Human-Computer Interaction Research Group

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Human-Computer Interaction

Swansea University's Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Research Group is based in purpose-built lab, study and maker facilities in the Computational Foundry. Founded in 2006 as the Future Interaction Technology Laboratory (FIT Lab), the group has grown to become internationally recognised as a world-leading centre for HCI research, forging collaborations with industry partners such as Microsoft Research, Google, BBC, IBM and NHS.

The goal of our research is to put people at the heart of technological innovation – to create platforms, devices and services that are not just functional, but usable, efficient and enjoyable. Much of our research involves working directly with end-users to study, plan, design and create new interactions appropriate for their contexts. HCI is a multidisciplinary field that spans beyond computer science into areas including psychology, sociology, health, ethnography, design, human factors, engineering and linguistics, and therefore our research involves a significant number of collaborations with other disciplines within the University and beyond.

Research councils and industry stakeholders have supported the majority of our work, including over £30M of EPSRC funding. These projects have enabled the group to make significant, recognised, world-leading impacts on the research community, ranging from theoretical frameworks to deep understandings of novel algorithms.

People

Gavin Bailey

Alan Dix

Matt Jones

Nicholas Micallef

Tom Owen

Jennifer Pearson

Martin Porcheron

Alma Rahat

Thomas Reitmaier

Matt Roach

Simon Robinson

Deepak Sahoo

Kris Seunarine

Chat Wacharamanotham

Sean Walton

More About the Group

Facilities

The HCI group is situated within the Computational Foundry, and has its own co-creation space (the FIT Lab) as well as two user experience laboratories and two maker spaces which include the following equipment and much more:

Maker equipment (3D printers, 3D scanner, laser cutters, CNC machines)
Electronics lab equipment (e.g., soldering irons, multimeters, oscilloscopes, etc.)
Electronic components and devices (e.g., Arduino kits, phones/tablets, prototyping components, sensors, etc.)
Photographic equipment (e.g., SLRs, tripods, projectors, video cameras etc.)

Publications and Research Areas

Publications from the group can be found on the University's publication archive, Cronfa. Our areas of expertise include:

Foundations and Futures:
- Internet of Things, eyes-off interaction, deformable devices, VR/AR, gaming, haptics, robotics, self-powered interfaces, autonomous vehicles, brain-computer interfaces
The Digital Divide:
- HCI4D, emergent user settings, resource-constraint
- Appropriate technologies for contexts
  - IVR systems, speech interfaces, safety-conscious interfaces, low-end devices, internet-independent devices
Health and Wellbeing:
- Digital health, medical errors, older people, disability, wearables for well-being, ML-based disease diagnostics, cloud-based medical wearables

Collaborative / Industry Partners

The HCI group collaborates with a wide range of partners across both academia and industry. Here is a flavour of current and previous collaborators:

Academic:

IIT Bombay Industrial Design Centre, University of Cape Town, Université Grenoble Alpes , University of Sussex, University of Bristol, University of Edinburgh, Newcastle University, Royal Holloway

Industry:

Google, IBM, Microsoft Research, BBC R&D, Hewlett Packard, McAfee, NHS, DVLA, DST, HAB Housing, Gwalia Housing, Fram3 Limited, City and County of Swansea, Accelero, Blurrt, CodeX, TechHub Wales, Project 2020, We Predict, Leadin, SymlConnect, GPC Solutions

Want to collaborate with us? Please get in touch!

Grants and Funding

Current:

EPSRC Grant EP/W020548/1 (£2,659,374): INCLUsive Digital Economy Network+: INCLUDE+
EPSRC Grant EP/W025396/1 (£742,649): GENERATION: Self Powered IoT for People and Planet
EPSRC Grant EP/W01257X/1 (£231,612): Rethinking Public Technology in a COVID-19 Era
EPSRC Grant EP/T024976/1 (£970,668): Unmute: Opening Spoken Language Interaction to the Currently Unheard
EPSRC Grant EP/S021892/1 (£4,992,682): EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Enhancing Human Interactions and Collaborations with Data and Intelligence Driven Systems

Previous:

EPSRC Grant EP/R044929/1 (£1,006,664): Not-Equal: NetworkPlus on Social Justice through the Digital Economy
EPSRC Grant EP/R032750/1 (£738,112): PV-Interfaces: Self-Powered Interfaces and Interactions via Photovoltaic Surfaces
EPSRC Grant EP/N013948/1 (£822,223): Breaking the Glass: Multimodal, Malleable Interactive Mobile surfaces for Hands-In Interactions
EPSRC Grant EP/M022722/1 (£3,091,610): The CHERISH-DE Centre - Challenging Human Environments and Research Impact for a Sustainable and Healthy Digital Economy
EPSRC Grant EP/M00421X/1 (£710,784): Reshaping the Expected Future
EPSRC Grant EP/G059063/1 (£5,820,840): CHI+MED: Multidisciplinary Computer-Human Interaction research for the design and safe use of interactive medical devices
EPSRC Grant EP/J000604/2 (£1,053,172): Scaling the Rural Enterprise
EPSRC Grant EP/G003971/1 (£361,993): UCLIC / FIT Lab PLATFORM: Healthy interactive systems : Resilient, Usable and Appropriate Systems in Healthcare
EPSRC Grant EP/I00064X/1 (£254,586): Taking on the Teenagers
EPSRC Grant EP/H02302X/1 (£1,050,295): IDEAS Factory - Detecting Terrorist Activities: Shades of Grey - Towards a Science of Interventions for Eliciting and Detecting Notable Behaviours
EPSRC Grant EP/H042806/1 (£1,467,704): Sandpit: PATINA: Personal Architectonics Through INteractions with Artefacts
EPSRC Grant EP/L019272/1 (£96,680): Discipline Hopping into Healthcare
EPSRC Grant EP/K004549/1 (£493,092): The Global Hub in Medical Technologies and NanoHealth at Swansea University
EPSRC Grant EP/I00145X/1 (£790,239): Swansea University :: Bringing People Together
EPSRC Grant EP/I001778/1 (£134,610): Bridging the Rural Divide
EPSRC Grant EP/G061882/1 (£906,522): Point of care nanotechnology for early blood clot detection and characterisation in disease screening, theranostic and self monitoring applications
EPSRC Grant EP/F035071/1 (£33,826): ISIS: Protecting children in online social networks
EPSRC Grant EP/F020031/1 (£606,346): Formally-based tools for user interface analysis and design
EPSRC Grant EP/H042857/2 (£365,151): Community-generated media for the next billion
EPSRC Grant EP/E042171/1 (£273,603): Multimodal, Negotiated Interaction in Mobile Scenarios
EPSRC Grant EP/E006418/1 (£79,359): Bridging the Global Digital Divide Network
EPSRC Grant EP/H017895/1 (£14,823): USA research trip: San Francisco, Pittsburgh, San Diego, Houston
EPSRC Grant EP/F059116/1 (£176,183): A state of the art information-driven health care demonstrator: Combining advanced technologies in the gastro-intestinal field
EPSRC Grant EP/F041217/1 (£260,699): Document Triage in the Information Seeking Process
EPSRC Grant EP/E006396/1 (£79,817): StoryBank: Sharing stories across digital divides
EPSRC Grant EP/H010394/1 (£16,437): Telling the StoryBank: An Exhibit for the British Science Association, Festival of Science 2009

Study With Us

HCI is embedded in the Computer Science Department's taught curriculum, whether in the various undergraduate programmes or our Human-Centred EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training. See the following courses and programmes for more information.

Postgraduate

Undergraduate