When we were given the challenge of expressing our views of research as the researcher‟s story, we intended to talk primarily about the ways in which our personal lives mediated our research work. While this remains one of the aspects of what we want to share, in our negotiations and conversations about writing this column we became aware of what brought us together to write a common article on...

Several sub-disciplines of engineering are driven by the researchers’ aim of providing positive change to the society through their engineering. These researchers are challenged by the traditional research method of experimental research with a waterfall model which demands clearly defined project definition and functional requirements, and impose a sequential processes leading to the final sys...

We developed a series of inexpensive but accurate mobile radiation detectors, which we named Pocket Geiger (POKEGA), to address the urgent desire of ordinary people to measure and share radiation levels in their milieus and to discuss the results of the Nuclear Disaster in Fukushima, Japan. This action research reports on a new style of pragmatic model of radiation monitoring, which employs the...

Many methodological approaches have been used to understand cultural dimensions to maternal health issues. Although a well-designed quantitative survey with a representative sample can provide essential information on trends in behavior, it does not necessarily establish a contextualized understanding of the complexity in which different behaviors occur. This article addresses how contextualize...

We compare six definitions of the concept of “representative user,” including interpretations based in statistics, grounded theory, political theory and design practice. This participatory poster invites conference participants to contribute their own interpretations.

The aim of this paper is to understand the social use and the consequences of PGIS in local communities, more specifically in Sierra Nevada, Mexico. In order to investigate the use of ICT by communities, we applied a multilevel and structurationist framework that articulates three dimensions: context, process and content. The results of our study draw attention to the implications of using PGIS...

Improving the visitors experience has become a priority in many museums that aim at establishing a stronger relationship with their visitors. Developing engaging museum exhibits could benefit from being inscribed in the participatory culture framework. In this paper we introduce a co-design workshop where cultural heritage professionals and students identified social interaction as a key featur...