Invited Speakers

Mary Beth Rosson is Professor and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies in the College of Information Sciences and Technology at the Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining Penn State in 2003, she was Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech for 10 years, and Research Staff Member at IBM T. J. Watson Research Center for 11 years. Rosson is internationally known for her research and education in human-computer interaction, including participatory and scenario-based design and evaluation methods, computer-supported collaborative learning, and end-user development. To support these research efforts she has directed over $5.5 million in research grants, primarily from The National Science Foundation. She is author of Usability Engineering: Scenario-Based Development of Human-Computer Interaction (Morgan Kaufmann, 2002) as well as hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings papers, workshops and professional tutorials. In recognition of her international reputation, Rosson has been recruited for many professional leadership roles, including general conference chair for OOPSLA 2000, CHI 2007, and VL/HCC 2010; she is also a member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy and is an ACM Distinguished Scientist.

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Pelle Ehn is professor at the School of Arts and Communication, Malmö University, Sweden. He has for four decades (!) been involved in the research field of participatory design and in bridging design and information technology. Participatory design research projects include DEMOS from the seventies on information technology and work place democracy, UTOPIA from the eighties on user participation and skill based design, ATELIER from the last decade on architecture and technology for creative environments, and during the last years Malmö Living Labs, on open design environments for social innovation. His publications include Computers and Democracy (1987), Work-Oriented Design of Computer Artifacts (1988), Manifesto for a Digital Bauhaus (1998), and as one of the voices of A.Telier Design Things (2011). Publications from last year include Agonistic participatory design (CoDesign), Design Matters in Participatory Design (International handbook on Participatory Design), Design Things versus Design Thinking (Design Issues), Utopian Design (Design and Anthropology) and What is the object of design (CHI). In 2008 he received the biannual ACM Rigo Award for a lifetime contribution to the field of communication design. Why am I engaged in Participatory Design: “It was a question of politics (which voices could be heard in design), it became a rewarding design game (engaging collaboration with all kinds of interesting people and artefacts), now it is becoming an anxious act of political love.”

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