Tori Simpson
About
My work at the RCA has primarily focussed on exploring methodologies for participatory design research, leveraging my social data science and fine art background to create solutions that foster social good. As a designer and researcher, I am particularly interested in using a variety of qualitative and quantitative methods to gain a nuanced and holistic understanding of the cultural contexts I operate within. During my time at the RCA I’ve led projects in Japan, Singapore, the Philippines, and the UK. My projects centre around social innovation in various contexts, including disaster preparedness, conservation, ethical AI, and education. Outside of my studies, I manage Opportutoring Edinburgh, a not-for-profit I co-founded that offers english language education to refugee children.
My final master project, Co-cook, is a digital platform for stroke rehabilitation, consisting of an app and accompanying assistive grips, that enables stroke survivors to work with their family carers towards rehabilitation by cooking. Co-cook conceals rehabilitation into an everyday task, fostering collaboration between survivors and their carers to provide effective and engaging rehabilitation.
When stroke survivors leave the hospital, they must navigate their own long-term rehabilitation, whilst managing the changes in family dynamics and the impact on the family unit that is associated with returning home following a stroke. Co-cook first and foremost, creates an experience of collaboration between stroke survivors and their family carers. The platform takes a baseline assessment to learn about the individual’s level of disability. It then uses this information to split recipe steps between the stroke survivor and family carer, while tracking the stroke survivor’s cooking activity and suggesting adaptations as they make progress in their rehab. The platform is gamified through a set of assistive grips, integrated into the digital experience by sensors, that offer levels of adaption that can be retrofitted to almost any cooking instrument.
Co-cook takes a new, collaborative approach to upper limb and cognitive rehabilitation in stroke, integrating it into existing and functional daily tasks. This project has been developed in collaboration with The Helix Centre. Throughout the project, I’ve worked extensively with stroke survivors, family carers, clinicians, and academic experts in stroke to design a solution that is user-centred and contextually innovative.
All of my work at the RCA was kindly supported by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851.
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