Current Visiting Professors to the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment

Professor Norman Apsley OBE FREng

Former Chief Executive Officer, Catalyst Inc (Formerly Northern Ireland Science Park)

Norman Apsley is the former Chief Executive Officer of Catalyst Inc (Formerly Northern Ireland Science Park) with a demonstrated history of working in science and innovation coupled with the real estate industry. He is skilled in negotiation, business planning, event management, patent law, and market research. Strong business development professional with a MA, PhD focused in Physics from University of Cambridge. Norman is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and supporter of their engineering enterprise programmes at home through the Hub and abroad in association with UK's Newton and Global Challenge Research funds.

Norman chairs the Advisory Board of the Institute of Electronics, Communications and CatTechnology (ECIT) at The Queen’s University of Belfast. He is Deputy Chairman of Matrix, the Northern Ireland Science Industry strategy group, and chairs the steering board of the NI Composite Centre. He has been Vice President (Business and Innovation) of the Institute of Physics and Honorary President of the Association for Science Education in Northern Ireland. Now retired, he acts as a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment at Ulster University.

Professor Nader Azami

Chief Intelligent Systems Technologist, BT Group Director of Etisalat BT Innovation Centre

Nader Azarmi joined BT in 1989 and has since pioneered and led BT's highly successful international Intelligent Systems research and innovation programme. This programme has resulted in major scientific achievements including over 130 inventions, 450 scientific publications and 30 international and national IT awards, and has produced significant business benefits to the company, notably BT’s world-class automated work and resource management systems currently supporting over 20000 BT service engineers.

Nader has personally been awarded a number of prestigious international and national awards for his work in research and application of Artificial Intelligence technology in industry, notably the Royal Academy of Engineering medal, the IET achievement medal, INFORMS-Franz Edelman finalist medal, the British Computer Society IT medal, BT's Martlesham Medal and BT’s Alan Rudge best patent prize.

Professor Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze

Full Professor in Affective Computing and Interaction, University College London Interaction Centre (UCLIC)

Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze is a Full Professor in Affective Computing and Interaction at the University College London Interaction Centre (UCLIC).

Her research focuses on designing technology that can sense the affective state of its users and use that information to tailor the interaction process. She has pioneered the field of Affective Computing by investigating how body movement and touch behaviour can be used as means to recognize and measure the quality of the user experience.

She also studied how full-body technology and body sensory feedback can be used to modulate people’s perception of themselves and of their capabilities to improve self-efficacy and coping capabilities. Her work has been motivated by real-world applications such as physical rehabilitation (EPSRC Emo&Pain, H2020 EnTimeMent), textile design (EPSRC Digital Sensoria), education (H2020 WeDraw) and wellbeing on the industrial work floor (H2020 Human Manufacturing). She has published more than 200 papers in Affective Computing, HCI, and Pattern Recognition.

Campbell Gavin

Director of Design Engineering and Technology Development, Bombardier Aerospace Belfast

Gavin is Director of Design Engineering and Technology Development at Bombardier Aerospace Belfast. He is a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Computing and Engineering at the Ulster University and is a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and a Fellow of the Irish Academy of Engineering.

Gavin is a Management Board member at NIACE, and a Board member of the NI Advanced Engineering Competence Centre, the Irish Composites Competence Centre and the Irish Centre for Manufacturing Research.  More recently he joined the Steering Committee of the Aerospace, Aviation & Defence KTN and he is currently chairing the working group that is setting up the UK’s Aerospace Technology Institute.

For over ten years Gavin has been integrating his research activities with the Engineering Research Institute and in particular the University’s Composite Centre (ECRE). His strong interests in materials and his passion for education and in particular teaching the correct skills has led him to major roles within DEL, DETI and more recently MATRIX.

He has chaired the Advanced Manufacturing Horizon Panel of MATRIX and currently sits on the MATRIX Panel. His leadership qualities have led to the launch of a new joint Ulster-QUB £6M Northern Ireland Advanced Composites and Engineering Centre (NIACE), which was completed in January 2012.

Professor Alan Dix

Director of the Computational Foundry, Swansea University

Alan Dix is Director of the Computational Foundry at Swansea University. Previously he has spent 10 years in a mix of academic and commercial roles.

He has worked in human–computer interaction research since the mid 1980s, and is the author of one of the major international textbooks on HCI as well as of over 450 research publications from formal methods to design creativity, including some of the earliest papers in the HCI literature on topics such as privacy, mobile interaction, and gender and ethnic bias in intelligent algorithms.

Issues of space and time in user interaction have been a long term interest, from his “Myth of the Infinitely Fast Machine” in 1987, to his co-authored book, TouchIT, on physicality in a digital age, due to be published in 2019.  For ten years Alan lived on Tiree, a small Scottish island, where he engaged in a number of community research projects relating to heritage, communications, energy use and open data and organised a twice-yearly event Tiree Tech Wave that has now become peripatetic.

In 2013, Alan walked the complete periphery of Wales, over a thousand miles.  This was a personal journey, but also a research expedition, exploring the technology needs of the walker and the people along the way.   The data from this including 19,000 images, about 150,000 words of geo-tagged text, and many gigabytes of bio-data is available in the public domain as an ‘open science’ resource.  Some of the lessons from this as well as twenty years research into creativity techniques will inform this ECCE keynote.

Alan’s role at the Computational Foundry has brought him back to his homeland.  The Computational Foundry is a 30 million pound initiative to boost computational research in Wales with a strong focus on creating social and economic benefit.  Digital technology is at a bifurcation point when it could simply reinforce existing structures of industry, government and health, or could allow us to radically reimagine and transform society.  The Foundry is built on the belief that addressing human needs and human values requires and inspires the deepest forms of fundamental science.

Professor Sean Gaine

Director of International Projects, Vicomtech

Professor Gaine was educated in Dublin Institute of Technology, Trinity College Dublin, and University of the Basque Country. Seán Gaines has previously he has held the posts of Principal Researcher, Consultant to the Government of Navarre, Principal Software Engineer for Netscape Communications in Dublin, Ireland and Mountain View, California. He has been part of the launch of the Mozilla Foundation and a representative to the ISO 10646 JTC. He is a member of the Dublin City University Research Advisory Council, and has served as an invited professor at the University of the Basque Country.

Dr Rob Hardeman MBE

Former Chair of Matrix & Independent technologist

Dr Rob Hardeman was the Chair of MATRIX, the NI Science Industry Panel, and was awarded an MBE for his services to the Advanced Manufacturing, Materials and Engineering Sector in Northern Ireland. He was a Technologist (Senior Director) at Seagate and was integral in the expansion and development of the Derry facility, taking responsibility for identifying new processes and technologies. He was appointed BITCNI’s Prince’s Ambassador for Northern Ireland in 2015.

Dr Hardeman completed both is undergraduate and his PhD at the University of Cambridge. He is now a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment at Ulster University.

Professor Eric McAdams PhD

Director of the Biomedical Sensors Group

Eric McAdams received his Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering from the Department of Medical Physics, University of Leeds, He is currently the Director of the Biomedical Sensors Group, INSA Lyon, France. He is Professor with INSA Lyon has been Director of the Biomedical Sensors Group since September 2008. Eric is also a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Computing and Engineering at Ulster University. He is widely recognized as a leading specialist on the linear and nonlinear electrical properties of materials and interfaces, and on sensor/electrode design.

He has been actively involved in a range of EC concerted actions and has organized/taken part in numerous high-level, EC-sanctioned conferences/workshops on the electrical properties of electrodes and materials. He works closely with leading multinational companies and has five successful patents on various electrode/sensor devices. He is currently involved in several EC and national projects, working on the design of implantable electrode systems, biosensors, and the study of corrosion-related problems. Prof McAdams was Co-Program Chair of the 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 2007, Lyon, France, and a member of the IEEE Technical Committee on Wearable Biomedical Sensors (WBS).

Professor John McCarthy

Professor of Applied Psychology, University College Cork

John McCarthy is Professor of Applied Psychology at University College Cork, Ireland, where he leads the People and Technology Group (PAT). PAT is a collection of human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers engaged in experience-centred and participatory design of digital technology to understand and enhance people’s lived experience and to ensure their voices are heard in the design of things that matter to them.

John has worked in human-computer interaction research since the late 1980 and has authored over 100 publications including three books with Peter Wright on theoretical and methodological foundations of experience-centred HCI Design: Technology as Experience (MIT Press, 2004) and Experience-centred design (Morgan Claypool, 2010), and most recently, Taking [A]Part (MIT Press, 2014).

The most recent reflects on some design projects that they were involved with, to think about the politics and aesthetics of taking part in HCI design projects. His current research projects are concerned with further developing understanding and practice of participation in HCI. These projects focus on:
(i) The potential to develop dementia friendly research communities to do experienced centred design of technologies and services with people with dementia and their carers in order to help understand and enhance their experience and wellbeing;
(ii) The emergence of digital communities and publics as expression of civic engagement in e.g. information, support and advocacy around dementia care and sustainable energy.

Dr David McEneany MD

Lead Consultant Cardiologist, Southern Trust, Northern Ireland

Dr David McEneaney MD is lead consultant cardiologist in the Southern Trust, Northern Ireland. He is Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, Ulster University.

He is Director of Cardiovascular Research, Craigavon Area Hospital and Co-director of the Centre for Advanced Cardiovascular Research at Ulster University. Prior to his current appointments he was senior fellow in cardiac electrophysiology at Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA. His clinical and research interests include cardiac electrophysiology and implanted device therapy, cardiac and renal biomarkers, resuscitation science and the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in cardiovascular diagnosis and disease.

He has been an investigator in more than thirty clinical trials of cardiovascular therapeutic agents and devices. He has developed successful research collaborations with several biotechnology and medical device companies. He holds patents in the fields of cardiac/renal biomarkers and wireless power technology for implanted medical devices.

Professor Alison McMillan

Professor in Aerospace Technology, Wrexham Glyndwr University

Alison McMillan studied Maths and Physics BSc at University College London, and then changed track to study Mechanical Engineering MSc, specialising in Finite and Boundary Element Methods at Cranfield. Her PhD from Staffordshire University involved computational modelling of vibration and impact of laminates.

Alison is a Professor in Aerospace Technology at Wrexham Glyndwr University and is developing her research interests in computational mechanics and manufacturing simulation. Alison’s primary area of expertise is in stress and impact analysis, but she has a broad background in metallics and composites, and experience in industrial problem solving and technology transfer in design and manufacturing.  Her particular research interests include; the modelling of manufacturing processes and defects; design optimisation; nonlinear vibration; aeroelasticity; and the application of interdisciplinary knowledge. She is currently exploring the potential application of Random Graph Theory to fatigue life prediction for composite materials. She is currently a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment at Ulster University.

Professor José Miguel Sánchez Pérez PhD

Professor, Université de Toulouse, France

José earned his PhD in Hydrochemistry from the University of Strasbourg, France. He currently works in the Biogeochemical functioning of buffers zones. He studies pollutant transport in hydro systems using extensive field data and modeling. José specializes in the functioning of wetlands, riparian zones, and groundwater systems, with particular interests in the modeling of catchment-scale pollutant transport, to predict how ecosystem functions will change under various climate change scenarios.

He is a Professor at the Université de Toulouse, France and works with the French National for Scientific Research (CNRS) Institut écologie et environnement (INEE). José is also a Visiting Professor within the Faculty of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment at Ulster University.

Professor Peter Robertson

Head of School of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast

Peter Robertson is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and the Head of School of the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, Ulster University. His main research interests focus on photocatalytic technologies for treatment of waste and potable water, solar energy conversion and storage, clean synthetic technology, environmental applications of power ultrasound and assessment and rehabilitation of contaminated land and water. The other main area of research is in the development of sensor technologies to for remote environments, such as the development of in-situ multi-capability array sensors for heavy metal pollution in the marine and contaminated land environments.

Peter is a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist and Chartered Chemist, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Institute of Chemistry in Ireland and the Energy Institute. He is also an Associate Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers.

Dr Suzanne Saffie-Siebert

Founder, SiSaf Ltd

Dr Suzanne Saffie-Siebert is a scientist and entrepreneur with over 25 years of diversified pharmaceutical industry. experience. She is the founder of SiSaf Ltd and inventor of ProSilic^®, the company’s proprietary drug delivery platform technology. Suzanne’s broad experience in the pharmaceutical industry includes senior leadership positions in areas of research and development, manufacturing, clinical trial, quality control, business development and operations. Her previous positions include Director of Research at pSiMedica Ltd (spin out from QinetiQ) and Head of the Drug Delivery Centre at Dompé SpA (Italy). Suzanne is one of the pioneers of silicon based drug delivery and is inventor or co-inventor of several drug delivery patents.

She earned her PhD from the School of Pharmacy at the University of London and is Visiting Professor within the Faculty of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment at Ulster University.  She also obtained a Business in Bioscience Diploma from Oxford Brookes University Business School.

Professor Sinclair Stockman

Independent executive technology and transformation advisor, Digital Northern Ireland 2020

Sinclair Stockman has an extensive career in telecommunications and software engineering and has played a leading role in a number of ground-breaking initiatives throughout the years.

His early career encompassed early work on digital communication platforms, such as the world beating Keyboard Business trading platform, development of the very early web based applications and the development of software engineering management and quality processes and tools which led to the development of the first ISO certified environment for software development worldwide. He has been responsible for the creation of highly successful research programmes at BT’s research laboratories.

Currently Sinclair works as an independent executive technology and transformation advisor at Digital Northern Ireland 2020, working with a number of innovative web service based companies, providing executive advice and also working on a number of innovative projects with global NGOs and in developing countries. Sinclair earned his BA in Maths from Oxford University in Oxford, United Kingdom, and a PhD in Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics from Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Sinclair was a Thouron Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. Sinclair is a Visiting Professor within the Faculty of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment at Ulster University and the Non-Executive Chairman of the Connected Health Innovation Centre (CHIC).