Ubiquitous, mobile and 3D technologies provide us with many opportunities to share, view and interact with data in real time.  However, there are still a number of challenges to be addressed when deciding what information to present, in what form, and when.  In this talk Sarah will present work from a range of contexts, including technology for socially connected travel, virtual prototypes in manufacturing and rail control automation, and consider how we can best use human factors theory to inform the design and evaluation of novel technologies for use in work and everyday life.

Dr Sarah Sharples is an associate professor and reader in Human Factors in the School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Nottingham and Head of the Human Factors Research Group. She completed her PhD in 1999 on methodological and theoretical issues in the assessment of participants' experiences of virtual environments. She has been a researcher, research manager or grant holder on a number of industrial, government and EU funded projects, including a long term programme of research for Network Rail examining implications, design and implementation of novel interfaces for railway control and use of rail simulation for human factors research. She is a CI in the Horizon Digital Economy Research hub and Training Programme Manager of the Horizon Doctoral Training Centre. She has supervised PhD students in a range of areas, including situation awareness in virtual environments, impact of automation, use of handheld technologies and development of 3D information displays. She is a registered ergonomist, and her main areas of interest and expertise are Human-Computer Interaction, cognitive ergonomics and development of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies for examination of interaction with innovative technologies in complex systems. She is Associate Dean of the Graduate School for the Faculty of Engineering.