Sarah is a world-leading Design Anthropologist, known for her development of innovative digital, visual and sensory research and dissemination methodologies, in which she engages in interdisciplinary projects with design, engineering and creative practice disciplines to engage with contemporary issues and challenges. Her research focuses on emerging intelligent technologies, automation, data, digital futures, safety and design for wellbeing. Her recent works include her book Doing Visual Ethnography (2021) and the documentary Laundry Lives (co-Directed with Nadia Astari 2015).

Laurene Vaughan PhD is Professor of Design at RMIT University, where she currently serves as Dean in the School of Design. She was the Nierenberg Chair, Distinguished Professor of Design, at Carnegie Mellon University, 2012 – 2013. Internationally recognised as a leader in interdisciplinary and applied design research, her research, leadership and creative practice takes numerous forms. Laurene’s research investigates the interactive and situated nature of cultural production, place, care, and  design methods and practices that enable this – both analogue and digital. Her most recent edited collections are Practice Based Design Research and Design as a Practice of Care (2017, 2019, Bloomsbury Academic).

Dr Barbara Barbosa Neves is a sociologist of technology and ageing. She studies the role of emerging technologies in later life, namely in relation to loneliness and social isolation. Her research can be found in top-tier Sociology and Computer Science publications. She has received awards in North America, Europe, Australia, and Japan. In 2019, she was named among the ABC Top 5 scholars in Social Sciences and Humanities. Barbara is a Senior Lecturer at Monash University. Before moving to Australia, she was an Associate Director and Researcher at the Technologies for Aging Gracefully Lab, Computer Science Department, University of Toronto, Canada.