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Andrew O'Dowd

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Andrew O'Dowd

Associate Professor

20102025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Personal profile

Dr Andrew O’Dowd's work spans Digital and Cultural Media Design, Human-Machine Interactions, UX Product Design, Digital Humanities, and Cultural & Heritage Tourism, with a focus on how emerging technologies can transform cultural experience, storytelling, and ecological awareness. He has over a decade of professional experience as a designer, researcher, and creative technologist, with academic and professional experience across the UK, Europe, and China. 

He has led and collaborated on high-profile innovation projects with prestigious partners, including the National Museum of Scotland, Hidden Door Festival, the Humble Administrator’s Garden (UNESCO World Heritage Site, Suzhou), the Suzhou Bay Digital Art Museum, and the 93 Courtyard Museum in Beijing. These partnerships demonstrate his ability to bring design, technology, and cultural practice together to create interactive, meaningful, and globally relevant experiences.

Andrew’s practice includes immersive media design, digital heritage platforms, interactive installations, AI-driven cultural tools, and museum innovation projects. He works across computation, craft, cultural analysis, and speculative design to explore how technology can support richer human and more-than-human relationships with place and environment.

As an academic, Andrew leads and teaches in creative technology, digital media, and global communication, specialising in AI-enhanced design, UX for cultural industries, creative coding, and digital innovation in the humanities. His teaching philosophy emphasises real-world collaboration, critical design thinking, and project-based learning that connects students with industry partners and contemporary global challenges.\

Across research, teaching, and practice, Andrew is committed to shaping the future of culture, technology, and society through interdisciplinary design, creative innovation, and responsible technological development.

Across research, teaching, and practice, Andrew is committed to shaping the future of culture, technology, and society through interdisciplinary design, creative innovation, and responsible technological development.

Research interests

Digital Media & Humanities

Cultural Heritage

UX Product Design

Human-Machine Interaction

Ecological Artificial Intelligence

Relational & More Than Human Design

Experience

Associate Professor, School of Cultural Technology - XJTLU - 2022 to PRESENT

Programmes Director, MA MFA Design Studies - Edinburgh Napier University - 2021 to 2022

Co-Programmes Director, MA MFA Design Studies - Edinburgh Napier University - 2019 to 2021

Teaching Fellow, Product Design - Edinburgh College of Art - 2018 to 2019

Programme Director, BDes (hons) Design and Digital Arts - Edinburgh Napier University - 2014 to 2016

Visiting Lecturer, New Media Design - Zhengzhou University of Light Industry - 2012 to 2019

Lecturer in Design - Edinburgh Napier University - 2012 to 2022

Web Editor, The Church of Scotland - Edinburgh - 2011

Managing Director, Sunpoints Wearable Healthcare - 2010 to 2012

Teaching

Art, Technology and Entertainment with Contemporary Entrepreneurship

Awards and honours

Outstanding Contribution to Library Services, 2024

Excellence in Teaching, 2024

Excellence in Syntegrative Education, 2024

Arduino Certification in Electronics and Physical Computing, 2022

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2015

Related documents

Education/Academic qualification

PhD Design, School of Fine Arts, Universidade do Porto 2017 - PRESENT

MDes Interaction Design, School of Art & Creative Industries, Edinburgh Napier University 2009 - 2010

PGCert Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, Higher Education Academy 2013 - 2015

BSc (hons) Product Design Engineering, School of Engineering, Edinburgh Napier University 2005 - 2009

NDip Electronic Engineering, Department of Engineering, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology 2001 - 2004

Research areas

  • Interaction Design
  • Heritage tourism
  • Culture
  • Global media
  • Digital Humanity
  • Experience Design
  • Design Thinking and AI in Education (AIed
  • Product Design

Keywords

  • BH Aesthetics
  • BF Psychology
  • GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography
  • L Education (General)
  • N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
  • TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)

Person Types

  • Staff

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being
  2. SDG 4 - Quality Education
    SDG 4 Quality Education
  3. SDG 5 - Gender Equality
    SDG 5 Gender Equality
  4. SDG 12 - Responsible Consumption and Production
    SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production
  5. SDG 13 - Climate Action
    SDG 13 Climate Action

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  • 5 Conference Proceeding
  • 4 Exhibition/ Event/ Festival
  • 1 Chapter
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  • 2 Organising an event e.g. a conference, workshop, …
  • 1 Invited talk