People within Intelligent Systems Research Centre

Professor Liam McDaid

Interim Research Director

Professor Joan Condell

Professor of Intelligent Technologies

Professor Condell is based in the Intelligent Systems Research Centre at Ulster University. She is a senior fellow of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Practice at Ulster and a fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She was awarded a Distinguished Teaching and Learning Fellowship in 2011, regularly has External Examiner positions in UK and Ireland in teaching and research and is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy Engineering committee. She regularly sits on funding review panels for the UK Research Councils, the Irish Research Council, Innovate UK and UK Research and Innovation. She manages a team of PhD researchers and Research Associates.

Professor Joan Condell has published over 250 papers and actively secured grants from external sources with a total project value over £56M. She is principal and co-investigator on multiple EU, national and regional projects. Her research areas include digital intelligent and imaging technologies in security, wearables, energy and associated application areas. Professor Condell has patents filed in UK and US; and has completed trials with key industrial players in security product and wearables technologies; she has won Innovation and Enterprise awards for commercialisation work, for creativity and bio-entrepreneurship.

Professor Kongfatt Wong-Lin

Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Machine Intelligence

Professor KongFatt Wong-Lin is based at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) within the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Ulster University (UU).

His research interests lie at the interface of computational modelling and mathematical analysis of systems and cognitive neuroscience, cognitive psychology, brain disorders, neural computation and engineering, artificial intelligence and data science.

Professor Wong-Lin is a member of the UK EPSRC Peer Review College and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy. In 2017, he received the Moore Institute Visiting Research Fellowship at the University of Galway, and in 2020, a Visiting Fellowship at University College for Trinity, University of Oxford.

He also received UU’s Distinguished Research Fellowship Award in 2016, and UU’s Research Excellence Award in 2019. In 2021, he founded the international ISRC Computational Neuroscience, Neurotechnology and Neuro-inspired AI School.

Before joining UU, Professor Wong-Lin was a research associate at Princeton University in The Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, and affiliated with the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind and Behavior, and Princeton Neuroscience Institute. Prior to that, he received his Ph.D. in Physics with focus on Computational Neuroscience at Brandeis University, USA, with affiliation to the Volen National Center for Complex Systems. He received his undergraduate and (accelerated) M.Sc. degrees in Physics at the National University of Singapore.

Dr Bryan Gardiner

Deputy Head of the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems

Dr Bryan Gardiner received a first class honours degree in Electronics and Computer Systems in 2006, and a Ph.D. degree from Ulster University in 2010. Bryan is a Reader in Computer Science and Associate Head of the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems at Ulster. A fellow of the HEA, he is also the Research Lead for the Intelligent Data Analytics team within the Intelligent Systems Research Centre.

His research interests are primarily in Data Analytics, with a keen focus on Computer Vision. His research is currently supported by funding from MRC, HSCNI and Interreg NWE. He has undertaken a number of technology commercialisation and knowledge exchange projects funded via Innovate UK, Invest NI and InterTradeIreland.

Bryan is a member of the IEEE UKRI society, IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS), Irish Pattern Recognition & Classification Society (IPRCS), International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR), British Machine Vision Association (BMVA), and affiliate member of IEEE Computational Imaging Special Interest Group.

A Guest Editor of MDPI Remote Sensing Journal, he is also a member of a number of Programme Committees, such as: the International Conference on Image Processing Theory, Tools and Applications; the Artificial Intelligence & Cognitive Systems conference; the Irish Machine Vision Image Processing Conference, and has served as a reviewer for several international conferences and journals.

Dr Dermot Kerr

Reader

Dermot Kerr joined the Computer Science Research Institute and School of Computing and Intelligent Systems in 2015. He is a member of the Cognitive Robotics research group within the Intelligent Systems Research Centre. Dermot's research and teaching interests are in the areas of visual neuroscience, biologically inspired image processing, mathematical image processing, feature detection, omni-directional vision and robotics. He teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Dermot received a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computing Science from Ulster University, UK in 2005, and a Ph.D. in Computing and Engineering from Ulster University, UK in 2008. He was appointed as a research associate within the Intelligent Systems Research Centre working on the Leverhulme Trust funded "Robot Identification" project and the "Biologically Inspired Processing" project before being appointed research fellow.

Dermot  is an officer of the Irish Pattern Recognition and Classification Society,  Co-I on the EU FP7 funded project VISUALISE and a member of the EPSRC ViiHM Network for Biological and Computer Vision.

Dr Cian O'Donnell

Senior Lecturer in Data Analytics

Dr Shaun McFadden

Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Dr Shaun McFadden is a Senior lecturer in Mechanical Engineering within the School of Computing, Engineering, and Intelligent Systems. Shaun is the current courses co-coordinator for all of the undergraduate Engineering programmes on the Derry~Londonderry campus. This responsibility includes being the course director for the Mechanical and Manufacturing, Renewable Energy, and Electrical and Electronic Engineering programmes as well as for the Mechanical Engineering with Enterprise Development and Electronic Engineering with Enterprise Development programmes. He has responsibility for all full time and part time students, and Degree apprentices on these programs.

Shaun’s major research interest relates to the understanding and application of material science that underpins manufacturing processes. He is especially interested in Computational Materials Science and engineering applications of modelling with experimental validation. He has a publication track record in modelling solidification and phase change in metallic alloy systems (incorporating additive manufacturing in metals, casting technology, welding, etc.). In addition, he has had significant industry experience in off-road automotive engineering in both design and manufacturing related fields.

Shaun was educated at University College Dublin: BE (1997), MEngSc (1999), PhD (2007); and at the Dublin Institute of Technology: PG Cert in third level teaching and Learning (2012). He has held previous academic positions at the Technological University of Dublin (formerly DIT, 2009-2012) and Trinity College Dublin (full time 2012-2015 and adjunct assistant professor from 2015 to 2023). Since 2008, he has been a chartered member of Engineers Ireland (CEng). He holds Fellowship of the HEA (FHEA) and was conference chair and editor for the 39th International Manufacturing Conference – IMC39 held at Ulster University over two days in August 2023. He is a member of Scientific Board of the Eighth International Conference on Solidification and Gravity, SG24.

Dr Karl McCreadie

Lecturer in Data Analytics

Dr Saugat Bhattacharyya

Lecturer in Computer Science

Professor Michaela Black

Professor of Artificial Intelligence

Michaela has a BSc (Hons) in Computing Science, DPhil in the area of Machine Learning with British Telecom with a Patent posted: Rationalization of data used in model of time varying event behaviour (US 7024426 B2) & Data rationalisation (US 20020183999 A1). Michaela has published around 50 publications including book chapters, journals and conferences. Her research covers Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Mining, Big Data, Telecoms, Education, Health, Gamification, Games and User Profiling.

She is PI on newly awarded PM18 Big data for Supporting Public Health Policies - MIDAS (Meaningful Integration of Data, Analytics and Services) project of €4.5million, and is grant holder of an international consortium who have been awarded €3.6million Horizon 2020 project PH27 PCP project – MAGIC – Mobile Assistance for Groups and Individuals in the Community and.  Within her research she has supervised and successfully completed PhD studentships including Handling Latency for Online Learning with Concept Drift, and has given several invited talks on Big Data and presented to the range of conferences and workshops. Her consultancy work ranges from Horizon2020 applications, SBRi Gamification of Medicines, to InterTradeIreland FUSION projects.

Michaela is involved in a number of regional, national and international Connected Health research projects with particular expertise in Mobile Technology for Health, Gamification and Adaptive AI. As Head of School for School Michaela delivers a strong focus on teaching and developing a strong Research-teaching Nexus, Professional skills, Employability and Entrepreneurship. Her excellence in Teaching has been recognised by his being awarded a Distinguished Teaching Fellowship in 2016.

Michael Callaghan

Reader

Michael Callaghan joined Ulster University as a lecturer in 2002 and his teaching and research interests include serious games, virtual worlds, remote experimentation/laboratories, e-learning, virtual/augmented reality and voice user interfaces. Michael is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Practice and was part of a team awarded a Distinguished Fellowship in Learning Support from Ulster University in 2006. He teaches at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.

He is an expert panelist for the Higher Education & Training Awards Council (QQI Ireland), an Editor of the International Journal of Online Engineering, serves on the Scientific Advisory Board of the International Association of Online Engineering, is a reviewer for a number of IEEE journals and is a grant reviewer for the AHRC, HETAC, Higher Education Academy and EU in his areas of expertise.  Michael has jointly secured over £2.5 Million+ in internal and external funding from 22+ projects as principal investigator or joint principal investigator from funders including the AHRC, DETI, INVESTNI, INTERREG, JISC and the Higher Education Academy and carries out regular consultancy and academic enterprise activities in serious games and virtual worlds.

In 2010, he led a team of staff and students who were shortlisted for the Times Higher Education (THE) Awards 2010, Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year for the ‘Engineering Education Island’ project. In 2016, he led a team of staff and students who were the overall winners of the 4th International Educational Games Competition held at the 10th European Conference on Games Based Learning in Paisley, Scotland in October 2016 with Circuit Warz.

In 2018 and 2019 he led a team of students and staff who were prize winners in the Amazon Alexa Skills challenge: Games  before going onto win the best student game at the 7th International Educational Games Competition held at the 13th European Conference on Games Based Learning in Odense, Denmark in October 2019.

He won the best paper award in 2008 and 2014 at the REV series of international conferences for his work in engineering education and was part of a team that won best short paper at @immersiveLRN  #iLRN2020, 6th International Conference of the Immersive Learning Research Network in 2020.

Dr Priyanka Chaurasia

Lecturer in Data Analytics

Professor Sonya Coleman

Professor of Vision Systems

Sonya Coleman joined the Computer Science Research Institute and School of Computing and Intelligent Systems in 2002 and was appointed Head of the Research Graduate School in 2012. 

Sonya is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and teaches at undergraduate level. 

Sonya received a BSc(Hons) in Mathematics, Statistics and Computing (first class) from the Ulster University, UK in 1999, and a PhD in Mathematics from the Ulster University, UK in 2003. She is Cognitive Robotics team leader within the Intelligent Systems Research Centre.  Sonya has publications primarily in image processing, robotics, computational intelligence and financial engineering. Her research has been supported by funding from various sources such as EPSRC, The Nuffield Foundation, The Leverhulme Trust and the European Commission. In 2009 she was awarded the Distinguished Research Fellowship by the Ulster University in recognition of her contribution research and she is currently secretary of the Irish Pattern Recognition and Classification Society.

Dr James Connolly

Senior Lecturer in Computer Science

Professor Damien Coyle

Professor of Neurotechnology

Damien Coyle, Professor of Neurotechnology, is currently Director of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre and Research Director in the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems at Ulster University.

He has published over 130 research papers in areas such as computational intelligence/AI, bio-signal processing, computational neuroscience, neuroimaging, neurotechnology and brain-computer interface (BCI) applications and has won a number of prestigious international awards for his research including the 2008 IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award and the 2011 International Neural Network Society (INNS) Young Investigator of the Year Award. He was an Ulster University Distinguished Research Fellow in 2011, a Royal Academy of Engineering/The Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow in 2013 and a Royal Academy of Engineering Enterprise Fellow in 2016-2017. He is a founding member of the International Brain-Computer Interface Society, a Senior member of the IEEE and chairs the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS) UKIreland chapter.

Professor Coyle is also CEO of NeuroCONCISE Ltd, the Ulster University spinout company he founded in 2016 to build wearable neurotechnology that non-invasively measures and translates brainwaves into control signals using advanced algorithms to enable people to interact with technology and communicate without moving which has applications in rehabilitation, diagnostics, augmentative and assistive communication devices and entertainment.

Professor Kevin Curran

Professor of Cyber Security

Kevin Curran is a Professor of Cyber Security at Ulster University, Executive Co-Director of the Legal Innovation Centre and and group leader for the Cybersecurity & Web technologies Research Group.

Kevin Curran joined the School of Computing and Intelligent Systems in1999.

Kevin's primary research and teaching interests is in the areas of Cyber Security.

Kevin's achievements include winning and managing UK & European Framework projects and Technology Transfer Schemes. Kevin has made significant contributions to advancing the knowledge and understanding of computer networking and systems, evidenced by over 800 published works.

He is perhaps most well-known for his work on location positioning within indoor environments and Internet security. His expertise has been acknowledged by invitations to present his work at international conferences, overseas universities and research laboratories.

He is a regular contributor to print, online, radio & TV news on computing & security issues. He was the recipient of an Engineering and Technology Board Visiting Lectureship for Exceptional Engineers and is an IEEE Technical Expert for Internet/Security matters since 2008. He is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College.

Professor Curran has chaired sessions and participated in organising committees for many highly-respected international conferences and workshops. He was the founding Editor in Chief of the International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence and is also a member of numerous Journal Editorial boards and international conference organising committees.

He has authored a number of books and  is the recipient of various patents. He has served as an advisor to the British Computer Society in regard to the computer industry standards and is a member of BCS and IEEE Technology Specialist Groups and various other professional bodies.

Dr Barry Dillon

Lecturer in Mathematics

Dr. Barry Dillon is a lecturer in mathematics at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) within the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems, Ulster University (UU).

With a background in particle physics, his main area of research is on how machine-learning can be used to enhance physics analyses at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. Particularly on how these machine-learning techniques can be used to aide in the search for signatures of new particles in the data collected at the LHC.

Barry did his PhD in theoretical physics at the University of Sussex and held postdoctoral positions at the University of Plymouth (UK), the Jožef Stefan Institute (Slovenia), and at the University of Heidelberg (Germany). In this time he has worked on many topics in Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, strong-field QED, particle phenomenology, and machine-learning.

You can view his papers via these links:

• Inspire HEP
• Google Scholar

Dr Xuemei Ding

Lecturer in Computer Science

Dr Vimal Kumar Dwivedi

Lecturer in Data Analytics

Dr Bronac Flanagan

Lecturer in Computer Science

Professor Jim Harkin

Head of the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems

Prof Jim Harkin is Head of the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems. He is a member of the Computational Neuroscience and Neuromorphic Engineering team in the Intelligent Systems Research Centre (ISRC) and previously worked as a post-doc researcher in Embedded Systems at Ulster (2001-2004) on the EPSRC project (GR/N26753).

His current teaching interests relate to embedded systems encompassing digital systems design, VHDL for FPGAs and system testing. Dr. Harkin leads research on the design of intelligent embedded systems and focuses on developing electronic computing systems that can self-repair under the presence of errors. In particular, his work explores how computer models of neural networks (brain like-repair) can be mapped to hardware to build highly efficient and reliable embedded computers.

His work has seen innovations in Networks-on-Chip strategies and the hardware implementation of self-repairing Spiking Neural Networks, and is Co-founder of the medical analytics start-up company Respiratory Analytics. He has secured grant funding of +£3.5 million from several sources including EPSRC, MRC, Innovate UK, HSC R&D, InvestNI and DEL and has published over +140 articles in peer-reviewed journals and conferences. He was included in the University’s Computer Science (UoA 23) submission to the RAE 2008, REF2014 and also UoA 11 in REF2021.

Malachy McElholm

Lecturer in Electrical Engineering

Dr Cormac McGarrigle

Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Dr Deepika Nikam

Lecturer

Dr Sagar Nikam

Lecturer

Professor Girijesh Prasad

Professor of Intelligent Systems

Dr Justin Quinn

Senior Lecturer and Director of the Centre for Engineering and Renewable Energy

Dr Debbie Rankin

Senior Lecturer in Computer Science

Dr Khalid Saeed

Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering

Dr Yasir Ali Shah

Lecturer in Computer Science

Dr Nazmul Siddique

Senior Lecturer

Dr Muskaan Singh

Lecturer in Data Analytics

Dr William Smyth

Senior Lecturer in Mathematics

Dr Philip Vance

Senior Lecturer in Computer Science

Dr Pratheepan Yogarajah

Lecturer in Computer Science

Pratheepan Yogarajah has been a Lecturer in Computing Science at the Ulster University since January 2016. He joined the School of Computing and Intelligent System at Ulster University as a teaching assistant in September 2007. He also worked for over five years as a Research Associate at Ulster University. Previously he worked in Sri Lanka in excess of five years, first as an Assistant Lecturer in Computer Science and then as a Lecturer in Computer Science.

Yogarajah obtained a first class honours degree in Computer Science from the University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in 2001, and a MPhil degree in Computer Vision from the Oxford Brookes University, UK, in 2006. He obtained his PhD degree from the Ulster University, UK, in 2015. He is a member of British Computer Society (BCS) and a Member of IEEE

Yogarajah was the recipient of Oxford Brookes university HMGCC scholarship award in 2005. He was also a co-recipient of Proof of Principle (PoP) award from Ulster University in 2012 and Proof of Concept (PoC) from Invest Northern Ireland (Invest NI) in 2013. His research interests include biometrics, computer vision, image processing, steganography and digital watermarking, and machine learning. He has patents filed and has published more than 20 papers in international conferences, books, and journals.