Grant: Strategic Workshops Program

Computers and information systems are now an important part of our lives and we increasingly rely on themfor many of our everyday functions and work tasks. The effective use of these systems often depends upon thequality of their user interfaces. Consumers are willing to pay a premium for digital devices that have superioruser interfaces. Researchers at Canadian universities are at the forefront of user interface research and many ofthem have international reputations. Canada has a wide range of companies working in this area, fromhardware, through software and user interface design and testing. The NEXT research network brings all theseplayers together to form industry driven partnerships to tackle important research problems in human-computerinteraction. These partnerships will cross both disciplinary and market sector boundaries to produce innovativenew human interface technologies.The research forum will be the first meeting of all the members of NEXT and at this forum the industrialmembers will pitch research problems to the membership in the morning session. In the afternoon breakoutgroups focusing on related research problems will develop joint industry-academic teams to tackle theseproblems over the next two years.