About Us

University of Lille is one of the leading science universities in France. CRIStAL (Research center in Computer Science, Signal and Automatic Control of Lille) is a laboratory (UMR 9189) of the National Center for Scientific Research, University of Lille and Centrale Lille. CRIStAL is composed of about 430 members (228 permanent staff and more than 200 non-permanent staff). Main CRIStAL Research activities involve topics related to major scientific and social issues such as Big Data, software, image and its uses, human-computer interaction, robotics, control and supervision of large systems, intelligent vehicle systems, bio-informatics with applications in retails, technologies for health, smart grids.

The BCI team of CRIStAL has been developing Brain-Computer Interfaces for more than 15 years and includes six permanent members. Their areas of expertise are relatively diverse, ranging from signal processing and data analysis to HMI development and user-centered design. Hakim Si-Mohammed, recently recruited on an Associate Professor permanent position, has skills in both BCI and virtual reality, making him the ideal researcher to manage a project like GENESIS.

Inria is the French national research institute for digital science and technology. World-class research, technological innovation and entrepreneurial risk are its DNA. In 200 project teams, most of which are shared with major research universities, more than 3,500 researchers and engineers explore new paths, often in an interdisciplinary manner and in collaboration with industrial partners to meet ambitious challenges.

As a technological institute, Inria supports the diversity of innovation pathways: from open source software publishing to the creation of technological startups (Deeptech). Inria will contribute expertise in virtual/augmented reality technologies, multi-sensory rendering techniques, 3D user interfaces, and integration of BCI with VR/AR technologies.

The Sensing, Interaction & Perception research laboratory (SIPLAB) at ETH Zürich investigates the interface between the virtual world and the physical world of people and objects. This interface is enriched by sensing technologies, new modes and models of interaction, and our understanding of users. Our work lies at the foundation of perception and interaction and brings ideas to reality by building, deploying and evaluating working prototypes in situated settings. The SIPLAB contributes to the wider Human-Computer Interaction community, including work on Computational Interaction, Virtual Reality, Ubiquitous Computing, Biomedical Engineering and Precision Healthcare.

The SIPLAB is part of the Institute of Intelligent Interactive Systems at the Department of Computer Science, ETH Zürich. Our particular expertise lies in the tight integration of physiological computing with interactive systems in emerging mixed reality scenarios, including augmented and virtual reality, as well as cross-device scenarios involving mobile devices

The team consists of Prof. Metin Sezgin (PI, h-index 22), Prof. Engin Erzin (h-index 25), and Prof. Yücel Yemez (h-index 28). Dr. Sezgin’s expertise is in the field of Intelligent User Interfaces. His work collected over 2200 citations. He completed his PhD at MIT, where he developed machine learning techniques for supporting intelligent interaction. During his 3-year-long postdoctoral term at the University of Cambridge, he worked on multimodal technologies for affective interaction. He arrived at Koç University in 2009 and established the Intelligent User Interfaces Laboratory. He extended his expertise to other areas of interaction, including gesture and speech-based interfaces, gaze-based interfaces, haptic interfaces and human-robot interaction. He supervised three postdocs, and over 25 MS and PhD thesis students to develop unimodal and multimodal systems, with a specific emphasis on psychology inspired, data driven systems based on machine learning.

The KU team (Prof. Sezgin, Prof. Erzin, and Prof. Yemez) have extensive experience in developing and applying cutting edge machine learning methods to multimodal signal processing problems in human-computer, and human-robot interfaces.

The University of Essex is committed to two things: Excellence in teaching and excellence in research. It is the UK's leading university in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships, Innovate UK's flagship programme. Our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering (CSEE) comprises more than 78 academics, 57 fixed-term research staff and more than 100 PhD students, making it one of the largest in the UK. CSEE has a long tradition of research in Artificial Intelligence and Communications and has expanded its research portfolio in recent years to include the strategic areas of Robotics and Embedded Systems, Brain-Computer Interfaces and Neural Engineering (BCI-NE), and Health. CSEE was ranked 6th in UK for research power in computer science in REF 2021 (Times Higher Education research power measure), and 9th for research impact (Grade Point Average).

The BCI-NE lab at CSEE was established in 2004 and is now one of the largest in the world. Its mission is to conduct theoretical research that improves our understanding of the brain and neural systems, and to translate this knowledge into engineering principles and applications to repair, replace and enhance such systems. It has extensive experience with non-invasive interfaces for communication and rehabilitation, as well as for cognitive augmentation. The lab is a valuable resource for our scientists working in the growing field of neural technology research for people with and without disabilities.