Being a user-centered engineer, with a social and psychological background, I very much liked to increase my knowledge "to understand humans' co-adaptive relationship with technology (e.g., embodied cognition, extended mind, distributed cognition)", as the course description stated. I’m curious how peoples minds and body interact with technology, to finally better understand what is important in designing interfaces for instance. As such I applied for this course, organized by the department 'Human Technology Interaction'. 

In this elective, we were introduced to the basic principles of cognitive systems including embodied and embedded interaction, ubiquitous computing, affective computing, tangible interaction, gesture-based interaction, natural user interfaces, and virtual/augmented reality. Lectures and literature addressed the co-evolving relationship between human minds and bodies on the one hand, and interactive technologies on the other, highlighting the ways in which technology can support and leverage, but also constrain and limit, human thought and experience.

We discussed those topics by debates in class and in small groups, and we wrote a story about future developments regarding ubiquitous computing and growing artificial intelligence and how this will influence our life, which means you really have to empathize with it. Finally, the course was finished by a written exam as well.

Below we see a picure of the robot Sophia who is already given human rights by Saudi-Arabia.

Achievements

I really enjoyed this elective, although computing isn’t a topic of highest interest, I now have a deeper understanding of the main trends and developments in cognitive engineering and interface design ‘beyond the desktop’, including its application in relevant contexts (e.g., work, home, healthcare, automotive). Now I also understand  bi-directional, and the co-evolving relationship between human minds and interactive technologies, and I gained knowledge about embodied, embedded and extended views of human cognition, which I found very interesting, imagining a field of possible healthcare applications, for instance.

The assignments and debates supported understanding and ability to discuss the effects of media technology on user experience, also from an ethical point of view including topics as individual control, privacy, and überveillance.

I’m able to explain key concepts and theories that relate to human-computer interaction, recent interface concepts, ambient intelligence, ubiquitous and affective computing, tangible & gesture-based interaction, and (combinations of) virtual and augmented reality.  Here too, I discovered that the effects of technology on the human brain and the subsequent physiological reactions can be amazing, which was the cradle to finally develop VRtalight, my final master project.  
VRtalight is a VR experience used to provide people with the most realistic mediated experience of nature, that has a natural restorative effect on the brain, combined with light therapy. More information can be found on the 'VRTALIGHT' page under the 'present' button.