Introduction
Conventionally, functionality is part of clearly demarcated products; a chair offers a place to sit, a hammer can be used to drive nails into wood and a photo camera allows people to snap pictures and store them for eternity. Connected IoT products, such as smart doorbells, smart thermostats and smart lightbulbs break with this convention and allow functionality to be more fluid between products, functionality can be approached through apps or even be orchestrated with functionalities offered by other smart products; the thermostat can be switched on when you are near to your home, or a series of smart lights, combined with the smart thermostat can be setup to create the perfect evening scene. IoT offers a glimpse of how a future could look like when functionality is more fluid and can cross the borders of singular products.
This workshop takes off where current IoT reaches its limits, we will explore a more fluid future IoT where we, the users, decide which functionality we desire and how it should serve us, then this functionality finds a way to manifest in open products and accessible software. This is possible already in the lab, and we think the world is ready. Let’s explore and understand the possibilities for (interaction) design in such a reality!
Workshop
In a 2-3 hours session with 10 to 20 participants we explore what it would mean to have full freedom in defining functionality in a room equipped with everyday, mundane technology. The participants are working in groups of 4 to 5 people to exploring a specific (given) challenge.
These challenges suggest the functional frame to aim for as well as the requirement of designing for interactivity (one element aided by physical/tangible interaction). This workshop does not include AI, but is aware of its capabilities. 😉
Hosts
By Joep Frens, Mathias Funk and the computational design systems (CDS) cluster
Joep Frens
Dr. ir. Joep Frens is associate professor, holding the ‘designing for interaction in growing systems’ chair. He has a background in Industrial Design and is a designer/researcher who combines a hands-on approach to education and research with a strong academic attitude. His most recent research revolves around the IoT Sandbox. He is member of the ‘Making With…’ cluster as well as of the ‘Computational Design Cluster’. Next to this he chairs the Examination Committee.
Joep Frens is regularly asked for workshops (e.g., SDU – Denmark, HfG Offenbach – Germany) and guest lectures (e.g., UA – Belgium, UT – Iran). He held the prestigious Nierenberg Chair of Design at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Design in 2014-15.
Mathias Funk
Dr. Mathias Funk is Associate Professor in the Computational Design Systems cluster in the Department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). He has a background in Computer Science and a PhD in Electrical Engineering (from Eindhoven University of Technology). His research interests include methods and tools for designing with data, data-enabled design, Human-AI collaboration, and designing systems of smart things. In the past, he has researched at ATR (Japan), RWTH Aachen, Philips Consumer Lifestyle and Philips Experience Design, Canon Production Printing, Intel labs (Santa Clara), National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, and National Taiwan University. He has co-authored over 130 scientific publications and the book “Coding Art” with Apress/Springer. He is the co-founder of UXsuite, a high-tech spin-off from Eindhoven University of Technology.
Janet Huang
Dr. Janet Huang is Assistant Professor in the department of Industrial Design at TU/e and she is a member of the “Computational Design Cluster”. Her research focused on designing intelligent systems that enable people to learn, create, reflect knowledge and skills to accomplish creative tasks. Her vision is to explore human-AI co-learning for facilitating new ways of creativity and productivity. More specifically, She strive to design and develop novel toolkits that empower designers to become proficient with AI as design materials. These toolkits enable designers to harness the power of data, computation, and AI techniques to tackle diverse and intricate problems across various contexts.