UbiComp / ISWC 2026
Keynotes
Keynotes
Keynote Speakers
Tarek Abdelzaher
Abdelzaher received his PhD from the University of Michigan 1999. He is presently a Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Professor of Computer Science and a Willett Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC), with over 450 refereed publications in Real-time and Embedded Computing, Sensor Networks, IoT, and Edge AI, and an H-index of 101. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Real-Time Systems for 15 years, and as an Associate Editor of multiple journals including IEEE TMC, IEEE TPDS, ACM ToSN, ACM TIoT, and ACM ToIT. He also chaired several top conferences in his field, including RTSS, Sensys, Infocom, ICDCS, IPSN, RTAS, DCoSS, and ICAC. Abdelzaher received the IEEE Outstanding Technical Achievement and Leadership Award in Real-time Systems (2012), a Xerox Research Award (2011), and over 15 best/distinguished paper awards. He is a fellow of IEEE and ACM.
Yunhao Liu
Yunhao Liu, ACM Fellow , IEEE Fellow, Chair Professor at Tsinghua University. He also served as the Dean of School of Software in Tsinghua, and the MSU Foundation Professor and the Chairperson of Department of Computer Science and Engineering in Michigan State University. Yunhao received Hong Kong ICT Best Innovation and Research Award Grand Prize 2007, Second Class National Natural Science Award 2011, ACM Presidential Award 2013, CCF Wang Xuan Award 2022, China Ministry of Education First Class Technological Innovation Award 2023, China Ministry of Education First Class Natural Science Award 2025, as well as many best paper awards including ACM MobiCom 2014 best paper award, ACM SenSys 2021 Best Paper Award, SIGCOMM 2021 Best Student Paper Award, and ACM SenSys 2023 Test of Time Award and IEEE PerCom 2026 Test of Time Award.
EIOT: Prediction in the loop and Practical Reason of Computation
Steve Hodges
Steve is a Distinguished Professor at Lancaster University where he creates new digital devices, tools and experiences that change what people do with technology. His work has received six lasting impact awards, including four at UbiComp, and has contributed directly to around 15 million devices with over 70 million users in 190 countries. Steve is a fellow of the ACM, the IEEE and the IET and a member of the ACM SIGCHI Academy. He has been awarded the IET Mountbatten Medal, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Education and an honorary doctorate from Hasselt University.
From Prototyping to Isotyping: Scaling Hardware Research for Deeper Insight and Impact
Innovative hardware prototypes are a cornerstone of ubiquitous computing research, but relatively few result in devices with lasting impact. Drawing on several projects I’ve been involved in over the past 30 years, I observe that the most impactful ones often involve building not just one or two device prototypes, but tens or hundreds of copies. By deploying these with early adopters and sharing them with other researchers we can create communities of users who in turn generate richer research insights and drive deeper impact.