Dr Pushpi Bagchi is a visual communication designer and researcher who aims to use design as a tool to catalyse social innovation. She is a post-doctoral research associate in the new ‘Data and Design Lab’ at EFI – which is iterating and establishing participatory design-based approaches, toolkits and methods, to support the design of teams and collaborations across EFI.

She holds a PhD in Design and an MA in Graphic Design from the University of Edinburgh. She has worked in various roles in the education, creative, and third sector across Sri Lanka, India, and the United Kingdom. Her research explores participatory design, hybridity, pluriversality and transnationalism. She is particularly interested in how the nuances of cultural context create frictions that challenge notions of universality.

When Pushpi first joined the Data and Design Lab, EFI had not opened and so the Lab was hosted by the Institute for Design Informatics. Upon EFI opening for staff in 2023, Pushpi and the Data and Design Lab team moved into their permenant home – but she remains an affiliate of the institute.