CHIWORK is an annual symposium focused on how HCI will support future work. This year, the CHIWORK’24 symposium was hosted by the University of Northumbria in the charming city of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. There are quite a few cool-looking bridges over the river and across the city

I arrived in Newcastle with an early train from London and enjoyed the beautiful English countryside. Pro tip: the view of Durham Castle from the train is stunning and worth every second of window-gazing. Unfortunately, I did not manage to capture it as I was absorbed by the view but here is a photo from the web. It was a great train ride.

The first event was the student’s consortium where twelve students talked about their research experience, interests and got feedback and advice from mentors, such as Advait Sarkar from Microsoft, Andrew Kun from University of New Hampshire, Carine Lallemand from University of Luxemburg, and others. We presented posters to all attendees of the conferences and got to know each other better. Here is me talking about the studies I’ve conducted during my PhD.

What set this consortium apart was its inclusivity. Unlike typical events focusing solely on doctoral students, this one welcomed student from all levels. I met Audrey Chang from Harvard, an undergraduate student interested in democratizing knowledge who gave me great feedback on my own ideas. Interacting with students from all levels must surely be great for fostering research creativity.

In my talk during the consortium, I reflected on my doctoral journey, now in its fourth and final year, and raised questions about the skills to develop considering the recent AI boom. Horia Maior encouraged me to embrace my unique interdisciplinary expertise and rely on my broad skill set, which, while not easily labeled, allows me to identify and explore HCI research questions. This encouragement made me feel accepted and reassured me. Even if all I got out of the conference was this feeling, it would have been worth it. However, I gained so much more.

During discussions with mentors, I had a brief conversation with Carine Lallemand (in the photo above), who questioned the specific user experience I am designing for. These discussions were among the first to address a common theme: what does it mean to design for worker-centric productivity? Throughout the conference, I was pleasantly surprised to find a consensus on the importance of focusing on wellbeing at work. This includes considering health, work-life balance, and overall job satisfaction as crucial elements of productivity. Realizing that the “HCI for work” community strongly prioritizes these values made me feel a strong sense of belonging to this community.

The first day was followed by an opening key-note speech and a conversations panel, providing a great mix of experiences. My research presentation was during the second day. In our paper, we studied the functionalities which are useful for supporting users of to-do list apps to make more realistic plans. You can read more about this study here.

I thoroughly enjoyed giving the talk and engaging with the questions that followed. It was encouraging to hear from attendees who shared that they enjoyed the presentation. That’s another great thing about attending and presenting at conferences – you get to feel appreciated and valued by the broader community.

During the breaks, we shared lunch and coffees, and presented posters about our doctoral research. The size of the conference was just right to be able to get to know most people well enough (50 attendees).

One of the interesting presentations of the day was about “Trinity: A Design Fiction to Unravel the Present and Future Tensions in Professional Informatics and Awareness Support Tools” by Carine Lallemand and her co-authors. This study introduces Serenity, Affinity, and Capacity—three AI-driven tools. Serenity is like your personal wellbeing coach, monitoring stress and heart rates to keep you zen. Affinity acts as the ultimate team therapist, tracking moods and engagement to ensure everyone is on the same page. Capacity, the productivity guru, keeps tabs on project progress and potential risks, like a bossy but helpful project manager. The narrative humorously shows scenarios where these tools blend into daily work, making us really think (and often laugh) about the tech-driven future of collaboration.

Another interesting study was “Non-Expert Programmers in the Generative AI Future” by Molly Feldman and Carolyn Anderson. This study looks at how AI tools that turn natural language into code can help people who aren’t trained programmers. They studied non-programmers and found that while these tools are promising, beginners struggle with technical language and understanding the code that AI generates. The study also showed that regular computer science classes don’t fully prepare students to use these AI tools. The authors suggest focusing on teaching “code-building” skills, so more people can use AI to create and tweak code easily, making programming more accessible for everyone.

I had several chats with Molly, the author of the paper, who is a kind-hearted and warm person. She gave me useful advice on how to start getting myself educated in LLMs, for example, by learning the terminologies (as opposed to the tech side of things) and by taking a course specifically dedicated to LLMs that may be introduced in the coming fall term. I came out of the conference feeling prepared with more specific long-term goals.

The conference concluded with a town hall where all attendees got a chance to express their ideas about the future of the conference itself, reinforcing the sense of inclusivity. We also got to learn about how the conference came about, and after the closing key-note speech, we found out where next year’s conference will be and how to get involved in helping organize it.

CHIWORK’24 was a great experience, filled with inspiring talks, meaningful connections, and plenty of laughs. I left Newcastle feeling motivated, valued, and ready to dive back into my research with fresh ideas and perspectives. ‘Till next year in Amsterdam!

By Hywel Jenkins

During my five-day work experience at the University College London Interaction Centre, I had the opportunity to engage deeply with the realms of science communication, research inclusivity, and the integration of artificial intelligence in academic and professional settings. My work experience supervisor was Prof. Anna Cox. This post discusses my daily experiences, covering the activities I completed, the knowledge I gained, and the challenges I faced.

Day 1: Introduction and Exploration

On the first morning, I completed a brief tour of the UCL campus and the UCLIC office, which included a fire safety induction. This tour was not just to help me with orientation; it also provided a historical context, as I visited Jeremy Bentham, the founder of UCL. Learning about Bentham’s contributions set the stage for understanding UCL’s long-standing commitment to progressive education and research. Later in the morning, I watched several YouTube videos on science communication. These videos were important for laying the groundwork for my week’s projects, as they introduced me to the fundamentals of creating effective science communication artefacts. Initially, I felt nervous at the sheer volume of information and the tasks ahead, but this session helped mitigate some of my stress by providing a clear framework for approaching my assignments.

In the afternoon, I attended an event at the Equalities Research Centre, which focused on making research more equitable and inclusive. The session was interesting as it showcased the various initiatives within UCL’s brain sciences faculty aimed at fostering inclusivity. One thing I learned from this was the different impacts of various types of dementia on brain functions, such as memory and language skills.

 Day 2: Blog Post Creation and Workshop Attendance

The second day began with downloading and reviewing the work of master’s students, which I would later feature in a promotional blog post for my Work Experience Supervisor. This task was both educational and demanding. I delved into diverse topics, including the effective use of large language models (LLMs) through prompt engineering, the benefits and challenges of the gig economy, and the integration of AI in the workplace. Furthermore, I attended a meeting with Yoana, one of my work experience supervisor’s PhD students, to gain deeper insights into her project. This meeting was important as I learned valuable information in it which I needed for my upcoming tasks.

In the afternoon, Anna had to assist with a workplace workshop, and I joined, observing from the back of the room. During this time, I utilised AI tools like ChatGPT to draft the promotional blog post. This experience was particularly beneficial as it demonstrated how AI can streamline the creative process and enhance productivity. However, staying focused amidst the ongoing workshop was a bit challenging due to the long time period that it went on for.

Day 3: Finalising Blog Post and Starting Information Page

On the third morning, I finished the blog post about the master’s students’ work. This task helped me to improve my skills in prompt engineering, and my overall skills in using AI tools for creating content. Following this, I attended a team meeting that offered further insights into the projects of Yoana and another PhD student, Shiping. The information I learned here was important for my second major project of the week.

In the afternoon, I began working on creating an information page for Anna’s website, which detailed the ongoing research projects within her research group. This involved finding information from different sources I had come across during the week, including my notes from meetings, posters, and research papers which Anna gave me. Later, I attended a seminar by a guest speaker from America (Prof Orit Shaer) who discussed the use of virtual reality (VR) for remote work. The seminar (which you can watch on YouTube here) highlighted the benefits of VR in enhancing focus, reducing stress, and improving convergent thinking in team settings. The day concluded with another exploration of the UCL campus, in order to go and see the previous homes of UCLIC within UCL.

 Day 4: Continuing Projects and Starting Work Experience Report

The fourth day was primarily focused on continuing and nearly completing the information page about my work experience supervisor’s research group, using AI to help me make the logo opposite for these projects. Working from home presented some concentration challenges, but I managed to stay focused and learned many things from the ongoing research projects in the research group, including about the Research compliance buddy being created and the research on the use of AI tools in academia.

In the afternoon, I began working on my final project, this report writing about my work experience experiences at UCLIC. This involved reflecting on the week’s activities and thinking about what I had learned this far into my week. I also continued to refine my skills in using AI tools to aid in report writing. Concentrating for extended periods without breaks was difficult, but I managed to push through and make most of the progress that I needed to on this task.

Day 5: Finishing my tasks off on the final day

My morning was primarily focused on completing the remainder of the tasks which I had left. I worked on feedback from my supervisor, learning how to write more engaging texts and how to more easily proofread my work, by using the text to speech feature in Microsoft word. Following this work, I began to work on some ideas for social media posts to act as an advertisement for a survey that my supervisor is running.

Following my lunch break, I continued to work on these twitter posts, trying to make the most eye-catching and interesting advertisements to try and draw in the target audience of UK academics, lecturers and PhD students, leveraging both LLMs for ideas and AI image creation models such as Dalle 3 to achieve this. Following this, Anna showed me how to add the different artefacts that I had created over the week to word press, the tools she uses to create her website so that my work could appear on the website.

 Conclusion

My work experience at UCLIC was both enriching and insightful. It provided a comprehensive understanding of the intersection between science communication, research inclusivity, and AI integration as well as what life working at a university is really like. Despite initial nervousness and challenges due to my unfamiliar environment, I successfully completed my assigned tasks. This experience significantly enhanced my skills in using AI tools, understanding inclusive research practices, and effectively communicating scientific ideas. It has been a pivotal experience that has contributed greatly to my personal and professional growth, helping me to better consider my career and educational decisions for the future.