Bahareh Shahri

Bahareh Shahri is a Senior Lecturer Above the Bar at the School of Product Design within the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. She has held this position since February 2018 and maintains an active research and teaching profile in human-centered design disciplines.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD in Product Design from the University of Edinburgh (2008-2014)
• Master of Art in Industrial Design from the University of Tehran (2001-2004)
• Bachelor of Arts from the University of Tehran (1996-2001)

Dr. Shahri's research spans multiple interconnected domains including social and cultural aspects of product design, human-centered methodologies, aesthetics of interactions, and design for communities. She specializes in ethnographic research with emphasis on multi-sensory and participatory methods. Her scholarly work demonstrates particular strength in sustainable materials design (especially biobased composites), virtual reality applications in healthcare (particularly neurorehabilitation), and community-centered design approaches in international contexts.

Her recent publications reveal consistent interdisciplinary contributions across design, engineering, healthcare technology, and community development fields. She has published extensively on material perception in sustainable design, patient-therapist interactions in virtual environments, and community empowerment through design methodologies.

Dr. Shahri has received research funding including:

• Navigating Well-being: Co-creating a Digital Companion for Youth Mental Health Support in New Zealand (Child Well-being Research Institute, 2024)

She serves as a supervisor for multiple graduate research students working on diverse projects including digital content production, special needs applications, sustainable design, social responsibility in human-centered design, and virtual reality applications for brain injury rehabilitation. Professionally, she reviews for the International Association of Societies of Design Research (IASDR) Congress and the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.