So I was gonna post about my first day at HPI but then I was so jetlagged the first day that I got lazy. But anyways, it's Thursday now. So my first day at HPI was great. I arrived around 9 am or so.
Well it turns out no one really starts work until 10:30 - 11??? So I ended up pushing back my day a bit for the rest of the week. It's working out a bit better. The day started off with a bit of awkward silence as the lab admin led me into the lab area,.with neither of us knowing enough of the other persons language. At this point we kind of just acknowledge that we probably won't be the best of buds, but that's ok. Well Stefanie did a lab tour for me and a few of her friend's visiting from Wendy Mackay's lab in Inria Paris to start my day off. I got to see a bunch of cool projects such as GravitySpace, Constructable, LaserOrigami, and a few masters projects like a ARdrone that carries your phone in front of you while you run and walk around. After all that well, I got my office! Super nice space with huge windows.
The rest of the day consisted of me attending meeting after meeting. First I went to a presentation by a Korean masters student, Jaeyoon, who had studied in Tokyo University and so has a vastly different education background as those in Germany. So the presentation was really for the rest of the team to get to know him. Well, guess what, I found out I to had to give the same presentation too. So I just went off of my portfolio. Worked out pretty well even though it's been a whlie since I've given a presentation.
I sat in on a bunch of different meetings and brainstorming session after that. This place really gives me the whole "Design Thinking" vibe. Cool but I sometimes feel like I can't quite keep up with the generation of mmm might I say random ideas. Seems like I am much better at seeing breakthroughs and make a random idea into something better. Well I suppose maybe I'm just a bit rusty and once I get to work, my brain will kick back in.
For the rest of the week, my days have been pretty much filled with reading conference proceedings from CHI and UIST for the last few years. My experience with HCI is so limited that I definitely find that I don't have a good sense of what the whole world is up to. When I am talking to other PhD students about ideas, they often name drop big names in HCI and I feel a bit awkward when I have no clue who they are talking about. Though for once it feels pretty great that everyone knows who I will be working with and are very excited to hear that I will be joining the UW ubicomp lab with Shwetak. So my agenda for the week is to read and read and read about HCI and all the previous work and new and upcoming work. Otherwise, I'm also constantly finding myself in hallway/kitchen talks with Patrick and other students talking about ideas I'm seeing and thinking of. I'm hoping that by tomorrow I'll have a decent idea of what I will want to pursue for the rest of the summer. It's looking like it'll either be in the space of Natural User Interfaces combined with mid-air haptics or haptic feedback combined with fabrication. Hopefully my thoughts will solidify a bit more tomorrow.
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