User Interface, Visualisation and Analytics Dr Barrett Ens

Barrett is a Lecturer at Monash University in the Data Visualisation and Immersive Analytics Research Lab, and currently serves as Director of Engagement for the Department of Human-Centred Computing. While completing his PhD at the University of Manitoba, Barrett undertook two research internships with the User Interface Research Group. He later held an NSERC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship as a member of the Empathic Computing Lab at the University of South Australia.

Barrett’s current research focuses on interacting with data in immersive environments, with an aim of improving the productivity of interaction to enable more complex and useful systems. This research explores how to take advantage of human spatial abilities to for manipulating and understanding information beyond the confines of traditional flat displays. Maturing technologies such as augmented reality (AR), the internet of things (IoT) and wearable computing devices allow us to begin integrating computing activities into the physical world. This fundamental change in interface design will provide new opportunities to interact with smart environments, explore large data sets, and solve everyday problems.