Xavier Ho is the creator of Roguelike Universe, Smoke and Fire, and other interactive data visualisations. He is a hybrid design and software practitioner-researcher appointed at Monash Art, Design and Architecture.

Prior to joining the Monash family, Xavier led the Graph Visualisation Engineering team at CSIRO designing visualisations for machine learning on networked data. He also served as an individual contributor for UX design and scientific visualisation. His most notable contribution was for trailblazing the web version of Transport Network Strategic Investment Tool (TraNSIT), which was then recommended by the Office of Northern Australia, and won the Australian Government’s Agricultural Competitiveness White Paper. (The team would go on to win a CSIRO Medal for Sir Ian McLennan Impact from Science and Engineering.)

Xavier has over seven years of industry experience in co-designing interactive data visualisation tools for research, government, businesses, and the everyday citizen. He was the lead front-end engineer on CSIRO’s early algal bloom detection tool, and CSIRO Data61’s Graincast, a grains yield forecasting platform. He is a frequent conference contributor, and he also contributes to various open source software projects.

Jump to Glide is his videography studio and consultancy, backed by his vocational cinematography education at Vancouver Film School, where he specialised in 3D visual effects. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering at Griffith University with first-class honours. While working as an engineer, he obtained his PhD in design at Design Lab, The University of Sydney through conceptualising and visualising idea networks. He possesses a multidisciplinary mindset in both practice and academic inquiry. His research interests include data visualisation, design research, game studies, and interactive computer graphics.

Xavier served as a major working committee member of Pride@CSIRO, whose work was recognised by the inaugural CSIRO Diversity and Inclusion Medal by raising awareness and making institutional changes for LGBT+ equality at CSIRO. In his personal time, he practices barebow recurve archery with his partner.