📄 Curriculum Vitae

PhD researcher | silvia(dot)cazacu-bucica(at)kuleuven(dot)be | KU Leuven, Belgium
LinkedIn | Google Scholar

🎓 Education

PhD in Geography, KU Leuven, expected 2026
Thesis: “Socio-technical Entanglements of Data: Designing for Critical Literacy in Human-Data Interaction” (working title)
MSc in Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology, 2020
B+MArch in Architectural Design, ‘Ion Mincu’ University, Bucharest, 2016

📝 Publications

Cazacu, S., Panagiotidou, G., Steenberghen, T., & Vande Moere, A. (2025). Disentangling the Power Dynamics in Participatory Data Physicalisation. CHI’25.
Cazacu, S., Poncelet, S., Feitraij, E., & Vande Moere, A. (2025). The EnviroMapper Toolkit…. CHI EA.
Cazacu, S., Mulder, I., Vande Moere, A., & Steenberghen, T. (2023). Garden data ecosystem and reflective participatory design. C&T.
Cazacu, S., Hansen, N. B., & Schouten, B. (2020). Empowerment in digital civics. OzCHI.
Schouten, B. A. M., Klerks, G., & Cazacu, S. (2024). Collective empowerment for city-making. International Journal of Design, 18(2), 1.

🔬 Research Experience

Research Associate, KU Leuven (2022–2026)

Systematic review on participatory data physicalisation (Honorable Mention – CHI’25)
Led 3 deliverables in H2020 project ODECO
Cross-disciplinary collaboration in Geography & HCI

Visiting Researcher, The Open Data Institute (ODI), London (2024)

Qualitative study of ODI tool for critical data literacy
Research presentations and ODI community engagement

Research Associate, TU Eindhoven (2020–2022)

Co-edited Action Design for Urban Futures
Case study research on participatory city-making (Publications 4 & 5)

🎓 Teaching & Mentoring

Teaching assistant, Design Thinking and Making, KU Leuven (2023–2026)

Designed and led lab sessions on prototyping, 3D printing, etc.
Supported course design and materials

Student Supervision

Mentored 5 master’s students in Geography, Architecture & Digital Humanities
1 thesis led to a top-tier HCI publication (Publication 2)

🤝 Academic Service

Reviewer for ACM conferences:

Communities and Technologies
Creativity and Cognition
Designing Interactive Systems

Conference Committee

International Conference for an Inclusive Digital Society, Leuven, 2025

🛠 Skills & Tools

Technical: 3D printing, laser cutting, MaxQDA, Overleaf, Adobe, Microsoft, Miro
Research: Qualitative research, design study, ethnography, data physicalisation

🎓 Grant

Recipient of 1/15 Early Stage Researcher grants under the Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie scholarship – under the project ODECO
“Towards a Sustainable Open Data Ecosystem” (H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020, Grant #955569)

🏆 Award

Honorable Mention for “Disentangling the Power Dynamics in Participatory Data Physicalisation” CHI’25 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Awarded to top 5% of total publications