I have loved mathematics and solving problems since I was a child. I also enjoyed a lot to read and learn new things. I studied in selective Mathematical High School in Bulgaria and during that time I competed in several mathematics and other science competitions. My undergraduate and PhD degrees in Mathematics are from Sofia University, Bulgaria. I also completed MSc Computing Science at Birkbeck College, University. The things that I love most to do - problem solving and learning new things are fundamental aspects in Computer Science which made the choice to work in that field easy. I am very passionate about the technological changes we have seen in the last two decades and the way computing became part of our daily life.

I joined Teesside University in August, 2019, from Oxford Brookes University, where I was the Head of the School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics. As well as Oxford Brookes University, I previously worked in a number of universities in the UK, including Head of the School of Computing and Digital Media at Robert Gordon University and Head of the Department of Computing at Coventry University. I have wide experience in teaching as well as practical experience in software development. My research is in the areas of developing and applying novel methods for artificial neural networks, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

I most enjoy teaching and helping my students to become independent learners and to take responsibility for their own studies, which is particularly important in the constantly changing area of computing.

Dr Ruixue Cheng received BSc in Instrumentation and Control Engineering from Northeast University China. After BSc graduation, she first went to an aluminium process plant worked as an instrumentation engineer for 5 years from which she developed further interest in her subject and decided to go for a further study. She achieved MSc in instrumentation at University of Science and Technology Beijing China, and then became a lecturer in the university’s Automation school where she found working at university teaching and doing research very enjoyable and satisfying.

In 1994, she joined Teesside University’s research team as a Research Assistant and later gained her PhD, followed by 2 years research fellow, working on EPSRC, and collaborative projects with EU and industrial patterners ABB and Scottish Power. The research projects were to develop clean coal technology-solids-gas flow metering system for reducing emissions at coal-fired power stations.

The research work in collaboration with ABB won the National Metrology prize in recognition of clean fuel combustion technology development in 1998. Due to the success of the development of the metering system, with the technology transfer to ABB, in 1999 she joined ABB Automation Ltd in Gloucestershire in the UK as Flow meter design and development engineer. At ABB, she worked on the prototype meter’s commercialisation and further development to apply the metering systems to coal-fired power stations. At ABB she was the main technical person responsible for the development, calibration and site commissioning and as well as trials of the new product at various coal-fired power stations in the UK, Europe and China.

From the research and work at ABB, she had 4 patents on pulverised fuel metering systems and signal processing techniques and published many academic papers in journals and international conference in the area of solids gas flow measurement.

Although enjoyed working in industry, her passion remained strong with working in education. She returned to Teesside university as a lecturer in 2011 while continued supporting ABB’s Pulverised fuel metering products as a consultant for 10 years. Back at the university she has been teaching Instrumentation related subjects, Engineering Mathematics and statistics to undergraduates and postgraduates. Her research interests include flow, multi-phase flow measurement, sensing techniques and measurement technology development, signal processing and mathematical modelling.

With the research and industrial experience, she felt she can relate well her teaching topics to the many real practical applications gained from being a plant instrumentation engineer, and design and developer, showing how the subject theories and principles are applied in real work to inspire students and let them appreciate and value more of the subjects they study. In the mathematics class for engineering students, she shows how mathematics is applied in signal analysis, processing, modules establishment of entering settings, help students to recognise the importance of acquiring the analytical ability and mathematical skills to systematically to solve engineering problems. Seeing students change their perception of ‘mathematics is not important to an engineer’ to becoming motivated and work harder and achieve good attainment so they are prepared for their subjects study is most job satisfying. She finds the profession of being a lecturer who can guide and influence students in choice of their career and development of their passion for what they do or will be doing is greatly enjoyable ad rewording.

Problem solving isn’t just for mathematicians, although there’s maths in just about everything, including arts and graphics. My passion is digital art in 2D and 3D, where I like putting the A in STEM to make STEAM, solving problems in creative ways, and visualising all sorts of things using specific processes and within fixed technical constraints.

My background is in illustration, where I studied graphic design and animation at Leeds Metropolitan University. I then worked in computer game graphics as a 3D character artist, art manager, and project manager for over a decade before becoming a lecturer. I was Head of Division for Games, Animation and Visual Effects at The University of Bradford, and then joined Teesside University in 2015, where I became Head of Department. I now mostly teach concept art using digital tools and technical approaches, while studying part time for a PhD in the Social Psychology of games. I am a firm believer in logical approaches to creative work, and creative approaches to logical work; the two go hand in hand. This is also true in my role as Disability Coordinator for the school, where I help staff and students approach learning in inclusive and accessible ways, regardless of physical or mental health.

When I chose to do A levels in History, Maths and Art in the 1980’s everyone advised me against it as they just didn’t fit together! It was only later when I completed an MSc in Computer Graphics at Teesside University that it all made sense and my passion for computer animation was born. It was on this course that I was required to study art, design and maths as you were expected to program and design. Today, there are so many opportunities for artists interested in computing and mathematicians interested in art particularly in the areas of computer games, animation, film and visual effects who need expert programmers, artists and designers and all the bits in between.

My love of animation has continued throughout my career working as a lecturer and freelance animation producer of short animated films that use the medium of animation to tell complex and difficult sensitive subjects, educating and entertaining through an amazing flexible and creative medium. I was also the co-founder of Animex, our international festival of games and animation that has been running for over 20 years.

I joined Teesside University 20 years ago as a Senior Lecturer in Computer Animation and now, as an Associate Dean, I lead on all our enterprise and business engagement for the School supporting exciting projects in engineering, computing, games, animation and digital art. I still love the opportunity of bringing different disciplines together and in 2017 set up TUCan Studio, an innovative in-house digital studio bringing teams of staff, students, and graduates from across the School under one roof. So you could say I am continuing to embrace multidisciplinary subjects – bringing the left and right hand side of the brain together just like when I studied for my A levels!

I was born in the UK, but my family is from Sri Lanka, and I spent most of my early years moving between the two countries. One constant throughout my childhood was my interest in how things work. Whether it was figuring out all the functions of our household appliances or solving logic puzzles, I loved seeing how everything came together. In school, this manifested as a love of mathematics and chemistry. I took very traditional A Levels - Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry - and whilst I loved learning, I was the only girl in my year who stuck with Further Maths, which made me quite unpopular! It was distressing at times but my love for my subjects triumphed, and I did well enough to return to the UK and start a degree in Chemical Engineering at Churchill College, University of Cambridge.

I soon found out that Chemical Engineering has a lot less chemistry than I'd anticipated, but also a lot more common sense! The process-based thinking in chemical engineering really appealed to the logical part of my brain, and for the most part I really enjoyed my course. I remember watching one of my lecturers in my third year and thinking "I'd quite like to do that" - and thus my career path was forged. After graduation I stayed at Cambridge to undertake a PhD in reaction engineering as I saw this as the next step in the process to becoming a lecturer. I found the experience very challenging but I persevered, and in November 2011, a few months after completing my PhD, I took up a Lecturer position at Teesside University.

During my time at Teesside, I've been involved in a variety of activities. I've worked with companies on funded projects, I've helped supervise PhD students, and I was the Course Leader for the undergraduate Chemical Engineering courses for five years. In 2017 I was appointed as the Principal Lecturer for Staffing and Resources in Engineering. My role requires me to use my process-based thinking skills to coordinate activities across the entire Engineering Department. I also have a real interest in learning and teaching enhancements in Higher Education. I'm a Senior Fellow of Advance HE and a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert, and my research focuses on making group work and assessment work better for tutors and students alike, and using digital tools to enhance the student and staff experience.

I have a multifaceted role that presents a variety of challenges on a daily basis, but I feel fortunate to be in a position that enables me to work with my colleagues to support our students and our community.

I graduated with a master’s degree in mathematics in 1996 and a bachelor’s in education in 1998, from India. After getting married in 1999, I focussed on my God given family of my husband and 2 wonderful boys.

I began my teaching career in Malaysia in 2002. I started as a Lecturer in Mathematics at a college specialising in British and Australian Degree programmes and later at Swinburne University of Technology, Malaysia where I taught Engineering Mathematics and Statistics. The position at Swinburne University moulded me into the academic roles of lecturing, tutoring, supervision of projects, run workshops, and marketing activities. As I got involved in research, I started my PhD in Mathematics Education and completed in 2010 from Malaysia. The PhD journey was an eye opener to the exciting world of looking at problem scenarios and be a contributor or part of the solution. My research was on measuring critical thinking and problem solving in First Year Engineering Mathematics. I also embarked on the journey of publishing articles, journal papers and applying for Funding bids. After a 10-year stint in Malaysia, I moved to England and joined Teesside University in 2014 as a Senior Lecturer in Analytical Techniques. I picked up research interests and collaborations across disciplines, like Applied Maths and Statistics, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning, and Pedagogic research. I lead the Pedagogic research group in the School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies and oversee pedagogic and multidisciplinary projects.

Academia is one of the best places where you could combine career with family. Academia offers a great opportunity to discover new things and collaborate with interesting people, all with a lot of freedom, flexibility and many opportunities to travel around the world. Research has taken me to interesting places. I enjoy research and love the challenge to adopt new research directions, thus bringing in new and innovative ideas and viewpoints. I enjoy teaching and it excites me to think that I intersect the learners of today to inspire, shape and carve the innovators and problem solvers of tomorrow. I have always dreamed of making a difference to the community and the world around me. The challenge and rewards of being a parent has given me a wider world view not to take critiques and rejections personally, but a heart to see my learners especially the youth rise up to be contributors. Life in academia is not easy, but never boring and one is ‘never done.

I grew up in Iran in Kermanshah, a city surrounded by beautiful mountains and a clear sky. I was a happy child and a hardworking student who enjoyed learning. From an early age I realised that I was good at maths and physics so decided to do engineering at university. I continued my studies in a geosciences related engineering subject in Paris. I then decided to do a PhD. Despite the fact that I didn’t know much about Edinburgh and Scotland (this was back in 2010, just before the smart phones and easy access to the internet) I accepted an offer to do a PhD at Edinburgh university, the school of geosciences. I worked under the supervision of the most amazing supervisor and had a fantastic three years of mostly experimental research on fluid flow in porous media during this work.

Just before I submitted my PhD thesis, I was offered a job at Teesside University as a lecturer within the engineering department. I was very excited to start this job. I then got promoted to senior lecturer and have been working in the same role for the last seven years.

Although I was very passionate about doing research within the subject of energy and environmental engineering, starting an academic career right after completing my PhD was a big challenge for me. It took lots of dedication and hard work to develop my own network of colleagues and collaborators. In my early years as an academic, winning my first research grant was a great experience. The work was my idea, I wrote the proposal, and I was the principal investigator. The project was funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering. It was a small project, but it led to many excellent opportunities and larger projects. More recently, being awarded as one of the Top 50 Women in Engineering in the UK in 2021 has been an amazing experience. This award was an evidence that my work is recognised by the engineering community in the UK, a great source of motivation for me.

I love my job primarily because it gives me the opportunity to learn new things every day, from working with my colleagues and students and through collaborative research and scholarly activities. I also very much enjoy contributing to finding more sustainable ways to live on our precious planet.

Dr Annalisa Occhipinti is an Associate Professor at Teesside University, where she works at the intersection between AI and Biology. Her current research topics involve the integration of metabolic modelling and multi-modal deep learning techniques for biomedical and bioprocessing applications.

Dr Occhipinti has recently received several awards for her outstanding contributions in the field of machine learning, big data, and cancer research, including an award from the University of Cambridge.

Dr. Occhipinti is currently leading various research projects funded by BBSRC and EPSRC, and she extends her proficiency in AI for bioprocessing optimization to collaborate with industrial partners and gain valuable data-driven insights.