Experience Design for Citizen Science in Japan: Designing engagement opportunities between local communities and scientists
Abstract
In this seminar session, Tomomi will introduce her primary research work – citizen science projects – which involve efforts to connect local communities with the latest science subjects through the power of design. These projects provide unique opportunities for citizen engagement, whether providing new game experiences that introduce people to AI or giving space for children to make their own outcomes in relation to microplastics. This talk highlights the importance of design in providing a platform for better understanding between scientists and local audiences.
Tomomi is currently the design lead for two projects on marine plastic litter and AI citizen science, working alongside scientists, engineers, and product designers. Her work focuses on the creation of new engagement points and storytelling for project dissemination. This talk will introduce Tomomi’s efforts as an experienced designer to create live engagement points with city councils, local communities, and scientists. She will also showcase her design work that involves addressing outreach issues among different stakeholders, designing new workshops, toolkits, and videos to create new experiences, and ensuring that local communities, scientists, and researchers mutually benefit from these interactions.
About the Speaker
Tomomi Sayuda is a Design Researcher at the DLX Design Lab in the Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo (UTokyo). DLX focuses on design innovation to create deployable innovations through collaboration between designers and scientists. Tomomi’s research focus is experience design, particularly citizen science projects which engage with local people to encourage literacy of and engagement with science research topics. She currently works on projects involving marine plastic litter and AI citizen science. Tomomi is currently a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Keio-NUS CUTE Centre and will be here for 6 months to establish NUS and UTokyo collaboration projects. Her current research position is kindly funded by the UTokyo Ushioda Memorial Foundation.
