UbiComp / ISWC 2026
Teenager show
Overview
The Teenager Show at UbiComp/ISWC 2026 is a premier showcase program for technology innovation in ubiquitous computing and human-computer interaction. The program features posters highlighting creative, hands-on technology projects developed by teenagers, including middle and high school students. It provides a dedicated platform for young innovators to share their ideas and projects with an international community of researchers and professionals working in ubiquitous computing, interactive technology, mobile and wearable computing, and related fields.
Schedule
| Venue | Time | Topic | Presenter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conference Registration | 9:00-10:00 | Registration & Posters Pickup | |
| Yangtze Hall | 9:00-10:00 | Posters Setup | |
| Yangtze Hall | 10:00-10:30 | Organizer & Program Introduction | Sizhen Bian, Yanmin Zhu |
| Yangtze Hall | 10:30-11:05 |
Opening Keynote: Making Magic with Ubiquitous Computing
(30 mins talk + 5 mins Q&A) |
James Scott |
| Yangtze Hall | 11:05-11:40 |
Opening Keynote: Never Stop Taking the Toy Apart: A Journey from Impossible Machines to Intelligent Spaces
(30 mins talk + 5 mins Q&A) |
Sumi Helal |
| Yangtze Hall | 11:40-12:00 | Attendance Certification Distribution | Sizhen Bian |
| / | 12:00-13:30 | Lunch Outside | |
| Yangtze Hall | 13:30-16:30 | Poster Discussion | All Authors |
| Yangtze Hall | 16:30-17:30 | Close | Lin Gu, Jiasheng Li |
Chairs
Yanmin Zhu
Shanghai Jiao Tong University, CN
Sizhen Bian
Northwestern Polytechnical University, CN
Lin Gu
Tohoku University, JP
Jiasheng Li
University of Maryland, College Park, US
Opening Keynote 1. 10:30-11:05 Sunday 11 Oct, Yangtze Hall.
James Scott
James Scott is a researcher, engineer and technology leader specialising in ubiquitous computing and hands-on prototyping. After a PhD at Cambridge University, he worked at Intel Research and Microsoft Research, building and field-testing novel interactive devices. His award-winning research spans location-aware systems (Place Lab), smart home energy optimisation (PreHeat) and the .NET Gadgeteer maker platform. While at Microsoft he helped launch Azure Sphere, a high-security IoT platform, and became its product leader. He is an inventor with over 60 patents, and a recipient of the ACM SIGMOBILE Test of Time Award. He was a founding editor of PACM IMWUT and has chaired the UbiComp/Pervasive steering committee.
Making Magic with Ubiquitous Computing
Opening Keynote 2. 11:05-11:40 Sunday 11 Oct, Yangtze Hall.
Abdelsalam Ali Helal
Abdelsalam (Sumi) Helal is a full Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Bologna. Before joining UNIBO, he spent 26 years at the University of Florida, where he directed the Mobile and Pervasive Computing Laboratory and co-founded the Gator Tech Smart House. His research focuses on IoT architectures, edge intelligence, and human-centric pervasive systems, especially in digital health. He is an entrepreneur who has founded multiple IoT and digital health startups, with technologies licensed to major global tech companies. Prof. Helal is a Fellow of ACM, IEEE, AAAS, AAIA, and IET, and a member of Academia Europaea and the US National Academy of Inventors.
Never Stop Taking the Toy Apart: A Journey from Impossible Machines to Intelligent Spaces
When I was a teenager, I wanted to be an inventor. Unfortunately, many of my inventions had one small problem: they could not possibly work. I was fascinated by perpetual-motion machines and kept designing them despite the inconvenient laws of physics. I also had a habit of taking apart my toys, extracting their electric motors, and building entirely different toys around them.
I eventually discovered that curiosity and imagination are not enough. My journey through graduate school, first at Penn State and later at Purdue University, was humbling. I had to strengthen my foundations, learn mathematics more deeply, acquire new technical skills, and discover how scientific knowledge could transform imaginative ideas into research.
But I never stopped taking the toy apart.
That instinct eventually led my students and me to rethink how mobile devices could communicate while moving rapidly through wireless networks, to build the Gator Tech Smart House and explore a world in which computing disappears into our everyday environments, and today to ask whether intelligent spaces have a language of their ownโone that machines can learn and understand.
In this talk, I will share some stories from that journey: ideas that failed, lessons that changed me, inventions that worked, and questions that remain unanswered. My message to the young researchers of the first UbiComp Teenager Show is simple: do not be embarrassed by ideas that seem impossible. Learn why they are impossible. Build the knowledge and skills needed to challenge your own ideas. And never lose the curiosity that made you want to take the toy apart in the first place.
I eventually discovered that curiosity and imagination are not enough. My journey through graduate school, first at Penn State and later at Purdue University, was humbling. I had to strengthen my foundations, learn mathematics more deeply, acquire new technical skills, and discover how scientific knowledge could transform imaginative ideas into research.
But I never stopped taking the toy apart.
That instinct eventually led my students and me to rethink how mobile devices could communicate while moving rapidly through wireless networks, to build the Gator Tech Smart House and explore a world in which computing disappears into our everyday environments, and today to ask whether intelligent spaces have a language of their ownโone that machines can learn and understand.
In this talk, I will share some stories from that journey: ideas that failed, lessons that changed me, inventions that worked, and questions that remain unanswered. My message to the young researchers of the first UbiComp Teenager Show is simple: do not be embarrassed by ideas that seem impossible. Learn why they are impossible. Build the knowledge and skills needed to challenge your own ideas. And never lose the curiosity that made you want to take the toy apart in the first place.
Program Expert Viewers
1. Xingwei Wang, Beihang University, Chine
2. Jiasheng Zhang, SooChow University, China
3. Xiaoteng Pan, Nankai University, China
4. Xiaochen Li, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
5. Chenqing Ji, Peking University, China