School of Computing Science

EDUCATION & PRACTICE (EAP)

Education & Practice section members are actively involved in Computing Science Education and Software Engineering research, working in collaboration with industry, government, schools, and other university partners. The section is led by Dr Matthew Barr, and comprises two main research groups:

• Centre for Computing Science Education (led by Professor Quintin Cutts)
• Software Engineering Laboratory (led by Dr Tim Storer)

Members of EAP contribute to several of the School's cross cutting research themes including Understandable Autonomous Systems, Low Carbon and Sustainable Computing and Programming Languages.

We welcome applications from prospective PhD students. Please take a look at the list of potential projects here, or feel free to browse the section members list below to get an idea of our academics' research interests, which range from Software Engineering topics through to Computing Science Education.

Academic Staff:

• Dr Oana Andrei (Senior Lecturer)
• Dr Matthew Barr (Senior Lecturer & Section Head)
• Dr Mireilla Bikanga Ada (Senior Lecturer)
• Dr Handan Gul Calikli (Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering)
• Dr Iflaah Salman (Lecturer in Software Engineering)
• Dr Qi Cao (Lecturer)
• Professor Quintin Cutts (Professor of Computer Science Education)
• Dr Peggy Gregory (Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering & Deputy Section Head)
• Fionnuala Johnson (Lecturer)
• Dr Maria Kallia (Lecturer in Computing Science Education)
• Professor Mark Logan (Professor in Practice - Technology Entrepreneurship)
• Professor Andrew McDonald (Professor in Practice - Data Product Engineering)
• Dr Alistair Morrison (Lecturer)
• Dr Syed Waqar Nabi (Lecturer)
• Derek Somerville (Lecturer)
• Dr Tim Storer (Senior Lecturer)
• Dr Lai Meng Tang (Assistant Professor in Computing Science)
• Dr Yutian Tang (Lecturer)
• Dr Peter C Y Yau (Assistant Professor in Computing Science)

Research Staff:

• Dr Mahum Adil
• Dr Jack Parkinson

Professional, Administrative & Support Staff:

• Sayonee Dassani (GUSS Project Manager)
• Brishketu Kislay (GUSS Software Engineering Manager)
• Brendan McCart (STACS Project Lead)
• Toni Scullion (STACS Project Lead)
• Swetank Poddar (GUSS Project Supervisor)

Affiliated Staff:

• Anna Doyle (Graduate Apprenticeship Programme Manager)
• Claire Johnston (Graduate Apprenticeship Programme Manager)
• Dr Umair Khan (Honorary Lecturer)
• Dr Chris McCaig (Lecturer)
• Professor Carron Shankland (Honorary Senior Research Fellow)
• Professor Per Hammer (Honorary Professor)

Research Students:

• Fatimah Mohammed A Alsaad
• Talha Enes Ayranci
• Anaclara Gerosa Barboza
• Andrew Blair
• Yuxi Chen
• Katharine Childs
• Yasmine Elfares
• Yogendra Naga Satwik Ghanta
• Jinling Huang
• Ulkar Imanzade
• Fionnuala Johnson
• Zhixi Li
• Nicola Looker
• Ehikioya Obode
• Jomon Palakudy
• Anna Teresa Sollazzo
• Sadiq Atumeyi Sule
• Alistair Surrall

Some highlights of our work include:

• Launching the Turner Kirk Centre for Spatial Reasoning, with Quintin Cutts as Centre Director

• Hosting the BCS Women Lovelace Colloquium 2025, with Matthew Barr as local chair.

December 2025 Oana Andrei, Matthew Barr, and Maria Kallia form the organising committee for the 2026 Summer School on Informatics Education Research (SCHIER) at the University of Glasgow, 7-11 September 2026. SCHIER is co-organised by the Informatics Europe Education Research Working Group, with sponsorship from IBM Research Europe.

October 2025 Mahum Adil and Peggy Gregory were awarded funding from the Global Glasgow Partnership Fund (GGPF) for the project “Exploring Software Sustainability in Agile Software Development Practices”, initiating a collaboration with Sofia Ouhbi (Uppsala University, Sweden).

September 2025 The University of Glasgow has launched the Turner Kirk Centre for Spatial Reasoning to improve maths performance in children through spatial learning, with backing from the Turner Kirk Trust. The pilot is led by Quintin Cutts and Jack Parkinson.

April 2025 The eighteenth annual BCS Women Lovelace Colloquium comes to Glasgow (organised by Matthew Barr, Anna Doyle, and Claire Johnston). 

March 2025 Our section has had 5 papers accepted at ITiCSE 2025 on a range of topics including reflective practice and competency development, the co-design and delivery of SE courses, and the role of spatial skills in CS education at both university and K-12 levels. 

December 2024 Publication of a new book, Approaches to Work-Based Learning in Higher Education: Improving Graduate Employability, edited by Matthew Barr and featuring contributions from Tim Storer, Derek Somerville, and Waqar Nabi.

December 2024 Our section has had 2 papers on work-based learning and reflective practice development in software engineering at the 37th IEEE Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training CSEE&T'25  

December 2024 Jack Parkinson co-authored a CACM article on improving CS performance by developing spatial skills. 

October 2024 The Ada Scotland Festival, led by Matthew Barr, celebrates its fifth year.

August 2024 Matthew Barr has been appointed Visiting Professor at London Southbank University.

Research Projects and Activites

• Exploring Software Sustainability in Agile Software Development Practices (Global Glasgow Partnership Fund - GGPF, 2025-2026) - Mahum Adil and Peggy Gregory
• Developing a Framework for Using Degree Apprenticeships as Vehicles for Lifelong Learning (QAA-funded Collaborative Enhancement Project, led by Manchester Metropolitan University) - Matthew Barr
• Intrinsic Value of Computer Programming: Academics’ practices and students’ perspectives - Maria Kallia, Jack Parkinson, Anaclara Gerosa, Matthew Barr
• Investigating and improving induction training for CS work-based learning workplace mentors (led by Edinburgh Napier University, CPHC Special Project Grant, 2023 - 2024) - Matthew Barr, Maria Kallia
• Understanding the role models that inspire women to study Computing Science (CPHC Special Project Grant, 2023 - 2024) - Matthew Barr, Kathleen West, Kristina Pavlou
• MyPath - Quintin Cutts, Tim Storer
• spatiaLEGO - Jack Parkinson
• Scottish Teachers Advancing Computing Science (STACS) - Toni Scullion, Brendan McCart, Quintin Cutts
• STEM SPACE Project - Jack Parkinson, Quintin Cutts

Both the Centre for Computing Science Education and the Software Engineering Laboratory run a varied programme of seminars.