UBISS

International UBISS Summer School is the annual flagship event of Center for Ubiquitous Computing

UBISS 2024 will be organized on June 10-15, 2024

UBISS 2023 enrolled 63 students from 10 countries in 3 parallel workshops
UBISS 2023 enrolled 63 students from 10 countries in 3 parallel workshops
UBISS 2019 Program
UBISS 2019 Program
UBISS Trailer - UBISS in 1 minute
UBISS Trailer (1 min)
UBISS 2019 The Film
UBISS 2019 The Film (8 min)

UBISS CONCEPT

The purpose of the annual international UBI Summer Schools (UBISS) is to provide researchers, students, and industry and public sector professionals with an opportunity to gain hands on experience and insight on selected topics under the tutelage of distinguished experts. UBISS typically comprises of 3-6 parallel 6-day workshops where the instructor(s) first provide a theoretical framing of the topic of the workshop and then supervise students’ hands-on group projects whose outcome is presented in the result seminar in the last day. Thus, the instructor(s) work intimately with their students throughout the week, in contrast to many other summer/winter schools, where a particular instructor is only available for few hours in form of lectures or a tutorial. To stimulate interaction between attendees, UBISS has a rich social program in form of a get together party, a dinner boat cruise and a school dinner capping the busy week.

Students are selected through an open international call so that all prospective students have to submit an online application where they identify their preferred workshop(s) and justify why they should be accepted to a particular workshop. From the pool of applications the instructor(s) select students to their workshops who then confirm their seat through registration. Instructor(s) prep their students by providing a reading package to be studied in advance and possibly also giving some pre summer school assignments. Students completing their project and passing the final exam given in the last day of the summer school will be awarded 5 ECTS credits towards their studies, subject to the approval by a student’s home institution. The design and implementation of future UBISS is informed by the feedback that students and instructors provide in a comprehensive post summer school questionnaire.

The first UBISS was organized in summer 2010, to provide prospective participants of the 1st International UBI Challenge 2011 with an opportunity to obtain prior hands-on experience of the urban computing infrastructure deployed in Oulu that would be utilized in the upcoming UBI Challenge. Prof. Albrecht Schmidt (back then in University of Stuttgart, now in LMU Munich) proposed arranging a summer school for this purpose. The first UBISS enrolled 72 participants from 20 countries in six parallel workshops. Excellent feedback from both instructors and students participating in the inaugural and subsequent summer schools has convinced us to host UBISS as an annual tradition, with a highly multidisciplinary collection of workshops over the years. So far, about 700 students from all over the world have attended an UBISS, many of them multiple times. Dr. Eduardo Velloso became the first former UBISS student to return as a ‘junior’ co-instructor to Prof. Hans Gellersen in UBISS 2016, incarnating the endless cycle of academics passing on their knowledge to later generations. Further two former UBISS students, Dr. Denzil Ferreira and Dr. Simo Hosio, returned as ‘junior’ co-instructors in UBISS 2018.


UBISS MEDIA ARCHIVES

UBISS Photo Archive
UBISS Photo Archive
UBISS Video Archive
UBISS Video Archive

UBISS LEGACY

UBISS 2023 (11th International UBI Summer School)

June 12-17, 2023, 63 students from 10 countries in 3 workshops
A: CREATING VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCES FOR SOCIAL GOOD
Prof. Victoria Interrante, University of Minnesota, USA
Dr. Matti Pouke, University of Oulu, Finland
Dr. Paula Alavesa, University of Oulu, Finland
B: SMART INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY IN 5G AND BEYOND
Prof. Petar Popovski, Aalborg University, Denmark
Assistant Prof. Israel Leyva-Mayorga, Aalborg University, Denmark
Dr. Shashi Raj Pandey, Aalborg University, Denmark
C: THE MIND ELECTRIFIED: EEG/ERP IN THE LAB AND IN THE WILD
Professor Kara D. Federmeier, UIUC, USA
Dr. Evan G. Center, University of Oulu, Finland
Dr. Ryan J. Hubbard, UIUC, USA
Dr. Melissa Troyer, UIUC, USA

UBISS 2019 (10th International UBI Summer School 2019)

June 10-15, 2019, 83 students from 10 countries in 4 workshops
A: FROM REALITY TO VIRTUALITY: THE SCIENCE AND ART OF CREATING VR EXPERIENCES
Prof. Frank Steinicke, University of Hamburg, Germany
Eike Langbehn, University of Hamburg, Germany
B: THE IOT – WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES AND APPLICATIONS: A JOURNEY FROM ZIGBEE TO 5G
Prof. Roberto Verdone, University of Bologna, Italy
Prof. Chiara Buratti, University of Bologna, Italy
C: CRITICAL MAKING: DESIGNING FOR ACTIVISM
Assoc. Prof. Eric Paulos, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Assist. Prof. Jill Miller, University of California, Berkeley, USA
Assoc. Prof. Georgi V. Georgiev, University of Oulu, Finland
D: UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING: ENABLING TECHNOLOGICALLY ADVANCED LIVING
Prof. Anind K. Dey, University of Washington, USA
Assist. Prof. Edison Thomaz, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Adj. Prof. Denzil Ferreira, University of Oulu, Finland

UBISS 2018 (9th International UBI Summer School 2018)

June 4-9, 2018, 82 students from 15 countries in 4 workshops
A: HUMANISTIC HCI
Prof. Jeffrey Bardzell, Indiana University, USA
Prof. Shaowen Bardzell, Indiana University, USA
B: WEARABLE AND MOBILE HEALTH AND BEHAVIOR TRACKING
Prof. Jakob E. Bardram, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark
Adj. Prof. Denzil Ferreira, University of Oulu, Finland
C: DESIGNING FOR THE MARGINS (EXTRA-URBAN INTERACTIONS)
Prof. Alan Dix, Swansea University, UK
Adj. Prof. Simo Hosio, University of Oulu, Finland
D: MAKE. WEAR. MATTER: EXPLORATIONS IN DESIGN, MAKING & CREATIVITY
Prof. Mark D. Gross, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Prof. Ellen Yi-Luen Do, University of Colorado Boulder, USA
Adj. Prof. Georgi V. Georgiev, University of Oulu, Finland

UBISS 2017 (8th International UBI Summer School 2017)

June 12-17, 2017, 53 students from 9 countries in 4 workshops
A: DESIGNING CITY FUTURES THROUGH AUGMENTED PLACE
Prof. Alessandro Aurigi, Plymouth University, UK
Dr. Katharine Willis, Plymouth University, UK
B: VIRTUAL CITY MODELS
Prof. Norbert Haala, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Patrick Tutzauer, University of Stuttgart, Germany
C: DIGITAL PRODUCT REALIZATION: MAKING THINGS THAT MATTER
Dan Somen, Stanford University, USA
Dr. Georgi Georgiev, University of Oulu, Finland
D: AUGMENTED URBAN EXPERIENCE AND MEDIATED SPATIAL NARRATIVES
Reader Ava Fatah gen. Schieck, University College London, UK
Dr. Simon Julier, University College London, UK
Petros Koutsolampros, University College London, UK
Dr. Ana Javornik, Newcastle University, UK

UBISS 2016 (7th International UBI Summer School 2016)

June 13-18, 2016, 68 students from 12 countries in 4 workshops
A: UBICOMP IN THE WILD: DEVELOPING AND DEPLOYING PERVASIVE DISPLAYS
Prof. Nigel Davies, Lancaster University, UK
Dr. Sarah Clinch, Lancaster University, UK
B: EYEWORK: DESIGNING INTERACTIONS WITH EYE MOVEMENTS
Prof. Hans Gellersen, Lancaster University, UK
Dr. Eduardo Velloso, University of Melbourne, Australia
C: COLLABORATION AND PERSONAL DEVICES AROUND INTERACTIVE DISPLAYS
Prof. Giulio Jacucci, University of Helsinki, Finland
Petri Savolainen, HIIT, Finland
D: NEXT GENERATION VIRTUAL REALITY: PERCEPTION MEETS ENGINEERING
Prof. Steven M. LaValle, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Dr. Anna Yershova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

UBISS 2015 (6th International UBI Summer School 2015)

June 8-13, 2015, 56 students from 14 countries in 4 workshops
A: SENSOR-BASED INTELLIGENT MOBILE INTERFACES
Dr. Per Ola Kristensson, University of Cambridge, UK
B: DESIGN FICTIONS FOR DATA GEOGRAPHIES
Associate Prof. Mark Shepard, The State University of New York, USA
C: DESIGNING GAMES FOR THE BODY
Associate Prof. Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller, RMIT University, Australia
D: 3D WEB AND OPEN DATA FOR SMART CITIES HACKATHON
Prof. Timo Ojala, University of Oulu, Finland

UBISS 2014 (5th International UBI Summer School 2014)

June 9-14, 2014, 59 students from 16 countries in 4 workshops
A: DESIGNING URBAN INTERACTIONS FOR PARTICIPATORY PUBLICS
Prof. Martin Brynskov, Aarhus University, Denmark
B: URBAN AUGMENTED REALITY
Prof. Steven Feiner, Columbia University, USA
C: LEARNING FROM PEOPLE TO DESIGN FUTURE “ENJOYING MACHINES”
Prof. Oskar Juhlin, Stockholm University, Sweden
D: DESIGNING BODILY PLAY
Dr. Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller, RMIT University, Australia

UBISS 2013 (4th International UBI Summer School 2013)

June 10-15, 2013, 76 students from 18 countries in 4 workshops
A: EXPERIENCE-DRIVEN DESIGN OF UBIQUITOUS INTERACTIONS IN URBAN SPACES
Prof. Kaisa Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Tampere University of Technology, Finland
Dr. Jonna Häkkilä, University of Oulu, Finland
B: DESIGNING MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY INTERFACES
Prof. Mark Billinghurst, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
C: DEVELOPING UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING DEVICES
Prof. Albrecht Schmidt, University of Stuttgart, Germany
D: URBAN RESOURCE NETWORKS
Prof. Malcolm McCullough, University of Michigan, USA

UBISS 2012 (3rd International UBI Summer School 2012)

May 28-Jun 2, 2012, 51 students from 10 countries in 3 workshops
A: INFORMATION VISUALISATION FOR UBICOMP DATA
Prof. Aaron Quigley, University of St. Andrews, Scotland
B: SUPPORTING COMMUNITY THROUGH INTERACTIVE PUBLIC DISPLAYS
Dr. Keith Cheverst, Lancaster University, UK
D: URBAN SENSORIA: HUMAN-CENTERED COMPUTING IN PRACTICE
Dr. Alejandro ‘Alex’ Jaimes, Yahoo! Research

UBISS 2011 (2nd International UBI Summer School 2011)

May 23-28, 2011, 36 students from 6 countries in 3 workshops
A: OPEN PERVASIVE DISPLAY NETWORKS
Dr. Adrian Friday, Lancaster University, UK
D: EMBEDDED WEB SERVICES
Chief Nerd Zach Shelby, Sensinode Ltd., Finland
E: SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ASPECTS OF NEW MEDIA
Prof. Leopoldina Fortunati, University of Udine, Italy

UBISS 2010 (1st International UBI Summer School 2010)

May 31-Jun 4, 2010, 72 students from 20 countries in 6 workshops
A: REAL WORLD CONTEXT-AWARE SYSTEMS
Prof. Anind Dey, Carnegie-Mellon University, USA
B: URBAN INFORMATICS AND SUSTAINABLE CITIES
Prof. Marcus Foth, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Dr. Jaz Choi, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Patrick Hofmann, Google, Australia
C: URBAN SOCIAL NETWORKS ANALYSIS
Prof. Vassilis Kostakos, University of Madeira, Portugal
D: CREATING AND SHARING ARTISTIC EXPERIENCES WITH UBIQUITOUS TECHNOLOGY
Dr. Jürgen Scheible, Aalto University, Finland
E: IP-BASED WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS
Head of Research Zach Shelby, Sensinode Ltd., Finland
F: INTERACTIVE TEXTURES – RETHINKING MATERIALITY
Prof. Mikael Wiberg, Umeå University, Sweden