Nicolai Marquardt

Overview

I'm a PhD candidate in Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction.
I'm working in the Interactions Lab and GroupLab at the University of Calgary (Canada) supervised by Dr. Saul Greenberg.

In 2011/2012 I interned at Microsoft Research Redmond working with Ken Hinckley at the Natual User Interactions group. I previously worked with Alex Taylor, Abigail Sellen, Richard Banks, and Nicolas Villar from Microsoft Research Cambridge as an intern in 2006 and 2008. In 2008 I graduated from the Media Systems program (computer science, MSc/Diplom) at the Faculty of Media, Bauhaus University Weimar, working under the supervision of Dr. Tom Gross.

PhD Research: Proxemic Interactions

With my current research in Proxemic Interactions I focus on digital devices that have fine-grained knowledge of people's and devices' proxemic relationships, and how this can be exploited to design novel interaction techniques.

This research is motivated by the increasing availability of digital devices in people's everyday life - also called ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) ecologies. An important challenge is to create techniques that allow people to seamlessly and naturally connect to and interact with this increasing number of devices. In my research, I explore how the knowledge of people's and devices' spatial relationships – called proxemics – can be applied to interaction design. I introduce concepts of proxemic interactions that consider fine-grained information of proxemics to mediate people's interactions with digital devices, such as large digital surfaces or portable personal devices. In particular, my work considers five dimensions that are essential to determine basic proxemic relationships of people and devices: distance, orientation, movement, identity, and location. I work towards a framework of proxemic interaction, design adequate development tools for rapid prototyping, and implement and evaluate applications that illustrate concepts of proxemic interactions.

Research Interests

Human-computer interaction

Ubiquitous computing

Interactive tabletops and surfaces

Touch and gesture interaction techniques

Physical and tangible user interfaces

RFID awareness, privacy, and control

Haptic feedback

Education

Since
September 2008

PhD candidate at the University of Calgary, Canada

Department of Computer Science, GroupLab, Interactions Lab

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Saul Greenberg

Thesis title: Proxemics Applied to Interactions in Ecologies of People and
Devices in Small Space Ubiquitous Computing Environments

April 2004 -
May 2008

Diplom (MSc) "Media Systems" (Computer Science), GPA 4.0/4.0,

at the Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany.

Graduated with distinction, May 2008

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Tom Gross

Thesis title: Developer Toolkit and Utilities for Rapidly Prototyping
Distributed Physical User Interfaces

September 2005 -
February 2006

Visiting research student at the University of Calgary, Canada

Department of Computer Science, GroupLab, Interactions Lab

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Saul Greenberg

Research project: Shared Phidgets

October 2001 -
April 2004

Intermediate diplom Media Systems ("Vordiplom")

at the Bauhaus University Weimar, Germany
Oral and written exam: Programming Languages and Software Engineering, Concurrent Programming, Fuzzy Logic Systems and Media Systems

Work and teaching Experience

October 2011 -
February 2012

Research Internship at Microsoft Research, Redmond (USA)

Supervised by Ken Hinckley.

June 2008 -
August 2008

Research Internship at Microsoft Research, Cambridge (United Kingdom)

Working on projects at the Socio-Digital Systems group.

Supervisor: Alex Taylor, Nicolas Villar.

July 2006 -
November 2006

Research Internship at Microsoft Research, Cambridge (United Kingdom)

Working on projects at the Socio-Digital Systems group, together with Richard Banks, Abigail Sellen, Alex Taylor, and Ken Wood.

Supervisor: Abigail Sellen, Richard Banks.

January 1997 -
July 2006

Freelancer at the Konert Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH (Ltd)

Internet- and intranet-programming and design (PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL), authoring presentation software, graphic design (http://www.konert.de)
(Reference: Dipl.-Ing., Dipl.-Oec. Ottmar Konert)

April 2006 -
August 2006

Research project supervisor "Swarm Intelligence II"

Research with swarm intelligence algorithms, cluster analysis, parallel algorithms (Reference: Professor Dr. Bernd Froehlich, Bauhaus University Weimar)

April 2005 -
June 2005

Teaching assistant "Webtechnologies I"

Server- and Client-Technologies, Markup Languages, XML, SOAP, XML-RPC, Sockets (Reference: Professor Dr. Benno Stein, Bauhaus University Weimar)

May 2005 -
September 2005

Website-Development of the Website for the Faculty of Media

XHTML, CSS, graphic design, Typo3 content management system (Reference: Professor Dr. Benno Stein, Bauhaus University Weimar)

October 2003 -
March 2004 and
April 2004 -
July 2004

Teaching assistant "Programming Lectures and Software Engineering"

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP), C++, STL, design pattern, SCHEME (statically scoped, tail-recursive, LISP dialect), UML design (Reference: Professor Dr. Bernd Froehlich, Bauhaus University Weimar)

June 2003 -
December 2003

Assistant for the research project "Metacoon", e-Learning platform

Development: module for PIM data exchange (Personal Information Manager, e. g. Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes), COM - Component Object Model, SQL, Visual Basic interface, PHP

Scholarships

Since
September 2008

iCORE Graduate PhD Scholarship

April 2005 -
April 2007

Scholarship of the German National Academic Foundation

(Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes)

September 2005 -
February 2006

Scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service

(Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst - DAAD) for the visit at the University of Calgary

November 2005 -
September 2007

e-fellows.net Scholarship

(Founded by McKinsey & Company Inc., Deutsche Telekom AG, etc.)

Publications

Please see: complete publication list.

Volunteering, Service

2008, 2009

Student Volunteer Co-Chair at CHI 2008 and CHI 2009.

April 2004,
April 2006,
November 2006

Student Volunteer at the CHI 2004, CHI 2006, and CSCW 2006 Conference

Conference of the ACM: 'Computer Human Interaction', Vienna (Austria) and Montreal (Canada). 'Computer-Supported Cooperative Work', Banff (Canada).

June 2003 -
June 2004

Member of the senate at the Bauhaus University

Decision committee of the university. Members are the president of the university, the deans, professors, assistants and four students

June 2002 -
June 2005

Member of the student representatives at the Faculty of Media

Projects: Organizing various events for students, helping new students, Development of the website (Content Management System): http://www.uni-weimar.de/medien/fachschaft/

June 2002 -
June 2005