Professor Marcus Foth

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Professor

PhD (Queensland University of Technology), MA (Queensland University of Technology), BCompSc(Hons), BMultimedia (Griffith University), JP(Qual.) Qld

Marcus Foth is Professor of Urban Informatics in the QUT Design Lab and a Chief Investigator in the QUT Digital Media Research Centre (DMRC), Faculty of Creative Industries, Education, and Social Justice, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia. He is also an Honorary Professor in the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark.

Marcus’ research brings together people, place, and technology. His current research foci include:

For two decades, Marcus has led ubiquitous computing and interaction design research into interactive digital media, screen, mobile and smart city applications. Since founding the Urban Informatics Research Lab at QUT in 2006, urban informatics has been adopted worldwide by industry (e.g., McKinsey, Intel, CISCO) and universities (e.g., NYU, University College London, Warwick, Northeastern). His leadership in establishing the field was recognised in 2017 by the Australian Computer Society inducting Marcus as a Fellow for ‘a sustained and distinguished contribution to the field of computer science’ and by the Australian and New Zealand Governments, which included urban informatics as a new field of research in their 2020 Standard Research Classification.

Marcus has published more than 200 peer-reviewed publications. His h-index is 51 with 8,000+ citations (Google Scholar).

In 2021, Marcus was appointed to serve a three year term on the national College of Experts of the Australian Research Council (ARC). He was also named a 2021 Distinguished Member of the international Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for his outstanding scientific contributions to the field of computing.

The outputs of Marcus’ research have received many awards. For example, the Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer Toolkit received the 2021 National Award for Cutting Edge Research of the Planning Institute of Australia for significantly accelerating the calculation of value uplift in linear infrastructure projects such as rail networks. His BeefLedger project was recognised as a 2020 Good Design Australia Award winner twice: in the commercial services category and for design strategy, for demonstrating tangible benefits and impact of blockchain and smart contract applications for industry. Nominated by the Smart Cities Council Australia / New Zealand, Marcus was awarded ICT Researcher of the Year 2017 (Gold Disruptor) by the Australian Computer Society.

Marcus has made substantial contributions to academic service, including being conference chair of OZCHI 2009, Communities & Technologies 2011, and ACM SIGCHI Designing Interactive Systems 2016. He is an active reviewer, associate chair, and editorial board member for various conferences and journals. In recognition of his service, he received the 2018 Publons Peer Review Award (cross-field), which honours the top 1% of reviewers.

Marcus is an ACM Distinguished Speaker and has been giving invited keynote talks and presentations at international conferences and leading research institutions, including Aalto, Aarhus, Harvard, IT University of Copenhagen, KAIST, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich, MIT, Oulu, Oxford, Politecnico di Milano, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Tongji, Tsinghua.

Projects

Additional information

Experience

Member of Editorial and Advisory Boards

Conference Chair

Committee Positions

Jury and Assessment Duties

Review Experience on Publons >

Awards

Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2021
Details
The Rapid Analytics Interactive Scenario Explorer (RAISE) Toolkit co-designed by UNSW, QUT Design Lab, Omnilink and FrontierSI received the 2020 NSW award and also the 2021 National Award for Cutting Edge Research and Teaching by the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) in recognition of an outstanding achievement in planning research. It is awarded for a substantial piece of research that makes an outstanding contribution to the understanding of issues relating to planning in Australia. The award seeks to recognise work that extends planning debate with an evidence basis.
Type
Membership of a Statutory Committee
Reference year
2021
Details
I currently serve a three year term (2021 - 2023) on the Australian Research Council's College of Experts. To support the advancement of knowledge and contribute to national innovation, the ARC engages an ARC College of Experts to play a key role in identifying research excellence. Its members are experts of international standing drawn from the Australian research community: from higher education, industry and public sector research organisations.
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2020
Details
Australia's annual Good Design Awards program is one of the oldest and most prestigious international design awards in the world, promoting excellence in design and innovation since 1958. It is recognised by the World Design Organization (WDO) as Australia¿s peak international design endorsement program. In 2020, the QUT BeefLedger project was recognised as a Good Design Australia Award Winner in the commercial services category, and the BeefLegends community engagement component won a Good Design Australia Award in the design strategy category.
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2018
Details
The Publons Peer Review Awards honour the top 1% of reviewers in each field who performed the most verified pre-publication peer reviews on Publons during the 2017 / 2018 award year.
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2017
Details
Nominated by the Smart Cities Council Australia / New Zealand, I was shortlisted and won the Gold Disruptor Award in the ICT Researcher of the Year category of the ACS Digital Disruptors Awards 2017. The awards honour the efforts of Australia¿s ICT professionals, recognising the teams and individuals at the forefront of digital disruption.
Type
Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year
2017
Details
Inducted as ACM Distinguished Speaker: The Distinguished Speakers Program is an outreach program of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) that brings distinguished speakers from academia, industry, and government together to give presentations to ACM chapters, members, and the greater IT community in a variety of venues and formats.
Type
Appointment to State/National/International Reference Group or Government Committees
Reference year
2017
Details
Appointed Infrastructure Innovation Task Force Member. The State Infrastructure Plan (SIP) is an infrastructure strategy and program that underpins economic growth, supports jobs and creates long-term prosperity for all Queenslanders. The Infrastructure Innovation Taskforce relates to the SIP implementation action 14: to establish a joint industry-government infrastructure innovation taskforce.
Type
Fellowship of a Learned Academy or Membership of AIATSIS
Reference year
2017
Details
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) made me a Fellow for "a sustained and distinguished contribution to the field of computer science. Foth is the international thought leader who coined the term urban informatics - now adopted by universities and industry worldwide. Foth's work makes clear how academic research can successfully respond to societal challenges."
Type
Committee Role/Editor or Chair of an Academic Conference
Reference year
2016
Details
Conference Chair of the ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference 2016 in Brisbane
Type
Visiting Professorships/Fellowships
Reference year
2016
Details
Appointed Honorary Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University, Denmark

Publications

Research Projects

Title
Advancing Digital Inclusion in Low Income Australian Families
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP190100677
Start year
2021
Keywords
Title
Digital Media, Location Awareness, and the Politics of Geodata
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
DP180100174
Start year
2018
Keywords
Title
Fostering digital participation through Living Labs in regional and rural Australian communities
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP130100469
Start year
2014
Keywords
digital citizenship; rural & regional; digital literacy
Title
Eat, Cook, Grow: Ubiquitous Technology for Sustainable Food Culture in the City
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP100100232
Start year
2010
Keywords
Human Computer Interaction; Urban Informatics; Ubiquitous Computing; Mobile Social Interaction
Title
Remembering the Past, Imagining the Future: Embedding Narrative and New Media in Urban Planning
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP0882274
Start year
2008
Keywords
Community Engagement; Community Informatics; New Media; Urban Planning
Title
Swarms in Urban Villages: New Media Design to Augment Social Networks of Residents in Inner-City Developments
Primary fund type
CAT 1 - Australian Competitive Grant
Project ID
LP0776341
Start year
2008
Keywords
Social Networking Systems; New Media; Human Computer Interaction; Community Informatics; Interaction Design; Urban Neighbourhoods

Current Supervisions

Completed Supervisions (Doctorate)

Completed Supervisions (Masters by Research)