By Blair Subbaraman, HCDE PhD student
July 2023
At ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2023, I was able to present 2 first author papers. It was my first (and second!) in-person presentation at a keystone HCI conference; I ostensibly presented at DIS 2022, but the conference last year was fully virtual and asynchronous. I really appreciated that modality for the sake of COVID safety, but in the end, only one person asked me more about my paper. While I remain wary of large conference gatherings, I was able to engage with many more people about my work this year.
Presenting in-person was formative. Presentations mostly function as advertisements to read the full paper, and require a different approach than simply communicating as much information as possible. While I’m not naturally inclined to love public speaking, I ended up finding it pretty fun to put together and deliver talks that I thought would engage an audience, and I had productive Q&A sessions to boot. I’m excited for the next presentation I give, now that I have some initial nerves out of the way.
The real highlight of the in-person conference for me was in building community with other researchers, especially at Carnegie Mellon where the conference was hosted. I was able to tour labs, connect with researchers whose work I follow, and make more personal connections. The lab tours were particularly fun, because we got to see recently- and unpublished work, and get a glimpse into how other groups function. In that way, it was nice that the conference was pretty ‘close’ to use here in Seattle, because many of the people I met still feel close-by!
Altogether, DIS 2023 was a success. I plan on being back to DIS in the future, and it feels like I’m starting to grow some roots in that community.
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The Mary B. Coney Endowed Fund, named in honor of Emeritus Professor Mary Coney, supports HCDE students by funding costs associated with travel to conferences and international workshops. Your support of this fund enriches the HCDE student experience and enhances HCDE's influence in the field.