Redefining digital and social media
Barbara Crossouard
A central focus of the research of Lecturer in Education, Barbara Crossouard, is the changing nature of doctoral education. This includes the exciting potential of digital and social media to reconfigure the spaces in which doctoral education takes place, for example through international doctoral programmes supported by digital technology which extend the possibility of doctoral education to new constituents. Digital and social media also create diverse possibilities for methodological innovation and new ways of becoming a researcher. At the same time, these media can also be harnessed for more normative purposes such as doctoral skills development, making this an intriguing area to research.
Dan Chalmers
The research* of Dan Chalmers, Senior Lecturer in Informatics, focuses on enabling computing systems to adapt to their users’ needs, using context to support useful interaction. Adaptation may, for example, be to social situations – who are you interacting with, how have you interacted with them in the past and hence what data do you trust them with? The glove pictured here detects emotional state, and is an early prototype to explore how emotion can inform how social situations are interpreted. The overarching goal is to make networked interactions more inclusive, natural and trusted at a human level – rather than a divisive advantage to the technically able.
*funded by Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
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Winfried Hensinger
The world of quantum physics has mystified both experts and interested lay people alike over the past 100 years and still does today. Winfried Hensinger, Reader in Quantum, Atomic and Optical Physics and EPSRC Leadership Fellow, heads the Ion Quantum Technology Group at Sussex. His research* aims to uncover the mysteries of quantum physics and ‘tame’ them, developing new quantum technologies that will revolutionise the world we live in. One of these technologies is a super-fast quantum computer, which could provide unimaginably greater processing power than current classical computers, and transform how we solve scientific problems.
*funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the European Commission
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Go to the Ion Quantum Technology Group.
Cynthia Weber
How do US Americans exercise their inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness during times of crisis? The research of Cynthia Weber, Professor of International Relations in the School of Global Studies, focuses on this question. By using digital media platforms to capture oral and visual histories and to create interactive interfaces for users, she investigates the complex and contradictory meanings and emotions bound up with the phrase ‘I am an American’ and their implications for understandings of citizenship, identity, tolerance, nationalism, patriotism, and justice. For more information, please visit www.iamanamericanproject.com
Background image taken from Occupylujah, a film directed by Cynthia Weber.
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Kirk Woolford
Kirk Woolford is leading cross-disciplinary research* at Sussex to develop new technologies enabling the study of how people understand and respond to places by moving through them. Using bespoke software and arrays of sensors worn under or over clothing, the Motion in Place Platform captures full-body motion data – such as the movements of an archaeologist working on a site or an architect walking through a building – allowing researchers to understand how factors including the scale and orientation of a space affect the relationships of people within it. The technology is being made available as part of an AHRC programme to develop digital resources for the wider academic community.
*funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the RCUK Digital Economies
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Judith Good
How can we use new and emerging digital technologies to create environments that improve learning and promote engagement? And how can we ensure that the learners themselves have a say in the design of such technologies? The research of Judith Good, Reader in Informatics, focuses on these questions. She develops technology-enhanced learning environments for a range of learners, including those with special needs such as autism spectrum conditions*. In doing so, she uses innovative techniques to involve learners in the design from the outset, a process that is particularly challenging when designing with very young users or learners with special needs.
*funded under the Economic and Social Research Council / Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) programme
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