Research projects
Projects
Our team works together and individually on projects that relate to our emerging technologies research programs, below is a snapshot of some of our most recent work.
Japanese and Australian Perspectives on Robots in Public Space
This project develops and promotes joint Australian-Japanese expertise in robots in public space. Through scientific exchange and public outreach in Tokyo and Melbourne, it enhances technological innovation, develops new approaches in this important area of research, and engages new public audiences.
Future Home Demand: Anticipating Energy and Everyday Life Trends Across Three Victorian Networks
The Future Home Demand project, a collaborative research project between CitiPower, Powercor, United Energy, and Monash University's Emerging Technologies Research Lab, is taking an innovative approach to energy forecasting by focusing on the everyday lives and futures of Australian households.
Everyday Insurtech: Impacts of Emerging Technology for Insurance
A project studying the development of the nascent insurance technology (insurtech) sector—its market formation, its product applications, and its social implications.
Platform Cooperativism and Domestic Workers in Dhaka
Codesigning socio-technical infrastructures underpinned with cooperative values to support the empowerment of domestic workers in Dhaka.
Just Transitions in Australia: Moving Towards Low Carbon Lives Across Policy, Industry and Practice
Just Transitions in Australia reports on and documents the policy, practice, and realistic possibilities for ‘Just transitions to decarbonisation’ in Australia.
City Sensing Data Futures
City Sensing Data Futures reports on a collaboration between the City of Melbourne and Monash University’s Emerging Technologies Research Lab. It outlines and demonstrates an ethics-based approach to the capture and use of real-time city data in public spaces, which is inclusive and respects the core organisational and public values of: trust, privacy, transparency, open communication and care.
She’s Not Alone
In this innovative and collaborative project, anthropologist Emma Quilty and documentary film-maker Jeni Lee teamed with She’s a Crowd to explore trust and safety - fundamental concepts for rideshare technologies to be considered successful.
Mobility and Accessibility for Children and Adults (MACA)
In partnership with the Mobility and Accessibility for Children and Adults Inc. (MACA), Professor Sarah Pink and PhD candidate Iris Maher will conduct human centred research into understanding the transport needs for children with disabilities to assist in their support of safe transport. The project was funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Flight Paths, Freeways and Railroads
Flight Paths, Freeways and Railroads is a series of short film vignettes exploring how diverse participants currently experience transport mobilities and how automated technologies might be part of our future lives.
Seeing the Road Ahead
Experimenting with creative methods to explore future visions of automated mobilities in Australia.
Unpacking trust in AI software development
This project uncovers the practices and beliefs about trust that inform the design of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automated decision-making (ADM) and the ways they are engaged in the everyday work practices of software developers.
Highway to the Sky
This short film documents a speculative arts workshop with neuro-diverse participants as they use painting and stop motion to imagine future transport mobilities.
Consumer experiences following energy market reforms in Victoria: qualitative research with community support workers
This project identified widespread inconsistencies in retailer practices and that many households still struggle to navigate the energy market and access appropriate support from their energy retailer, despite reforms intended to improve consumer outcomes.
ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S)
The Emerging Technologies Lab is part of the Monash University node of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S), a cross-disciplinary, national research centre established in 2020. ADM+S aims to create the knowledge and strategies necessary for responsible, ethical, and inclusive automated decision-making.
The Living Lab: Designing the future of aged care
This Living Lab design-research collaboration is aimed at improving the lived experience of residents, families, and staff in the Aged Care sector by delivering meaningful and innovative solutions designed onsite and informed by a deep ethnographic understanding of the people using and delivering Aged Care services.
Net Zero Precincts: An interdisciplinary approach to decarbonising cities
This project will help cities and urban regions reach net zero emissions by taking the precinct as an optimal scale for urban transition. This project expects to co-create a new approach grounded in transition management and design anthropology. This will be tested in an action-oriented case study in the Monash Technology Precinct through three Living Lab experiments across energy, mobility and buildings.
Future Cities: City of Melbourne partnership
In 2020, the ETLab has partnered with the City of Melbourne to conduct a research project that brings local people’s perspectives to testing and communicating the use of smart technology in Melbourne.
AUTOWORK: Workers in transition through automation, digitalisation and robotisation of work
The primary goal of AUTOWORK is to generate new knowledge and solutions to societal challenges arising from the automation, digitalization and robotization of work-life, in relation to inclusion and meaningfulness. The Australian and Norweigan research teams will map trajectories towards a meaningful future work-life, for workers using innovative ethnographic and future scenario methods that focus on workers’ practices and experiences.
Child protection and social distancing: Social work during the COVID-19 pandemic
A crucial way child protection work is achieved is by social workers getting close to children, especially on home visits, and immersing themselves in the lives of parents and families. In a period of institutionalised social distancing, how is the pandemic impacting upon the ways practitioners are helping families and keeping children safe?
Robots in public space
Investigating the impact of robots on public space’ is a research project that aims to improve how we understand the impact that robots have on the atmosphere of public space.
Intelligent home solutions for independent living
In a partnership with McLean Care and Deakin University, the ETLab are leading the ethnographic component of the Intelligent Home Solutions for Independent Living project. The project will trial ‘smart’ home technologies with elderly participants who are living at home, to greater understand how these technologies are used; how they could be better designed; and how they affect their everyday living experience.
Re-humanising automated decision making
Funded in 2019 by the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Re-humanising Automated Decision Making network brings together academic colleagues from around the globe to discuss - how do we re-humanise automated decision making (ADM) to the benefit of society and everyday lives?
Design for wellbeing
The Design for Wellbeing Network is a international and interdisciplinary group of researchers who work across architecture, design, health technologies and social science. Focusing specifically on hospitals and other formal healthcare settings, the network aims to improve the understanding of how people experience these services and environments, and to work towards improvements in these experiences through rigorous qualitative and practice-based research.
Commemoration reframed
This international and interdisciplinary project investigated the experience of the commemoration of the end of the First World War centenary in 12 countries. It used a range of transdisciplinary techniques to investigate how people make sense of and perceive national commemorative events and what meanings are ascribed to them.
Digital Energy Futures: Forecasting changing residential energy demand
Understanding changing digital lifestyle trends and forecasting their potential impacts on electricity demand.
Future grid homes
The Future Grid Homes project was funded by Energy Consumers Australia and involved qualitative research with energy sector professionals and Australian households who have experience of demand management and/or new energy technologies (e.g. solar PV, battery storage and electric vehicles). The aim of the project was to identify best practice engagement strategies, concepts and relationship models that will help the energy sector to deliver a reliable, affordable and sustainable future electricity system.
E-waste futures
As a response to the upcoming ban of all “e-waste” from landfill from 1 July 2019 by the Victorian Government, the Emerging Technologies Research Lab proposes a research project to collaborate with charities in developing their systems of processing “e-donations” in preparation for their transition towards the implementation of the ban.
Co-designing future smart urban mobility services
In partnership with: Halmstad University, Volvo Cars, City of Gothenburg, City of Helsingborg (Sweden). This project is part of the Drive Sweden Strategic Innovation Program funded by VINNOVA (the Swedish Innovation Agency), the Swedish Research Council Formas and the Swedish Energy Group. The project seeks to establish new ways of developing modern vehicles and smart cities for a sustainable social environment.