Designing Tools for Fostering Creativity and Happiness
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Speaker (s):
Sowmya Somanath
Associate Professor,
Department of Computer Science
University of Victoria
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Date:
Time:
Venue:
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29 October 2025, Wednesday
11:00am – 12:00pm
School of Computing & Information Systems 1 (SCIS 1)
Level 4, Meeting Room 4-4
Singapore Management University
80 Stamford Road
Singapore 178902
Please register by 28 October 2025.
We look forward to seeing you at this research seminar.
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About the Talk
Engaging in creative activities, such as making physical computing projects, fabricated objects, or craft can bring joy, meaning, personalized solutions,
and purpose to people’s lives. However, making artifacts can be challenging, often requiring people to develop technical skills new to them, to get access to necessary material resources and tools, and cultivate specific problem-solving approaches. In this
talk, I will present novel interactive systems that my students and I have developed, which show how people can be supported when making artifacts in different settings, such as by oneself, in collaboration with other stakeholders, and with machines. I will
also present some of our new and ongoing projects focused on designing digital tools to foster happiness within the context of creative activities and knowledge work. Through these projects I hope to highlight the role digital tools can play in empowering
people to address personal and societal needs.
About the Speaker
Sowmya Somanath is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Victoria (UVic) in Canada. At UVic, she co-leads the VIXI lab, which focuses broadly on Human-Computer
Interaction and Information Visualization research. Her research focuses on studying and designing novel software and hardware-based systems to foster creativity and happiness within specific domain contexts such as making, digital fabrication, wearables,
knowledge work, and accessibility. Before joining UVic, Sowmya was an Assistant Professor at Ontario College of Art and Design University in Toronto for two years. She completed her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Calgary in 2017.
