Hello! My name is Sowmya Somanath. I am a Professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of Victoria.
I lead the Creative Experiences Lab, which broadly focuses on topics in the area of Human-Computer Interaction. This includes understanding people's needs, building new systems, and evaluating technologies.
My work focuses on helping people engage in everyday forms of creativity (such as learning, developing
DIY projects, and making decisions) using tangible mediums. For example, our projects so far have included helping people -- i) co-design
their own bespoke blood glucose monitors, ii) communicate information via their
clothing, fabricated products, and wearable mechanical limbs, iii) learn STEM
concepts in an accessible and hands-on way, iv) develop
computational thinking via making activities, and v) make
decisions in routine tasks such as crossing a street when new technologies such as driverless cars are introduced.
More
recently, I have begun exploring
the topic happiness! I am currently working on projects related to designing technologies that
can explicitly foster happiness in different domains such as creativity, knowledge work, and routine everyday tasks.
Creative Experiences Lab is part of the composite research group Victoria Interactive Experiences with Information (VIXI) Lab at UVic. Check us out!