Andrew Cunningham

I am a Senior Lecturer and human-computer interaction researcher at the Australian Research Centre for Interactive and Virtual Environments (IVE) at The University of South Australia. I am co-director of the Wearable Computer Lab within IVE.

My research aim is to help people understand the world by revealing and communicating insights within the data all around us. Big data is pervasive and is driving decisions at an industry, policy, and societal level. I believe that Immersive Analytics—using immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality to display and interact with data—and Narrative Visualisation—using visualisation to reveal the stories within data—can help humanise this decision making and empower people.

Upon completing my PhD in 2011, I worked in the mobile games industry on titles that have been downloaded over 50 million times. In 2016 I returned to UniSA and was a key researcher on the Narrative Visualisation for Law Enforcement project with the Data to Decisions Cooperative Research Centre. This project won the South Australian Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) iAward for R&D Project of the Year and a merit at the national level. The technology has since been acquired by a commercial venture to take to market.