Title: The Chef and the Line Cook: Lessons for Computer Science
Where: Kolingasse 14-16, 1090 Wien, SR5
When: September 17, 2026 10:00-11:00
Abstract: Many people are busy worrying that AI will render computer science education obsolete. I disagree. Of course tool fluency matters especially for software engineering, but tools are not the bedrock of the field. To borrow from the kitchen, I will argue that being a line cook executing a recipe is not the same as being a chef who understands culinary chemistry, flavor profiles, and kitchen systems. Computer science (CS) has always been so much more than writing code. Coding is important as a craft, yes, but the heart of CS is a mindset and an adeptness at formal reasoning, abstraction, and problem decomposition.
Automation elevates those principles; it doesn’t replace them. Civil engineers use CAD, but they still need to understand structural mechanics so bridges don’t fall down. Pilots rely on autopilot, but they need aerodynamic theory when the unexpected hits. We need deep foundations to audit, architect, and check systems. Beyond that, and wearing my Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) hat, technical rigor is still only half the story: if we don't understand people, context, and culture, we can't design systems that actually work for human beings.
That double foundation, computational depth and understanding human experiences, is what turns us into chefs rather than just recipe-followers, and it’s how we’ll partner with AI rather than get swallowed by it.
Short Bio: Elizabeth F. Churchill is a research scientist, applied psychologist, sociotechnical systems designer, and the founding Area Lead and Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence. Formerly Senior Director of UX at Google, she has directed research teams at eBay, Yahoo!, and Xerox PARC. An ACM Fellow and CHI Academy member, she holds a PhD from Cambridge and has led cross-cultural research collaborating with universities, industry leaders, and public sector organizations across Europe, the UK, the US, Japan, and beyond. She relocated to the UAE to investigate cultural dimensions shaping the future of AI.
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The SIGCHI Austria Autumn Meeting will also take place on 16 September 2026 at the University of Vienna, alongside uxcon vienna. Part of the programme will be shared with uxcon: Elizabeth Churchill, Professor and founding Department Chair of Human-Computer Interaction at MBZUAI and former UX director at Google, eBay, and Yahoo, will give a keynote on how AI is changing the relationship between people, systems, and design.
Note: Attendance to the SIGCHI Austria fall chapter meeting is free for all SIGCHI Austria members (you can join for free and will be invited to future events). No conference ticket is required, this is a separate meet-up which joins the conference for the keynote and the breaks. More information and registration details are available on the SIGCHI Austria event page.