Dr. Jamie O’Brien

Research Fellow

Biography

Before joining THINKlab I was Senior Research Associate at UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture, where I developed graph-based methods for visualizing urban community spaces. I was also CeMoRe Fellow at the Centre for Mobilities Research, Lancaster University.

My book ‘Shaping Knowledge’ (Elsevier, 2014), covers themes of knowledge representation with reference to systems design and adaptive planning. I am currently writing a follow-up book for Routledge on graph-based knowledge representation for community formations (forthcoming, 2019).

I hold an EPSRC Engineering Doctorate from The Bartlett, UCL, where my research developed and tested applications of VR in neuro-rehabilitation therapies, including models for technology innovation. I have a creative background in visual arts and critical theory and continue to be engaged in practice-based design research.

Research Interests

• Design research in the built environment
• Network analysis for decision-making
• Data modelling and knowledge representation
• Theories of space and perception

Research Projects (current and previous)

• Visualizing Community Inequalities, University College London, supported by he Leverhulme Trust, 2014-2017
• Virtual Environments for Stroke Rehabilitation, EPSRC doctorate, 2003-2007

Qualifications and Memberships

• Prof. Cert., Teaching and Learngin in Higher Education
• EPSRC Doctor of Engineering in Virtual Environments
• BA (Hons.) Fine Art and Critical Theory
• Fellow, Royal Geographical Society
• Fellow, Higher Education Academy

Publications

• O’Brien, J. R., & Griffiths, S. (2017). Relating Urban Morphologies To Movement Potentials Over Time: A diachronic study with Space Syntax of Liverpool, UK. Proceedings of the 11th Space Syntax Symposium. Instituto Superior Técnico.  
• O’ Brien, J., & Psarra, S. (2017). The dialogic city: towards a synthesis of physical and conceptual artefacts in urban community configurations. Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium. UCL.    
• O’Brien, J., Garcia Velez, L., & Austwick, M. Z. (2017). Visualizing the Impacts of Movement Infrastructures on Social Inclusion: Graph-Based Methods for Observing Community Formations in Contrasting Geographic Contexts. Social Inclusion, 5 (4), 132-146. doi:10.17645/si.v5i4.1099.
• O’Brien, J. R. (n.d.). Defining community spaces through their relational markers: an integrated urban model of conceptual and physical inter-dependencies in contrasting socio-economic contexts. Presented at: RGS-IGB Annual International Conference 2016. 
• O’Brien, J. R., Serra, M., Hudson-Smith, A., Psarra, S., Hunter, A., & Austwick, M. Z. (2016). Ensuring VGI Credibility in Urban-Community Data Generation: A Methodological Research Design. Urban Planning. doi:10.17645/up.v1i2.620.   
• O’Brien, J. R. (2014). Shaping Knowledge: Complex Social-Spatial Modelling for Adaptive Organizations (Chandos Information Professional Series). Elsevier-Chandos.