Your online tutors

Manuel is Senior Teaching Fellow in the Web and Internet Science research group of the Electronics and Computer Science department of the University of Southampton.

He holds an MSc & PhD in Web Science, a PGCE in education and an MA in Applied Linguistics.

Manuel is passionate about the human dimension of online learning. As such, he specialises in learning technologies, with experience in learning design and research interests in MOOCs and learning analytics, in the intersection between Data Science and Education.

As an ex-schoolteacher and a dyed-in-the-wool web scientist, being an SDSA tutor lets Rob satisfy his passions for data science and learning. He can be discussing visualisation best practice in one session and the ethical implications of employing AI in the next.

Equally, Rob loves the opportunity that tutoring gives him to engage with students from a diverse range of backgrounds, both technical and non-technical. Whether supporting a developer seeking to increase their knowledge of natural language processing or helping someone understand the basics of data literacy with programming, Rob achieves an immense sense of achievement when 'the penny drops' - which it always does.

Bernard is currently working on a research project with the Ordnance Survey and the University of Southampton, investigating network data analytics using OpenStreetMap provenance data.

He is an experienced research software engineer with particular interests in geospatial data analysis, knowledge graphs, provenance data capture/reconstruction algorithms, and machine learning and reasoning over network graph data.

Johanna is a Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. Her research focuses on the use of open data for open innovation, with a particular interest in smart cities and the public sector.

She has worked on many data projects, including Data Pitch and Smart Cities Innovation Framework Implementation, and is an Open Data Institute registered trainer.

Her current research focuses on data governance and data and software literacy.

Johanna holds an MBA with Distinction from London Business School where she specialised in strategy and entrepreneurship, and an MSc in Web Science.

Tutoring for SDSA allows her to combine both her business and data science knowledge, as well as staying in touch with real-life data science challenges that the insurance industry faces.

Gefion is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton. She has a background in Web Science, specifically online participation and human-data interaction.

She works on the ACTION and MediaFutures projects, investigating participation in citizen science and human-data-interaction in innovation processes.

Rachel is a Postgraduate Researcher at the Centre for Doctoral Training for Human-Centred AI for the Future of Society (HCAI) at the Web Science Institute.

Before starting her PhD much of Rachel's career had been spent working in high precision engineering environments, primarily in the space industry.

A career change led to an interest in urban design and how data-driven methods can enable better design, in particular behavioural insights and the codification of landscape design.

Her current research interests focus on large scale analysis of transport perceptions and travel behaviour and how this can contribute to future sustainable transport design.

Rachel has a BEng in Mechanical Engineering, an MSc in Astronautics and Space Engineering and an MA in Landscape Architecture. She looks forward to supporting students throughout their courses.

Andy Davies is a PhD student with the University of East Anglia, focusing on how different areas of computer science can be used to develop safe, smart homes for vulnerable individuals.

Having previously served in the British Armed Forces, Andy started at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in September 2015 and completed his BSc (Hons) in Computer Sciences in 2019, continuing on to complete his MSc with distinction in cyber security the following academic year.

Andy's prior personal, academic, and occupational experiences have provided him with a keen interest to explore a future in academia, with a particular focus on researching future med-tech.

With a strong computational background, Ron studied Artificial Intelligence (MSc) and is currently in completion of his PhD in Deep Learning applied to genomic medicine.

During his time as a Senior Web Engineer at a digital consultancy, he helped introduce technical innovation to the industry and translate tech speak to people of varying backgrounds.

His passion for transferring knowledge is also reflected in his current studies where he combines interdisciplinary knowledge from medicine and AI, bringing together people of two vastly different domains through pair-programming, workshops, lectures, and tutoring in different modules across the University of Southampton.