ProfessorKatina Michael

Katina has advised governments and industry worldwide on responsible innovation. Her research helps guide professionals through the complex impacts of emerging technologies in the realm of automation, AI, and digital transformation. She has been a champion of public interest technology as an emergent business model in principled innovation, incorporating social embeddedness among other design aspirations using a multi-stakeholder approach. 

Technical fields

Katina's research interests have spanned diverse technical fields from automatic identification with a particular interest in biometrics and radio-frequency identification (RFID); electronic commerce to mobile business and cloud computing; telecommunications, location-based services and wearable computing; national security, DNA data collection, intelligence, cybercrime and social media; emergency management, critical infrastructure, supply chains, internet of things (IOT), autonomous systems, and smart cities; robotics and AI; biomedical devices and implantables.

Knowledge Domains

When considering domains of knowledge, Katina’s work has concentrated on six interrelated areas: (1) systems of innovation that enable strategic choices toward digitisation, automation, augmentation, and digital transformation across local, regional, and national contexts; (2) the socio-technical design of emerging services and systems; (3) the social implications of emerging technologies, including issues of privacy, security, trust, ethics, and risk mitigation techniques; (4) international law, regulatory and soft-law approaches that support the responsible development, standardisation and flourishing of new technologies, breaches and corresponding penalties; (5) futures studies examining social, technological, and environmental trends to explore potential, probable, and preferable futures; and (6) socio-religio-cultural perspectives shaping human factors, belief systems, and mental models within communities.

Conceptual and Theoretical Approaches

Different enquiries have required different conceptual and theoretical approaches. Katina's PhD used evolutionary economic theory, in addition to the systems of innovation framework specifically for the investigation of the auto-ID industry. Shortly after joining academia full-time, Katina became very interested in human factors research as a funded emerging scholar in the Research Network for a Secure Australia (RNSA), working on aspects of risk related to the social implications of electronic surveillance in the context of national security. It was also a time of great change in emerging technologies toward IP-based services and Katina and her growing number of students began to work on diverse diffusion of innovation, social informatics and technologies acceptance studies. Socio-technical theory / design, value-sensitive design / value based design, participatory studies / co-design, privacy impact assessment / technology impact assessment / child rights impact assessment, technology policy studies, product lifecycle management, ethical legal social implications (ELSI) research, foresight planning, social imaginaries, and technological trajectories are representative of the kind of research approaches taken in funded studies over the last 25 years. 

Methodologies and Methods Employed to Conduct Research

Katina is a transdisciplinary scholar who has strengths in qualitative and quantitative research, allowing the inquiry to dictate the kind of methodologies and methods that are employed, as they relate to given theories and conceptual frameworks. Katina also emphasises the need for multi-perspectival research, pushing to go beyond the micro (households, employees, citizens) and meso layers (organisations and communities) to be inclusive of the macro layer (society, the nation, and the globe). Multi-stakeholder perspectives are crucial also as they allow a variety of actors to be identified with respect to socio-technical systems and intra-, inter- and extra-organisational contexts shedding new light on phenomena being critically analysed within ecosystems. Katina has previously employed systematic literature reviews, case studies research informed by secondary sources of data (e.g., archival data), scenario planning, vignettes, storytelling, and case law etc. Her favourite data collection methods include: semi-structured interviews, surveys, and quasi-experiments.

Communicating Outcomes

Science and technology communications was a large part of Katina's research in the United States. She had spent the majority of her research career focused on public interest issues, but it was not until being tasked with creating a Master of Science in Public Interest Technology that she came face-to-face with her long-held belief of principled innovation, an idea now trademarked by Arizona State University. Katina has published work in Magazines, Journals, Transactions, Proceedings. She has guest edited dozens of special issues and has written informed commentaries for some of the biggest publishing outlets in the world. For her, editorials are essential in setting benchmarks and shaping values within communities of readers, researchers, and practitioners. A dear friend once described Katina’s editorials as “scientific journalism,” a characterisation she regards as the highest compliment. It captures her commitment to translating complex ideas into accessible, socially meaningful narratives. This ethos also explains why her performance poetry has, at times, reached large audiences, prompting others to write music, create art, or experiment with multimedia forms. Katina has always understood that social impact extends beyond academic writing, finding expression across diverse formats that can leave enduring impressions on everyday people.