About me

Education

2013         Associate Professor (docent) of Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University

2009         PhD degree in Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University

2008          Dissertation defense, doctoral thesis: Online Communities and Learning for Health – The Use of Online Health Communities and Online Expertise for People with Established Bad Habits, DSV, Stockholm University

2003          PhLic degree in Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University

1995           Bachelor degree in Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University

Work

2022-now    Director of PhD studies at the Dep. of Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University

2022-now   Member of Reference group for the IT-system for digital individual study plans in the third cycle program, the Human Science Academic Area, Stockholm University

2018-now     Member of the Equality Workgroup at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm University

2012-now     Member of the Workgroup for PhD education at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm University

2010-now      Senior Lecturer (universitetslektor) at the Dep. of Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University

1994-now     Teaching, supervision and research work at DSV in the areas of IT for Health, systems theory and IT-management

2020-21         Reviewer/member of the Quality Review Group for education in the Human Science Area at SU (June-Autumn 2020 & 2021)

2018-21        Member of the Workgroup for implementation of digital individual study plans (ISPs) in the third cycle program at the university, the Human Science Academic Area, Stockholm University

2017             Tf chair of the Faculty Workgroup for PhD education, Faculty of Social Sciences, Stockholm University (from February 2017)

2015-17        Deputy Head of the Dep. of Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University (from January 1, 2015 until July 31, 2017)

2014              Head of the Information Systems (IS) unit at the Dep. of Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University (April 1 – December 31, 2014)

2011-14       Assistant Head of the Dep. of Computer and Systems Sciences, DSV, Stockholm University

2010-14        Director of PhD studies, DSV, Stockholm University (until March 31, 2014)

2004-11        Director of KTH courses (bachelor and master level) given by DSV

1994-99        Teaching systems theory and process design, as well as supervision of theses, at the commission program in IT-management for the Swedish Post, DSV

Teaching

*Spring semester*

SYSTOIT  Systems Theory, Organizations & IT, 7.5 hp, DSV (course director), from Spring 2017

YRPRA Yrkesförberedande praktik inom data- och systemvetenskap, 15 hp (course director), from Spring 2022

Supervision and review of master and bachelor theses related to eHealth

*Fall semester*

EGOV Open e-governance and e-democracy, 7.5 hp, DSV (teacher), from Autumn 2018

Supervision and review of master and bachelor theses related to eHealth

*Previous course involvement*

IDIM Inkluderande design av interaktiva miljöer, 7.5 hp, DSV (teacher), Spring 2019 – 2022

ML455C Dimensions of ICT for Development, 15 hp, DSV (examiner of eHealth), Autumn 2017

ITO IT i organisationer, 7.5 hp, DSV (teacher), Autumn 2018 – 2021

KRAV Kravhantering av IT-system, 7.5 hp, DSV (teacher), Autumn 2017 – 2021

IB940B Praktisk projektledning, 7.5 hp, DSV (teacher), Autumn 2017 – 2021

REQ Advanced Requirements Engineering of IT-systems, 7.5 hp, DSV (teacher), Autumn 2017 – 2019

MAISY Managing Systems for Organizations, People and IT, 7.5 hp (course director) – the course is replacing ITM1  Spring 2015-2016

ITM1/IV2035 Organisation, IT-system och Management, 7.5 hp, DSV (course director) – the course replaced by MAISY in 2015

SYST/IV2034 Systems Theory and IT, 7.5 hp, DSV

LUSP Leadership from a System Science Perspective, 7.5 hp, DSV (lecturer, 2013)

WEBMIN/IV2038 Web Mining inom data- och systemvetenskap, 7.5 hp, DSV (guest lecturer, 2012)

KM/IV2015 Knowledge Management, 7.5 hp, DSV (guest lecturer, 2011)

Research

Research areas over the years: community informatics, health informatics, working and learning in combination, ICT-tools for different learning approaches, learning processes, online communities and online health communities.

In late 2009, a web based stress management project took off at the department. It is an interdisciplinary research project with participants from both the area of computer and systems sciences/DSV and medicine/health. It is led by me in close cooperation with physiotherapist, Med. Dr, Associate Professor Hélène Sandmark, Ramazzini Research (prev. affiliated at DSV and Mälardalen University). The project has also been greatly supported by Prof. Jacob Palme and Gunnar Wettergren, DSV. The project aims at taking existing knowledge of stress and stress management and integrate it with knowledge of e-health communities, computer-mediated communication and collaborative learning online. The project presents its ideas regarding concept and web based design in some academic papers published in 2010-now (see publications below). A prototype of the web based stress management system has been introduced. We have also proposed extension of the web based system; prototypes of two mobile apps have been developed – one app to let users access the functions in the web based system more easily and the other to complement the system with a self-reflection tool.

2017-2020 DSV participated in the EU/Marie Sklodowska-Curie Action research project called RISEWISE with a specific concern to explore how to support women with disabilities. Together with Associate Professor Sirkku Männikkö-Barbutiu and PhD Thomas Westin, we focused on accessibility and use of ICT for women with disabilities, with the aim to help them become more included in society and increase their health and quality of life. During 2018, we participated in the Vinnova Challenge-driven innovation project called Criteria for cognitive accessibility of digital interfaces (the first stage in the process) led by Funka, a Swedish organization in the field of accessibility. Our role was primarily to ensure that the work to produce accessibility criteria adhered to sound methods.

I am a program committee member of the IARIA conferences ICDS and eTelemedicine, a member of the IARIA fellowship program and of the Editorial Boards of Int. J. on Advances in Internet Technology and Int. J. on Advances in Life Sciences, IARIA journals. I am also a program committee member of the Int. conference FedCSIS, the Int. conference on Health Informatics/Biostec (HEALTHINF), the IADIS Int. conference on e-Health, the Int. conference on ICT4 Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE) and, previously, ChileCHI. I am associate editor and reviewer for the AIS conference ECIS 2018. In 2021, I am a reviewer for the Springer journal Electronic Markets. I am also engaged as author, editor and reviewer of IGI Global publications, e.g., a member of the Editorial Review Board of the Int. J. of Reliable and Quality E-Healthcare (IJRQEH).

I supervise PhD students, since 2013 also as principal advisor; the following PhD students have passed the dissertation defense/graduated:

• Egui Zhu at the Dep of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, Karolinska Institutet: “Bridging Theory and Practice: Learning Design for AR-based Continuing Professional Development in a Primary Care Setting” (2018)
• Manoja Weerasekara at the Dep of Computer and Systems Sciences, Stockholm University: “Design of an ICT-Supported Intervention for Occupational Stress Management: Case of Sri Lankan Software Employees” (2023)

I am also engaged as a member of dissertation grading committees – so far for the following theses:

• PhD thesis “Tools for Designing Mobile Interaction with the Physical Environment in Outdoor Lessons” by Johan Eliasson at DSV (2013),
• D.Tech thesis “Supporting Loose Forms of Collaboration – Using Linked Data to Realize an Architecture for Collective Knowledge Construction” by Hannes Ebner at KTH (2014),
• PhD thesis “Do-It-Yourself Learning in Kenya: Exploring mobile technologies for merging non-formal and informal learning” by William Jobe at DSV (2014),
• PhD thesis “Human Rights Learning: The Significance of Narratives, Relationality and Uniqueness” by Rebecca Adami at Dep of Education, SU (2014) – as a suppleant,
• PhD thesis “Designing Online Courses for Individual and Collaborative Learning – A Study of a Virtual Learning Environment based in SriLanka” by Thushani Weerasinghe at DSV (2015),
• PhD thesis “The Non-Player Character: Exploring the Believability of NPC Presentation and Behavior” by Henrik Warpefelt at DSV (2016),
• PhD thesis “Modeling Organizational Dynamics: Distributions, Networks, Sequences and Mechanisms” by Hernan Mondani at Dep of Sociology, SU (2017) – as a suppleant
• PhD thesis “Distributed Intelligence-Assisted Autonomic Context-Information Management” by Hasibur Rahman at DSV (2018)
• PhD thesis “Exploring the impact of virtual patient design: medical students’ small group learning around medical error” by Luke Woodham at Karolinska Institutet (2020), also coordinator at the pre-review
• PhD thesis  ”Interweaving technology – Understanding the design and experience of interactive performances”  by Asreen Rostami at DSV (2020)
• PhD thesis “On designing educational portals for self-management of type 2 diabetes – Lessons learnt from an Iranian context” by Javad Jafari at Karolinska Institutet (2021)

Other academic assignments:

• The chair person of the dissertation defence act for PhD thesis “The Usefulness of ICT Support Systems for Thesis Courses – Learners’ Perspectives at Bachelor and Master Level” by Nam Aghaee at DSV (2015).
• A reviewer of PhD thesis “Design and evaluation of mobile learning tools to facilitate guided-informal learning in the domain of agriculture” by D.M.U.I. Dissanayake, University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka (2016),
• A reviewer at the half-time seminar of PhD student Asreen Rostami, DSV: “Interweaving Technology into Mixed-Reality Performance” (2017)
• The opponent at the licentiate seminar of PhD student Marie Olsson, DSV: “Digital learning resources for programming in higher education – a multimodal perspective” (2018)
• The DSV opponent at the pre-doc seminar of PhD student Asreen Rostami, DSV: working title “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Design Interactive & Mixed Reality Performances” (2019)
• The examiner of PhLic thesis: “Managing Capability Change in Organizations: Foundations for a Modeling Approach” by Georgios Koutsopoulos (2020)
• A reviewer at the half-time seminar of PhD student Sulakshana De Alwis, DSV: “Work-Life Boundaries in Technology Intense World of Work: Insights from Sri Lanka” (2020)
• A reviewer of the ‘senforsk’ version of PhD student Chaminda Wijesinghe, DSV: “How knowledge diffusion in University-Industry Collaboration can foster ICT innovations in Sri Lanka” (2022)
• The chair person of the dissertation defence act for PhD thesis “How knowledge diffusion in University-Industry Collaboration can foster ICT innovations in Sri Lanka” by Chaminda Wijesinghe at DSV (2022).
• The chair person of the dissertation defence act for PhD thesis “Distributed Intelligence for IoT Systems Using Edge Computing” by Ramin Firouzi at DSV (2023).

Teaching in the mandatory PhD course Research Methods II, 7.5 hp, DSV (method adviser, Autumn/Spring 2017/2018).

Publications