Dr Delvin Varghese

Dr Delvin Varghese is an Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science & Mathematics. As a Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researcher, he uses Action Research (AR) and co-design methods to develop digital health, community participation, and international development technologies in partnership with local communities, government, healthcare and third-sector organisations.

His work has taken him across South America, Africa, and Asia (working with international NGOs like the Red Cross/Crescent network (IFRC), Oxfam, and Caritas) and with Indigenous communities/organisations in Australia. He joins Kingston after 6+ years at Monash University, Australia, where he was Deputy Director of Action Lab in the Faculty of IT, driving its impact-led research agenda.

His research has been funded by national research councils (NHMRC, ARC), government agencies, and philanthropic foundations. This range is reflected in a portfolio spanning humanitarian, health, and Indigenous-partnership contexts. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he led a Victorian Government-funded co-design project on digital communication strategies for young people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. He was Chief Investigator on a major national program, funded by the National Indigenous Australians Agency, delivering digital store management and health benchmarking across Indigenous-owned stores under the National Code — a significant contribution to Indigenous nutrition policy and practice. This sits alongside further Indigenous-partnered work, including Dungudbila, a co-designed digital application developed with the Menzies School of Health Research supporting the pregnancy and postnatal wellbeing of Top-End First Nations women, and a related project on food security resilience with Indigenous communities and policymakers in remote Australia. Indaba, a video-based toolkit for community-led monitoring and evaluation that grew out of his PhD research, is now promoted as the IFRC's standard participatory M&E method across its 192 country chapters.

He holds a PhD in Computer Science from Newcastle University (EPSRC Scholarship), and Masters degrees in Computer Science (Bangor University, ESF Scholarship) & Digital Civics (Newcastle University, EPSRC Scholarship).

• PhD in Computer Science (Newcastle University)
• MRes in Digital Civics (Newcastle University)
• MSc in Computer Science (Bangor University)