Born and bred in Derry~Londonderry, Christy Hasson describes his role as Technical Services Co-ordinator, School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems as “coming home”.
Christy started working life as a shoe repairer in a local shop for over a decade, before deciding to return to education, initially completing a foundation course in general studies at Magee and then undertaking his degree there in Electronics and Computing. Christy recalls:
“I vividly remember just coming onto campus and dropping in on Martin McGinnity and Professor Liam Maguire who were at that time running the degree programme that most interested me. Returning to a university education later in life, the degree was challenging but it opened up the right opportunity for me in local industry.”
As a mature student, Christy found himself often as a point of liaison between staff and students. After graduating, his career as an electronic engineer with local R&D firm Andronics Satellite Communications Company took him all over the world, training and troubleshooting in the many and varied applications of ultrasonic sensors – for gas tanks to reservoir monitoring to vehicle tracking. When the company was sold to a US business, after a brief period as a taxi driver in the city, Christy found himself back at Ulster University, supporting the temporary relocation of specialist equipment across campus. Staying on to cover a maternity leave, he then moved to work in a technical post in the cognitive robotics lab before moving to a role in Digital Services before returning to his permanent home in Engineering just a few years ago.
Amongst his responsibilities, Christy looks after engineering maintenance for the suite within the extensive Allstate lab, managing tailored student learning through specialised software. Based within the School of Computing, Engineering and Intelligent Systems, the specialist teaching space supports core competencies in the areas of Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Information Technologies, Electronics and Embedded Systems, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and Renewable Energy Engineering.
“The lab is an extension of the longstanding partnership between Allstate and Ulster University, maintaining our campus at the forefront of a rapidly evolving technological landscape. At regular intervals throughout the academic year, we will be rebuilding about 350 – 400 computers to ensure that they are running the latest versions of the bespoke software for the modules taught within the school. It’s a level of tailoring that’s essential to teaching and learning in this subject area.”
Working across research groups in cognitive analytics and robotics, Christy and his colleagues support PhD researchers in their work. He adds:
“The nature of both research and studies means a reliance on multiple computing systems that wouldn’t ordinarily be within the University’s well-established digital estate. Having also worked within Digital Services, I can act as a bridge between the specialisms within the school including our own required servers, and our seamless integration with the essential and robust cyber security protections.”
Christy enjoys maintaining his connections with local industry, supporting the technical requirements for sectoral conferences hosted on campus, and getting involved community activities such as the annual Seagate Summer School for the children of company and university employees.
He adds:
“Those opportunities are fun and rewarding, introducing children to everything from Lego robots to web design. The campus, and this school, have great relationships with local business and industry and these activities are one way to further strengthen those ties.”
This regular and popular campus outreach activity brings the University’s specialist resources and expertise into the local community and enables technicians to play a part in raising aspirations and opening up possible future careers for the city region’s young people.