This week's Informatics speaker is Ricardo Morla a post-doc researcher in the University of California, Irvine, Department of Informatics

Abstract: Future ubiquitous computing environments are likely to consist of numerous interacting components, many of which will have been developed in isolation from each other. Unless appropriate measures are taken, interference (where a component's behaviour in a deployed system differs from its behaviour when in isolation) is likely to be commonplace. In this talk I will discuss the problem of interference in future ubiquitous computing systems and how it can affect many levels of a ubicomp system and be a concern for all ubicomp developers - ranging from those working on hardware and system support to those developing interfaces for user interaction and models of user understanding. I will also present two contributions that provide support for researchers addressing issues of interference in their systems. The first is a conceptual framework that includes a model of interference and generic solutions for preventing interference; the second is a simulation-based toolkit for helping researchers test their applications for interference prior to deployment. Finally, I will show the results of a formative evaluation that we conducted for informing the design of future user studies on conceptual interference frameworks.

Bio: Ricardo Morla is a post-doc researcher in the University of California, Irvine, Department of Informatics. His major research interests lie in the area of system support for ubiquitous computing, where he is committed to addressing issues in the deployment of ubicomp systems. In particular, his research has recently focused on the test of ubicomp applications in simulated environments and on providing support for addressing interference in ubicomp systems. Ricardo holds a PhD from Lancaster University, UK, where he graduated in August.

The Informatics Seminar is held on Friday at 3:00pm in ICS2 136, followed by a social hour at 4pm. See you there.