Patrick Olivier
Human-computer interaction, creative practice, pervasive computing, computer graphics, artificial intelligence...
I am a computer scientist...
...my research team is based in Space 2 in Culture Lab here at Newcastle University. The focus of most of our work is on interaction with computers in everyday settings, and the role on technology in making people’s lives more meaningful.
Inevitably this spans a number of traditional fields in computer science, from human-computer interaction and computer graphics, to artificial intelligence and computational linguistics. Beyond the confines of computer science our work on developing interaction technologies & reflecting how people relate to digital technology draws on insights as to people’s work and play from many different perspectives.
To this end I lead the the Cultural Technologies research theme within the School of Computing Science. I am Deputy Director of iLAB:Newcastle, and an active member of the Institute for Ageing and Health (Technology and Nutrition themes). As a result I collaborate with researchers from a wide range of disciplines including from film makers and artists, to lawyers and clinicians.
School of Computing Science
Culture Lab, King’s Walk
Newcastle University
Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE7 1NP, UK
Email: p.l.olivier@ncl.ac.uk
Office: +44 191 246 4630
Mobile: +44 781 3951637
Team: Dan Jackson (Senior RA), Jayne Wallace (RA), Phil Heslop (VR officer), Guy Schofield (RA), James Thomas (RA), Han Cao (PhD), Stephen Lindsay (PhD), Jon Hook (PhD), Paul Dunphy (PhD), Ahmed Sulaiman (PhD), Esmail Mohammed (PhD), Cuong Pham (PhD), Tom Bartindale (PhD), David Kim (PhD), Pierfranceso Celada (PhD), Saad Almutairi (PhD).
Alumini: John Shearer (staff), Amy Guo (PhD), Rick Fairchild (PhD), Pushpendre Singh (RA), Hai Nam Ha (RA & PhD)
I am interested in a range of topics spanning computer graphics, artificial intelligence and human-computer interaction, especially research problems where we can combine two of these fields in a pervasive computing setting. I’m a great believer in practice-based inquiry, that is, building prototypes that embody, and allow us to explore, conceptual issues around people’s encounters with technology.
If you are interested in what we do and think that you might like to collaborate with us, or if you want a research job or a PhD place, then take a look at my publications and projects pages. If you’re still interested drop me a mail or come and visit us in Space 2 in Culture Lab.
New projects starting in 2009:
Digital Inclusion: £12 million RCUK Research Hub on Digital Inclusion.
BESPOKE: EPSRC project leveraging creativity in community design
Balance@Home: EU FP7 project with Philips Research on future kitchens.
IRIS: EU FP7 Network of Excellence on Interactive storytelling.
Lindow Man: Great North Museum collaboration on multi-touch.
28/04/09 Lord Drayson announces SIDE, our new RCUK Digital Economy Research Hub on Social Inclusion through the Digital Economy (link)
22/04/09 Our interactives go live at the recently refurbished Great North Museum (link)
01/04/09 Balance@Home project with Philips Research begins (link)
Events I’m helping run...
DOMe09: Workshop on Digital Object Memories at Intelligent Environments (Barcelona, Spain).
IVA09: Intelligent Virtual Agents explores synthetic characters and their application (Tokyo, Japan).
SG09: Smart Graphics explores the intersection of graphics, AI, psychology and HCI (Rennes, France).
