Speakers

Maria Cecilia Calani Baranauskas Thumbnail Image

Maria Cecilia Calani Baranauskas
PhD

Cecilia Baranauskas is Full Professor at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), in Brazil, currently affiliated as Collaborator in the Institute of Computing, where she developed her academic career, and at the Computer Science Graduate Program of the Federal University of Paraná (PPGInf UFPR). Co-founder and former Director of the Nucleus of Informatics Applied to Education (NIED), at UNICAMP, she is an honorary member of the Brazilian Academy of Educational Technology (abte.org.br) and Member of the Governing Board of UNESCO Institute for Information Technology in Education (IITE).

Her formal education and academic collaboration include Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics, Bachelor's and Master's in Computer Science and Doctorate in Electrical Engineering at UNICAMP, Brazil (1993). She was entitled Honorary Research Fellow at Staffordshire University (2001) and Visiting Fellow at University of Reading, UK, working at the Applied Informatics with Semiotics Laboratory (2002). She also received an Ibero-American Chair Unicamp-Santander to study accessibility issues in software engineering at the Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain (2006).

Senior Lecturer of The Brazilian Computing Society (SBC), appointed by the SBC Special Committee in Human-Computer Interaction, she is one of the authors of the very first HCI book written in Brazilian Portuguese. She has also served the Technical Committee on Human- Computer Interaction (TC13) Board of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing) as the Brazilian Representative (2002 – 2007). Her research interests have focused on proposing a socially aware computing perspective for the analysis, design and evaluation of technologybased environments, leading several research projects in the theme. She was also one of the proponents and promoter of one of the Grand Challenges in Computer Science Research in Brazil (2006-2016) – The Participative and Universal Access to Knowledge for the Brazilian Citizen, which had a remarkable impact in the academic communities of Computers in Education and Human- Computer Interaction, among other areas.

As a result of her contributions throughout her career, Cecilia has received different national and international awards, such as the Diploma of Educational Merit "Prof. Darcy Ribeiro" in 2006, the ACM SIGDOC Rigo Award in 2010, the 1st HCI Outstanding Career Award in 2015, the Academic Recognition "Zeferino Vaz" in 2016, and the ACM SIGCHI Social Impact Award 2021. She holds a Research Productivity Scholarship from The Nacional Council for Research (CNPq).

Curriculum Vitae at http://lattes.cnpq.br/1750385790843118

J. Alfredo Sánchez Thumbnail Image

J. Alfredo Sánchez
PhD

Alfredo Sánchez is a researcher at the National Laboratory of Advanced Informatics (LANIA), in Xalapa, Mexico, where he currently conducts work in the areas of user experience, human-computer interaction (HCI), assistive technologies for deaf people, and animal-computer interaction. He holds MSc and PhD degrees in computer science from Texas A&M University, and a BEng degree in computer systems from Universidad de las Américas Puebla (UDLAP).

For over twenty years, Dr. Sánchez was a professor of computer science at UDLAP, where he founded and directed the Laboratory of Interactive and Cooperative Technologies (ICT Lab). He has been advisor and mentor to several dozens of graduate students in areas such as information visualization, natural user interfaces and learning technologies. He also has been a visiting professor at the University of Waikato, New Zealand, visiting scientist at the Center for Botanical Informatics of the Missouri Botanical Garden, and visiting scholar at Shanghai University's Institute of Smart Cities. Prof. Sánchez serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Internet Services and Applications, and the International Journal of Digital Libraries. He has served as president of the Mexican Society of Computer Science (SMCC). Currently, he is a member of Mexico’s National System of Researchers (SNI).

Prof. Sánchez cofounded CLIHC, the Latin American Conference on HCI, LAIHC, the SIGCHI’s Latin American Community of HCI, as well as MexIHC, the Mexican Conference on HCI, and AMexIHC, the Mexican Association of HCI. More at jalfredosanchez.com.

Heidy Maldonado Thumbnail Image

Heidy Maldonado
PhD

Dr. Heidy Maldonado leads Research for Osmo, a company that focuses on creating tangible educational experiences for children across a wide range of subjects and ages. In this role she directs studies in fields ranging from data science to psychology. She graduated with a PhD from Stanford University after completing research that combined Education, Computer Science, Statistics, and Organizational Behavior.

Dr. Maldonado's research has focused on patterns of appropriation of digital-physical hybrid technologies in several collaborative educational settings. She has carried out research studies in Japan, Sweden, China, India, Brazil, and Venezuela.

Dr. Maldonado graduated with a Bachelor and Masters' degrees in Computer Science developing computer characters and robotic assistants for international settings as varied as healthcare, education, and commerce. In addition, she completed a Master of Arts in Latin American Studies centered in understanding the barriers and opportunities for internet entrepreneurship in Latin America. Dr. Maldonado has collaborated with groups at the MIT Media Lab as a Visiting Scholar, as well as with NTT Japan, and Omron Corporation.