(https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-068)
Aloha Ambe
is a human-centred design researcher who studies how people use and shape technology in everyday and high-stakes settings. She uses co-design and participatory methods to translate human agency, creativity, and values into practical designs and guidance. Her work spans home and community contexts with older adults and marginalised communities, and clinical workplaces with emergency and radiology teams, examining how technology, data, and AI fit within real practices.
Merja Bauters
is a research fellow at Legroup, at Aalto University Media Lab. Merja holds the title of docent by the University of Helsinki and obtained her PhD in 2007 in Humanities and Arts, Aesthetics. She has been involved in multiple European and international projects exploring the potentials and challenges that emerging technologies pose in learning in diversity of contexts. Her recent research has been on the role of experience in informal and formal learning in work, cultural settings or higher education, embodiment and enactive approaches to sense-making.
Giorgia Burzio
is a PhD candidate in Design at the Design Department of Politecnico di Milano. Her main research activity focuses on interaction with data via situated, personal, unruled and embodied data encodings. Specifically, on how to lever the potential of data as material to design embodied interactions, with a particular focus on inclusive design and menstrual wellbeing. Previously Research Fellow at D\\Tank – the think tank of the Department of Design of Politecnico di Milano, born to promote design as a tool to transform advanced research into innovation convergences for institutions.?
Vincenzo D’Andrea
is an Associate professor at the University of Trento, teaching Participatory Design, Information Systems, and other courses. He holds a PhD in Information Engineering. His main research interest (since 20 years) is Participatory Design of ICT, an area requiring interdisciplinary work with social scientists and designers. He is responsible for the UniTrento participation in the research project ECOEMPOWER which aims at promoting energy communities using participatory methodologies. Previously he has been the coordinator of several other projects, such as P4P (Participatory Design for Public Good) a project aiming at including the residents’ knowledge and competences for innovating the local touristic offer.
Salvatore Di Dio
Doctor of Environmental Physics, he is Associate Professor of Design at the University of Palermo. He co-founded the PUSH Design Lab, Piranesi Experience and MUV, entrepreneurial initi- atives that intersect social innovation, urban sustainability and sus- tainable mobility through design. With a background in architecture, environmental sustainability and digital services, He has led international research teams in exploring the social and environmen- tal impacts of design. He is committed to promoting ethical design practices and preparing a future generation of designers capable of tackling global challenges.
Flora Fakourian
holds a PhD in Architecture and is a researcher specializing in architectural pedagogy and digital learning environments. Her research explores the intersection of instructional technologies and collaborative design processes. She is recognized for her work on developing conceptual models that bridge the gap between technological adoption and pedagogical value in design education.
Venere Ferraro
PhD in design, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Design at Politecnico di Milano, and she is currently responsible for the scientific coordination of the D/Tank, the department’s think tank. Her research interests focus on smart products, smart materials, and wearable technologies for health and well-being, with a particular emphasis on tools and methods for defining, designing, and enhancing user experience and generating conscious behaviours. She is Deputy of Technology Transfer Office and Business Relations of the Department of Design and is the author of several international publications, holds both national and international patents, and is a member of the Editorial Board of the Scientific Journal “International Journal of Design Sciences and Technology.” Her patents have been selected for exhibition at the Triennale di Milano (2020), the Maker Fair (2018), and the Patent Factory at the Museum of Science and Technology (2019).
Mirko Guaralda
has more than 25 years of experience developed in academia, industry, and local government. His background includes experience in architectural design, landscape architecture and urban design. His work focuses on people-place interaction, enquiring into the complex issues of urban density, place quality and community engagement, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. He has been a visiting professor at the Thammasat University in Bangkok (Thailand), Jiangxi University of Science and Technology (China), and Lodz University of Technology (Poland). He is an experienced supervisor and in his 10 years at QUT has supervised to completion 30 HDR students.
Mehdi Hamzenejad
is an Associate Professor of Architecture at the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST). His research interests include Islamic architecture, housing design, and pedagogical methods in architectural engineering. He has a significant record of supervising research projects that bridge traditional architectural values with modern instructional technologies.
Helena A Haxvig
is a PhD student at the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science, University of Trento, Italy. With a background in Techno-Anthropology, they specializes in human-technology relations, focusing on Participatory Design and (socially) sustainable AI. Their research is grounded in feminist and queer Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), critically examining the ethical and societal implications of biased AI systems. Currently, she investigates the gender bias and discrimination embedded in Large Language Models (LLMs), advocating for more inclusive, participatory, and ethically responsible human-centered evaluation and use practices.
Mehdi Khakzand
is an Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST). He is an expert in environmental design, landscape urbanism, and the integration of technology in architectural education. Dr. Khakzand has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles and serves as a supervisor for advanced research in pedagogical frameworks and spatial analysis.
Esra Kurul
is a Professor of Sustainability Transitions in the Built Environment at Oxford Brookes University, UK. Her expertise lies in sustainable urban development, organizational change in the built environment, and interdisciplinary collaboration. She is widely recognized for her work on how institutions and people adapt to technological and environmental shifts in the architecture, engineering and construction industries.
Naemi Luckner
is a Senior Lecturer at TU Wien and University of Applied Arts, and lectures at University of Applied Sciences St Pölten and at the Bertha von Suttner University. At the Human Computer Interaction group, her research focuses mainly on technology-enhanced and game-based learning and game design. She has contributed work to various projects in these fields of a technology-enhanced learning, gameful design of serious applications and skill and knowledge exchange.
Andrea Giuseppe Manciaracina
PhD in Design and Degree in Industrial Design from Politecnico di Milano. Research fellow at the Design Department of the Politecnico di Milano and adjunct professor at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano since 2003. His research focuses on the relationship between communication design in all its forms, spaces and technologies for learning and for the use of services. Attentive to these issues, he contributes to the field of design by participating in researches and conferences, writing articles and publishing books.
Ilaria Mariani
PhD in Design, she is Assistant Professor at the Department of Design, Politecnico di Milano. Her research focuses on design-driven innovation in the public sector, addressing digital transformation with a current emphasis on AI for democracy. In particular, she investigates human-centred AI for deliberative processes and multi-stakeholder participation, engaging with organisational change and policy-making. Adopting a communication design and data visualisation perspective, her work explores how data and AI systems can support understanding, engagement, and decision-making in institutional and participatory contexts. She also examines the design and analysis of complex interactive systems for social change, combining theoretical grounding with applied research and evaluation within European-funded projects. She has been involved in numerous European projects, including the Horizon Europe projects AISHA, ORBIS, OPENVERSE, GovTech Connect (DG CNECT), SISCODE and easyRights (H2020), AI4GOV (CEF), and DIGISER (ESPON). She contributes to the international scholarly debate through journal publications and conference participation, serving as speaker, chair, and reviewer. She is co-editor of the book ‘AI for Democracy. Human-centric, Trustworthy and Inclusive Innovations’ (Springer, 2026)
Ben Matthews
is Associate Professor of Interaction Design at the University of Queensland, Australia. His research interests include participatory design methods, designing to augment skilled human practices, and co-designing emerging health technologies.
Ksenia Nikolaeva
is a design researcher and sessional academic at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Her work focuses on architecture, urban design, technology and methodologies, including AI-supported workflows and immersive (VR/XR) prototyping for spatial experience and community engagement. She contributes to research projects on climate adaptation, housing affordability, and the translation of ethical and experiential considerations into experimental built-environment practice.
Dan Nyandega
has a PhD in Architecture (water sensitive cities/design) from Monash University. As a CRCWSC PhD scholar, he worked under a multidisciplinary platform Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities (CRCWSC) working under MADA urban lab at Monash University. Upon completing his PhD, he became a post-doc research assistant for integrated urban and water planning under CRCWSC and MADA urban lab. He has a Master of Architecture from KU Leuven in Belgium, and a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Hons) from Jomo Kenyatta University in Kenya. Before joining QUT in July 2020, Dan was a lecturer at Monash University Department of Architecture and at RMIT University Department of Landscape Architecture, where he taught design studios, architecture and the city, and water-related elective units, construction technology and materiality, at both undergraduate and masters level. Dan has also been an external examiner for master thesis for M.Arch: Human Settlement at KU Leuven University.
Mariana Pacheco
is a Product Designer with a multidisciplinary background spanning UX, graphic design, and advertising. She holds a Master’s degree in Interactive Media Systems from the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, a postgraduate specialization in Interaction Design, and an additional postgraduate degree in Fashion Design, building on her bachelor’s training in Graphic Design. With nearly 15 years of experience across agencies, public institutions, and technology companies in Brazil and Portugal, she has contributed to SaaS and B2B products through digital user experience design, user research, design systems, and branding. Her recent research examines how UX and product teams integrate AI into discovery practices, with particular interest in its impact on creativity, productivity, and human–AI collaboration in design workflows.
Peter Purgathofer
is Associate Professor at TU Wien. His work is centred on the question of reconcilability between design and software engineering in the software development process. He follows interdisciplinary research approaches from informatics, art, design and the social sciences. He is principal researcher in projects focused on the application of insights from design research and design theory on technology development.
Francesca Rizzo
Ph.D. in Computer Science, she is Full Professor in Interaction Design and User Studies and serves as delegate for international relationships in European research projects at Recor. Her research focuses on the application of Design Thinking and systemic design to public sector innovation, with particular attention to how co-design processes enable organisational change in complex institutional settings. She has extensive experience in European-funded research, having coordinated and contributed to numerous EU projects. She is currently coordinating the Horizon Europe project NEUROCLIMA, previously coordinated ORBIS (Horizon Europe), and co-coordinated SISCODE (H2020). She has also been involved as principal investigator or team member in a wide range of projects in service design, smart cities, social innovation, and user-led innovation, including AISHA, AI4GOVX, NetZeroCities, easyRights, OPENVERSE, SEED2SCALE, GOCCIA (EUI), AI4GOV (CEF), DIGISER (ESPON), GovTech Connect (DG CNECT), SEED, and RoadSTEMer. She is the author of numerous publications in international journals and conference proceedings. he is the Editor of the book published by Springer (2016) on Human Smart Cities.
Rui Rodrigues
is an Assistant Professor at ESMAD – School of Media Arts and Design (Politécnico do Porto) since 2016 and is part of the Multimedia Department, where he teaches subjects related to Interaction & Interface Design, Prototyping, 2D/3D Animation, Motion Design, Usability and User eXperience (UX). He holds a PhD in Information and Communication in Digital Platforms and he is a member of ID+ Research Centre. Additionally, he collaborates with the Digital Media and Interaction research group (DigiMedia). An eye tracking enthusiast, his research and development activities cover many aspects of UX, IxD and evaluation & usability studies, with particular interest on understanding how people perceive, interact and use digital content. Previously, he also collaborates as a multimedia and UX specialist in the creation of digital educational resources with gamified elements, in transdisciplinary and narrative-based structures for both classroom and autonomous learning.
Marwa Seoudi
is currently a PhD Candidate at Tallinn University, pursuing her Ph.D. focusing on Responsible AI and the development of a trustworthy AI ecosystem for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). She is also a Senior consultant at the MENA Observatory of Responsible AI at the American University of Cairo. And she is the co-founder and CIO of IdeasGym. Marwa has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards that showcase her commitment to fostering innovation and education. She won the “ICT for Women” first place award in 2018 for co-founding the IdeasGym e-learning platform, an initiative recognized by the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and UNDP. In the same year, she was awarded the Tony Elumelu grant for entrepreneurship in Africa, underscoring her impact on educational initiatives across the continent. Marwa was honored with the Women in Business Innovation Award in 2024, presented by Germany’s First Lady, and received the prestigious IEEE Entrepreneurship Impact Award.
Betty Tärning
is Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and researcher at Lund University Cognitive Science. Tärning is a member of the Science of Learning group at Lucs (https://www.lucs.lu.se/research/sol-at-lucs/home/). Tärning defended her thesis about teachable agents and feedback in 2018 and has since then continued to conduct research on teachable agents as well as learning instruction by means of Virtual Reality and, in the domain of data- and information literacy in 11-13 year olds. Her more recent research interests are early reading and writing instructions.
Maurizio Teli
is Associate Professor at the Department of Sustainability and Planning, Aalborg University, Denmark. He leads the Responsible Technology Futures (Re-TECH) research group. His work focuses on participatory design, digital technologies, sustainable futures, and socio?ecological justice. He has coordinated several research projects and promoted educational initiatives. Maurizio co-chairs the Advisory Board of the Participatory Design Conference and sits on the Editorial Board of CoDesign. He regularly reviews and serves on program committees across computing, design, and social science venues, with over one hundred publications.
Eva-Maria Ternblad
is PhD in Cognitive Science and is a researcher at the Department of Cognitive Science at Lund University. Ternblad defended her thesis in December 2024, mainly comprising different aspects of how virtual and physical interaction and feedback engagement may affect learning and knowledge building. Ternblad has also been engaged in studies covering reading interventions, self-regulated learning, ‘gaming-the-system’-aspects of educational software, and information- and data literacy. Her main focus is on younger students, 6-12 years old.
Congrong Zhang
is an HCI researcher focused on employing co-design methods to foster human-AI interaction within healthcare. Her work explores how emerging technologies can enhance collaboration and connectivity among diverse stakeholders. By prioritizing early-stage engagement, she aims to build more inclusive and effective design and innovation processes.
Shuyin Zheng
is a pre-doc project assistant in the HCI group at TU Wien, and a game developer and designer. Her current research focuses on (sub-)urban youth mobility, and using participatory and speculative design to help shape a car-free urban future. Her game-related work focuses on (reflective) game design and game-based learning in higher education.