Maria Angela Ferrario, Chris Frauenberger, Will Simm, Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Jon Whittle, Peter Purgathofer.
Maria Angela Ferrario is a Lecturer in the School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, UK. She is a digital innovation specialist with a background in computer science (PhD), design (MSc), philosophy and social psychology (BA, MA). Her research interests lie in values-driven, participatory and agile innovation frameworks and in exploring the impact that digital innovation has on society, in particular on the most vulnerable communities. Maria Angela is experienced in leading complex distributed partnerships that include hard-to-reach groups such as the homeless, rural island communities and adult with autism. Before joining academia, she worked in a European agency supporting peace building and reconciliation in the Irish crossborder region through technology and economic development. Her work has been published in world-leading venues such as ICSE, IwC, and CHI.
Will Simm is an experienced senior researcher at the School of Computing and Communications, Lancaster University, UK. He is a researcher-practitioner in participatory technology development, typically working in an agile, iterative, multi-disciplinary process. With a background in computing and engineering his research interests center on developing technologies for social impact which embed communities of users. His research reflects a values-driven approach of developing technologies for social good, working across domains with varied partners including extreme users and through award-winning projects addressing global challenges. Will’s work has been published in top international conferences and journals such as ICSE, Interacting with Computers, Ubicomp, DIS and CHI.
Jon Whittle is Dean Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University. Before joining Monash, Jon was Head of the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University, where he led a number of large interdisciplinary research projects investigating how digital technologies (mobile computing, social networking, data analytics, etc.) can promote social change. His work has been published in world-leading venues in human-computer interaction, software engineering, and social science. Jon has a passion for working across traditional disciplinary boundaries and interested in tackling challenging problems that can only be addressed by bringing together expertise from engineering, physical and social sciences. He enjoys working on problems of real societal significance using whatever disciplinary techniques are most appropriate for the job at hand.
Christopher Frauenberger is Senior Researcher at Vienna University of Technology and Principle Investigator of “OutsideTheBox- Rethinking Assistive Technologies with Children with Autism”3. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Queen Mary, University of London and subsequently worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at Sussex University. In his academic research he focused on exploring interactive technologies in the contexts of people with disabilities. This included designing auditory displays for the visually impaired, investigating non-verbal communication in people with schizophrenia and technologically enhanced learning environments for children with autism. Methodologically he is committed to participatory design approaches and often interprets collaborative techniques from other fields in his work. He has published on ethics in participatory design and is member of the ACM SIGCHI Ethics Advisory Board.
Geraldine Fitzpatrick is Professor of Technology Design and Assessment and heads the Institute for Technology Design and Assessment and the Human Computer Interaction Group at TU Wien. She was previously Director of the Interact Lab at the Uni of Sussex, User Experience consultant at Sapient London, and Snr Researcher at the Center for Online Health/DSTC in Australia. Her research is at the intersection of social and computer sciences to support social interaction using mobile, tangible and sensor- based technologies in everyday contexts, with a particular interest in supporting collaboration, health and well-being, social and emotional skills learning, community building and active engagement for older people. She has a published book and over 180 refereed journal and conference publications in diverse areas such as HCI, CSCW, health informatics, pervasive computing. She sits on various advisory boards, and serves in many editorial roles, including associate editor of the CSCW journal, and program committee/chair in various CSCW/CHI/health related international conferences. She is also an ACM Distinguished Speaker.
Peter Purgathofer is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Informatics, Vienna University of Technology, and works as a researcher, designer and teacher at the HCI Group. His research is focussed around the design of technology, notable questions of the role of design within software engineering, the use of design as an agent of change, the use of design as research, and the interaction between technological and societal development. His methodological approaches are more qualitative than quantitative, more explorative than experimental. He is co-founder of piglab.org and member of the board of trustees at the European Forum Alpbach.