2003-06 Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Florence, Italy

1996-01 Laurea (equivalent to B.Sc. + M.Sc.) in Communication Sciences, University of Siena, Italy

2018 Fellowship (FHEA), UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching in higher education.Higher Education Academy, UK

Elisa Rubegni ha sviluppato un’intensa e interdisciplinare attività di ricerca incentrata sulle dimensioni etiche, culturali ed educative delle tecnologie digitali. Il suo lavoro esplora come intelligenza artificiale, realtà estesa e piattaforme digitali influenzino l’identità, l’inclusione e la giustizia sociale, con particolare attenzione ai bambini e alle comunità vulnerabili.

Il suo principale ambito di ricerca è l’interazione uomo–macchina (HCI) e l’interazione bambino–computer, con un interesse specifico per il modo in cui la tecnologia modella le esperienze e i processi educativi.

I temi centrali della sua ricerca includono l’alfabetizzazione all’intelligenza artificiale e i bias algoritmici, il design partecipativo per l’innovazione responsabile e l’inclusione digitale nell’educazione. Studia come le piattaforme digitali e i sistemi di intelligenza artificiale influenzino le narrazioni culturali, la costruzione dell’identità e la giustizia sociale.

Negli ultimi anni, il suo lavoro si è concentrato sull’equità algoritmica e sull’alfabetizzazione all’IA, esplorando come i metodi partecipativi e basati sul design possano promuovere un’innovazione tecnologica più responsabile e inclusiva.

È direttrice del gruppo di ricerca Technology Innovation Community and Children (TICTAC) presso la Lancaster University. Le sue collaborazioni con Microsoft Research, META e la Micro:bit Educational Foundation testimoniano il suo impegno nel creare ponti tra ricerca, educazione e industria per uno sviluppo tecnologico inclusivo.

Le ricerche della Prof.ssa Rubegni contribuiscono al dibattito internazionale su etica dell’intelligenza artificiale, giustizia algoritmica e empowerment digitale, combinando studi empirici con approcci partecipativi e basati sul design per promuovere una tecnologia socialmente responsabile.

Riviste (selezionate):

1. Gail Collyer-Hoar and Elisa Rubegni. 2025. "Won't somebody please (actually) think of the children?" AI Ethics for Children: A Scoping Review. ACM J. Responsib. Comput. Just Accepted (June 2025). https://doi.org/10.1145/3745031
2. Malinverni, L., Rubegni E. Schaper, M., Reflective AI Literacy through Speculative Fiction: A Framework for Scaffolding Children’s Critical Reflection on Intelligent Technologies, (2025) International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction. (6.8 CS) Volume 43, 2025, 100727, ISSN 2212-8689, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2025.100727.
3. Rubegni, E., Landoni, M., Malinverni, L., & Jaccheri, L. (2022). Raising Awareness of Stereotyping Through Collaborative Digital Storytelling: Design for Change with and for Children. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2021.102727 IF = 4.8, 157, 102727.
4. Rubegni, E., Dore, R., Landoni, M., Kan, L., 2021. “The girl who wants to fly”: Exploring the role of digital technology in enhancing dialogic reading. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction: 100239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2020.100239
5. Rubegni, E., Gentile, V., Malizia, A., Sorce, S., Kargas, N. Child Child–display interaction: Lessons learned on touchless avatar-based large display interfaces. Pers Ubiquit Comput (2020) (IF = 3) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-020-01451-x

Conferenze (selezionate):

1. Gail Collyer-Hoar, Elisa Rubegni, Bernard Tomczyk, Alexander Baines, and Lidia Gruia. 2025. “Suits as Masculine and Flowers as Feminine”: Investigating Gender Expression in AI-Generated Imagery. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’25), July 5–9, 2025, Funchal, Portugal. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 14 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3715336.3735749
2. Gail Collyer-Hoar, Aurora Castellani, Lala Guluzade, Ben Tomczyk, Hania Bilal, and Elisa Rubegni. 2025. Experts Unite, Kids Delight: Co-Designing an Inclusive AI Literacy Educational Tool for Children. Proceedings of the 24th Interaction Design and Children. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 852–857. https://doi.org/10.1145/3713043.3731495
3. Jesse Josua Benjamin, Joseph Lindley, Elizabeth Edwards, Elisa Rubegni, Tim Korjakow, David Grist, and Rhiannon Sharkey. 2024. Responding to Generative AI Technologies with Research-through-Design: The Ryelands AI Lab as an Exploratory Study. In Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1823–1841. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3660677
4. Gail Collyer-hoar, Elisa Rubegni, Laura Malinverni, and Jason C. Yip. 2024. “It’s kind of weird talking to a sphere”: Exploring Children’s Hopes and Fears on Social Robot Morphology Using Speculative Research Methods. In Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’24), July 01–05, 2024, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 13 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3643834.3661526
5. Lorraine Underwood, Thomas Ball, Steve Hodges, Elisa Rubegni, Peli de Halleux, and Joe Finney. 2024. MicroCode: live, portable programming for children via robotics. In Adjunct Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST Adjunct '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 81, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1145/3672539.3686334
6. Lorraine Underwood, Joe Finney, Elisa Rubegni, and Steve Hodges. 2024. Tangible tools for data science education. In Proceedings of the 19th WiPSCE Conference on Primary and Secondary Computing Education Research (WiPSCE '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 39, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.1145/3677619.3678134

2024 ACM DIS 2024 Best paper Award, (Top 3% of Submissions), July 2024

2022 ACM IDC 2022 Best paper Award, (Top 3% of Submissions), June 2022

2020 ACM IDC 2020 Award for the “Excellence for the service” by ACM as ACM IDC general chair

2013 ACM SIG CHI 2013 Best Paper Honorable Mention Award (Top 5% of Submissions), May 2013

Comitato editoriale di riviste: British Educational Research Association (BERA) journal: British Journal of Educational Technology, Impact Factor: 6.7

Comitato editoriale di riviste: International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, ISSN: 2212-8689 (Citation Score: 7.1)

Membro del comitato direttivo esecutivo: ACM IDC, conference on Interaction Design and Children

Membro del comitato direttivo esecutivo: FabLearn Europe, conference on Computing, Design and Making in Education

Program Chair: ACM TEI 26, conference on Tangible Embedded Interface

Technical chair: ACM IDC 26, conference on Interaction Design and Children

Associate chair: ACM SIGCHI, 2016-present, leading international conference on Human-Computer Interaction

General chair: ACM IDC 2020, conference on Interaction Design and Children

General chair: ACM FabLearn Europe 2020

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Chair: ACM IDC 2021-Present

Long and short paper chair: ACM IDC 2018-2019

Revisore per riviste: IEEE Pervasive Computing journal (IF=1.6), Interacting with Computers (IF=2.1), International Journal of The International Journal of Human-Computer Studies (IF=4.8)

Revisore per conferenze: ACM INTERACT (2013-21), ISEUD 2021, ACM IDC (2009-22), ACM SIGCHI (2009-present), ACMTEI International conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction(2014-23), ECCE conference of the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics (2006-15), Ubicomp (2013), MUM International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (2012), Mobile HCI (2013), IEEE IPCC International Professional Communication Conference (2010), CSCW Computer Supported Cooperative Work (2009-17).