Manuela Chessa

BRIEF CV

I am an Associate Professor in Computer Science at  Dept. of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics, and Systems Engineering of the University of Genoa. I received my MSc in Bioengineering with full marks from the University of Genoa, Italy, in 2005, and the Ph.D. in Bioengineering from the University of Genoa in 2009, under the supervision of Prof. S. P. Sabatini.

My research interests are focused on the study of biological and artificial vision systems, on the development of bioinspired models,  of natural human-machine interfaces based on virtual, augmented, and extended reality, and on the perceptual and cognitive aspects of interaction in VR, AR and XR.

I study the use of sensing technologies (e.g., Microsoft Kinect, Leap Motion, Intel Real Sense, ZED cameras) and of visualization devices (e.g., 3D monitors, head-mounted-displays, mobile devices, video see-through and optical see-through) to develop natural and ecological interaction systems, always having in mind the human perception.

In particular, I am active in studying misperception issues, visual stress, and fatigue that arise by using such systems. Also, User eXperience is a focus of my research.

I have been involved in several national and international research projects (see here for more details).

I am the Principal Investigator of the Perception&Interaction Lab @DIBRIS (PILab), where I supervise 2 PhD students and 2 research associate.

I am the author and co-author of more than 90 peer reviewed scientific papers, both on ISI journal and on International Conferences, of 5 book chapters, and of 2 edited book. More info here and in my Google Scholar page.

Events, Talks and Tutorials

A list of recent events I have coordinated, organized or invited to:

  • Keynote at the 2nd IEEE VR 2023 Workshop on 3D Reconstruction, Digital Twinning, and Simulation for Virtual Experiences (ReDigiTS)
  • Invited talk for XR & Robotics Workshop at IROS 2022 – https://sites.google.com/view/xr-robotics-iros2022/home?authuser=0 Title: “Perceiving and Interacting in Extended Reality
  • Invited talk at Symposium “Perception and (inter)actions in the real world and XR: Virtually the same or really different?” at ECVP2022 (organized by Prof. Constanze Hesse, Martin Giesel
  • Invited Talk (online) at Norwegian Univ. of Science and Technology (Prof. E. Prasolova-Førland) Title: “Is possible to act in XR like in real life? Techniques, solutions and devices for natural interaction in virtual and augmented reality” 7th October 2020
  • Invited talk at Biovision Lab, INRIA Sophia Antipolis (Prof. P. Kornprobst). Title “Visual perception and ecological interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality” 14th January 2020
  • Organizer of the tutorial at  ISMAR2020, 9th November 2020  “Cognitive Aspects of Interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems” (CAIVARS). Check the website for the complete description of topics, list of presenters, and slides.
  • Talk at VRDays 2020. “First Aid Training and Healthcare Simulation in Mixed Reality: multimodal interaction in the real-to-virtual continuum”
  • Co-organizer of the workshop Adaptation and Personalization in Computer Science Education. A workshop at the 28th ACM Conference on User Modeling, Adaptation and Personalization, ACM UMAP 2020, Jul. 14-17, 2020 – Genoa, Italy 
  • Co-organizer of the workshop Active Vision and perception in Human(-Robot) Collaboration AVHRC20 part of RO-MAN2020. Organizer Prof. Dimitri Ognibene, University of Essex, UK.
  • 18th October 2019 Talk “Cognitive and Perceptual Aspects of Interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems” at 4th AWE EU, 17-18 October 2019, Munich, Germany
  • Invited talk to Tutorial Adaptive Vision for Human Robot Collaboration, organized by Dr. Dimitri Ognibene,  25th September 2019 within ICVS2019 COnference. Title of the talk : Talk “Ecological interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality” More info at:https://icvs2019.org/content/tutorials 
  • Invited Talk at Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca – Department of Psychology (Prof.ssa Maria Teresa Guasti). Title: “Visual perception and ecological interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality”. 28th January 2019
  • Guest Editor of the Special Issue “Bioinspired Computer Vision” A special issue of Electronics (ISSN 2079-9292). This special issue belongs to the section “Computer Science & Engineering”. 
  • Program Co-chair of the 4th HUCAPP International Conference on Human Computer Interaction Theory and Applications, part of VISIGRAPP, the  15th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications.
  • Organizer  of a tutorial at  ISMAR2018 16th October 2018  “Cognitive Aspects of Interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems” (CAIVARS). Check the website for the complete description of topics, speakers and for the slides presented during the tutorial.
  • Invited Talk at University of Southern Denmark (Prof. Norbert Kruger). Title: “Visual perception and ecological interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality”. 21st September 2018
  • Invited Talk at Laboratoire I3S, CNRS Sophia Antipolis, France (Prof. Lucile Sassatelli) 25th May 2018
  • Invited talk to Tutorial  Active Vision and Human Robot Collaboration In conjuction with the 19th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP2017), 11 – 12 September 2017, Catania Italy 
  • Workshop Natural human-computer Interaction and ecological perception in immersive Virtual and Augmented Reality (NIVAR2017) – Catania, Italy 11-12th September 2017 In conjuction with the 19th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP2017), 11 or 12 September 2017, Catania Italy 
  • Tutorial Natural Human-Computer-Interaction in Virtual and Augmented Reality (27 February – 1 March, 2017 – Porto, Portugal) In conjunction with the 12th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications – VISIGRAPP 2017
  • Special Session Computer VISION for Natural Human Computer Interaction (VISION4HCI 2016) In conjunction with the 11th International Joint Conference on Computer Vision, Imaging and Computer Graphics Theory and Applications – VISIGRAPP 2016 
  • BMVA meeting Vision for human-computer interaction and virtual reality systems 6th may 2015, London UK
  • Invited Talk at Bank’s Lab, Prof. Martin Banks, UC Berkeley, USA. Title: “Visual perception: from bio-inspired computer vision to natural human-computer interfaces.” 22nd April 2015

 

Last update 26 September 2024