Photo: Stephanie KuI am a Colombian designer and researcher doing theory and practice work at the intersection of participatory design (PD), science and technology studies (STS), human-computer interaction (HCI), and radical social change. I am a Ph.D candidate at the MIT Media Lab, advised by Prof. Azra Akšamija, Prof. Ethan Zuckerman and Prof. Eden Medina. I work jointly between the MIT Media Lab and the Future Heritage Lab at the Art, Culture and Technology program. I am currently a fellow at the Morningside Academy for Design at MIT.
I use participatory strategies to collaborate with, and support self-determination initiatives in rural contexts. Through ethnographic methods and decolonial lenses, I explore how technological infrastructure takes shape in these remote geographies. My experience allows me dynamically move from fieldwork, to design and deployment of digital and physical prototypes, to social organizing. I publish regularly at conferences such as CSCW, CHI, and PDC, and at critical outlets such as Science for the People or Tech Otherwise. I serve as editor and in leadership roles at some of these venues.
I am a co-founder of the Colombian design collective Diversa. We focus on community-based, participatory work on rural technology, education on technology co-design, and digital services offerings for managing local innovation.
I completed my Master's at the MIT Media Lab advised by Prof. Cynthia Breazeal. I did my undergraduate studies in Linguistics advised by Prof. Roberto Perry in the Linguistics Lab at the the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Previously, I have worked with the MIT D-Lab, the MIT Center for Civic Media, and the One Laptop per Child Foundation.
Please reach out at pcuellar (at) mit (dot) edu
Email ︎︎︎
Twitter ︎︎︎
LinkedIn ︎︎︎
MIT Media Lab ︎︎︎
More about my work ︎︎︎
I use participatory strategies to collaborate with, and support self-determination initiatives in rural contexts. Through ethnographic methods and decolonial lenses, I explore how technological infrastructure takes shape in these remote geographies. My experience allows me dynamically move from fieldwork, to design and deployment of digital and physical prototypes, to social organizing. I publish regularly at conferences such as CSCW, CHI, and PDC, and at critical outlets such as Science for the People or Tech Otherwise. I serve as editor and in leadership roles at some of these venues.
I am a co-founder of the Colombian design collective Diversa. We focus on community-based, participatory work on rural technology, education on technology co-design, and digital services offerings for managing local innovation.
I completed my Master's at the MIT Media Lab advised by Prof. Cynthia Breazeal. I did my undergraduate studies in Linguistics advised by Prof. Roberto Perry in the Linguistics Lab at the the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Previously, I have worked with the MIT D-Lab, the MIT Center for Civic Media, and the One Laptop per Child Foundation.
Please reach out at pcuellar (at) mit (dot) edu
Email ︎︎︎
Twitter ︎︎︎
LinkedIn ︎︎︎
MIT Media Lab ︎︎︎
More about my work ︎︎︎
Selected Works ︎ See all
Ancestral technology ︎︎︎
Using ethnographic tools and inspired by Indigenous research methods, we are building a series of case studies of artifacts made by rural collectives across multiple geographies in Colombia. Groups include farmers, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, and fisherman communities among others.
︎ 2021 - Present
MIT Media Lab | Diversa
Colombia
#PD #STS
Using ethnographic tools and inspired by Indigenous research methods, we are building a series of case studies of artifacts made by rural collectives across multiple geographies in Colombia. Groups include farmers, Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples, and fisherman communities among others.
MIT Media Lab | Diversa
Colombia
#PD #STS
The value of the “co-” ︎︎︎
In this project, we are providing systematic, multi-year analyses of how participatory experiences in technology design allocate benefits across different groups. We also provide accounts of alternative participatory projects to incentivize new practices within the Participatory Design (PD) field
︎ 2021 - Present
MIT Media Lab
Colombia
#PD #STS
In this project, we are providing systematic, multi-year analyses of how participatory experiences in technology design allocate benefits across different groups. We also provide accounts of alternative participatory projects to incentivize new practices within the Participatory Design (PD) field
︎ 2021 - Present
MIT Media Lab
Colombia
#PD #STS
Dormio︎︎︎
Dormio is a wearable device that uses biosignal tracking to detect hypnagogic sleep states. It uses this information to prompt users with information with the goal to explore the relations between sleep and creativity.
︎ 2017 - 2018
MIT Media Lab
Unites States
#HCI #UX/UI design
Dormio is a wearable device that uses biosignal tracking to detect hypnagogic sleep states. It uses this information to prompt users with information with the goal to explore the relations between sleep and creativity.
︎ 2017 - 2018
MIT Media Lab
Unites States
#HCI #UX/UI design
Retos ︎︎︎
With the Retos platform, we solve for the long-standing problem of continuity in community-based initiatives in design and engineering by providing a digital platform to document, access, and share key information on local innovation initiatives.
︎ 2018 - Present
Diversa
Colombia
#PD #HCI #UX/UI design
With the Retos platform, we solve for the long-standing problem of continuity in community-based initiatives in design and engineering by providing a digital platform to document, access, and share key information on local innovation initiatives.
︎ 2018 - Present
Diversa
Colombia
#PD #HCI #UX/UI design
Selected Publications ︎ See all
Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., Wong-Villacres, M., Badillo-Urquiola, K., Barrera Machuca, M. D., Cibrian, F. L., Ciolfi Felice, M., ... & Lemus, O. A. (2023). Para Cima y Pa’Abajo: Building Bridges Between HCI Research in Latin America and in the Global North. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems.
Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., & Salazar-Gómez, A. F. (2023). Nature-Robot Interaction. In Companion of the 2023 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction.
Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., Grisales, C., Wong-Villacrés, M., Serpa, B., Goñi, J. I., & Lemus, O. A. (2022). Reviews Gone South: A Subversive Experiment on Participatory Design Canons. In Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2022.
Palacin, V., Nelimarkka, M., Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., & Becker, C. (2020). The Design of Pseudo-Participation. Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020 - Participation(s) Otherwise - Volume 2, 40–44.
Reynolds-Cuéllar, P. & Chong Lu Ming, R. (2020). Coffee Farms as Design Labs: Manifesting Equity x Design Principles in Practice. Design Research Society Conference 2020.
Reynolds-Cuéllar, P., & Delgado Ramos, D. (2020, June). Community-based technology co-design: insights on participation, and the value of the “co”. In Proceedings of the 16th Participatory Design Conference 2020-Participation (s) Otherwise-Volume 1 .
Selected Awards ︎ See all
MIT Morningside Academy for Design Fellow
Fellow for the first cohort of the Morningside Academy of Design, 2022-2023
MIT Libraries Open Data Prize
Winner of the first Open Data awards with the Retos project
MIT DesignX
Fellow on the 2018 design innovation and entrepreneurship program DesignX
Fray Angélico Design for Social Transformation Award
Winner of the national award on design for social transformation with the Diversa project