Arthi Manohar

Dr Arthi Manohar is a Senior Lecturer in Design at Brunel University London and serves as Programme Director for the BSc Product Design degree within Brunel Design School, College of Engineering, Design and Physical Sciences. Since joining Brunel in 2018 she has led multiple undergraduate and master-level modules, championed Equality, Diversity & Inclusion, and secured significant EPSRC research funding.

Education

• PhD Digital Product Design, University of Dundee (2017)
• MA Architecture and Digital Media, University of Westminster (2009)
• BArch Architecture, National Institute of Technology, India (2007)
• FHEA (Fellow of the Higher Education Academy), 2021

Research Interests

Arthi’s research lies at the intersection of social design and emerging technology. She investigates participatory, inclusive and co-design approaches to Human–Computer Interaction, privacy and trust in the Internet of Things, and the application of AI to accessibility and health technologies. Her work emphasises human values, cross-cultural perspectives and ethical considerations in technology design.

Recent funded projects include Trust in Home: Rethinking Interface Design in IoT (EPSRC HDI Network Plus) and From Understanding Privacy and Trust to Re-visualising TAPESTRY (EPSRC Sandpit). She collaborates across disciplines with partners such as the University of Nottingham, University of Kent, Royal Holloway and industry partners like LoomiAssist Ltd.

Publications & Scholarly Service

Arthi has published extensively in top-tier venues such as DRS, DIS, British HCI, Multimedia Tools & Applications, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing and CHI Workshops. Since 2020 she has served as Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Champion for the Department of Design and has held programme-committee roles for British HCI 2021, DIS 2019 and IndiaHCI 2019.

PhD Supervision & Teaching

She currently supervises four doctoral researchers exploring antimicrobial resistance design, stigma in assistive technology, virtual production and user engagement. At undergraduate and masters levels she leads modules on Interaction & UX Design, Digital Design Prototyping, Professional Practice and Design Communication, and has mentored over a dozen master dissertations on inclusive design, AI/AR retail experiences and speculative futures.