Associate Professor
Alessandro Soro

Biography

Alessandro received his PhD from the university of Cagliari (Italy) in 2012 with a thesis exploring the collaborative use of large multi-touch screens. Since then he has focused his research on the design and use of collaborative technologies in many contexts, from the family to remote communities. His current focus is on technologies to support socialisation, communication, and creativity.

Education and Professional Memberships

2012. PhD in Mathematics and Scientific Computing defending a dissertation on “Gestures and Cooperation: Considering non-verbal communication in the design of interactive spaces”

2006. MCompSc in Computer Science from the University of Cagliari in 2006 discussing a graduation thesis titled “Range Queries over Structured P2P Networks”.

2012 - 2013. Member of the QUT’s Institute of Health Biomedical Innovation (IHBI)

2010 - present. Member of the ACM special interest group on human-computer interaction (SIGCHI)

Current Role

Senior Lecturer – School of Computer Science - Queensland University of Technology: Gardens Point Campus, 2 George St – Brisbane (QLD) 4000 - Australia

Experience

2017-2019: Lecturer – Computer Human Interaction - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science School - Queensland University of Technology

2013-2017: Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Computer Human Interaction - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science School - Queensland University of Technology

2012-2013: Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) Queensland University of Technology.

2000-2012: Technologist – Centre for Advanced Studies, Research and Development – Sardinia (Italy)

2009-2011: Teaching Assistant – Faculty of Design, University of Sassari/Alghero (Italy)
Research Interests, Key Projects and Publications
Augmented Sociality is a new research avenue for which I was awarded an ARC Discovery grant (DP200102478) in 2019, seeking to explore new forms of creative expression and socialisation enabled by augmented reality (AR). AR application scenarios have been so far conceptualised mostly from the point of view of power users and highly specialised tasks. AR can however do much more for ordinary users than ‘augmenting’ the world with digital information, a scenario that sees people as passive recipients of digital data, rather than knowledge makers and active participants.

In this project I will explore how AR can be appropriated and domesticated by users such as older adults, or children, who are often marginalised in the envisioning of emerging technologies. By collaborating in the creation of scenarios and applications, we will try to imagine what the world may look like when looking through the lens of a socialised AR, and what new forms of participation and collective empowerment may result from being able to envision alternative realities in conversation with the real world.

Publications

This project is just starting, and initial research outputs will not be available for some time. A preliminary publication (Late Breaking Results) has been accepted to CHI 2020.

• Alessandro Soro, Ross Brown, Peta Wyeth, and Selen Turkay. 2020. Towards a Smart and Socialised Augmented Reality. Extended Abstracts of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts, 1–8.

This work dovetails with a thread of research I pursued during my first year at QUT, seeking to explore AR technologies to foster pro-social behaviours in motorists. The paper below (33 citations in Google Scholar) spells out a vision for social cars capable to make available to the driver social and emotional cues to foster empathy among motorists.

• Andry Rakotonirainy, Ronald Schroeter, and Alessandro Soro. 2014. Three social car visions to improve driver behaviour. Pervasive and Mobile Computing 14, Special Issue on The Social Car: Socially-inspired Mechanisms for Future Mobility Services: 147--160.

Indigenous Research.

Since 2013 I collaborate with Indigenous Communities to co-design technologies to support indigenous language and cultural performance.

I have collaborated with the community of Groote Eylandt (NT) to create a digital noticeboard that enables community members to create and share spoken and written narratives in Anindilyakwa and English. The narratives consist of videos or pictures complete with textual and/or audio commentaries that can be recorded using a variety of devices available in community. A custom ‘read along’ feature highlighted the text in synchronous with the speech to help reading. This ‘karaoke’ highlighting is automatically timed using an open source speech recognition software that I adapted to the Anindilyakwa phonetics.  The Noticeboard works independently of Internet connection, by creating its own access point to which users can connect, and use their own devices as interface to edit and upload contents.

I currently collaborate with community of Wujal Wujal (QLD) to create new bespoke tools to support intergenerational language transmission and to explore new paths to higher education and STEM employment for young community members.  In collaborations with the Wujal Wujal Aboriginal Shire Council and with financial support from an QUT Engagement Innovation Grant I have organised a series of ‘Coding on Country’ camps, in which young Aboriginal students have learnt the basics of co-design and micro-controller programming. These have been attended by young community members during their school holidays and have contributed to the ideas developed in this proposal. In 2019 one community member visited QUT for 1 week and took part in many aspects of study and research at QUT, including reading groups, research meetings, and training.

I am currently leading an grant proposal (under review) for the ARC Special Research Initiative for Australian Society, History and Culture, seeking to co-explore and co-create activities and technologies aimed at supporting the use and transmission of the Kuku Yalanji language, and seeding new indigenous-led enterprises at the intersection of language, culture, and design.

Publications

In working with Indigenous Communities I prioritise reciprocity, inclusion, and continuing engagement to purely academic output, to ensure that the communities involved have can have immediate benefits from participating in the research. The academic output from this thread of research focuses on methodological insights, especially looking at how indigenous ways of making and sharing knowledge resonate with community based research and feminist studies. It is particularly interesting in my view how the lens of postcolonial studies can be applied to many areas or research with underserved and marginalised communities of users, regardless of colonial history.

The paper below, published at the first African HCI conference, spells out my overarching approach and philosofy for exngagement in Indigenous research. It critiques the approach of ‘cultural probes’ commonly used in HCI, and advocated to present participation, and for using prototypes to benefit, rather than ‘probe’ the community. It is to date one of the best cited papers from the AfriCHI conference (22 citations in Google Scholar)

• Alessandro Soro, Margot Brereton, Jennyfer Lawrence Taylor, Anita Lee Hong, and Paul Roe. 2016. Cross-Cultural Dialogical Probes. Proceedings of the First African Conference on Human Computer Interaction - AfriCHI’16, ACM Press, 114–125.

The two papers below also focus on methodological issues and overall explore the challenges of designing in conversation with culture and with a ‘postcolonial’ sensibility.

• L. Taylor, A. Soro, P. Roe, A.L. Hong, and M. Brereton. 2018. “Debrief o’clock”: Planning, recording, and making sense of a day in the field in Design research. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings.
• Jennyfer Lawrence Taylor, Alessandro Soro, Anita Lee Hong, et al. 2017. “Situational When”: Designing for Time Across Cultures. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’17)., ACM Press, 6461–6474.

 

Social Internet of Things.

In my work on the ‘Social Internet of Things’ I look at the human side of the Internet of Things, to understand how this computing paradigm could deliver benefits to the everyday user beyond home automation and surveillance. I have applied this perspective to technologies aimed at reconnecting people to the natural environment, and connecting people to each other around daily routines.

I have participated in the design, development and testing of the Messaging Kettle, and example of augmented everyday object that leverages family rituals and habituation to promote social engagement. Another device application, the Ambient Birdhouse, is designed to bring the sounds of nature indoors, and encourage family activities to learn about birds and nature.

My work on the Social Internet of Things is my most influential so far in terms of academic impact, resonance outside of academia, and impact on related activities such as student projects. The Messaging Kettle has been presented on national television, and a commercial evolution developed by QUT’s start-up incubator (Bluebox) in a commercial project (https://conpago.com.au/) is being trialled in a retirement home as a mean to maintain communication between residents. The Ambient Birdhouse was trialled with families and is currently part of a long term deployment with the Baringa State Primary School, a STEM high school in the Sunshine Coast.

Publications

I was leading organiser of 2 workshop (one hosted by the national OzCHI conference, and the second one hosted by the prestigious SIGCHI conference) that resulted in the publication of a collective work of which I am leading editor, published by Springer Verlag.

• Alessandro Soro, Margot Brereton, and Paul Roe. 2019. Social Internet of Things. Springer.

Papers I led or co-authored, related to the Social Internet of Things, have collected overall more than 150 reference, with the main paper on the Messaging Kettle collecting 60+ references since 2015.

• Margot Brereton, Alessandro Soro, Kate Vaisutis, and Paul Roe. 2015. The Messaging Kettle: Prototyping Connection over a Distance Between Adult Children and Older Parents. Proceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 713–716.

In this thread of work I have often sought to challenge a dominant perspective of IoT as automation and monitoring, particularly in application domains intended for older adults. The paper below (13 references on Google Scholar) puts forward a critique of ageism in design, and uses the Messaging Kettle as a positive example of design built around the person’s skills and preferences, rather that around the shortcomings.

• Alessandro Soro, A.H. Aloha Hufana Ambe, and Margot Brereton. 2017. Minding the gap: Reconciling human and technical perspectives on the IoT for healthy ageing. Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing.