UbiComp / ISWC 2023
Keynote Speakers
Opening Keynote – 10th October | Cozumel | 9 am
From Victorian trains to chatbots: exploring AI interface design
Fernanda Viégas

Fernanda Viégas co-leads Google’s PAIR (People+AI Research) initiative and the Big Picture team, part of Google Brain, and she is a Professor of Computer Science at Harvard University. Renowned for her groundbreaking work in data visualization, Prof. Viégas’s contributions have notably impacted the field of social and collaborative visualization. The software systems developed by her team are utilized daily by millions of individuals.
Within the academic realm, she co-leads the renowned Insight and Interaction Lab alongside Professor Martin Wattenberg. Her expertise also extends to her role as a Sally Starling Seaver Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. With a primary focus on machine learning, she is dedicated to enhancing the interaction between humans and AI while simultaneously working toward the democratization of AI technology. She is deeply invested in integrating societal expectations and values into the design and evaluation of AI systems.
Her personal experiences as a Latina with a non-technical background have shaped her commitment to promoting diversity in technological fields. Prof. Viégas actively collaborates with leaders and students, engaging in constructive dialogues and addressing the underrepresentation of women and minorities in computer science.
For further information please visit her personal website.
Martin Wattenberg

Martin Wattenberg is a Professor at Harvard University and a part-time member of the PAIR (People + AI Research) initiative at Google, he dedicated his research to democratizing AI technology and ensuring its alignment with human values.
Together with his long-time collaborator, Fernanda Viégas, he has created user-friendly visualizations for prominent Google products such as Search, YouTube, and Google Analytics.
Prior to his tenure at Google, he and Prof. Viégas established Flowing Media, Inc., a visualization studio that focused on media and consumer-oriented projects. He also held leadership positions at IBM’s Visual Communication Lab, where he spearheaded the development of the groundbreaking Many Eyes public visualization platform. Additionally, he served as the Director of Research and Development at SmartMoney.com, a division of Dow Jones, where he played a pivotal role in pioneering interactive journalism.