Prof. Vali Lalioti is a pioneering designer, computer scientist and academic who helped build the first VR systems in Germany in the late 1990s before setting up a cross-cultural VR research centre in post-apartheid South Africa that explored new areas such as VR and storytelling in Township cultures. She won the Royal Television Society Judges award for her work developing the first Augmented Reality productions at the BBC and has taught innovation around the world. Her Innovation Consultancy has developed diverse projects from AR Medical books to Operatic VR. Vali’s XR and robotic designs won innovation awards and she’s been interviewed by WIRED, Dezeen, BBC Horizon and the UK press.

Vali is Professor in Creative XR and Robotics and passionate about how society and technology interact and her research across the creative continuum of XR and Robotics, collides phygital and embodied experiences in performing arts, well-being and healthy ageing, to build a more equitable and sustainable society. She has a PhD in Computer Science, an MRes in Design from Royal College of Art and an MBA, with extensive international leadership and innovation experience from Silicon Valley, Africa, China, Japan and Europe.

Vali is also Director of Programmes at the Creative Computing Institute (CCI) at the University of the Arts London (UAL), leading the Institute’s academic programme of graduate and postgraduate courses in Creative Computing and exciting new developments in Creative Robotics and Computer and Data Science and AI. She leads a diverse team of designers, artists, academics, researchers, and computer scientists promoting diversity, inclusion, and interdisciplinary creative learning principles. A Greek born she lived around the globe and currently resides in the UK.