*Abstract:* Computing systems have the potential to significantly enhance human health, well-being, and productivity through the utilization of sensor data garnered from personal devices. This data, encompassing vital physiological metrics such as heart rate and electrodermal activity, is processed to provide helpful feedback to the user, spanning from passive notifications and sophisticated data visualizations to proactive biofeedback mechanisms. The domain of personal informatics systems, underpinned by physiological sensing, has witnessed substantial advancement in recent years, and its applications are now embodied in various commercial products. However, pivotal challenges persist unresolved. This talk delves into the multifaceted nature of physiological sensing, examining its successful applications, the limitations that still hinder its full-fledged use into real-world systems, and the ethical issues it raises.
*Biography:* Silvia Santini is a Professor at the Faculty of Informatics of the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Lugano, Switzerland. She previously held appointments as Assistant Professor at TU Darmstadt and as Associate Professor TU Dresden, Germany, as well as senior researcher at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. She holds a master’s degree (with honors) in telecommunication engineering from the Sapienza University of Rome and a PhD in Computer Science from ETH Zurich. Silvia’s research focus is on mobile and wearable computing and in particular on the design of novel models and systems for modelling human behavior and supporting well-being and productivity at work. Silvia is one of the founding Editors and past Editor-in-Chief of the Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Computing Technologies (PACM IMWUT), the leading journal for research on ubiquitous and wearable computing systems. She is a member of the Steering Committee of the UbiComp conference series and has served on the Technical Program Committees of several leading venues in the fields of mobile computing, ubiquitous and wearable computing, internet of things and cyber-physical systems, including MobiSys, SenSys, IPSN, InfoCom, PerCom, and more.
