On January 24, 2014, the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering hosted a symposium to celebrate new Interaction Media Design Chair Dr. Elisa Giaccardi’s inaugural lecture.
It’s not every day that a milestone in your career is heralded by an entire symposium dedicated to your life’s work. That’s exactly what happened to Professor Elisa Giaccardi, the newly appointed chair and full professor of interactive media design in the Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE). Giaccardi gave her inaugural lecture, titled “Connected Everyday,” on the afternoon of January 24 2014 but not before the IDE faculty hosted a symposium on the topic that morning to celebrate it.
The “Connected Everyday” symposium took place in the Van der Grinten auditorium of the IDE faculty as an overture to Professor Giaccardi’s inaugural lecture. Four international professors in her research area gave keynote talks about the meaning of everyday connectivity and trends in design. The entire symposium and inaugural lecture was free of charge. Giaccardi was involved in organizing the symposium.
As is indicative of the spirit of connecting people during the day, both the symposium and Giaccardi’s inaugural lecture were broadcast in real-timeand are available on Collegerama.
Among the topics discussed during the symposium were how to manage and leverage design opportunities in the constantly connected world that is rife with data. Professor Chris Speed, Chair of Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh, talked about how increasingly faster algorithms are allowing us to make sense of data in step with the quick pace of the every day.
Stressing the importance of socializing in design, Dr. Paul Dourish, a professor of informatics at the University of California at Irvine, made the case that using the word “everyday” in the design world connotes that social forces are constantly changing the things we use and interact with in our daily lives.
Dr. Marco Roozendaal, an assistant professor of human computer interaction and communication design in the IDE faculty, opened the symposium by boasting that among the researchers, design professionals and professors in the audience, students from as “far away as Sweden, Italy and Russia” were in attendance.
Giaccardi thanked the IDE Faculty Dean Ena Voûte for her support at the end of the symposium. Having won a TU Delft Technology Fellowship, which is aimed to attract and provide professor-level positions to top scientific, worldwide talent, Giaccardi joined the university in 2012.
The IDE Faculty is known for holding international symposia to usher in their newly minted professors. Last May, the “Positive Design Day” symposium celebrated Professor Pieter Desmet’s inaugural lecture. And this June, Professor Peter Vink will celebrate his environmental ergonomics professorship by inviting international speakers to TU Delft.
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