Matt Ratto

Professor , Associate Dean Research

Phone 416-946-5415

Email: matt.ratto@utoronto.ca

Office: RL 7020

Website: https://www.criticalmaking.com/

Matt Ratto is Professor in the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto and the Bell University Labs Chair in Human Computer Interaction. His research focuses on how theories and perspectives from technoscience research can usefully extend and contextualize design and engineering practice, particularly related to emerging digital health technologies. He studies and practices ‘critical making’, work that combines humanities insights and engineering practices and has published extensively on this concept. He publishes across a wide range of disciplines including recent work on digital technology, prosthetics, and labour in the Canadian Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics (CJPO 2020) and the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics (JPO 2020), co-edited a special issue on ‘Hybrid Pedagogies’ for Digital Creativity (2019), and, based on new research, a CHI conference workshop paper on new approaches to the design of AI-powered therapeutic conversational agents (CHI 2021.) Matt is always ready to speak with students interested in the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, Human-Computer Interaction, and emerging health care technologies.

Administrative responsibilities:

Teaching Staff representative (Faculty of Information), University of Toronto Governing Council (July, 2020-July, 2023)
Faculty representative for Division II, University of Toronto Graduate Education Council (GEC)
Faculty, Book History and Print Culture Collaborative Program
Faculty, Knowledge Media Design Institute, University of Toronto

Education

Matt Ratto received his PhD from the University of California, San Diego in 2003, writing his dissertation on the social organization of the Linux development community. Following this, he completed a 2 year post-doc at the Netherlands Institute for Scientific Information (NIWI) and in 2005 helped create the Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Sciences in Amsterdam (VKS-KNAW). In 2005, he was awarded a Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO) grant to study the use of computer simulation and modeling technologies and in 2007 was given a research fellowship in the HUMlab, an innovative digital humanities laboratory located at the University of Umea, Sweden. He moved to the University of Toronto in 2008.
Selected Publications

Ratto, M (2016) Making in the Age of Geo-Engineering, ACM Interactions cover article, Sept., 2016. https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/september-october-2016/making-…

Rismani, S., Ratto, M, Van der Loos, M. (2016) Use of Activity Theory-based Need Finding for Biomedical Device Development Conference: 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Orlando, FL, 17-20 August 2016.

Qua Hiansen J, Ratto M, Mashari A, Meineri M. Low-cost 3D printing and free, open-source software to develop patient specific lumbar and thoracic spine phantoms for the training of ultrasound-guided epidural procedure [abstract]. In: American Association of Medical Colleges Information Technology in Academic Medicine Conference; 2016 June 1-3; Toronto, ON.

Qua Hiansen J, Mashari A, Ratto M, Meineri M. Low-Cost 3D-Printed Thoracic Spine Models for Thoracic Epidural Insertion Training In: Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesia 5th Annual Thoracic Anesthesia Symposium; 2016 Apr 1-2; San Diego, CA: Chicago (IL): SCA; 2016, Abstract nr TS40

Mashari A, Qua Hiansen J, Ratto M, Meineri M. 3D Printing a Variable-Difficulty, Multi-model Bronchoscopy Training System In: Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesia 5th Annual Thoracic Anesthesia Symposium; 2016 Apr 1-2; San Diego, CA: Chicago (IL): SCA; 2016, Abstract nr TS41.

coons, ginger “all-lower-case”, and Matt Ratto. (2015) “Grease Pencils and the Persistence of Individuality in Computationally Produced Custom Objects.” Design Studies.

Record, Isaac, ginger coons, Daniel Southwick, Matt Ratto “Regulating the Liberator: Prospects for the Regulation of 3D Printing”, in the Journal of Peer Production #6: (2015) Disruption and the Law, http://peerproduction.net/issues/issue-6-disruption-and-the-law/peer-rev…

Ryan Schmidt, ginger coons, Vincent Chen, Timotheius Gmeiner, and Matt Ratto. 2015. 3D- printed prosthetics for the developing world. In SIGGRAPH 2015: Studio (SIGGRAPH ’15). ACM, New York, NY, USA, , Article 21 , 1 pages. DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2785585.2792535

J. Qua Hiansen, E. Aziza, A. Mashari, M. Massimilliano, M. Metias, S. Zhou, M. Ratto. The use of an open source tool chain to develop patient specific anatomical models for fabrication on a range of capability specific D printers. In: Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering 2015; September 1 – 5, 2015; Montreal, Canada. Abstract 94.

Ratto, Matt and Megan Boler (2014) DIY Citizenship: Critical Making and Social Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ratto, Matt, Kirk Jalbert and Sara Wylie. “Critical Making as Research Program: introduction to the forum on Critical Making.” Special Forum issue on Critical Making, The Information Society 30(2). (2014) 85-95.

Wylie, Sara, Kirk Jalbert , Shannon Dosemagen & Matt Ratto “Institutions for Civic Technoscience: How Critical Making is Transforming Environmental Research,” The Information Society 30:2, (2014) 116-126.

Schmidt, Ryan and Matt Ratto. “Design-to-Fabricate: Maker Hardware Requires Maker Software.” IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications. (November 2013).

Matt Ratto

Matt Ratto

Education

Selected Publications