SMARTlab was founded by Professor Lizbeth Goodman in 1992, with a vision to create an education system that values diversity, values women, values children, values wisdom and learns from the world’s most diverse people, including the elders and other knowledge-keepers.
SMARTlab specialises in developing ground-up technology solutions for people of all levels of cognitive and physical ability, from mainstream learners of all ages to ‘special’ and ‘gifted’ learners and lifelong learners in the developed and developing worlds. The aim is to transform lives through providing unlimited access to education and tools for creative expression.
“SMARTlab is about coming together to create solutions, using technology to enable connectedness for the future of education, and the future of culture and community.”
-Professor Lizbeth Goodman
SMARTlab aims to bring together the brightest minds across disciplines and to provide them with the tools they need to contribute to solving real-world problems and building sustainable solutions. SMARTlab provide world-class research and incubation space and offer a brain trust for academic staff, practice-based PhD students, Postdoctoral Researchers, transdisciplinary teams spanning the Arts, Engineering, Humanities, Social and Natural Sciences, Connected Public Health and Business Innovation domains, alongside private and public sector partners.
The SMARTlab method is intrinsically transdisciplinary, and brings together specialists from around the world. The group works collaboratively together and with practitioners and experts from relevant fields.
Research topics include: Affective Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Arts and Culture, Assistive Technologies and Inclusive Design, Bioengineering, Diversity and Inclusion, Emerging Tech and Deep Tech, Foresight and Futures, Game Design, Gender and Representation Studies, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Immersive Storytelling, Media and Performance Technologies, Robotics, Social Innovation, Sonic Arts & 360 Experience Design, Unconscious Bias and Equality, Wearables and Smart Textiles, Women’s Leadership, and XR.
Globally, SMARTlab has graduated more practice-based PhDs in interdisciplinary impact areas than any other PhD programme and has influenced Academia, Arts, Culture and Media, Economics, Education and Learning, Engineering and Architecture, Health and Wellbeing, Labour and Work, Manufacturing, Mobility and Transportation, and Public Policy.
Graduates are university presidents and esteemed chairs, technology industry leaders and heads of NGOs, as well as teachers, social entrepreneurs, and innovators.