jon rogers

Curriculum Vitae Professor Jon Rogers

I am professor of design at Northumbria University in Newcastle. I take a very hands-in approach to understanding human relationships with digital technologies by making things that help to uncover as yet untold stories of how our relationship with the internet and related technologies might unfold. Following a three year Senior Fellowship with Mozilla in Berlin (2016-2019) I led the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral training programme OpenDoTT exploring trust and the internet of things. I have a long history of organising and delivering workshops that engage professionals, academics and the public with emerging technologies at Mozilla Festival, re:publica, Unbox Festival, London Design Festival, ThingsCon, ACM CHI and TEI.

Employment

  1. 2020 -Professor of Design, Northumbria University (current post)
  2. 2016-2019Senior Research Fellow Mozilla Foundation.
  3. 2014-2016Non-Executive Director, Uniform.
  4. 2013-2020Professor of Creative Technology, University of Dundee.
  5. 2010-2013Senior Lecturer, Product Design, University of Dundee.
  6. 2009-2024Visiting professor, National Institute of Design, India
  7. 2003-2010Lecturer, Product Design, University of Dundee.
  8. 2003-2008Visiting tutor, Interaction Design, Royal College of Art.
  9. 2001-2002Visiting tutor, Urban Research Laboratory, KTH, Stockholm.
  10. 1998-2003Tutor, Interaction Design, Royal College of Art.
  11. 1994-1995Graduate Assistant to Stephen Hawking, University of Cambridge.

Graduate education

  1. 2001PhD Electrical and Electronic Engineering Imperial College
    Thesis title - A Digital Neural Network Model of Motion Perception.
  2. 1994BEng. (Honours), class 2:1. Dip. Eng. in VLSI design. Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Hull.

Research Funding

  1. 2021-2025Centre for Digital Citizens
  2. 2021Crafting a Healthier Internet: People, Things and our Digital Society AHRC responsive mode funding AH/V005189/1 (£703,417). Justin Marshall PI with Jayne Wallace, Jon Rogers, Nick Taylor. Ends December 2024.
  3. 2020VA-People, Experiences, Practices and Routines (VA-PEPR), with Luzern University of Applied Sciences, 2,233,073 CHF (£1.7M), Sabine Junginger (HSLU PI), with Rogers CI (value to Northumbria £144K). Completed March 2024.
  4. 2020The Reappearing Computer: Foregrounding Privacy in IoT (REAPPEAR), Nick Taylor PI, Jon Rogers Co-I and Jayne Wallace Co-I Jul 2020, 18 Months £199K EPSRC via PETRAS Strategic Research Fund. Completed August 2023
  5. 2019OpenDoTT (Open Design of Trusted Things) €1.5M. PI H2020 MSCA-ITN-EID, PI, with Nick Taylor. Completed December 2022.
  6. 2016Mozilla Foundation Research Award Senior Fellowship, $488K PI completed 2019
  7. 2015AHRC Commission New Business Models, £57K, Co-I with Georgina Follet.
  8. 2014Connected High Street, EPSRC, £405K, Co-I with Jayne Wallace (Co-I), Chris Speed (PI - ECA) Completed 2016
  9. 2013Make Some More Noise: A Digital Adventure In Storytelling, Nesta/AHRC/ACE digital R&D £105K PI with Unlimited Theatre, Completed 2014.
  10. 2011Liminal Ethnography and Insight Journalism, £38K, Nesta/AHRC/ACE digital R&D Co-I with Dan Dixon (PI - UAE) partners MIT Media Labs and Punchdrunk Theatre. Completed 2012.
  11. 2011Interactive Newsprint, EPSRC Research In the Wild award, £372K, Co-I with Paul Egglestone (PI UCLAN) and David Frohlich (Co-I Surrey). Completed 2013.
  12. 2010Participants United, AHRC Connected Communities Award, £36K, Co-I with Paul Egglestone (PI), Ann Light (Co-I Northumbria) and Tom Wakeford (Co-I)
  13. 2010Are We Nearly There Yet? Microsoft Research Doctoral Award, £90K, PI, completed 2013
  14. 2009TOTeM: Tales of Things, Electronic Memory, EPSRC Digital Economy, £1.19M, Co-I, with Chris Speed (PI - ECA), Andy Hudson-Smith (Co-I UCL), Maria Burke (Co-I Salford), Angelina Karpovich (Co)-I Brunel) Completed 2012.
  15. 2009Bespoke, EPSRC Digital Economy, £895K, Co-I with David Frohlich (PI - Surrey), Justin Marshall (Co-I Falmouth) Patrick Olivier (Co-I Newcastle) and Paul Egglestone (co-I UCLAN). Completed 2011.

Recent talks, events and exhibitions

  1. 2026Finding our common ground: potential, resistance and power in creative technology. DRS, Edinburgh.
  2. 2026Rooting for Change: Exploring Regenerative Digital Technologies. Chalmers University of Technology.
  3. 2025Can Anstruther Be The World’s First Digital Safe Haven, Dreel Halls Anstruther. November.
  4. 2024Crafting A Healthier Internet (with Vladan Joler and Ame Elliott) V&A Digital Design Weekend.
  5. 2024Provotypes to Speculate About Futures, Talking AI, HSLU Luzern.
  6. 2023Voice Matters, V&A Digital Design Weekend, London
  7. 2023Voice Matters, Re:Publica, Berlin
  8. 2022Speak up!, Re:Publica, Berlin
  9. 2022Do you dig voice assistants? Eyemyth Festival, online
  10. 2022Introduction to Speculative Design Hochschule Luzern, Switzerland
  11. 2021Voice Assistants, Critical, commons and creative approaches, with Michelle Thorne Mozilla, University of Southern Denmark (27.04.2021)
  12. 2021Voice Assistants for use in resource management, University of Applied Sciences Luzern
  13. 2020Reimagining your bodies as data, Service Design Days, with Babitha George and Romit Raj.

Advisory roles

  1. 2024 -2025Expert Panel Member WHO working group in AI-design-policy in health
  2. 2022 - presentMentor for Superbloom and the German Prototype Fund / Mozilla Foundation staff
  3. 2021 - 2024Board Member Ikigai Data (an ed-tech startup exploring student careers)
  4. 2018Co-founder magazine Ding! dingdingding.org
  5. 2018Wireless Innovation for a Networked Society Challenges (Mozilla & NSF)
  6. 2014Penguin Books and Stephen Fry, YourFry Global Challenge.
  7. 2014Advisory board, Unbox Festival, India. Ongoing.
  8. 2013-2015Unlimited Space Agency, Head of Hack, for theatre group Untheatre
  9. 2013 - 2018Advisor and judge for London Design Museum’s Designs of The Year.
  10. 2012 - 2015NASA Space Apps Challenge global lead.
  11. 2012Curator Physical Web, Mozilla Festival

Review roles

  1. 2026Doctorate Committee, Eindhoven Technical University
  2. 2022Reviewer Sloan Foundation, USA
  3. 2021 - presentExternal examiner Product Design BA, Edinburgh University
  4. 2020 - presentFuture Leaders Fellowship review UKRI
  5. 2020PhD examiner Lancaster University
  6. 2019 - presentExternal examiner National College of Art and Design, Dublin
  7. 2018PhD examiner Goldsmiths
  8. 2018 - presentUKRI reviewer (various AHRC/EPSRC proposals)
  9. 2018-2021Carnegie Trust Research Assessor
  10. 2015Documentation Chair, Research Through Design
  11. 2015Phd External Examiner, Lancaster University
  12. 2014 - 2018AHRC Peer Review College.
  13. 2014University of Plymouth, Periodic Review Committee
  14. 2013 - 2018External Examiner PDE Glasgow (MSc, MEng, BEng).
  15. 2013 - 2018External Examiner MA Interaction Design Goldsmiths.

Awards and notable career events

  1. 2020Our Friends Electric, the short films we made with Superflux, acquired by the European Patent Office for their art collection. https://www.epo.org/en/about-us/social-responsibility/art/collection
  2. 2017Rockefeller Bellagio award to host a leadership summit on the Voice Enabled Internet
  3. 2015YourFry collaboration with Penguin Books wins Stephen Fry award for Innovation
  4. 2013Collaboration with OpenNASA for Space Apps Challenge https://www.opennasa.org/turning-space-data-into-physical-apps.html

PhD students

PhD students (1st Supervisor) Romit Raj (Mark Blythe 2nd) current (started 2023), Michael Shorter (Jayne Wallace 2nd) awarded 2017, Larissa Pschetz (Chris Speed 2nd) awarded 2015, Steven Birnie (Graham Pullen 2nd) awarded 2014.

PhD students (2nd Supervisor) Babitha George (Jayne Wallace 1st, Jon Rogers 2nd, Bill Gaver 3rd) current (started 2022), Dylan Gauld (Chris Rowland 1st) awarded 2020, Katerina Gorkovenko (Nick Taylor 1st) awarded 2018, Nicholas O’Donnell-Hoare (Sandra Wilson 1st) awarded 2018.

Line management and mentoring

I have over 15 years of line managing and mentoring experience of early and mid-career researchers. I currently manage eight members of staff (including two research fellows, Dr Mike Shorter and Dr Dave Chatting) and mentor another eight. Previous ECR line management and support includes the five OpenDoTT ECRs, four Mozilla fellows and three research fellows. In addition I lead the Creative Technology Working group of ten people. I am committed to staff training and regularly run events and workshops to support learning in the school.

Creative Technology skills

I am skilled in both the Arduino Microcontroller and Raspberry Pi open hardware ecosystems using LoRa, TinyML and various networking standards (MQTT, ESP-NOW, UDP). Programming languages include C++, Java and Python. 3D printing (Prusa). CAD (Fusion 360, Shapr3D).