Dr Michael Smyth's Supervisions (6)

PhD
Doctorate

Level	Doctorate
Student	Joanna Aldhous
Status	Complete
Part Time	No
Years	2020
Project Title	Haptic user experience evaluation for virtual reality: Developing an evaluation framework for haptics used in virtual training simulations
Awarding Institution	Edinburgh Napier University
Director of Studies	Emilia Sobolewska
Second Supervisor	Gemma Webster
Additional Supervisor	Michael Smyth

MRes
Master's Degree

Level	Master's Degree
Student	Andrew McKelvey
Status	Complete
Part Time	Yes
Years	2018 - 2023
Project Title	An investigation of olfactory display technology for the enhancement of presence within virtual reality experiences
Awarding Institution	Edinburgh Napier University
Director of Studies	Emilia Sobolewska
Second Supervisor	Michael Smyth

PhD
Doctorate

Level	Doctorate
Student	Dr Oli Mival
Status	Complete
Part Time	Yes
Years	1999 - 2006
Project Title	In search of the cybermuse: Exploring the potential for, and obstacles to, the use of suport technologies in the creative process
Awarding Institution	Edinburgh Napier University
Director of Studies	Michael Smyth

PhD
Doctorate

Level	Doctorate
Student	Dr Ingi Helgason
Status	Complete
Part Time	Yes
Years	2008 - 2017
Project Title	Complex pleasures: designing optional interactions for public spaces
Project Description	This research will investigate the nature of interactions between people and experience-oriented technologies such as new-media artworks. The purpose of this research is to inform the design of interactive systems sited in public, shared and social spaces. It will concentrate on systems that are not primarily task based, but are essentially aesthetic, playful and exploratory in nature; systems that attract people, initially to be motivated enough to engage with them, and then deliver experiences that are satisfying or optimal in themselves.
Awarding Institution	Edinburgh Napier University
Director of Studies	Michael Smyth

PhD Computing
Doctorate

Level	Doctorate
Student	Dr Emilia Sobolewska
Status	Complete
Part Time	No
Years	2016
Project Title	Learning to cope with non-discretionary use of digital technologies
Project Description	The thesis describes an investigation into how people learn to cope with non-discretionary use of digital technologies. This includes circumstances when a prospective technology consumer is not presented with the choice whether or not to engage, or the choice comes with negative consequences that outweigh his or her reluctance to interact with the system. The thesis aims to develop an engaged, first hand, context dependent account of this phenomenon, by adopting phenomenology to understand subjective meanings and individual outlooks of the people involved. Ethnographic investigations are used to understand peoples’ everyday practices, and hermeneutics is applied as a means of interpretation. The research employed qualitative methods of data gathering that enabled an involved investigation, as well as Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, content analysis and thematic analysis, to make sense of gathered information. Two major empirical studies were carried out in order to investigate the phenomena surrounding people coping with non-discretionary use of digital technologies. Students Coping with Obligatory University Technologies (SCOUT), was an ethnographic account of 75 undergraduates, learning to use business simulation software. “Coping in the Wild” was a bricolage involving three different methods, including a longitudinal ethnographical study of a novice user, an extensive semi-structured interview with a self-proclaimed technology “expert” and lastly, a thematic analysis of user generated online resources. The final outcome of the thesis is a model of how people learn to cope with non-discretionary use of digital technologies. The model consists of main components (Conditions, Actions and Attitudes) and associated themes (Thrownness, Praxis, Motivation and Social Aspects). The relationships between different components and themes results in number of strategies employed by the users. The thesis concludes with areas of further work that could be undertaken based on this model of coping.
Awarding Institution	Edinburgh Napier University
Second Supervisor	Michael Smyth

PhD
Doctorate

Level	Doctorate
Student	Dr Ella Taylor-Smith
Status	Complete
Part Time	No
Years	2011 - 2016
Project Title	Participation Space Studies: a socio-technical exploration of activist and community groups? use of online and offline spaces to support their work
Project Description	Participation Space Studies explore eParticipation in the day-to-day activities of local, citizen-led groups, working to improve their communities. The focus is the relationship between activities and contexts. The concept of a participation space is introduced in order to reify online and offline contexts where people participate in democracy. Participation spaces include websites, blogs, email, social media presences, paper media, and physical spaces. They are understood as sociotechnical systems: assemblages of heterogeneous elements, with relevant histories and trajectories of development and use. This approach enables the parallel study of diverse spaces, on and offline. Participation spaces are investigated within three case studies, centred on interviews and participant observation. Each case concerns a community or activist group, in Scotland. The participation spaces are then modelled using a Socio-Technical Interaction Network (STIN) framework (Kling, McKim and King, 2003). The participation space concept effectively supports the parallel investigation of the diverse social and technical contexts of grassroots democracy and the relationship between the case-study groups and the technologies they use to support their work. Participants’ democratic participation is supported by online technologies, especially email, and they create online communities and networks around their goals. The studies illustrate the mutual shaping relationship between technology and democracy. Participants’ choice of technologies can be understood in spatial terms: boundaries, inhabitants, access, ownership, and cost. Participation spaces and infrastructures are used together and shared with other groups. Non-public online spaces, such as Facebook groups, are vital contexts for eParticipation; further, the majority of participants’ work is non-public, on and offline. It is informational, potentially invisible, work that supports public outputs. The groups involve people and influence events through emotional and symbolic impact, as well as rational argument. Images are powerful vehicles for this and digital images become an increasingly evident and important feature of participation spaces throughout the consecutively conducted case studies. Collaboration of diverse people via social media indicates that these spaces could be understood as boundary objects (Star and Griesemer, 1989). The Participation Space Studies draw from and contribute to eParticipation, social informatics, mediation, social shaping studies, and ethnographic studies of Internet use.
Awarding Institution	Edinburgh Napier University
Director of Studies	Colin Smith
Second Supervisor	Michael Smyth