The annual SPP2199 Winter school retreat was held in Varel from the 6th to the 10th of March 2023. The five-day hybrid event provided an opportunity for thirty-five researchers from the priority program and guests to exchange ideas and update each other on the progress of each project. Also attending the retreat were incoming researchers for new and extended projects.
PhD students in attendance presented posters of their most recent publications, their main PhD topics and some of their ongoing work for critique and advice from their peers and consortium members.
PhD Students during the interactive posters session.
There were also workshops and group assignments to discuss the various dimensions of scalability, metrics for measuring scalability in pervasive computing environments and methods for studying scalable environments.
Additionally, Barry Brown from the University of Copenhagen & Stockholm University gave a keynote address on Scale and Anti-Scale bolstered by one of his seminal publications, “Does HCI scale?: scale hacking and the relevance of HCI”
Apart from the academic and professional activities, attendants were also treated to two fun activities with a Niedersachsen flair. The first was a mini Kohl fahrt (cabbage tour) to the Varel harbor, culminating in a hearty meal of grünkohl, kassler and pinkel. The second was as relaxing as it was educational — a trip to the Bremerhaven Klimahaus where we spent an afternoon experiencing the climates of different places around the world from the confines of the Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8 ° Ost building.
Participants during the 2 Excursions
Finally, on the last night, P.I’s and PhD students had the opportunity to socialise and share career plus life advice in a relaxed setting.
The primary outcomes from the winter school were, planned joint publications in areas of scalability, proposals on activities to incorporate into the next edition of the winter school and strengthening of synergies among participants, even those in different priority programs, with the understanding that their work has many intersections and similarities which ultimately benefit from increased cooperation and collaboration.
| Monday, 06.03. | Tuesday, 07.03. | Wednesday, 08.03. | Thursday, 09.03. | Friday, 10.03. | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| before 09 | Travel / Arrival | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | Breakfast | |
| 9 | Project Presentations | Keynote | RA 2 Metrics scalable pervasive computing environments | RA 3 Methods for studying of scalable pervasive environments | Plenary RA2 and RA3 | |
| 10 | Poster Presentations Rotation 1 | Workshop Dimensions of Scalability | ||||
| 11 | Poster Presentations Rotation 2 | Plenary Dimensions of Scalability | Closing | |||
| 12 | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | Lunch | ||
| 13 | PI Meeting | Travel to BHV | ||||
| 14 | Informal Coffee Chat | Dimensions of Scalability | Excursion Klimahaus BHV | RA 2 Metrics scalable pervasive computing environments | RA 3 Methods for studying of scalable pervasive environments | Departure |
| 15 | Workshop Dimensions of Scalability | |||||
| 16 | Welcome and goal of the school | Cabbage Tour | ||||
| 17 | Welcome new students | |||||
| 19 | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | Dinner | ||
| 20 | Informal gathering at the bar | Board Game Night | Informal gathering at the bar | Informal gathering at the bar | ||
| 21 | ||||||