An introduction to our Wales Conference Ambassadors

Dr Zarges holds a diploma degree in computer science and a Ph.D in the theoretical foundations of the immune systems from her time at Technical University Dortmund Germany, before transferring to Aberystwyth University to become a senior lecturer in computer science. Christine’s work here involves teaching various method modules related to algorithm design, data structures, information security, artificial intelligence and more. With an h5-index of 23 and also engages in activities that contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

My research focuses on devices and interactions designed with and for emergent users – people in rural or developing regions where connectivity and technology availability are often low. I lead the department's HCI research group, the FIT Lab, and am also Director of the MSc year of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Enhancing Human Interactions and Collaborations with Data and Intelligence Driven Systems. My current research is funded by the EPSRC grant UnMute, and various smaller projects. I've previously been part of the Rethinking public technology in a COVID-19 era, PV interfaces, Breaking the glass, Reshaping the expected future, Scaling the rural enterprise, Community-generated media for the next billion and Multimodal, negotiated interaction in mobile scenarios projects.

Dr Otar Akanyeti completed his BSc in Electronic Engineering and MSc in Embedded Systems and Robotics. Otar’s PhD work focused on robot learning by demonstration under the supervision of Prof Ulrich Nehmzow at University of Essex. Otar investigated formal ways of developing controllers for mobile robots using machine learning and system identification methods. After Otar’s PhD, he joined Dr Paolo Fiorini’s research group in Verona, Italy to work in an EU-FP7 project, which interfaced biology and engineering to develop a bio-inspired fish robot with an artificial lateral line. Otar’s growing interest in the biological aspects of movement and sensing led him to join Dr James C. Liao’s laboratory at Whitney Institute for Marine Biology in University of Florida. In 2017, Otar took up a Lectureship in the Department of Computer Science at Aberystwyth University. In Aberystwyth, Otar has expanded his research portfolio to human health, mainly focusing on artificial intelligence and chronic disease management. With Dr Federico Villagra from Institute of Biology, Environmental and Rural Sciences, they have founded the Aberystwyth Stroke Research Group.

In 2005, Jianming rejoined Bangor University as a Lecturer, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2007 and a Personal Chair in 2011. He has developed and leads a highly productive research team undertaking cutting-edge research in optical transmission, dynamic networking, and ultrafast optical switching for future optical networks. Over the past six years (2005–2011), as a principal investigator/project coordinator, he has captured thirteen research grants of approximately £3.8M in total from various funding bodies. He has also published more than 100 papers and filed 7 patents. In addition, he is actively involved in other research-related professional activities such as delivery of invited talks/seminars, co-chair/member for conference programme committees, reviewer for grant awarding bodies, professional journals and patent offices.

The founding Director of Buffoon Media, Adam is one of our bilingual Producers and is a licensed drone operator. Since 2011, Buffoon Media have been creating and streaming content for clients across the UK. We have worked with some of the UK’s biggest names including Unilever, Tata Steel, Nectar Card, UK Government, and the NHS. Being a proud video production company based in Wales, we are experienced in producing Welsh language content for the public and private sectors and have bilingual staff who can take you through the whole process in whichever language you prefer.

A cultural entrepreneur working at the intersection of contemporary art, media and technology, Dr. Alfredo Cramerotti is Director of mm:museum at Northwestern Qatar. He is President of IKT–International Association Curators of Contemporary Art, Chair of the Digital Strategies Committee of AICA–International Association of Art Critics, and Advisor to the KSA Visual Art Commission, UK Government Art Collection, British Council Visual Arts Acquisition Committee, and the Italian Ministry of Culture.

Richard is a multi-award-winning Senior Lecturer and Programme Leader at Wrexham University. He is also the current Global Game Jam Regional Organiser for UK & Ireland. With more than 20 years’ experience as an academic and free-lance developer, he is the founder of Games Talent Wales; the first Welsh nationally funded game talent development programme, specialising in the support and creation of sustainable indie game studios. Richard is a member of BAFTA Cymru and is also the Tranzfuser Local Hub Coordinator for North Wales (based at WU), where he established the Level Up Wales initiative which has grown to become the most successful business accelerators and game industry partnership programmes in Wales. His primary research interests involve the use of game technology within education in addition to the practicalities of game development such as production management, optimisation of graphical rendering, immersive game design and artificial intelligence systems for games.

Professor Hiscock is Professor of English Literature, Dean of Postgraduate Research and Head of the university's Doctoral School. He has been Head of the School of English Literature, Deputy Dean and Director of the Graduate School for the College of Arts and Humanities during his career at Bangor University. He was awarded an AHRC Research Fellowship for 2011-12 and was also the recipient of the Ben Jonson Discoveries Award in 2014. He was Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Institut de Recherche sur la Renaissance, l'Age Classique et les Lumières, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier III from 2016-18 and has been appointed as a Research Fellow to the Institute.

an experienced producer and co-producer of feature-length documentaries working out of his Ffilm Cymru Wales-supported production company, Truth Department. His films include the BIFA-winning film Orion: The Man Who Would Be King and The Borneo Case which premiered at IDFA in the masters section. His film Donna by Jay Bedwani, premiered at Frameline Film Festival San Francisco on June 25th 2022 and distributed in the UK & Ireland by Bohemia Media. Gregory is currently completing development on his next film, Smoking Shores, by debut filmmaker David Warwick, executive produced by Michael Sheen, ready for financing in Summer 2022. He is an EAVE Producers Workshop graduate and Creative England Market Trader delegate.

Prof. Dr. Christian Kaunert is Chair of Policing and Security, as well as Director of the International Centre for Policing and Security at the University of South Wales. Prof Kaunert has researched and taught in many international universities. He was previously Senior Lecturer at the University of Dundee, Marie Curie Senior Research Fellow at the European University Institute Florence, and Senior Lecturer in EU Politics & International Relations, University of Salford. He is currently Editor of the Journal of Contemporary European Studies, was also previously an elected member of the national (UK) Executive Committee of the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES) and co-founded and co-led the special interest section on the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice of the European Union Studies Association (EUSA).

Dr Juan Hernandez Vega is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the School of Computer Science and Informatics, where he is part of the Human-centred Computing Group. Before joining Cardiff University, Juan had worked in robotics for more than 10 years. In Juan’s doctoral research, he focused on AUVs that do not have any a priori map and are required to build one online, while safely navigating through unexplored environments. After completing his PhD in 2017, Juan joined TNO (Helmond, Netherlands), where he worked as a research robotics engineer. After this experience in industry, he joined Prof. Lydia E. Kavraki's laboratory at Rice University (Houston, USA) in 2018. Juan’s research at Rice was mainly focused on developing motion planning techniques to endow robots with better decision-making capabilities for human-robot collaboration scenarios. After completing his postdoctoral research, Juan joined Apple Inc. and its Special Projects Group (SPG) in 2019. At Apple, Juan was a senior engineer and he worked on developing tools for simulation of autonomous systems.