Leila Alem

Principal Research Scientist

Contact

Crn Vimiera and Pembroke Roads
Marsfield NSW 2122

Tel: +61 2 9372 4366
Mob: 0437767751
Fax: +61 3 9545 8080
Leila.Alem@csiro.au

Themes

• Transforming the Future Mine

Projects

• Human System Integration
• Rockbreaker project; ShipLoader
• Nexsys
• Boartlongyear

Science Area

• Human Computer Interaction

Biography

Leila Alem is a principal research scientist at the CSIRO’s ICT Centre Information Engineering research Laboratory based in Sydney. Her formal training is in artificial intelligence and cognitive psychology. She has designed and evaluated numerous advanced decision support systems and advanced computer supported training. Over the last 18 years of her career at CSIRO she has designed and evaluated various advanced user interfaces for domains including mining, aviation, automotive and health. Since 2005 her main focus of research has been in the area Human Factors in computer mediated collaboration settings. She has conducted several laboratory and field experiments to investigate these factors. Drawing on cognitive psychology, social science and human-computer-interface research she has investigated the media factors, the cognitive factors and the social factors at play in telepresence systems and environments.

Leila Alem is currently leading the Human System Integration project within CSIRO Minerals Down Under flagship. This project investigates the utility and value of various emerging User Interfaces for remote mining including: mixed reality UI, immersive environment, 3D UIs and wearable Augmented reality UIs.

Her current research interest include : Human Computer Interaction, Computer mediated interaction, Evaluation of information systems

Academic Qualifications

2002	Opportunity Evaluation: one subject of the Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (Swinburne University)
1991	PhD in Artificial Intelligence. University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France
1987	Postgraduate degree in signal and image processing. University of Nice, France
1986	Masters in Electronics and Automation. University of Nice, France

Recent Professional Experience

2009-now	Team Leader User Interaction and Collaboration
2009-now	Project Leader Human System Integration (MDU project)
2004-2006	Research Leader of the Human factors in Telepresence Team CSIRO ICT Sydney.
2002-2004	Project Leader Technologies for supporting information sharing. Site Manager. CSIRO Division of Information and Communication Technology, Australia, Melbourne.
1997-2000	Senior Research Scientist: AI in e-commerce. CSIRO Division of Mathematical and Information sciences, Australia, Sydney
1992-1997	Research Scientist: e-learning, AI in Education, HCI. CSIRO Division of Information Technology, Australia, Sydney.

Achievements & Awards

2011	Invited talk at SIGCHI Toulouse : Augmented Reality remote guiding system using wearable computing: design and evaluation
2011	Invited talk/lecture at the Scuela Superior Sant'Anna Pisa : Human Factors in Telepresence. The lecture was part of the PhD in Innovative Technologies program of the Scuela.
2009	Nomination for Julius Award by MDU
2009	invited talk at the SIGCHI Toulouse : 3D collaborative UIs

Other Highlights

2009-now	Adjunct research position at the Australian National Univertity.
2007-now	Research Associate at the Computer Human Adapted Interaction research group (CHAI), school of Information Technology at the University of Sydney.
2006-2007	Visiting research fellow in the Faculty of Information Technology UTS Sydney.
2011	Distinguished Visitor Fellow at IRIT/Univeristy of Paul Sabatier, Toulouse.
2005	Salaried visiting professor at University of Valencia, Spain
2001-2002	Appointed as a salaried visiting Professor at INRIA Sophia Antipolis, France for one year.
2000	Appointed as a salaried visiting Professor at IREMIA , France for one month

Summary of Science & Technical Output

Grants

2011:	Grant from University of Paul Sabatier or visiting professorship
2009-2010	MDU collaboration funds from MDU to help develop collaboration with Preco Lab/ Pisa and with CMU Robotic Lab, USA.
2008-2009	International Collaboration Grant from Spanish Government ( 20K Euro)for collaboration bewteen Valencia University and CSIRO ICT.
2001	Grant from INRIA for a visiting professorship (grant obtained for 2 years about 140K per year)
2000	Grant from the University of La reunion for a visiting professorship (about $10.000 for two months)
1991	ARC grant for research at Sydney University (about $35.000 gross for one year)
1987-1990	MRT grant for PhD studies (about $40.000 gross per year over 3 years)
1986	ARMINES (Ecole Nationale des Mines de Paris) grant for postgraduate studies

Student Supervision

2011	Jalal Albasri, IT Master project, Sydney University
2010	Sylvain Gastellu-Etchegorry, HCI master project, University of Toulouse Paul Sabatier
2007-2009	Hamid Hrimich PhD student (co-supervising, principal supervisor Frederic Merienne from ENSAM France).
2009	Jian Zheng, 4th year project in IT, Sydney Univerisity.
2008	Alexis Berard, 4th year project, University of Marseille, France
2007	Paulo Melo, Master in Cognitive Psychology, Univerisity of Permambuco, Brazil.
2006	Aiden Wickely, Master in Cognitive Psychology Simon Fraser University, Canada.
2005	Lizz Kougianous, Master in Human Factors University of Queensland.
2005	Cara Stitzlein, Master in Human Factors, George Mason University, USA.
2003-2006	John Avery, Phd student (co-supervising , principal supervisor prof John Yearwood from University of Ballarat university).
2003	Johnathan Yu, Master project, RMIT, Melbourne.
1999	Hang Zhang, master project, UNSW
1995-1998	Kalina Yacef , PhD student (principal supervisor, PhD from Paris 6.)
1992-1995	Maria Lee, PhD Student(co-supervision, Primary supervisor Prof Paul Compton from UNSW).

Science Citizenship

2011	Editor of "Recent trends in mobile collaborative augmented reality systems. (Alem L & Huang T Eds).Springer-Verlag, USA. 2011
2008	PhD examiner for thesis : Understanding remote collaboration by Jorg Hauber University of Canterbury.
2005	Editor of a special issue of the International Journal for E-learning. I co edited the issue and co wrote the editorial for the issue. Alem L. and Mclean A. (2005) Eds. Technologies for electronic documents for supporting E-learning. A special issue of the International Journal for E-learning (IJEL), Issue 99, Volume 9, 2005.
1996	PhD examiner of thesis : Methodology for the design of intelligent decision support systems by Andrew Blair, UTS.
1996	Member of The Human Factors & Ergonomics Society of Australia Inc
1996	Member of ARC grant reviewers board

Top 10 Publications

Publication details
Alem L. Huang T. and Tecchia F. ( 2011). Supporting the changing roles of maintenance operators : a human factors perspective. Accepted for publication the special issue of the Ergonomics Open Journal: Human Factors and ergonomics in the mineral industry. Burgess-Limerick (ed).
Alem L. and Li J. (2011) a Study of gestures in a video mediated collaborative assembly task. In International journal on Advances in Human Computer Interaction. Volume 2011 (2011), Article ID 987830, 7 pages. doi:10.1155/2011/987830
Hrimech H., Alem L. & Merienne F. (2010). Understanding the affordances of navigation metaphors in a collaborative virtual environment. In International Journal of Virtual Reality. IPI Press, 13631 E Marina Dr. #302, Aurora, CO 80014, USA. p.39-51.
Alem L., Joseph M., Kethers S., Steele C., Wilkinson R. (2008). Information environments for supporting consistent registrar medical handover. Journal of Health Information Management. Theme: Technology issues and the human component. 2008; 37(1) 9 - 24. ISSN 1833-3583.
Mee, W.; Alem, L., and Katz, E. (2007) Socio-technical evaluation of an ICT intervention to facilitate community participation. Int. J. Information, Communication and Society. Brian Loader (Ed) Leeds University, UK.2007; 10(1):5-28. ISSN 0842-0130.
Alem, L. and McLean, A., eds. Special issue on Technologies for Electronic Documents for Supporting E-Learning. . International Journal on E-Learning (IJEL). 2006; 4(1).
Alem, L. and Mclean A. Supporting learning and information sharing in NRM with technologies for electronic documents. International Journal on E-Learning (IJEL). 2006; 4 (1).Special. issue: Technologies for Electronic Documents for Supporting E-Learning .Alem and Mclean (Eds).
Alem, L. and Kravis, S. (2005) Design and evaluation of an online learning community: a case study at CSIRO. ACM Sigraph Bulletin. 2005; 25 (1) : Special. issue on Online Learning Communities: design, theory and practice, Anabal Quan-Haase (ed). 20-24
Alem L. (2009) Presence in video mediated interaction: case studies at CSIRO. In Steve Harrison (Ed). Media space: 20+ years of mediated Life;. ISBN 978-1-84882-482-9.
Leila Alem and Tony Huang (Eds.) Recent Trends in Mobile Collaborative Augmented Reality Systems. Springer-Verlag, USA. To be published in mid 2011.

Number of citations

Links

• List of publications