People

Her research focuses on gamified environments to help organisations understand complex systems and gamification as a new approach to improve organisational performance. Her other stream of research focuses on using gamification to improve social and environmental sustainability, especially in more deprived and impoverished communities in developing counties. She has worked with rural communities in Colombia, Indonesia, and Brazil and has recently published a book on systems thinking.

Piera’s current research focuses on the role of imagination in innovation and entrepreneurship to create new possible futures. She combines ethnographic, archival, and participatory methods with complex systems and network approaches to conduct interdisciplinary and innovative research. She has worked with technology- and innovation-driven start-ups, scale-ups and corporate ventures in the biomedical, digital, and humanoid robotics fields. For example, in the last ten years, she has been involved in the transformation of regional ecosystems driven by digital entrepreneurship and innovation, with a focus on the role of accelerators, financial support programmes and other policy initiatives in early-stage starting up in Italy and Spain. Moreover, she has expertise in the co-evolution of health technology, practices, and organization in medical devices and the wider health-tech industry, and has undertaken several collaborative projects on policymaking in the areas of science, technology, and innovation (STI), entrepreneurship and public health.

In his research, Jakov is interested in what defines and shapes relations between institutions, organisations and individuals. He investigates these questions in different institutional and empirical contexts, from higher education and business schools, to the theoretical and empirical exploration of ageing in the workplace.

Since 2021, he has been a member of the Core Team that manages a £2 million Supporting Healthy Ageing at Work (SHAW) project funded by the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge as part of the Social, Behavioural and Design Research Programme. Since 2023, he has been involved in Caring for carers: innovating for workplace health and wellbeing support project, funded by UKRI Healthy Ageing Catalyst Award. In these projects, Jakov co-ordinates activities across disciplines and sectors to conceptualise and develop digital health interventions for supporting work in mid to later life.

Sandy Louchart received the Ph.D. degree in computer science from University of Salford, Salford, U.K., in 2006. He is currently a Research Associate in Game Design at the University of Edinburgh Business School. Prior to joining the University of Edinburgh, Sandy led the development and implementation of the BSc (Hons) Immersive Systems Design (Games & VR/3D Modelling) at the Glasgow School of Art and led/co-led research projects (EPSRC, EC) focused on the theoretical and practical applications of both interactive digital narratives (IDNs) and serious games to domains related to complexity and cyber-security and the design of co-creation processes. His research interests include the design, development, and application of serious games and IDN. His work has been published internationally since 2002 in over 80 conference, journal and book publications.

Dave is a software engineer, technologist and systems thinker. He is current role is Innovation Strategist at the Global Research, Innovation and Discovery Centre (GRID) at Heriot-Watt University. His main interest is understanding and healing the “crisis of perception” at the heart of our contemporary ecological poly-crises through the philosophy, ontology and epistemology of systems thinking. He is a game and XR developer, and experienced software developer using modern microservice architectures and cloud platforms. He holds a diploma and post graduate certificate in Systems Thinking in Practice (STiP) and is studying for the MSc in STiP at the Open University

Gimhan has been using systems thinking and system dynamics both in his research since his PhD and teaching. He is a Policy Council member of the UK Chapter for System Dynamics (SD) and has experience in SD modelling and simulation. He is currently working on developing a project 'The Neglected Actors Of The Scottish Construction Industry - Co-designing Pathways Towards Net-zero With SMEs Through Participatory Systems Thinking'. He has an ambition to make it scalable to the whole UK level and focus on the entire Built Environment+Energy sector and perhaps include it as part of a large UKRI programme grant.

He uses systems thinking in his teaching in Shaping Tomorrow Together course. The students are introduced to the net-zero challenge and systems thinking and they are required to produce a systems map connecting the key elements of the net-zero challenge in the construction sector. He is passionate about using systems thinking and SD for complex problems in the built environment.

Elma holds an MEng degree (first class honours, 5-years ptychio) in Civil Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), as well as a joint PhD in Material Science-Mechanics-Civil Engineering from the Grenoble Institute of Technology (France) and in Petroleum Engineering from Heriot-Watt University (HWU), which has grounded her research in experimental mechanics, material science, and non-destructive testing. She had research contracts in France (INPG Enterprise S.A.) and afterwards in Germany (German Research Centre for Geosciences, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam) as a PDRA in the EU-GEISER Project (Geothermal Energy FP7-ENERGY-2009). During her postdoctoral training, she researched, among others, seismology and risk management. Moreover, Elma developed a keen interest in the role of public acceptability on green energy storage and extraction (e.g., deep geothermal), which inspired her to become one of the HWU Leads in Public Engagement.

Elma leads the Earth Materials and Processes for Sustainable Development (EM-π) research group at IGE. Her research team's mission is to advance knowledge of the experimental and computational mechanics of earth materials (Hard Soils and Soft Rocks, Rocks) and artificial materials that mimic nature, to achieve the NET ZERO Goals (green energy storage, sustainable cities, zero waste and circular economy). Elma’s research group is particularly interested in community engagement via informal science learning and interaction with community groups, as well as in policy, to make their research findings more accessible to the public and policymakers.