Dr Ricardo Sosa Medina
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Dr Ricardo Sosa Medina

Address
G04 - Wilkinson Building
The University of Sydney
Websites
Dr Ricardo Sosa Medina

Ricardo builds on two decades of experience across design practice, education, and research in three continents. With a background in industrial design, his career began in the areas of participatory design with indigenous communities in Mexico, and the design of interactive learning systems. Ricardo obtained a PhD from the University of Sydney working at the Key Centre of Design Computing from 2000 to 2005. Since then, Ricardo has led innovative initiatives setting up new design programs, research labs, and partnerships with industry and local communities. He now specialises in learning and design at the Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning.

  • Future of Design Education
  • Creativity in Co-Design
  • Computational Simulations of Learning
  • Indigenous and Decolonial Design
  • Design Research Methodologies
  • Teaching Design outside Design Schools

PhD topics:

  • Innovations in Design Education
  • Creative Research Methods
  • Transferable Design Dispositions
  • Ethics in Emerging Technologies
  • Learning Technologies in DIalogical Education

Master/Hons topics:

  • What design schools should teach: A critical investigation into the emerging needs and opportunities for design education to better support creative professionals and entrepreneurs in industry, government, and social sectors. Research approach: can vary from interviews to generative design sessions with employers and alumni and speculative design to reimagine the future of design education
  • Creative design research methods: An exploration of how qualitative and quantitative research practices could better suit real-world design projects. A speculative and systematic practice-based (or Research through Design) study of the limitations and creative modifications to conventional methods like interviews, focus groups, questionnaires. Research approach: a hands-on analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of "research for design" practices to inform the creation of a Handbook of Creative Research for Designers
  • Check your briefs: An evaluation, critique, and creative synthesis of a repository and framework to design extraordinary studio briefs. Research approach: workshops and interviews with design educators, students, and professionals to create and assess insights and principles that can be used to prepare, run, and evaluate design briefs in (interdisciplinary) design schools
  • Designs that suck: A critical review of cases where design creativity has had negative ethical consequences. Research approach: A "desk research" (documentary) approach to produce a "Cautionary Tales" type of content (Tim Harford's podcast) for designers to reflect on the potential impacts of their decisions.
  • Innovation in Design Education
  • Technologies and Design for Learning
  • Diseño, Transmodernidad y Decolonialidad
  • Creative Futures
  • The Design Society
  • Design Research Society
  • Red Academica de Diseno y Emociones
  • Sistema Nacional de Investigadores
  • University of Sydney Strategic Education Grant 2024
  • 2021 - 2023 Creative Futures, Health Futures grant, AUT University NZ
  • 2022 Collaborative International Interuniversity Research, AUT + PUCV Chile
  • 2020 - 2022 Advanced Computational Thinking, TLRI, Council for Educational Research
  • 2019 Teacher of the Year, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  • 2018 Best paper award, International Journal of Design Creativity & Innovation
  • 2017 The Auckland Project, AUT Strategic Research Fund
  • 2016 Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, DCT Faculty, AUT University NZ
  • 2016 Robot-Inclusive Design, Faculty Strategic Research Fund
  • 2014 Best poster award, IEEE Life Sciences Grand Challenges Conference (LSGCC)
  • 2013 - 2016 Participatory Evaluation by Opportunity Lab, MIT-SUTD Singapore
  • 2012 - 2016 RoboMods: Design Principles for Robots, MIT-SUTD Singapore
  • 2009 - 2010 The Alumni Distinguished Teaching Awards
  • 2008 - Member, National System of Research SNI-Conacyt, Mexico
  • 2000 - 2005 IPRS Scholarship, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, Australia
  • 2000 - 2004 IPA Scholarship, The University of Sydney, Australia
  • 1996 University Merit Medal, Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana, Mexico
Architectural and Design Sciences, Design Lab
Project titleResearch student
Aspiration and relationship: Empowering ageing in place healthcare service by interacting with smart homesRenxuan LIU
Large language models and creative agency: Shaping the future of assessment in design educationHelena PITKO

Publications

Book Chapters

  • Sosa, R. (2022). Other worlds are possible: Advanced computational and design thinking in South Auckland. Artistic Cartography and Design Explorations Towards the Pluriverse, (pp. 123-133). London: Taylor and Francis. [More Information]
  • Sosa, R. (2016). Computational modelling of teamwork in design. In Philip Cash, Tino Stankovic, Mario Storga (Eds.), Experimental Design Research: Approaches, Perspectives, Applications, (pp. 173-186). Cham: Springer. [More Information]

Journals

  • Snake-Beings, E., Sosa, R., Gibbons, A., Takiveikata, S., Cheng, X., Berthelsen, C., Ben-Dror, A., Badenhorst, D., Crowe, A., O’riordan, E., et al (2023). Advanced Computational Thing-Kin: Sociomaterial Kinship and the MakerSpace. Knowledge Cultures, 11(2), 110-123. [More Information]
  • Sosa, R., Dijck, M. (2022). A Computational Interrogation of “Big-C” and “Little-c” Creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 34(3), 295-307. [More Information]
  • Sosa, R. (2022). Generative Allegories of Oppression and Emancipation: Reflecting with Computational Social Models [Alegorías generativas de opresión y emancipación: Reflexionando con modelos sociales computacionales]. Disena, 2022 (21), 7. [More Information]

Conferences

  • Hepburn, L., Ulas, E., Cabrera, D., Cooper, C., Gough, P., Grace, K., Hespanhol, L., Hoggenmueller, M., Hu, W., Ijaz, K., Meron, Y., Pinilla Palacios, A., Parker, C., Sosa Medina, R., Tekmen Araci, Y., Watts, J., Wu, B., Zafeirakopoulos, M., Lulham, R. (2024). Speculative design positions on future liveable cities. DRS2024: Boston, Online: Design Research Society. [More Information]
  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2023). "Critical mass of ideas": A model of incubation in brainstorming. 2nd International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC), Glasgow UK: The Design Society.
  • Sosa Medina, R., Rojas, N., Nansai, S., et al (2023). Exploration of adaptive gait patterns with a reconfigurable linkage mechanism. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, : Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing. [More Information]

2024

  • Hepburn, L., Ulas, E., Cabrera, D., Cooper, C., Gough, P., Grace, K., Hespanhol, L., Hoggenmueller, M., Hu, W., Ijaz, K., Meron, Y., Pinilla Palacios, A., Parker, C., Sosa Medina, R., Tekmen Araci, Y., Watts, J., Wu, B., Zafeirakopoulos, M., Lulham, R. (2024). Speculative design positions on future liveable cities. DRS2024: Boston, Online: Design Research Society. [More Information]

2023

  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2023). "Critical mass of ideas": A model of incubation in brainstorming. 2nd International Conference on Design Creativity (ICDC), Glasgow UK: The Design Society.
  • Snake-Beings, E., Sosa, R., Gibbons, A., Takiveikata, S., Cheng, X., Berthelsen, C., Ben-Dror, A., Badenhorst, D., Crowe, A., O’riordan, E., et al (2023). Advanced Computational Thing-Kin: Sociomaterial Kinship and the MakerSpace. Knowledge Cultures, 11(2), 110-123. [More Information]
  • Sosa Medina, R., Rojas, N., Nansai, S., et al (2023). Exploration of adaptive gait patterns with a reconfigurable linkage mechanism. IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, : Schloss Dagstuhl- Leibniz-Zentrum fur Informatik GmbH, Dagstuhl Publishing. [More Information]

2022

  • Sosa, R., Dijck, M. (2022). A Computational Interrogation of “Big-C” and “Little-c” Creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 34(3), 295-307. [More Information]
  • Gonzalez-Jimenez, S., Gallo, D., Sosa, R., Sandoval, E., Colombino, T., Grasso, M. (2022). A Decision Support Design Framework for Selecting a Robotic InterfaceA Decision Support Design Framework for Selecting a Robotic Interface. 10th Conference on Human-Agent Interaction, HAI 2022, United States of America: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]
  • Sosa, R., Gibbons, A., O'Riordan, E., Iorangi, K., Crowe, A., Gibson, L., Harris, S., Badenhorst, D. (2022). Food for Advanced Computational Thinking: Critical and Creative Approaches to Technology at Te Kura Taurua Manurewa. 17th Participatory Design Conference - Embracing Cosmologies: Expanding Worlds of Participatory Design, PDC 2022, United States of America: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]

2021

  • Sosa, R., Connor, A. (2021). A Freirean interrogation of creativity beliefs. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 9(1), 41-60. [More Information]

2020

  • Sosa, R., Kayrouz, D. (2020). Creativity in graduate business education: Constitutive dimensions and connections. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 57(4), 484-495. [More Information]
  • Sosa, R. (2020). Indigenous Worldviews to Inform Participatory Creativity. 16th Participatory Design Conference: Participation(s) Otherwise, PDC 2020, United States of America: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]

2019

  • Tan, N., Sun, Z., Mohan, R., Brahmananthan, N., Venkataraman, S., Sosa, R., Wood, K. (2019). A system-of-systems bio-inspired design process: Conceptual design and physical prototype of a reconfigurable robot capable of multi-modal locomotion. Frontiers in Neurorobotics, 13, 78. [More Information]
  • Shao, D., Nagai, Y., Sosa, R. (2019). Design for sustainability and innovation: A kansei engineering evaluation of the adaptive reuse of old buildings. 22nd International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED 2019), Delft: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Esparza, A., Sosa, R., Connor, A. (2019). Entrepreneurial ideation: Effects of morphology and complexity. 22nd International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED 2019), Delft: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

2018

  • Gerrard, V., Sosa, R. (2018). Data objects for hasselt elections. 15th Participatory Design Conference, PDC 2018, United States of America: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]
  • Sosa, R., Gerrard, V., Esparza, A., Torres, R., Napper, R. (2018). Data objects: Design principles for data physicalisation. 15th International Design Conference, DESIGN 2018, Croatia: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture.
  • Sosa, R., Vasconcelos, L., Cardoso, C. (2018). Design briefs in creativity studies. 5th International Conference on Design Creativity, ICDC 2018, London: The Design Society.

2017

  • Esparza, A., Sosa, R., Connor, A. (2017). The Shape of Firms: Opportunities from Rapid Manufacturing. 1st International Conference on Technology, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Education, Berlin: Springer Verlag. [More Information]

2016

  • Sosa, R., Chaszar, A. (2016). Bad ideas in creative design space exploration. 4th International Conference on Design Creativity, ICDC 2016, London: The Design Society.
  • Sosa, R. (2016). Computational modelling of teamwork in design. In Philip Cash, Tino Stankovic, Mario Storga (Eds.), Experimental Design Research: Approaches, Perspectives, Applications, (pp. 173-186). Cham: Springer. [More Information]
  • Sosa, R., Gero, J. (2016). Multi-dimensional creativity: A computational perspective. International Journal of Design Creativity and Innovation, 4(1), 26-50. [More Information]

2015

  • Nansai, S., Rojas, N., Mohan, R., Sosa, R., Iwase, M. (2015). A novel approach to gait synchronization and transition for reconfigurable walking platforms. Digital Communications and Networks, 1(2), 141-151. [More Information]
  • Hwee, T., Elara, M., Sosa, R., Tan, N. (2015). Analysing the innovation growth of robotic pets through patent data mining. 5th International Conference on Research into Design, ICoRD 2015, Bangalore: Springer Nature. [More Information]
  • Zhao, J., Cheung, N., Sosa, R., Koh, D. (2015). Design self-diagnosis applications for non-patients. 33rd Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2015), New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]

2014

  • Sosa, R., Wang, P. (2014). Creativity awareness in engineering schools in Asia. International Conference on Advanced Design Research and Education, ICADRE 2014, Singapore: Research Publishing Services. [More Information]
  • Nejati, H., Cheung, N., Sosa, R., Koh, D. (2014). DeepCAPTCHA: An image CAPTCHA based on depth perception. 5th ACM Multimedia Systems Conference, MMSys 2014, New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]
  • Gerrard, V., Sosa, R. (2014). Examining Participation. 13th Participatory Design Conference, PDC 2014, New York, NY: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]

2013

  • Sosa Medina, R., Rojas, N. (2013). Design principles for robot inclusive spaces. 19th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED13), La Vergne, TN, USA and Milton Keynes, UK: The Design Society.
  • Sosa Medina, R., et al (2013). Design with the developing world: A model with seven challenges for the future. 19th International Conference on Engineering Design (ICED13), La Vergne, TN, USA and Milton Keynes, UK: The Design Society.
  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2013). Multilevel computational creativity. Fourth International Conference on Computational Creativity ICCC 2013, Sydney, Australia: University of Sydney.

2012

  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2012). Brainstorming in solitude and teams: A computational study of group influence. Third International Conference on Computational Creativity ICCC 2012, Dublin, Ireland: University College Dublin.

2011

  • Sosa, R. (2011). Understanding the future of change agency in sustainability through cellular automata scenarios: The role of timing. Sustainability, 3(4), 578-595. [More Information]

2010

  • Sosa Medina, R., et al (2010). Sustaining sustainable design through systemic thinking. International Journal of Engineering Education, 26(2), 287-292.

2009

  • Sosa, R., Gero, J., Jennings, C. (2009). Growing and destroying the worth of ideas. 7th ACM SIGCHI Conference on Creativity and Cognition, C and C 2009, United States: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]

2008

  • Gero, J., Sosa Medina, R. (2008). Complexity measures as a basis for mass customisation of novel designs. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 35(1), 3-15. [More Information]
  • Sosa, R., Gero, J. (2008). Creative social systems. AAAI Spring Symposium, NA: NA.
  • Sosa, R., Gero, J. (2008). Social structures that promote change in a complex world: The complementary roles of strangers and acquaintances in innovation. Futures, 40(6), 577-585. [More Information]

2007

  • Perez Y Perez, R., Sosa, R., Lemaitre, C. (2007). A computer model for visual-daydreaming. AAAI Fall Symposium, NA: NA.
  • Sosa, R., Gero, J. (2007). Computational explorations of compatibility and innovation. IFIP: a Springer series in computer science, 250, 13-22. [More Information]
  • Gervas, P., Perez Y Perez, R., Sosa, R., Lemaitre, C. (2007). On the fly collaborative story-telling: Revising contributions to match a shared partial story line. 4th International Joint Workshop on Computational Creativity, Goldsmiths, University of London: Goldsmiths.

2005

  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2005). A computational study of creativity in design. Artificial Intelligence for Engineering Design, Analysis and Manufacturing, 19(4), 229-244. [More Information]
  • Jupp, J., Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2005). Generating innovative designs using qualitative spatial reasoning. 10th International Conference of the Association for Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia CAADRIA 2005, India: TVB School of Habitat Studies.
  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2005). Innovation and Design: Computational Simulations. 15th International Conference on Engineering Design - ICED 2005, Melbourne, Australia: Institution of Engineers Australia.

2004

  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2004). A Computational Framework To Investigate Creativity And Innovation In Design. First International Conference on Design Computing and Cognition (DCC'04), Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2004). Diffusion Of Creative Design: Gatekeeping Effects. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 2(4), 518-531.
  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2004). The Role Of Gatekeepers In Creativity. 7th European Conference in Case-Based Reasoning (ECCBR 2004) : Computational and Creativity Workshop.

2003

  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2003). Design and change: a model of situated creativity. 18th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence. Academic Press.
  • Sosa Medina, R., Gero, J. (2003). Social change: exploring design influence. 4th International Workshop, MABS 2003, Germany: Springer.

1999

  • Sosa, R. (1999). Modelling creative design through conversation analysis. 3rd Conference on Creativity and Cognition, C and C, United States: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). [More Information]