ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´

Contact

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

Biography

I am a socio-technical researcher specialising in qualitative research to understand the relationships between computing and society. I joined the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´ in August 2021. I am a member of the Responsible Digital Futures research group and also an associate member of the Mixed Reality Lab and the Cyber Security group. I work on 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 contribute to teaching in the School of Computer Science, and am currently co-convening the Software in Society undergraduate module.

Before joining the School of CS at Nottingham I studied Social and Political Sciences for my undergraduate degree (University of Cambridge). I took a Master's (ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´) in Social Research Methods and my PhD (ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´) 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. After 7 years at Oxford, I began working at the ÌÇÐÄÔ­´´.

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 external funding from ESRC, EPSRC, AHRC, NIHR 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 currently co-convene COMP3013 Software in Society

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:

- Effective, Responsible and Safe Research on Online Communities (ends winter 2025)

- Workplace Wellbeing and the Internet (ends winter 2025)

ArcAIArt - Responsible use of AI in the creation, archiving, reactivation, preservation of artworks and their archives (ends spring 2028)

Recent Publications

• LAURA WINGFIELD, KATIE WAINWRIGHT, SIMON KNIGHT and HELENA WEBB, 2025. In: Testing Software and Systems. ICTSS 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15383..
• ORITSETIMEYIN ARUEYINGHO, AISLING ANN O'KANE, PAUL MARSHALL, JONAH SYDNEY APRIOKU, HELENA WEBB and RACHAEL SHIVAM, 2025. In: DIS '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference.
• TOWERA MOYO, WAEL ALBAYAYDH, HELENA WEBB, OMER GUNES and MARINA JIROTKA, 2025. ACM Journal on Responsible Computing.
• HELENA WEBB, 2025. Ethical Practice in Qualitative Research Involving User-generated Online Content: Questions, Challenges, and Opportunities. In: HELEN BUSBY, ed., Reframing Qualitative Research Ethics Emerald Publishing Limited.

• View all publications

Past Research

Recent completed projects include:

(2024 to 2025)

(2023 to 2024)

(2022 to 2023)

1 and 2 (2022 to 2023)

(2022 to 2023)

(2022 to 2023)

(2021 to 2022)

(2022)

Future Research

Enhancing kidney organ offer decision making through use of artificial intelligence (begins autumn 2025)

• LAURA WINGFIELD, KATIE WAINWRIGHT, SIMON KNIGHT and HELENA WEBB, 2025. In: Testing Software and Systems. ICTSS 2024. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 15383..
• ORITSETIMEYIN ARUEYINGHO, AISLING ANN O'KANE, PAUL MARSHALL, JONAH SYDNEY APRIOKU, HELENA WEBB and RACHAEL SHIVAM, 2025. In: DIS '25: Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference.
• TOWERA MOYO, WAEL ALBAYAYDH, HELENA WEBB, OMER GUNES and MARINA JIROTKA, 2025. ACM Journal on Responsible Computing.
• HELENA WEBB, 2025. Ethical Practice in Qualitative Research Involving User-generated Online Content: Questions, Challenges, and Opportunities. In: HELEN BUSBY, ed., Reframing Qualitative Research Ethics Emerald Publishing Limited.
• ORITSETIMEYIN ARUEYINGHO, DAMIETE ONYEMA LAWRENCE and HELENA WEBB, 2024. In: Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '24). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 560,.
• HELENA WEBB, NICHOLAS FITZROY DALE, SAAMIYA AQEEL, ANNA-MARIA PISKOPANI, QUENTIN STAFFORD FRASER, CHRISTOS NIKOLAOU, LIZ DOWTHWAITE, DEREK MCAULEY and CHRISTOPHER HARGREAVES, 2024. In: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS '24)..
• GIOVANNI SCHIAZZA, HELENA WEBB, JEREMIE CLOS, PAT BRUNDELL and ANNEMARIE WALTER, 2024. In: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS '24)..
• VIRGINIA PORTILLO, HELENA WEBB, PETER CRAIGON, ROBIN WILTON, LIZ DOWTHWAITE and EPHRAIM LUWEMBA, 2024. In: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS '24).
• PUNTIS PALAZOLLO, HELENA WEBB and BERND STAHL, 2024. In: Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS '24).
• CHRIS HARGREAVES, FRANK BREITINGER, LIZ DOWTHWAITE, HELENA WEBB and MARK SCANLON, 2024. Forensic Science International: Digital Investigation. 51,
• NOURAH ALSHOMRAN, STEVEN FURNELL and HELENA WEBB, 2024. In: International Symposium on Human Aspects of Information Security and Assurance.
• INGLESANT, P, WEBB, H, TEN HOLTER, C, JIROTKA, M and PATEL, M, 2023. . 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. 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. Transplantation.
• STAHL, B., AICARDI, C., BROOKS, L. and ET AL., 2023. 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. 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. 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. Journal of Responsible Technology. 15,
• OMEIZA, DA, KOLLNIG, K, WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M and KUNZE, L, 2022. In: Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE Symposium on Intelligent Vehicle.
• CHARLOTTE ALBURY, HELENA WEBB, SUE ZIEBLAND, PAUL AVEYARD and LIZ STOKOE, 2022. Patient Education and Counseling. Vancouver. 105(3),
• OMEIZA, DA, WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M and KUNZE, L, 2021. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Patterns. 2, 1-3
• VARGA, M, WEBB, H, KRILAVIÄŒIUS, 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. 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. Family Practice. 38(3), 321-328
• DUE, BL, VOM LEHN, D, WEBB, H, HEATH, C and TRÆRUP, J, 2020. Visual Studies. 35(2-3), 109-123
• KRAEMER, MJ, LYNGS, U, WEBB, H and FLECHAIS, I, 2020. 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. Policing and Society. 1-19
• BRANDÃO, M, JIROTKA, M, WEBB, H and LUFF, P, 2020. Artificial Intelligence. 282, 103259
• WORRABER, W, GASSER, J, WEBB, H, NEUBACHER, D and URL, P, 2020. 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. 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. 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. BMC Family Practice. 20, 111
• WEBB, H, JIROTKA, M, WINFIELD, AFT and WINKLE, K, 2019. In: HTTF 2019: Proceedings of the Halfway to the Future Symposium. 1-7
• KRAMER, M, FLECHAIS, I and WEBB, H, 2019. 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. 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. 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. 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. European Parliamentary Research Service.
• WEBB, H, NURSE, JRC, BEZUIDENHOUT, L and JIROTKA, M, 2019. 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. British Journal of General Practice. 68(674), e646-e653
• SIRUR, S, NURSE, JRC and WEBB, H, 2018. In: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Multimedia Privacy and Security (MPS '18. 88-95
• WEBB, H and PATEL, M, 2018. 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. 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. 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. In: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on Web Science Conference. 391-392
• WEBB, H and JIROTKA, M, 2017. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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., European Journal of Marketing. 56(9),
• BIBIZADEH, R.E., PROCTOR, R., GIRVAN, C., WEBB, H. and JIROTKA, M., Learning, Media and Technology. 1-14