Rate My Professor Steve Benford

Steve Benford is the Dunford Professor of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham's School of Computer Science, Faculty of Science, where he co-founded the Mixed Reality Laboratory in 2000 and has served for 27 years. He currently directs the EPSRC-funded Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training and the Smart Products Beacon of Research Excellence. Previously, he held an EPSRC Dream Fellowship from 2011 to 2014, served as Visiting Researcher at Microsoft Research Cambridge, and was the first Visiting Professor at the BBC in 2012. In 2024, he was awarded a UKRI Turing AI World-Leading Researcher Fellowship, providing £6 million to explore Somabotics: Creatively Embodying Artificial Intelligence through collaborative robotic artworks that embrace, groom, dance, and play music with humans, aiming to inspire creative industries and public reflection on AI's societal role.

Benford's research specializes in augmented and mixed reality, mobile and ubiquitous computing, tangible and material computing, with applications in culture, entertainment, art, performance, games, television, museums, and amusement parks. His methodologies encompass user experience design, human-computer interaction, and ethnography, while theoretical frameworks include trajectories, uncomfortable interactions, spectator interfaces, ambiguity, and interpretation. Key publications feature the book Performing Mixed Reality (MIT Press, 2011, with Gabriella Giannachi); 'From interaction to trajectories: designing coherent journeys through user experiences' (CHI 2009); 'Creating the spectacle: Designing interactional trajectories through spectator interfaces' (ACM TOCHI 2011); and 'Automcis: souvenir generating photoware for theme parks' (CHI 2011). With over 500 publications, an h-index of 78, more than 50 ACM CHI papers (including four Best Papers and six Honorable Mentions), and 18 in ACM TOCHI, his contributions earned election to the CHI Academy in 2012 and Associate Editor role for TOCHI. He has supervised over 50 PhDs to completion—including a BCS Distinguished Dissertation Award winner, with four now professors—and trained 150+ via Horizon CDT. His work underpins three REF case studies, fostering global tours engaging hundreds of thousands, industry partnerships, and awards like the Prix Ars Electronica Golden Nica.