Master Human Computer Interaction and DesignMaster Human Computer Interaction and Design
This course provides a specialization about the accessibility of information and communication technologies (ICT) for persons with functional diversity (disability). It is mainly focused on current research issues in the field.
The course will start with an introduction to basic ICT accessibiltiy concepts: functional diversity, design for all, legislation, standards and the assessment of the accessibility degree of ICT products and services.
Faculty members with subject teaching role: Jose Luis Fuertes Castro (Subject coordinator), Loic Antonio Martinez Normand.
Interaction design methods focused on providing the same content to all users offer limited possibilities in addressing the specific needs and requirements of different types of users. Therefore, an essential feature of certain interactive applications should be their ability to provide some form of automatic adaptation and customization. The main objective of this course is to achieve an understanding of the models, techniques and architectures necessary to make a computer application dynamically adapt to the specific needs and requirements of different types of users at all times.
Adaptive systems maintain a model of the interests, preferences and / or knowledge of each individual user, and use this model to adapt the behavior of the systems to the needs of that user.
This course will cover the main components of the user model in the context of adaptive systems. And within the adaptive systems, the personalized search systems on the Web will be addressed first and it will be explained how these systems are supported by the user model.
Recommendation systems have become essential tools in many areas of application, because they help alleviate information overload as they select the most appropriate content for each user based on their preferences and / or interests. In this sense, these types of systems help users in decision-making by providing personalized services and help information providers and companies to serve customers more effectively.
In this course, the general characteristics of the recommendation systems will be explained and a classification of these systems will be presented according to the type of techniques they use to generate the recommendations.
According to this classification, we will distinguish between content-based, collaborative filtering, and hybrid recommenders. Following this, an introduction will be given to the main techniques on which each of these groups of recommenders are based, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of each group.
By designing and testing improved forms of interactive collaboration between humans and digital assistants, we can enable decision-making processes that better leverage the strengths of both partners. To make the interaction between them more fruitful, we can resort to dialogue systems based on natural language processing techniques.
Therefore, one of the topics of the course will be devoted to dialogue systems taking as a case study the cognitive service of IBM, Watson Assistant. Likewise, the problem of designing dialogue systems that are truly adaptive to the user and not mere natural language interfaces for a database will be addressed.
E-learning is a traditional domain for the application of personalization and adaptation technologies. One of the main objectives of these applications is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of learning experiences. The last topic of the course will be about adaptive e-learning systems paying special attention to intelligent tutoring systems..
Faculty members with subject teaching role: Jaime Ramirez Rodriguez (Subject coordinator), Angelica De Antonio Jimenez.
An assistive product is any product (including devices, equipment, instruments and software), especially produced or generally available, used by or for persons with disability for participation; to protect, support, train, measure or substitute for body functions, structures and activities; or to prevent impairments, activity limitations or participation restrictions. This course will first describe the assistive products that are normally used by persons with disabilities to use ICT products and services. It will then explain how ICT can interoperate with assistive products through the use of accessibility APIs of operating systems.
Faculty members with subject teaching role: Loic Antonio Martinez Normand (Subject coordinator), Jose Luis Fuertes Castro.
The main focus of this subject is achieving an understanding of the necessary models, techniques and architectures that allow the development of interactive systems in the E-health domain. Topics to be covered include eHealth, eInclusion, co-production of health, empowerment, social innovation, social networks, serious games, and participation in society..
Faculty members with subject teaching role: Elena Villalba Mora (Subject coordinator), Cristian Moral Martos.
The course includes a set of seminars to deeply work around concrete edge topics related to User Experience (UX) in general; and Adaptive and Accessible Interaction in particular.
The seminars can be of two types: visits held by external institutions and master classes taught by experts.
In the seminars, students will work on topics like Analysis and specification of the context of use, Design of solutions for people with disabilities in their daily life, Evaluation of the usability and accessibility of specific systems, Ubiquitous Computing, Brain-Computer Interaction, or Data Mining or eHealth.
Faculty members with subject teaching role: Cristian Moral Martos (Subject coordinator), Loic Antonio Martinez Normand.
Outline
Within the sphere of business, research or development and cooperation, finishing a project successfully depends on several factors. So does efficiency and effectiveness of the project. One of the most important of these factors is the human factor. Communication and management skills, together with the relationship between workgroup members are some of the deciding elements for developing a well-done job. Social skills are a key aspect during the development of a task in an environment where the different members don’t necessarily need to share the same characteristics.
Learning Goals
This course studies in depth the factors that determine the human skills for managing and administering a work group, aside from its supervision and smooth running assurance. It will emphasize the importance of communication (motivational, negotiation) and self-control processes, as well as the methods connected to the decision-making processes and team management abilities (leadership, conflict mediation, etc.).
Faculty members with subject teaching role: Susana Muñoz Hernandez (Subject coordinator), Santiago Eibe Garcia.
This subject allows deepening into Intelligent Virtual Environments as a specific kind of computer systems:
The main research and development trends in the area of Intelligent Virtual Environments will be presented, with a special focus on the peculiarities of 3D interaction, the challenges associated with the design of intelligent virtual agents, and educational applications.
Faculty members with subject teaching role: Angelica De Antonio Jimenez (Subject coordinator), Jaime Ramirez Rodriguez.
