Prof Hani Hagras, University of Essex

Conference Panel!

At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

Prof Hani Hagras is a Professor of Explainable Artificial Intelligence, Director of Research and Director of the Computational Intelligence Centre in the University of Essex, UK. He is a Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and Principal Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy (PFHEA)

His major research interests are in Explainable Artificial Intelligence, computational intelligence and data science . His research interests also include ambient intelligence, pervasive computing and intelligent buildings. He is also interested in embedded agents, robotics and intelligent control.

He has authored more than 350 papers in international journals, conferences and books. His work has received funding from major research councils and industry. He has also Ten industrial patents in the field of Explainable AI, computational intelligence and intelligent control.

His research has won numerous prestigious international awards where most recently he was awarded by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society (CIS), the 2004 and 2013 Outstanding Paper Award in the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems. In 2016, he was elected as Distinguished Lecturer by the IEEE Computational Intelligence Society. His work has also won best paper awards in several conferences including the 2014 and 2006 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems and the 2012 UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence.

He is an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems and IEEE Transaction on Artificial Intelligence as well as many journals .

Prof. Hagras chaired several international conferences where he will act as the Programme Chair of the 2021 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems and he served as the programme chair of the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems.

Day 1 Panel: "Creating Value for Economies" #TFNetworkSpring21

Conference Panel!

At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

We bring stakeholders from EPSRC, University and Industry together in our "Creating Value for Economies" panel.

Prof Idris Eckley University of Lancaster, Dr Amanda Chmura, EPSRC, Dr John Drake, University of Leicester and former Postgraduate researcher with BT, Joseph Spear Mvine and Russell Beck,  ImagineThinkDo, will will answer your questions and paint the picture of the future innovation story shaped through collaboration!

Prof Idris Eckley, Lancaster University

Conference Talk!

At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

Idris Eckley is Professor of Statistics at Lancaster University, where he leads the Changepoints and Time Series group. 

Passionate about the development of methods that help turn data into insights, Idris’ current research interests focus on novel inference methods for streaming data, including the detection changes and anomalies. 

Much of this work is inspired by, and feeds back into, real-world challenges faced by an array of industrial partners including BT, DSTL, Shell, the Office for National Statistics and Unilever. 

In addition to his work leading the statistical activity within an EPSRC/BT-funded Prosperity Partnership developing the next generation of converged digital infrastructure, he is Co-Director of the EPSRC-funded STOR-i Centre for Doctoral Training and PI on the £2.75M EPSRC Programme Grant `StatScale’. 
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Idris' presentation title is: Creating Value Through Collaboration: An Academic's Perspective

Synopsis
Much of my career to date has been spent undertaking research, and developing research programmes, at the academic/business interface. In this talk I will try to briefly outline my motivations for this, and describe some of the many benefits that can arise from collaboration. I will also try to highlight some key ingredients that I have noticed repeatedly within the most successful collaborations between academia and business.

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Ken Shaw, Benchmark Communication Techniques: Sponsor of the 2021 Spring conference and TFNetwork Supporter

Conference Talk!

Presentation Skills. New thoughts on an old subject

At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

Speaker: 

Ken Shaw, Benchmark Communication Techniques
Presenter, Interviewer, Voice, Consultant.

Ken is a sponsor for this conference and a long standing supporter of Tommy Flowers Network. He has helped us challenge our status quo at any one point of our journey, and he helped us pave the path that leads to our vision becoming true. 

Originally trained as an Industrial Chemist he specialised in interrupted elution gas chromatography and atomic absorption spectrophotometry.

As a journalist his work covered general reporting through to Sub Editor.

Ken has worked extensively in mainstream theatre including the Nottingham Playhouse, Edinburgh Festival, Leeds Playhouse, National Tours, Children’s Theatre, and TOC. 

Television appearances include Hadleigh, Z Cars, Warship, Horizon and The Train.

Voice & Speech training: 

• E15, Webber Douglas, Mime Centre
• Sky Television, Private tuition.

Producer – Conference, Seminars, Sales Launches and Theatrical Tours.

As a Presenter and Interviewer he has over 900 documentaries and corporate training programmes to his credit and more than 14,000 voice-overs.

As a Consultant he is involved with workshops on Advanced Presentation Skills, Media Interview Skills, On Camera Performance, Innovation plus Executive Coaching.

Ken has delivered courses in France, Hong Kong, Germany, Switzerland, The Bahamas, Norway, America, The Caribbean, Holland, Spain, Australia, Slovenia, Egypt and Singapore.

He has delivered Communication Skills training for more than 1000 MBA students at Cambridge, Oxford, London Business School, WBS, City University, Cass Business School, UCL and lectured at Henley MC, Leicester, Nottingham & Bristol Universities.

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Lisa Perkins, BT's director of Adastral Park and Research Realisation

Conference Talk!

At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

Lisa Perkins is director of Adastral Park and Research Realisation for BT’s Technology division.

She is building a rich and diverse technology ecosystem at Adastral Park which maximises the opportunities to find the best innovative solutions to real business problems. 

She is accountable for showcasing the world class innovation and research at the Park, collaborating with customers to ensure we find relevant solutions to their needs. Lisa leads on down-streaming innovation and research to derive value for the business. She manages key partnerships with world leading universities in conjunction with the research programmes to encourage and develop premier class expertise. 

She actively promotes and drives an education enrichment programme, working with schools to encourage children and teachers to develop a love of technology, thus stimulating skills for the industry. 

Lisa has direct leadership of research into both home entertainment and future industry / smart technologies.

Lisa is chair of Tech East, vice chair of the University of Suffolk DigiTech Centre, a board member of the Innovation board for NALEP, a board member of Productivity East and a trustee for Lapwing Education.

Lisa's presentation title is: "Mind the Gap: How collaboration can help to address the skills gap"

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Prof Susan Halford, University of Bristol, UK

Conference Talk!

At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

Susan Halford is Professor of Sociology at the University of Bristol, UK.

Susan is a Geographer by training, has been an organizational Sociologist for the past 30 years and over the past decade has worked across the social and engineering sciences with a research focus on emerging technologies, digital data and infrastructures. 

As Professor of Sociology at the University of Southampton until December 2018, she was a founding Director of the Web Science Institute. In 2019 Susan joined the University of Bristol as Professor of Sociology and founding co-Director of the Bristol Digital Futures Institute (BDFI), at the centre of the University’s new Temple Quarter innovation campus. 

BDFI is a University Research Institute that pioneers transformative approaches to digital innovation, bringing together researchers from across the disciplines and working with our partners in industry, government and civil society. BDFI is developing in-depth systematic understanding of sociotechnical futures to drive the creation of digital technologies for inclusive, prosperous and sustainable societies.

Susan is a member of the UKRI Digital Economy Programme Board, the UK Biobank Ethics Committee and chairs the ESRC on New and Emerging forms of Data. She is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences and the Royal Society of Arts and is currently President of the British Sociological Association 2018-21. 

Susan's presentation title is: Collaborative research for sociodigital futures: interdisciplinary and cross-sectional perspectives

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Joseph Spear, Director of Communications at Mvine Limited

Conference Talk!

At our TFNetworkSpring21 conference on "Creating Value for Economies: Collaborate - Innovate - Educate". 

No stranger to Adastral Park or to Tommy Flowers Network, Joseph Spear is recognised by many in his present role as director of communications at Mvine Limited. 

He has over 35 years track record in communications mainly for high tech businesses. During his career he has acquired a bit of a reputation as someone who knows how to bring technology innovation out of the labs and into mainstream profit centres. Having done that several times over, Joseph is presently focused on high-growth areas of cyber security, particularly the identity of people and the identity of things, industrial scale internet of things, and Industry 4.0. 

He holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) awarded by University of Essex and University of East Anglia as well as a Bac+4 from ICSV-CNAM in France. He is a member of the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals (The ITP) and BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. 

A fun fact:  Joseph was once told “Your Hired” in The Apprentice but not in the UK. 

LinkedIn
Twitter: @Mvine

Synopsis
How do you prove something about you is true without giving out personally identifiable information to somebody you don’t know? That was one conundrum that had to be solve when in 2020 UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) awarded British eight tech firms £450,000 public funds to develop an innovation for Covid-19 test result status certificates.

Only one project succeeded. And among 850 UKRI projects was the first to complete.

In this short-form presentation, Joseph Spear from Mvine will outline how it was solved. And then how with the collaboration of the University of Lancaster the innovation was offered for trials within primary care, social care, education, travel and hospitality sectors.

Spend 10 minutes listening to Joseph tell the story about how amazing things happen when academia and industry work together, and about the power of innovation.

Attendees to this session will be able to away and include these key lessons in their own research and apply techniques to their projects. Ahead of the session, as scene setter, you can do a web search on “vaccine passports” which has seen considerable coverage in the press, particularly since 12 January 2021. If you want to know why, join this session starting at 10.35am.