Prof. S. Nanayakkara

Prof. Suranga Nanayakkara

Prof. Suranga Nanayakkara is the Vice Dean (Communications) and Associate Professor at the School of Computing, National University of Singapore (NUS). Before NUS, Suranga was an Associate Professor at the University of Auckland, appointed by invitation under the Strategic Entrepreneurial Universities scheme. Suranga started his academic career as an Assistant Professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and a Postdoctoral Associate at the Fluid Interfaces group, MIT Media Lab. Suranga received his PhD in 2010 and BEng in 2005 from the National University of Singapore.

Since 2011, Suranga has been leading the “Augmented Human Lab” to explore ways of designing intelligent human-computer interfaces that extend the limits of our perceptual and cognitive capabilities. His work is most important to people who face challenges due to sensory deficits in hearing or vision. What also makes Suranga’s contributions important is that they are not only applicable to those specific communities. Because of his emphasis on “enabling” rather than “fixing,” the technologies that Suranga has developed have a potentially much broader range of applications.

Suranga is a Senior Member of ACM and has been involved in a number of roles, including General Chair of the Augmented Human Conference in 2015 and serving on many review and program committees including SIGCHI, TEI, and UIST. For the totality and breadth of his achievements, he has won many awards including Young Inventor Under 35 (TR35 award) in the Asia Pacific region by MIT Tech Review, Outstanding Young Persons of Sri Lanka (TOYP), INK Fellowship 2016, and the Research Excellence Medal by the University of Auckland in 2020.

Keynote Abstract

Thinking outside the ‘Computer’ box: Initial steps towards Assistive Augmentations

The overarching topic of this talk is centred around the design and development of intelligent human-computer interfaces that extend the limits of our perceptual and cognitive capabilities. We call this ‘Assistive Augmentation.’ We believe carefully designed Assistive Augmentation can empower people constrained by impairments, to live more independently and even extend one's perceptual and cognitive capabilities beyond the ordinary. However, creating such Assistive Augmentations pose a threefold challenge as they require 1) exploring ways to seamlessly integrate into users body or behaviour, 2) deeper understanding of the user so as to provide the right level of support while keeping the user in control 3) holistic design approach to create meaningful applications. Inspired by insights from psychology, human centred machine learning, and design thinking, we have an unprecedented opportunity to design a new generation of Assistive Augmentations. To highlight this, this keynote will present several proof of concept Assistive Augmentations for enhancing human I/O in the focus areas of assistive technologies, novel input strategies, smart health and well-being, and interactive learning technologies.

Report abuse