Contact the School of Computing

Professor Christopher Nugent

Head of School of Computing

Chris is the Head of School of Computing and holds the position of Professor of Biomedical Engineering.

Chris received a BEng Electronic Systems and a PhD in Biomedical Engineering both from the University of Ulster.  From 2015-2017 he was the Director of the Computer Science Research Institute at Ulster University and in 2017 he was appointed Head of the School of Computing.  He is currently serving his second term in this role.

His research interests include the development and evaluation of technologies to support pervasive healthcare within smart environments. Specifically, this has involved research in the topics of mobile based reminding solutions, activity recognition and behaviour modelling and more recently technology adoption modelling.

He has published extensively in these areas with papers spanning theoretical, clinical and biomedical engineering domains. He has been a grant holder of Research Projects funded by National, European and International funding bodies.  He is the director of the Pervasive Computing Research Centre and is also the co-Principal Investigator of the Connected Health Innovation Centre.  In 2016 he was awarded the Senior Distinguished Research Fellowship from Ulster University.

Chris has focussed on the development of impact from his research through a number of industrial partnerships in the form of Innovation Centres.  He is Principal Investigator at Ulster for the PWC Advanced Research and Engineering Centre which has a focus on digital transformation, and co-investigator for the BT Ireland Innovation Centre which is developing computational solutions in the domain of the Internet of Things and cyber security.

Since 2008 he has served as an Associate Editor for the Editorial Board of the IEEE Engineering Medicine and Biology Conference,  Healthcare Information Systems Theme and he is currently serving as a member of Ireland’s Commission on Care for Older People.

Dr Jose Santos

Deputy Head of School of Computing

Dr Ian Cleland

Research Director

My research focuses on creating innovative digital health solutions by combining wearable, pervasive, and mobile computing with data science and artificial intelligence. This work aims to transform healthcare by enabling personalised monitoring and intervention and promoting proactive care.

I have a deep interest in sensor-based activity recognition and synthetic data generation for data driven modelling. These technologies are advancing critical areas like patient monitoring, rehabilitation, and technology enabled care, with future developments aimed at making healthcare even more responsive and predictive.

I received my B.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. in Computer Science from Ulster University, where I now serve as Research Director for the School of Computing. Previously, as Postgraduate Tutor (2018–2024), I supported the academic journey of approximately 55 PhD researchers each academic year. As the lead for Human-Computer Interaction research within the Pervasive Computing Research Centre, I’m committed to advancing digital health and developing impactful technologies.

I have authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications in top health informatics forums and secured more than £20M in research funding as both Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator. Notably, I am Co-Investigator for the Connected Health Innovation Centre (CHIC Phase 2, £3.36M) and the PwC Advanced Engineering and Research Centre (ARC, £3.13M). I currently serve as Co-Chair for the International Conference on Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI2024) and Vice Chair of the Alzheimer’s Association Technology and Dementia Executive Committee.

Stephen Seeds

Technical Planning & Development Manager