Hello! My name is Sowmya Somanath. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Victoria. I co-lead VIXI with my colleagues Miguel Nacenta, Charles Perin and Regan Mandryk. Within VIXI, I lead the Creative Experiences Lab, which broadly focuses on topics in the area of Human-Computer Interaction. More specifically, my research interest is in studying how people create digital and physical artifacts using technology (such as electronics, fabrication devices, AR, VR) and designing tools to support such do-it-yourself processes. My lab investigates do-it-yourself activities within the realm of diverse application areas such as education, personal health monitoring and home contexts. Beyond my primary area of research, I am actively involved in collaborative projects focused on designing interfaces for people and autonomous vehicle interactions.

From 2018-2019 I was an Assistant Professor at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto and was part of the Industrial Design and Inclusive Design programs. Since becoming a professor in 2018, I have taught several courses in HCI and Design. I am fortunate to work with some amazing students and have had the opportunity to conduct research with undergraduate and graduate students.

I did my MSc and PhD in the Computer Science department at the University of Calgary and was part of the Interactions Lab, uTouch Group and illustrares group. My PhD thesis looked at how students from marginalized contexts engage in physical computing activities and as part of that, I conducted studies in India and Canada and also built tools. During my PhD, I was an intern at SMART Technologies in Calgary and Xerox Research Centre in India. My MSc thesis explored the use of interactive tabletops as a medium for interacting with reservoir models. I developed interactive information and scientific visualizations and also prototyped a small tabletop companion robot for the visualization system. My undergraduate degree is in Computer Science and Engineering from VTU in India, and my final year project involved building a 2-player 3D chess game.

I love exploring interactions with physical things (autonomous vehicles to tiny clay-based tangibles), and currently my new hobby is playing with block printing and trying to make those more interactive!