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Ron Wakkary is a full professor in the Future Everyday cluster at the Department of Industrial Design at Eindhoven University of Technology. He is also a full professor at the School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University in Canada, where he directs the Interaction Design Research Centre and is the founder of the Everyday Design Studio. Wakkary's research primarily focuses on design-oriented human-computer interaction and tangible computing. His work investigates the changing nature of interaction design, particularly in response to everyday design practices in the home and new understandings of human-technology relationships. His aim is to create new interaction design exemplars and concepts that can help shape the relations between people and technologies. Wakkary considers individuals to be integral to the technologies they use, emphasizing the role of creators and makers over passive consumers of digital artifacts. His research explores how to design computational things that are radically simple, thereby allowing 'everyday designers' to determine which things fit their lives and improve their circumstances. Wakkary has a strong academic background with a BFA in Visual Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, an MFA in Visual Arts from the State University of New York, and a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Plymouth. He is involved in several academic committees and editorial boards, contributing to the fields of tangible and embodied interaction, and design research.
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