About Denise

I am:

  • a Computer Scientist, working in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI),
    • I hold a PhD in Computer Science, awarded by University of Bath, UK.
    • And I am a Diplom-Informatikerin, awarded by Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany.
  • a Researcher with focus on Arts-based Methods in HCI, including drawing, (visual) storytelling and dance,
    • My expertise is in arts-based and creative research methods from ideation to dissemination in HCI and Interactive Design.
    • This includes text-, image- and performance-based methods.
    • I am interested in arts as an embodied way of knowing and meaning-making for the researcher and the researched during the whole design and research process.
    • I currently work as an Innovation Fellow exploring 'Ageless Digital Citizens' at the Centre for Digital Citizens, Open Lab, School of Computing, Newcastle University, UK
  • an Educator, teaching and supervising on an under- and postgraduate level for Computer Science and HCI.
    • taught on a flipped classroom course for HCI and Interaction Design
    • taught on Computer Systems Architecture, System Requirements & Design, HCI, Designing Interactive Systems and Collaborative Systems courses
    • taught a master class on digital games in collaboration with members from the German games industry
    • finished training for Full Fellow at the Higher Education Academy (FHEA, D2), awaiting approval
  • a member of the ACM SIG CHI chapter on "Arts in HCI" which aims to engage with and promote arts practice and methods to the wider HCI community as well as encourage collaboration, support and mentoring for those working between the arts and HCI research space,
  • a member of the IFIP working group WG13.3 'Human Computer Interaction, Disability, and Aging'.

I also have expertise in:

  • electronically-mediated dance as a Human-Computer Interaction Consultant (Contractor) for the Sonic Dancer project
  • digital behavioural interventions for children with autism as a Programmer, designer and researcher for the CAAR Centre for Applied Autism Research, Department of Psychology and Department of Computer Science, University of Bath, UK, as part of the Leverhulme Trust project 3DBI
  • gaze in human-robot interaction as a Research Collaborator in the School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol and the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, UK
  • open innovation and serious games as a Research Assistant at the Serious Games Institute SGI, Coventry, UK
  • digital games research, including active and receptive media work
    • manager and teacher of an industry- and research-led Games Master Class at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, Children's Media Department, Erfurt, Germany
    • (arts-based) research on violence in digital games, AI avatars, interaction and interactivity at the Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology IDMT, Children's Media Department, Ilmenau and Erfurt, Germany
    • game development (intern) at the Trans-Reality Game Laboratory, Högskolan på Gotland, Visby, Sweden

Scholarships, Grants and Awards

  • 2024 Future Digileaders'24, Digital Futures research centre, KTH, Sweden
  • 2015 Public Engagement Grant, University of Bath, UK
  • 2013-2019 Full Graduate School Scholarship, University of Bath, UK
  • 2013 Full graduate scholarship awarded by Leonardo da Vinci EU programme
  • 2012 "Ehrenamtspreis", Student Council/Union award for volunteer work in university politics, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Germany
  • 2006-2007 Full undergraduate student scholarship awarded by Leonardo da Vinci EU programme

Interests

  • Creative and Arts-based Methods including visual methods, drawing, storytelling, storymapping, dance
  • Participatory and Co-Design Methods
  • Arts in HCI
  • First Person/Autobiographical Research Methods
  • Software Design and Engineering
  • Graphic Facilitation, Visualisation of Data/Information/Knowledge
  • Comics Studies
  • Death and Bereavement Studies
  • Psychology (emotion, personality, identity, self, autism)
  • Speech and Language Therapy (aphasia)