Manika Saha joins ETLab
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Manika Saha has joined the Emerging Technologies Research Lab as a “Design Global Health and Health Systems Research Fellow” in the Health Futures research program, led by A/Prof Leah Heiss, the Eva and Marc Besen International Research Chair in Design. In this role, Manika will collaborate with a diverse array of researchers and stakeholders, including faculties, inter-faculties, UN organizations, NGOs, communities, governments, and specific users.
Manika is a multidisciplinary global health and human-centric design practitioner and researcher dedicated to empowering communities/end-users by ensuring their voices shape technology and decision-making. Her expertise encompasses participatory design methods such as co-design, participatory media production (including participatory videos and audio), and action research approaches. Through these methodologies, she addresses real-world challenges and co-creates solutions with diverse stakeholders, ensuring that community and user voices remain central to decision-making processes, including programs, policies, interventions, and technologies.
Manika holds a Master’s in Global Health from Queen Margaret University, UK and PhD in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from Monash University, Australia. Prior to her current role, she served as a Research Fellow in ICT for Development with the Action Lab and Information Empowered Communities Lab in the Department of Human-Centric Computing at Monash University. Manika's professional experience also includes roles as a National Nutrition Specialist at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (UNFAO) and as a Nutrition Research Associate at the WorldFish South Asia Office within CGIAR. Additionally, she served as a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Research Manager at the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership (CHL) at Deakin University.
Her impactful work has been recognized with several accolades, including the 2024 Dean’s Award & VC Nomination for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (Monash University), the 2023 Victoria STEM Sisters Ambassador (STEM Sisters), the 2022 IT Faculty Postgrad Publication Award (Monash University), and the 2021 Emerging Young Science Leader (CGIAR). Manika's multidisciplinary research has been published in top human-computer interaction venues (e.g., CHI, CSCW, and DIS) and leading health journals (e.g., The Lancet, Nature Scientific Reports, Frontiers, PLOS, and BMJ).
We look forward to the impactful contributions she will make in advancing our research initiatives in the Health Futures programme.