Figure 1 SoAP's People and Technology (PAT) Research Group

People and Technology Research Group Open House

The People and Technology (PAT) Research Group in the School of Applied Psychology held an Open House event on the 29^th of September 2022 to showcase ongoing research by staff and students through talks and poster presentations. Members of the group are interested in understanding, designing, and evaluating digital technologies through psychological and socio-scientific sensitivities, they contribute to the disciplines of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Applied Psychology, and Computer-Supported Collaboration.

The PAT group is committed to experience-centred, participatory approaches to the design of digital technology, helping ensure that technological developments give people a chance for a richer life, include people who too often are excluded, and ensure everyone can express what matters to them.

PAT members actively participate in international and national research initiatives, including Lero and ADVANCE CRT. Current projects examine topics such as the role of technology in health, wellbeing and social care, ethics and responsibility in software and systems development, misinformation and deepfakes, gamification approaches to encourage healthy behaviours, computer-supported collaboration in hybrid work scenarios.

During the event, the inaugural prize for research excellence in a Final Year Project sponsored by Logitech was awarded to recent graduates from the BA in Psychology and Computing for their project 'Bugs, Beeps & Blips: Investigating Flow States using Experience Sampling Methods in Students'. Jack Leonard and Sabrina Ziefer received the award from Mr Denis O’Keeffe of Logitech on behalf of their team, which also included Ciara-Elizabeth Griffin and Eimear Varian. The BA in Psychology in Computing is delivered jointly by the School of Applied Psychology and the School Computer Science and Information Technology. Dr Samantha Dockray and Dr Laura Maye jointly supervised the winning project.

Figure 2: Denis O’Keeffe present inaugural prize for research excellence in a Final Year Project to Jack Leonard and Sabrina Ziefer for their project 'Bugs, Beeps & Blips: Investigating Flow States using Experience Sampling Methods in Students'. From left to right: Denis O’ Keefe (Logitech), Sarah Foley (SoAP), Jack Leonard and Sabrina Ziefer.