Study level

  • PhD
  • Master of Philosophy

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

School of Computer Science

Topic status

We're looking for students to study this topic.

Research centre

Supervisors

Professor Glenda Caldwell
Position
Professor in Design
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Engineering
Dr Jessica Korte
Position
Senior Lecturer in Computer Science (Software Development)
Division / Faculty
Faculty of Science

Overview

Vision-based technologies offer new possibilities to assist individuals with cognitive disabilities to live independently. Ambient assistive technologies, such as smart mirrors and social robots, enable new ways to interact at home with AI technologies that can see.

How can we engage people of all abilities in co-designing ambient assistive technologies?

Participation in design is often defined on a spectrum where stakeholders can be categorised as simple informants (surveyed at the start of a project), evaluators (involved in trial iterations of a design), or co-designers (who can create or modify a design). In most “participatory AI” projects, stakeholders are mere informants.

Students in this project will take prototype based approaches to provide co-designers with cognitive disabilities the tools to imagine designs with AI capabilities. They will develop an ambient interaction framework to evaluate the nature and the extent of participation in design, as a member of the Supporting Independent Living with 'Seeing' Technologies team.

Research activities

  • Literature review.
  • Participatory design research.
  • Prototype development.

Outcomes

  • Student thesis.
  • Co-authored publications.

Skills and experience

Students applying for this topic should have:

  • experience and/or interest in working with people with disabilities
  • experience with participatory design and/or prototyping approaches.

A background in human-computer interaction (or similar) is preferred.

Students with relevant lived experience are strongly encouraged to apply.

Scholarships

You may be eligible to apply for a research scholarship.

Explore our research scholarships

Keywords

Contact

For more information contact Laurianne Sitbonn via email l.sitbon@qut.edu.au or phone +61 7 3138 8079, or contact the supervisor.