About the UbiComp Conference

UbiComp 2013 will be held in Zurich, Switzerland, on September 8-12, 2013. UbiComp is the leading international conference on Ubiquitous Computing, an interdisciplinary field of research and development that utilizes and integrates pervasive, wireless, embedded, wearable, and mobile technologies to bridge the gap between the digital and the physical world.

The year 2013 represents a fundamental landmark in the history of the UbiComp conference series: The two leading conferences in the field, the International Conference on Pervasive Computing and the International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, have merged into a single event. For the first time, they take place together under the new name of the ACM Joint Conference of Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp).

Just as the two previous conference series, the new forum features a wide range of presentations on applications, systems, infrastructures, methodologies, and tools from researchers around the globe. This year’s conference discusses topics such as how information about the environment can be collected through sensor-equipped smartphones or crowdsourcing, how smart heatings can save energy by tracking the behavior of a building’s residents, or how ubiquitous computing can help teams to collaborate better and families to care for their loved ones over a distance. For a complete overview of this year’s topics, please see the detailed conference program at www.ubicomp.org/ubicomp2013/program.php.

Featuring 92 accepted papers, UbiComp 2013 offers the largest program ever in the history of the two conferences. More than 600 participants from all over the world are expected to come to Zurich in September 2013. This shows that the research community responded positively to the merger, and that the “new UbiComp” already established itself as the new leading venue for presenting research results in Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing.

UbiComp 2013 is co-located with the International Symposium on Wearable Computers (ISWC), which is the worldwide leading forum on wearable computing. ISWC has already been successfully co-located with one of UbiComp’s predecessor conferences in previous years. The co-location allows both research communities to meet, exchange ideas, and enjoy a larger and more diverse program.

UbiComp 2013 takes place on the campus of ETH Zurich, returning to the same venue that once hosted the first event in the Pervasive conference series (Pervasive 2002). The fact that ETH Zurich has been selected as the venue for the first edition of the merged flagship conference also recognizes the distinguished research work that is done in the Ubicomp domain at ETH Zürich, in particular in the research groups of Prof. Friedemann Mattern (Institute for Pervasive Computing) and Prof. Gerhard Tröster (Electronics Laboratory).

For more information on the UbiComp 2013 conference, please visit the conference homepage www.ubicomp.org.

Keynote Speakers

Prof. Markus Gross, of ETH Zurich and Disney Research, will open the conference with a keynote talk entitled Creating the Magic with Information Technology. “In this talk I will demonstrate how innovations in information technology and computational methods are serving as platforms for future content creation,” notes Prof. Gross. “I will emphasize the transformative power of 3D printing, digital fabrication, and our increasing ability to make the whole world responsive and interactive.”
Closing the conference Prof. Thad Starner, of Georgia Institute of Technology and Google Labs, will present the keynote Wearable Computing: Through the Looking Glass. “Google’s Glass has captured the world’s imagination, with new articles speculating on it almost every day. Yet, why would consumers want a wearable computer in their everyday lives?” wonders Prof. Starner. His talk will attempt to articulate the most compelling reasons based on 20 years of research in “living laboratories” and present design principles for creating “microinteractions” to fit a user’s lifestyle.

Conference Sponsors

Organizations that financially contribute to UbiComp 2013 include: Google, Microsoft Research, Intel Labs, and Nokia.

About ACM

ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery, is the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, uniting computing educators, researchers, professionals, and students to inspire dialogue, share resources, and address the field’s challenges. ACM strengthens the computing profession’s collective voice through strong leadership, promotion of the highest standards, and recognition of technical excellence.

About ETH Zurich

ETH Zurich is one of the leading international universities for technology and the natural sciences. It is well-known for its excellent education, ground-breaking fundamental research, and for putting its new findings directly into practice. Founded in 1855, ETH Zurich today has some 18,000 students from all over the world, 3,800 of whom are doctoral students. 21 Nobel Laureates have studied, taught or conducted research at ETH Zurich, underlining the excellent reputation of the institute. ETH Zurich has a long running and successful history of designing computer systems and developing software tools: From 1948-1957 ETH built its own computer “ERMETH”, and first programming labs for students (on Zuse’s Z4 computer) date from 1952. Prof. Heinz Rutishauser, who developed seminal compiler principles as early as in 1951, was part of the team that designed the Algol programming language in 1958, while Turing Award laureate Prof. Niklaus Wirth is best known for his programming language “Pascal” which he designed between 1968 and 1972. Today, more than 30 professors from over 10 countries, about 200 PhD students and research assistants, and over 50 postdocs and senior scientists are active in research and teaching at ETH’s top-ranked Department of Computer Science.

Past Conferences

UbiComp 2012, Pittsburgh (PA), US
Pervasive 2012, Newcastle, UK
UbiComp 2011, Beijing, CN
Pervasive 2011, San Francisco (CA), US
UbiComp 2010, Copenhagen, DK
Pervasive 2010, Helsinki, FI
UbiComp 2009, Orlando (FL), US
Pervasive 2009, Nara, JP
UbiComp 2008, Seoul, KR
Pervasive 2008, Sydney, AU
UbiComp 2007, Innsbruck, AT
Pervasive 2007, Toronto, CA
UbiComp 2006, Orange County (CA), US
Pervasive 2006, Dublin, IE
UbiComp 2005, Tokyo, JP
Pervasive 2005, Munich, DE
UbiComp 2004, Nottingham, UK
Pervasive 2004, Vienna, AT
UbiComp 2003, Seattle (WA), US
UbiComp 2002, Gothenburg, SE
Pervasive 2002, Zurich, CH
UbiComp 2001, Atlanta (GA), US
HUC 2000 (predecessor conference), Bristol, UK
HUC 1999 (predecessor conference), Karlsruhe, DE