Dr Rohit Ashok Khot

Rohit is an interaction designer with expertise in the area of personal informatics, ubiquitous computing and playful design. Rohit utilises digital fabrication technologies like 3D printing and food printing to offer new design thinking towards building quantified-self systems.

In his PhD research, he orchestrated strategies for turning physical activity data into physical representations such as plastic artefacts, sports drinks, and chocolate treats – which are personalised based on an individual's efforts. As such, these systems enable embodiment of invisible bodily data (e.g., heart rate) in a physical and edible form that can be seen as well as touched, smelled, tasted, carried and cherished. This work was done with the vision that in 5-10 years time, 3D printers and food printers will become household appliances. At the moment, little is known on how and for what purposes people would make use of these exciting new technologies. By contextualising their use in the domain of quantified-self technologies, Rohit's research opens up an exciting new design space to embrace the rich qualities of living an active lifestyle.

Rohit has published extensively in reputed tier-1 conferences and has won numerous accolades, including IBM PhD fellowship and best paper awards. Besides, Rohit's work has appeared on important press and digital media channels, including a cover story on Mashable Australia, Herald Sun, Sydney Morning Herald, PSFK, SpringWise and over 50 other blogs. Rohit has also been interviewed on ABC News 24, Channel 9 News and 10 Australian radio channels about my work on 3D printed chocolate.  Besides, Videos of his works on YouTube have crossed over 3000 views whereas his research presentations slides on SlideShare have received over 5000 hits. Rohit also serves on program committees for Tier-1 conferences like DIS and TEI and he has collaborated with experts from different disciplines on 15 co-authored research publications, 3 workshops, 2 symposiums and 4 special interest group meetings at international venues.  

• Visit Rohit's full biography.
• Full list of publications on Rohit's Google Scholar profile.

Capabilities

• Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Playful Interaction Design
• Quantified self  (Personal Informatics)
• Food printing
• Tangible and Embodied Interactions
• Physical visualisations
• 3D printing
• Human Food Interactions (HFI)
• Research through Design
• Sports and Spectator interfaces

Selected press

2016

• Sydney Morning Herald – Designers at play put toys in the hands of humans big and small

2015

• Mashable Australia (cover story) – Scientists are making people jog for 3D-printed chocolate rewards 
  
• IBM Research – Wickets, tweets, and a 3-D printer
  
• 3ders – New Australian experiment rewards joggers with 3D printed chocolate treats based on exercise data
  
• 3AW (Radio) – 3D printer rewards exercise with chocolate messages
  
• Herald Sun – Exercise takes on a sweet approach
  
• Channel 9 News – Sweet Reward
  
• ABC News 24 – Sweet treats after a workout 
  
• PSFK – Motivate Workouts with 3D-Printed Chocolate
  
• Spring Wise – 3D printed chocolate according to how much users exercise 
  
• Runner's World – Would Chocolate Motivate You to Run
  

Awards and honours

• SIGCHI Sponsorship for organising Summer School on Playful Interactions ($12,000), 2017 
• Finalist for the AAMIA Awards (Digital Industry Association for Australia), 2016 
• Finalist for Premier's Design Awards (Good Design, Australia), 2015 
• Top-performer, Centre for Games Design Research, RMIT University, Australia, 2015 
• Australian Computer Society foundational scholarship (AU$10,000), 2014 
• IBM PhD fellowship (US$20,000), 2014 
• Higher Degree by Research Travel grant, RMIT University (AU$2000), 2014 
• Finalist, Student Innovation Contest, UIST, 2013 
• Finalist, Student Research Competition, CHI 2013 (US$500), 2013 
• Graduate Research Scholarship (AU$78,000), 2012

Professional memberships

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), 
• Special Interest group on Human Computer Interaction (SIGCHI), 
• Data Physicalisation community

Program committee member

ACM DIS 2017, ACM TEI 2017, ACM DIS 2016, ACM TEI 2016, ACM TEI 2015, ACM CHI WiP 2014, ACM CHI WiP 2015, ACM OzCHI 2013, ACM IE 2013.

Co-organizer

FoodCHI 2017, SIG meeting on 'future of food' at CHI 2017, Self-experimentation workshop at ACM CHI 2017, Summer school on Playful Interactions 2017, Game Jam workshop at ACM CHI 2013, SIG meeting at ACM CHI 2013, ACM CHI 2014, ACM CHI 2015.

PhD – Media and Communication 2016, RMIT University, Australia
Thesis: Understanding Material Representations of Physical Activity
Advisor: Professor Florian Mueller, Prof. Larissa Hjorth

Master of Science – by Research in Computer Science 2010, IIIT Hyderabad, India
Thesis: Human Computation with Perceptive Intelligence
Advisor: Associate Professor Kannan Srinathan

Internship

• IBM Research, Australia 2015

Guest speaker

• Newcastle Innovation Festival 2017
• 3D Food Printing Conference 2017
• UX Australia 2016 – Hosted by UX Australia
• STEADx 2015 – Hosted by Queensland Spatial Survey Association (QSSA)
• IIIT Hyderabad 2016  – Hosted by Associate Professor Venkatesh Choppella
• University of Melbourne 2015 – Hosted by Behnaz Rostami Yeganeh
• Mixed Reality lab, University of Nottingham 2013 – Hosted by Dr Joseph Marshall