Directory of experts

Informatics academic experts in various areas who can be contacted by the Press Office and the media.

Surname First name Email Address Area of Expertise
Albrecht Stefano contact Stefano Reinforcement learning, autonomous driving (self-driving cars), multi-robot systems, and autonomous systems in general
Aspinall David david.aspinall@ed.ac.uk Cyber Security, Software Safety and Security
Bell Peter peter.bell@ed.ac.uk

Speech technology, including automatic speech recognition, voice/speaker recognition, speech enhancement, conversational AI

Bundy Alan a.bundy@ed.ac.uk Artificial Intelligence (symbolic, not Machine Learning/Data Mining), Automated Reasoning, Automated Conceptual Change.
Cohen Shay scohen@inf.ed.ac.uk Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning.
Fisher Bob rbf@inf.ed.ac.uk Computer Vision, Image Processing, Video Analysis.
Grot Boris boris.grot@ed.ac.uk All aspects of computer architecture, including CPUs, Parallel Processing (many-core and many-node computers), Memory Systems and Interconnection Networks. 
Herrmann J. Michael michael.herrmann@ed.ac.uk Self-organisation, Complex Adaptive Systems, Metaheuristic Optimisation, autonomous agents and Robotics. Also, servers and data centers; microservices and serverless computing
Heunen Chris chris.heunen@ed.ac.uk Quantum Computing.
Lapata Mirella mlap@inf.ed.ac.uk Natural Language Processing.
Lascarides Alex alex@inf.ed.ac.uk Computational Linguistics.
Lopez Adam alopez@inf.ed.ac.uk natural language processing
Lucas Chris c.lucas@ed.ac.uk

My research area is computational cognitive science. I work at the intersection of machine learning/AI and cognitive psychology. I use machine learning to understand the human mind and take lessons from psychology to develop better machine learning models and tools.

Magdy Walid wmagdy@inf.ed.ac.uk Social Media Analytics, stance and political bias prediction, Computational Social Science, Data Mining, information retrieval.
Narayanaswamy Siddharth (Sid) n.siddharth@ed.ac.uk

Explainable AI, Machine Learning for human-like perception, Neuro-Symbolic modelling and inference, Deep Generative Modelling, and Probabilistic Programming, Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Nazarpour Kia kianoush.nazarpour@ed.ac.uk Neuroprosthetics, neurorehabilitation
McNeill Fiona f.j.mcneill@ed.ac.uk

CS and STEM education in schools and universities; improving gender balance in CS and tech in schools, universities and industry; access to CS education for excluded groups, especially females and widening participation students; transitions into university for UG and MSc students; CS education policy in Scotland; outreach

Patras Paul ppatras@inf.ed.ac.uk All aspects of networked systems, particularly applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning in mobile networks, traffic analytics, performance optimisation, security and privacy, prototyping and test beds.
Ponti Edoardo eponti@ed.ac.uk Natural Language Processing
Ramamoorthy Subramanian (Ram) s.ramamoorthy@ed.ac.uk Robotics, Robot Learning, Human-Robot Interaction, Autonomous Vehicles, Machine Learning, Safe and Trustworthy AI
Rovatsos Michael mrovatso@inf.ed.ac.uk Artificial Intelligence, Ethics of AI, Human-AI Interaction, Social Computing, Collective Intelligence, Explainable AI, Algorithmic Fairness.
Simpson Ian ian.simpson@ed.ac.uk

Professor of Biomedical Informatics at Edinburgh University and Director of the UKRI Centre for Doctoral Training in Biomedical Artificial Intelligence. I have expertise in the application of computational methods in biomedicine and health with a special interest in multi-modal data integration using graph and machine learning methods including the use of complex representational schema such as knowledge graphs. I have extensive expertise of working with genomics data and unstructured clinical/biomedical texts particularly in relation to neurological and rare genetic disease. I am used to working in inter-disciplinary teams and have a background in biochemistry and genetics to complement my ongoing computational research in biomedical informatics.

Stark Ian ian.stark@ed.ac.uk Programming languages, particularly: type systems for programming, functional languages, modelling concurrent computation.
Vijayakumar Sethu sethu.vijayakumar@ed.ac.uk Professor of Robotics at Edinburgh University and Director of the Edinburgh Center for Robotics. I have expertise in all aspects of robotics: planning, sensing and control. My specialty is the application of Machine Learning and AI for the intelligent control of advanced robotic platforms and robot learning. I am a judge on BBC Robot Wars, have been involved with the launch of the UK wide BBC micro:bit initiative (www.microbit.org) and the winner of the Tam Dalyell Prize for excellence in science communication. I am a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and hold the Microsoft-Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Robotics.
Wadler Phil wadler@inf.ed.ac.uk

Programming languages. Security issues related to programming languages. (Many reported security breaches could be avoided by using better languages.) Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and smart contracts - particularly the programming language aspect of smart contracts. (Again, many reported exploits could be avoided by using better languages.)

Webb Barbara b.webb@ed.ac.uk Robotics, specifically biologically-inspired Robotics, navigation and learning in insects.
Wolters Maria maria.wolters@ed.ac.uk

"Why can't I get this app/gadget /phone /software to work? Why does it have to be so complicated to do what I need to do?" User experience, usability and human factors.

Woods Daniel daniel.woods@ed.ac.uk

Economics of security and privacy, cyber risk quantification, digital insurance, infosec management, online privacy