Project Team: Chief Investigators
Professor of Design Psychology and Director of QUT Design Lab, Evonne Miller serves as inaugural Queensland Health Research Chair in Healthcare Design. She is an international thought leader in co-design for health, who specialises in bringing lived experience into healthcare delivery through participatory methods. A Fellow of the Australian Association of Gerontology, she has facilitated 40+ design sprints in healthcare settings, working with diverse populations from aged care residents to prison inmates. Professor Miller maintains an open-access repository of co-design resources.
Co-founder of People Tech Revolution (PTR), Simon Lowe specialises in strategic partnerships and design thinking for systems change. He leads a team developing AI/VR experiences for human-skills training, with particular expertise in gamification techniques for serious conversations. His cross-sector experience spans government, non-profit, academic, and corporate environments, giving him unique insight into brokering effective partnerships.
Professor Glenda Amayo Caldwell
Professor in Architecture and Academic Lead Research at QUT, Glenda Caldwell is Associate Director Research Training for the ARC Australian Cobotics Centre. Her internationally recognised expertise bridges architecture and interaction design, focusing on human-robot collaboration and Industry 4.0 innovation. Through “Research-through-Design,” she integrates human factors into robotic processes while engaging industry in collaborative problem-solving. She co-leads QUT’s Human-Building Interaction research group.
Program Lead for Child and Youth Cancer and Palliative Care, Professor Bradford brings clinical nursing expertise to her research on telehealth connections between specialist teams and children needing palliative care. Her current work explores technology applications in communication and symptom management for paediatric cancer patients. Her innovations earned her the 2018 BUPA Health Foundation Emerging Researcher Award and a 2019 NHMRC Investigator Fellowship.
Multi-award winning designer, researcher and educator in Visual Communications and Cross-cultural Design. With a master’s from Central Saint Martins and experience in London and Shanghai, Professor Scharoun founded the Cross-cultural Design Lab and has been recognized with six Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Awards. Her design work has earned international recognition, including being a finalist in the Bill and Melinda Gates “Records for Life” competition and winning the JM Cameron Prize for Women’s Photography.
Lecturer in Interaction Design at QUT, Dr. McKinnon works at the intersection of Sustainable Interaction Design, More-than-Human design, and Speculative Design Futuring. Her research explores how design practices connect to resource consumption and sustainability in everyday Australian life. Her work on ecological consciousness and resource sufficiency has been internationally recognised, earning the Design Studies Journal Best Paper 2019.
Brain health pioneer with 30+ years in neuroscience, Professor Bartlett approaches mental health through the lens of neuroplasticity, advocating that “the brain is a muscle that needs daily training.” Host of the Thriving Minds podcast and author of three books on brain health, she was awarded the Lawrie Austin Award by the Australian Neuroscience Society and received the Outstanding Achievement Award from Women in Technology.
Award-winning poet, editor and critic on QUT’s Creative Writing faculty. Her acclaimed works include Aria (2008), The Hazards (2015), and The Jaguar (2022)—winner of the 2023 Stella Prize and multiple other literary honors. Educated at NYU and UQ, she’s received numerous prestigious fellowships and residencies including the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship and the W.G. Walker Memorial Fulbright Scholarship. Her Selected Poems will be published by Bloodaxe Books (UK) in late 2024.
Research Team – Project Managers
