UCLIC

18/08/2026

We recently had the pleasure of co-hosting the Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG) workshop here at UCLIC, alongside our colleagues from the University of Cambridge!

It was a brilliant few days bringing the community together, with a great turnout of 39 attendees joining us both in London and online. We packed a lot into the event—including a highly successful Doctoral Consortium, 22 paper presentations, 1 workshop, and 2 fantastic keynotes.

The event kicked off with a warm welcome from our Director, Prof. Nadia Berthouze. Over the sessions, we explored fascinating new directions in the field, including a keynote from Prof. Marianna Obrist on how we can bring programming beyond audio-visuals into the world of smells and tastes! Participants also got hands-on with a highly interactive "vibe coding" session, where everyone collaborated to build creative audio-visual displays in just half an hour.

And, of course, no PPIG event is complete without the tradition of speakers sneaking a secret keyword into their talks. Check out the photos to see what this year’s winning word was! 🥯

Thank you to everyone who made the workshop such a success!

10/07/2026

UCLIC is pleased to announce a vacancy for a Lecturer in Human-Centered AI at UCL.

This is a teaching-focused opportunity for someone interested in contributing to undergraduate and Master’s teaching, curriculum development, and student support within a vibrant academic environment.

Location: UCL Bloomsbury campus, London
Contract: Full-time, permanent
Application closing date: 26 August 2026

Further details are available here:

At UCLIC, we are advertising a full-time, permanent Lecturer in Human-Centered AI role at UCL Bloomsbury. Salary: £54,931–£64,644. Apply by 26 August 2026.

19/06/2026

🎓 The UCLIC PhD Showcase 2026 was everything we hoped for — and more.

Thought-provoking talks. Brilliant posters. Sharp discussions.

Spanning AI, accessibility, health tech, multisensory design, and beyond, the talks and posters were a perfect reminder of what makes UCLIC such a special place to do research. Sharp questions, engaging discussions, and outstanding food made for an incredible event. 🍛

Huge congratulations to our Best Presentation and Best Poster winners! 🎉 We are so proud of the innovative work our students do every day.

12/06/2026

Recently, we took a moment to celebrate and thank Yvonne Rogers for her 14 remarkable years as Director of UCLIC. As she steps aside from the directorship, we wanted to pause and recognise everything she has brought to the centre — her vision, her generosity, and her unwavering commitment to excellence.

Yvonne is very much still part of UCLIC, continuing her research and remaining a valued presence in the centre. We are taking this opportunity to thank her for the extraordinary leadership she has given us, and to celebrate all that she has helped build.

We are grateful, proud, and excited to see what comes next.

05/06/2026

It’s been a while, but the UCL Interaction Centre page is officially back in action.

We are excited to start sharing updates with our community again. Moving forward, you can expect to see highlights of our research, photos from our events, news from our students and academics, and everything else happening in the world of HCI at UCL.

Welcome back—and if you’re new here, we’re glad you joined us. 💙



Follow the page and stay connected. 💙

23/07/2025

𝗪𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗮𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗕𝗲𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘇𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗨𝗖𝗟 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲...
.. and are grateful to Professor Rogers for her inspiring leadership over the past 14 years.

Under current director, Professor Yvonne Rogers, UCLIC has grown to become the largest human-computer interaction group in the UK, making it an internationally recognised centre of excellence in human-computer interaction, expanding its academic team to 25 members and establishing dedicated research spaces to support its growth.

Professor Berthouze has long been a key figure in UCLIC, serving as Deputy and Acting Director since 2009. Building on Professor Rogers’ legacy, she now brings forward a compelling vision to strengthen UCLIC’s role as a world-leading centre for socially engaged, critically grounded interaction research.

On announcing the new appointment, Professors Peter Fonagy, Head of Division, Psychology and Language Sciences, and Danny Alexander, Head of Department, Computer Science, said:

“Yvonne’s vision has helped to forge new interdisciplinary pathways, including the development of research on digital mental health through joint appointments with the Centre for Behaviour Change and CEHP. We are deeply grateful for her leadership and the legacy she leaves behind.

“We are equally delighted to welcome Nadia into the role. Nadia brings a wealth of experience and a strong vision for UCLIC’s future. Internationally recognised as a pioneer in Affective Computing, her work bridges Computer Science and Psychology and has attracted more than £20 million in research funding from UKRI, the EU, and major industrial partners such as Bentley and NTT. She has a strong track record of nurturing talent, with former PhD students now holding academic positions around the world, including two Professors at UCLIC.”

23/07/2025

𝗨𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗖 𝗣𝗵𝗗 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗲: 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗲

The PhD Showcase is an annual event that brings together PhD students and Faculty, providing a space for students to present their research to the department. It’s an opportunity to share ideas, gain feedback, and celebrate the diverse work happening across UCLIC.

This year the event took place on 10 June, and featured 12 student presentations, 4 posters and 1 demonstration. The showcase offered a rich variety of research topics and approaches, reflecting the breadth of work taking place across the department. The poster and demonstration session took place over lunch, with a delicious spread and refreshments enjoyed by all. It was a lovely day marked by a great turnout, fruitful discussion, and a strong sense of community.

We’d like to thank everyone who joined us, and extend our congratulations to all the students for their hard work and impressive presentations.

Until next year!

21/07/2025

𝗨𝗖𝗟𝗜𝗖 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗦𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿: "𝗥𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗱 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀: 𝗔𝘂𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵𝗻𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗪𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗙𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸"
23 July 2025, h.3-4pm
Speaker: Carolin Stellmacher
Zoom: ucl.zoom.us/j/98581580748

In this talk, Carolin Stellmacher presents a series of projects from her PhD research on augmenting handheld technology with haptic feedback to enrich interactions in immersive environments and mobile computing. She discusses how combining hardware-based methods, such as developing custom haptic prototypes, with software-based pseudo-haptic illusions can leverage the perceptual benefits of both physical and virtual feedback. These projects demonstrate how different sensory stimulations enable users to perceive the weight of virtual objects in virtual reality. The talk concludes with her latest work on enhancing smartphone haptics, providing user-driven insights into the potential for everyday mobile devices for haptic mobile interactions.

About the speaker: Carolin Stellmacher is a PhD candidate at the University of Bremen, Germany, where she explores new designs of handheld technologies to augment interactions with haptic experiences. She holds a degree in computer science with a specialisation in human-computer interaction.

03/07/2025

𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗻’𝘀 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗼𝗽 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯/𝟮𝟰 𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗱

So proud that no less than 14 students from our MSc Human-Computer Interaction programme have earned a spot on the Dean's List for the highest achievers of the 2023-24 academic year.

Annually, Professor Alan Thompson, the Dean of Brain Sciences, acknowledges students who exhibit outstanding academic excellence across the Faculty. This distinction, for the year, was accorded to the top 5% of graduating students in the Faculty of Brain Sciences with a minimum of 74% overall along with a minimum of 74% in the Dissertation/Project.

A hearty congratulations to: Angeliki Koumani; Catarina Carreiro Figueiras Santos; Douglas Ng; Elena Martin Sierra; Jinyu Wang; Julia Wernersbach; Malak Ramadan; Rita Luis Costa; Roshni Wadhwa; Sarah Shokr; Sher Min Teoh; Stella Loukeri Woestman; Xin Xu; Zeyu Chen, and all our graduating students from the class of 23-24.

Dr Aneesha Singh, MSc HCI Programme Director, said: “We are immensely proud of our MSc students and their achievements and excited to see what they accomplish in the future!”

03/07/2025

𝗔 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹-𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗴𝗿𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲𝘀!👏👏👏

Congratulations to Aneesha Singh and Diego Martinez Plasencia for being promoted this year to professor and for Akin Delibasi for being promoted an associate professor.

Aneesha Singh joined UCLIC as a lecturer in 2016 and is the Programme Director of our MSc in Human-Computer Interaction. Her research interests are in digital health, ageing, ubiquitous computing, multisensory feedback and wearable technology.

Diego Martinez Plasencia joined UCLIC in 2020 and his research interests include 3D Printing Using Acoustic Levitation, Ultrasonic Mid-air Haptics and acoustic displays. He is also co-founder of AcoustoFab, a start-up company that is developing advanced acoustic levitation solutions that enable precise, contact-free automation for industries demanding high accuracy, from lab automation to multi-material 3D printing and precision sorting.

Akin Delibasi joined UCLIC in 2023 and is the Programme Director of our MSc in Systems Engineering for the Internet of Things. His research interests include system identification, active vibration control of elastic structures, modelling and control of distributed parameter systems, and computational algebraic geometry.