I am Professor of Computer Science and Director of the Financial Computing Centre at UCL. Previously I was Pro-Provost. I am also a co-founder of a number of companies, including Bodymetrics and Sizemic the fashion technology companies, and Director of the UK National Sizing Survey SizeUK, jointly funded by the UK government and 14 of the largest UK retailers.
My research and teaching interests centre on Applied Research and its Commercialisation in Financial Services and the Creative Industries, and in Entrepreneurship.
As Pro-Provost I was responsible for UCL International Relations with Asia. This involved assisiting with fund raising, alumni, international collaboration with universities, student recruitment, and business links, as well as liasing with government organisations.
Activities included:
I am a European authority on Electronic Commerce (e.g. Business on the Internet, Interactive TV and Electronic Kiosks), on so-called Computational Finance (e.g. neural networks, genetic algorithms) and on Virtual Environments & Graphics (e.g. 3D body scanning), having been Director of the UK National Sizing Survey. I published the Sunday Times sponsored e-commerce entrepreneurship book ‘E-Business Start-up’. I have pioneered the use of computational techniques for Data Mining and Forecasting in Banking, Insurance and Retail. I have also consulted for many of the leading American, Japanese and European high tech companies including Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, NCR, Philips, Siemens and Thomson, major Banks such as Barclays and TSB, and many leading Retailers including J-Sainsbury.
As part of my Advisory activities I served on the UK DTI (OST) Retail & Distribution Panel. And I led a UK Government (DTI) delegation to the United States, Israel and East Asia to look at organisations and seed funding for helping high-tech start-ups.
Somewhat unusually, I am also an authority on the organisation of government Industry programmes, such as Japan’s FGCS project, the European Community’s ESPRIT Programme and the UK’s ALVEY/IED Programmes, and have acted as Advisor to Government Ministers in Japan, Germany, France, Korea, and other countries.
I have been involved in a number of major industrial research projects with major European companies, many funded by the European Commission and the UK DTI. Examples include the DTI funded Centre for 3D Electronic Commerce.
I have published over 150 papers, have lectured in over 40 countries and have been an invited speaker at a number of international conferences.
And - last but not least - have been Manager of a Supermarket and Holiday Camp!