FIDS PhD Student Honored at CHI 2024
Alexander Kalus awarded at the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) for the second time
May 28, 2024
At this year's ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in Hawaii, a research contribution by Alexander Kalus, a doctoral student at the Regensburg Faculty of Informatics and Data Science (FIDS), received an Honorable Mention Award for the second time in succession. CHI is regarded as the top international conference in the field of human-computer interaction and attracts thousands of participants from all over the world every year.
The best 5 percent of the research papers submitted to CHI every year are awarded Honorable Mention Awards. "Such an award marks a great international success," emphasizes Professor Dr. Niels Henze, Alexander Kalus‘ supervisor and co-author. "The fact that Alexander has achieved this as a doctoral student, for the
second time in a row, is remarkable and also shows how much international excellence is promoted at FIDS at a very early stage of academic careers."
At FIDS, promoting young scientists already begins during their undergraduate studies: Alexander Kalus and his supervisor Niels Henze share their success at CHI with their student co-authors Johannes Klein, Tien-Julian Ho, and Lee-Ann Seegets.
The award-winning research paper "MobileGravity: Mobile Simulation of a High Range of Weight in Virtual Reality" introduces a controller for virtual reality applications that adapts its weight to the object being held in virtual reality. With this research paper, Alexander Kalus and his co-authors show how virtual objects can be made tangible.
The research work was carried out as part of the BMBF- funded "HapticIO" project. "HapticIO" aims to develop a universal haptic controller for augmented
reality and virtual reality applications that feels like the analogue counterparts it represents and can be operated in the same way as these.
Alexander Kalus presents his award-winning VR controller. Credit: Johannes Klein
Information/Contact
The award-winning research paper: "MobileGravity: Mobile Simulation of a High Range of Weight in Virtual Reality" by Alexander Kalus, Johannes Klein, Tien-Julian Ho, Lee-Ann Seegets, and Niels Henze – https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642658
BMBF project "HapticIO" – www.interaktive-technologien.de/projekte/hapticio
The Faculty of Informatics and Data Science (FIDS) brings together research and teaching in the fields of computer science, data science, and artificial intelligence at the University of Regensburg. – www.go.ur.de/FIDS
Profile Alexander Kalus: Alexander Kalus is a PhD student at the Media Informatics Group at FIDS, where he researches immersive technologies for virtual reality applications. He is particularly interested in the question of how weight can be simulated in virtual reality.
Profile Niels Henze: Niels Henze has been a professor at the Media Informatics Group since 2018. He researches different facets of human-computer interaction. In particular, he investigates the use of predictive models in interactive systems and how models can be used and trained at runtime. Other areas of focus are mobile human-computer interaction, augmented & virtual reality and the
consideration of attention by interactive systems.
Email: public-relations.fids@ur.de
