Rate My Professor Delvin Varghese

Delvin Varghese is a Senior Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction in the Department of Human Centred Computing, Faculty of Information Technology at Monash University, and a core member of the Action Lab. He also holds the position of Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Malaysia School of Information Technology, Monash University. Varghese earned his PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from Newcastle University, United Kingdom, with the thesis 'Utilising Community Voice within Organisational Processes in International Development.' He also holds an MRes in Digital Civics from Newcastle University, an MSc with Distinction in Computer Science, and a BSc Honours First Class in Computer Science from Bangor University. His research focuses on Action Research and Participatory methods, including co-design, to design, develop, and deploy web and mobile applications that support community engagement, collective action, digital health, and leverage lived experiences of communities. His PhD research produced the Indaba toolkit for community media, which has been adopted in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' monitoring and evaluation resources.

Varghese has collaborated extensively with government bodies such as the Department of Families, Fairness and Housing Victoria, and international nonprofits including the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Oxfam, and Caritas, conducting fieldwork across Asia, Africa, South America, Europe, and Australia. At Monash, he teaches FIT2081 Mobile Application Development to over 1,000 undergraduate students and FIT5032 Internet Applications Development to more than 300 postgraduate students. His contributions have earned him the 2024 Dean’s Award for Community Research, the 2024 Monash Student Association Teaching Excellence Award, the 2021 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Community Research, and two Best Paper Honorable Mention awards at ACM Designing Interactive Systems in 2022. Key publications include 'Dungudbila: Co-designing a Culturally Safe Digital Pregnancy Education App with First Nations Women in the Northern Territory' (2026), 'Diaspora Humanitarians: How Diaspora Communities Respond to Humanitarian Crises' (2025), 'Bridging the Technical Gap: A Unified Representation Framework for Voice-based Community Engagement Platforms' (2025), 'Diaspora Dynamics: Methodological Innovations in Community-Based Research for Crisis Response' (2025), and 'Adapting Co-Design for Crisis Contexts: Lessons Learned Engaging Nonprofits' (2025). His work aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals 3 (Good Health and Well-being) and 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), with current projects such as the Interactive Governance Playbook for Indigenous Corporations (2026-2028) and CSIRO Next Generation AI in Mental Health (2025-2028).