William Odom is an Assistant Professor in the School of Interactive Arts + Technology at Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on the increasing role of interactive technology in mediating a wide range of everyday practices and its often disruptive, and nearly always unanticipated effects. He leads a range of research projects themed within slow interaction design, the growing digitization of people’s possessions and archives, and design-oriented methods to critically envision potential technological futures.
Dr. Odom’s work frequently appears at venues including CHI, DIS, and Ubicomp, where it has received four best paper awards and five honorable mentions. His work on Technology Heirlooms in collaboration with Microsoft Research Cambridge received a silver international design excellence award (IDEA) for design research from the Industrial Designers Society of America. He completed a Ph.D. in HCI from Carnegie Mellon University in 2014. Previously, he has been a Fulbright Scholar in Design Futures at Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art in Brisbane, Australia, a Banting Fellow at Simon Fraser University, and a long time collaborator with the Human Experiences & Design group at Microsoft Research Cambridge (UK).
He is actively recruiting new graduate students to work on projects related to: digitally mediated reflection and reminiscence, supporting long-term interaction with digital content and technologies, slow interaction design, the internet of things, tangible computing, digital fabrication, and research through design. Please contact Dr. Odom at wodom@sfu.ca to express your interest in a Masters or PhD position in the Everyday Design Studio.