Strategic direction of Research and Enterprise across Engineering.

The BRL is the UK's largest Robotics Lab, and I've been a proud member since its early days. As co-Director I will work alongside colleagues from University of Bristol and UWE, Bristol, to help us achieve our strategic objectives and cement our reputation as a centre of learning and excellence in Human-Centered Robotics.The world needs solutions to help support a sustainable equitable civilisation. Robotics can be part of the answer!

I do research, teaching and knowledge exchange in the areas of Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Most of my time is spent in AI, Machine Learning, Robotics and their applications, and is increasingly transdisciplinary. If you have a thorny problem, do get in touch!

I chair the Research Ethics Committee. Research ethics govern standards of conduct for scientific researchers, to protect the dignity, rights and welfare of research participants; whether human, animal, or environmental. We ensure that appropriate ethical standards are being upheld.

While I was doing my PhD in machine learning and robotics, I realised two important things. Firstly, that the technologies we were developing were getting ready for application, and the capacity to learn and adapt would enable them to be general purpose; and hence easily repurposed. Secondly, that as the rate of adoption across different sectors accelerated, that we would have enormous opportunities to mess up in the way humans always have done. It seems to me that the whole of human knowledge and experience is food for robotics; engineering, biology, chemistry, anthropology, sociology, art - if we wish to create machines that are useful and which mimic the features of living things. Science fiction is full of dystopian imaginings about robotics. If we can foresee problems, can we avoid them? Surely clear sight of an iceberg might help steer a Titanic? But technology advances through the evolutionary pressure of market forces, new products are a million hopeful monsters which compete for our money. The Titanic of human progress is steered by billions of monkeys all grabbing fitfully at the wheel.We need to steer with more purpose than this. We need to decide what future we want, and be active in choosing. For if it is done to us, the experience is unlikely to be enjoyable.

I facilitate the Research and Scholarship activities of my colleagues in EDM. We have many areas of research excellence, including the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, the Institute for Bio-Sensing Technology, the Bio-Energy Centre, the Machine Vision Centre, the Engineering Simulation and Modelling Group, and the Applied Maths and Stats team. EDM is the vibrant heart of the University's research efforts - we pull in over a third of all the research money of the University, mainly from EU funding vehicles such as FP7 and Horizon 2020, and from the UK Research Councils, especially the EPSRC.In this role I develop research strategy for the department, and help my colleagues achieve their goals; winning research bids, doing good science, getting their ideas noticed, and making a difference to the community that supports us. The latter is really important - we have to show our funders that the money they give us is giving a return on investment. Consequently, I work with external companies to understand how we might be able to add value to their business through the application of our knowledge, and also look for opportunities to develop new business as a vehicle to greater impact.In addition, I help ensure that our research is carried out in compliance with ethical standards, that our research governance procedures are fit for purpose and are complied with, and smooth the trajectories of our research students. I mentor my colleagues, with an especial focus on helping new members of staff achieve success and further their research careers while maintaining the excellence of our teaching.This is a great job, linking people and projects, funders and users. We do great stuff - I help us do more of it, and get more from it!

I direct the B.Sc. Robotics Programme. In addition to developing, delivering and administering new teaching modules to undergraduates and postgraduates, my role includes knowledge transfer and consultancy, commissioning and directing robotics research projects, publicising the issues of robotics within the wider community, etc. During my leadership of the robotics course, the intake of students has grown by around 800%. As a member of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory I pursue a wide range of research interests including multi-agent systems, robotics and AI, and strategies for reducing domestic energy consumption.

The aim of this project is to deliver a suite of data-mining tools and a development toolkit on the National Supercomputer, Manchester. I focused on delivering evolutionary computing and machine learning techniques which allow the use of a very large number of processing nodes to enhance the accuracy and efficiency of delivered data mining solutions, and allow knowledge discovery in Terabyte datasets. A very challenging project now finding use in supporting UK sports councils' training efforts.

Teaching Software Engineering using the Rational toolsuite, Rational Unified Process, Java and UML.

The EPC does great work supporting the teaching of Enginereing in the UK. Engineering has such an impact on all our lives and on the Planet but has tended to attract a limited demographic. Inclusivity and Ethics go hand-in-hand!

As Altered Carbon have grown, I have helped the founders transition through a number of iterations and product offerings. I'm very happy to be able to help them in their mission to apply graphene sensors to detect chemical traces; this technology could revolutionize the world!

Parable was a Unified Messaging Service Provider, providing telephone and fax numbers supporting flexible call forwarding and secure web-based fax and voicemail retrieval. In the space of one year we built a global unified messaging system with offices in London, Frankfurt, Florida and Washington.As a founding member of the technical team my role was very varied, including systems and software architecture, design and implementation, and systems and database administration. I also helped shape company strategy, from feature conception and feasibility assessment to implementation and deployment.

Vignette StoryServer 4.2 was the world's leading platform for very large-scale on-line publishing projects, with CRM, personalization, and extensive support for back-end workflow management. As one of the first European Vignette consultants, this role required broad technical knowledge, and excellent interpersonal and management skills to achieve objectives involving teams of many individuals and projects involving multiple organisations, sometimes in several continents.

The majority of my time at BT Labs was spent in a research and development role, in the area of Software Agents. Agents can be defined in a variety of ways, but perhaps the best would be 'independent software entities which act on your behalf through negotiation and interaction', and are a type of distributed artificial intelligence. These systems were designed to add value through intelligence, for example by lowering the cost of international co-operation between European telecommunications companies.