Helena Webb

Contact

• workJubilee Campus
  Wollaton Road
  Nottingham
  NG8 1BB
  UK
• Helena.Webb@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

I studied Social and Political Sciences for my undergraduate degree (University of Cambridge) and my PhD (University of Nottingham) explored interactions between practitioners and patients in healthcare consultations. During these studies I gained a thorough grounding in substantive and conceptual issues connected to the social, legal, ethical and cultural implications of science, medicine and technology, and developed my own research interests in the conduct of granular analysis to observe the ongoing accomplishment of social order.

My first post-doc position was in the Work, Interaction and Technology research centre (WIT) at King's College London (KCL). WIT is an international centre of excellence in video-based field studies and in particular focuses on the ways in which artefacts, tools and technologies feature in workplace conduct and collaboration. Whilst at WIT I worked on a number of research projects on topics including optometry, obesity and robotic surgery.

In 2014 I joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. I was based in the Human Centred Computing (HCC) theme and worked as a Senior Researcher on a number of interdisciplinary projects that combined social science and computer science approaches. These included: Digital Wildfire on the spread of harmful content on social media; UnBias on the user experience of algorithm driven online platforms; ReEnTrust on mechanisms to foster user trust in algorithmic processes; RoboTIPS on developing responsible robotics for the digital economy; and Lab Hack, a novel open science initiative to address resource scarcity in STEM in the global south. Whilst working at Oxford I also became involved in various teaching activities in the Department of Computer Science. I co-convened modules on Requirements, Computers in Society, and Ethics and Responsible Innovation. I also tutored undergraduate and postgraduate student projects and dissertations, and co supervised four doctoral students in the Department.

I joined the University of Nottingham in August 2021. I will be involved in research projects that explore the social impacts of innovation, and that seek to identify effective and novel means to embed ethics and responsibility into processes of technological design, development and implementation. I will also take part in teaching in the School of Computer Science.

Expertise Summary

I am an experienced socio-technical researcher with expertise across responsible research and innovation (RRI), human-computer interaction (HCI), science and technology studies, and the sociology of technology. I am interested in the ways in which users interact with technologies in different kinds of setting and how social action both shapes and is shaped by innovation. The projects I work on typically seek to identify mechanisms for the improved design, responsible development and effective regulation of technologies. I specialise in the application of qualitative research methods and am also very interested in the ways in which detailed, granular analysis can be combined with larger scale computational work.

I have a multidisciplinary publication record (e.g., ACM CHI, TOIS, CSCW, Social Media and Society, Discourse and Communication) and have been awarded funding from ESRC, EPSRC, the University of Oxford, and the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.

Teaching Summary

At UoN I have co-convened COMP2012 Software Specification and COMP3013 Software Quality Assurance.

I also supervise students (UG and MSc dissertation and PhD) undertaking various socio-technical projects.

I teach Responsible Research and Innovation within the Horizon CDT and elsewhere.

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research Summary

Current projects include:

Trustworthy and Useful Tools for Mobile Phone Extraction

EFRESH - Effective, Responsible and Safe Research on Online Communities

Trends and Challenges for the moderation of end to end encrypted communication in Zimbabwe (2022 to 2023)

HoRRIzon/TAS RRI 1 and 2 (2022 to 2023)

Recent Publications

• INGLESANT, P, WEBB, H, TEN HOLTER, C, JIROTKA, M and PATEL, M, 2023. The Responsible Innovation of Disruptive Technologies. In: HOUSLEY, W, EDWARDS, A, BENEITO-MOTAGUT, R and FITZGERALD, R, eds., The Sage Handbook of Digital Society Sage.
• ALBURY, CHARLOTTE, TREMBLETT, MADELEINE, WEBB, HELENA, BEGH, RACHNA, BARNES, REBECCA, LAWRENCE, WENDY, WALMSLEY, NICHOLA, GROENEWALD, DEBORAH, CAUNTER, MARISE and PATEL, DIPTI, 2023. Clinician-patient communication about emergency aerial medical evacuation in case of infectious disease JOURNAL OF TRAVEL MEDICINE.
• BENFORD, STEVE, HAZZARD, ADRIAN, VEAR, CRAIG, WEBB, HELENA, CHAMBERLAIN, ALAN, GREENHALGH, CHRIS, RAMCHURN, RICHARD and MARSHALL, JOE, 2023. Five Provocations for a More Creative TAS In: Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems.
• WINGFIELD, L, ZHU, T, SALUAN, A., WEBB, H., KHAN, A. and KNIGHT, S., 2023. Clinical decision support systems used in transplantation: are they tools for success or an unnecessary gadget? A systematic review. Transplantation.

• View all publications

Past Research

Recent completed projects include:

Everything in Moderation (2022 to 2023)

Memory Machine 3 (2022 to 2023)

Explainable machine learning models for clinical decision support in kidney transplant offering (2021 to 2022)

The Ethical Black Box in Human-Robot Dialogue (2022)

• INGLESANT, P, WEBB, H, TEN HOLTER, C, JIROTKA, M and PATEL, M, 2023. The Responsible Innovation of Disruptive Technologies. In: HOUSLEY, W, EDWARDS, A, BENEITO-MOTAGUT, R and FITZGERALD, R, eds., The Sage Handbook of Digital Society Sage.
• ALBURY, CHARLOTTE, TREMBLETT, MADELEINE, WEBB, HELENA, BEGH, RACHNA, BARNES, REBECCA, LAWRENCE, WENDY, WALMSLEY, NICHOLA, GROENEWALD, DEBORAH, CAUNTER, MARISE and PATEL, DIPTI, 2023. Clinician-patient communication about emergency aerial medical evacuation in case of infectious disease JOURNAL OF TRAVEL MEDICINE.
• BENFORD, STEVE, HAZZARD, ADRIAN, VEAR, CRAIG, WEBB, HELENA, CHAMBERLAIN, ALAN, GREENHALGH, CHRIS, RAMCHURN, RICHARD and MARSHALL, JOE, 2023. Five Provocations for a More Creative TAS In: Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems.
• WINGFIELD, L, ZHU, T, SALUAN, A., WEBB, H., KHAN, A. and KNIGHT, S., 2023. Clinical decision support systems used in transplantation: are they tools for success or an unnecessary gadget? A systematic review. Transplantation.
• STAHL, B., AICARDI, C., BROOKS, L. and ET AL., 2023. Assessing Responsible Innovation Training Journal of Responsible Technology.
• ITO-JAEGER, S., LANE, G., DOWTHWAITE, L., WEBB, H., PATEL, M., RAWSTHORNE, M., PORTILLO, V., JIROTKA, M. and PEREZ VALLEJOS, E., 2023. TrustScapes: A Visualisation Tool to Capture Stakeholders’ Concerns and Recommendations About Data Protection, Algorithmic Bias, and Online Safety. International Journal of Qualitative Methods. 22, 16094069231186965.
• PISKOPANI, A.M., WEBB, H. and CALEB SOLLY, P., 2023. Using a Knowledge Café approach as a public engagement activity for raising awareness of data protection issues in robotics for health and social care. In: Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems.
• GIBSON, R., BABBAGE, C.M., WAGNER, H.G., PRICE, D.J., MARTINDALE S., CHADBORN, N.H., ITO-JAEGER, S., DARZENTAS, D.P., WEBB, H., JACOBS, R. and ATABEY, A., 2023. It’s not just for the Past but it’s for the Here and Now”: Gift-Giver Perspectives on the Memory Machine to Gift Digital Memories. In: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. 987-1001
• ZHAO, J., PATEL, M., INGLESANT, P., PORTILLO, V., WEBB, H., DOWTHWAITE, L., FIDDI, P., LEGASTELOIS, B., PEREZ VALLEJOS, E., ROVATSOS, M. and JIROTKA, M., 2023. Navigating the labyrinth of RI through a practical application—A case study in a cross-disciplinary research project Journal of Responsible Technology. 15,
• OMEIZA, DA, KOLLNIG, K, WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M and KUNZE, L, 2022. Why Not Explain? Effects of Explanations on Human Perceptions of Autonomous Driving In: Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Vehicle.
• CHARLOTTE ALBURY, HELENA WEBB, SUE ZIEBLAND, PAUL AVEYARD and LIZ STOKOE, 2022. What happens when patients say “no” to offers of referral for weight loss?-Results and recommendations from a conversation analysis of primary care interactions. Patient Education and Counseling. Vancouver. 105(3),
• OMEIZA, DA, WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M and KUNZE, L, 2021. Towards Accountability: Providing Intelligible Explanations in Autonomous Driving In: Proceedings of the 17th 2021 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Robotics and its Social Impacts.
• WIDDICKS, K, KNOWLES, B, BLAIR, G, TEN HOLTER, C, JIROTKA, M, LUCIFER, F, SAMUEL, G and WEBB, H, 2021. Anticipatory Governance in the Technology Sector: Processes, Critiques and Principles for Addressing Grand Challenges in Computing In: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts. 1-5
• WEBB, H, DUMITRU, M, VAN MARIS, A, WINKLE, K, JIROTKA, M and WINFIELD, AFT, 2021. Role-Play as Responsible Robotics: The Virtual Witness Testimony Role-Play Interview for Investigating Hazardous Human-Robot Interactions Frontiers in Robotics and AI. 8, 182
• KOLLNIG, K, BINNS, R, DEWITTE, P, VAN KLEEK, M, WANG, G, OMEIZA, D, WEBB, H and SHADBOLT, N, 2021. A fait accompli? an empirical study into the absence of consent to third-party tracking in android apps In: Proceedings of the 2021 Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security.
• WINFIELD, AFT, WINKLE, K, WEBB, H, LYNGS, U, JIROTKA, M, MACRAE, C and WOODCOCK, J, 2021. Robot Accident Investigation: a case study in Responsible Robotics. In: CAVALCANTI, A, DONGOL, B, HIERONS, R, TIMMIS, J. and WOODCOCK, J, eds., Software Engineering for Robotics Springer International.
• PRUNKL, CEA, ASHURST, C, ANDERLJUNG, M, WEBB, H, LEIKE, J and DEFOE, A, 2021. Institutionalizing ethics in AI through broader impact requirements Nature Machine Intelligence. 104-110
• LEE, G, BACON, S, BUSH, I, FORTUNATO, L, GAVAGHAN, D, LESTANG, T, MORTON, C, ROBINSON, M, ROCCA-SERRA, P, SANSONE, SA and WEBB, H, 2021. Barely sufficient practices in scientific computing Patterns. 2, 1-3
• VARGA, M, WEBB, H, KRILAVIČIUS, T and MAIDEN, M, 2021. Visualization and Visual Analytics in Knowledge Landscapes. In: SVALASTOG, AL, GAJOVIĆ, S and WEBSTER, A, eds., Navigating Digital Health Landscapes. Health, Technology and Society Palgrave-Macmillan.
• ALBURY, CHARLOTTE, POPE, CATHERINE, SHAW, SARA, GREENHALGH, TRISHA, ZIEBLAND, SUE, MARTIN, SAM, RAI, TANVI, CHISHOLM, ALISON, BARNES, REBECCA, WHITE, ASHLEY, WANAT, MARTA, SANTILLO, MARTA, BOYLAN, ANNE-MARIE, TREMBLETT, MADELINE, TONKIN-CRINE, SARAH, BOREK, ALEKSANDRA, SANDERS, RUTH, KOUTOUKIDIS, DIMITRIOS, SCRAGG, JADINE, LEE, CHARLOTTE, RUSSELL, SIABHAINN, MIKULAK, MAGDALENA, LOGAN, MARY, SPRATT, TANISHA, LIVINGSTON-BANKS, JONATHAN, MCNIVEN, ABIGALL, STEPNEY, MELISSA, TALBOT, AMELIA, CROCKER, JOANNA, POWELL, JOHN, PAPARINI, SARA, VAN DER WESTHUIZEN, HELENE-MARI, WALUMBE, JACKIE, NEWHOUSE, NICOLA, RYAN, SARA, WEBB, HELENA, MELLOR, KATIE, POTTER, CAROLINE, BUTLER, AILSA and PILBEAM, CAITLIN, 2021. Gender in the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) checklist INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR QUALITY IN HEALTH CARE. 33(4), AB123-AB123
• ANTLE, AN, FRAUENBERGER, C, LANDONI, M, FAILS, JA, JIROTKA, M, WEBB, H and TUTIYAPHUENGPRASERT, N, 2020. Emergent, Situated and Prospective Ethics for Child-Computer Interaction Research Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference: Extended Abstracts.. 54-61
• ALBURY, C, ZIEBLAND, S, WEBB, H, STOKOE, E and AVEYARD, P, 2020. Discussing weight loss opportunistically and effectively in family practice: a qualitative study of clinical interactions using conversation analysis in UK family practice Family Practice. 38(3), 321-328
• DUE, BL, VOM LEHN, D, WEBB, H, HEATH, C and TRÆRUP, J, 2020. Servicing the body: placing glasses on the client’s head at the opticians Visual Studies. 35(2-3), 109-123
• KRAEMER, MJ, LYNGS, U, WEBB, H and FLECHAIS, I, 2020. Further exploring communal technology use in smart homes: social expectations In: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI'20 Extended Abstracts). 1-7
• EDWARDS, A, WEBB, H, HOUSLEY, W, BENEITO-MONTAGUT, R, PROCTER, R and JIROTKA, M, 2020. Forecasting the governance of harmful social media communications: findings from the digital wildfire policy Delphi Policing and Society. 1-19
• BRANDÃO, M, JIROTKA, M, WEBB, H and LUFF, P, 2020. Fair navigation planning: A resource for characterizing and designing fairness in mobile robots Artificial Intelligence. 282, 103259
• WORRABER, W, GASSER, J, WEBB, H, NEUBACHER, D and URL, P, 2020. Assessing augmented reality in production: remote-assisted maintenance with HoloLens Procedia CIRP. 88, 139-144
• LYNGS, U, LUKOFF, K, SLOVAK, P, SEYMOUR, W, WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M, ZHAO, J, VAN KLEEK, M and SHADBOLT, N, 2020. ‘I Just Want to Hack Myself to Not Get Distracted’: Evaluating Design Interventions for self-Control on Facebook In: Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 1-15
• WINKLE, K, JIROTKA, M, LYNGS, U, MACRAE, C, WEBB, H and WINFIELD, AFT, 2020. "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?": Logging HRI Data for Robot Accident Investigation In: HRI’ 20: Companion of the 2020 ACM/IEEE International Conference of Human-Robert Interaction. 517-519
• ALBURY, C, HALL, A, SYED, A, ZIEBLAND, S, STOKOE, E, ROBERTS, N, WEBB, H and AVEYARD, P, 2019. Communication Practices for delivering health behaviour change conversations in primary care: a systematic review and thematic synthesis BMC Family Practice. 20, 111
• WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M, WINFIELD, AFT and WINKLE, K, 2019. Human-robot relationships and the development of responsible social robots In: HTTF 2019: Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium. 1-7
• KRAMER, M, FLECHAIS, I and WEBB, H, 2019. Exploring Communal Technology Use in the Home In: HTTF 2019: Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium. 1-8
• WEBB, H, DAVOUST, A, ROVATSOS, A, PATEL, M, KOENE, A and JIROTKA, M, 2019. A responsive engagement approach to promote the development of ‘fairer’ algorithms. In: Proceedings of the 2019 European Conference on the Impact of AI and Robotics..
• PATEL, M, WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M, DAVOUST, A, GALES, R, ROVATSOS, M and KOENE, A, 2019. Harnessing interdisciplinarity to promote the ethical design of AI systems In: Proceedings of the 2019 European Conference on the Impact of AI and Robotics..
• PROCTER, R, WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M, BURNAP, P, HOUSLEY, W, EDWARDS, A and WILLIAMS, M, 2019. A study of Cyber Hate on Twitter with Implications for Social Media Governance Strategies In: Proceedings of the Trust and Trust Online 2019 Conference.
• SCHULER SCOTT, A, GOLDSMITH, M, TEARE, H, WEBB, H and CREESE, S, 2019. Why We Trust Dynamic Consent to Deliver on Privacy. In: MENG, W, COFTA, P, JENSEN, C and GRANDISON, T, eds., Trust Management XIII. IFIPTM 2019. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology 563. Springer International.
• KOENE, A, CLIFTON, C, HATADA, Y, WEBB, H, PATEL, M, MACHADO, C, LAVIOLETTE, J, RICHARDSON, R and REISMAN, D, 2019. A governance framework for algorithmic accountability and transparency. Report prepared for the European Parliamentary Research Service Panel for the Future of Science and Technology. European Parliamentary Research Service.
• WEBB, H, NURSE, JRC, BEZUIDENHOUT, L and JIROTKA, M, 2019. Lab Hackathons to Overcome Laboratory Equipment Shortages in Africa: Opportunities and Challenges In: . Extended Abstracts of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems..
• WEBB, H, KOENE, A. and PATEL, M, 2018. Multi-stakeholder dialogue for policy recommendations on algorithmic fairness. Social Media and Society Conference. Copenhagen, Denmark: ACM..
• ALBURY, C, STOKOE, E, ZIEBLAND, S, WEBB, H and AVEYARD, P, 2018. GP delivered brief weight loss interventions: a cohort study of patient responses and subsequent actions, using conversation analysis in UK primary care. British Journal of General Practice. 68(674), e646-e653
• SIRUR, S, NURSE, JRC and WEBB, H, 2018. Are We There Yet? Understanding the Challenges Faced in Complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Multimedia Privacy and Security (MPS '18. 88-95
• WEBB, H and PATEL, M, 2018. Can Video-based Qualitative Analysis Help Us Understand User-algorithm Interaction? In: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI).
• WEBB, H, PATEL, M, ROVATSOS, M, DAVOUST, A, CEPPI, S, KOENE, A and CANO, M, 2018. “It would be pretty immoral to choose a random algorithm” Opening up algorithmic interpretability and transparency. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society. 17(2),
• KOENE, A, PEREZ VALLEJOS, E, WEBB, H, PATEL, M, CEPPI, S, JIROTKA, M and MCAULEY, D, 2017. Editorial responsibilities arising from personalization algorithms ORBIT Journal. 1(1),
• KOENE, ANSGAR, VALLEJOS, ELVIRA PEREZ, WEBB, HELENA, PATEL, MENISHA, CEPPI, SOFIA, JIROTKA, MARINA and MCAULEY, DEREK, 2017. Editorial responsibilities arising from personalization algorithms
• KOENE, ANSGAR, PEREZ, ELVIRA, CEPPI, SOFIA, ROVATSOS, MICHAEL, WEBB, HELENA, PATEL, MENISHA, JIROTKA, MARINA and LANE, GILES, 2017. Algorithmic Fairness in Online Information Mediating Systems In: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on Web Science Conference. 391-392
• WEBB, H and JIROTKA, M, 2017. Nuance, Societal Dynamics and Responsibility in Addressing Misinformation in the post truth era: Commentary on Lewandowsky, Ecker and Cook Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition. 6(4), 414-417
• HOUSLEY, W, WEBB, H, WILLIAMS, MEREDYDD, PROCTER, R, EDWARDS, A, JIROTKA, M, BURNAP, P, STAHL, BC, RANA, O and WILLIAMS, MATTHEW, 2017. Interaction and transformation on Social Media: The Case of Twitter Campaigns Social Media and Society: Special issue: Social media, Activism and Organizations. 4(1),
• HOUSLEY, W, WEBB, H, EDWARDS, A, PROCTER, R and JIROTKA, M, 2017. Membership categorisation and antagonistic Twitter formulations Discourse & Communication,. 11(6), 567-590
• WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M, STAHL, B C, HOUSELY, W, EDWARDS, A, WILLIAMS, M, PROCTOR, R, RANA, O and BURNAP, P, 2017. The ethical challenges of publishing Twitter data for research dissemination In: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on Web Science Conference.
• JACQUELINE RANDLE, JAMES METCALFE, HELENA WEBB, JENI CA LUCKETT, BRIGITTE NERLICH, NATHALIE VAUGHAN, JOEL SEGAL and KIM R HARDIE, 2014. Impact of an educational intervention upon the hand hygiene compliance of children BioMed Frontiers in infection.
• NOUH, M, NURSE, JRC, WEBB, H and GOLDSMITH, M, Cybercrime Investigators are Users Too! Understanding the Socio-Technical Challenges Faced by Law Enforcement In: Proceedings of the 2019 Workshop on Usable Security (USEC) at Network and Distributed System Security Symposium (NDSS).
• OMEIZA, D, ANJOMSHOAE, S, WEBB, H, JIRTOKA, M and KUNZE, L, From Spoken Thoughts to Automated Driving Commentary: Predicting and Explaining Intelligent Vehicles' Actions In: 33rd IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV).
• WINFIELD, A., VAN MARIS, A., WINKLE, K., JIROTKA, M., SALVINI, P., WEBB, H., SCHULER SCOTT, A., FREEMAN, J., KUNZE, L., SLOVAK, P. and THEOFANOPOULOU, N., Ethical Risk Assessment for Social Robots: Case Studies in Smart Robot Toys. In: ISABEL, M., FERREIRA, A. and OSMAN TOKHI, M., eds., Towards Trustworthy Artificial Intelligent Systems 102. Springer Science and Business Media B.V. 61-76
• VOM LEHN, D, ALLEN, P., WEBB, H., EVANS, B.J.E., BOWEN, M. and DOBZYCKI, H., Impacting communication in optometry: enhancing health-service experiences European Journal of Marketing. 56(9),
• BIBIZADEH, R.E., PROCTOR, R., GIRVAN, C., WEBB, H. and JIROTKA, M., Digitally Un/Free: the everyday impact of social media on the lives of young people. Learning, Media and Technology. 1-14