Hello, and welcome to my website! My name is Laura Maye. I am a Lecturer in Human and People Centred Computing in the School of Computer Science and Information Technology, University College Cork (UCC), Ireland.
I have over ten years experience as a qualitative researcher,
spanning domains of cultural heritage, neurodiversity, and healthcare, exploring how people can better interact with technology in novel ways. I have particularly become more interested in exploring ways to include voices often not heard in the design process, including citizens, people, and perspectives.
I primarily employ co-design, ethnography, and action research as part of my research toolbox. I consider myself to be very technically minded; I love hacking things (including breaking things, but we won’t talk about that) and making things using sensors, microcontrollers, and programming.
I have also been involved in several small and large scale projects, which include:
StepUp (2023-2025): An SFI funded project that explored the co-design of application features to encourage walking from the perspective of multiple stakeholders. As Co-PI, I was involved in supporting the development of co-design activities.
A New Connections project investigating the employment of motion capture technologies in capturing fine motor skills in handwriting (2022-2023). In this project, I collaborated with Tyndall National Institute to conduct studies on the use of motion capture technologies to record handwriting movements. This project was funded by the Science, Engineering and Food Science (SEFS) college (New Connections Project) at University College Cork
Grassroots Radio, an EU Horizon 2020 innovation project which involves working toward solutions to lower the barriers of setting up community radio stations for remote and rural communities. It aims to support communities being involved in local media and local decision making. Particularly, the project is employing a took called RootIO, which enables community members to broadcast and host radio shows using a basic mobile phone.
ActivABLES (2017-2018) project, a NordForsk funded project which was geared toward Tangible Interaction to Support Effective and Usable Stroke Rehabilitation at Home. The project was geared especially toward supporting engagement in rehabilitation, particularly to encourage continuous rehabilitation. As a postdoctoral researcher, my focus on this project was on the design process.
meSch (2013-2017), an EU FP7 funded project I was involved in while completing my Ph.D. As part of meSch, I have been part of a large research and design team investigating co-design approaches in cultural heritage.
In my free time, I like to be outdoors, go on longish runs and enjoy nature in most weathers!
Laura Maye 