Iris Jennes

Iris is a PhD student at imec-SMIT, VUB. Her thesis focuses on innovation in TV advertising in Flanders, and how TV audiences are defined and measured. Relevant use cases in the study are Addressable TV advertising, Pause button advertising and Interactive TV advertising. Her interdisciplinary approach draws from Science and Technology Studies (Social Construction of Technology), Institutional theory and Domestication theory, to combine insights from all key-stakeholders in the innovation process. The outcomes shed light on the strategies, industry relations, interpretations and practices that influence the developement, design and market stabilization of these innovations.  

Iris is involved in media innovation projects with a clear focus on immersive and personalised experiences. As user researcher, she aims to give all stakeholders –from (media) professionals and end-users to technology developers and policy makers- a voice in the innovation process. Using the living lab methodology, her research interests encompass qualitative research methods, co-creation, and human-centered design, which are conductive to the development of media experiences that resonate with diverse audiences. Iris wants to contribute to understanding the media landscape as well as shaping the future of personalized, interactive, and engaging media experiences, a field that is increasingly intertwined with AI-driven content personalization and audience engagement. Iris is also involved in the Master course 'Project Strategische Communicatie en Marketing'. The aim of this course is to give Master students in Communication Studies the opportunity to showcase their talents and knowledge when it comes to strategic communication and critical thinking, in an applied, communication related use case. 

Besides, Iris is involved in three HORIZON 2020 projects:  
- TITAN: TITAN's stands for a *co-designed*, AI-based, Citizen Coaching approach, which empowers people to arrive at their own at their own conclusions about the factual correctness or reliability of an online statement. The results help to stop the unintentional sharing and spread of false or misleading information. 
- TRANSMIXR: In TRANSMIXR, we aim to create a range of *human-centric* tools for remote content production and consumption via social virtual reality. The TRANSMIXR platform will provide : a distributed XR Creation Environment that supports remote collaboration practices; XR Media Experience Environment for the delivery and consumption of highly evocative and highly-social immersive media experiences; the possibility to reuse of heterogeneous assets across immersive content delivery platforms.
- PRESENCE: PRESENCE aims to deliver a toolset for hyper-realistic and XR-based human-human and human-machine interactions. Our role in the project is to coordinate the *Human Centered Development approach* that is central to the project, involving users (such as developers, professionals, manufacture workers, tourists, and many others) from the get-go.