Dr Luis Soares is a social researcher working for Design Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. He has experience in the field of ICT4D and recently in the area of HCI4D. His research focus spans the role of technology in society, particularly in low-income countries, contextualising innovation and development from the grassroots perspective.  He is currently working on autonomous systems and blockchain applications, seeking to understand social interactions in the domains where these technologies are applied. He has a background in Communication Sciences and Media and Communication, strong links to Creative Industries where he worked as a professional for several years.

Qualifications: BA in Communication and Journalism, MSc in Communication Sciences, Organisations and Information and Communication Technologies, MPhil in Communication Sciences, and PhD in Science and Technologies Studies.

Last project:

SAIDS-WAG is a project, aiming to deliver a new platform for personal data storage (PDS) and sharing. The goal of SAIDS-WAG is to improve outcomes for individuals and organisations when facilitating co-design processes, deployment of apps and the formation of clusters of services providers supporting citizen’s needs. This is done through a digital channel, conceding citizens the opportunity to share data across different organisations in a flexible, fast and reliable way. Supporting this development is a tool named the Web-App Generator (WAG), developed within a previous Social Innovation Fund project EPCAS, which allows for the generation of web apps that securely connect to citizens' personal data stores (PDS), enabling them to be in charge of their data,  and grant service providers permission to interact with that data and share it when and where needed. The final goal of the SAIDS-WAG is to promote flexibility and simplification of processes and thus contribute to enhancing autonomy and resilience through technological support.

Ongoing project:

Lift-Health, Uganda

This project aims to develop a strategy and implement mechanisms to reduced maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality in Uganda, supported on better systems and processes for perinatal health information technology.

Objectives:

(a) Create a network of field sites for perinatal health IT research in urban and rural areas of Uganda for long-term research and engagement

(b) Integrate capacity physical and mental health into our framework

(c) Build capacity for designing sustainable, effective health IT systems.