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Overview
Affiliations
AffiliationTelephone
Professor in the Department of Computer Science+44 (0) 191 33 44438
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing

Biography

Effie Lai-Chong Law is a full professor of computer science, specialising in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Before joining Durham, Effie was a full professor in HCI at the University of Leicester, UK, and Senior Research Fellow at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Effie earned her PhD degree (major: psychology; minor: computer science) with summa cum laude from the University of Munich (LMU) with a four-year full scholarship awarded by DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service). She completed her Bachelor and Master in Social Science at the University of Hong Kong. 

Effie's long-term research focus is Usability and User Experience (UX) methodologies which she has successfully applied to various areas, including Technology-enhanced Learning (TEL), Affective Computing, and Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS). Effie chaired two COST Actions – MAUSE on usability and TwinTide on UX (2005-2013). She has also played a leading role in a number of EU-funded projects, including UNIVERSAL (FP5 on e-learning brokerage systems), PROLEARN (FP6 Network of Excellence on professional e-learning), iCamp (FP6 on collaborative online learning with social media), ROLE (FP7 on personalised learning environment), 80Days (FP7 on game-based learning), Go-Lab/NextLab (FP7/H2020 on online experimentation), and the current ARETE (H2020 on augmented learning educational systems) and ESA Personalized Space Technology Exercise Platform (P-STEP, 2021-2023). In addition, Effie has been PI/CoI in several national ones, including Representing Reformation (AHRC), Laws in Children's Life (ESRC), IP in the creative industries (AHRC with China), Computer-supported collaborative learning on astronomy online lab (STFC with Malaysia), and the running UKRI TAS Verifiability. 

Effie is an editorial board member of Interacting with Computers (OUP), International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (Elsevier), and Quality and User Experience (Springer). She has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in reputed journals and conferences. She has served as scientifc chair and associate chair in several prestigious conferences in HCI, including CHI, NordiCHI, INTERACT, and British HCI.

Effie’s recent research foci are: Multidimensional measurement of UX; Automatic multisensory emotion recognition; Conversational AI (chatbots); Mixed Reality.

Publications

Chapter in book

Conference Paper

Journal Article

Supervision students