Dr Valentina Andries

Postdoctoral Research Assistant

Biography

Background

I am a Postdoctoral Research Assistant on an-EPSRC funded project, which tackles the issue of biased technology design. This is a collaborative project between the Universities of Glasgow, Heriot Watt and Edinburgh, and it is led by Professor Judy Robertson at MHSES. Under her guidance, I am exploring children’s perceptions of conversational AI agents (such as Amazon's Alexa). 

My research interests largely lie at the intersection of education and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): educational technology, participatory approaches, inclusive design and evaluation of technology, ethics in technology design, AI ethics.

From a teaching perspective, I have been involved in planning and running research methods and HCI courses at MSc level at the School of Informatics.

I studied towards a PhD in Education and HCI at MHSES, where I was fortunate to be supervised by Professors Judy Robertson and Lydia Plowman. My PhD was focused on ethically designing and evaluating digital technology to support young children's play in a hospital setting. Prior to that, my MSc in Educational Research was focused on eliciting requirements from key stakeholders such as hospital play practitioners with regards to provision of play opportunities in a clinical environment. My doctoral and MSc studies were funded by the ESRC and the Edinburgh Children's Hospital Charity (ECHC).

 

Qualifications

PhD, 'Ethical Design and Evaluation of Digital Technology to Support Play Behaviours: A Hospital Case Study' (MHSES, University of Edinburgh), 2021

MSc, Educational Research (MHSES, University of Edinburgh), 2016

 

 

 

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