Orit Shaer
Professor of Computer Science
Orit Shaer is Professor and co-Chair of Computer Science at Wellesley College. She founded and directs the Wellesley College Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) Lab. Her research focuses on novel human-computer interaction for the future of work and learning, including human-AI collaboration, tangible and embodied interaction, and mixed-reality interfaces. Prof. Shaer's book "Weaving Fire into Form: Aspirations for Tangible and Embodied Interaction" (ACM Books, 2022) is the first comprehensive reference book on this emerging field. It provides wide-ranging conceptual and pragmatic tools toward weaving the animating fires of computation and technology into evocative tangible forms.
Prof. Shaer is co-founder and steering committee co-chair of the international Symposium on Human-Computer Interaction for Work (CHIWork). She is also a steering committee chair of the ACM conference on Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction (TEI). She has served on dozens of program committees for international conferences and review panels and is currently on the editorial boards of Foundations and Trends in Human Computer Interaction and ACM Transaction on Computer-Human Interaction (ToCHI). She was also an editor of the IEEE Pervasive Computing special issue on The Future of Work: COVID-19 and Beyond.
Prof. Shaer is a Senior Member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), and a recipient of several NSF and industry awards including the prestigious NSF CAREER Award, Agilent Technologies Research Award, and Google App Engine Education Award. At Wellesley she was awarded the Pinanski Prize for Excellent Teaching.
Human-Computer Interaction Lab
Education
- B.A., Academic College of Tel-Aviv
- M.S., Tufts University
- Ph.D., Tufts University
Current and upcoming courses
Tangible User Interfaces
CS320
Tangible user interfaces emerge as a novel human-computer interaction style that interlinks the physical and digital worlds. Extending beyond the limitations of the computer mouse, keyboard, and monitor, tangible user interfaces allow users to take advantage of their natural spatial skills while supporting collaborative work. Students will be introduced to conceptual frameworks, the latest research, and a variety of techniques for designing and building these interfaces. Developing tangible interfaces requires creativity as well as an interdisciplinary perspective. Hence, students will work in teams to design, prototype, and physically build tangible user interfaces.