Follow us on: GitHub YouTube Vimeo Twitter LinkedIn

Distributed & Interactive Systems Group

Our research group focuses on facilitating and improving the way people use interactive systems and how people communicate with each other. We combine data science with a strong human-centric, empirical approach to understand the experience of users. This enables us to design and develop next generation intelligent and empathic systems. We base our results on realistic testing grounds and data sets, and embrace areas such as ubiquitous computing, human-centered multimedia systems, and languages.

The group addresses key problems for society and science, following a multi-disciplinary approach. This results in a full-stack methodology that enables us to bridge socio-technical gaps in society and science by instrumenting the appropriate infrastructures and communication protocols using realistic testing grounds.

Distributed and Interactive Systems is an outward-looking research group, that enjoys a number of fruitful partnerships with companies and organizations in the areas of creative industries, smart cities, automotive industry and wellbeing. Our group transfers knowledge through scientific publications, standards bodies, open-source implementations and consultancy. We pride ourselves on pushing boundaries, leading the way for others to follow.


Pinned Items

Master's Thesis Topics 2023-2024 at CWI DIS

Publication date: 2023-09-11

The Distributed & Interactive Systems group at CWI has new open positions for motivated students who would like to work on their Master’s thesis as an internship in the group. Topics include human computer interaction, artificial intelligence, cognitive (neuro-)science and/or interaction design. Keep reading for more information about research topics, requirements and contact information.

Read more

DIS Organises Sping School on Social XR

Publication date: 2023-05-25

As part of the research semester program of CWI, the Distributed and Interactive Systems group (DIS) organized the Spring School on Social XR. The event took place on March 13th – 17th 2023, and attracted 33 students from different disciplines (technology, social sciences and humanities). The program included 18 lectures, 4 of them open, by 20 instructors. The event was organized by Irene Viola, Silvia Rossi, and Pablo Cesar from CWI; and Omar Niamut from TNO. It was co-sponsored by ACM SIGMM, the ACM Special Interest Group on Multimedia, and The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision.

Read more

Max Award for Community Opera "La Gata Perduda"

Publication date: 2023-05-11

The DIS group provided an interactive platform for facilitating the co-creation of the Opera. Max awards are the most important performing arts awards in Spain.

Read more

Over One Million Euro for CWI and Sound & Vision for XR Research

Publication date: 2022-11-16

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) and Sound & Vision are partners in the recently launched European research project TransMIXR. TransMIXR develops technologies that enable professionals in the cultural and creative industries to create new productions in eXtended Reality (XR), and provides innovative ways to experience immersive media productions. Together, Sound & Vison and CWI have received over 1 million euros to realize their work within the project. This is part of a total of 9 million euros TransMIXR has received from the Horizon Europe Programme.

Read more



Latest News

Understanding Users to Optimise 3D Experiences

Publication date: 2024-01-31

Silvia Rossi of CWI’s Distributed & Interactive Systems group is working on two areas of understanding user interactions in immersive media. She tells all about it in this story.

Read more

DIS Co-Organises Dagstuhl Seminar on Social XR

Publication date: 2023-12-25

Pablo Cesar, from the Distributed and Interactive Systems group (DIS) of CWI, has co-organized the Dagstuhl Seminar #23482, titled “Social XR: The Future of Communication and Collaboration".

Read more

DIS Group at Immersive Tech Week 2023: Facilitating the Convergence of NLP and XR

Publication date: 2023-12-13

On November 29th, the Distributed & Interactive Systems (DIS) group was invited to participate at the Immersive Tech Week 2023 (https://www.immersivetechweek.co), where innovation and inspiration converge in the dynamic world of eXtended Reality (XR) technologies.

Read more

Best ACM SIGMM 2023 PhD Thesis Award for Silvia Rossi

Publication date: 2023-11-21

During the ACM Multimedia Conference (ACM MM 2023), premier conference and a key world event to display scientific achievements and innovative industrial products in the multimedia field, Silvia Rossi, postdoctoral researcher in DIS group, won the 2023 SIGMM Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis in Multimedia Computing, Communications and Applications. This was announced by the organisation during the gala dinner on Wednesday, 1st November.

Read more