Dr Matt Wood

Assistant Professor

School: Computer Science

I am fascinated by the complicated and messy relationships we hold with digital technologies, and work predominantly in Human Computer Interaction.

I utilise (playful) qualitative methods to examine and interrogate these relationships, and I am a contributor to Victoria Clarke and Virginia Braun’s work in Thematic Analysis and Story Completion.

Much of my published work is around Digital Sexualities, which was also the focus of my PhD Thesis (Open Lab, Newcastle University, EPSRC Centre of Doctoral Training in Digital Civics).

Most recently I have developed an interest in Citizen Centred AI.

My interest in the relationships between people and technology also extends to my artistic work as a Puppeteer (see @tatwoodpuppets on instagram), concerning the intersection of human and non-human forms and the notion of ‘giving life’ to inanimate objects.

You can find me online: @MattyTatwood

Email Matt

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Casting the Shadow for Understanding "Reasoning Ghosts", Nie, X., Shu, X., Wood, M. 13 Jul 2026, C&C '26: Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, New York, NY, United States
Early Explorations at the Intersection of Clay, AI, and Embodied Making, Waxberg, A., Wood, M. 13 Jul 2026, C&C '26: Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, New York, NY, United States, ACM
ShadowAI: Fostering Children's AI Literacy and Critical Understanding of AI Reasoning, Nie, X., Mwadime, M., Shu, X., Wood, M. 13 Jul 2026, C&C '26: Proceedings of the 2026 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, New York, NY, United States, ACM
Shadows, Doodles and Dice: Three Demos for Inter-generational Interactions around AI Literacy, Jackson, D., Carvalho, L., Imoukhuede, W., Jackson, C., Nie, X., Mwadime, M., Owen, V., Waxberg, A., Wood, M. 22 Jun 2026, IDC '26: Proceedings of the 25th Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference, New York, NY, United States
“Tell Me a Story and Make Me a Picture”: Incorporating Innovative Visual Methods in Story Completion Design, Hayfield, N., Wood, M. 21 Apr 2025, Narrative Story Completion Methodologies, Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press
Challenges and Opportunities of LLM-Based Synthetic Personae and Data in HCI, Prpa, M., Troiano, G., Wood, M., Coady, Y. 11 May 2024, CHI EA '24: Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, United States, ACM
"Are We Now Post-COVID?": Exploring Post-COVID Futures through a Gamified Story Completion Method, Troiano, G., Wood, M., Sonbudak, M., Padte, R., Harteveld, C. 28 Jun 2021, DIS 2021 - Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, ACM
"and This, Kids, Is How i Met Your Mother": Consumerist, Mundane, and Uncanny Futures with Sex Robots, Troiano, G., Wood, M., Harteveld, C. 21 Apr 2020, CHI 2020 - Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM
CODA, Gatehouse, C., Pickles, J., Wood, M. Aug 2019, In: Crime, Media, Culture
Looking heteronormatively good! Combining story completion with Bitstrips to explore understandings of sexuality and appearance, Hayfield, N., Wood, M. 2 Jan 2019, In: Qualitative Research in Psychology

PGR Supervision

Victoria Owen Working Title Start Date: 29/09/2025 End Date: 05/08/2026
William Imoukhuede Decolonising AI Design in Africa for Greater Cultural Sensitivity and Effectiveness Start Date: 29/09/2025 End Date: 05/08/2026
Allison Waxberg Exploring AI-Enhanced Ceramic Design:Collabarative Craft_Making to Foster Connection and Reduce Social Isolation Start Date: 29/09/2025
Sylvia Crow From Click to Commitment: Addressing Vulnarability and Complexity in Online Agreements with AI or Simplifying the Labyrinth: Leveraging AI to Support users in Understanding and Navigating Online Contracts Start Date: 29/09/2025 End Date: 05/08/2026
Faye Doughty Reclaiming AI-Powered Menstrual Tracking Apps: Towards Inclusive and Participatory Co-Design Practices Start Date: 23/09/2024 End Date: 05/08/2026
Yve Smith Exploring children’s visions for an AI-enabled education. Start Date: 23/09/2024 End Date: 13/11/2025
Angharad Pitty Influences of AI in Grieving Start Date: 23/09/2024 End Date: 15/01/2026
Christopher Corner Exploring AI’s Role in Intangible Heritage Through Research-through-Design in North East England Start Date: 23/09/2024 End Date: 22/07/2026
Xixiang Nie Empowering Citizen-Centred Urban AI for Inclusive and Transparent Smart Cities Start Date: 29/09/2025
Hassan Azwar AI Law and Regulations Start Date: 28/09/2025
Louise Forster Effective prevention and detection of economic crime by Companies House using artificial intelligence (‘AI’). Start Date: 29/09/2025
Bronte Rapps Heteronormativity in Language Models and its impact on queer citizens Start Date: 23/09/2024 End Date: 05/08/2026
Amy McCerery AI and Society Related Challenges – Health and Wellbeing Start Date: 23/09/2024 End Date: 03/12/2025
Maureen Mwadime From Principles to Practice: Tailoring Explainable AI (XAI) Governance for Healthcare Professionals and Consumers through Societal Values of Fairness, Privacy and Transparency Start Date: 29/09/2025 End Date: 05/08/2026
Grace Handley AI in Policing and its impact on TGNC communities Start Date: 23/09/2024 End Date: 05/08/2026