is a designer, developer, and educator
a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh
and a mentor at and trustee of Prewired
working on 🧒 young people's critical understanding of new technologies like ⚙️ AI through designing and 🛠️ building their own tools
📧 rayo [dot] verweij [at] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk
Recently...
Started the MEDDL project: I will be running weekly after-school design labs in two local high schools for the entire school year!
Spoke about my plans for MEDDL at the doctoral consortium of the ACM Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education conference in Madrid! Read the extended abstract.
Projects
🔗AI literacy
🤝Co-creation
🤯Theory of mind & AI
🏗️Construct-ionism
🔮Speculative design
🖱️Child-computer interaction
🎒Responsible EdTech
*Not a Venn diagram
About
I am a doctoral researcher at the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing at the School of Informatics of the University of Edinburgh. I am supervised by Prof Fiona McNeill, Dr Cara Wilson, and Dr Valentina Andries, and affiliated with the Institute for Language, Cognition, and Computation, Design Informatics, the Children, Interaction, and Design Research Cluster, and the Centre for Technomoral Futures. I also frequently collaborate with the Data Education in Schools team.
Before starting the PhD, I was the chief technology officer of Voxsio, building ethical and engaging digital health apps in partnership with NHS Grampian.
Outside of work, I am a duty mentor at Prewired, a free Edinburgh coding club for young people, as well as Acting Chair of our Board of Trustees. Among other things, I run our FIRST LEGO League programme during the school year.
I'm originally from Eindhoven, the Netherlands; daar brandt nog licht!
Paper published! Stepping Into the Black Box: Opening Up LLMs to Public Exploration Through Discursive Design, with Sarah Immel and Neel Rajani. Presented together with Sarah at ACM Designing Interactive Systems in Singapore, where we received an Honourable Mention 🥳
Running “INFERENCE INTERFERENCE”, a series of workshops at youth clubs and schools, demystifying how AI chatbots generate their responses.
Recruiting high schools in/around Edinburgh for research into AI literacy through “AI design clubs” that I will run! See the poster for details.
Spoke at the doctoral consortium of the ACM Interaction Design and Children conference in Reykjavík, Iceland! Read the extended abstract.
Ran a workshop at 7 Scottish and Dutch primary schools, asking students to design what they imagined AI at school would look like in the future. All their designs are showcased here!
Started a PhD at the new Centre for Doctoral Training in Designing Responsible Natural Language Processing at the University of Edinburgh!
Received a Digital Xtra grant to set up a FIRST LEGO League programme with two teams at Prewired, together with Rikki Guy and Athina Frantzana.
See moreless...
Hosted a workshop named Building Inclusive AI: Language, Dialect, and Diversity at the Scottish AI Summit in Glasgow.
With Voxsio, won £50K to develop the business at the Scottish EDGE pitching competition!
Joined Voxsio, a small Edinburgh start-up, working in partnership with NHS Grampian to develop a digital health intervention for young people with functional gastrointestinal disorders.
MSc Cognitive Science from the University of Edinburgh. Read my dissertation, An Online Research Environment for Behavioural Studies into Reinforcement Learning.
BA Liberal Arts and Sciences from Bard College, NY, with a major in Computer Science and a concentration in Mind, Brain, and Behaviour.
Built TacoTab, a web app for tabulating World Schools-style debating tournaments, for the Bard Debate Union—it still holds up quite well!
Writing
Teaching
In addition to my research in schools and volunteering with young people, I have a variety of teaching and tutoring experience at the University of Edinburgh.
In particular, I co-developed the course Introduction to Programming, which was introduced in 2026 for first-year Informatics undergraduates with no prior programming experience, and am teaching it together with Prof Fiona McNeill and Dr Matteo Degiacomi.
Spring 2027
Teaching Assistant, Case Studies in Design Informatics 1
Autumn 2026
Instructor, Introduction to Programming
Spring-Summer 2026
MSc Student Co-supervision with Prof Judy Robertson
Spring 2026
Teaching Assistant, System Design Project
Autumn 2025
Course Tutor, Applied Interdisciplinary Project
Autumn 2025
Coursework Marker, Case Studies in Design Informatics 1