Post-industrial Designer: Researcher, Innovator & Educator

Currently: Innovation Manager @ Elrha

Location: ~~Melbourne, AUS~~ & ~~Paris, FR~~ & London, UK

Summary

Primary Expertise

Design Data-driven design, design thinking, human-centred design, user experience, inclusive design, rapid prototyping, design systems, and systems design.

Tools: Vector, Rastor, NURBS, Parametric, HTML, CSS etc.

Human Development Disaster risk reduction, cash and voucher assistance, climate-change adaptation, shelter, city-scale resilience, monitoring and evaluation.

Clients: Oxfam, World Vision.

Research Advisory, design research, user research/testing, pilot programming, humanitarian/development contexts, tools, and techniques.

Areas of Inquiry: Distributed ledger technologies, cash and voucher assistance, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation.

Education Course design/delivery, workshopping, and lecturing.

Institutions: RMIT, QCA.

<aside> ✉️ Email: bjorn [at] bjornrust [dot] com

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<aside> ☎️ Skype: bjorn.rust

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Professional Experience

👔 Consultant

2020 –

Innovation Manager @ Elrha: London, United Kingdom

Leading 'Skills and Capabilities Building' for the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, developing its support offer, including new tools and resources for staff, grantees and the wider humanitarian innovation community.

Additionally, managing a cohort of grantees exploring how inclusive disaster preparedness can enable inclusive humanitarian response, with a particular focus on people with disabilities and older people.

2019

👔 Research Lead @ Oxfam Australia: Melbourne, Australia

Leading research outcomes, and authoring reports for Oxfam’s UnBlocked Cash pilot while contributing to programme design and technical advisory across all aspects of the project. The research lead's role included horizon scanning, partner evaluation, designing and delivering programme design and learning workshops, refining research methodologies, coordinating stakeholder inputs, and managing monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning—all in close collaboration with leading blockchain solutions providers, most notably: ConsenSys, Sempo & Disberse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssa-ku22w0k

Vanuatu: Trial of pre-paid cash cards bodes well for disaster preparedness

Using blockchain technology to help with humanitarian assistance in the Pacific