Staff Profile

I am a Senior Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction working at the intersection of design, technology and society. My research attempts to understand the impact of emerging technologies and practices, and to imagine, prototype and explore possible preferable futures around those technologies.

My research has most commonly involved the use of technology in neighbourhoods, communities and public spaces. This has included public displays and physical computing to support civic engagement, and supporting people in harnessing technology for themselves through DIY and maker approaches. I have also been involved in a number of projects exploring emerging issues around the Internet of Things and how we might design for healthier relationships between people, things and the internet. Across this work I have employed a range of participatory approaches from speculative design to long-term deployments of functioning prototypes ‘in the wild’.

I have a background in Computer Science with a PhD from Lancaster University, although I have spent much of my academic career in design schools. After a previous stint at Newcastle as a postdoctoral research, I have held academic positions in design schools at the University of Dundee and Northumbria University.