The Loupe team comprises researchers from the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID), RMIT University and The University of Queensland. Our team has expertise in interaction design, communication design, new media, professional communication, knowledge management, business and information technology.
The team currently comprises:
Yoko Akama
Yoko is a chief investigator on Loupe. She recently finished her practice-led PhD at RMIT University, School of Applied Communications. Her background is in Communication Design, where she has been practicing for the last 10 years in various locations including London and Melbourne. Her research is situated within the practice of Communication Design, where she is investigating how the designers’ agency, and the agency of other stakeholders are valued to enable a human-centred approach to design projects. Yoko has also been teaching Communication Design for 5 years. She teaches into undergraduate and postgraduate levels into various programs including Industrial Design, Media Studies and Communication Design. In the last year, she has been involved as a researcher in another one of the Australian CRC for Interaction Design (ACID) projects. Oh, yes, she’s Japanese by the way. And no, she wasn’t named after the infamous woman who split up the Beatles…
Jane Burry
Jane is a chief investigator for Loupe and is also a registered architect working as a part time research fellow in the Spacial Information and Architecture Laboratory (SIAL) and enrolled as a PhD candidate at RMIT University. She runs a University wide elective in flexible modeling, coordinates ARC and other grant funding applications, run sresearch-based courses such as cross-disciplinary Design studios and supervises Major Projects. Jane works on the research into the continuing construction of the Sagrada Familia church with Mark Burry and directly with the team in the technical office in Barcelona. Her main current research interest is the deployment of mathematics in contemporary spatial design practice. She has also been researching design communication for distributed collaboration and was a member of the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design group: Virtual Communities. The RMIT Design Institute programs Intelligent Space and Communication Interfaces/Digital Artefacts provide contexts for these research foci. In 2007-2008 Jane had a visiting teaching and research position at QUT developing courses using parametric design and research into the integration of environmental performance in parametric modeling in early design. She worked previously in the research team for the continuing construction of the Sagrada Familia church at Deakin University and have worked in architectural practice and teaching in several countries since completing her architecture studies in 1985. Past research topics included Post Cyclone Relief housing in SE India and the history of house typologies in NW Scotland. Her work in practice includes houses, housing and public buildings including schools.
Mark Burry
Mark is a chief investigator for Loupe and is also an architect, who is currently professorial research fellow at the Victoria University of Wellington, and Innovation Professor of Architecture and director of the Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. He is also Executive Architect and Researcher at the Temple Sagrada Família in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Previously, Mark has been a visiting professor at University of Liverpool, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. He has collaborated with Gehry Partners LLP, dECOi Paris, Foster and Partners and Arup and was a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council in 2005 as part of the working group examining the role of creativity in the innovation economy. He has received degrees from the University of Cambridge.
He is a current Australian Research Council Federation Fellow.
Vanessa Cooper
Vanessa is a chief investigator for Loupe and is also a lecturer in Knowledge Management at the School of Business Information Technology, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. She has also lectured at the University of Tasmania and Deakin University in Computing, Information Systems and Accounting. Vanessa has worked as a Systems Engineer in the IT Services industry in both Australia and the UK. Her research has investigated IT services, knowledge management, relationship management, electronic business, Web-based self-service and more recently Green IT.
Bonna Jones
Bonna is a chief investigator for Loupe and is also the Coordinator of the Bachelor of Business (Information and Knowledge Management) at RMIT University in Melbourne,
Australia. Her research domain is predominantly theoretical, with an emphasis on process thinking and how this can be articulated and applied
to information and knowledge management in organisational settings. Her publications include journal articles and conference papers, and her
academic career, which began in 2004, follows a long career in information service roles. Currently she is intrigued by the idea that
the creator/curator dynamic might be a more useful way to understand organisations than the traditional pairing of information
control/information retrieval.
Seth Keen
Seth is a chief investigator for Loupe, and is also a lecturer in the Media Department, School of Applied Communication at RMIT University. Seth holds a Masters of Arts (by Thesis) from University of Technology Sydney, which examined the effect the Internet is having on moving-image narratives. He is in candidature on a project-based PhD (Communication) at RMIT University, which examines online video practice. Seth worked for twelve years in the film and television industry. He has directed a number of primetime television documentaries, short drama films and experimental videos that have screened in international festivals. Seth recently acted as a researcher and facilitator for the Video Vortex International Conference (2008) in Amsterdam, which provided a forum for critical responses to YouTube.
Hugh Macdonald
Hugh is the research assistant on Loupe and is currently undertaking a PhD at the School of Applied Communication at RMIT University which is looking at how the emergence of networked media, along with its technologies and social practices is changing the way sporting content is disseminated within the media landscape. He also maintains a keen interest in mobile technologies, having previously worked in this area and undertaken a Master’s degree in it, and is currently looking at some of the social effects of these technologies.
Marianne Sison
Marianne Sison is a chief investigator on Loupe and is also Programs Director, Communication, at the School of Applied Communication, RMIT University. Marianne is responsible for overseeing the undergraduate and postgraduate programs in Communication, Professional Communication and Public Relations. Reporting to the Head of School, Marianne is a member of the Academic Leaders Group which provides executive direction in the School of Applied Communication. Included in her portfolio is to oversee the development of two new offshore programs in Hong Kong and RMIT Vietnam.
She currently teaches Introduction to Communication Research, Public Relations: Changing Perspectives and Organisational Communication Theory & Research in the Master of Communication program. She is also supervising three PhD students in the area of issues management, public relations professionalism and organizational communication in the digital context.
Nifeli Stewart
Nifeli is a chief investigator for Loupe and was previously a research assistant in the virtual communities project based at RMIT. She has spent 17 years in the commercial sector, 11 in the Airline industry and 6 in manufacturing. She has been in management positions responsible for strategic planning, market research, product development and developing management information systems for decision making. She has led and been part of project teams responsible for mergers, year2000 compliance and cultural development programs. Her business experience left her with 3 passions. Firstly how do you capture, disseminate and inspire organizational learning? Secondly how do you help people move through Change, create buy-in and involvement and ultimately ensure these changes are sustainable? Thirdly what role do values play in people’s motivation and in an organisation’s culture? She left full time employment to start a family and explore her passions. These interests led her to her Masters in Applied Science (ISM) with her research topic being “What inspires learning? Understanding the conditions that foster learning and change”. She had the opportunity to use her research findings in the design of the change communication and management course in the masters (of Arts) communication program at RMIT. She is also a founding member of the Minessence Foundation working with values based approaches to personal and organizational development, research and education.
In 2008 she began her PhD with her topic being “Enabling conversations in digital contexts”.
Laurene Vaughan
Laurene is a chief investigator on Loupe and is the Director of Research and Innovation, and an Associate Professor in the School of Applied Communication at RMIT University. She is also a Research Leader within RMIT’s, Design Institute. Originally coming from an art and design education background with a major in sculpture, Laurene has melded a career of practicing artist, designer and educator in Australia and internationally. Since 1995 she has been a lecturer and research supervisor at RMIT for both Masters and PhD students. She has supervised 25 research students to successful completion. Within her practice Laurene endeavours to explore and present comment on the interactive and situated nature of human experience, particularly creative practice. Her PhD research in this field is entitled ‘Anfractuous: an exploration of creative practice.’ Laurene has published, presented and exhibited work across these diverse areas and continues to pursue a trans-disciplinary perspective.
Stephen Viller
Stephen is a chief investigator on Loupe and is a lecturer in the Information Environments Program (IEP) and researcher in the Interaction Design research division in the school of ITEE at The University of Queensland. His research and teaching focuses on people centred design methods, particularly applied to the design of social, domestic and ubiquitous computing technologies and understanding people in context. Stephen’s work aims to inform and inspire design through working in multidisiplinary teams. He has over 15 years’ experience in HCI/CSCW research where he has focused on bridging between multiple disciplines and perspectives. Stephen has concentrated on qualitative methods, particularly observational fieldwork, contextual interviews, diary studies and field trips, but also increasingly on more ‘designerly’ approaches such as cultural probes, technology probes, low fidelity prototypes, rapid prototyping and sketching.
Jeremy Yuille
Jeremy is the project leader for Loupe and is also a senior lecturer in Communication Design, digital media artist and interaction designer specializing in interactive audio visual systems. Jeremy has a degree in Design Studies from the Architecture department of the University of Queensland and a Masters of Design from RMIT’s Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory. Jeremy manages the Multiuser Environments program at ACID, the Australasian CRC for Interaction Design, researching Interaction Design (IxD) for remote presence and socially driven knowledge environments. On faculty at RMIT Communication Design, he coordinates IxD undergrad initiatives, supervises graduate students in research projects involving IxD and other related design fields. He is also secretary of the Interaction Design Association http://ixda.org
