M-ITI Appoints New ERAChair in Human-Computer Interaction and Design Innovation
 |
Christopher Csikszentmihályi is the new ERAChair in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Design Innovation at the M-ITI – HCI Research Institute in Madeira, an Institute created in the scope of the CMU Portugal Program, funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia. |
Nuno Nunes, president of the board of M-ITI, explained that Christopher Csikszentmihályi was chosen for his “broad experience in research, teaching and in creating meaningful partnerships with non-profits and industry,” adding: “Chris is a great leader that could leverage our positioning between Europe and the Americas,” which will be key to pursuing M-ITI’s strategic development plan to become a research center of excellence in HCI and design. “Chris will also open new opportunities to research that could be conducted within LARSyS [national associate laboratory in Robotics and Systems in Engineering and Science]. Our strong engineering basis benefits a lot from the innovative ideas coming from art and design innovation that people like Chris are capable of providing,” stated João Sentieiro, director of LARSyS.
Prior to joining Madeira-ITI, Christopher Csikszentmihalyi taught at different colleges, universities and institutes, including Parsons The New School for Design, the University of California in San Diego, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Turku University. He cofounded and directed the MIT Center for Future Civic Media (C4), which is dedicated to developing technologies that strengthen communities. He also founded the MIT Media Lab’s Computing Culture group, which works to create unique media technologies for cultural and political applications. He was a Rockefeller New Media Fellow in 2005, and a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study in 2007-2008.
The Madeira-ITI is a not-for-profit innovation institute of the Universidade da Madeira, founded by this university, by the Madeira Tecnopolo and by Carnegie Mellon University, as an honorary partner. Since its creation, in 2009, the Madeira-ITI has been carrying out its mission of expanding the understanding of human experience and interactive technologies through basic and applied research that is innovative and responsive to manifest real-world needs using multi-disciplinary collaboration drawing on varied perspectives.
The ERA Chairs initiative
The ERAChairs initiative aims at helping universities and other eligible organizations to achieve the level of research excellence required to be competitive at an international level. Operating with €12 million provided by the current Seventh Framework Program for Research (2007-2013), the pilot stage of ERA Chairs will test the concept. If successful, the Commission will fund a larger number of ERA Chairs, depending on the budget of the future Framework Program Horizon 2020 (2014-2020).
September 2014
