Dhaval Vyas

Dr. Dhaval Vyas is an Associate Professor in the Human-Centred Computing discipline - a former ARC DECRA Fellow (2018-2022) and. He is a part of the Compassion Lab research group. His research spans the areas of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW). In particular, he focuses on designing IT tools to support health and wellbeing of under-resourced communities. He has worked in academia and industry for over 15 years. He received a PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from University of Twente, the Netherlands; a master's degree in Computer Science from Lancaster University, UK; and an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from Gujarat University, India. Compassion Lab: Designing for Under-served Communities The Compassion Lab focuses on developing technologies for under-served communities in order to bring about social change, and improvement to their health and wellbeing. It has a strong user-centric focus that aims to study issues at the grass-root level using ethnography and involve people in the design and development of technological solutions. Target Domains and Communities: - Low SES Communities - Refugees and Asylum Seekers - Women in Crisis Situations - Rural Communities in Developing Countries - Older Adults Disabilities, Health and Wellbeing Tech How can technologies provide the right kind of support to individuals going through various disabilities and health conditions? Using Virtual Reality (VR), storytelling and other forms of pervasive technologies are developed to provide adequate support. We work on the following topics: - Independent living for people with paraplegia - Mental health support for low SES community members - Enhancing social interactions in older adults Fostering DIY and 'Making' in Undeserved Communities The Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and makerspace movements have shown the potential for high-tech innovation, democratizing production and creativity, and revamping of economies and broken educational systems. However, within HCI, the focus has mainly been on more affluent and technology-savvy population. HCI lacks the narrative on how DIY and making practices are associated with economically disadvantaged members of the community. In particular, the role of innovation hubs such as makerspaces and community-based social enterprises in uplifting the economically disadvantaged needs to be thoroughly investigated. In collaboration with makerspaces that involve economically struggling members of the community and job seekers, this project aims to investigate DIY and making practices of LSE members and develop a counter-narrative on makerspaces and its inclusiveness. Quantified Self & Activity Tracking for Healthy Living Within the research topics of Quantified Self (QS) and Activity Tracking, I have been focusing on supporting engaging social experiences for users; rather than on behavior change. A set of Android-based applications is developed in workplace settings to support activity tracking and fitness promotion. The aim is to enable employees to interweave activity tracking in their everyday routines and enable engaging social interactions in workplaces.

[2026] Do it together: making makerspace learning environments more accessible for refugee and migrant women. Hedditch, Sonali and Vyas, Dhaval (2026). Do it together: making makerspace learning environments more accessible for refugee and migrant women. Interacting with Computers, 38 (4), 603-618. doi: 10.1093/iwc/iwaf045 [2026] Ambiguous Loss: Facilitating Refugee Families' Sense of Home through AI-Powered Storytelling. Song, Pinyao, Yadav, Aaditya and Vyas, Dhaval (2026). Ambiguous Loss: Facilitating Refugee Families' Sense of Home through AI-Powered Storytelling. 2026 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems-CHI, Barcelona Spain, Apr 13-17, 2026. New York, NY, USA: ACM. doi: 10.1145/3772318.3791368 [2025] Understanding use of large language models in healthcare: an hci scoping