Geraldine Fitzpatrick

professor

Forschungsinteressen/Research Interests Human-Computer Interaction; Design; Computer Supported Cooperative Work; Ubiquitous Computing; Health IT.

Contact

Note I am a Retired Professor at TU Wien, as of Oct 2023, and no longer taking on BSc, MSc, PhD students or new projects. I continue as a part-time Project Assistant working on the Changing Academic Life project until end of Sept 2024 and doing consulting/training/academic development work in the remainder of my time.

What drives me: I focus on people-centred perspectives in complex environments, with an emphasis on enabling positive growth and development and doing more of what is working well. I have expressed this as women-centred midwifery practice in my clinical life as a midwife, as human-centred technology research and teaching in my academic life as a computer scientist, and as facilitating the crafting of a good academic life and of good academic leadership in my professional development work as a facilitator/coach/consultant.

Topic areas included people/design perspectives on: selfcare, health and wellbeing; reflection, motivation and social-emotional life skills; sustainability; community building and active engagement for older people; social interaction and collaboration; values in computing; smart cities to live in.

Formal Roles: Retired Professor (B.Inf.Tech (Hons), PhD in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, MAPPCP); Full Professor and Head of the Human Computer Interaction Group 2009-2023. Head of the Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology 2011-2017 until institutes were restructured.

Trained facilitator/coach, underpinned by a Masters in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Practice, with a focus on positive organisations/leadership. Host of the 'Changing Academic Life' podcast series. Co-facilitator of Academic Leadership Development courses online and residential for Informatics Europe.

Awards/Recognitions:

'Official' Short Bio: Geraldine Fitzpatrick is a Retired Professor of Technology Design and Assessment. From 2009-2023 she was head of the Human Computer Interaction Group at TU Wien. She is also an ACM Distinguished Scientist, IFIP Fellow, an IFIP TC-13 Pioneer Award recipient, an ACM SIGCHI Lifetime Service Award and a Best Teacher Award recipient. Previously, she was Director of the Interact Lab at the Uni of Sussex, User Experience consultant and Senior Manager at Sapient London, and Snr Researcher at the Distributed Systems Technology Centre (DSTC) and Center for Online Health in Australia. She has a PhD in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, a MSc in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, and a prior healthcare background including being in charge of various hospital departments including ENT&Eye operating theatres and outpatients, and gastroenterology, as well as being a midwife and setting up a private midwifery practice to offer women-centred care.

Her research is at the intersection of social and computer sciences, designing and deploying mobile, tangible and sensor-based technologies in everyday contexts, with a particular interest in supporting collaboration, health and well-being, social and emotional skills learning, community building and active engagement for older people. She has a published book and over 300 refereed journal and conference publications in diverse areas such as HCI, CSCW, health informatics, pervasive computing. She sits on various international advisory boards and review panels, and serves in many program committee/chair roles for various CSCW/CHI/health related international conferences, most recently general co-chair for CHI2019 and papers co-chair for CSCW2018, and on the steering committees for ACM CSCW (2012-17) and ACM CHI (current).

CV 3 pg summary as at July 2023 (coming soon!)

Current research projects

  • Self care, health and well being (physical and mental) - various PhD/Masters projects

Recently completed

Professional involvement - selected recent examples

  • ACM Distinguished Member evaluation committee (member 2018-2022, Deputy Chair 2021, Chair 2022)
  • ACM Distinguished Speaker 2015-2021
  • Advisory Boards: Uni of Queensland School of Architecture Design Industry Advisory Board; Uni of Zurich Department of Informatics; Centre for Communication and Computing, Uni of Copenhagen; Computational Artefacts - cross- university Project, Copenhagen; INTROMAT Scientific Advisory Council, Norway; EcoKnow Project, ITU Copenhagen.
  • Faculty Evaluation panels - various
  • Senior Peer Roles: Austrian representative to IFIP TC 13; ACM Distinguished Member Selection Panel; ACM CHI Steering Committee 2019-; ACM CSCW Steering Committee member (to end 2016); JCSCW Assoc Editor (to end 2017); EPSRC Peer Review College; various other journal editorial review boards;
  • Senior Chair Roles: Conference co-chair for CHI2019, Papers Program (co-)chair - CSCW2018, Pervasive Health 2016, CHI2011, CHI2010, PDC2006 ExpPapers, ECSCW2003. Various other conference committee chair roles.
  • Career Development Symposia: CHI2018 (co-chair), OzCHI2017 (Co-chair), CHI2017, CHI2016
  • Various external training/teaching/mentoring: Informatics Europe Academic Leadership Development Course; Leadership workshops and workshops on bias and diversity (e.g. ECSS2018 and ECSS2019 Deans Workshop); Career Development workshops (various);
  • Misc: Dagstuhl Seminar co-organiser - Values in Computing 2019; Doctoral Colloquium co-chair (numerous conferences); Summer School lecturer (eHealth Dublin 2017; Research Methods in HCI: Lodz 2017, Dubrovnik 2016, Zurich 2015, Tallin 2014; Smart City, Vienna 2016), SIGCHI Ed Education Workshop Beijing 2014; Alpbach Summer School - European Health Care and Social Systems in Transition; University of Computer Sciences, Havana;

Keynote Presentations (selected examples)

Videos of recent talks

PhD Students

  • Toni Michel, Armin Wagner, Felix Fussenegger

Graduated: Laura Scheepmaker Matthias Wunsch, Isabel Schwaninger, Franziska Tachtler, Irene Posch, Naemi Luckner, Eva Ganglbauer, Florian Güldenpfennig, Oliver Hödl], Francisco Nunes, Petr Slovak], Jean Hallewell, Katta Spiel, Gareth White, Penman Mirza-Babaei, Chris Kiefer, Manueal Jungmann, Dave Harley, Rowanne Fleck, Harry Brignull.

Teaching From surviving to thriving: Crafting your good professional life [for Doctoral students]; Fundamental Research Methods for Doctoral Students, User Research Methods, Applications in Healthcare, HCI in Healthcare, eHealth Theory & Practice, Mobile Computing in Healthcare, Media Informatics Seminar, Medical Informatics Seminar & Project, Intro to Research Methods for PhD students.

Available for download and re-purposing: a structured exercise for forming effective groups/teams leading to a team charter.

Previous Masters Students - EPILOG winners Janis Meissner Distinguished Young Alumna-Award of the Faculty of Informatics June 2016 - Tools for Wools: Learning from and designing for Urban Knitters. Jasmin Grosinger - Diploma Thesis Award Nov 2012 - Agile Life: Persuasive Touch Interface Technology for Enhancing Older Adults' Levels of Physical Activity.

Speaking, Consulting, Facilitation, Coaching Trained coach (personal, professional/executive); group facilitation; public speaking; Professional/personal development; leadership development; mentoring; various Life and professional skills topics; (See ChangingAcademicLife Consulting for more information.) Research development: Research paradigms; How to read/write academic papers; and many other 'how to' topics;

Selected Publications

PhD Thesis - The Locales Framework: Understanding and designing for wicked problems Uni of Queensland, Australia, 1998 See Publications Page, group by author See Google Scholar

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