIGCHI Symposium on Engineering Interactive Computing Systems, 2010
- CHI 2010 Papers Associate Chair, Interaction Techniques and Devices
- CHI 2010 Student Research Competition jury
- Editorial Board, "Smart Healthcare Applications and Services: Developments and Practices" and "Human-Centered Design of E-Health Technologies: Concepts, Methods and Applications" (Book editors: Carsten Röcker, Martina Ziefle), 2010
- MobileHCI 2009 Program Committee Member & Posters Chair
- CHI 2009 Reviewer for Full Papers and CHI Notes
- ETH Digital Art Weeks 2007 Steering Committee Member
- FLAIRS'07 Program Committee Member
- UIST 2006 Papers and Technotes Reviewer, and Demo Committee Member
- MEIS Workshop Program Committee Member, GI Informatik 2006
- NIME 2006 Reviewer
- CHI 2006 Interactivity Co-Chair and Notes Reviewer
- UIST 2005 Posters Co-Chair
- CHI 2005 Interactivity Co-Chair
See my old Stanford home page for earlier activities.
| File | Description | File size | Downloads | Last modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 borchers_5126.jpg | 3022 kB | 9931 | 2010-03-30 12:21 | |
| borchers_7154.jpg | 5889 kB | 11911 | 2010-03-30 12:20 | |
 100114 Apple HigherEd Conference Borchers.pdf | 8121 kB | 9247 | 2010-02-02 16:54 | |
| iDiscover Aixplorer Talk.pdf | 7098 kB | 7279 | 2009-11-13 16:04 | |
| Toolkits.pdf | Presentation at UCSD, Jan 23, 2008 | 21982 kB | 10004 | 2008-01-24 23:42 |