I am a Professor of Design and Assessment of Technology in the Informatics Faculty at TU Wien (Vienna University of Technology). I have an eclectic background starting in Australia (dropping out of social work, training as a nurse and midwife, co-setting up the first private midwifery practice in Queensland, studying for an informatics degree, completing a PhD at the intersection of computer science and the social sciences, working in a distributed systems research organization) then moving to Europe to work as a user experience consultant in industry in London, and then as an academic in England and now Austria.
I am passionate about re-thinking the design of technology to enhance quality of life, in particular for this project, the experience of aging and community, connecting to people’s core values and to what makes life fun and rewarding. Other research areas include health and well being, social and emotional skills learning, and collaboration and social interaction.
I facilitate the great team of researchers at TUW, responsible for WP2 on the service design model and facilitating the partner engagements in Austria.