CONNECTED ENVIRONMENTS - Key Persons
Aude is an EPSRC-funded PhD Student researching the application of IoT systems and edge AI within urban green infrastructures. She uses her passion for electronics and making to explore how data access and data visualisation/physicalization influence the engagement of stakeholders in caring about the natural environment. She is supervised by Prof. Duncan Wilson and Prof. Kate Jones. Prior to her PhD, she worked as an engineer in the vertical farming industry. Don't hesitate to ask her questions about plants.
August manages the Connected Environments Lab and is an alumnus of the first cohort of the Connected Environments MSc. Prior to Connected Environments, he worked as a scientific software engineer at the UK Met Office, where he developed high-performance C++ software to modernise the data assimilation components of the weather prediction workflow. He also has previously developed a novel geostatistical algorithm for the reduction of carbon dioxide satellite data. He is deeply excited about the future of digital fabrication and loves developing software and writing about technology when he gets a chance.
Daniel Rennie is a proper CASA graduate (MSc Spatial Data Science and Visualisation) and supports the Real-Time Analytics research in the lab.
Dhruv is the Connected Environments technician, here to help out with turning things off and on. Early disappointment with the architectural profession led Dhruv to start tinkering with coding and simple electronics. After few years of building art installations and functional prototypes, he found himself in Here East doing the same work, only on a bigger scale. Before joining Connected Environments, he worked at Jason Bruges Studio as a Creative Technologist Dhruv is always happy to chat about new ideas and their technical nuances.
Job Titles:
- Research Fellow in Real - Time Analytics
Dr Fateme Dinmohammadi is a Research Fellow in Real-Time Analytics and Machine Learning. Prior to joining UCL, she was a Senior Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligent (AI) at School of Aerospace, Transport and Manufacturing, Cranfield University, and also a Research Fellow in AI and Robotics at Heriot-Watt University. Dr Dinmohammadi specialises in Predictive Analytics, Data Science, Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, and 3D image recognition.
Duncan is an artist and PhD candidate at the Slade School of Fine Art and Connected Environments, supervised by Dr Winnie Soon and Prof Duncan Wilson. His research project ‘AUGURIES OF THE MARSHES:: The Divine Art of Dirty Cybernetics' is a situated practice, deeply embedded in the urban ecosytems of Hackney Marshes in East London. His current research seeks to explore relations with local crow communities by exploring ancient knowledge systems of augury with a localised, constrained-resource ML archive trained by the crows themselves. It is not always clear who is researching whom.
I am an architect and urbanist with a transdisciplinary practice at the intersection of culture, ecology, and technology. My doctoral research at UCL explores green infrastructure, urban biodiversity, IoT, and the metaverse, investigating how digital-physical design tools can strengthen resilience and participatory urbanism.
Jack comes from a software engineering and creative background. Having worked in fintech, edtech, animation, and game development, he likes to contribute to projects that require both technical and creative problem solving. Jack has always had a passion for entrepreneurship and started several software development projects in his teen years. After completing his undergraduate degrees, he freelanced as a systems engineer before moving from South Africa to the UK to both study and work. He is also trained in classical guitar and studies Mandarin at the UCL Language Centre.
Applied mathematician passionate about artificial intelligence for social impact and sustainability. My long-term goal is to learn, understand, and construct computational models to solve real-world problems in socio-ecological systems, biodiversity conservation, and climate change. View UCL Profile
Job Titles:
- Research Associate at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction
Khalid is a Research Associate at the Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction and is doing a part-time PhD in sustainable construction. He has 12 years of industry experience in the Building Information Modelling (BIM). With gaming as his favourite hobby, he has learned all about the integration between BIM and Unity 3D to develop VR and AR applications.
Kira is a lecturer in Geospatial Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning. With a machine learning PhD from UCL she is helping define how machine learning and probabilistic inference can be applied on resource constrained devices of the IoT. Kira led on the deep learning for sensor systems modules and supporting industry and entrepreneurship activities.
Leah is a Senior Research Fellow using digital technologies to tell stories that connect people with each other and their environment. Trained as an artist at the Slade School of Fine Art, she is experienced in collaborative and social arts practices. Leah is Faculty Lead for The Bartlett at UCL East, and she also takes a lead on engagement and outreach activities at CASA.
Cartographies of Rooftop Housing: Techniques for Mapping Airspace Development in London - I am a data-driven professional with experience of managing teams and projects, working with stakeholders and building new products. I have a quantitative PhD from UCL and have worked with Google, BBC News and Solidspace.
Martin is lecturer in Connected Environments (Hardware) and when not making IoT devices in the lab can be found probing old electronics with a multimeter and generally working out how things work. As a computer scientist with a PhD in physics and several years teaching others how connected devices work he is our go to guy for hardware. Martin will be supporting prototyping and making across the programme and in particular hardware hacking activities.
Job Titles:
- Researcher in Embodied Interaction Based at UCL Interaction Centre
Minna is an interdisciplinary researcher in Embodied Interaction based at UCL Interaction Centre. Their work focuses on understanding the nature of sensorimotor engagement and how this can shape the design of tools and technologies to enhance communication, learning and creativity.
Job Titles:
- Historian of Black British History Writer Producer Theatre Director. Project Lead for the 'This Is Black Britain' Project
- Historian of Black British History Writer Producer Theatre Director. Project Lead for the 'This Is Black Britain'.
Omar is developing a framework for integrating biomimetic strategies into urban planning practices. By translating nature's complex systems into structured urban solutions, the tool demonstrates biomimicry's potential to catalyse resilience and regenerative city planning.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Digital Urban System
Andy is Professor of Digital Urban System and can often be found cramming electronics into recycled historic objects. This will be the third MSc programme he has spun up and he knows the ins and outs of how CASA works as he was head of department for 10 years. Andy will be found helping across all modules but in particular those with a unity, modelling and physically prototyping flavour. When not blogging here at Connected Environments you can also read his wider related work over at the digitalurban site.
Simon is the CE Lab technician and is responsible for running the Connected Environments lab and supports lab facilities across UCL East. He is an experienced model maker, craft person and prop designer joining us from recent gigs at Apple TV Studios, Lucasfilm, Marvel Entertainment, Netflix - he even brought part of a light sabre he made to the interview. If you want to geek out with him in the pub, ask him about the time he made the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon and met Harrison Ford.
Job Titles:
- Professor of Spatial Computation at CASA
Steven is an Professor of Spatial Computation at CASA and is typically found fiddling with shiny new infrastructure we use to get things working in production environments. A proper computer scientist and Google Developer Expert he is the person we reach out to when we need real software engineering. Steven will be found helping run our core infrastructure and modules with a web architecture, prototyping, doing AI related things and creating mobile apps.
Valerio is lecturer in Connected Environments (Virtual) and when not in VR headset can be found walking the streets of London with a microphone explore the urban soundscape. He trained as an architect and has probably spent an equal amount of his working life in virtually augmented environments and is therefore our VR/AR /MR/Unity guru. Valerio supports prototyping and making across the programme and in particular visualisation activities.
Will is a PhD student in Connected Environments. He is interested in finding value in data. Prior to joining CASA, he spent 7 years working on smart factories, and is now working on smart buildings. His PhD research focusses on sustainable digital twins of buildings, working out if they might end up causing datageddon, or bring value to building users and help to reduce society's carbon footprint.
Yaman is a Connected Environments alumnus and currently assists with research focussed on patient flow through medical clinics and environment control strategies to make operating theatres more sustainable. With a background in Computer Engineering and a longstanding passion for IoT, he has previously invented an electromechanical system to make any car self-driving at low-cost. He has also served as a technical lead for start-ups in the fintech and education space.