Yesterday was a happy day at the School of Informatics at Indiana University. A record five HCI teams got the happy news that they had been accepted to the next phase of the student design competition at CHI 2007 (one more than the year my mPath teammates went). This is a quality bunch of young designers, and it is sure to make the trip to San Jose this year a lot of fun. Thrown in Eli’s sustainability paper, Youn and Shveta’s mobility paper, and an expected reunion with some alumni, and it’s a can’t miss event for anyone in our program.
In scanning Google for other references to the competition, I came across this happy message from someone at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. If all of this is true — and I was 2-3 days into receiving our email two years ago before I believed it — then eight of the dozen student teams are coming from these two Midwest programs. That leaves just four spots for places like CMU. Also interesting is that, despite winning the contest outright the past two years and losing on a tie-breaker in the first year of the competition, Indiana doesn’t merit mention in the eyes of our peers. Maybe that will change now.
There’s a lot to love about our colleagues to the north. Like us, they are going through a dean search (their candidates include someone from Microsoft, MIT and a visualization prof from Georgia, as well as a U of M prof). Like us, they put some emphasis on including complexity and networking as part of the informatics umbrella. Marc Newman is associated with the department of physics, while Lada Adamic is part of the school proper. They are also looking for faculty.
Congratulations to all the teams.
2 replies on “Big 10 dominates CHI 2007”
I appreciate the comment you posted on my blog; it’s good to see such strong representation from the rest of the midwest. IU’s informatics program was one of my top choices during my grad school hunt last spring, and I have a lot of respect for your program. I’m glad it’s not all east coast schools in San Jose this year.
Thanks for the compliments about our school, I’ll try to pass them on.
Let me know if your crew is planning a caravan to San Jose. We should have at least a couple dozen students and faculty heading west, and we plan to do some Design Club activities while at CHI. Your participation is welcome.