Welcome to the Designing pARticipatory futurEs (DARE) research lab in the Information Systems Department at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Our Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research is focused on the participatory design and evaluation of emerging systems, including digital living media systems and personalized systems, for different users including children and adults with and without disabilities. We are also interested in designing inclusive and sustainable maker processes, tools, and programs for diverse communities.

We regularly collaborate with artists, activists, therapists, and special education teachers among others on a range of research projects. The projects page provides more information about our recent research and design activities and interests. For a list of publications  please see the publications page. To learn more about the the team of researchers at the DARE lab, please visit the people page. And, finally, feel free to contact us via email.