Social computing and communities
Our group has extensive experience in creating and evaluating sociotechnical systems that help mediate communication and collaboration between people.
This includes research in several different topics within Social Computing, including but not limited to: Crowdsourcing and Human Computation, Heritage Preservation, Online Communities, Algorithmic Fairness, and Supporting Indigenous Communities.
Projects
-
Virtual co-presence
‘Teleporting’ collaborators into each other’s spatial environments to enable an immersive sense of being in each other’s physical presence.
-
Virtual Reality and climate change communication
Using a purpose-built VR app which places the user in a dystopian future where rising sea-levels are impacting familiar urban scenes in Melbourne we investigate how immersive VR experiences can provoke discussion and engagement around climate change in the public domain.
-
Citizen heritage
We are investigating how digital technologies enable citizens of local areas to document and share memories and records of their collective past. Our main focus is on the development and study of PastPort, a mobile webapp for residents and visitors of Port Melbourne in inner Melbourne, an area of rich and disparate urban history.
-
Crowdsourcing
In this project we develop technologies, methods, techniques to improve the quality of generated crowd knowledge. Wisdom of the Crowd refers to a deceptively simple idea: large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliant—better at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.
-
Death and technology
A long-running program of research exploring how digital technologies are increasingly used to commemorate, memorialise and dispose of the dead. Conducted by human-computer interaction, anthropology and social science researchers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Oxford in collaboration with industry partners.
-
Digital domesticity
Tracing the origins of domestic digital developments with two decades of empirical fieldwork and ethnographic investigation.
-
Digital emotion regulation
This project investigates how (and where, when and why) people use digital technologies to shape their emotional states. We plan to develop an evidence-based framework for understanding “digital emotion regulation” in everyday settings.
-
Biometric mirror
This project investigates the public attitudes towards the display of artificial intelligence data in public space.
-
#thismymob
Establishing digital land rights and reconnecting indigenous communities through emerging technologies. This project based at University of Technology Sydney designed and trialled smartphone apps with urban, regional and remote Australian Indigenous communities. The project is implementing telehealth in regional communities in response to the Covid pandemic. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: ARC
-
Living Archive of Aboriginal Art
This project based in Culture and Communication at UM is designing a technology-based accessible archive of work in conjunction with prominent Aboriginal artist Maree Clarke. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: Melbourne Social Equity Institute
-
Communities over the airwaves
This project based in Arts at the University of Melbourne is studying the role of community radio in supporting the culture and wellbeing of emerging migrant communities in Australia. Staff: Greg Wadley. Funding source: Creativity and Wellbeing Hallmark Research Initiative
Contact
-
Dr Jorge Goncalves
Lecturer, Human-Computer Interaction
People
-
Fraser Allison, Research Fellow -
Martin Gibbs, Professor -
Ryan Kelly, Lecturer -
Vassilis Kostakos, Professor of Human Computer Interaction -
Wally Smith, Associate Professor -
Eduardo Velloso, Senior Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction -
Frank Vetere, Professor -
Greg Wadley, Senior Lecturer -
Niels Wouters, Research Fellow
News
-
Biometric Mirror’s new technology temple in the Netherlands
The new version of Biometric Mirror is a spongy technology temple that invites audiences to posture for an algorithm that measures emotional stability, kindness levels and so-called beauty.
-
Data isn’t neutral and neither are decision algorithims
The UK’s misguided attempt to use algorithms to estimate school scores is a warning and reminder of the need to keep humans and accountability in automated decision-making.
-
Martin Gibbs co-authors new book, ‘Digital Domesticity: Media, Materiality and Home Life’
The book explores the intersections between digital media and domestic life.
-
Our researchers to present at AsiaTOPA Digital Environments Forum
The program features events that celebrate cross-cultural collaborations between a range of practitioners from the Australian and Asian cultural industries.
-
IDL researchers to present at esteemed CHI 2020 conference
The 2020 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020), is taking place between 25–30 April in Oahu, Hawai’i, USA.
-
Biometric Mirror presented at the World Bank and World Engineers Convention
Biometric Mirror has rounded out a busy year of local and international appearances, with two final presentations for 2019.
-
IDL researchers contribute to successful OzCHI’19
Presenters and attendees of the 31st Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (OzCHI’19) met on Perth’s sandy shores between 3–5 December 2019.
-
The Routledge International Handbook of New Digital Practices in Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums and Heritage Sites
A new book by Dr Wally Smith and others, resulting from a collaboration between Human-Computer Interaction and Melbourne School of Design.
-
Abusing a robot won’t hurt it, but it could make you a crueller person
Robots are becoming more common in our lives. And while they may not have “feelings”, perhaps the way we treat them reflects more on our character than we previously thought.
-
Our researchers take home two awards at UbiComp 2019
PhD Candidate Zhanna Sarsenbayeva received the Gaetano Borriello Outstanding Student Award and a Distinguished Paper Award was received by a group of researchers.
-
HCI Lab Open House
To mark the completion of the new lab, we held an Open House.
-
Black Mirror x Biometric Mirror at Splendour in the Grass
Dr Niels Wouters was invited to join a panel on the ethical challenges and implications of innovative digital technologies: ‘Black Mirror x Biometric Mirror’
-
Our research to feature at CSCW 2019
We are thrilled to announce a number of successful paper submissions to CSCW 2019
-
Biometric Mirror a stand-out at WEF Summer Davos
Our exhibit at the forum, ‘Reflecting the Limitations of AI’, focused on the digital and ethical issues associated with AI technologies.
-
CHI 2019: Strong participation by the University of Melbourne
The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, also known as CHI 2019, is the flagship annual conference.
-
Room for innovation: lab upgrades
Human-Computer Interaction has received a tech-powered update to our research workspace for graduate researchers.
-
What our AI thought of us, at Melbourne Knowledge Week 2019
The Biometric Mirror project offered many festival attendees their first experience with “Sci-Fi technologies” intermingling with everyday realities.
-
Our Public Lecture Series at Melbourne Knowledge Week 2019
We were fortunate enough to be represented by a talented group of experts from the University of Melbourne’s Human-Computer Interaction at this year’s Melbourne Knowledge Week festival.