On Friday, June 14, 2024, from 10:00 to 11:00, Andrea Bianchi from Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST) will hold a seminar entitled "If All You Have is a Hammer": Designing Digitally Augmented Physical Tools. The seminar will be in Sala Ciminiera (5th floor of the DAUIN).

The talk

Since the dawn of mankind, the history of the human race is reflected in the history of their tools and their usage. Many of these tools provide augmentation to our physical capabilities: power tools increase the body's strength, bikes increase locomotion efficiency, and glasses and microscopes increase vision and the human ability to explore the world. However, more interestingly, tools also shape the way we think.

It is known that "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail" (Maslow's hammer), and to some extent, this is true for any type of tool, as they unconsciously reshape our perception of reality, our consciousness, and our understanding of how to interact with the world surrounding.

In the seminar, Andrea Bianchi will show examples of digitally augmented physical tools that shape our perception of reality and give us new perspectives on how to design for supporting prototyping as an exploration activity, and virtual-physical interactions.

The seminar is open to all interested researchers and students.

The speaker

Andrea Bianchi is an Associate Professor in the Department of Industrial Design, an Adjunct Professor in the School of Computing, and the director of the Make lab (make.kaist.ac.kr) at KAIST, in South Korea. He researches in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) focusing on building tools for prototyping interactive systems, and hardware devices for body augmentation in Mixed Reality.

Before joining KAIST, he worked at Sungkyunkwan University (Korea) as a faculty member in the Department of Computer Science, and as a video game programmer for a New York startup. Andrea has published in major venues, including ACM CHI, UIST, and IMWUT, and his work has been recognized with multiple Best Paper Awards and Design Awards. His work has also been covered in the news by Engadget, ZDNet, New Scientist, MAKE, and Gizmodo among others. Andrea received a Ph.D. from KAIST (Korea) in 2012, and his Masters from New York University in 2007.

More information and logistics:

• Where: Sala L. Ciminiera (5th floor), Dip. Automatica e Informatica (DAUIN), Politecnico di Torino. Suggested entrance: Corso Castelfidardo, 34/D
• When: Friday, June 14, 2024, 10:00-11:00
• Poster of the seminar (PDF)