WTUN Exchange Programme: Professor visits University of Newcastle
Through the World Technology University Network (WTUN) Exchanges program, Dr. Mandy Keck, Professor of User Experience and Interaction Design, was able to visit the University of Newcastle in Australia in October 2023.
Coming from the teaching and research field of Human-Centered Computingand Data Visualization, her aim was to meet as many educators and researchers in this field as possible at the University of Newcastle, to get to know the labs, and to have the opportunity to attend classes in this area. During the exchange week, she had the opportunity to explore both campuses of the University of Newcastle (City Campus and Callaghan Campus) and engage in discussions with researchers in the fields of Human Computer Interaction, Robotics, ArtificialIntelligence, Interaction and Visual Design, and Art Thinking. Moreover, she had the chance to attend lectures in Visual Design, Creative Industry, and a Strategy Creativity class. The goal was to gain an overview of the study programmes and research areas in the field of Human-Cendered Computing at the University of Newcastle and to discuss potential intersections for collaboration. In addition, Dr. Keck had the opportunity to give a talk on the topic of
"Visual exploration of complex information spaces", presenting her own research areas as well as the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria.
"I was particularly fascinated by the many different labs, such as the i3Lab with its focus on affective computingand virtual reality or the NUBots Lab, where a wide variety of robots are developed. We were able to have very good discussions in many areas and identify a lot of potential for joint projects," said Dr. Keck after her stay.
The WTUN Exchange Program sponsors the exchange of faculty and/or researchers between the partner institutions with the aim of promoting cooperation and synergies within the network.