Who we are

Research interests include visualizing complex data, automated data visualization, theoretical techniques for visualizing data, visualizing social networks.

Expertise in the following areas:

• Software Development
• Game Development
• Computer Science
• Data Visualization

My curriculum interests encompass the theories and principles that underpin the discipline of user experience design, UXD. To this end, I am the course leader of the University of Brighton's MSc in UXD. Primarily, this course equips students with the practical skills to work as effective UXD practitioners within the interactive / digital industries. Further, students are encouraged to critically reflect upon and question the effectiveness of contemporary thinking that underpins UXD best practice.  

My research interests focus upon the efficacy of diagrams. My PhD explores the impact of graphical choices on diagram comprehension. Presently, I am collaborating with colleagues from Cambridge University on a project entitled ‘Accessible Reasoning with Diagrams’; the project is funded by The Leverhulme Trust https://sites.google.com/site/myardproject/ . I am also collaborating with colleagues from Jadavpur University charting the cognitive processes active when interpreting diagrams.

My research focuses on logical diagrams (e.g. Euler and Venn diagrams, existential graphs). This includes formalising graphical languages for problems such as software specification and ontology egineering, testing their effectiveness and analysing the way that such notations communicate information. The latter analysis uses results from empirical studies but also cognitive science, semiotics and the philosophy of notation.

My current research is in the area of machine learning, including both mathematical foundations and applications. Prediction with expert advice and topological data analysis are my main topics of interest. 

Prediction with expert advice is a paradigm for sequential forecasting that studies how one can merge predictions from different sources when reliability of these sources needs to be inferred from the predictions themselves. This paradigm is close to online bandits and related to many other machine learning techniques, from ridge regression to boosting. I am particularly interested in direct applications for prediction with expert advice algorithms.

Topological data analysis is a relatively recent but already mature area of machine learning that tries to apply notions from topology, a highly abstract branch of pure mathematics, to finding patterns in point clouds. Currently, I am working mostly on expressing topological data analysis ideas in the form of kernels inducing a reproducing kernel Hilbert space structure on data.

I am also remaining interested in the developments in both of my original research areas: algorithmic information theory / Kolmogorov complexity and constructive logical semantics.

Applications of computer technology (knowledge representation, advanced algorithms, machine learning, software engineering), particularly to problems which involve the use of natural (human) languages and with a specific focus on lexicalist approaches.

• Natural language processing: text analytics, information extraction, text mining, sentiment and genre analysis, natural language generation, recommender systems;
• Computational lingusitics: morphology, lexicography, lexicology;
• Knowledge representation, especially as it relates to language: lexicons, ontologies, semantic web, semantic metadata, multilingual representation, distributed representations;
• Architectures and tools for language processing systems and language-based user interfaces.

Recent projects have focused on text mining and semantic metadata in Digital Humanities and Cultural Informatics, including the AHRC-funded projects TRI-PACT, DFAP and Traces Through Time, the Digging into Data project ChartEx, and the EC large-scale Integrating Project, 3D-COFORM.   Recent PhD student topics include computational lexicography, text analytics, sentiment analysis, semantic metadata, recommender systems and microservice software architectures.

Dr Sanaz Fallahkhair is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics (CEM), University of Brighton as well as a member of "Centre for Secure, Intelligent and Usable systems", and "Centre for Digital Media Cultures". Previously, she has held a Senior Lectureship position at the School of Computing, University of Portsmouth and University of Greenwich Business School. She has more than ten years experience working in higher education in UK. Her research interests include human-centred development of new technologies that incorporate studies of user's experiences, cognition and collaboration in designing a novel intelligent systems delivered via multiple platforms: mobile devices, interactive television, tag-based technologies, wearable technologies, and robotic interactions. Some related themes of her research include Human Computer Interaction, Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS), User’s Modelling and Adaptation, Human Robotic Interactions, Intelligent Interaction Modelling, Data Analytic and Sentiment Analysis.

She has worked on different European and National projects funded by European Commission and UK Research Councils, such as the FP6-EU and JISC funded projects, including TAMALLE (Television and Mobile phone Assisted Language Learning Environment), LOGOS (Knowledge on-demand for Ubiquitous learning) and CloudBank (Mobile Knowledge Sharing for Advanced Language Learners), M-health project (Department of Health). Sanaz is a research active member of staff and have authored or co-authored more than 40 papers in peer-reviewed Journal, Book chapters, and Conference proceedings Worldwide.

She is involved in various professional and editorial membership in particular recently with the following:

• Expert Reviewer, ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council), 2016 to date Expert Reviewer of grant proposals submitted to ESRC, in which I have reviewed 2 proposals since November 2016.

• Reviewer of the IEEE Communications Magazine

• Reviewer of Journal of Computers and Education

• Member of the Review Board of the International Journal of Knowledge Based and Intelligent Engineering Systems (KES)

Current research Projects:

• Research project with University of São Paulo, Universito of Chile, Es el Senor Vagner de Sousa Beserra. Colaboración Internacional para el desarrollo de la Televisión Digital Terrestre Educativa en Chile - to develop an International consortium to explore a potential of educational application for digital television (DTV).

• Sentiment Analysis and Data Mining of Educational Application from Twitter, University of Portsmouth, and Edge Hill University.

• Empirical study to investigate and evaluate Human Robotic Interaction, mainly aspects of usability in terms of, technology acceptances, efficiency, effectiveness and user satisfaction.

• User-centred development of Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT), in collaboration of Brighton and Sussex Medical School.

• Smart ambient – development of location based informal learning through mobile and ubiquitous technologies in collaboration of University of Portsmouth and University of Al-Mustansiriyah

• Brain Computer Interface (BCI): Experimental study to evaluate cognitive loads and performances of users using technologies in edutainment and digital well-being (in particular, mobile apps and wearable technologies)

Visual representations and their applications in Mathematics and Computer Science, but with developing connections in Engineering and to the Arts. Research areas of (collaborative) research interests include:

• Topology (e.g. Combinatorial and Computational Knot Theory)
• Discrete Mathematics (e.g. Algebraic formalisms, Graph Theory, Algorithms)
• Visual Languages and Interfaces
• Information and Data Visualization
• Automated Reasoning
• Machine Learning
• Security & Privacy
• Industrial Informatics
• Applied Statistics.

My research interests focus on the integration of technology in teaching and learning, particularly in the use and pedagogic potential of games, escape rooms, virtual/augmented environments, and data visualisation in educational settings. A representative list of my research interests is the following:

• Gamification / Escape Rooms / Location-based Games / Alternate Reality Games
• Augmented / Virtual Reality
• Technology Enhanced Learning
• Cybersecurity
• User Experience (UX) / Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Internet of Things

Digital Health technologies are promising to have a profound effect on how health services are delivered, allowing people to manage their own health more effectively, providing effective ways of diagnosing disease, monitoring the impact of policies on population health, resulting to improved accessibility, affordability and quality of health care. Still the introduction of these technologies comes with challenges and experience resistance and slow adaptation.

Theo’s specialising on Digital Nursing and Digital Health.

His research interests lie in the intersection of Health Care and Digital Technologies and his focus is on the field of co-producing and evaluating Digital Health Technologies through Digital Health Living Labs and accelerating innovation.

In particular, his research focuses on the following areas:

• Digital Health Living Labs. The work in this area is concerned with the development of Living Labs as ecosystems of open innovation through co-production with citizens.

• Evaluation of Digital Health Technologies. I am interested on developing new approaches and tools for the trialling and evaluating new technologies such as wearables and sensors and their use as health care tools.

• Digital Ready Healthcare Workforce. Based on the Digital Nursing term I coined in 2015, the aim of the work is to utilise the Living Labs as spaces for undergraduate and post graduate health care students to work side by side with citizens on developing innovation skills and conduct research.

• IoT, Cyber-Physical, and Cloud Computing Security in Health Care. I am interested in exploring the role of the end users as vulnerable actors in security attacks, threat discovery and response, and their educational requirements.        

Recent and ongoing projects include:

• the development of a Digital Health Living Lab initiated at Leach Court and expanded in more areas in Brighton. Living Labs offer an arena for developing and testing prototypes or more mature digital health products and services, through co-production with citizens, that have the potential to improve welfare services, reduce financial pressure to public sector services and to enable healthy living as a whole. The project was funded by the KSS AHSN Darzi Fellowships.
• the development of a Living Lab situated at The Bevy, aiming to explore and tackle social isolation and loneliness. The partnership will build on the experience of the Bevy in starting to tackle loneliness through different community initiatives, and the university’s experience of the Brighton and Hove Digital Health Living Lab. It will enable the Living Lab to innovate from a domestic space – working with older people in sheltered accommodation – to also being located in a quintessentially British public space – the local pub. The project was funded by the UoB Community University Partnership Programme (CUPP)
• INNOVATEDIGNITY-ITN project led by Professor Kathleen Galvin where I am a member of the supervisory team. The purpose of INNOVATEDIGNITY-ITN funded by the European Commission (2019–2023) is to develop a shared research and training agenda in order to educate the next generation of interdisciplinary health care researchers and care leaders across Europe. The project is a response to the Europe wide need to provide sustainable and dignified care for older people at home and in residential, municipal and hospital settings.

The need to secure and esnure the privacy of software systems and the relevant infrastructure, has been recognised as a major challenge not just for the further usage of technology but also for the further advancement of human society. As such, a number of fundamental research challenges have been identified for relevant disciplines such as security engineering, privacy engineering, software engineering, and information systems.

My research interests lie in the intersection of privacy, security and software engineering.

My long-term research goal is to effectively analyse, understand and improve security and privacy of software systems for large, open and dynamic environments. In doing so, I have pioneered work in developing ontologies, languages, models, processes, methodologies and automated testing and optimisation techniques that consider security and privacy as integral aspects of the software systems development process.

In particular, my research focuses on the following areas:

• Security and Privacy Requirements Engineering. My work in this area is concerned with the development and precise definition of modelling languages, methodologies and ontologies to support elicitation, modelling and analysis of security, trust, and privacy requirements. I have developed the Secure Tropos methodology, one of the first methodologies in the literature that implements the idea of security and privacy by design and integrates security, privacy and engineering techniques under one methodological approach.
• Data Privacy Management and GDPR. I am interested in developing platforms and solutions that facilitate visual analysis of privacy requirements and needs and assist the creation, monitoring and enforcement of Privacy Level Agreements. Moreover, my work is focused in the analysis and development of innovative data privacy governance platforms, which facilitate scoping and processing of data and data breach management and support organisations towards GDPR and regulatory compliance.
• IoT, 5G, Cyber-Physical, and Cloud Computing Security. My work in this area is focused on developing novel models, methodologies and analysis techniques that guarantee the highest possible levels of protection within IoT, 5G and Cloud computing environments, in the presence of different security and privacy threats.
• Model-Based Security/Privacy Engineering. My work in that area focuses on the development and analysis of methods, processes, and architectures for secure and privacy-aware systems. At the requirements level, I focus on the development of processes that enable the elicitation and modelling of security and privacy requirements and analyse them in terms of security and privacy properties, relevant threats and vulnerabilities. At the architectural level, I focus on developing software architecture techniques to ensure that socio-technical systems satisfy security, trust and privacy requirements and that developed architectures reduce potential risks.
• Security Engineering Decision Support. I am investigating novel decision-making methodologies and models that offer the highest possible levels of protection within different domains (e.g. IoT, Cloud) with regards to different security and privacy threats and a set of evolving factors such as security requirements, financial cost, indirect costs (e.g. people’s productivity), intangible and tangible assets. I am also interested in developing underlying formalisms, utilising logics and graph transformations, to enable precise specifications and automated reasoning, within the context of security and dependability, taking into account organisational policies and resource allocation.
• Security Attack and Threat Discovery. I am interested in developing novel reasoning techniques and algorithms that assist the discovery of potential cyber-attack paths in supply-chain and critical infrastructures, taking into account information from the Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) and from the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE). My work can be applied within a dynamic risk management system to detect the vulnerabilities of the IT infrastructure and to deliver attack paths that satisfy certain criteria.
• Security and Privacy Patterns. My work investigates the development of security and privacy pattern languages that enable the representation of patterns and guide developers through the process of designing a system to ensure security and privacy. A major novelty of this work is that the solution to the pattern is represented using concepts from the requirements stage, which enable developers to directly apply the patterns of the language to the security and privacy requirements analysis.
• Automated Analysis Tools. I am interested in developing tools to support security and trust analysis of the socio-technical systems at different levels. At the higher level, they are graphical editors where security, privacy and trust models can be drawn and the grammatical correctness of the models is automatically checked. On the lower level, they enable analysis of security, privacy and trust properties and security threats.

Within these research areas I have supervised to completion seven PhD and one MPhil students and I currently supervise Five PhD students at the University of Brighton. I have  examined 16 PhD students.

I have lead the University of Brighton team on three European Union funded projects, VisiOn, MITIGATE and SESAME and I am the technical coordinator of the DEFeND Project.

I am also interested in applying the theoretical research outputs of my work to different application domains and my work has been applied to the development and analysis of systems in the areas of critical infrastructures, cloud computing, health-care, telecommunications, banking, and e-commerce.

My main research focuses on the engineering of secure and trustworthy information systems that ensure data privacy. My research interests are in the area of requirements engineering and more particularly in trust, security, and privacy engineering. I study methods, tools, and techniques that support engineers in the development of software systems that are secure and protect data privacy.

Current research projects:

• DEFeND - A data governance framework for supporting GDPR - H2020 - https://www.defendproject.eu/

Previous research projects:

• VisiOn - Visual Privacy Management in User Centric Open Environments - H2020 - http://www.visioneuproject.eu/
• MITIGATE - Multidimensional, IntegraTed, rIsk assessment framework and dynamic, collaborative Risk ManaGement tools for critical information infrAstrucTurEs – H2020 - https://www.mitigateproject.eu/
• DEFTRUST – DEsigning For TRUST – EPSRC & BT funded

My website: https://pirasluca.wordpress.com/I am Luca Piras and I am working as Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Brighton (UK), carrying on research activities on Privacy Engineering, Acceptance Requirements Analysis and Gamification Engineering. Specifically, I work at the School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics (CEM) of the University of Brighton, and collaborate with Prof. Haris Mouratidis and Prof. Michalis Pavdilis.Furthermore, I am working to the Data govErnance For supportiNg gDpr (DEFeND) European Project (https://www.defendproject.eu/). I am contributing to the research activities of such project, and I am also in charge of the technical project management concerning all the contributions delivered by the University of Brighton to the DEFeND Project.Previously, I carried out my PhD at the International Doctoral School on Information and Communication Technology of the University of Trento under the direction of Prof. John Mylopoulos and Prof. Paolo Giorgini. I was a member of the Software Engineering and Requirements Engineering group (Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science - DISI - at the University of Trento).My main research interests are: Privacy Engineering, Security Engineering, Gamification, Gamification Engineering, Acceptance Requirements, Requirements Engineering, Software Engineering, Goal Modeling, Conceptual Modeling, Human Behavior, Socio-Technical Systems, Smart Cities, Sustainable Mobility, Service-Oriented Architectures and Distributed Adaptive Systems.The list of my publications is available at https://pirasluca.wordpress.com/home/publications/ and in the "Publications" section at the end of this page.For additional information, please, have a look at my website https://pirasluca.wordpress.com/. In particular, for more details on my Acceptance Requirements and Gamification Engineering research (e.g., models, case studies, and details on Agon, our Acceptance Requirements Framework Based on Gamification), please, have a look at https://pirasluca.wordpress.com/home/acceptance/.Title of my PhD Thesis: "Agon: a Gamification-Based Framework for Acceptance Requirements".

Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning and their applications in emerging domains such as cybersecurity.

Research interests include:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Machine Learning
• Cybersecurity

My research interests include the development and application of computational technologies for the digitisation of objects and environments; the information management, analysis, search/browse visualisation of visual representations, including 2D and 3D content; as well as their physical reproduction using digital fabrication. A focus of the research is the Cultural Heritage (CH) sector and its related applications such as creative applications, art, culture, education and tourism. I have produced research outputs in interdisciplinary areas such as computer graphics, information and knowledge management as well as cultural heritage.

I serve in various international committees in these areas. I am currently member of the Editorial board and information Director for the ACM Journal of Computing and Cultural Heritage (JOCCH), member of the Management Board of the Centre for Secure, Intelligent and Usable Systems (CSIUS), and member of the Steering Comittee of the Eurographics Workshop on Graphics and Cultural Heritage. I have been past programme chair of International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Intelligent Cultural Heritage (VAST) and review regularly for conferences, journals and national and international funding bodies.

The aim of my doctoral research is to investigate the design, production and introduction of 3D digitally fabricated replicas of artefacts in cultural heritage experiences to address expectations and needs of distinctive audience groups.

The cultural heritage sector has been used over the last few decades as a test field for 3D technologies, such as 3d imaging and 3d printing. Until recently, the main focus of researchers and professionals has been on developing more accurate and effective techniques and to serve processes related to the documentation, preservation and dissemination of cultural heritage. This project emphasises the communication aspect of cultural heritage management by investigating how the attributes of digitally fabricated artefacts work within experiential frameworks, how these physical representations are perceived by audiences and how museum professionals, educators and designers can manipulate them to effectively communicate cultural heritage information.

The project is carried out with the collaboration of the Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton and Hove.

Broadly speaking, my research interests and activity falls within the areas of biostatistics, categorical data analysis, high-dimensional statistics and statistical genetics focusing on statistical methods for multivariate or high-dimensional data. In particular, I am interested in developing regression techniques for correlated responses, estimation methods of large covariance matrices and hypothesis testing procedures in high-dimensional settings. Although my research is motivated by cross-disciplinary collaborations with biologists, bioinformaticians, computer scientists and doctors, it finds application in a wide range of studies, including studies in social sciences, health studies and omics-studies among others. I disseminate the developed methods in R packages that are contributed to the R-CRAN and Bioconductor projects.

Marcus explores ubiquitous computing applications and interfaces in the contexts of education, cultural heritage and public engagement. Taking a Human Computer Interaction perspective, he researches issues around awareness, engagement and agency in pervasive and intelligent computing environments. Marcus collaborates with educational institutions, museums, charities and industry partners in research and development projects funded by national and international organisations. Visit his personal page to browse current and past projects.