Dr Rhys Williams

At GDI Hub, Rhys leads innovation research with the Assistive Technology Impact Fund (ATIF) and provides venture building expertise on topics such as user research and product development. He also leads curriculum delivery for Innovate Now, our early-stage AT start-up accelerator. In this role, he predominantly bridges the gap between research and practice and focuses on ways to share insights which can grow the entrepreneurial ecosystems he works with.

Rhys also holds a lectureship with the UCL School of Management, teaching product development and prototyping to MSc students. His PhD explored the prosthesis wearing experience using research in the wild techniques and ubiquitous computing technologies to understand how prostheses could be improved.

Rhys has published in disability, healthcare and HCI journals, and has been awarded a Japanese research fellowship, ACM travel scholarship and research through making award. Outside of academia, he founded a rehabilitation start-up winning the London Business School health technology challenge. He has also worked as an end-to-end UX researcher and product developer, creating products and services in the finTech, entertainment and mobility industries for clients such as RBS, Ford, Amazon and the BBC.