Urban Interfaces Lab

Interrogating the role of emerging technologies in cities through speculative prototypes

The Urban Interfaces Lab investigates the application of emerging technologies in cities. It draws on knowledge, methodologies and theories from the field of interaction design, interrogating speculative futures through design. The work in the lab intersects with other academic and professional fields, by demonstrating the application of urban interfaces and their impact in domains such as smart cities, experience design, urban health, digital placemaking and community engagement. Research in the lab is underpinned by human-centred design, but also challenges the notion of human-centredness by exploring new approaches that consider ecological systems in the design of urban interfaces.

Members:

• Dylan Cheng (PhD student)
• Louis Chew (PhD student)
• Dr Joel Fredericks
• Hamish Henderson (Adjunct Senior Lecturer)
• Dr Luke Hespanhol
• Dr Marius Hoggenmueller (Lab co-coordinator)
• Zhuosi Lai (PhD student)
• Associate Professor Lian Loke
• Kristina Mah (PhD student)
• Dr Callum Parker (Lab coordinator)
• Associate Professor Dagmar Reinhardt
• Tram Tran (PhD student)
• Professor Martin Tomitsch (Honorary lab member)
• Yiyuan Wang (PhD student)
• Oliver Weidlich
• Xinyan Yu (PhD student)
• Yi Zhao (PhD student)
• Russian Wu (PhD student)

Grants:

• Shared-Space Interactions Between People and Autonomous Vehicles, Tomitsch, M., Worrall, S., Parker, C., Kay, J., Nebot, E., Marvin, S., Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP), 2022-2025. 
• Trust and Safety in Autonomous Mobility Systems: A Human-centred Approach, Tomitsch, M., Hespanhol, L., Worrall, S., Nebot, E., Kent, J., Wiethoff, A., Ellison, A., Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP), 2020-2023. 
• Enabling Participatory Local Government in Smart Cities, Alizadeh, T., Dowling, R., Tomitsch, T., Sarkar, S., Hespanhol, L., Innovation and Science/Smart Cities and Suburbs Programme, 2019.
• Human-machine interaction for driverless cars, Dowling, R., Sadowski, J., Ellison, A., Tomitsch, M., Worrall, S., Nebot, E., The University of Sydney CRIS Collaborative Project Fund, 2018-2019.
• Digital Bridges: Extending Urban Infrastructure with Interactive Technologies for Community Engagement and Digital Placemaking, Hespanhol, L., Tomitsch, M., Backen, R., Loke, L., Chew, L., The University of Sydney Commercial Development & Industry Partnerships (CDIP)/Industry & Community Engagement Seed Grant & Willoughby City Council, 2018-2019.

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Projects