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Nervo Verdezoto Dias

Dr Nervo Verdezoto Dias

Senior Lecturer

School of Computer Science and Informatics

Users
Available for postgraduate supervision

Overview

Since February 2023, I am the Lead of the Human-Centred Computing research Unit.

Since 1st August 2021 I am a Senior Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Digital Health. 

I joined Cardiff on 1st November 2019 and I am part of the Complex Systems Research Group and the Human-centred Computing Research Priority Area at the School of Computer Science and Informatics. I am also part of our new Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Human-Machine Systems (IROHMS). Since November 2020, I have been appointed as the IROHMS Cross-Cutting Themes (CCT) Academic Lead in charge of the academic issues related to the sustainable development goals and global challenges.

My research lies at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp), with particular interest in the Healthcare and Sustainability domains.

I have a background in Human-Centred Computing with expertise in ethnographically informed design, user-centred design, participatory design, and in the design and evaluation of socio-technical systems. My work combines fieldwork with a design-oriented research approach to further understand people’s everyday practices, different stakeholder’s needs, and how people appropriate technology. Most of his research is aligned with the turn to practice in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), in which the understanding of everyday practices plays a major role in system design.

I have worked in various projects related to healthcare: understanding and designing to support older adult’s medication management practices, evaluating the use of self-monitoring practices for pregnant women with pre-eclampsia and older adults, evaluating the impact of mobile technology to support hospital service workers, etc.. I also have particular interests in physical computing, ambient awareness systems and the Internet of Things.

Most of my research projects take a multidisciplinary approach. For example, we have conducted a narrative review together with cross-disciplinary colleagues investigating how pregnant women interact with and use self-monitoring technologies in practice, and how they shape clinical encounters and decision making. I have also led an MRC-AHRC scoping project with multiple stakeholders exploring the socio-cultural practices that influence pregnancy care in South India and the role technology can play to support pregnancy care in low-resource settings. I am also part of a multidisciplinary network that focuses on digitizing reproduction.

Publication

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

  • Verdezoto, N., Nunes, F., Grönvall, E., Fitzpatrick, G., Storni, C. and Kyng, M. 2014. Designing self-care for everyday life. Presented at: 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI 2014), Helsinki, Finland, 26-30 October 2014NordiCHI '14: Proceedings of the 8th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Fun, Fast, Foundational. ACM pp. 821-824., (10.1145/2639189.2654837)

2013

2012

2011

Articles

Conferences

Research

RESEARCH INTEREST

Human-centered Computing (according to the ACM Computing Classification System) across three main research areas: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Digital Health (DH).

  • Understanding everyday practices to inform system design
  • Design and Evaluation of Socio-Technical Systems and their use and appropriation, in particular in the Healthcare (PervasiveHealth, Health Informatics, e-Health, m-Health) and Sustainability domains (Sustainability HCI)
  • Healthcare Design Research: Participatory and User-centered Design for healthcare
  • Physical Computing, Ambient Awareness Systems, Information Visualization and Human-Robot Interaction

RECENT AND CURRENT PROJECTS

  • “Developing Affordable Wearables for Upper Limb Function Rehabilitation“. Cardiff University (PI – Katarzyna Stawarz) and North South University (Bangladesh). Funded by the Higher Education Funding for Wales (HEFCW) GCRF Small Project. March – October 2021.
  • “Exploring Community-based Infrastructures to Support Digital Maternal and Child Health in Low-resource Settings in India“. Funded by the Higher Education Funding for Wales (HEFCW) GCRF Fellowship. Cardiff University (PI – Nervo Verdezoto). Fellowship for Dr Naveen Bagalkot, Srishti Manipal Institute of Art, Design and Technology and MAYA Health, India. March – October 2021.
  • “An exploratory study of factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy for developing a conceptual framework to inform the design of communicative intervention/s in Ghana, India and South Africa“. University of Leicester (PI – Sarah Gong), MAYA Heath India, University of Cape Town, the Human Science Research Council (South Africa), Cardiff University. April – July 2021
  • "STAMINA: Strategies to Mitigate Nutritional Risks among mothers and infants under 2 years in low income urban households in Peru during COVID-19". Partners: Loughborough University (PI – Emily Rousham), Instituto de Investigación Nutricional in Perú, Cardiff University. September 2020 – March 2022.
  • “Understanding agricultural azole use, impacts on local water bodies and AMR: building an interdisciplinary evidence base in Devon and Bristol”. Partners: University of Bristol (PI – Susan Conlon), Cardiff University, University Exeter. Funded through the Cabot Institute Innovation Fund. Start: September 2020 – July 2021.
  • “Exploring antibiotic use practices in livestock production through a novel, game-based approach”. Partners: University of Exeter (PI – Matt Lloyd Jones), University of Bristol (PI – Robert Hughes), Cardiff University. Funded through the GW4 Crucible seed funding Award. Start: August 2020 – March 2021.
  • “Co-designing Community-based ICTs Interventions to Enhance Maternal and Child Health in South Africa”. Partners: Cardiff University (PI – Nervo Verdezoto), University of Cape Town, University of Leicester, University of Limpopo, Wits University, Loughborough University, University of Nottingham, The Human Sciences Research Council. Funded through the EPSRC/GCRF Digital Innovation Call (DIDA). May 2020 -  January 2021.
  • “New strategies to reduce anaemia and risk of overweight and obesity through complementary feeding of infants and young children in Peru”. Partners: Loughborough University (PI – Emily Rousham), University of Sheffield, Cardif University, and the Peruvian partners: Nutrition Research Institute, National University of San Marcos, National University Hermilio Valdizan. Funded by Newton Fund UK-Peru: Relationship between Food, Nutrition and Health. April 2019 – July 2022.
  • “Establishing a cross-disciplinary Partnership to Explore Women’s Everyday Experiences and Infrastructural Challenges of Healthcare Systems in Relation to Maternal Health to Scope Opportunities for Digital Health Technologies in the Global South”. Partners: University of Leicester (PI – Nervo Verdezoto), Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Escuela Superior Politécnica de Chimborazo, Universidad San Francisco de Quito. Funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund – Research England GCRF, through the University of Leicester Global Challenges Research Fund strategy. 2019.
  • “Helping Children and Caregivers to Engage with the Therapeutic Environment of the Clinic”. Nicola Mackintosh (PI – Health Science University of Leicester), Children Emergency Department Leicester, One to One Development Trust. Knowledge Exchange & Enterprise Development Funds, University of Leicester. February – July 2019.
  • "Healthy Crossroads in Pregnancy Care (HCPC) – A Scoping and Participatory Design Study of the Potential for ICTs to Improve Maternal Health in India”. N. Verdezoto (PI). Partners: University of Leicester, Loughborough University, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology, Leicester Diabetes Care Centre. Funded by AHRC-MRC Global Public Health Partnership Awards Call 2, 2018.
  • “Digitizing Reproduction: new technologies, intersectionality and the politics of inclusion”. N. Mackintosh (PI - University of Leicester). De Montfort University, King's College London, University of Brighton. Research Grant Development Award, Foundation for the Sociology of Health & Illness (SHI), 2018.
  • ‘DEPAC’: Digital enablement, promise and uncertainty in maternity care. N. Mackintosh (PI - University of Leicester). University of Leicester Tiger Team, Research and Enterprise Division, 2017-18.

Biography

Education and Qualifications

  • 2018: Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice, University of Leicester, UK
  • 2014: PhD Computer Science (Human-Computer Interaction), Aarhus University, Denmark
  • 2010: MSc Human Language Technology and Interfaces, University of Trento, Italy
  • 2009: BEng Computer Engineering, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador

Career Overview

  • August 2021 - Present: Senior Lecturer at the School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, UK
  • November 2019 - July 2021: Lecturer at the School of Computer Science and Informatics, Cardiff University, UK
  • April 2016 - October 2019: Lecturer at the Department of Informatics, University of Leicester, UK
  • August 2014 - January 2016: Postdoctoral researcher at the Ubiquitous Computing and Interaction Group, Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • July 2014 - August 2014: Teacher at the Via Summer School 2014, School of Technology and Business at Via University College (part-time), Horsens, Denmark
  • November 2013 - March 2014: Research Assistant at the Centre for Pervasive Healthcare, Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
  • November 2010 - October 2013: Ph.D. Student at the Use, Design and Innovation Group, Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University and Centre for Pervasive Healthcare, Denmark
  • June 2010 - October 2010: Summer Intern at LOA-ISTC-CNR-Laboratory for Applied Ontology, Trento, Italy
  • April 2008 - October 2009: Research Assistant, Human Computer Interaction Group, Centre of Information Technologies, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Guayaquil, Ecuador
  • March 2006 - March 2008: Developer at the Research & Development Unit, Centre of Information Technologies, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (part-time)

Honours and awards

  • Special Recognitions for Outstanding Reviews for major conferences in HCI (1 for INTERACT2021, 1 for CHI2021, 2 for CSCW2020, 1 for CHI2020, 2 for CHI 2019, 4 for CHI 2017, 1 for CHI 2016, 1 CHI 2015, 1 for DIS 2017, 2 for DIS 2016).
  • Honoroble mention at The ACM (Association of Computing Machinery) CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - CHI 2022.
  • Best paper The “Gitte Lindgaard Award" for the Best Long Paper presented at The 29th Australian Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (OzCHI 2017).
  • Honoroble mention at the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW '16).
  • Nominated to the Student Union Superstar Award, University of Leicester to the following categories: Best Support Staff and Best Supervisor, May 2018.
  • Innovation Prize at the StartUp Weekend Aarhus Health, February 6-8, 2015
  • Recognized as the best student in Computer Engineering majoring in Technological Systems in 2006, Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral, Ecuador
  • Recognized as the best student in high school in 2001.

Professional memberships

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA), UK –awarded in July 2018
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI).
  • Member of the Sociotechnical Specialist Group for the British Computer Society

Committees and reviewing

  • Editorial board member of Interacting with Computers Journal since February 2021.

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  • Associate Chair (AC) for the Health subcommittee for the papers program for The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024)
  • Associate Chair (AC) for the Design subcommittee for the papers program for The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2022, CHI 2023). 
  • Associate Chair (AC) for the for The ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2021, CSCW 2022, CSCW 2023, CSCW 2024).
  • Short Papers and Posters Co-Chair at the ACM SIGCAS/SIGCHI Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies - COMPASS 2023
  • Workshops and Masterclasses Co-Chair for The 22nd European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. ECSCW2024.
  • Conference Co-Chair for The 20th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. ECSCW2022.
  • PC member for The ACM conference on Supporting Group Work (Group 2022), January 23-26 in Sanibel Island, Florida
  • PC member for the 10th Latin American Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (CLIHC 2021), November 22-23, 2021 .
    PC member for the Eighth Mexican Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (MexIHC 2021), Mexico, December 1-3, 2021.
  • Associate Chair (AC) for The 18th IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2021, August 30th  –  September 3rd, 2021 in Bari, Italy.
  • Associate Chair (AC) for the "Health" subcommittee for the papers program for The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021), May 8-13, 2021 Yokohama, Japan
  • Associate Chair (AC) “Understanding People: Theory, Concepts, Methods” subcommittee at The ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2019).
  • PC member The 13th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI2019).
  • PC member The 9th International Digital Public Health Conference (ACM DPH 2019).
  • PC member The 9th International Conference on the Internet of Things (IoT 2019).
  • PC member The Halfway to the Future Symposium (HttF2019), University of Nottingham, UK.
  • Associate Chair (AC) - The 17th IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (INTERACT 2019).
  • Co-chair Workshops at the 5th IEEE International Conference on Internet of People 2019, UK
  • Co-chair Workshops and Masterclasses The 17th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW 2019).
  • Associate Chair (AC) Health subcommittee at CHI 2019.
  • PC member The 12th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI 2018).
  • Associate Chair The 21st ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW 2018).
  • PC member The 3rd Ecuador Technical Chapters Meeting (IEEE ETCM 2018).
  • PC member 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI 2018).
  • Co-Chair Doctoral Consortium at 12th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (PervasiveHealth 2018).
  • PC member 8th International Digital Health Conference – DH 2018, Apr 23-26, 2018, France.
  • PC member The 2nd Ecuador Technical Chapters Meeting (IEEE ETCM 2017).
  • Doctoral Colloquium Panel member for the 15th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW2017).
  • PC member The 7th International Conference on Digital Health, London, UK, Jul 2-5 2017.
  • Poster and Demos Co-Chair The 11th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare - PervasiveHealth 2017.
  • PC member Workshops category - CHI 2017.
  • Program Chair for the 6th EAI International Symposium on Pervasive Computing Paradigms for Mental Health - MindCare 2016.
  • PC member The 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI 2016).
  • PC member The 10th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare (PervasiveHealth 2016).
  • Associate Chair Late-Breaking Work category (CHI 2016 LBW).
  • PC member Pervasive Information Systems Workshop – PIS 2016 and PIS 2015.
  • PC member Workshop on Health Information Quality (HealthIQ 2015) at ICHI 2015
  • Guest Editor Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal (IxD&A) focus section on Experiences of Technology Appropriation: Unanticipated Users, Usage, Circumstances & Design. 2016.
  • Guest Editor for the Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal (IxD&A) focus section on “Designing Self-Care for Everyday Life”. 2015.
  • SV Co-chair for the fifth decennial Aarhus conference, Critical Alternatives – Aarhus 2015, 17 – 21 August 2015, Aarhus, Denmark
  • PC member for Posters and Demos of the 5th Indian Human Computer Interaction conference – IndiaHCI 2014, Dec. 7 – 9, 2014 – ITT Delhi, India.
  • PC member for the ACM GROUP 2014 Workshop on Collaboration and Coordination in the Context of Informal Care, Nov. 9, 2014 – Sanibel Island, Florida, USA.
  • PC member for the ACE 2014 Workshop on “Designing Systems for Health and Entertainment: what are we missing?”, Nov. 11, 2014 – Madeira, Portugal.
  • Reviewer for the ACM Transaction on Computer-Human Interaction – TOCHI Journal.
  • Reviewer for the Computer Supported Cooperative Work – CSCW – Journal.
  • Reviewer for the Interacting with Computers Journal.
  • Reviewer for the CoDesign Journal.
  • Reviewer for the Behavior and Information Technology Journal.
  • Reviewer for the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
  • Reviewer for the Entertainment Computing Journal, Elsevier.
  • Reviewer for the Journal of Language Resources and Evaluation.

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising students in Human-centered Computing research areas including: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp), with particular focus on Healthcare and Sustainability domains.

If you are interested in one of the following topics, please do not hesitate to contact me

  • Beyond self-monitoring: Taking a Practice-based Aproach to Inform System Design
  • Design and Evaluation of Socio-Technical Systems and their use and appropriation in the Healthcare (PervasiveHealth, Health Informatics, e-Health, m-Health) and Sustainability domains (Sustainability HCI)
  • Healthcare Design Research: Participatory and User-centered Design for healthcare
  • Physical Computing and Human-centred Internet of Things
  • Design of Ambient Awareness and Context-aware Systems
  • Game-based Approaches for Sustainability and/or Healthcare
  • Human-Robot Interaction for Social Navigation in Complex Scenarios

In addition, some project proposals are listed below. If you are interested in one please get in touch to VerdezotoDiasN@cardiff.ac.uk

PhD Studentships at Cardiff University: October 2021 round will open soon.

Project entitled: "Investigating Older Adults’ Experiences with Multimorbidity and How Digital Health Strategies Can Shape, Enable or Hinder Better Trajectories of Care".

Co-supervised with Dr Carolina Fuentes and Dr Katarzyna Stawarz from the School of Computer Science and Informatics. This is a cross-college and interdisciplinary project and the candidate will benefit from co-supervision and collaboration with Dr Jonathan Hewitt, Clinical Senior Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine, Cardiff School of Medicine.

Project entitled: "Enhancing Women’s Access and Experiences of Care during Pregnancy through Digital Health Technologies".

Co-supervised with Dr Carolina Fuentes and Dr Katarzyna Stawarz from the School of Computer Science and Informatics.

This project is in collaboration with the University of Leicester, the University of Cape Town, and the broader EPSRC/GCRF funded UK-South Africa CoMaCH Network on Co-designing community-based digital health interventions for maternal and child health

Dr Nicola Mackintosh, Associate Professor in Social Science Applied to Health

Dr Melissa Densmore, Associate Professor in Computer Science

Project entitled: "Enhancing Complementary Feeding Practices through Digital Health Technologies in Peru". 

Co-supervised with Dr Carolina Fuentes and Dr Katarzyna Stawarz from the School of Computer Science and Informatics.

This project is in collaboration with the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences, Loughborough University and the Institute of Nutritional Research in Lima, Peru

Dr Emily Rousham, Reader in Global Public Health

Prof Paula Griffiths, Professor of Population Health

Hilary M Creed-Kanashiro, Institute of Nutritional Research, Peru.

Project entitled: "Exploring the use of home-based IoT systems to support habit formation and long-term health behaviour change".

Main supervisor Dr Katarzyna Stawarz and co-supervised by Dr Carolina Fuentes and Dr Nervo Verdezoto from the School of Computer Science and Informatics.

Project entitled: "Human-Robot Interaction Techniques to Better Understand and Enhance Social Navigation and Collaboration in Complex Healthcare Scenarios".

Main supervisor Dr Carolina Fuentes and co-supervised by Dr Juan Hernandez Vega from the School of Engineering and  Dr Nervo Verdezoto from the School of Computer Science and Informatics.

Project entitled: "Unpaid carers: Burnout Tracking through Multimodal Interaction"

Main supervisor Dr Carolina Fuentes and co-supervised by Dr Katarzyna Stawarz and Dr Nervo Verdezoto from the School of Computer Science and Informatics.

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Indicative Student Profile:

  • Research interests in one or more of the following areas: digital health, computer-supported cooperative work, human-computer interaction, user experience design, science and technology studies.
  • Prior Experience in the healthcare, patients self-care and/or public health context
  • Prototyping experience with mHealth, wearables, physical computing, and/or DoItYourself (DIY) for Health and Wellbeing initiatives.
  • Prior Experience planning, conducting and documenting field-based qualitative research studies.
  • Prior Experience planning and facilitating design workshops and activities and synthesizing the insights through visual forms e.g., scenarios, etc.
  • Open to work with a multidisciplinary team of researchers.

Current supervision

Deysi Ortega Roman

Deysi Ortega Roman

Research student

Dushani Imesha Perera Ushettige

Dushani Imesha Perera Ushettige

Research student

Furkan Duman

Furkan Duman

Research student

Rahat Jahangir Rony Rony

Rahat Jahangir Rony Rony

Research student

Contact Details

Email VerdezotoDiasN@cardiff.ac.uk
Telephone +44 29225 11735
Campuses Abacws, Room Room 3.53, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG

Research themes

Specialisms

  • Human-computer interaction
  • Participatory Design
  • Digital health
  • Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
  • Human-computer Interaction for Development

External profiles