Lauren Thu is a designer and researcher living on the unceded traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, otherwise known as Vancouver, B.C., Canada.
Her research concerns methodological and material practices for designing with more-than-humans, specifically in how place is reflected in designed materials. She is particularly interested in how place-based sensing technologies may mediate oceanic constituencies.
Publications
Please see my Google Scholar profile or my ACM Digital Library profile for updated conference publications.
[2026] Growing Bio-HCI at CHI: Exchanging Materials, Tools, Practices, and Artifacts (upcoming)
Fiona Bell, Jingwen Zhu, Nadia Campo Woytuk, Fernanda Soares da Costa, Lauren Thu, Qiuyu Lu, Katherine W. Song, Phillip Gough, Cindy Hsin-Liu Kao, Marion Koelle, Valentina Nisi, Ron Wakkary. Workshop. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. In Press.
[2025] Designing-With and Situating Biomaterials
Lauren Thu and Ron Wakkary. In Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 187, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706599.3720039
[2025] Designing Ocean Futures Literacies: Reimagining the shoreline cleanup as a tool for ‘amphibious thinking’
Gillian Russell, Lauren Thu, Jihyun Park, Katherine Reilly. Workshop. In Companion Publication of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 20–22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715668.3734161
[2025] Situated Design and False Creek Futures: Relationality, Engagement and Creativity in Eco-social Information Systems.
Katherine Reilly, Gillian Russell, Lauren Thu, Jihyun Park. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 944–958. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715336.3735835
[2021] U+ZINE 7, “Clothes”, Plurality University Network
[2021] U+ZINE 4, “Food”, (with Zara Huntley as Studio Peal), Plurality University Network
[2021] CriticALL!: (Un)professional Everyday Design Criticism, Onomatopee 186, Joannette van der Veer
Education
[2025 – 2030] Doctor of Philosophy
Supervisor: Ron Wakkary, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University
[2023 – 2025] Master of Arts
Sites of Practice: An emergent approach for more-than-human designing
Supervisor: Ron Wakkary, School of Interactive Arts and Technology, Simon Fraser University
[2017 – 2021] Bachelor of Design
Major: Industrial Design, Minor: Curatorial Practice, Emily Carr University of Art and Design
[2009] Certificate in Motion Picture Production
Capilano University
Employment
[2025] Lab Manager
Organic Materials Fabrication Lab, SFU
[2025] Non-Regular Faculty
DHIS400: Design Futures, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
[2021 – present] Research Assistant
Turner Boxes & Wi-Fi-No-Wi-Fi; Everyday Design Studio, SFU
Ocean Futures & Fables for Imagining; Imaginative Methods Lab, SFU
[2024] Teaching Assistant
IAT431: Speculative Design, Simon Fraser University
[2023 – 2024] Seminar Leader
SOCS202: Ecological Perspectives in Design, Emily Carr University of Art + Design
Check my linkedin profile for further employment details.
Presentations, Residencies (and other places I’ve shown up)
[2026] Workshop Facilitator, CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Barcelona SP (upcoming)
[2025] Workshop Facilitator, Imaginative Methods Summer School, Vancouver BC
[2025] Workshop Facilitator, DIS conference on Designing Interactive Systems, Funchal, PT
[2025] Presenter, CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Tokyo JP
[2024] Visiting Resident, De Proef, Frederiksoord NL
[2022] Mentee, Experimental Realism
[2022] Contributing Artist, On Walking: rhythm, repetition, movement, (group show with the Roving Designers Collective), OCAD Graduate Gallery, Toronto ON
[2021] Panelist, Hirudinea lampyris: Using Counterfactual Narratives to Imagine Alternate Futures, PIVOT Virtual Conference
[2020] Resident, ECUAD DESIS Lab x Shumka Centre for Creative Entrepreneurship – Satellite Summer Residency, Vancouver BC
[2020] Contributing Author, CriticALL! (group show), Onomatopee Projects, Eindhoven NL
[2019] Contributing Artist, Interactive Wearables (group show), Diffuser Gallery, Vancouver BC
[2016] Contributing Artist, Art Waste ~ Strange Magic (group show), Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver BC
Awards
[2025] Bert Henry Entrance Scholarship
[2025] SFU PhD Research Scholarship
[2024, 2025] SFU Travel and Research Award
[2023, 2024, 2025] SFU Graduate Fellowship Award
[2024] Tom Calvert Graduate Scholarship
[2021] ECUAD DESIS Radical Sustainability Award
[2021] John C. Kerr Chancellor Emeritus Award for Excellence in Design
[2020] Onomatopee Publishing – CriticALL! design criticism open call – Third Place
[2020] Recipient of the BC Arts Council Scholarship
[2020] Simon Chang Award
[2020] Christopher Foundation Scholarship
[2019] Recipient of the Ian Gillespie Design Scholarship
[2018] Recipient of the BC Arts Council Scholarship
[2018] Recipient of the Emily Carr University Achievement Scholarship
[2018] Recipient of the Faculty of Culture and Community’s Micro-Grant
Extracurricular
[ongoing] Peer Reviewer for CHI, DIS, NORDES, TEI, HTTF, and DRS.
[2026] Special Recognition for Outstanding Review – CHI Papers
[2025] Special Recognition for Outstanding Review – DIS Pictorials
Lauren Thu 