Santosh is a health and risk communication scientist with research interests at the intersection of public health, behavioural science and new media technologies.
Specifically, he studies mobile and social media interventions for addressing global health challenges with a focus on tropical and infectious diseases. Santosh’s research analyses and evaluates the effects of both, bespoke innovations (like crowdsourced surveillance applications) as well as generic platforms (like Twitter and Facebook) on individuals, communities and health systems during infectious disease outbreaks. The research approach involves mixed methodologies, trans-disciplinary conceptualization and collaborations with policymakers, activists and the industry. His work, spanning the US, Singapore, Sri Lanka and India, has been published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Journal of Medical Internet Research, Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and Journal of Nutrition Education and Behaviour among others.
I am Professor of Digital Living in the School of Computer and Information Science. I study Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the design of interactive computational technologies. I'm particularly interested in design research methods and the ways in which technology design can be centred on rich understanding of user experiences, cultures and contexts.
I have previously held positions as Senior Lecturer of Experience-Centred Design and then Reader in Cultural Computing at Newcastle University, Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction in the Mixed Reality Lab and School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham, and as a post-doc in the Socio-Digital Systems group at Microsoft Research Cambridge. My background is in Psychology (BSc) and Ergonomics (MSc) with a PhD in Computer Science. Over the years my work has been heavily influenced by the sociologists, philosophers and designers that I've collaborated with and consequently I take a design-led, social science orientation to understanding human experience and its application to the design of digital technologies. Accordingly, and although trained as an experimental scientist, my research is increasingly based on qualitative methods and design-research practices.
