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:

Fab Academy 2018 Graduate

The Fab Academy is a fast paced, hands-on learning experience where students plan and execute a new project each week. Each individual documents their progress for each project, resulting in a personal portfolio of technical accomplishments.

INSERTA: Interactive Sensor Feedback Dance Performance

Using sensors that tracks the movements of a dancer to have her influence the live musical performance.

Fab:UNIverse 2019

Conference for German university Fab Labs to discuss about current challenges.

Professional Activities

MuC 2024 1AC and 2Ac Reviewer (Short Paper)
NordiCHI 2024 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM CHI 2024 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM CHI 2024 Reviewer (Late-Breaking Work)
ACM IDC 2024 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM IDC 2024 Reviewer (Work-In Progress)
ACM TEI 2024 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM TEI 2024 Reviewer (Work-In Progress)
ACM CHI 2023 Reviewer (Late-Breaking Work)
ACM CHI Play 2023 Reviewer (Work-In Progress)
ACM DIS 2023 Reviewer (Full Paper and Pictorials)
ACM UIST 2023 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM CHI 2022 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM CHI 2022 Reviewer (Late-Breaking Work)
ACM CHI 2021 Reviewer (Full Paper), Recognition for 1 review
ACM TEI 2021 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM SUI 2020 Reviewer (Full Paper)
ACM TEI 2020 Reviewer (Full Paper)

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	SoRoCAD 3.0: A Cross-Platform Approach to Soft Robotics Design.	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

Lea Schirp: Research Student Assistant

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.

2024

René Schäfer, Sarah Sahabi, Annabell Brocker and Jan Borchers. Growing Up With Dark Patterns: How Children Perceive Malicious User Interface Designs. In Proceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, NordiCHI' 24, pages 17, Association for Computing Machinery, October 2024.

2023

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.

2022

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.

2021

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.

2019

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.

2018

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.

2017

Anke Brocker. Tangible Awareness - How Tangibles on Tabletops Influence Spatial and Situational Awareness. Master's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, September 2017.

2015

Anke Brocker. Repurposing Everyday Objects as Controllers Using Signifiers. Bachelor's Thesis, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, March 2015.