Belinda Dunstan is an associate lecturer at UNSW Design Futures Lab, and one of Australia’s rising leaders in the field of social robotics.
Beginning her career as a sculpture artist, Belinda’s interest in technology and ‘future forms’ was first expressed as large-scale sculptures of robots, that have been exhibited across Australia.
After a serendipitous meeting with a roboticist, she joined the UNSW Creative Robotics Lab as a founding member, and began her PhD in social robotics. Belinda’s research now incorporates her knowledge from art and sculpture to form a unique approach to the design of robots that will share human environments in the near future.
During her time in the Creative Robotics Lab, Belinda has run international workshops, and co-edited a book on ‘Cultural Robotics’, examining the impact of culture on the design and applications of robots.
As an academic, Belinda teaches across the disciplines of art, design, architecture and social robotics. She is the co-author and lecturer of the only undergraduate course in social robotics in Australia (taught at UNSW), and describes the course as, “animation meets robotics and contemporary technology theory.”
Belinda’s interest in using art to approach robotics stems from her fascination with the potential to blend analogue and digital making techniques, and she has spoken on this topic in several community contexts, including teaching at Rising Sun Workshop on digital fabrication for custom motorcycle building.
Belinda is passionate about the power of collaboration, and has spent the last four years working with mechatronics engineers, computer scientists and interaction designers to conduct research in robotics from a fresh, multidisciplinary perspective.
Belinda brings her knowledge of old and new ways of making, materials, gesture and expression, to ask the big questions about what the future of technology will look like, and how we can design for easy and enjoyable interaction with robots.
Find out more about Belinda here! http://www.crl.niea.unsw.edu.au/people/belinda-j-dunstan/
