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Staff Profile

Dr Vasilis Vlachokyriakos

Reader (Associate Professor)

  • Email: vasilis.vlachokyriakos1@ncl.ac.uk
  • Telephone: +44 (0) 7508442767
  • Address: Open Lab, School of Computing,
    Urban Sciences Building,
    1 Science Square,
    Newcastle upon Tyne,
    NE4 5TG
Background

I am currently a Reader (Associate Professor) of Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Civics at Open Lab, Newcastle University, School of Computing. I have a background in Computing Science with a MSc (Hons) in Computer Security and Resilience and a PhD in HCI (E-Voting as a tool for Political Participation).

My current work centres on designing novel socio-technical infrastructures for civic participation through place-based, participatory and action-led research, aiming at the development of systems for cooperative decision-making and service provision (i.e. CSCW and PD research and practice).

Example ongoing projects include: the utilisation of emerging technologies (AR, crypto-wallets, social and location-based technologies etc.) for the cooperative production of public services (e.g. CO3 project); the creation of technological and legal toolkits for generative commons (e.g. GE.CO project); the infrastructuring of the Social and Solidarity Economy in Europe (e.g. see CHI 2018 methods paper and CHI 2017 design manifesto paper); the design of inclusive and socially just Solidarity Economy Platforms (e.g. PhD candidate projects [V.N., A.T. and S.A.]); and the designing of social digital innovation in Lebanon (e.g. Sarah Armouch's PhD project).

As part of this research agenda, I am a co-investigator for the H2020 “Generative European Commons Living Lab” (Ge.CO Living Lab), a co-investigator of the EPSRC Digital Economy Research Center (DERC) and of our newly awarded EPSRC Centre for Digital Citizens – Next Stage Digital Economy Centre; while also been the principal investigator of Open Lab Athens for the H2020 “Digital Disruptive Technologies to co-create, co-produce and co-manage Open Public Services” (CO3) project. I am also a reviewer and program committee member of a number ACM conferences, of the Participatory Design conference and of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

For more information see my Google Scholar and Newcastle University profiles.

 

Research

At the core of my research is an understanding of designing digital systems as ways that we shape our environments. As is widely known in HCI and explored in Participatory Design research, the dissemination of computing systems in most strata of society puts designers in a position of power against systems’ users - i.e. citizens. This has lately become more apparent due to the substantial implications of these systems in shaping the ways through which we make decisions, we produce, consume and exchange, and the ways through which we understand and participate in politics.

Any system can be described as an abstract representation of its inputs and outputs. The ways through which data is being represented, stored and governed, and the processing logic of the system for transforming and negotiating the data that receives and produces. Taking a Digital Civics approach on systems design, my research raises questions about the provenance of technological innovations, the socio-political effects of the research and artefacts that we produce, our research and systems’ data management and ownership processes and the ways through which multiple passive or active agents negotiate and transform such data. My current research attempts to shed light onto such inquiries by following a commons-based approach for the creation of systems to promote open and participatory production and governance processes.

The approach through which I work to achieve such a co-operative transition include: place-based research with groups active in creating novel methods of production and distribution, configuration of academic partnerships to mirror cooperative work, the design and development of systems to infrastructure local cooperatives, the development of sociotechnical innovations for the dissemination of peer-to-peer methods of production and governance etc.


 
Teaching
The last few years I have taught a variety of modules, from practical sessions to MSc programme design and module design and being module leader of multiple Computer Science modules at all Bachelor, Masters and PhD levels. The type of the module and its class size have played a significant role in the teaching and learning methods that I have used. Example such modules include:Programming, Advanced Interaction Design, Research Methods for Computer Science, System Security and others.

Currently I am primarily teaching modules for our MSc in Human-Computer Interaction, including CSC8607 – Research Methods for Human Computer Interaction, CSC8604 – Technologies for Human Computer Interaction, CSC8609 – Project in Human Computer Interaction and CSC8611 Human-AI interaction and Futures. 


Publications