UCLIC's History
UCLIC is a successor to the Ergonomics Unit, which was founded in the mid-1960s as an intercollegiate organisation with its UCL roots in Engineering. The concerns at this time were focused on the physical environment (heat, lighting, stress, etc. – hence it being appropriate to take Masters students down a pit!). As interests shifted more towards the cognitive, the Ergonomics Unit moved to be associated with the Psychology Department, under the leadership of John Long, and flourished until John’s retirement in 2001. In 2010, Ann Blandford (UCLIC Director) and Alistair Sutcliffe (Visiting Professor) edited a Festschrift for John and collated informal tributes to him, while Rachel Benedyk has provided an informal history of the Unit.
As interests shifted more to interaction with computer systems, so the focus of research and teaching shifted towards HCI. So it was a natural development, on John’s retirement, for Computer Science to become involved. And so in 2001, UCLIC was born, initially under the Directorship of Harold Thimbleby. Ann Blandford took over as Director in 2004, when Harold moved to Swansea to found the Future Interaction Technologies Laboratory (FIT Lab) there. UCLIC moved, physically, from a leased office block near Tottenham Court Road to the main campus in 2008, where it is co-located with Computer Science. Research, teaching and interactions with industry are all flourishing, as summarised here in this history that was written by Ann Blandford for The Ergonomist. Visitors are welcome – and not just to admire the view!
Page last modified on 16 apr 13 16:25 by Rowanne Fleck
