1329212
Professor Marcus Foth
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Design
Biography
Marcus Foth is a Professor of Urban Informatics in the School of Design, Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, and the Course Coordinator of the Master of Design (Strategic Design). He is also a Chief Investigator in the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), a founding member of the More-than-Human Futures research group, and a Senior Associate with Outside Opinion.Marcus’ research brings together people, place, and technology. His current research foci include:
- urban media and geoprivacy;
- data care in smart cities;
- creating better digital futures;
- sustainability and more-than-human futures.
Marcus has published more than 280 peer-reviewed publications. His h-index is 63 with 13,000+ citations.
In 2023, Marcus was inducted as a Fellow to the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences. Since 2021, Marcus has been a member of the national College of Experts of the Australian Research Council (ARC). In 2021, he was also named a Distinguished Member of the international Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his outstanding scientific contributions to the field of computing.
The outputs of Marcus’ research have received many awards. For example, the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer Toolkit received the 2021 National Award for Cutting Edge Research of the Planning Institute of Australia for significantly accelerating the calculation of value uplift in linear infrastructure projects such as rail networks. His BeefLedger project was recognised as a 2020 Good Design Australia Award winner twice: in the commercial services category and for design strategy, for demonstrating tangible benefits and impact of blockchain and smart contract applications for industry. Nominated by the Smart Cities Council Australia / New Zealand, Marcus was awarded ICT Researcher of the Year 2017 (Gold Disruptor) by the Australian Computer Society.
Marcus has made substantial contributions to academic service, including being conference chair of OZCHI 2009, Communities & Technologies 2011, and ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems 2016. He is an active reviewer, associate chair, and editorial board member for various conferences and journals. In recognition of his service, he received the 2018 Publons Peer Review Award(cross-field), which honours the top 1% of reviewers.
Marcus is an ACM Distinguished Speaker and has been giving invited keynote talks and presentations at international conferences and leading research institutions, including Aalto, Aarhus, Harvard, IT University of Copenhagen, KAIST, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, MIT, Oulu, Oxford, Politecnico di Milano, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tongji, Tsinghua.
Personal details
Positions
- Professor
Faculty of Creative Industries, Education & Social Justice,
School of Design
Keywords
Urban Informatics, Smart Cities, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Sustainability, More-than-Human Futures, Community Engagement, Participatory Design, Media Architecture, Design Research
Research field
Design, Communication and media studies, Human-centred computing
Field of Research code, Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC), 2020
Qualifications
- PhD (Queensland University of Technology)
- MA (Queensland University of Technology)
- BCompSc(Hons)
- BMultimedia (Griffith University)
- JP(Qual.) Qld
Professional memberships and associations
- Australian Computer Society (ACS): Fellow (FACS) and Certified Professional (CP)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI): Distinguished Member (MACM Dist.) and ACM Distinguished Speaker
- Design Institute of Australia (DIA): Member and Accredited Designer
- European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies (EUSSET): Member
- Queensland Academy of Arts and Science (QAAS): Fellow
Teaching
- Course Coordinator: Master of Design (Strategic Design)
- Unit Coordinator: DYN904 Designers as Intermediaries
- Research Training at MPhil and PhD levels: see available research topics
Experience
Committees
Current
- Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts member 2021 – 2025
- Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, Urban Policy Network advisory member, 2023 onwards
- ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) Conference Steering Committee member, 2016 onwards
Past
- EUSSET International Conference on Communities & Technologies (C&T) Conference Steering Committee member, 2011 – 2023
- Committee for Brisbane Smart City and Suburbs Taskforce member 2020 – 2022
- Association for Sustainability in Business – Liveable Cities Conference Program Advisory Committee member, 2018 – 2019
- Global Ecocentric Network for Implementing Ecodemocracy (GENIE) Advisory Council member, 2018
- Queensland Department of Innovation, Tourism Industry Development and the Commonwealth Games – Peer-to Peer Economy and Short-term Letting Industry Reference Group member, 2018
- Smart Cities Council Australia New Zealand (SCCANZ) – member of the Built Environment Task Force for Smart Cities, 2017 – 2018
- Queensland Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning(DILGP) – Infrastructure Innovation Task Force member, 2017 – 2018
- BlueChilli CityConnect smart city startup accelerator and incubator – advisory board member, 2017 – 2018
- City of Gold Coast – Internet of Things (IoT) advisory panel member, 2017 – 2018
- UrbanIxD, Europe – scientific advisory board member, 2013 – 2014
- Open UBI Oulu, University of Oulu, Finland – scientific advisory board member, 2013
- Queensland Open Data Forum – steering committee member, 2013
- Queensland Government Precinct Redevelopment – community reference group member, 2013
- Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) – elected member of the executive board, 2007 – 2009
Industry and Research Associations
- Australian Computer Society (ACS) – Fellow (FACS) and Computing Professional (CP)
- Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI) – Senior Member (MACM Snr) and ACM Distinguished Speaker
- Design Institute of Australia (DIA) – Member and Accredited Designer
- Design Research Society (DRS) – Member
- European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies (EUSSET) – Member
Conference Chairing
- 2016: Conference chair: ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems (DIS’16), Brisbane
- 2014: Symposium co-chair: FoodCHI 2014, Brisbane
- 2011: Conference chair: 5th International Conference on Communities and Technologies, C&T 2011, Brisbane
- 2009: Conference chair: OZCHI 2009, Melbourne: 21st Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFESA)
- 2009: Co-chair: Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme 2009, Brisbane
- 2008: Social chair: OZCHI 2008, Cairns: 20st Conference of the Computer-Human Interaction Special Interest Group (CHISIG) of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (HFESA)
- 2007: Invited faculty member: Oxford Internet Institute Summer Doctoral Programme, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard Law School, Boston, 2007
- 2007 – 2010: Academic program chair: Making Links conferences
Jury and Assessment Duties
- Australian Computer Society (ACS) Queensland ICT Awards – chair of the judging panel: Green ICT (Corporate), 2009, 2010
- Australian Research Council – international reader and ERA reviewer
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), UK – grant ssessor
- European Science Foundation (ESF) – grant assessor
- Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), Ministry of Education and Science, Portugal – grant assessor
- iAwards Australia – judge 2011, 2012, 2013
- K. U. Leuven (Research Council), Belgium – grant assessor
- Ministry of Science and Innovation (MSI), New Zealand – grant assessor
- National Science Centre, Poland – grant assessor
- NWO Council for the Social Sciences, The Netherlands – grant assessor
- OZCHI 24h Student Design Challenge – judge 2009, 2011, 2012
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) – grant assessor
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) – grant assessor
- United Arab Emirates University, College of IT Promotion Committee – external reviewer
- University of Lugano (Research Commission), Switzerland – grant assessor
- VicHealth – grant assessor
- Vienna Business Agency, Austria – jury member of Wiennovation – Creative Industries Vienna 2002
Member of Editorial and Advisory Boards
- Adaptive Environments (Springer book series)
- AI & Society – Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Communication (Springer)
- Big Data & Society (Sage)
- Computers, Environment and Urban Systems (Elsevier)
- Urban Planning (Cogitatio)
Publications
- Powell, W., Foth, M., Cao, S. & Natanelov, V. (2022). Garbage in garbage out: The precarious link between IoT and blockchain in food supply chains. Journal of Industrial Information Integration, 25. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/212325
- Mann, M., Mitchell, P., Foth, M. & Anastasiu Cioaca, I. (2020). #BlockSidewalk to Barcelona: Technological sovereignty and the social license to operate smart cities. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 71(9), 1103–1115. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/200269
- Loh, S., Foth, M., Caldwell, G., Garcia-Hansen, V. & Thomson, M. (2020). A more-than-human perspective on understanding the performance of the built environment. Architectural Science Review, 63(3-4), 372–383. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/197359
- Teli, M., Foth, M., Sciannamblo, M., Anastasiu Cioaca, I. & Lyle, P. (2020). Tales of Institutioning and Commoning: Participatory Design Processes with a Strategic and Tactical Perspective. PDC '20: Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 1, 159–171. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/196781
- Fredericks, J., Caldwell, G., Foth, M. & Tomitsch, M. (2019). The city as perpetual beta: Fostering systemic urban acupuncture. In M. de Waal & M. de Lange (Eds.), The hackable city: Digital media and collaborative city-making in the network society (pp. 67–92). Springer. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/107240
- Bilandzic, M. & Foth, M. (2017). Designing hubs for connected learning: social, spatial and technological insights from coworking spaces, hackerspaces, and meetup groups. In M. de Laat, L. Carvalho & P. Goodyear (Eds.), Place-based spaces for networked learning (pp. 191–206). Routledge. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/83742
- Filonik, D., Medland, R., Foth, M. & Rittenbruch, M. (2013). A customisable dashboard display for environmental performance visualisations. Persuasive Technology: 8th International Conference, PERSUASIVE 2013, Proceedings [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol 7822], 51–62. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56544
- Foth, M., Paulos, E., Satchell, C. & Dourish, P. (2009). Pervasive computing and environmental sustainability: Two conference workshops. IEEE Pervasive Computing, 8(1), 78–81. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/17164
- Paulos, E., Foth, M., Satchell, C., Kim, Y., Dourish, P. & Choi, H. (2008). Ubiquitous sustainability: Citizen science and activism. Presented at: 10th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp). https://eprints.qut.edu.au/14130
- Foth, M., (2003). Connectivity Does Not Ensure Community: On Social Capital, Networks and Communities of Place. Proceedings of the 5th International Information Technology in Regional Areas (ITiRA) Conference 2003, 31–39. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/1902
QUT ePrints
For more publications by Marcus, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).
Awards
- Type
- Fellowship of a Learned Academy or Membership of AIATSIS
- Reference year
- 2023
- Details
- I was inducted as a Fellow of the Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences (QAAS) in 2023. The Academy promotes excellence in the arts and sciences, stimulates activity in those areas that lie at the intersection between disciplines, and provides independent scholarship and advice for social and public policy. Fellowship recognises a candidate¿s eminence in the arts or sciences or both and/or their significant contributions to the arts and/or sciences as a practitioner.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- The Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) Toolkit co-designed by UNSW, QUT Design Lab, Omnilink and FrontierSI received the 2020 NSW award and also the 2021 National Award for Cutting Edge Research and Teaching by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) in recognition of an outstanding achievement in planning research. It is awarded for a substantial piece of research that makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding of issues relating to planning in Australia. The award seeks to recognise work that extends planning debate with an evidence basis.
- Type
- Membership of Learned Societies
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- I was named a Distinguished Member of the international Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for outstanding scientific contributions to the field of computing. Distinguished members are nominated and selected by their peers for a significant level of accomplishment and impact in the field of computing. I was among 63 members worldwide who were honoured this year, and the only one in Australia. I am the first academic at QUT to receive the honour.
- Type
- Membership of a Statutory Committee
- Reference year
- 2021
- Details
- I currently serve a three year term (2021 - 2023) on the Australian Research Council's College of Experts. To support the advancement of knowledge and contribute to national innovation, the ARC engages an ARC College of Experts to play a key role in identifying research excellence. Its members are experts of international standing drawn from the Australian research community: from higher education, industry and public sector research organisations.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2020
- Details
- Australia's annual Good Design Awards program is one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards in the world, promoting excellence in design and innovation since 1958. It is recognised by the World Design Organization (WDO) as Australia¿s peak international design endorsement program. In 2020, the QUT BeefLedger project was recognised as a Good Design Australia Award Winner in the commercial services category, and the BeefLegends community engagement component won a Good Design Australia Award in the design strategy category.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2018
- Details
- The Publons Peer Review Awards honour the top 1% of reviewers in each field who performed the most verified pre-publication peer reviews on Publons during the 2017 / 2018 award year.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Nominated by the Smart Cities Council Australia / New Zealand, I was shortlisted and won the Gold Disruptor Award in the ICT Researcher of the Year category of the ACS Digital Disruptors Awards 2017. The awards honour the efforts of Australia¿s ICT professionals, recognising the teams and individuals at the forefront of digital disruption.
- Type
- Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Inducted as ACM Distinguished Speaker: The Distinguished Speakers Program is an outreach program of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) that brings distinguished speakers from academia, industry, and government together to give presentations to ACM chapters, members, and the greater IT community in a variety of venues and formats.
- Type
- Appointment to State/National/International Reference Group or Government Committees
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- Appointed Infrastructure Innovation Task Force Member. The State Infrastructure Plan (SIP) is an infrastructure strategy and program that underpins economic growth, supports jobs and creates long-term prosperity for all Queenslanders. The Infrastructure Innovation Taskforce relates to the SIP implementation action 14: to establish a joint industry-government infrastructure innovation taskforce.
- Type
- Fellowship of a Learned Academy or Membership of AIATSIS
- Reference year
- 2017
- Details
- The Australian Computer Society (ACS) made me a Fellow for "a sustained and distinguished contribution to the field of computer science. Foth is the international thought leader who coined the term urban informatics - now adopted by universities and industry worldwide. Foth's work makes clear how academic research can successfully respond to societal challenges."
Selected research projects
- Title
- Advancing Digital Inclusion in Low Income Australian Families
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP190100677
- Start year
- 2021
- Keywords
- Title
- Digital Media, Location Awareness, and the Politics of Geodata
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- DP180100174
- Start year
- 2018
- Keywords
- Title
- Fostering digital participation through Living Labs in regional and rural Australian communities
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP130100469
- Start year
- 2014
- Keywords
- digital citizenship; rural & regional; digital literacy
- Title
- Eat, Cook, Grow: Ubiquitous Technology for Sustainable Food Culture in the City
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP100100232
- Start year
- 2010
- Keywords
- Human Computer Interaction; Urban Informatics; Ubiquitous Computing; Mobile Social Interaction
- Title
- Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future: Embedding Narrative and New Media in Urban Planning
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP0882274
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Community Engagement; Community Informatics; New Media; Urban Planning
- Title
- Swarms in Urban Villages: New Media Design to Augment Social Networks of Residents in Inner-City Developments
- Primary fund type
- CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
- Project ID
- LP0776341
- Start year
- 2008
- Keywords
- Social Networking Systems; New Media; Human Computer Interaction; Community Informatics; Interaction Design; Urban Neighbourhoods
Projects listed above are funded by Australian Competitive Grants. Projects funded from other sources are not listed due to confidentiality agreements.
Supervision
Looking for a postgraduate research supervisor?
I am currently accepting research students for Honours, Masters and PhD study.
- Urban media and digital geographies
- Designing smart cities for more-than-human futures
- Investigating community advocacy in response to aircraft noise pollution in Brisbane: an ethnographic study
- Empowering communities with DataCare: ethical data practices for smart cities
- Immersive audio data visualisation for better engagement of residential communities exposed to aircraft noise pollution
You can browse existing student topics offered by QUT or propose your own topic.
Current supervisions
- Designing the Future of an Australian Circular Plastics Economy: Exploring the role of design and systems thinking in the transition of a linear plastics economy to a circular plastics economy in Australia
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Manuela Taboada, Professor Leonie Barner - Participatory Design of a Data-Agnostic Smart City Framework
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Markus Rittenbruch, Professor Peta Mitchell - Planned Technotopia? Investigating the formational and operational processes of virtual built environments in the open metaverse
PhD, Principal Supervisor
Other supervisors: Professor Greg Hearn - Re-Locative Media: Playful Interaction Design for Virtual Placemaking Among Translocal Young Adults
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Dr Jane Turner - Translating Common Knowledge Theory into Practice: Blockchain and Applied Cryptography for Decentralised Finance in Trust-less Food Supply Chains
PhD, Associate Supervisor
Other supervisors: Associate Professor Xavier Boyen
Completed supervisions (Doctorate)
- radical placemaking: An Experiential Digital Placemaking Approach for Social Justice (2023)
- Alternative Forms of Citymaking: Insights and Implications from South Africa and Australia (2021)
- Intermediation as Practice: Joining the Dots Between Community, Culture and Commerce (2021)
- Planning and City Policy Responses to Remote Work in Urban Environments (2021)
- The Rise of Casual Creative Environments: Towards a Socially Embedded View of Innovation Precursors and Processes (2021)
- Humanising the Smart City: Co-Creation Redefined in Pursuit of Systemic Change (2020)
- The Right to the Digital City: The Role of Urban Imaginaries in Participatory Citymaking (2019)
- Connecting to Self, Community, and the Environment: Energy Conservation and Well-being in Households with Low Income (2018)
- Risky Gadgets to the Rescue - Reframing In-Car Technology Use as Task Engagement (2018)
- The Mundane Lives of Households: A Design Exploration into Everyday Resource Sufficiency in the Home (2018)
The supervisions listed above are only a selection.