Pranjal Jain

Pranjal Jain

What is your field of research?
My research sits at the intersection of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), knowledge management, and sustainability. Specifically, I study how to capture tacit knowledge: the intuitive, hard-to-articulate expertise that skilled practitioners develop through experience, in community repair settings. I work with volunteer repair cafés across the South Wales, exploring how we can design tools that help expert repairers document their reasoning and decision-making, so this knowledge isn't lost when they leave.

How did you become interested in the field?
I've always been drawn to understanding how people actually use technology in real-world settings, especially in contexts where things don't work as expected. During my Master's in Human-Centered Design, I researched digital payments and privacy among low-income merchants in India: work that showed me how technology often fails the people it's meant to serve. That experience shaped my interest in designing with communities, not just for them. When I encountered community repair cafés, I saw a powerful example of grassroots sustainability action, and a fascinating challenge: how do you preserve expertise that experts themselves struggle to explain?

How did you come to work at Swansea University?
I joined Swansea University as a PhD researcher through the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Enhancing Human Interactions and Collaborations with Data and Intelligence Driven Systems. My research is supported by BT Labs, which initially focused on knowledge capture in telecommunications. Over time, my fieldwork shifted to community repair cafés: a context where the challenge of capturing tacit knowledge is equally pressing but more accessible for participatory research.

What do you hope to achieve with your research?
I want to help community repair initiatives become more sustainable and scalable. Repair cafés reduce e-waste and build local skills, but they struggle to retain knowledge when experienced volunteers move on. My goal is to design tools that capture repair reasoning: symptoms observed, hypotheses tested, what worked, what failed, creating a living library that future repairers can learn from. Ultimately, I hope to show that AI and technology can support human expertise rather than replace it.

What practical applications could your research have?
The most direct application is a mobile knowledge management tool for repair cafés. Experts would document their troubleshooting process; novices would learn by reviewing these reasoning traces. Beyond repair, the approach could apply to any domain where tacit knowledge matters: healthcare, craft industries, maintenance work. I'm also exploring how this research could inform right-to-repair policy by demonstrating what community-led repair can achieve when properly supported.

What is next for your research?
I'm currently running fieldwork at repair cafés in Bristol and Swansea, including public events like "Don't Bin It, Fix It! Electronics Repair with AI." Next, I plan to co-design and pilot a prototype tool with repair communities. I’m also planning to scale this work: connecting repair networks across the Global North and South, and exploring how repair expertise varies across cultures and contexts.

Career History

Leadership & Academic Service