Executive Officer of Empower

Denise Manton

Denise Manton has 20+ years of multi-disciplinary experience with a focus on innovation driven technology and digital transformation initiatives both in industry and in academic research environments, operating at various levels from software engineering to senior management. In her role as Executive Officer of Empower, she will drive the long-term strategic planning of the research programme and lead engagement and collaboration with diverse stakeholder groups, building a community of practice to overcome the global challenges in the area of data governance. Denise is also responsible for ensuring the key objectives are met and growth of the programme achieved.

Director of Innovation Value Institute

Professor Markus Helfert

Markus Helfert is the Director of IVI and Director of Empower – the SFI funded Programme on Data Governance. He is also Professor of Digital Service Innovation and Director of the Business Informatics Group at Maynooth University. He is a Principle Investigator at Lero – The Irish Software Research Centre and at the Adapt Research Centre. His research is centred on Digital Service Innovation, Smart Cities and IoT based Smart Environments and includes research areas such as Service Innovation, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Smart Services, Building Information Management, FinTech, Data Value, Enterprise Architecture, Technology Adoption, Analytics, Business Process Managem ent. Prof. Helfert is an expert in Data Governance Standards and is involved in European Standardisation initiatives. Markus Helfert has authored more than 200+ academic articles, journal and book contributions and has presented his work at international conferences. Helfert has received national and international grants from agencies such as European Union (FP7; H2020), Science Foundation Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, was project coordinator on EU projects, and is the Project coordinator of the H2020 Projects: PERFORM on Digital Retail.

Digitalisation Lead, Siemens Ireland

Joan Mulvihill

As the Digitalisation Lead for Siemens in Ireland, Joan Mulvihill continues to be at the forefront of driving technology adoption in Ireland. Having held the position of CEO of the Irish Internet Association for 7 years, followed by 2 years as the Centre Director for the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing and Commerce, her role at Siemens builds on Siemens’ and her deep commitment to and understanding of the needs of Irish business for their digital transformation. Digitalisation means working differently. Siemens will always work with their clients to meet their operational technology needs with world class products and services and now through Digitalisation, Siemens leverages its domain expertise with clients to transform and create the businesses of their future.

Vice President, IDA

Helen Burke

Helen Burke is Vice President of IDA Ireland, with responsibility for driving Transformation and Innovation across the IDA client portfolio. Her role involves working on a consultancy level to identify strategic solutions resulting in increased productivity, resilience & innovation. Helen is currently based in Ireland but prior to this worked in New York, Frankfurt and Paris with responsibility for securing employment intensive investment for Ireland. She speaks fluent French and German and graduated with a Business Studies / German degree from University of Limerick followed by a Computer Science Master’s Degree. Helen has recently completed an Advanced Diploma in Personal, Leadership and Executive Coaching and has a great interest in people’s ability to reach their full potential through effective coaching.

Chief Information Officer for the Irish Government

Barry Lowry

Barry Lowry has been the Chief Information Officer for the Irish Government since April 2016 with the primary task of taking forward the Government’s digital agenda. This includes developing the use of shared services, digital ID, digital services and data to better serve the people of Ireland and ensure that Ireland is well-placed to influence and exemplify the EUʼs digital ambitions for 2030.

Barry is also the Chief Adviser to Government on all Digital matters affecting the State and its citizens.

Barry was previously the Director for IT Shared Services and Strategy and Head of the IT Profession within the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

Barry is a Fellow of the Irish and British Computer Societies and is a former winner of both the BCS Northern Ireland IT Professional of the Year and Ireland’s Government/Public Sector CIO/IT Leader of the year. He was awarded an O.B.E. for services to the Northern Ireland Government and the Northern Ireland Computer Industry in 2017 and an Honorary Fellowship of the Analytics Institute of Ireland in 2022.

Senior Fellow in Public Policy in the Social Sciences Institute, Maynooth University

Seán Ó Foghlú

Seán Ó Foghlú is a Senior Fellow in Public Policy in the Social Sciences Institute in Maynooth University. He is supporting research, teaching and civic engagement, relating to public policy development and implementation and is working across the university in advancing the aims of the university in this regard. He is working with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in advising it on the development and implementation of its policy approach on linking research in higher education and policy-making in the civil service.

He is also Chairperson of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment.

He was Secretary General of the Department of Education for 10 years until February 2022. He has 30 years of experience in Irish civil and public service, including four at Assistant Secretary level in the Department of Education and seven years as chief executive of the National Qualifications Authority of Ireland.

Interim Director at ADAPT

Professor Dave Lewis

Dave is an Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin and the Head of its Artificial Intelligence Discipline. He is also Interim Director of the ADAPT SFI Research Centre for Digital Content Technology. He leads ADAPT’s programme of industry collaborative research and its multidisciplinary research theme on Data Governance. 

His research focuses on the use of open semantic models to manage the Data Protection and Data Ethics issues associated with digital content processing. He has led the development of international standards in AI-based linguistic processing of digital content at the W3C and OASIS and is currently active in international standardisation of Trustworthy AI at ISO/IEC JTC1/SC42.

Director of the Bioscience Research Institute at Technological University of the Shannon Midlands Midwest

Professor Neil J Rowan

Professor Neil J Rowan is Director of the Bioscience Research Institute at Technological University of the Shannon Midlands Midwest. He is Funded Investigator at SFI-funded CURAM Research Centre for Medical Devices and holds Adjunct Professorships in the School of Medicine (NUI Galway), School of Biotechnology (University of Malaya, Malaysia), and School of Traditional Medicinal (University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa).  He was Senior Lecturer and co-founder of Roberston Laboratories for Electronic Sterilization at University of Strathclyde University where he received a 5* in UK Research Assessment Exercise.  He has over 3 decades of supporting and enabling development of sustaining, green and disruptive technologies across food, medtech and environmental applications. He has supervised 28 PhDs to completion and published approximately 250 journal papers in these areas. He has co-created Empower Eco (Ecosystem)  Quadruple Helix platform for supporting industry with key actors regionally for developing green innovations that features in Midlands Regional Development Plant 2024. He has applied digital technologies to complex societal challenges. He is nationally and internationally funded including Interreg, Horizon Europe and Erasmus plus.  As member of Expert Working Group,  he has contributed  to national policies including “Research, Innovation Strategy, Impact 2030”. He evaluates regularly for the European Commission including EIC Pathfinder Open Programme.

CEO and Co-Founder of Wellola

Sonia Neary

Sonia is the CEO and co-founder of Wellola. Wellola is an innovative digital health software company, whose founders believe only the sickest of the sick should be hospitalised and that the future of healthcare is preventative, community-based and supported by digital tools.

With over seventeen year’s previous experience working as a Physiotherapist in the Irish healthcare setting, Sonia is a big believer in leveraging digital technology to support hospital-at-home and self-management care models. She champions Wellola’s mission to offer care-enabling technology, which arms clinicians to keep well people well (and treat those that are unwell) in the community where possible, maximising clinical & economic outcomes & optimising patients’ healthcare experiences.

An advocate for greater gender diversity in entrepreneurship, Sonia was honoured to represent Ireland as a finalist in the global ‘Women Who Tech’ awards in Paris (2019), and to accept both the Runner-up award for the IBEC ‘Digital Health Innovation of the Year’ and the ‘Integrated Care’ award from the Irish Medical & Surgical Trade Association on behalf of Wellola (2020).

Managing Director and Vice-President of UNUM Ireland

Padraic O’Neill

Padraig is MD and VP of Unum Ireland and is primarily responsible for Unum’s award winning Technology Centre in Carlow. Unum Carlow is at the centre of Digital Transformation within Unum Group, a Fortune 500 US Insurer, access to talent, leading methods and experience has seen this centre nearly double over the last three years. Unum covers nearly 45 million people globally and its mission is to help the working world thrive throughout life’s moments.  Previously Padraig held similar global commercial and technology leadership positions for J2 Global [Nasdaq], Sage [FTSE], Datalex and others.

NCP for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (Ireland)

Dr Jane Carrigan

Dr Jane Carrigan is one of Ireland’s two National Contact Points for Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and is passionate about research and supporting researchers. In her current role she provides tailored support to MSCA applicants across all sectors and disciplines and has a particular focus on widening participation in MSCA.

She has over 20 years’ experience of working in higher education in Ireland- firstly as an academic, programme director and module coordinator for both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, and in more recent years in research administration. Jane previously worked in Dublin City University where she was Research Development Officer for the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and Research Officer in DCU’s Institute of Education. Through her roles there she developed a track record in working successfully with researchers applying for EU funding.

Chief Information Officer at Irish Life

Simon Hanratty

Since 2019, Simon Hanratty has been Chief Information Officer at Irish Life, working at the company since 2004. Simon also worked in various roles at O2 Ireland such as Development Manager, Head of IT and Head of Products and Services. His roles in IT, Operations and Strategy across multiple industries have allowed Simon to learn more about how Change can be driven, designed, facilitated and even reversed.

University Engagement Lead at Microsoft Ireland

Russell Kane

Russell is the University Engagement Lead for Microsoft across the island of Ireland where he is exploring technologies with students, academics and administrators through hackathons, talks and workshops.

Before joining Microsoft he was an academic within the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen’s University, Belfast for 23 years. His interests within academia were in Innovation Leadership, which developed students’ professional and entrepreneurial skills through engagement with companies by means of projects, competitions, talks and hackathons. Hackathon Evangelist in QUB and further afield including multi-disciplinary Hackathons with other schools & universities which have included areas such as data science, AI, medical, mental health, transport, sustainability to name a few. During his time in academia, he developed and delivered a number of courses and workshops to students both locally and internationally as well as guest speaking on technology at external events internationally. Before academia, he worked in the Public Sector and in Fintech.

Deputy Chief Technology Officer at Software AG

Dr. Christoph F. Strnadl

Christoph educated as a research scientist in Theoretical Physics, Dr. Strnadl has over 30 years of consulting and management experience in IT and how to leverage it for businesses. After 10 years as strategy consultant and business manager at Atos he joined Software AG in 2005 where he is now responsible as Deputy CTO for realizing technology innovations both internally in Software AG, with clients, and within industry associations such as Gaia-X or the Mobility Data Space. His expertise combines classical and modern enterprise application integration patterns with the IoT realm to truly achieve IT/OT convergence. He is a recognized public speaker with almost 300 public appearances, university lecturer for BPM technologies, advisor to a blockchain start up, and co-author of/contributor to six books.

Head of Enterprise Partnerships at Science Foundation Ireland

Dr. Aisling McEvoy

Dr. Aisling McEvoy is Head of Enterprise Partnerships at Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). SFI’s industry partnership programmes provide an opportunity for industry to collaborate directly with scientists and engineers within Irish research bodies at a number of levels ranging from seeding an initial engagement with an academic group, to large-scale collaborative endeavours. Within SFI, Aisling has been central to facilitating a number of major co-funded collaborative partnerships. In addition, Aisling has managed programmes for senior investigators and early/mid-career researchers, as well as partnership programmes with international funding agencies. She has also had responsibility for research impact and peer review within the Foundation.

Aisling graduated from University College Dublin with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Experimental Physics, and received her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Dublin City University, after which she held positions both in the private sector and in third level research before joining Science Foundation Ireland.

Research, Development & Innovation Director at Fidelity Investments Ireland

Peter Hubbert

Peter is the Research, Development & Innovation Director at Fidelity Investments Ireland, where he spearheads academic research collaboration with Universities and Research Centres across Ireland and Europe. His role acts as a consultancy to Fidelity business units, identifying opportunities that would benefit from academic research collaboration and providing Research as a Service (RaaS) to streamline the engagement process for academic/industry collaboration. Prior to joining Fidelity in 2016, Peter served as a Diplomat with the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, focussing on crisis management, security, and defence diplomacy in high-threat environments across Jamaica, Israel, Colombia, Iraq, South Sudan, Iran and Libya.

Person-Driven, Health & Wellbeing Cluster Lead

Dr Marco Alfano

Dr. Marco Alfano is a Senior Researcher at the Innovation Value Institute (IVI), Maynooth University, and leader of the IVI Person-Driven, Health & Wellbeing research cluster. He is also affiliated with Lero, the SFI Research Centre for Software, and receives SFI funding for his research. He is currently working on responsible use of AI in health and well-being by facilitating person/patient empowerment and seamless communication within the healthcare system (http://cohealth.ivi.ie/). His research interests include Responsible AI, Digital Health Transformation, Patient Empowerment, Human-machine communication, Data analytics, Semantic Web, Smart cities, Cybersecurity, and Open Data/Big Data. He has authored more than fifty peer reviewed articles for journals, books, and conferences. He has participated in several European projects and has received grants from international bodies, such as the European Union (under the FP7 and H2020 framework programs), and national bodies, such as Science Foundation Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, and the National Research Council of Italy.

Digital Construction Cluster Lead

Dr Zohreh Pourzolfaghar

Zohreh Pourzolfaghar is Assistant Professor for the School of Business in Maynooth University. She is a members of Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software. Zohreh formerly has been Research Fellow at Innovation Value Institute (IVI), Maynooth University’s digital transformation research centre. She is a senior research member of the Business Informatics Group. She is the theme lead in a project investigating the application of Enterprise Architecture in Smart Cities, funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). She has been Principle Investigator for an Industry Fellowship Programme, funded by SFI. Zohreh presented her work at international conferences and has published research in Journals and Conference Proceedings. Zohreh is also leading research within the Cost Action CA16222 (WISE-ACT), a European-wide network.  She has been thematic lead in a successful European Marie Curie PERFORM project. She is a member of the supervisory board of the EU project PERFORM, that focuses on Digital Retail. She has been awarded the SFI industry fellowship (2018) working with industry on topics related to Smart Cities and Building Information Management. She is the Co-PI for submitted H202 Techland proposal. Zohreh received her Ph.D. in Project Management in design process of building projects. Zohreh has years of experience working with project-oriented construction companies to improve organisatioanal productivity and their work processes.

Vice-President of External Affairs at Maynooth University

Rebecca Doolin

Senior Operations Specialist @ SAP CX Commerce Cloud

Dr. Gabriele Obermeier

Vice Dean of IT Research, University of Jyväskylä

Professor Tuure Tuunanen

Professor Tuure Tuunanen is a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Jyväskylä (Finland) and Uppsala University (Sweden). Tuure is also global faculty fellow at Center for Service Leadership, ASU His research focuses on innovation and design of digital and cyber-physical services.

Director of ICT at NUI Galway

Dr Beatrice Heneghan

Dr Beatrice Heneghan is Director of ICT at NUI Galway with responsibility for delivering transformative ICT for the enablement of impactful research, innovation and teaching in an enhanced student learning environment. In her prior role Beatrice served as Head of Information Systems and Innovation at Mayo County Council. Previously, she held posts in ICT and Digital Transformation in Laois and Limerick local authorities.

Beatrice served as Chair of the local government sectoral Architecture and Standards Group (ASG) and on the national ePlanning and Central Data Unit boards. She is a member of Lero – the Science Foundation Ireland Software Research Centre, the Maynooth University Business Informatics Research Group and the Innovation Value Institute (IVI). She is also a member of the International Advisory Board for the Professional Doctorate in Engineering programme at the University of Limerick and contributes as a guest lecturer to the programme. In 2021 Beatrice received the IVI Leadership in Digital Transformation in the Public Sector award.

While having wide experience in the Information Systems (IS) field her particular expertise is in the area of data governance and enterprise architecture with a focus on business/IT alignment in the design and delivery of strategy. Beatrice holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Limerick and master’s in software engineering from NUI Galway. Beatrice has presented at national and international academic and practitioner conferences and continues to collaborate on research in IS.

Visualisation & BI Specialist at Digital Manufacturing Ireland

Katharine Cooney

Katharine is a visualisation and BI Specialist at Digital Manufacturing Ireland, helping manufacturing companies to effectively use data to drive business performance. She has many years’ experience in data analytics and data management in both commercial organisations and in government where she worked with Dept of Public Expenditure and Reform and Smart Dublin on the Open Data program.

National Standards Officer for Microsoft Ireland

Marta Janczarski

Marta Janczarski is the National Standards Officer for Microsoft Ireland. She is the project editor of the ISO/IEC 42001 AI Management System Standard under development in ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42 Artificial Intelligence. Her focus is in AI governance, compliance readiness as well as the intersection of AI in industry verticals, she participates in various efforts of AI standardization in both ISO as well as the European Commission’s CEN-CENELEC. She is the chair for the Irish National Mirror Committee for ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection as well as CEN-CENELEC JTC 13 Cybersecurity and data protection. Marta is a recognized subject matter expert in data and AI governance, standards and innovation. She has served in various advisory and strategist capacities, in both the private and public sectors in Europe as well as Canada.

Senior Director of Data Science & Analytics at Hertz

Dr. John Gough

Standards Officer at NSAI

Barry Smith

Barry Smith joined NSAI in 1993. Since 2004 he has worked in the Standards Division, his current role is primarily in the field of ICT standardization where he operates the secretariat to the national mirror committee to ISO/IEC JTC 1 “ICT Standardization”. In the past Barry has had leading roles in construction industry and energy management standardization where he led standards development projects required for the national implementation of the European standards for structural design (Eurocodes) and for Irish standards on energy management systems and energy efficient design management.

Prior to 2004, Barry worked for NSAI Certification where he was an ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems lead assessor and an ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems assessor.

Director of the International Centre for Local and Regional Development (ICLRD)

Caroline Creamer

Caroline has worked in a research and management capacity on a number of EU funded projects over the past 16 years; namely the Four Cities Project (Urban Regeneration, Planning and Community Participation) with Maynooth University; EQUAL at Work (Inclusive Employment and Recruitment Practices in the Irish Labour Market) with the Dublin Employment Pact; SPAN (Strategic Planning and Multi-level Governance) with Maynooth University; and more recently, CroSPlaN (the Cross-Border Spatial Planning Development and Training Network) with ICLRD.  She has led on various action research programmes, co-designed and delivered capacity building training with Councils across the island of Ireland, and created learning networks for different sectoral interests.  A qualified town planner, her research interests include spatial planning practice and policy, leadership in place-making and place-shaping, regional and local development and regeneration, collaborative and participative decision-making, and inter-territorial and cross-border development.

Caroline holds a Diploma in Environmental Resources Management from Dublin Institute of Technology, an MA in Geography from Maynooth University, an MA in Town and Country Planning from University of the West of England / Open University, and is currently a part-time PhD candidate in Maynooth University.

Head of Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Sligo

Trevor McSharry

Trevor McSharry is Head of Department of Civil Engineering and Construction at Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Sligo since 2011 and has over 26 years’ experience within both the multinational and the higher education sectors. He is passionate about bridging the gap between education and industry through collaboration and has led the development of Ireland’s largest suite of construction related online part time educational programmes, which includes industry partners such as Irish Water, the Department of Transport, TII and the SCSI. He has been instrumental in leading the development of Ireland’s civil engineering apprenticeship programmes in collaboration with national partners from the private and public sectors.

Trevor is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow with Engineers Ireland and a certified Project Management Professional. He holds an MBA with DCU and a Post Grad Certificate in BIM and the Digital Environment and is research and consultancy interests include project and change management, lean and process optimisation. He is currently a doctoral candidate at Maynooth University with a research focus on change and leadership in higher education. Trevor has been a Director with Lean Construction Ireland (LCi) since 2018, currently leading the capability development pillar and is the editor of the 2022 LCi Book of Cases.

Regional Skills Manager, Mid-East Regional Skills Forum

Siobhan Keogh

Siobhan Keogh is the Regional Skills Forum Manager for the Mid-East of Ireland, a role that requires her to build and maintain positive working relationships with education and training providers as well as government agencies and employers in order to identify skills needs for the Mid-East Region and create relevant responses.

The Mid-East Regional Skills Forum, an initiative of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, supports and facilitates communication and engagement between education and enterprise in the identification, development and delivery of current and future skills required for the region.

Siobhan is experienced in developing and implementing regional skills development responses as well as learning and development strategies and solutions in the roles of Regional Skills Forum Manager, Training and Development Manager, Information Systems Training Manager, Project Manager and independent trainer across a range of industries and sectors including Diageo, Coca-Cola Bottlers (Ireland and Ulster) and Dublin City University.

Throughout her career Siobhan has designed and delivered an array of programmes in order to support business growth, innovation and resilience in times of change including leadership and management development, team development, sales development, career development, performance management, information systems training, business skills and soft skills training.

Head of Advisory Services at Version 1

Ronan Laffan

Ronan is one of Version 1’s most experienced Enterprise Architects and Digital Leaders, and has been with Version 1 since 2001, leading Version 1’s Advisory Services consulting capability. With extensive knowledge across a wide range of industries and technology domains, Ronan has led major technology solutions and modernisation programmes for many of Version 1’s public and private sector customers, working across digital, data and cloud domains. An innovative and strategic thinker, he has presented on technology and digital topics at many conferences. He brings deep insight into the transformation that digital technology brings to organisations, whether considering business or IT processes, enabling new ways of working and innovation in service delivery.

Senior Strategic Policy Advisor at Enterprise Ireland

Helen McMahon

Enterprise Ireland’s (EI) Strategic Policy department is responsible for proactively formulating Enterprise Ireland’s policy position in relation to key strategic matters including issues impacting the development of Irish Enterprise and National Policy priorities. In my role as Senior Strategic Policy Advisor in Enterprise Ireland, she led Enterprise Ireland’s ongoing engagement with Government Departments, Agencies, and other stakeholders in the area of skills and talent, both informing stakeholders of issues affecting the growth of EI client companies while also informing and influencing policy development.

Prior to my role in Enterprise Ireland, Helen was Senior Executive for Business and Enterprise Skills Development of Screen Training Ireland (Screen Skills Ireland). She worked with company leaders, creative talent, producers, and industry practitioners in the advanced and early stage of their career development. She was Programme Director of, Screen Leaders, the leading Strategic Company Development Programme for the Screen Industries in Europe, designed for industry leaders working in film, television, animation, games, post-production, VFX, facilities, sales, distribution, and exhibition.

Digital Skills Lecturer in the Assisting Living & Learning Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

Dr Katriona O’Sullivan

Dr Katriona O’Sullivan is Lecture of Digital Skills in the Assisting Living & Learning Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University. She is the Principal Investigator on the STEM Passport for Inclusion project, featured recently on RTE Changemaker series. She has held research grants from the Irish Research Council and Science Foundation Ireland leading an initiative to tackle digital inequality in education. She also successfully led the largest HEA PATH funded programme entitled Turn to Teaching which focused on diversifying teacher education. She has been invited speaker at the World Education Forum, the European Gender Action Workshop on Women and Digitalization and most recently at the UN gender equality workshop. She has worked with Irish policy makers to develop policies around education and inclusion. She has published research on equality, gender, education, inclusion and STEM.

Lecturer in Engineering at Ulster University

Dr James Uhomoibhi

James Uhomoibhi is a Chartered Physicist and a member of the Institute of Physics; He is a Chartered IT Professional, a Fellow of British Computer Society (BCS), a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy, a Fellow of the Centre for Higher Education Research and Practice (CHERP) and a member of several national and international professional organisations in Physics, Engineering and Education. He lectures and researches entrepreneurship and innovation in engineering. He is a visiting Professor of Physics, Computer Science and IT in three Nigerian Universities. He is also a visiting Professor of Science, Technology and Environmental Studies at the Open University, Tanzania. He is a Lead visiting Scientist at the African City of Technology (ACT), Sudan. James Uhomoibhi holds BSc in Physics Education, BPhil in Philosophy, MSc in Optoelectronics and Optical Information Processing, PGCHET in Higher Education Teaching and PhD in Laser Physics. He has published several articles in journals, conferences and book chapters. He has also edited Books and proceedings. He is a member of Editorial Review Board of several international highly esteemed journals. He is an expert in digital education and e-Research. His research interests are in artificial intelligence, digital education and e-research, machine learning, data science, information security, MAV (mixed augmented and virtual) reality computing. James Uhomoibhi is LEADS scholar in Nigeria and the African Laser Centre representative in Europe. He has received several regional and international awards for community work and academic achievements. Today he is Chair of the Ulster University Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Network. For his dedication and commitment to teaching and learning he recently received the Educator of the Year 2023 Award in computing, Engineering and the Built Environment.