Current Research Projects
REPAIR: Redesigned Equitable Processes for Inclusive Research Funding
The “REPAIR” project is an initiative aimed at addressing systemic inequities in the way academic research funding is awarded, with a particular focus on improving fairness for marginalised early career researchers (ECRs). By partnering with key academic and research communities, including the Faculty of Brain Sciences and the Faculty of Arts & Humanities at University … Continue reading
Understanding the Cognitive Impact of Circadian Disruption: Designing for Shift Workers in a Healthcare Setting
Introduction In the fast-paced and high-stakes world of healthcare, every decision can have life-altering consequences. Healthcare professionals, often working irregular hours, are particularly vulnerable to disruptions in their circadian rhythms—the natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. Even with adequate sleep, misalignment of these rhythms can significantly impair cognitive function, decision-making abilities, and error … Continue reading
ASTRA – AI Solutions for Time-Restricted Academics
Are you an academic who is using LLMs in your work? We’d love to hear from you. Complete this survey and we’ll send you a token of our appreciation or find out more about this project here. Academic jobs are demanding, intellectually intense and stimulating, and attract high performing individuals. They incorporate research, teaching, institutional … Continue reading
Promoting Inclusive Research Practices
This project aims to make dementia research more inclusive that addresses the challenges experienced by researchers and ethnically-minoritized communities using co-production methods. We urgently need greater participation of ethnically-minoritized groups in dementia research to understand the reasons for differences in vulnerability and survival, and to provide better interventions. We need to know what barriers ethnically-minoritized … Continue reading
Gendered Mental Load and Smart Technology in the family home
There is a long history of labour saving technologies in the home to reduce the amount of effort exerted on household chores. However research shows that much of the labour performed in the home is cognitive and emotional and is often hidden from society and also from the design of technologies. This type of work … Continue reading
Designing the in-app teaching experience for spreadsheets
The modern workplace often places demands on workers to quickly learn and apply new practices in their workflow to maintain productivity. One of the easiest ways to learn about best practices and solutions to common problems at work is via colleagues, particularly when using complex software such as spreadsheets, where expertise is essential to reduce … Continue reading
Digital technology for neurodiverse students
Exploring Accessibility and digital system support for neurodivergent students Blended learning has become a mainstream learning experience for many universities, including UCL, during the COVID-19 pandemic. While blended learning has received much attention over the years, particularly in the area of education, we still know little about how people with disabilities engage in blended learning … Continue reading
Research Compliance Buddy: AI for Navigating Data Protection and Ethics procedures
Be the first to test out a new PALS chatbot designed to help with your data protection and/or ethics approval application for an hour and earn £9! Are you a UCL PALS researcher in one of the following situations?1) you are about to embark on a data and/or ethics application and require support.2) you have a … Continue reading
Using digital games to recover from daily work strain
Digital games have been demonstrated to promote recovery from daily work strain. However, prior research has not examined the role that player experience (PX) plays in post-work recovery despite the fact that theories in this area rely implicitly on PX concepts. Hence, this research seeks to understand how the experience of immersion shapes the recovery … Continue reading
Leveraging AI to Overcome the Academic Peer Review Crisis
In this project we focus on alleviating the peer review crisis in academia. With an increasing number of submissions and a limited number of reviewers, reviewers are becoming overburdened, leading to delays in the review process due to a shortage of reviewers. This research explores using AI tools, such as ChatGPT, to support reviewers by … Continue reading
Improving Time Management in Academia through Better Time Estimation Support
This project investigates time management challenges in academia focusing on the extensive time spent on planning tasks and highlighting the need for effective time estimation tools. The project’s objective is to identify and investigate the effectiveness of planning support tools that can help academics manage their time better. Initial studies involved diaries and interviews with … Continue reading
Completed Research Projects
eWork Radio
Register to use the eWork Radio app! Read about how we developed the eWork Radio browser application Nearly 500 participants contributed to our research on remote working In spring 2020, an unprecedented number of people suddenly moved to remote working, many of them with little to no previous experience of working from home. This happened … Continue reading
BreakBOT: A Digital Emotion Regulation Chatbot
Students frequently use social media (SM) as a digital break from studying. Concerns have been raised that these breaks harm academic performance and wellbeing by acting as a form of procrastination. Counter evidence suggests they can also act as a form of recovery that positively supports performance and well-being. It is currently unclear how SM … Continue reading
eWorkLife: Remote Working during COVID19 lockdowns
We have designed a self-reflection tool which aims to help you understand your remote working needs and provides personalised recommendations for strategies can help improve productivity and work-life balance. Continue reading
Adolescent Mental Health and Development in the Digital World
In 2020, many university programs had to shift at least part of their teaching online. This opened up many questions about the impact of online learning and the lack of in-person interaction on students’ ability to learn and socialise and on their mental health. Professor Anna Cox and Professor Yvonne Rogers led a study investigating … Continue reading
Conceptualising and measuring digital emotion regulation
A study investigating the the role of digital technology in the academic and personal lives of undergraduate students who started their courses in autumn 2020. Continue reading
Citizen Cyberlab and Citizen Science
This project aims to develop a novel framework for better understanding digital emotion regulation, ways to study it in everyday settings, and evidence-based recommendations for managing it in ways that benefit individuals and society. Continue reading
Mobile Mental Health Interventions for Anxiety Management
Digital mental health is a rapidly growing area within Human-Computer Interaction. Mental health problems will affect one-third of the population worldwide during their lifetime. At the present moment, anxiety disorders are highly prevalent and are among the most common psychological disorders with an estimated 264 million adults experiencing anxiety worldwide. The significant effects of anxiety … Continue reading
iWARDS
Prof Anna Cox and Dr Antonia Rich developed an intervention to improve junior doctors’ well-being. Continue reading
The temporal flexibility of crowdwork
Over the past decade, there has been a rise in the number of people working on crowdsourcing platforms. Although those who work on crowdworking platforms (i.e., crowdworkers) value having autonomy over scheduling their own time, research suggests that they do not benefit from the temporal flexibility to choose when and for how long to work. … Continue reading
GetAMoveOn
The GetAMoveOn Network+ is an interdisciplinary community of researchers and practitioners, funded by an EPSRC grant running from June 2016 to the end of May 2021. Our aim is to transform health by enabling people to lead more active lives with the help of digital technologies. Continue reading
ECLIPSE
ECLIPSE -Exploring the Current Landscape of Intravenous Infusion Practices & Errors Continue reading
Digital Epiphanies
This project seeks to enhance our understanding of the paradoxical and double-edged effects that new technologies and digital practices are having on work-life balance. Continue reading
CHI+MED
The aim of the CHI+MED project was to transform the way in which interactive (programmable) medical devices are designed, bought and used, in ways that both prevent and reduce the consequences of medical errors. Continue reading
