Event Review | Scalable HCI Symposium Successfully Concluded at SUSTech School of Design

From January 8 to 13, 2024, the School of Design at Southern University of Science and Technology (hereinafter referred to as “the School”) successfully held the Scalable Human-Computer Interaction Symposium. This symposium, primarily involving doctoral students from both China and abroad, was an industry-academia-research collaborative innovation event focusing on hardware for human-computer interaction and exploring how research could be extended to unprecedented dimensions and unexplored areas.

All activities of the symposium were jointly planned and organized by Assistant Professor JE Seungwoo of the School and MIT Media Lab and CSAIL doctoral student Cedric HONNET, who also served as chairs of the organizing committee. The organizing committee members included Assistant Professors Li Xueliang and An Pengcheng of the School and Ying Cai of Seeed Studio. Chair Professor Xiaohua Sun of the School and MIT Associate Professor Stefanie Mueller served as advisors to the organizing committee.

Seminar group photo

The symposium lasted one week and included a research poster exhibition, factory visits, a hackathon, summary reports, academic lectures, and other activities. More than 80 doctoral and master’s students, as well as some faculty and researchers from MIT, Harvard University, UC Berkeley, University of Wisconsin, University of Waterloo, Cornell University, New York University, Parsons, Carnegie Mellon University, Hasso Plattner Institute, KAIST, Seoul National University, CityU, HKUST, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, SUSTech, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen Technology University, Shenzhen Polytechnic, Zhejiang University, Tongji University, Shantou University, and Hangzhou Dianzi University participated in all or part of the activities. Seeed Studio, ACM SIGCHI, and the SUSTech School of Design provided major funding support for MIT’s “China Trip” and the symposium, with Seeed Studio also providing software applications and consumables for the hackathon.

On the morning of January 8, scholars and students visited the SUSTech Yidan Library, SUSTech Achievement Exhibition, the Multiphase Flow Laboratory, the Additive Manufacturing and Design Laboratory, the Intelligent Robotics Key Laboratory, the Robotics Institute, the Precision Machining Laboratory, and the Soft Materials Laboratory. In the afternoon, a poster exhibition and free exchange session was held in the 11th-floor exhibition hall of the School, where scholars and students gathered to share and discuss their research results. Exhibited works included MIT’s single-crystal diamond rotor achieving the highest MAS frequency, KAIST’s sketch-based block programming problem decomposition visualization, and University of Waterloo’s manufacturing method supporting interactive prototype shape exploration, among a series of cutting-edge HCI research projects.

Scholars and students visit the Multicomponent Fluid Laboratory and the Key Laboratory of Intelligent Robotics

Group photo, poster session exchange

After the free exchange session, Wei Zhang, Chief Marketing Officer of Seeed Studio, delivered a lecture titled “Infinite Possibilities of AI + Hardware.” He shared in detail the technological breakthroughs and practical applications of generative AI platforms such as ChatGPT and other large language models, including natural language processing, coding, and image generation. Wei Zhang emphasized the potential of AI to improve productivity and discussed topics such as the impact of AI on the job market and how hardware can be integrated with AI.

Lecture scene

From January 9 to 10, scholars and students visited Huaqiangbei, known as “China’s No.1 Electronics Street,” and companies including Xinxian Technology and AISTAR Technology in Bao’an District, Shenzhen. Through visits to Shenzhen’s manufacturing industry, they gained deeper insights into the latest trends and cutting-edge technologies in Shenzhen’s rapidly developing manufacturing sector.

Visit to Shenzhen Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Bao’an factory tour

On the mornings of January 11–12, the School and Seeed Studio jointly hosted an exciting hackathon. Students participating in the symposium formed groups freely to complete innovative design projects under the theme “Technology for Good.” Using Seeed Studio’s XIAO TinyML development boards provided for the hackathon, professional mentors from Seeed Studio explained the development theme and specific usage of XIAO in detail. After over 10 hours of intensive development, teams presented their project results, which reflected not only their deep thinking about urban life in Shenzhen within just one week, but also their skilled application of HCI development technologies and boundless creativity. Projects exhibited included a street safety navigation headgear device for electric bikes and a “dopamine mirror” capable of providing emotional value at any time.

Seeed Studio professional mentor explains hackathon theme

Workshop Site

Hackathon in Progress

Hackathon Project Demonstration

On the afternoon of January 12, Professor Eric Paulos from UC Berkeley delivered a keynote lecture titled “Plastodynamics: Touching and Designing Emerging Technologies.” Starting with three themes—“New Manufacturing Renaissance,” “Expressiveness of Wearable Devices,” and “Decomposable Interactive Electronics”—Eric introduced in detail a series of cutting-edge research results developed by him and his team, integrating computer science, materials science, design research, and art, such as simulated on-skin buttons and strain sensors and edible supercapacitors. Finally, he shared ten research strategies, including considering the limitations of technology and questioning the negative outcomes of technology, society, and development processes, thereby exploring directions for future innovative design research.

Lecture scene

After the lecture, Xiaohua Sun delivered the closing remarks. She stated that the conclusion of the symposium was not an end but the beginning of future cooperation with universities and industries.

Closing remarks by Chair Professor Xiaohua Sun of the School

This symposium integrated engineering, design, and art, combined with the industrial characteristics and strengths of Shenzhen, to explore the prospects of scalable HCI development, becoming a platform to promote open collaboration and rich exchanges among international students and scholars. Its origin can be traced back to MIT’s exchanges with Chinese factories since 2013 and cooperation in rapid prototyping and scalable mass production. The cooperation was influenced by renowned figures in the global open-source hardware and makerspace movement, Bunnie Huang and Mitch Altman, who highly recognized Shenzhen’s affordability and accessibility in manufacturing, choosing Shenzhen as the site for the “Hacker Manufacturing” course. January 2024 marked the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that MIT resumed its “Hacker Manufacturing” China trip, continuing its tradition of conducting research in factory workshops.

At present, whether for startups or large enterprises, local manufacturing is a new challenge, and Shenzhen is undoubtedly the best exploration scenario. The hosting of this forum in Shenzhen and the large number of doctoral students from domestic and international universities it attracted both highlight Shenzhen’s significant global influence in manufacturing, with expectations to jointly help Shenzhen grow into an international city of scientific and technological innovation.