VSR News 2024

Our team from TU Chemnitz recently gathered at the Mensch und Computer 2024 (MuC 2024) conference, held at the KIT in Karlsruhe, Germany. This year's event was an inspiring journey through the diverse world of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), bringing together open-minded individuals to engage in critical discussions on current and future trends.
MuC 2024 stands out not only as the largest HCI conference in Europe but also as a unique blend of academic research and practical industry insights, with participation from organizations like the German UPA. After days of insightful sessions, we continued our discussions in the local pubs of Karlsruhe, fostering deeper connections in a more relaxed setting.
We deeply appreciate Prof. Dr. Alexander Maedche, Kathrin Gerling, and their team for organizing this event, which offered a welcoming environment for sharing experiences and networking. It was a fantastic opportunity to explore topics from User Experience (UX) to the complex relationships between humans, technology, and society.
We are excited to announce that Mensch und Computer 2025 (MuC 2025) will be hosted at TU Chemnitz. As Chemnitz becomes the European Cultural Capital (Kulturhauptstadt) in 2025, we will welcome the HCI community to explore "Digital Diversity" and continue the conversations started this year in Karlsruhe.
Stay tuned for more information on how to get involved with MuC2025 and join us in shaping the future of HCI! The website for next year is currently under construction and you can get to it here.

Our team member Abubaker Gaber participated in the 2024 Annual Student Network Meeting (SNT 2024), where he presented the ENFIELD project and highlighted the ongoing Trustworthy AI research at TUC. TUC, in collaboration with NTNU, co-leads this research pillar within the ENFIELD project.

Our team member Sebastian Heil served as a jury member for the 1st ENFIELD Hackathon in Bucharest, Romania. Alongside other experts from Austria, Romania and Estonia, he was judging solutions for Bias Detection and Mitigation in AI created by 8 teams of young researchers. The Hackathon was organized by Prof. Adina Florea, the director of the Center of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence at the Politechnical University of Bucharest as part of our ENFIELD project on Trustworthy, Human-Centric, Adaptive and Green AI.

Our team member Tobias Münch visited last week the World Developer Congress 2024 in Berlin and presented 'Is the Web Ready for Voice User Interfaces?' at this vibrant event. The conference, a dynamic blend of the old CeBIT with booths and talks, feels more like a developer's party, providing a fantastic opportunity to connect with 15,000 attendees and tech leaders from companies like Google and id Software.
Tobias's talk focused on the transformative potential of voice user interfaces (VUIs) for people with disabilities, health issues, or working in jobs requiring hand-free interaction. He introduced the Web Speech API with a small 'voice assistant' demonstration, showcasing its practical applications and highlighted research projects like: the Conversational Web from Milano University, led by Maristella Matera's group, and the ReactGenie Project from Stanford University, spearheaded by Yang and his PhD project.
The audience's engagement was incredible, sparking many exciting questions and discussions. It's clear that VUIs are generating significant interest and enthusiasm, promising a more accessible and intuitive web experience for all.

Our team member Tobias Münch participated in the industry event Developer Week 2024 (DWX) in Nürnberg. He presented the pros and cons of asynchronous communication patterns when creating web applications such as long polling, Server-Sent Events, and Web Sockets. He aimed to empower the audience to choose the correct pattern in each situation. Therefore, he transferred some of his practical and academic work about the web to industry, which took place as a knowledge transfer from science to industry. The speakers and attendees discussed various aspects of creating valuable software in productive environments at the conference. Some topics covered were .net MAUI, the usage of generative AI, various web frameworks such as React and Angular, team dynamics, and entrepreneurship. The keynote from Prof. Dr. Alexander Pretschnet from TU Munich addresses how generative AI will influence the work of software engineers. It was insightful and raised several new questions about the work of web engineers.

Our Team presented multiple publications at the International Conference of Web Engineering 2024 (ICWE 2024) which took place in Finland from the 17th to the 20th of June. As a PC Co-Chair, our team member Dr. Sebastian Heil organized the scientific programme together with Prof. Maristella Matera. Additionally, Prof. Martin Gaedke held a coaching session for PhD Candidates and provided invaluable guidance on their journey to obtain a PhD. The International Conference of Web Engineering is the most important conferences on Web Engineering where researchers and experts from industry alike come together and give essential insights into the design, implementation, application and maintenance of Web-based systems and services. This year's topic "Ethical and Human-Centric Web Engineering: Balancing Innovation and Responsibility" focused on Web Engineering in the age of rapidly and disruptively evolving human environments. In that context, participants from more than 30 countries presented their research results.