Microsoft Researcher Asta Roseway to Deliver Lecture for VCUart’s Qatar’s Crossing Boundaries Series

Asta Roseway, Principal Research Designer at Microsoft Research’s Urban Innovation Initiative, will be the presenter at the next edition of VCUarts Qatar’s Crossing Boundaries Lecture Series on Tuesday, 20 October, at 7.30pm. The lecture will be held online.

In her talk, Roseway will discuss the application of design for innovative solutions, and her collaborative efforts to bring researchers, engineers, chemists, and government policy makers together, to study and solve pressing global concerns faced such as urban air pollution and climate change.

Though she works as a research designer at Microsoft Research, Roseway refers to herself as a ‘Fusionist’, or someone who works between disciplines and fields, using design. Her focus lies primarily in building the next wave of emerging solutions that will help address concerns pertaining to the environment, emotional health, social consciousness, and sustainability.

In the past, she has created projects such as talking plants, interactive or smart tattoos, wearable light therapy, living architecture, air quality experience, and ecological sensing. Each of these experimentations were collaborative models designed to generate a vision of a more positive and inclusive future.

She is also a strong advocate for diversity and inclusivity across cultures, and helped establish Microsoft’s first ever Artist in Residence program. The pioneering program – an intersection between art and technology – enables artists to work with computer scientists. Some of these collaborations have been showcased at venues such as Ars Electronica, SXSW, CES, and Biofabricate in New York City.

Roseway co-founded Digigirlz, one of Microsoft’s longest running diversity programs that aims to educate and inspire high school girls about the tech industry. She is a Parsons School of Design alumni.

For over a decade, VCUarts Qatar has enhanced Qatar’s art and design scene, through its Crossing Boundaries lecture series. The series offers the public a chance to interact with and be inspired by world-class designers who – through the application of design thinking across multiple disciplines – present their perspectives for innovative solutions to global concerns.

To register, please go to this link: https://vcu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_v7JvQJcZT4qlzrS4pIe4TA