VLDB 2026 Research / reviewers in the wild / expert
Cara Wilson
dblp:163/3694
· DBLP profile ↗
16ranked-venue papers
9as first author
9since 2021 · last 2025
—ORCID · conflict
Domains — the database's venue-derived domains; a paper can count in several
Human-computer interaction and ubiquitous computing · 12 · 6 first-author · 8 since 2021Applied, interdisciplinary, general and emerging computing · 4 · 3 first-author · 1 since 2021
| Year | Publication | Venue | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | The Secret Lives of Children's Money: Exploring Children's Financial Interactions in Transitions from Cash to Digital MoniesabstractFigure 1: 'Money Mysteries' booklet and other items contained in the 'Detective Probe Pack' Valentina Andries, Cara Wilson, Harvey Everson, Caroline McKinley, Chris Elsden |
IDC | 2 |
| 2025 | Grasping Data: Exploring interdisciplinary approaches for investigating children's interactions with their personal dataabstractUnlike any previous generation, children's lives are now highly datafied, tracked, and digitally monitored.They are increasingly vulnerable to data collection from seemingly innocuous toys and devices with cameras, sensors, voice recognition, and geolocation.Yet, children typically lack awareness or control over these data exchanges, as consent is usually given by adult caregivers (who may also lack data literacy).Despite regulatory improvements, interdisciplinary approaches remain crucial to empowering children to understand, value, and manage their personal data.How can the IDC community involve children in the design and use of their personal data?This workshop unites experts to explore current practices.1 CCS Concepts• Security and privacy → Social aspects of security and privacy; • Human-centered computing → Interaction design 1 This workshop merged with "Towards a Research Agenda for Including Children and their Care Ecosystems in HCI" to run a joint workshop: Grasping Data Together: Interdisciplinary Agendas for Engaging Children and their Care Ecosystems with their personal data Ayça Atabey, Cara Wilson, Andrew Manches, Uta Hinrichs, Stephen A. Brewster, Andrés Alberto Ramírez-Duque, Dushani Perera, Dorsey B. Kaufmann, Ge Wang 0004, Bernd Ploderer, Judith Good, John Vines |
IDC | 2 |
| 2025 | Fairness by Design: Cross-Cultural Perspectives from Children on AI and Fair Data Processing in their Education FuturesabstractAI-driven educational technologies (AI-EdTech) process extensive data, raising concerns about commercial exploitation of children's data and risks to their privacy, wellbeing, agency, and legal rights. The ‘fairness principle’ in data protection law requires fair data processing that meets children's expectations and avoids unexpected, detrimental, discriminatory, or misleading practices. However, children's own perspectives on what fairness means in AI-EdTech are underexplored in design. This study bridges the gap between law and design research to contextualize what fairness means through co-design workshops with 72 children (aged 10–12) and 4 teachers (N=76) in Scotland and Türkiye. We examine how children's perspectives can inform the operationalization of ‘fairness by design’ for AI-EdTech. Our contributions include: (1) an understanding of children's perspectives on how fairness manifests (or does not) in AI-EdTech and (2) recommendations for both design and legal communities to align AI-EdTech design and data practices with children's values and rights. Ayça Atabey, Cara Wilson, Lachlan Urquhart, Burkhard Schafer 0001 |
CHI | 2 |
| 2025 | Towards child-centred AI in children's learning futures: Participatory design futuring with SmartSchool and the co-design stories toolkitabstract• A gap remains in translating child-centred AI goals from theory and policy into practice – a gap which HCI and participatory design seem well-placed to address through participatory methods. • We contribute, firstly, the co-design stories Toolkit, an adaptable tool for participatory research, here applied with a participatory design futuring framing to springboard into speculative imaginaries on AI and learning. • Secondly, we contribute a set of child-led narratives and design concepts on AI's impact on learning futures and child rights, foregrounding what matters about AI to children themselves. What are children's perspectives on how AI could impact their learning futures? The concept of child-centered AI (CCAI) highlights the importance of children's involvement and their rights in the design of AI futures. However, a gap remains in translating CCAI goals from theory and policy into practice – a gap which HCI and Participatory Design seem well-placed to address. We conducted initial, exploratory Participatory Design Futuring (PDF) workshops with 14 children (aged 3–10) and their families in the UK, envisioning a futuristic design client, ‘SmartSchool’, who sought AI solutions to make learning better and more playful in the year 2123. We contribute, firstly, the Co-Design Stories Toolkit, an adaptable tool for participatory research, here applied with a PDF framing to springboard into speculative imaginaries on AI and learning. Secondly, we contribute a set of child-led narratives and design concepts on AI's impact on learning futures and child rights, foregrounding what matters about AI to children themselves. Cara Wilson, Ayça Atabey, Joe Revans |
Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. | 1 |
| 2024 | Creating Resources for Designing with and for Care Ecologies in HCIabstractAmidst a growing body of work in HCI focusing on designing systems that engage with care relationships, there is increasing interest in expanding notions of care beyond transactional practices, towards broader notions of “care ecologies”. However, how can we support care systems designers to apply these concepts in practice? This paper presents the Care Spectrums, a set of sensitising concepts for designers to explore and apply to their practice. Developed as a response to a design probe exercise (the CareTree) which was carried out with 14 participants over one month, the Care Spectrums respond to the multiplicity of expressions of care in participants’ everyday lives. Translated into a design resource (the ‘Co-Designing with Care’ card deck), and trialled with 10 designers, the Care Spectrums revealed hidden caring and uncaring practices in designers’ projects, and stimulated opportunities for designing with and for people's complex and entangled care ecologies. Cara Wilson, Larissa Pschetz, Billy Dixon, Sue J. Lewis, Joe Revans, John Vines |
Conference on Designing Interactive Systems | 1 |
| 2024 | Autistic Expression Beyond the Verbal - Studying Minimally-Verbal Autistic Indian Children's Embodied Interactions with Screen-Based TechnologyabstractOff-the-shelf, screen-based technologies like smartphones, tablets and iPads are used daily in Indian households. However, there has been limited research discussing whether these technologies cater to the design needs of minimally-verbal autistic children in India. In this paper, we present and discuss design recommendations for adapting screen devices to fit the contextual and multimodal needs of minimally-verbal autistic children. We studied Indian autistic children's daily interactions with screen devices through video interaction analysis and interviewed primary caregivers for a deeper understanding of their self-expressive behaviors. Through the findings, this paper highlights how autistic children self-express their design needs employing non-verbal modalities of sounds, touch and body movements while interacting with screen devices. Based on the findings, we discuss future opportunities to involve minimally-verbal autistic children in the design of screen-based technologies by adapting design approaches to better suit their multimodal and sensory needs. Sanyukta Singh, Cara Wilson |
IDC | 2 |
| 2023 | Sensing Care Through Design: A Speculative Role-play Approach to "Living with" Sensor-supported Care NetworksabstractSensor networks are increasingly commonplace in visions of smart cities and future healthcare systems, promising greater efficiency and increased wellbeing. However, the design of these technologies remains focused on specific users and fragmented by context, overlooking the diversity of needs, wants and values present when technologies, people, and lived realities interact within instrumented spaces. In this paper we present a workshop method – Sensing Care – that can help researchers, interdisciplinary design and development teams, and potentially affected users, to explore what it takes to design for living with sensor technologies that intersect and interact across private and public spaces, through speculative scenarios and role play. Drawing from three deployments of the workshop, we discuss how this approach supports the design of future care-oriented sensor networks, and helps designers understand what it means to live with complex technologies as people traverse diverse contexts. Sonja Rattay, Robert Collins, Aditi Surana, Youngsil Lee, Yuxi Liu 0008, Andrea Mauri 0001, Lachlan Urquhart, John Vines, Cara Wilson, Larissa Pschetz, Marco C. Rozendaal, Irina Shklovski |
Conference on Designing Interactive Systems | 9 |
| 2022 | Satellite Monitoring of sea Surface Temperature and Chlorophyll for Sustainable FishingabstractHere we will discuss two specific examples of how satellite data is being used to support the management of sustainable fisheries. The first example is a model to predict the potential sardine habitat along the US West Coast that relies on sea-surface temperature and chlorophyll data from JPSS VIIRS. The predicted habitat distribution is used to optimize the ship survey cruises conducted as part of the Pacific sardine stock assessment. The second example is the EcoCast model, which was developed as an effort to help minimize fishery bycatch. EcoCast identifies regions within the Pacific swordfish fishing grounds where the bycatch of protected and endangered species ([leatherback turtle, blue shark, and California sea lion) is less likely. This model also uses sea-surface temperature and chlorophyll data from JPSS VIIRS as two of its data inputs. Outputs from both the sardine habitat and EcoCast models are available on the NOAA CoastWatch West Coast Node ERDDAP server. Cara Wilson, Dale H. Robinson |
IGARSS | 1 |
| 2021 | Participatory Design of the World's Largest DPD Project with ChildrenabstractIn this workshop, we invite researchers and practitioners as participants in co-designing the protocol for the world’s largest Distributed Participatory Design (DPD) project with children. Participatory Design – whose inclusive benefits are broadly recognised in design – can be very challenging, especially when involving children. The current COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to further barriers to PD with such groups. Recent key barriers include social distancing and government-imposed social restrictions due to the additional health risks to vulnerable children and their families. This disrupts traditional in-person PD (which involves close socio-emotional and often physical collaboration between participants and researchers). However, alongside such barriers, we have identified opportunities for new and augmented approaches to PD across distributed geographies, backgrounds, ages and abilities. We invite the CCI community to examine Distributed Participatory Design (DPD) as a solution for overcoming these new barriers, during and after COVID-19. Together, we offer new ways to think about DPD, and unpick some of its ambiguities. This workshop builds on work conducted in a similar workshop in IDC 2020, and this year will focus on the planning and design of the protocol for the world’s largest DPD project with children. Jessica Korte, Aurora Constantin, Cara Wilson, Cristina Adriana Alexandru, Gavin Sim, Janet C. Read, Judith Good, Jerry Alan Fails, Eva Eriksson 0001 |
IDC | 3 |
| 2020 | Self-Expression by Design: Co-Designing the ExpressiBall with Minimally-Verbal Children on the Autism SpectrumabstractExpressing one's thoughts and feelings is a fundamental human need - the basis for communication and social interaction. We ask, how do minimally-verbal children on the autism spectrum express themselves? How can we better recognise instances of self-expression? And how might technologies support and encourage self-expression? To address these questions, we undertook co-design research at an autism-specific primary school with 20 children over one school year. This paper contributes six Modalities of Self-Expression, through which children self-express and convey their design insights. Each modality of self-expression can occur across two different dimensions (socio-expressive and auto-expressive) and can be of a fundamental or an integrative nature. Further, we contribute the design trajectory of a tangible ball prototype, the ExpressiBall, which - through voice, sounds, lights, and motion sensors - explores how tangible technologies can support this range of expressive modalities. Finally, we discuss the concept of Self-Expression by Design. Cara Wilson, Laurianne Sitbon, Bernd Ploderer, Jeremy Opie, Margot Brereton |
CHI | 1 |
| 2020 | Erddap: Providing Easy Access to Remote Sensing Data for Scientists and StudentsabstractERDDAP, an open source data platform developed at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC), improves the usability of remote sensing data by overcoming difficulties in data access, including dealing with differing file formats, download protocols, and machine-to-machine access capabilities. ERDDAP aggregates gridded and tabular datasets, from diverse local and remote sources, and provides a uniform way to subset datasets and download data in common file formats. Environmental events can be identified using an easy-to-use web interface and customizable maps and graphs. Machine-to-machine data access is provided via RESTful web services. These features of ERDDAP reduce the barriers to data access, and can lead to increased use of remote sensing data across disciplines, including use in education by students and by educators. In this paper we describe the basic functionality of ERDDAP, including examples of its visualization capabilities. Cara Wilson, Dale H. Robinson, Robert A. Simons |
IGARSS | 1 |
| 2020 | OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO THE USE OF SATELLITE DATA IN FISHERIES MANAGEMENTabstractDue to the extensive spatial and temporal coverage of ocean satellite data products, these data have great potential for operational oceanographic applications. Yet these data are underutilized in many operational activities of NOAA, including stock assessments. Here we describe two different efforts underway to increase the transition of oceanographic satellite data into operational usage. The West Coast Node (WCN) of CoastWatch has been collaborating with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) to develop an online tool that will make it easier for stock assessment scientists to incorporate environmental satellite data into their annual stock assessments. This specialized webpage serves time-series of remotely sensed products (e.g., chlorophyll and sea-surface temperature data) for fisheries management regions around Alaska. WCN has also been working to increase oceanographic satellite data utilization through the NOAA CoastWatch Ocean Satellite Course that they have been teaching since 2006. Cara Wilson, Dale H. Robinson, S. Kalei Shotwell |
IGARSS | 1 |
| 2019 | Co-Design Beyond Words: 'Moments of Interaction' with Minimally-Verbal Children on the Autism SpectrumabstractExisting co-design methods support verbal children on the autism spectrum in the design process, while their minimally-verbal peers are overlooked. We describe Co-Design Beyond Words (CDBW), an approach which merges existing co-design methods with practice-based methods from Speech and Language Therapy which are child-led and interests-based. These emphasise the rich detail that can be conveyed in the moment, through recognising occurrences of, for example, Joint Attention, Turn Taking and Imitation. We worked in an autism-specific primary school over 20 weeks with ten children, aged 5 to 8. We co-designed a playful prototype, the TangiBall, using the three iterative phases of CDBW; the Foundation Phase (preparation for interaction), the Interaction Phase (designing-and-reflecting in the moment) and the Reflection Phase (reflection-on-action). We contribute a novel co-design approach and present moments of interaction, the micro instances in design in which minimally-verbal children on the spectrum can convey meaning beyond words, through their actions, interactions, and attentional foci. These moments of interaction provide design insight, shape design direction, and reveal unique strengths, interests, and abilities. Cara Wilson, Margot Brereton, Bernd Ploderer, Laurianne Sitbon |
CHI | 1 |
| 2018 | MyWord: enhancing engagement, interaction and self-expression with minimally-verbal children on the autism spectrum through a personal audio-visual dictionaryabstractDigital technologies to support children on the autism spectrum often offer predefined content for modelling, communicating and training. However, children may not relate to the content, and it may not match their own personal interests and motivations. This paper investigates the use of MyWord, an interest-based, child-led technology, as an exploratory probe. This audio-visual dictionary app supports a child to build their own personalised catalogue of favourite words, images and audio over time. We undertook a field study over two school terms in an autism-specific primary school with 12 minimally-verbal children aged 5 to 8 and their teachers and speech therapists. Findings indicate that creating dictionary entries involved processes of personal choice, representation of the self and interests, and dynamic action and play. Use of personally and contextually relevant words enhanced engagement, interaction and self-expression. We contribute a novel, flexible, interest-based technology, and reflections on its use in autism-specific school contexts. We highlight the importance of the child's lived experience and holistic child-led approaches to technology design. Cara Wilson, Margot Brereton, Bernd Ploderer, Laurianne Sitbon |
IDC | 1 |
| 2017 | Digital Strategies for Supporting Strengths- and Interests-based Learning with Children with AutismabstractTechnologies to support children with autism tend to use predefined content to enhance specific skills, such as verbal communication or emotion recognition. Few mobilise the child's own (often very specific) interests, strengths and capabilities. Digital technologies offer opportunities for children to personalise learning with their own content, following their own interests and enabling their self-expression. This project sought to engage children to record and express their own interests within their contexts of support - the home and the classroom. The vehicle for self-expression was an audio-visual calendaring app called MeCalendar. Implementation was kept open-ended to allow teachers to use it in ways that best fit with their existing embedded practices. In this paper we report on how the prototype has been appropriated in two classrooms by teachers in an autism-specific school setting with children aged 6 to 7. Our contribution is an understanding of how technologies for self-expression led to enhanced verbal communication, positive reinforcement through video modelling, engagement in class tasks and enhanced social interaction. Children appropriated the design in unimagined ways, leading them to self-scaffold and to catalyse their confidence in social interaction and self-expression. Teachers played an integral role in appropriating the design in the classroom, specifically through their in-depth knowledge of each child and their individual needs, strengths and interests. Cara Wilson, Margot Brereton, Bernd Ploderer, Laurianne Sitbon, Beth Saggers |
ASSETS | 1 |
| 2017 | Applications of satellite ocean color productsabstractIn this paper, we provide an overview of ocean color products derived from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP), which was launched on October 28, 2011. VIIRS ocean color products include normalized water-leaving radiance spectra nLw(λ) at VIIRS five spectral bands, chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), water diffuse attenuation coefficients at the wavelength of 490 nm, Kd(490), and at the domain of photosynthetically available radiation (PAR), Kd(PAR). In addition, new products of nLw(λ) at VIIRS I-band 638 nm nLw(638) and QA Score are now included. VIIRS ocean color products derived from the Multi-Sensor Level-1 to Level-2 (MSL12) ocean color data processing system are evaluated and compared routinely with in situ data from the Marine Optical Buoy (MOBY) and several AERONET-OC sites. Our evaluation results show that VIIRS has been providing high-quality global ocean color products in support of scientific research and operational applications. Some application examples using satellite ocean color data are provided. VIIRS-derived ocean color data can be used for water property monitoring and evaluation, habitat characterization, and refining stock assessments. Menghua Wang, Cara Wilson |
IGARSS | 2 |