Human-centred computing focuses on how computers can best support our daily lives.
This human side of computer science is one of the most fascinating but also the most frequently missed and misunderstood elements in the public’s understanding of what makes the tech in their pocket – or any of the contemporary systems that have become ubiquitous and deeply integrated into their life - work well for them.
Our research teams examine the socio-technical impacts of emerging computing systems on individuals, communities and societies and square up to those essential questions that shape end product: How well will the tech work for people? What is its desired outcome? And what lasting difference might it make to their lives?
Our team uses storytelling to support this, a research method which allows us to sit down with end users and make meaningful connections between the research here at the School and the people we are designing and building for.
As a result, our work helps identify ways that innovations can be ethically designed to better support humans and the planet.
Our primary focus in our research labs is on:
- Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) - focusing on technical and societal opportunities and challenges of robots interacting with humans in shared environments such as households, hospitals, and factories.
- Digital healthcare – looking at the technical and societal opportunities and challenges of utilising digital tools in healthcare. That might be in the treatment and prevention of physical and mental illnesses, remote care, improving the safety and usability of digital health services, and mobile and wearable health systems.
- Extended reality (XR) and human-computer interaction (HCI) – investigating the technical and societal opportunities and challenges of XR technologies (virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MxR)) where the digital world meets the three dimensions we live in such as gaming and education in VR, mobility, navigation, search, and orientation in AR, and many more.
- Collaboration and social computing – focusing on (a) theories, methods, tools and techniques to study, design, implement or use social and collaborative systems, (b) ethics and policy implications of socio-technical systems, and (c) applications of socio-technical systems such as sustainability, education, ICT4D, health and social care, and many more.
