Partners

SESUN is managed by a Steering Group comprising the seven partners of the project:

• Prof. Andy Smith, Thames Valley University (UK)
• Prof. Zhengjie Liu, Dalian Maritime University (China)
• Prof. Jim Alty, British Computer Society / British HCI group
• Prof. Liam Bannon, University of Limerick (Ireland)
• Prof. Jan Gulliksen, Uppsala University (Sweden)
• Prof. Kerstin Roese, University of Kaiserslautern (Germany)
• Mag. Reinhard Sefelin, CURE - Centre for Usability Research & Usability (Austria)

The Institute for Information Technology (IIT) at Thames Valley University was opened in 2004 in the presence of Directors of Microsoft (UK) Limited and Oracle (UK) limited. It was established to support research, knowledge transfer, consultancy and training. With facilities at all three of the main campus sites, IIT spans the UK’s ‘silicon valley’, the base for many global and national IT companies. It aims to facility communications and collaboration between academia and industry.

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The Sino European Usability Center – SEUC was founded in 2000 as the first usability center in China (formerly Chinese Center of EU UsabilityNet). The establishment of the Center is co-supported by the EU Fifth Framework Program (UsabilityNet project), the China-EU Science and Technology Cooperation Program of the Chinese government and the EU Asia-IT&C Program (SESUN project). It is a member of the UsabilityNet which is a world leading industry oriented international network of excellence for usability engineering. The Center is based in Dalian Maritime University and located in Dalian, China.

Prof. Zhengjie Liu is chair of the Academic Committee of ACM SIGCHI China. He is widely recognized as a pioneer in usability engineering in China.

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Founded in 1984, the British HCI Group is a Specialist Group of the British Computer Society (BCS). It provides an organisation for all those working on the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of technologies for human use.

Prof. Alty has written over 100 research papers in Human Computer Interaction and Artificial Intelligence and six books, one of which “Computing Skills and the User Interface”, was one of the earliest books in HCI. he is also appointed a Professor of Human Computer Interaction at Middlesex University and an Emeritus Professor at Loughborough University.

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Led by Prof. Liam Banno, the Interaction Design Centre (IDC) at the Unviersity of Limerick comprises over 25 researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds, including architecture, software engineering, psychology, art and design, communication, and computing. It has received extensive national and EU research funding for its work in the areas of HCI, CSCW and Interaction Design. Work in the IDC covers a wide spectrum, from the design and evaluation of new media installations and interfaces to field studies of technology in use in different settings.

Liam's research interests span many aspects of HCI. However the common theme linking all his work is a concern for the utility and usability of the resulting interactive systems. Liam takes a lead in the Interaction Design theme

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Jan Gulliksen is a professor in human computer interaction from Uppsala university. The University has one of the world's largest HCI Departments - in fact there are two of them! Jan runs a research group on Usability and User centered systems design that does applied research in cooperation with several industries and public authorities.

Jan is Chair of IFIP 'TC 13.2 Methodology for User Centred Design' and naturally takes the lead in SESUN for the User Centred Design theme.

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Kerstin Röse is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Process engineering at the University of Kaiserslautern, Germany. Her industrial experiences based on projects with several companies like Kuka Roboter GmbH, Robert Bosch GmbH, Rheinmetall Defence Electronic GmbH and many others. In 2002 she got a Professorship for User-centered Product Development (use) at the University of Kaiserslautern. Her special interest is focused on intercultural and contextual product design. She has undertaken different studies in usability in Mainland China

Kerstin takes a lead in the Culture and Localisation theme.

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CURE (Centre for Usability Research & Engineering) is member od EU UsabilityNet project. It is a key Austrain and European resource for usability research and professional practice. CURE takes collaboration roles with UsabilityNet: ensuring knowledge transfer between China and Europe (both ways) between UsabilityNet and SESUN.

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