Postdoctoral Researcher
Advisor: Leah Buechley, Hand and Machine Lab
University of New Mexico, present
PhD in Creative Technology & Design
Thesis: “Biomaterials for More-Than-Human Futures”
Advisor: Mirela Alistar, Living Matter Lab
University of Colorado at Boulder, 2023
BSc in Mechanical Engineering
Thesis: “The Seedling Sanctuary”
Advisors: Jessica Kuczenski and Hohyun Lee
Santa Clara University, 2015
SELECTED Press
CU Boulder student creates clothing from kombucha
Sustainable Prototyping Practices — Spotlight: Living Matter Lab
Kombucha chic: How one student uses microbes, and time, to grow her own clothes
Intimacy between designers and materials leads to sustainability
Interview: Cooking with mycelium
ATLAS students fill in community STEM gaps through new outreach team
Eight ATLAS researchers receive Graduate School awards
ATLAS PhD students take home top Student Design Awards from TEI’21
ATLAS grad student assists Accenture Labs with development of self-cleaning textiles
SELECTED Publications
Google Scholar | ACM Digital Library
Shape-Changing Clay-Dough: Taking a Material-Oriented Approach to 3D Printing
Fiona Bell, Erin McClure, Camila Friedman-Gerlicz, Ruby Ta, and Leah Buechley. Proceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3613904.3642246
Sustainable Unmaking: Designing for Biodegradation, Decay, and Disassembly
Katherine Song, Fiona Bell, Himani Deshpande, Ilan Mandel, Tiffany Wun, Mirela Alistar, Leah Buechley, Wendy Ju, Jeeeun Kim, Eric Paulos, Samar Sabie, and Ron Wakkary. Extended Abstracts of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’24).
Bio-Digital Calendar: Attuning to Nonhuman Temporalities for Multispecies Understanding
*Best Pictorial Award
Fiona Bell, Joshua Coffie, and Mirela Alistar. Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '24). https://doi.org/10.1145/3623509.3633386
µMe: Exploring the Human Microbiome as an Intimate Material for Living Interfaces
*Honorable Mention Award
Fiona Bell, Michelle Ramsahoye, Joshua Coffie, Julia Tung, and Mirela Alistar. Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’23). https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596133
Living Bits and Radical Aminos: A Workshop on Bio-Digital Interfaces for Human-Computer Interaction
Jack Forman, Pat Pataranutaporn, Phillip Gough, Raphael Kim, Fiona Bell, Netta Ofer, Jasmine Lu, Angela Vujic, Muqing Bai, Pattie Maes, Hiroshi Ishii, and Misha Sra. In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’23). https://doi.org/10.1145/3544549.3573813
SCOBY Breastplate: Slowly Growing a Microbial Interface
*Best Pictorial Award
Fiona Bell, Derrek Chow, Hyelin Choi, and Mirela Alistar. In Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '23). https://doi.org/10.1145/3569009.3572805
ReClaym our Compost: Biodegradable Clay for Intimate Making
*Honorable Mention Award
Fiona Bell, Netta Ofer,and Mirela Alistar. In Proceedings of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22). https://doi.org/10.1145/3491102.3517711
Biomaterial Playground: Engaging with Bio-based Materiality
Fiona Bell, Netta Ofer, Hyelin Choi, Ella McQuaid, Ethan Frier, and Mirela Alistar. In Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’22). https://doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3519875
Designing with Alganyl
Fiona Bell, Latifa Al Naimi, Ella McQuaid, and Mirela Alistar. In Proceedings of the Sixteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '22). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3490149.3501308
Self-deStaining Textiles: Designing Interactive Systems with Fabric, Stains and Light
Fiona Bell, Alice Hong, Andreea Danielescu, Aditi Maheshwari, Ben Greenspan, Hiroshi Ishii, Laura Devendorf, and Mirela Alistar. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’21). https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3411764.3445155
Teaching
Graduate Teaching Assistant - ATLS 5440: Design Studio (Spring ‘22 & Spring ‘23, CU Boulder)
Instructor: Justin Gitlin (Spring ‘22), Jeffrey Harriman (Spring ‘23)
Description: In this course, students work with both faculty and industry expert mentors on developing a semester-long group project. In small teams, students learn to develop an interactive experience that combines project design and technical execution. The class is designed to reflect a real-world interactive design project experience, in which students must present and deliver a large-scale completed project for demonstration/exhibition at the end of the semester.
Graduate Teaching Assistant - ATLS 2000: The Meaning of Information Technology (Fall ‘20, CU Boulder)
Instructor: Prof. Annie Margaret
Description: Surveys the history of information technologies and modern techniques of information production, storage, transmission, and retrieval. Emphasizes understanding not only the technological transformations in interpersonal, organizational, and mass communication, but also the technological, social and political changes that underlie the movement toward a digital society.