WILLIAM ODOM

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Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar

Media profile

Urban sustainability initiatives—and the tools designed to aid these complex endeavours—are becoming increasingly important components to envisioning and designing viable human and environmental futures.

William Odom recently completed a Masters degree in Human-Computer Interaction / Design in the School of Informatics at Indiana University. William has won a Fulbright Postgraduate Scholarship from the Australian-American Fulbright Commission to undertake 12 months research at Griffith University’s Queensland College of Art (QCA).

Through his Fulbright, William will undertake research with Dr. Tony Fry in the Design Futures course at QCA. One portion of his project will investigate the role that digital interactive and informational tools can play in linking urban farming practices and community development—specifically within the greater Brisbane community.

“Urban farming is the practice of integrating low-energy food production techniques within city boundaries to increase the amount of fresh food available to local citizens. Over the course of its growth, the City of Brisbane has occupied a significant amount of agricultural land for urban development; urban farming has the potential to bring much of this land back into productive use to meet current and future produce demand,” explains William.

“Problems associated with facilitating urban sustainability are complex, systemic, and evolving. My project investigates the combined role of fieldwork and community involvement, as well as the design and implementation of interactive tools to cultivate a culture of urban farming among a very diverse group of stakeholders. Ultimately, this work contributes to a bigger urban farming demonstration initiative aimed at becoming a catalyst for future innovations in urban sustainability on regional and national levels.”

To date William has undertaken research investigating the intersection of technology and sustainability particularly in terms of (i) design critical approaches to digital interactive product design and (ii) the design of persuasive systems aimed at reducing resource consumption. William has published and presented this research at various international venues related to interaction design.

In April 2008, he won first place in the graduate student research competition at the international Computer-Human Interaction (CHI) conference. Currently, he is a world finalist in the Imagine Cup, a premier competition of which this year’s theme explores technology’s potential role in enabling environmental sustainability. Upon completing his Fulbright, William will return to the United States to begin his doctoral studies at Carnegie-Mellon University.