Mixed Reality Laboratory

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Alan Chamberlain

Principal Research Fellow, Faculty of Science

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Biography

Description

Dr Alan Chamberlain is a Principal Research Fellow in the Mixed Reality Lab and the Director of the interdisciplinary STAHR Collective at the University of Nottingham. He is a Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School and a Visiting Professor in Psychology at Aberystwyth University. He is a Principal Research Fellow, carrying out research on the following projects Somabotics: Creatively Embodying AI project - working with Prof Steve Brnford, and Responsible AI UK (RAI UK). He is also a Co-Investigator on the Wellcome Trust funded REC-HURDLEs: Revisiting Employment Contracts and Help for Under-represented Researcher groups to Develop, Lead and Excel project.

He has been the Principal Investigator on the EXIoT Project - Experimental IoT: Explorations in Sound Art and Technology (working with Professor Dave De Roure at the University of Oxford), and was a UKRI funded Researcher in Residence (Principal Investigator) at the Digital Catapult, London. He was a Co-Investigator on the Future Mundane project, as well as the Creative Sector Theme Lead on the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous System Hub (a large £11,896,883 UKRI project). He also co-directed the AHRC nTAIL Network - Theatre, AI and Ludic Technologies Network..

He has published numerous papers on many aspects of Human Computer Interaction and has successfully obtained funding for a wide range of research projects, working with international companies (BBC, BT & Microsoft), artists or world renown and leading experts across a variety of academic fields. He has been a Visiting Academic at the University of Oxford and Visiting Researcher at Swansea University. He is currently a Visiting Professor at the world leading Copenhagen Business School. He is a member of the EUSSET Steering Comittee, an Editor for the Springer Nature Journal - Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, and a member of the Audio Mostly Conference series committee, where he holds the Vice Chair Poisition. He has been part of the scientific program committee for many world-leading international conferences, including ACM CHI and CSCW. He is a member of the Audio Mostly Conference Series Steering Committee and Chaired the conference in 2019, bringing it to the University of Nottingham. From 2015 to 2018 he co-directed the Personal Data and Trust Network (Social and Cultural Innovation strand) - inc. EPSRC, Digital Catapult & Innovate UK.

At the University of Nottingham Dr Chamberlain is the Chair of the UoN Research Staff Group, directing and leading researcher strategy, policy and the role of Research Staff at a University level. He is an Honorary Fellow in the Music Department where he has promoting interdisciplinary research at the university. He was thrilled to be able to chair one of the sessions at the NottFAR Nottingham Forum for Artistic Research Symposium. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Alan is a member of the AI Group at the University of Nottingham, where his main interests lie in the creative use and application of Artificial Intelligence framed by HCI, as well as a member of the Responsible Digital Futures Group.

Funding Reviewing

Alan is a Member of the AHRC Peer Review College, he has reviewed grant applications for:

  • EPSRC (Where he was a member of the Peer Review College)
  • The Dutch Council for the Humanities
  • The Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong
  • Swiss National Science Foundation
  • Internal UoN reviews for UKRI-related projects
  • Internal UoN reviews and sifting for Wellcome Trust funding

Profiles

ORCID - Alan Chamberlain

ACM Profile

Google Scholar Profile

Open Access Publications here - RIS - University of Nottingham Research Outputs His research interests are also listed on Academia.edu profile

Expertise Summary

Research interests

Alan's research in multidisciplinary, focusing on the ways in which people use and design new technologies. He mainly employs design oriented ethnographic techniques to understand and discuss this. He has worked on a range of research project which span the Arts, Music, Business, Heritage and Social Enterprises (in Rural and Urban settings). He is interested in design, technology (AI, VR/AR, Robotics, Audio etc.) and their application to real-world problems as articulated by various communities of practice. His research is based in Human Computer Interaction, Ethnography, Action Research, Participatory Design and User Engagement in order to develop networks of people that are able to involve themselves in the practices of innovation and design. Alan sits on the Advocacy and Engagement Committee for the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous System Hub

Human Computer Interaction , HCI , Design , Interdisciplinary , AI

Research Summary

Current Projects

REC-HURDLEs: Revisiting Employment Contracts and Help for Under-represented Researcher groups to Develop, Lead and Excel - (Co-Investigator, awarded 2023, End 2026) c £1 Million, Wellcome Trust.

UNMASKED: The Theatre of Authenticity - (Co-Investigator, 2024 - 2025) SPRITE+ (UKRI)

Experimental IoT: Explorations in Sound Art and Technology (EXIoT) - (Principal Investigator) (CI - Dave De Roure, Oxford) awarded from PETRAS II

Experiencing the Future Mundane - (Co-Investigator - Researcher) EPSRC, Grant Details - Value £461,078, BBC as a partner. (2019 -2023)

UKRI TAS Hub - Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Hub.(Creative Industries - Sector Lead - Principal Research Fellow) Grant Details - Value £11,896,883

- TAS RRI I & TAS RRI II - TAS Agile project - Principle Investigator (with Prof Greenhalgh) - Leading a team of 14 people. (2022 - 2024). Funded via UKRI TAS Hub

- Co-Design of Context-Aware Trustworthy Audio Capture - TAS Agile Project (CI, Nottingham Lead) - Team of 9 people. Academic and Industry. (2022 - 2023) Funded via UKRI TAS Hub

- TAS Benchmarks Library and Critical Review - TAS Agile Project (Co-I, Nottingham Lead) Team - 14 people (2022 - 2023) Funded via UKRI TAS Hub

AHRC Network - Theatre, AI and Ludic Technologies (NTAIL) (Co-Investigator/Co-Director) Grant Details - Value £22,000 (Feb 21 - Dec 22)

Disruptive Beats: Music, AI, Creativity, Composition and Performance (UKRI - Principal Investigator) £50,000 - Researcher in Residence Award) (2019 - 2022)

EPSRC Nottingham Impact Award - AI, Music and Design (Principal investigator) £21,000

EPSRC Nottingham Impact Award - Music Technology (Principal Investigator) £10,000

Communities of Design - Co-Director/CI (with Alan Dix 2019 - 2020) £10,000, Awarded from CHERISH DE

Fusing Audio and Semantic Technologies (Senior Research Fellow) Grant Details - Value £5,199,944 across the project

Living with Digital Ubiquity (Named - Senior Research Fellow) £1,225,669 Citizen Scholarship in Nottingham: understanding the value of engaging users with heritage and culture (Senior Research Fellow) - Project page AHRC

Past

The Magellan Project - http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/110521_en.html (Senior Researcher) - €9,937,963

EPSRC EP/J000604/2 Co-investigator Researcher - £1,053,173 linked to project below

EPSRCEP/J000604/1 Co-investigator Researcher - £1,263,925

HUMAN-AGENT COLLECTIVES: FROM FOUNDATIONS TO APPLICATIONS [ORCHID] EP/I011587/1 (Senior Research Fellow - Design Ethnography)

Prototyping Open Innovation Models for ICT EP/K014234/2 (Senior Research Fellow - Design Ethnography) £1,673,748

Hub of All Things EP/K039911/1 (Senior Research Fellow - Design Ethnography) £982,373

Bridgingthe Rural Divide - EPSRCEP/I001816/1, Recognised Researcher (Named), 2010 - 2012. Value £230,515

Horizon Digital Economy, Urban Games, with Prof Greenhalgh & Active Ingredients. See ExplodingPlaces (Research Fellow)

IPERG- Integrated project on pervasive gaming, with Sony, Nokia, Blast Theory (Research Fellow - Evaluation Lead (Notts)) €9,766,215

EPSRC/DTI Participate project, with BT, BBC, Microsoft, Blast Theory - (Research Fellow)

Mixed Reality Laboratory

University of Nottingham
School of Computer Science
Nottingham, NG8 1BB


email: mrl@cs.nott.ac.uk