We asked CAMERA Research Associate Crescent Jicol to tell us all about his recent trip to the states after having his paper accepted at CHI 2022:

“My first in-person CHI conference, CHI 2022 in New Orleans was definitely the highlight of my last few years as a researcher. This is especially true after two years of Zoom meetings and an online-only CHI last year. My talk ‘Designing and Assessing a Virtual Reality Simulation to Build Resilience to Street Harassment’ was based on a study that was designed and conducted with two of our excellent undergraduate students, Julia Feltham and Jinha Yoon whom I wish to thank and congratulate for their great work.

The talk was well attended and has led to a potential collaboration with the University of Drexel in the US. The conference overall was eye-opening and it demonstrated once again how important close collaboration with your peers is in the pursuit of the best quality and impact of research. New Orleans was definitely not the first place in the USA I imagined I would visit but it managed to surprise me in a good way. Beyond the conference centre, the city impressed with its never ending quirky foods to eat, (including alligator omelette and turtle soup!), and things to do. On the last day we finally visited the swamp where such animals reside and I have to say that I’ll think twice next time before I order a gator omelette! But that may be a tall order anyway in Hamburg where CHI 2023 will be held!”

Crescent visited CHI along with other members of the REVEAL Lab at University of Bath in May 2022. The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). CHI – pronounced ‘kai’ – annually brings together researchers and practitioners from all over the world.

Photo: Crescent Jicol, Izzy Fitton, Alexz Farrall, Cameron Steer