6 October 2021
by Jamie Ferguson, University of Glasgow
It is a pleasure to write what I hope will be the first of many SICSA blog posts. This post will give you a brief introduction to myself and what I’ll be involved in doing as SICSA’s events coordinator.
I studied HNC/HND computing in Aberdeen before going onto study for a degree in CS at the University of Aberdeen. When I graduated, I had a brief stint working as a developer for a spin-out company in medical technology, before moving to Glasgow to work in R&D for Pulsion Technology. After a year at Pulsion I completed my PhD in the Multimodal Interaction Group at Glasgow where I was researching auditory and vibration displays.
After finishing my PhD, I worked on a project that was developing improved hearing aid technologies at Nottingham University’s Hearing Sciences department (where I was, rather confusingly, based at Glasgow Royal Infirmary). Finally, before starting with SICSA, I worked as a lecturer in my old department at Glasgow where I taught Human-Centred Security.
I have been attending SICSA events since I started my PhD in 2017 and they have been an excellent opportunity to: meet other like-minded people, show-off my own work and serve as a regular reminder of how much Scottish universities and companies punch above their weight in the computing world. I think the situation we have in Scotland where we have SICSA acting almost as a point-of-entry for any academic or industrial party interested in getting involved or finding particular expertise, is a very rare and fortunate position to be in. It allows for much easier communication and collaboration across the country and beyond, which I believe is something many other fields struggle with.
As the events coordinator for SICSA, my priority is to continue to grow the flagship events that are key dates in the SICSA calendar such as: the SICSA conference and DemoFest, as well as working to develop some new events to broaden the scope of events that SICSA can offer the community. Furthermore, I am interested in working with all SICSA institutions to establish new opportunities for collaboration, events and development that will increase our institutions and SICSA’s visibility nationally and beyond.