Be·aware and Beyond: Exploring interdisciplinary research opportunities for addressing societal challenges
When
8:30 am – 5:00 pm, Wednesday, 11 June 2025
Where
- (Talks) Alan Turing 2 (Room B305), Inria Bordeaux, 200 Avenue de la Vieille Tour, 33405 Talence
- (Demos) Grand Volume, Inria Bordeaux, 200 Avenue de la Vieille Tour, 33405 Talence
- See on Google Maps
Context
Societal challenges such as climate change, poverty, and inequality demand more than individual efforts—they require collective action. Similarly, scientific approaches to addressing these complex issues must go beyond isolated disciplines. Tackling these challenges effectively calls for interdisciplinary collaboration: to identify root causes, design solutions that balance social, economic, and environmental goals, and actively involve citizens in their development and implementation.
This seminar is dedicated to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers from computer science (including human-computer interaction and information visualization), economics, psychology, environmental sciences, and related fields. It is inspired by and expands upon the goals of the Be·aware project, which initially focused on interdisciplinary collaboration for addressing environmental issues and now extends its vision to broader societal challenges.
Interdisciplinary partnerships hold great potential for producing innovative research outcomes. For instance, HCI and visualization researchers can develop methods to let the public explore the consequences and interplay of different policy implementations through various techniques, including data visualizations, immersive experiences, or other interactive tools. Environmental scientists can contribute domain-specific knowledge and real-world data to ensure these tools accurately reflect ecological impacts, such as carbon emissions or biodiversity loss. At the same time, researchers in economics and psychology can design experiments to explore how different interventions or decision-making tools may affect human behavior and identify the underlying factors that drive these responses.
This one-day seminar will feature short presentations, interactive demos, and collaborative brainstorming sessions. Rather than focusing solely on finished research, the seminar emphasizes early-stage ideas, prototypes, and open questions to identify future interdisciplinary research opportunities.
Program
08:30 – 10:30 Proposed Short Presentations (Not Final)
- Brief introduction to the Be·aware project
- Presenter: Martin Hachet (Inria Bordeaux)
- Understanding Large Magnitude Data in Social Topics through Interaction with Large Data Marks
- Short description: This project explores a new way to communicate data with large differences in magnitude, like CO2 emissions and wealth inequality, through visualizations and motion, as a way to engage the public with large magnitudes that are usually hard to grasp due to their abstract scale.
- Presenter: Leni Yang (Inria Bordeaux)
- Understanding the Impact of Visualizing Income Placement on Demand for Redistributive Taxation
- Short description: We explore people’s perception of their placement in the income distribution in an interactive visualisations of real data and how it affects individuals’ demand for redistributive taxation, measured by the progressivity of their preferred tax schedule. We experiment on two dimensions: 1) correction of misperceptions, and 2) emphasis on the randomness of one’s placement in the distribution.
- Presenter: Angela Sutan (ESSEC Business School)
- Investigating the Effects of Augmented Reality on Message Credibility When Visualizing Environmental Impacts
- Short description: We present a study comparing how credible people judge environmental impact messages when shown in augmented reality versus on a desktop. Using tailored visual designs for each, the research explores the potential and limitations of augmented reality in enhancing environmental communication. The pre-print version of the paper is accessible through: https://osf.io/j59av_v1/
- Presenter: Yvonne Jansen (CNRS)
10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break
11:00 – 12:00 Proposed Demo Presentations (Not Final)
- ARwavs: Augmented-reality waste accumulation visualizations (ARwavs) are representations of waste data embedded in users’ familiar environment. It aims at making waste invisible to reduce thoughtless consumption. The paper is accessible through: https://hal.science/hal-03907474v4
- AR Fishing Game: The AR Fishing Game adapts a classic behavioral economics experiment into augmented reality, with players catching virtual fish. It explores whether immersive visualizations can reduce psychological distance between people and environmental issues in decision-making around shared limited resources.
- Visualizations for AR Credibility: This demo will present concrete visualizations that were used in the study, “Investigating the Effects of Augmented Reality on Message Credibility When Visualizing Environmental Impacts”. The pre-print version of the paper is accessible through: https://osf.io/j59av_v1/
- Edo and Comedo: EDO and Comedo are participatory data physicalization projects exploring how to visualize environmental data related to dietary choices in canteen settings. They aim to engage users and prompt reflection on the differences in the environmental impact of daily food choices.
- Treeam: Treeam is an immersive game where three players collaborate by activating tree bio-mechanisms. Linked to a shared tree, they communicate via signals, exploring how human behaviors are projected onto non-human life.
12:00 – 13:30 Lunch break
13:30 – 15:00 Brainstorming
- 🧠 Individual brainstorming: Each participant takes time to think of topics independently.
- 📣 Pitch your ideas: Participants share their proposed topics with the group.
- 🤝 Form groups by interest: Participants join groups based on topics they are interested in. Each group begins discussing and developing their chosen topic.
15:00 – 15:30 Coffee Break
15:30 – 17:00 Brainstorming
- 🔄 Continue group discussions: Groups pick up where they left off and refine their topic ideas.
- 🗣️ Group presentations: Each group introduces their topic and shares their progress with everyone.
- 📝 Topic selection: Participants choose the topics they are most interested in pursuing further.
Contact Emails:
leni.yang@inria.fr, pierre.dragicevic@inria.fr, yvonne.jansen@cnrs.fr
