About
Michael Richardson
I'm a Professor in the School of Psychological Sciences and the Centre for Elite Performance and Expertise at Macquarie University, Sydney. I co-direct the MInD Lab (Movement and Interaction Dynamics Lab).
My research sits at the intersection of experimental psychology, cognitive science, and computational modelling. I study how humans perceive, act, coordinate, and make decisions — and how those processes can be understood through the lens of complex dynamical systems. My work spans interpersonal coordination and joint action, perception-action coupling, human-machine interaction, and more recently, applying machine learning and AI to understand and model human behaviour, as well as develop human-aligned AI and multi-agent systems.
I've been coding since I was a kid, and that technical skill has been central to my career — from my Master's work on VR in the 1990s, through complex systems modelling, real-time sensing, and dynamical analysis, to my current work with ML and AI. Over the years, I've built research applications, analysis pipelines, and productivity tools for myself and for colleagues across multiple institutions. I've authored or co-authored over 200 research outputs — journal publications, book chapters, and conference proceedings — and completed numerous large-scale projects funded by the NSF, NIH, Australian Research Council, and the Australian Defence Force, as well as industry partners including Google Research, Plexsys Systems, and Harvard Medical School, and funding agencies such as Autism Now and the John Templeton Foundation.
xKiwiLabs
xKiwiLabs started back in the 2000s as my studio identity for the side coding and development projects I was doing for colleagues — building research applications, data analysis tools, and custom software to help move their research forward. The "xKiwi" is a nod to my New Zealand roots (I completed my undergraduate degree and Master of Science at the University of Canterbury before heading to the US for my PhD at the University of Connecticut).
I've recently revamped xKiwiLabs as a platform for sharing my evolving use of AI tools for enhancing productivity, research, and teaching — and to help show how these tools can genuinely improve the education and research of academics and students. Everything here is free, open-source, and built in the open.
Consultancy
Over the past 20+ years, I've developed research-grade and productivity applications for academic and industry partners, consulted on the application of AI and computational methods to research and teaching, and run workshops on computational modelling, data analysis, and machine learning around the world.
If you're looking for help with integrating AI into your research or teaching workflows, building custom tools, or training your team — I'd be happy to chat.
Got an Idea?
If you have an idea for a tool, app, or piece of content you'd like me to try out, build, or write about — I'd love to hear it. I'm always looking for practical problems to solve and useful things to share.