About Me

December 8th, 2009

Background

I studied Industrial Design at Brunel University, graduating in 1995. As a final year project I developed a multimedia kiosk based on the Science Museum’s Space Gallery. This project combined with time working in a school sparked an interest in educational software development.

I started working at UH in 1995 on a one year research contract working for the IDER group in Manufacturing Systems, developing Design Builder, a CD-ROM which used AI techniques to create virtual experts to guide a student through the design to manufacture process of a winch. The system was sold to over 100 Universities and Colleges worldwide. Work then started on Blueprint, a redesigned version of Design Builder aimed at schools.

In 1998 I moved to the Learning Technology Development Unit where I have developed a range of educational software, delivered of training courses and helped design and develop StudyNet, the University’s Learning Environment.

My work with IDER continued and Blueprint was launched in the summer of 1999. It has been sold to a number of schools and also the Scottish Engineering Education Scheme. A support site for this project is available at http://www.ider.herts.ac.uk/school/

Since 2001, my focus has been the support and development of the Managed Learning Environment for the University. This system, featuring individual customisable portals and course websites for every university course, has been developed using Lotus Domino and is available using any web browser.

Research

Towards the end of my time with IDER I started an MPhil investigating how computer technology could be used to aid conceptual design. However, when I moved to the LTDU I decided that ‘spare’ time should be focused on supporting the IDER project and to bring Blueprint to the marketplace.

Very old examples of work:

Work of the IDER group (late 90s)

Personal Sites