Existing research has shown that the Internet can have significant impacts on wellbeing in the workplace, for instance, constantly being connected to digital devices can reduce wellbeing, as can exposure to negative online content or interactions. Meanwhile, Internet-enabled technologies can sometimes be effective interventions to increase wellbeing. This project will conduct a set of research activities involving a wide range of workplaces and job roles to better understand dimensions of wellbeing in the workplace. Work will involve the co-designing and testing of novel technological interventions to foster wellbeing and produce guidance on different potential approaches to manage and mitigate the impact of a hyper-connected work environment.
W-WATI is led by Horizon Assistant Professor Helena Webb, an experienced interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of society and technology. Joining Helena is Kai Xu, an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science and co-director of the Visualisation Research Group. Kai’s expertise is around the development of interactive visual interfaces to enable public and domain experts working with AI and machine learning to tackle challenging problems. Emma McClaughlin is a Research Fellow in the School of English with expertise in corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. Emma’s work focusses on health literacies and the reception and production of public health communication. Liz Dowthwaite is a Senior Research Fellow, with expertise in social and cyberpsychology, focused on technology-mediated interaction and theories of human values and wellbeing.
Also in the team are Pepita Barnard, Research Fellow with domain expertise in human factors, NHS services, mental health, health technologies, trust and wellbeing. Peter Craigon, Research Fellow with an interest and expertise in responsible innovation and the development of tools to support engagement with issues of responsibility. Elizabeth March, a researcher experienced in the digital workplace industry, Karen Lancaster, Research Fellow in Human Factors Engineering with a background of interdisciplinary research, Virginia Portillo, Research Fellow and EDI Coordinator at RAi UK, Praminda Caleb-Solly, Professor of Embodied Intelligence with experience in co-designing and testing digital technologies in health and social care. Alby Magassouba, Assistant Professor in Robotics and AI, Harriet Cameron, Early Career Researcher and Neelima Sailaja, Horizon Assistant Professor, also join the team and bring a wealth of knowledge spanning multimodal embodied AI for language understanding in the context of domestic service robots, ethical and sustainable technologies within public environments and the sociotechnical implications of cutting-edge technology.