Ron Wakkary

Teaching & research interests

• Interaction design practices
• Tangible computing
• Everyday design practices
• Sustainable interaction design

Ron Wakkary is a Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) where he established the Everyday Design Studio, a design research studio that explores interaction design. Wakkary’s research investigates the changing nature of interaction design in response to everyday design practices like home life, DIY, amateur experts, hobbyists, and sustainability. In the spirit of design research, Wakkary aims to be reflective and generative, uncovering new and emergent practices of design that help to shape both design and its relations to technologies. Wakkary publishes regularly in design and human-computer-interaction journals and conferences. He is an Editor-in-Chief of ACM interactions, Director of the Interaction Design Research Centre at SFU, member of the SIGCHI Executive Committee, and a member of the Steering Committee for Tangible Embedded/Embodied Interaction (TEI). His research is funded by NSERC, SSHRC, GRAND-NCE, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, among others.

• BFA, Visual Arts, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
  
• MFA, Visual Arts, State University of New York at Stony Brook
• PhD, Interaction Design - Human Computer Interaction, University of Plymouth