Text by: Chaudhary Muhammad Aqdus Ilyas (University of Cambridge / Aalborg University) & Dr Hatice Gunes (University of Cambridge)
Beyondwork2020, a European conference hosted by the German federal ministry of education and research, orchestrate the research and development projects that are funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of the program “Innovations for tomorrow’s production, services and work” and European Social Fund (ESF) within the program “Future of Work.” This conference was held online due to the Covid-19 situation, complying with the work culture’s rapid transformation of the work culture. This event had an aim to prepare better the workforce to face the challenges like the recent pandemic episode and how to adapt to the future workspaces that would be more conducive to collaboration and flexibility.
More than 80 exhibitors have presented their research projects, advanced innovations, and best practices in the following session-themes:
- Health and prevention
- Network at work
- Humans and machines
- Interactive work
- Participation and leadership
- Regional and global change
- Skills management
The last couple of decades in deep learning (DL) development have been exciting in the problem cracking by learning-based methods. Artificial intelligence (AI) and the internet of things (IoT) using more data points have been exceedingly solving the problems in nursing care, agriculture, industries, education, or service sectors. However, certain aspects need to be catered to learn the system well and operate in a real-time world. Within the session of humans and machines, chaired by Prof. Klaus Bengler from Technical University Munich, the focus was laid on the ethical questions involved using learning-based methods, specifically related to the human-machine interaction issues. It was explicitly emphasized how to incorporate more human-centered applications? How to develop smarter AI systems? On the other hand, futuristic concerns related to the autonomy of machines in the workplace and how the respective abilities of machines and humans can complement each other are discussed in detail. A number of researchers and speakers presented their input and shared their ideas to shape future products, services, or work. Prof. Wilhelm Bauer, an executive director of Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, chaired the “Future of Work – Smart Digitalization in Engineering, Production and Service” session with ergonomics and innovation expert Prof. Angelika C. Bullinger-Hoffman. They viewed the strong impact and contributions of AI applications in future businesses, but with a real challenge maintaining employee and customers’ trust. Similarly, Prof. Sven Hinrichsen, Prof. Verena Nitsch, and Dr. Hatice Gunes highlighted that the challenges in production sectors arose due to the continued development of complex products, state-of-the-art innovations, and short life-span. It was thus leading to cognitive stress on the employees. In future work design, cognitive ergonomics is essential to support employees for mastering complexity with relevant information and instructions.
Dr. Hatice Gunes, a Reader ( Associate Professor ) and director of Affective Intelligence and Robotics (AFAR) at Cambridge University UK, presented on her groups’ work that aligns with the ethos of beyondwork2020 conference, where she presented how cognitive training (CT) using virtual reality (VR) and affective adaptation can contribute towards the wellbeing of the people in a competitive and challenging workplace. In their research article [1], they demonstrated the paradigm built to address the lack of motivation for CT by combining VR gamification. She concluded that adaption of difficulty with a user’s cognitive skill and affect sensing through facial electromyography (EMG) could produce better engagement and feeling of competence at a given task. The technical and experimental details of the study are presented in the research article.
Dr. Gunes voiced her arguments that in the workspace, we can echo the same paradigm to manage complexity in projects by CT and affective feedback that can generate the state of flow, thus enhancing motivation and feeling of competence. According to [2], the performance of a player is optimal in the state-of-flow (state of enjoyment). Similarly, we can promote healthy habits in employees by taking into account their affective states and provide adaptation and personalization, as is the case in WA Project.
In conclusion, affect sensing and adaptation could lead to more enjoyment at the workplace with enhanced productivity and additional health benefits.
Dr. Gunes concluded her talk by introducing the WA project and its goals, and how it has the potential to transform the future of work by providing personalized support to the employees.
References
[1] – Lorcan Reidy and Dennis Chan and Charles Nduka and Hatice Gunes (2020). Facial Electromyography-based Adaptive Virtual Reality Gaming for Cognitive Training. In ICMI ’20: International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, Virtual Event, The Netherlands, October 25-29, 2020 (pp. 174–183). ACM.
[2] -Nakamura, J., & Csikszentmihalyi, M. (2014). The concept of flow. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 239-263). Springer, Dordrecht.
