Our experts

Dr Steven Sam Dr Steven Sam obtained a PhD from the University of Queensland (Australia), where he received the UQ Outstanding Higher Degree by Research Theses Dean’s Award in 2016. Steven’s research activities centre around ICTs and society, human computer Interaction (HCI) (including HCI for Development) and computing for social good (including AI for social good and responsible AI). Steven’s research makes effective use of new computing tools, methodologies and designs to amplify social impact solutions that deliver real change in society. He draws on a range of approaches such as ethnography, user-centred design, participatory design and data-driven approaches to develop and evaluate the use and impact of context-based technology solutions for complex societal problems. He has worked closely with partners from academia, industry, development agencies and government institutions to deliver research innovative projects in healthcare, agriculture and education in Africa. Steven is the founder and co-leader of an interdisciplinary research group (Computer Science for Social Good) at the Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London. Steven’s research interests relate to the following: Computing for social good (including AI for social good) Sustainable HCI (SHCI) and HCI for Development (HCI4D) Digital divide and mobile and computer-based ICT4D Data-driven solutions to sustainable development goals Social implications of new and emerging technologies (e.g. mobiles, AI, social media, automation, etc.) on organisations, society and people. Ethics and governance of digital systems (in particular Responsible AI) Ethnography, user-centred and participatory design methodologies Module Leader Ethics and Governance of Digital Systems (CS5705) Supporting Taught Modules Human Computer Interaction (CS3009) ICTs in Society (CS2007) Usability Engineering (CS2003) Computer Science – Business Computing Final Year Project (CS3702 – CS3605) Work Placement (CS2555) Year 2 Group Project (CS2001) MSc Dissertation Supervision (CS5500) Crop Recommendation with Machine Learning: Leveraging Environmental and Economic factors for Optimal Crop Selection -2023 (Completed) Using advanced machine learning models and explanation methods to predict and identify the greatest risk factors leading to Preterm Births - 2023 (Completed) Analyzing the Effectiveness of Natural Language Processing Techniques for Sentiment Analysis in Social Media Data-2023 (Completed) Designing Emotionally Engaging Gamification To Enhance User Satisfaction And Experience -2023 (Completed) Academic Failure Prevention: A Study on Performance Prediction Models - 2023 (Completed) Analysis and Prediction of Road Accident Severity using Machine Learning - 2022 (Completed) Diagnosis of Facial Diseases using Deep learning Methods (Completed) - 2022 (Completed)

Dr Cigdem Sengul Cigdem has more than ten years of experience in research and development in mobile and wireless networks in both academia and industry. She has been working on standards for building privacy and trust in the Internet of Things during her time at Nominet as a Senior Researcher (2015-2019). Between 2012-2015, she worked as a Senior Lecturer at Oxford Brookes University, where she lectured and conducted research on wireless and mobile networks, with a particular focus on energy and interference efficiency, and Internet of Robotic Things. From 2008-2012, she was with Telekom Innovation Labs (the main research unit of Deutsche Telekom) as a Senior Research Scientist leading projects on Wireless Mesh Networks. Her work has been published in more than 50 journal and conference publications. She is a Fulbright, Department of Computer Science, UIUC and Vodafone fellow. Cigdem is a passionate advocate of increasing diversity awareness in computing. She is the Communication Co-Chair of ACM Women. Between 2019-2022, she was the Communication and Outreach Chair of ACM Women-Europe. She collaborates with the Micro:bit Educational Foundation to support their mission of teaching coding to school children. She is the co-author of the Networking with the Micro:bit book. While we think the Internet mostly composed of traditional computers and networks, this view cannot withstand the evolution of technologies such as the Internet of Things. Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a "system of interconnections between digital technologies and physical objects that enable (traditionally mundane) objects to exhibit computing properties and interact with another with or without human intervention." As IoT, interactive technologies such as augmented reality, and personalised digital experience with, e.g. wearable devices mature, we will have more "ambient computing" with tight integration between humans and technology. Complemented with advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, these systems will have a powerful impact on society. Internet-based technologies have been transformational creating value and enabling progress in many ways, but it is important to acknowledge the potential of real harms if the rights and safety of people are not protected. Therefore, my research is on trustworthy systems which provide higher degrees of trust for service providers and their users by improving the transparency, accountability, and controllability of the Internet at the network and applications level. The goal is to create systems that are not a "black box" to their users, but systems with transparency, accountability, and controllability properties. Creating trustworthy systems requires solving a wide range of cross-disciplinary challenges, for instance in the fields of digital ethics, privacy-enhancing technologies, computer systems, networks and their security, business and education. My main areas of work focus on:- Internet of Things: From Device to Edge, and Cloud- Security, Privacy and Trust by Design- Citizen-centricity and citizen-driven solutions for smart systems- Real experimentation, deployments, open platforms Internet of Things, Security and Privacy, Personal Data Protection. I am the module leader for CS2001 - Year 2 Project. I also supervise FYP Projects. If you would like to do an FYP project with me, here are my interests informed my teaching, research and service. My research area is on the Internet of Things, with an emphasis on privacy and security. Lately, I’ve been contributing to the standardisation efforts in access control for constrained environments in the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). I also work on physical computing for teaching networking, e.g. with BBC micro:bits. Finally, I am the Athena SWAN chair, and equality and diversity champion and would be interested in exploring computing projects that aim to improve diversity. I would be interested in supervising projects with any of the following elements: Security in IoT Data protection and privacy especially in IoT Physical-computing for computer science education. Networks simulation, and data analysis Example project ideas Privacy and Data Protection Automatic user privacy policy generation based on user consent Scenario exploration games to learn from user privacy sensitivities in smart homes (something like Education with Physical Computing Radio-based games for networking or AI education with BBC micro:bits IoT, Computer Networks and Security The implementation of encrypted publish-subscribe group communication as described in the IETF ACE Pub-Sub profile Securing MQTT for Sensor Networks (MQTT-SN) based on the IETF ACE (Authentication and Authorization in Constrained Environments) framework Diversity Analysis of Gender Diversity in Wikipedia using data pulled from WikiMedia API. Happy to talk to students about their own ideas.

Dr Anastasia Anagnostou Dr Anastasia Anagnostou is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Brunel University London and the co-lead of the Modelling & Simulation Group (MSG). She is also member of the Intelligent Data Analytics (IDA) Group. She holds a PhD in Distributed Modelling & Simulation, an MSc in Telemedicine and e-Health Systems and a BSc(Hons) in Electronic Engineering. Her research interests lie in the areas of Advanced Computing Infrastructures for Modelling and Simulation, Open Science for Simulation, Hybrid Distributed Simulation and Modelling and Simulation for Healthcare and Industrial Applications. Since 2011, she has been involved in several interdisciplinary research projects with stakeholders from industry and academia across manufacturing, healthcare, defence and food supply chains. She has also worked in Africa helping to develop digital infrastructures and collaborative services enabling open science. She is co-chair for the OR Society’s Simulation Workshop (SW21) and member of organising committees for international conferences sponsored by the IEEE and ACM/SIGSIM. She has been awarded Horizon 2020 funding for a 9.5 million Euro project (Brunel contribution €370K) entitled “Demonstration of intelligent decision support for pandemic crisis prediction and management within and across European borders” (STAMINA). Modelling and Simulation, Distributed Simulation, Cloud Computing, Open Science, e-Infrastructures, Healthcare Systems, Internet of Things CS2005 Networks and Operating Systems (Module Leader) CS2001 Level 2 Group Project CS2555 Work Placement CS3004 Network Computing CS3072-3605 Computer Science/Business Computing Final-Year Projects CS5601 Enterprise Modelling (Module reviewer) I also taught: Introduction to Programming, Business Analysis and Process Modelling, Systems Project Management, ERP Systems Theory and Practise, ERP Systems Deployment and Configuration and SAP ERP Integration of Business Processes Certification Course (TERP-10).

Professor Simon Taylor imon J E Taylor is a Professor of Computer Science specialising in Modelling & Simulation and Digital Infrastructures. He has made many contributions to manufacturing, health care and international development. He has worked with international consortia (in particular UNICT, WACREN and the UBUNTUNET ALLIANCE) to contribute to the development of National Research and Education Networks in Africa that has impacted over 3 million students and 300 universities. He has also worked with international consortia (in particular Saker Solutions, the University of Westminster, SZTAKI and CloudSME UG) to develop high performance simulation systems that are being used by over 30 European SMEs and large-scale enterprises such as the Ford Motor Company and Sellafield PLC. He continues to work closely with industry - his work has led to over £30M of savings and new products in industry. He also contributes to the development of Open Science principles and practice for Africa and for Modelling & Simulation as a field. He has led modules in distributed computing in the Department of Computer Science for many years with high module evaluations scores and is an enthusiastic teacher. He has also led the development of several postgraduate degrees. He has supervised over 20 doctoral students, has examined more than 25 doctoral students from across the world and has managed over 15 research fellows. Professor Taylor co-founded and is a former Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Simulation and the UK Operational Research Society Simulation Workshop Series. He chaired ACM SIGSIM between 2005-2008 and since then has been an active member of the ACM SIGSIM Steering Committee. He is also the General Chair for the 2025 Winter Simulation Conference. He has chaired international standardisation groups under the Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization and has conducted several organisational review panels (e.g., DSTL) and simulation audits. He is currently the executive chair for the annual Simulation Exploration Experience ( and a member of the Computer Simulation Archive steering committee ( He has also chaired several conferences and is the General Chair for the IEEE/ACM 2025 Winter Simulation Conference. Interested in the history of computer simulation? Visit the Computer Simulation Archive hosted by NCSU and hear talks from some of the pioneers in computer simulation. I am strongly interested in Modelling & Simulation and Digital Infrastructures, particularly in the development of high performance simulation infrastructures and services in industry and health care. These are extremely important as it allows users to perform more simulation experimentation and to get deeper insight into their problems. This has openned up a new area of study that is allowing us to develop novel AI-based optimisation techniques for Modelling & Simulation that leverage our high performance simulation infrastructures that we have already deployed in industry (e.g., Ford, Saker Solutions and Sellafield). In parallel with these interests I have been able to work towards the development of digital infrastructures and services in Africa. This has contributed to the rapid development of African National Research and Education Networks and the foundation for African Open Science. This work continues and we are working with African stakeholders to further develop African Open Science and Data Science approaches across the continent. In turn these experiences have enabled me to contribute to Open Science techniques for Modelling & Simulation, as well as Open Science at Brunel. Modelling & Simulation Digital Infrastructures and Services Cloud Computing International Development Open Science I teach a variety of subjects from Modelling & Simulation to Distributed Computing at Undergraduate, Postgraduate and National levels (e.g. NATCOR). I also support student projects and (unpaid) internships in these areas.

Professor George Ghinea I am a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Brunel University London. I obtained my BSc. Degree with Computer Science and Mathematics majors from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. I later went on to obtain BSc. (Hons.) and MSc. Degrees, both in Computer Science, from the same university. I was awarded my PhD – Quality of Perception: An Essential Facet of Multimedia Communications - from the University of Reading, UK, in 2000. In it, I proposed the Quality of Perception metric, a precursor of the Quality of Experience (QoE) concept now widely known. However, whilst QoE is still a concept, QoP is a concrete metric. Thus, recognising the infotainment duality of multimedia, QoP not only characterises the subjective enjoyment associated with experiencing multimedia presentations, but also how such presentations aid a person\'s ability to assimilate informational content. My research activities lie at the confluence of Computer Science, Media and Psychology. In particular, my work focuses on the area of perceptual multimedia quality and how one builds end-to-end communication systems incorporating user perceptual requirements. I have applied my expertise in areas such as eye-tracking, telemedicine, multi-modal interaction, and ubiquitous and mobile computing. I am particularly interested in building human-centred e-systems, particularly integrating human perceptual requirements. My work has been funded by both national and international funding bodies – all of it being collaborative work with other teams and stakeholders I have been privileged to be involved with. I have also been honoured to supervise 33 PhD students to completion and to have published over 350 high-quality research articles with them and other research collaborators. Currently, my research pursuits are centered on extending the notion of multimedia with that of mulsemedia – a term which I have put forward to denote multiple sensorial media, ie. media applications that go beyond engaging the by now traditional auditory and visual senses, engaging three of our other human in a realistic manner akin to our experiences of everyday life. • Multimedia and multimodal interactive environments• Mulsemedia applications and environments• Adaptive, cross-layer communication systems• Human-centred e-systems• Mobile and pervasive computing• Communications security • Multimedia and multimodal interactive environments • Mulsemedia applications and environments • Adaptive, cross-layer communication systems • Human-centred e-systems • Mobile and pervasive computing • Communications security I currently lead the level 7 postgraduate module Research Project Management.

Dr Derek Groen I am a Lecturer in Simulation and Modelling at Brunel University. I'm also an Emeritus Fellow for the EPSRC-funded 2020 Science Network, a Fellow of the Software Sustainability Institute, and a Visiting Lecturer at the Centre for Computational Science at University College London. I completed an MSc in Grid Computing at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) in 2006, and a PhD in Computational Astrophysics both at the UvA and Leiden University in November 2010. After my PhD I worked as a post-doctoral researcher on EU projects about distributed multiscale computing (MAPPER) and high-performance computing towards the Exascale (CRESTA). I received a 1-year position as a Fellow of 2020 Science in January 2015, and funded myself for two months through an EPSRC eCSE to work on new approaches for domain decomposition. I joined Brunel University in September 2015 to become a Lecturer and I currently collaborate in the EU ComPat project about multiscale computing towards the Exascale. I have published >20 peer-reviewed journal papers in venues such as IEEE Computer, IEEE CiSE, Journal of Computational Science, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A., Physics Review E., the Astrophysical Journal and eLife. In addition, I was second author of the first ever feature article in Advanced Materials, which was on multiscale modelling of clay-polymer nanocomposites and received news coverage from the Daily Telegraph and the BBC. I currently run Science Hackathons to efficiently establish new interdisciplinary collaborations. I am an interdisciplinary researcher who focuses primarily on multiscale modelling and high-performance computing, but takes along some of the major challenges that surround these topics. These include performance modelling and optimization, distributed computing, new approaches for code coupling, and techniques to make intensive computational research easier and more efficient. In terms of applications, I currently model bloodflow in cerebral arteries (using lattice-Boltzmann), and self-assembly processes in layered materials (using molecular dynamics methods). I have worked with a number of other models before (e.g., dark matter simulations to resolve structure formation in the universe), and I am likely to pick up new applications as I proceed with my career. 2015/2016 – Service Oriented Architectures (Msc module) 2015/2016 – Data Visualization (Msc module)

Dr Diana Suleimenova I am a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at Brunel University London. I am a member the Modelling & Simulation Group and the Computer Science for Social Good research groups. My​​ research concentrates on agent-based modelling, forced displacement prediction, and verification, validation and uncertainty quantification (VVUQ) of multiscale applications deployed on emerging exascale platforms. I worked as a Research Fellow in Multiscale Migration Prediction for the Horizon 2020 projects, namely Verified Exascale Computing for Multiscale Applications (VECMA), HPC and Big Data Technologies for Global Systems (HiDALGO) and IT tools and methods for managing migration FLOWS (ITFLOWS). Currently, I am a Knowledge Exchange coordinator for the Software Environment for Actionable and VVUQ-evaluated Applications (SEAVEA), which aims to develop an exascale-ready toolkit for VVUQ techniques in application to various domains. I am interested in predicting and forecasting forced displacement movements using an agent-based modelling. Modelling and Simulation, Agent-based Modelling, Forced Displacement Prediction, Verification, Validation and Uncertainty Quantification Currently, I am the module leader for a second-year CS2007 ICTs in Society module. It is a core module for the Business Computing degree. Moreover, I am a tutor for first-year undergraduate students (CS1701 Group Project Lectures and Tutorials module). I also supervise the CS3072-CS3605 Final year projects and MSc dissertations (CS5500) in Computer Science.

Dr Alireza Jahani Working as a Research Fellow in Coupled Agent-based Modelling at Computer Science Department, Brunel University London, UK. Before joining Brunel University London, He was the Deputy of Technical and Information Services and Assistant Professor at Faculty of Information Technology, Mehralborz University (MAU), Iran. Machine Learning Knowledge Management Supply Chain Analytics Agent-Based Modelling Multi-Agent Systems

Ms Josephine Ayebare I am particularly interested in Citizen’s E-participation in public sector decision-making processes, ICT in rural settings and Participatory Design approaches. My research topic is “Developing an e-participation Model and Mobile application for Uganda’s Rural Setting” My research area is in Information Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D); Computer Science for the Social Good and in particular E-participation focusing on Citizens’ Participatory designs. I have for the last 12 years taught undergraduate students at the Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Uganda.