Irish HCI Conf (Galway)

The 13th annual Irish Human Computer Interaction conference (iHCI 2019) will take place on Friday 15th of November 2019 at NUI Galway.

Following on from last year’s memorable 12th anniversary conference in the University of Limerick, we are delighted to be able warmly welcome everyone to Galway – Ireland’s friendliest and most charming city.

Registration is free and now open. More details here: https://sites.google.com/view/ihci-2019/home

We would like to invite you to this one-day event that will bring together leading voices from the field of HCI and provide an overview of HCI research in Ireland. Our intention and the ethos of the event is to give everyone the opportunity to engage, exchange ideas and participate.

As in every year, the conference will showcase leading research by researchers in Ireland, 
and by Irish researchers working internationally, with contributions also welcome from PhD students and early career HCI researchers.

The event will also include keynote talks from:

Professor Matt Jones, Swansea University, Wales; “The Robots are Coming – Be Afraid!”
Prof. Stephen Brewster , University of Glasgow; “Designing New Interfaces for Cars”
Rachel O’Donnell, Genesys; “HCI & UX: An Industry Perspective”

Call for Submissions

The Paper Presentation Track

The Paper Presentations Track is a showcase of work by researchers based in Ireland, as well as Irish researchers based internationally, that has been published in leading international HCI venues over the past year (from September 2018 onwards). Examples of venues including CHI, CSCW, ECSCW, PDC, DIS, MobileHCI, NordiCHI, IJHCS, TOCHI, IwC and other highly ranked international conferences and journals. The aim is to give the authors of such work the opportunity to share their research with an Irish audience. We invite submissions from all application domains relevant to HCI, including (but not exclusively): AI/Hybrid systems, Living Environments, Gaming, Education, Interaction Design / UX, Health and Aging, and Digital Health and Wellnesss. We also particularly encourage submissions from PhD students and early career HCI researchers in Ireland. A link to the paper as well as full paper details (title, presenter/author name, abstract, venue presented) should be submitted.

Authors of accepted presentations will be given a three minute presentation slot during the 3MR section of the symposium, or a ten minute presentation in the research presentation track. (Note that preference will be given to internationally published papers to the longer presentation slots, and early stage research to the three minute slots).

The Posters Track

The poster track is intended to display the depth and breadth of HCI research in Ireland and to provide a starting point for new conversations. We encourage submissions that focus on Human-Computer Interaction, broadly defined. A 250 word abstract should be submitted below.

Demo Session

This allows you to present your hands-on demonstration, share novel interactive technologies, and stage interactive experiences. We encourage submissions from any area of human computer interaction, games, entertainment, digital and interactive art, and design. We invite contributions from industry, research, startups, maker communities, the arts, and design. If you have an interesting prototype, device, system, exhibit or installation, we want to know about it.

Submit for any of the above tracks on https://sites.google.com/view/ihci-2019/programme/call-for-partipation

Deadline for submissions (for both tracks): 25 October 2019

(A notification of acceptance and finalisation of the draft programme schedule will follow, based on the number of submissions received one week later.)

Afternoon Design Clinic/Roundtable Session

We hope to introduce an afternoon design clinic / roundtable session back into the event, as per the original event back in 2007. These small group discussions will be facilitated by people with experience within these domains. The sessions may be grouped around a current problem (Design Clinic) or more generally around identifying, articulating, and exploring ill-defined or fuzzy challenges in these specific HCI research areas. They will involve active participation by all participants throughout the discussions as well as in the determination of potential future research directions and the generation of new insights arising from the discussions. Themes include:

*Gaming and Play
*Health, Wellbeing and Aging
*Living Spaces and Cars
*Education
*Interaction Design
*Artificial Intelligence and Hybrid Systems
*Novel Interactions

Register to attend

You can specify your interest in one of the above roundtable sessions when you register to attend https://sites.google.com/view/ihci-2019/programme/registration

 

Graduate Traineeship Programme seeks applicants.

 

Screen Skills Ireland and Animation Skillnet are currently seeking applicants for their next graduate Traineeship Programme for Animation, VFX and Games.

In 2018-19, 15 trainees took part in the programme and were placed in a studio for 6 months.The studios that took part in the last programme included Piranha Bar, Salty Dog Pictures, 3D4 Medical, Turnip and Duck, Jam Media, Cartoon Saloon, TouchPress/StoryToys and Lighthouse Studios.

The programme, which has been running since 2016, has a great track record with over 90% of participants going on to gain further work in the industry either with their host studio or with another studio.

For the 2019-20 programme they aim to take on approximately 10 trainees for a 6 month period (24 weeks). Over the course of the programme, the trainee will work in-house in the studio where they will receive on the job training. In addition to on-the-job training, the trainee will receive additional tailored training through Animation Skillnet and Screen Skills Ireland before they enter the studio and at other agreed times over the 6 months.

The Traineeship programme will commence on Monday 11th November 2019 (with approx. one week of up-front training to include the Schoolism Dublin event https://workshops.schoolism.com/workshops/6/schoolism-live-dublin) and finish on Friday 24th April 2020.

A training allowance/bursary will be made available to participants (400 Euro a week for the 6 months/24 weeks).

Start Date: Monday 11th November 2019

End Date: Friday 24th April 2020

Interested applicants should upload a CV Link or LinkedIn link and showreel/portfolio link to

https://animationskillnet.ie/events/animation-vfx-games-graduate-traineeship-2018-2019-call-for-applications/

Deadline for applications: Wednesday 23rd October 2019 at 5pm

Interviews will be held in late October with Final Selection on Wednesday 6th November 2019.

All applications will be evaluated and shortlisted for interview by a panel of industry experts, in consultation with Screen Skills Ireland/Animation Skillnet.

Please note only those who are shortlisted will be called for interview.​

Game Workers Unite Ireland Survey

Game Workers Unite Ireland are a new organisation which aims to work with everyone employed in the sector to improve working terms and conditions. They are a branch of the Financial Services Union in Ireland.

GWU are currently running a survey to establish what are the key issues workers face. If you are working in games and what to have your say go to https://fsusurvey.typeform.com/to/EgTAy7.

Participation is totally confidential.

You can find some further background on Game Workers Unite Ireland in this article, which features an interview with GWU Ireland coordinator Ellen Cunningham.

For more information, check out  www.gwuireland.org where you can find out more about our charter and what we want to achieve for workers in the sector.

They are also on twitter @GWU_Ireland, and on Facebook @GWUIreland.

Membership is open to everyone working in Games.

Unity Game Developers @ Immersive VR Education, Waterford.

Immersive VR Education are looking for Unity Game Developers to join their Waterford based studio. The successful candidates must have 4+ years of experience and will get to work with an award winning VR development studio.

Duties and Responsibilities:

● Plan, design and implement features that focus on user interactions using Unity as a primary development
tool.
● Translate business requirements to technical concepts.
● Breaking down problems, documenting problem statements and estimating efforts.
● Develop high quality, scalable and robust code.
● Develop technical documentation for internal use.
● Contribute in all phases of the development lifecycle – architecture discussions, design reviews, and code
reviews.
● Quickly create and iterate on prototypes showcasing new designs and interaction patterns.
● Flexible and adaptable, with the ability to align to changing priorities.
● Constantly improve skills and knowledge through self-learning and share with the team to help achieve
overall goals.

 

Essential Knowledge and Skills:

● 4+ years industry experience working with Unity or other game frameworks.
● Computer Science, related degree, or equivalent work experience.
● Strong C# object-oriented programming (Mandatory requirement) & scripting language skills.
● Strong 3D math skills.
● Experience working with game assets (meshes, animations, materials etc).
● Experience profiling and optimizing game and render performance (GPU and CPU).
● Experience working on a physics-based game project.
● Understanding UX design process and experience working with UX design team.
● Excellent problem solving, troubleshooting, and debugging skills.
● Experience with shipped applications on an embedded product or have published applications on an app.
● Experience of working in an Agile SCRUM development environment.
● Excellent Teamwork ethic with the ability to work collaboratively with others (technical and non-technical).
● Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.

 

Desirable:

● Experience with Photon Unity Networking (PUN).
● Experience developing applications using RESTful APIs.
● Experience with delivering code for multiplayer games, having shipped at least 1 complete multiplayer game.
● Knowledge of professional software engineering practices including unit testing, code reviews, source.
control management, build processes, continuous integration, and operations.
● Worked as a gameplay programmer on an established team.
● Experience in any XR platforms such as Google Daydream, Oculus Rift, Gear VR, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, or
● Machine learning or experience with algorithm development.
● Experience using JIRA (or other defect tracking tools).

 

Additional Information: 

● Full-time position.
● Salary to be defined depending on experience.
● 20 days Annual Leave,10 public holidays and closed for Christmas holiday period (which doesn’t affect
your Annual Leave).
● Working 40 hours a week with flexitime.
● No weekend work or overtime.
● Relocation financial assistance available for new hires moving to Ireland.
● Employee medical scheme.
● Employee assistance programme.
● Employee Training & Development Scheme.
● Employee bike to work scheme.
● Employee Referral Program.
● Free snacks, fruit, coffee and tea.
● Waterford City low cost of living and a short commute to work.

NOTE: This position is not suitable for Graduate, Junior or remote workers and having an EU work permit is desirable.

 

To apply email your CV to: careers@immersivevreducation.com

Job Opening: Graphic Designer for Network In Play (Maynooth/remote)

The deadline for applications for this position has now passed.

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Network in Play are looking to hire a graphic designer, part time, to create a document visualizing and communicating the findings from our research project for different audiences.

Role

This job includes working with the researchers to define the project requirements and then creating graphics and layouts. You will shape the visual aspects of the document(s) which will be available in downloadable PDF format from www.gamedevelopers.ie/diversity and the main project website www.refig.ca. The goal is to attract and inform a range of audiences including: educators, researchers, and the general public.

Responsibilities

  • Develop a visual concept based on the research findings and materials in accordance with the project requirements
  • Prepare rough drafts and present ideas
  • Develop illustrations and other designs using software or by hand
  • Use the appropriate colours and layouts for each graphic
  • Work with project co-ordinators to produce final design
  • Amend designs after feedback
  • Ensure final graphics and layouts are visually appealing

Requirements

  • Proven graphic designing experience
  • A strong portfolio of illustrations or other graphics,
  • Familiarity with design software and technologies (such as InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Photoshop)
  • A keen eye for aesthetics and details
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Ability to meet deadlines
  • Degree in Design, Fine Arts or related field

Desirable:

  • Experience of data visualisation
  • Experience designing educational materials for adults

Dates and duration:

This role is available on a part time basis but the work needs to be completed by mid November 2019. The work can be done remotely although at least one face to face meeting will be required.

Pay:
The role will be paid in line with public sector pay rates and experience. The successful candidate must be tax compliant and will be paid through the university.

How to apply:

If you have excellent visual communication skills, work well in a team, and deliver to a deadline we would like to hear from you.

Please send a letter of application, a CV and links to three previous projects to network-in-play-crafting-diversity-in-games@googlegroups.com by the deadline.

Deadline for application: Friday 11st of Oct, 2019 at 18.00.

Please note: This is a re-advertisement of a position initially advertised in May 2019. 

About ReFig and Network in Play

The goal of the Network In Play project is to create games related events that put equity, inclusion and diversity at the centre.

This is both an academic research project and an engaged community project established by Dr. Aphra Kerr (Maynooth university and gd.ie) and Vicky Twomey-Lee (Coding Grace). Our project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada via the ReFiG project. The ReFig project is ‘committed to promoting diversity and equity in the game industry and culture and effecting real change in a space that has been exclusionary to so many’.

The project began in Feb 2016 and we will complete our activities during 2019.  We have designed and run a series of female friendly workshops that explicitly tried to address issues of diversity in games.

More info: https://gamedevelopers.ie/diversity/