Making Quantum Computing Open: Lessons from Open-Source Projects

Quantum computing (QC) is an emerging computing paradigm with potential to revolutionize the field of computing. QC is a field that is quickly developing globally and has high barriers of entry. In this paper we explore both successful contributors to the field as well as wider QC community with the goal of understanding the backgrounds and training that helped them succeed. We gather data on 148 contributors to open-source quantum computing projects hosted on GitHub and survey 46 members of QC community. Our findings show that QC practitioners and enthusiasts have diverse backgrounds, with most of them having a PhD and trained in physics or computer science. We observe a lack of educational resources on quantum computing. Our goal for these findings is to start a conversation about how best to prepare the next generation of QC researchers and practitioners

Could Systemic Design Methods Support Sustainable Design of Interactive Systems?

The power of artefacts to reflect our culture and influence us as individuals, as highlighted by Understanding Material Culture (Woodward, 2007) shows the importance of design in the ecological transition, a major issue in our society. Although sustainability cannot be based on technological solutions (Bremer et al., 2022), it should be a central concern of human-computer interactive systems design (Blevis, 2007). In Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Systems Engineering (SE), current efforts for a more sustainable world focus on the energy efficiency of a system, optimising its lifecycle and encouraging users to save energy. Some voices in the HCI community recognise that the current approach, which focuses on the material impact of artefacts, is reductive and insufficient in the face of this systemic problem (Knowles et al., 2018). It misses the opportunity to facilitate a necessary change in societal practices. In fact, Sustainable HCI projects attempt to respond to problems that have not been clearly formulated (Rivière, 2021), and the community struggles to develop tools and methods for this purpose. Systemic design, an emerging practice resulting from the combination of design and systems thinking, has developed methods for addressing complex problems. This paper proposes to draw inspiration from these methods to apprehend the systemic dimension of the ecological transition in the design of interactive systems, particularly in the formulation of the problem and the objectives. However, these methods and tools are designed by and for ‘systemic designers’. These, unlike interactive system designers, operate primarily at the scale of organizations and social systems (through policy, strategic decisions, etc.) within the framework of design 3.0 and 4.0 as described by Jones & van Patter (2009). This paper argues that the unit of analysis can be decorrelated from the unit of intervention, i.e. one can study and target a problem at the scale of a socio-technical system (such as the agriculture sector) and only intervene at the scale of an interactive system (e.g. agricultural robot). It is a question of understanding the contexts in which the designed system will be placed and its possible impacts at scale so as to avoid simplistic solutions that could be counterproductive (e.g. rebound effect). This difference in the scale of the unit of intervention implies that the tools of systemic designers must be adapted to the needs of interactive system designers. The authors suggest the use of ‘quali-quantitative’ modelling

Strip-TIC : exploring augmented paper strips for Air Traffic Controllers

International audienceThe current environment used by French air traffic controllers mixes digital visualization such as radar screens and tangible artifacts such as paper strips. Tangible artifacts do not allow controllers to update the system with the instructions they give to pilots. Previous attempts at replacing them in France failed to prove efficient. This paper is an engineering paper that describes Strip-TIC, a novel system for ATC that mixes augmented paper and digital pen, vision-based tracking and augmented rear and front projection. The system is now working and has enabled us to run workshops with actual controllers to study the role of writing and tangibility in ATC. We describe the system and solutions to technical challenges due to mixing competing technologies

Of Models, Rationales and Prototypes: Studying Designer Needs in an Airborne Maritime Surveillance Drawing Tool to Support Audio Communication

International audienceIn this work, we seek to understand the needs of interaction designers involved in industrial system engineering processes. While current research offers a set of methods and tools for them, we believe that more empirical user studies focusing on designers are needed, in particular to support how model-based activity analysis may inform their decisions. Our designers’ need analysis is conducted through participatory design and contextual inquiry, and applied through a real use-case project: a distributed tactile tool for airborne maritime surveillance. Thanks to this study, we report on our insights on the usability problems and needs related in particular to scenario-based modeling, model-based design rationales and design-based model refinement

Etude exploratoire du stylo électronique pour le contrôle aérien

International audienceCurrent environment used by air traffic controllers mixes digital visualizations (radar screen), and tangible systems with paper strip. Despite the fact that paper strip are robust, flexible and complementary to the radar screen, authorities decided to abandon it in the profit of digital strip. The main issue of paper strip is that the system does not have access to the information written on it. In this paper, we studied an alternative solution with hybrids Anoto pens with contiuous streaming. We first retrieved important tasks performed by air traffic controller, second, we investigated to find out efficient interaction paradigm for their activity. Finally, we developed and assessed an operational prototype with new functionalities. This suggests that it is possible to retain advantages of existing paper strip while informing informatics systems and improving interaction

Genoscape: a Cytoscape plug-in to automate the retrieval and integration of gene expression data and molecular networks

Summary: Genoscape is an open-source Cytoscape plug-in that visually integrates gene expression data sets from GenoScript, a transcriptomic database, and KEGG pathways into Cytoscape networks. The generated visualisation highlights gene expression changes and their statistical significance. The plug-in also allows one to browse GenoScript or import transcriptomic data from other sources through tab-separated text files. Genoscape has been successfully used by researchers to investigate the results of gene expression profiling experiments

Human factors evaluation of tangible devices for airplane cockpit

In airliner cockpits, pilots interact with aircraft systems via specialized interfaces, grouped into functional units and displayed on different screens dedicated to each of the crew’s main activities. They operate these systems and digital displays with physical controllers: buttons, switches, pulls, joysticks… (Vinot et al. 2016). Recently, many aircraft manufacturers and suppliers have proposed innovative cockpit concepts based on the use of touch screens (Alapetite et al. 2012). The touch cockpit concept allows manufacturers to offer high-performance, adaptive (to the flight context and the new needs of air transport), and generic product lines to address civil or military avionics. However, contrary to current physical interactors, whose perception and manipulation are also promoted via the sense of touch and proprioception, the touchscreen interfaces suffer severe limitations in operational settings: they place a high demand on the visual channel to adjust the actions, thus eyes- free interaction is nearly impossible [ 8]; they are extremely complex to use during turbulent conditions (Cockburn et al. 2017); perception of the information can be difficult because the screen can get dirty or because of the presence of smoke in the cockpit (Vinot et al. 2016); and their usability is markedly reduced by stress or cognitive overload (Boy 2012). A possible avenue to improve the safety and efficiency of touch-based interaction in the cockpit can be to combine the advantages of touchscreen interfaces and physical controllers into tangible devices (Del Castillo and Couture 2016)

Former les futurs concepteurs de systèmes Homme-Machine complexes

L'ingénierie des systèmes homme-machine implique la définition des besoins des utilisateurs en tant qu'éléments de l'architecture du système. Or l'analyse des pratiques industrielles dans la conception des systèmes complexes met en évidence des problèmes dans la prise en compte de l'utilisateur. Ces problèmes semblent insuffisamment traités par l'apport de cours d'analyse du besoin ou de conception d'IHM. En tant que formateurs de futurs concepteurs de systèmes homme-machine complexes, nous proposons une réponse à ces problèmes par la définition d'un nouvel enseignement en ingénierie des systèmes hommemachine complexes. Cet article présente la conception de cet enseignement, issue d'une réflexion sur les disciplines de l'analyse fonctionnelle, la conception participative et l'approche orientée objet, et menée à la lumière de quatre exigences : définir l'usage, susciter la co-évolution besoin-solution, définir de façon exhaustive les caractéristiques techniques, formaliser les besoins

Tangible Encoding of Temporal Data in Air Traffic Control

In this position paper, we describe a tangible de sign to support temporal processes in Air Traffic Control. We discuss how we balanced between physical and digital allocation of time - related features, relying on cognitive studies that show how physical space and physical objects manipulation support the encoding of real - time and planification concerns

Catherine Letondal : Interaction et programmation, Thèse en informatique de l’université de Paris-Sud (Paris XI), 27 septembre 2001

Letondal Catherine. Catherine Letondal : Interaction et programmation, Thèse en informatique de l’université de Paris-Sud (Paris XI), 27 septembre 2001. In: Sciences et techniques éducatives, volume 8 n°3-4, 2001. Interaction homme-machine pour la formation et l'apprentissage humain, sous la direction de Elisabeth Delozanne et Pierre Jacobini. pp. 456-457