Digital Technologies for Social Change
Digital Technologies for Social Change
Interdisciplinary research on how computing can help to address major societal challenges. I am interested in how digital technologies (mobile computing, social networks, data analytics, etc.)  can be harnessed to address major social challenges.
Software Engineering Research
Software Engineering Research
Investigating how model-driven engineering (MDE) is used in industrial practice and developing next generation MDE tools. I am particularly interested in the social and organizational aspects of MDE.
Research interests in social computing and software engineeringtaking a fundamentally multidisciplinary approach

Some Recent Projects

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Catalyst

Catalyst is a £1.9M project funded by the EPSRC which will bring together academics from social science, computing, design and management science to carry out transformative research on the theme of citizen-led social innovation. Based at Lancaster University, Catalyst will…

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Digital Brain Switch

Digital technologies – smart phones, email, social networking, etc. – are fundamentally changing our relationship with work. Digital technologies enable us to be always connected and allow us to work wherever and whenever we want. However, the question remains as to how digital…

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Voice Your View

VoiceYourView (vYv) is a cross-disciplinary research project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council’s (EPSRC) Digital Economy Programme. It is a collaboration between five leading universities in the UK. vYv aims to develop technology which allows people to express their…

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Serena

  The vision of the SerenA project is to transform research processes by proactively creating surprising connection opportunities. We will deliver novel technologies, methods and evaluation techniques for supporting serendipitous interactions in the research arena. Lancaster University’s role in SerenA…

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Empirical MDE

The EAMDE project applied social science methods to understand industrial adoption of model-driven software development. The 12 month project resulted in a book contract with CRC Press, two publications in the best software engineering academic venue (ICSE), ten keynote presentations…

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About Me

I am a (full) Professor in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University, England, and am also Chair of Software Engineering.

I lead and manage a number of large funded interdisciplinary research projects investigating how digital technologies (mobile computing, social networking, data analytics, etc.) can promote social change. My methodology is to work in collaboration with civil society groups to jointly imagine, build and evaluate next generation digital solutions to social issues. In the last five years, I have obtained over £5M in research funding for these activities. My work has been published in world-leading conferences and journals in human-computer interaction, software engineering, and social science.

I have a passion for working across traditional disciplinary boundaries. I am interested in tackling challenging problems that can only be addressed by bringing together expertise from engineering, physical and social sciences. I have initiated and led a number of large interdisciplinary projects. This has led me to work with sociologists, psychologists, economists, health professionals, anthropologists, and linguists, to name a few. I enjoy working on problems of real societal significance using whatever disciplinary techniques are most appropriate for the job at hand.

As well as my expertise in managing large research projects, I have also carried out a number of important administrative roles in the higher education sector: these include serving on the Management Group and Strategy Group for my School, acting as Director of Finance for the School, and being responsible for managing relationships with one of Lancaster University's overseas partner institutes of higher education in India.

I believe strongly in maintaining a healthy work/life balance. Outside work, I am an award winning playwright and I perform dance regularly at various community events. I have a keen interest in community theatre.