I am a Professor of Human-Computer Interaction and head of the Bristol Interaction Group in the Computer Science Department at the University of Bristol (UK). My research is rooted within Human Computer Interaction although I am working toward creating synergies with Material Engineering and Soft Robotics. I believe that the static shape of computers is the bottleneck of today’s interactive systems. We need shape-changing computers that are malleable and reconfigure into any shapes and provide affordances that unleash users interactive potential. However, despite tremendous breakthroughs in advanced materials, their implementation is far off because we don’t understand how to support interactions with them. My research approach is a blend of theory, experimentation, and software/hardware design and my goal is to help designers create the best possible interfaces and devices we will soon have in our hands.

Before joining Bristol I spent two years as a research assistant at the Hasso Plattner Institute and I finished my Ph.D at Telecom ParisTech in 2010. I am now supervising a number of PhDs and RAs: Isabel Qamar (RA); Aluna Everitt (RA); Josh Tailor (RA); Jenna Shapiro (RA); Jingqi Liu (RA); Wenda Zhao (PhD); Jed Priest (PhD); Immi Biswas (PhD); Karen Li (PhD); Richard Grafton (PhD); Ollie Hanton (PhD); Daniel Bennett (PhD); Lulwah Al-Barrack (PhD, finished 2022); Gareth Barnaby (PhD, finished 2022); Helen Deeks (PhD, finished 2021);  Rachel Eardley (PhD, finished 2021); Hyunyoung Kim (PhD, finished 2020); Themis Omirou (PhD, finished 2017); Tom Carter (PhD, finished 2017).

Also check out the beautiful creation of my artists brother Roud!

News

Editor for Nature Scientific report
PI for the Pro2 Network+
Check the BIG youtube channel for videos and our database of “HCI meet Material Science” at morphui.com