Mentors
Our mentors are volunteers from across the University and beyond, ready to bring their expertise in support of our student challenge teams.
Blair Thompson
Electronics • CNC • Maker • Programmer • Hobbyist
Blair Thompson has worked in the IT training team of Glasgow University since January 2016. Electronics and making things have been his hobbies for the last 12 years, during which time he has:
- been involved in building 3D printers for both his own use, The Glasgow Open Source Hardware Group and Glasgow Sculpture Studios
- built and use a small CNC machine in my home workshop
- been consulted during the setup of MakLab (A "makerspace" type organisation based until recently at Charing Cross in Glasgow)
- been involved in the manufacture of interactive sculpture for artists such as Haegue Yang and David Shrigley.
Professor Colin McInnes
Physics & Astronomy • Engineer • Techno-optimist • Engagement • Outdoors
Colin McInnes currently James Watt Chair, Professor of Engineering Science and Deputy Head of the School of Engineering. Much of his work has centred on mathematical modelling of spacecraft orbits, but he also dabbles in a wide range of other areas including smart structures and swarming robotics systems.
Recently, Colin has been leading the development of a Creativity Lab activity for new 1st year Engineers to build creative thinking. As aerodynamicist Theodore Von Karman noted, “Scientists discover the world that exists; engineers create the world that never was”.
Daniel Marrable
Creative • Engagement • Curious • Social Media • Artistic
Daniel oversees UofG’s Social Media Channels which reach over 1 million people each week. Joining the University of Glasgow in 2015, Daniel has put much of his efforts into creating engaging and varying digital content that appeals to UofG’s audience locally and abroad. In 2016 Daniel was part of the team that won CIPR, HEIST & PRIDE awards: Best Use of Social Media for the promotion of UofG’s Gravitational Waves Discovery. If he’s not running around the University with his mobile phone Steadicam; you can find Daniel brainstorming projects & mentoring his Social Media Student Officers, or providing training and advice for the university community in his ever growing University Social Media Roundtable.
Dickon Copsey
Development • Empowerment • Self-knowledge • Real ale
Dickon Copsey is the College of Social Sciences Employability Officer and coordinates the College's Employability Team. Dickon has over 10 years experience working to support the personal and professional development of higher education students and provides training and support through bespoke lectures, workshops and employability programmes to students throughout the year.
Dr Hadi Heidari
Magnetoelectronics • Sensors • Circuits • Systems • Wearable Electronics
Hadi Heidari (PhD, SMIEEE) is a Lecturer in the School of Engineering at the University of Glasgow. He received his PhD in Microelectronics from the University of Pavia (Italy) in 2015, where he worked on Integrated CMOS Magnetic Sensory Microsystems. He spent Postdoctoral at the University of Glasgow, before he joined the Glasgow College UESTC at the University of Glasgow in 2016. His research interests are focused on the Analog Integrated Circuit Design, Magnetoelectronics and Magnetic Sensors, CMOS Sensors and Systems, Point-of-Care Diagnostics, Micromagnetic Simulation Methods. He is Senior Member of IEEE, member of IEEE Sensors Council Administrative Committee, and IEEE Sensors Council Young Professional Programme Chair.
Dr Julien Reboud
Healthcare • Technology • Acoustics • Fluidics • Sensors
Dr Julien Reboud is a Lecturer in Engineering at the University of Glasgow (2017 to date). He is an engineer trained in France, including Paris VI-VII University (Paris, France), with a PhD from Joseph Fourier University (Grenoble, France - 2006) on the development of new drug screening technologies for the pharmaceutical industry. He then did a post-doc in Singapore (Institute of Microelectronics, A*STAR) where he developed biosensors for medical diagnostics. In Glasgow, he leads research on the development of medical diagnostics and therapeutics devices to combat infectious diseases. He was awarded the French National Innovation Award during his PhD, the RAEng ERA Entrepreneurship Prize (2013), and was Highly Commended for Technology and Innovation at the Times Higher Education Awards (2014).
Dr Kat Duffy
Hybrid thinking • Digitally curious • Marketing • Visual platforms • Short story admirer
Dr Kat Duffy is a Lecturer in Marketing at the Adam Smith Business School. She holds a PhD in Marketing from the University of Strathclyde, along with an MSc in Marketing (Distinction) from the University of Strathclyde and an MA (Hons.) English Literature from the University of Glasgow.
Previously, she was a Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Essex (2013-2015) and her academic interests are complimented by her practical marketing experience (including roles at 5pm.co.uk and The Marketing Society Scotland). Her current research interests include socio-cultural dimensions of value, considerations of alternative marketscapes and the turn to visual platforms in digital marketing.
Professor Matthew Chalmers
Ubicomp • Infovis • AI sceptic • Wandering • Interactive systems design
Matthew Chalmers works on the design and theory of computer systems, especially data visualisation and also ubiquitous computing. He did a BSc (Hons) at U. Edinburgh, then a PhD at U. East Anglia in ray tracing and object-oriented toolkits for distributed memory multiprocessors. He then worked as a researcher at Xerox PARC and Xerox EuroPARC, working on information visualisation and early ubicomp systems. He left Xerox to start up an information visualisation group at UBS Ubilab, in Zurich, then had a brief fellowship at U. Hokkaido, Japan, before starting at U. Glasgow in 2000. His published work of about 150 papers — he’s lost track, sadly/frankly -- has gathered about 7000 citations.
Dr Mhairi Towler
Scientific Animation • Public Engagement • Art & Culture • Enterprise • Choir Singer
Dr Mhairi Towler integrates a background in science with animation skills in order to use visual and 3D methodologies to communicate science to a wide audience. With degrees in Biochemistry, Molecular & Cell Biology, and Animation & Visualisation, Mhairi brings an interdisciplinary outlook to the co.lab project.
Mhairi is Founder and Director of the multi-award winning animation production company, Vivomotion (www.vivomotion.co.uk). The company offers a service of bespoke animations for scientific communication. She is an active member of The Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy Scotland, The Scottish Institute for Enterprise Scottish Entrepreneurial Academy and a Future Leaders member of Entrepreneurial Scotland.
Professor Miles Padgett
Imaging systems • Optical forces • Sensing • Cycling • Climbing
Miles Padgett holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He is fascinated by light both classical and quantum - specifically light's momentum. In 2001 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2014 the Royal Society, the UK's National Academy. In 2009, with Les Allen, he won the IoP Young Medal, in 2014 the RSE Kelvin Medal in 2015 the Science of Light Prize from the EPS and in 2017 the Max Born Award of the OSA.
Sonia Ali
Entrepreneurship • Travel/exploration • Collaboration • Materials • Making
Sonia Ali is a multimedia artist/researcher with an eclectic background having worked in industries such as banking and luxury fashion. Her investigative-led practice seeks to bring forth the unseen:unheard and in recent years she has had a particular interest in the algae – oil – plastic narrative, which partly relates to her work experiences in the finance & oil/gas sector.
Her cross-disciplinary work spanning art-science and various media such as sculpture, sound and performance explores environmental themes and issues and reviews the dualism of the human separate from the surrounding environment.
Sonia also works for the 3 year AHRC research theme: ‘Digital Transformations’ at University of Glasgow – School of Critical Studies.
Dr Jeremy Singer
Programming • Enthusiasm • Green • Raspberry Pi • 'Curiouser and curiouser'
Jeremy Singer is a lecturer in the School of Computing Science. His particular focus is in the area of complex systems engineering. His current research investigates massively distributed, low-power networks of edge-compute nodes like Raspberry Pi devices.
Previously, Jeremy was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manchester, where he worked on Java runtime systems for speculative parallelism on multicore architectures. Jeremy obtained his PhD in 2006 from the University of Cambridge. His thesis topic was Static Program Analysis based on Virtual Register Renaming.