ProfessorRafael Calvo
Chair in Engineering Design
Dyson School of Design Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
Orcid identifier0000-0003-2238-0684 (opens in a new tab)
- Chair in Engineering DesignDyson School of Design Engineering - Faculty of Engineering
- Dyson Building, South Kensington Campus, United Kingdom
BIO
Research:
Rafael A. Calvo internationally recognized and cited for his work in design research, Human-Computer Interaction and Intelligent Systems. He focuses on systems for learning, wellbeing and health.
In the late 2000s Calvo was amongst those who pioneered the field of Affective Computing, focusing on affect detection. His work included review articles and the Oxford Handbook of Affective Computing (Calvo 2010, Calvo 2015).
Calvo then led the way for a new field of “Positive Computing” (Calvo 2014) – approaches to design that supports motivation and psychological wellbeing. His work translating empirical and theoretical work in motivational psychology to design has been applied worldwide by scholars and companies alike. Moreover, his work bringing Self-Determination Theory from psychology into design practice has had a significant impact on both academic and industrial research (Peters, 2018). For example workshops at Google (aimed at helping partner companies design to support autonomy), as well as advising large organisations (e.g. Honda) and startups (e.g IESO Health, Mettle, HavenVR) on design practices that support motivation for healthy behaviours.
Besides basic science research, Calvo's design engineering work has led to innovative interventions that have improved the lives of people across the population, from adolescents with chronic illness, to adults suffering insomnia, to seniors seeking independent lives. He works together with leading researchers in medicine, mental health, and design to leverage technologies such as natural language processing, data mining, mobile technologies, VR, wearables and affective computing, together with human-centred and participatory methods, to create real-world positive impact. Some of his recent projects include:
• Brisa.ai A conversational agent funded by EPSRC and Asthma and Lung UK to help people with asthma (Calvo 2023)
• Conversational-Care.ai, a system to help health professionals and community workers help clients through AI assisted communication. Funded by NIHR (NIHR150287) and the Dementia Research Institute.
• Calms.ai. Studying Culturally Appropriate Language Models and Systems. Funded by the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. .
• Triage, a Natural Language Processing platform to help mental health workers moderating the discussion forums of ReachOut.com, a mental health organisation serving 1.8M young people a year. The project produced a dataset and “Computing challenge” widely acknowledged as a significant advance in the area.
• CyberMate, a new service for ReachOut.com aiming to improve synchronous support (ie. Chat) for young people.
• Headgear: A project funded by BeyondBlue, in collaboration with the Black Dog Institute and the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney. Calvo managed the development of a risk assessment and mental fitness promotion app for workers in male-dominated workplaces. Partners in this project included NSW Police and NSW Fire and Rescue. The project received an award from the NSW Mental Health commission for the collaboration with UNSW. (Deady, 2022)
Service:
Rafael Calvo is Chair of Design Engineering and Director of Community Engagement and Outreach, at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London.
Calvo was Director of Research between 2020 and 2024. He joined in July 2019 after being Professor at the University of Sydney, and Fellow of the Australian Research Council. Calvo has published 3 books and over 250 papers on computational intelligence and its applications to health and education. He has taught at several Universities, high schools and professional training institutions. He worked at the Language Technology Institute in Carnegie Mellon University, Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina) and on sabbaticals at the University of Cambridge and the University of Memphis.
Rafael is Co-Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. He is in the Editorial Board of the Journal of Engineering Design and JMIR Human Factors. He has been Associate Editor for IEEE Trans. in Affective Computing and IEEE Trans in Learning Technologies. Rafael was Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Affective Computing and co-author of “Positive Computing” (MIT Press).
1995-2000 PhD. Intelligent document and web page classification (thesis). Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR), Argentina.
2005 Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, The University of Sydney.
1987-1992 Licenciado in Physics. Neural Network applications, UNR.
Rafael A. Calvo internationally recognized and cited for his work in design research, Human-Computer Interaction and Intelligent Systems. He focuses on systems for learning, wellbeing and health.
In the late 2000s Calvo was amongst those who pioneered the field of Affective Computing, focusing on affect detection. His work included review articles and the Oxford Handbook of Affective Computing (Calvo 2010, Calvo 2015).
Calvo then led the way for a new field of “Positive Computing” (Calvo 2014) – approaches to design that supports motivation and psychological wellbeing. His work translating empirical and theoretical work in motivational psychology to design has been applied worldwide by scholars and companies alike. Moreover, his work bringing Self-Determination Theory from psychology into design practice has had a significant impact on both academic and industrial research (Peters, 2018). For example workshops at Google (aimed at helping partner companies design to support autonomy), as well as advising large organisations (e.g. Honda) and startups (e.g IESO Health, Mettle, HavenVR) on design practices that support motivation for healthy behaviours.
Besides basic science research, Calvo's design engineering work has led to innovative interventions that have improved the lives of people across the population, from adolescents with chronic illness, to adults suffering insomnia, to seniors seeking independent lives. He works together with leading researchers in medicine, mental health, and design to leverage technologies such as natural language processing, data mining, mobile technologies, VR, wearables and affective computing, together with human-centred and participatory methods, to create real-world positive impact. Some of his recent projects include:
• Brisa.ai A conversational agent funded by EPSRC and Asthma and Lung UK to help people with asthma (Calvo 2023)
• Conversational-Care.ai, a system to help health professionals and community workers help clients through AI assisted communication. Funded by NIHR (NIHR150287) and the Dementia Research Institute.
• Calms.ai. Studying Culturally Appropriate Language Models and Systems. Funded by the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. .
• Triage, a Natural Language Processing platform to help mental health workers moderating the discussion forums of ReachOut.com, a mental health organisation serving 1.8M young people a year. The project produced a dataset and “Computing challenge” widely acknowledged as a significant advance in the area.
• CyberMate, a new service for ReachOut.com aiming to improve synchronous support (ie. Chat) for young people.
• Headgear: A project funded by BeyondBlue, in collaboration with the Black Dog Institute and the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney. Calvo managed the development of a risk assessment and mental fitness promotion app for workers in male-dominated workplaces. Partners in this project included NSW Police and NSW Fire and Rescue. The project received an award from the NSW Mental Health commission for the collaboration with UNSW. (Deady, 2022)
Service:
Rafael Calvo is Chair of Design Engineering and Director of Community Engagement and Outreach, at the Dyson School of Design Engineering, Imperial College London.
Calvo was Director of Research between 2020 and 2024. He joined in July 2019 after being Professor at the University of Sydney, and Fellow of the Australian Research Council. Calvo has published 3 books and over 250 papers on computational intelligence and its applications to health and education. He has taught at several Universities, high schools and professional training institutions. He worked at the Language Technology Institute in Carnegie Mellon University, Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina) and on sabbaticals at the University of Cambridge and the University of Memphis.
Rafael is Co-Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Technology and Society. He is in the Editorial Board of the Journal of Engineering Design and JMIR Human Factors. He has been Associate Editor for IEEE Trans. in Affective Computing and IEEE Trans in Learning Technologies. Rafael was Editor of the Oxford Handbook of Affective Computing and co-author of “Positive Computing” (MIT Press).
1995-2000 PhD. Intelligent document and web page classification (thesis). Universidad Nacional de Rosario (UNR), Argentina.
2005 Graduate Certificate in Higher Education, The University of Sydney.
1987-1992 Licenciado in Physics. Neural Network applications, UNR.
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
- ProfessorImperial College London, Dyson School of Design Engineering, London, United Kingdom1 Jul 2019 - present
- ProfessorUniversity of Sydney, School of Electrical and Information Engineering, Sydney, Australia1 Jan 2019 - 30 Jun 2019
DEGREES
- PhDUniversidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina2000
CERTIFICATIONS
- Grad Certificate in EducationUniversity of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
LANGUAGES
- Spanish - Latin AmericanCan read, write, speak, understand and peer review
FACULTY
- Faculty of Engineering
POSITION NAME
- Chair in Engineering Design
MEDIA GUIDE
- Members of the media are welcome to contact me about my research and areas of expertise