FWO travel grant for a long stay abroad at University of Chicago USA 0401-2104/2019 (R-9882)

A collaborative effort is made between the Human Computer Integration and Functional Materials Engineering labs, respectively at the University of Chicago and Hasselt University, to create user-worn interfaces in a more integrated way than ever before. Expertise is thereby brought together on user-centered design and on-skin interfaces from the side of prof. Pedro Lopes and soft electronic materials from the side of Steven Nagels. Steven's participation at UChicago crystallized into 3 tangible outcomes. First and above all, preliminary test results together with a road map opened a trail for the work on soft electronic skin interfaces towards the CHI 2020 conference. Second, my prototyping work for a collegial group led to a third authorship on the "Understanding the Effectiveness of Ultrasonic Microphone Jammer" paper of UChicago SAND lab. Third, collaborating within the Human Computer Integration team secured another co-authorship for work which will also be presented at the CHI 2020 conference. Aside from these outcomes, Steven further instructed a workshop on his approach to soft electronic circuits – called Silicone Devices, gave a talk for prof. Carmel Majidi at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh and visited the lab of prof. John A. Rogers at Northwestern University. Both of these last professors are to be seen as within the elite of the conformable electronic circuits domain.

Keywords:electronic circuits, user-centered design, user-worn interfaces

Disciplines:Photonics, light and lighting, Nanomaterials, Smart sensors, Manufacturing processes, methods and technologies, Functional materials