Festival Day

Dr Laura James is an engineering leader who builds practical and innovative internet tech systems and organisations in diverse contexts. She is Engineering Director at Overstory, and a co-founding trustee at CoFarm.co and board chair at Now Play This.

Recent roles include CTO at the OPEN (supporting progressive campaigns around the world), Head of Delivery at lowRISC (open source silicon), and Technology Principal at Doteveryone (the responsible technology think tank). Previously Laura was CEO of Open Knowledge, and co-founded Cambridge Makespace. She has worked in technical leadership roles at humanitarian manufacturing NGO Field Ready, conversational AI startup True Knowledge/Evi (which became Alexa), and pioneering connected home startup AlertMe. Laura holds MEng and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge, and is a Chartered Engineer.

Simon is emeritus professor of Computer Science at the University of Essex. A graduate of Manchester University, he has worked on high-performance computer architectures and on hardware support for knowledge-based systems. He is a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and of the British Computer Society and is the Digital Archivist for the Computer Conservation Society. He has published many books and journal papers, most of which now gather dust. Simon retired in 2002 and pursues computer history as a hobby.

Loula Yorke is an Oram Award-winning composer, improviser and live performer working primarily with modular synthesis. Yorke's fifth album Volta was released early in 2024 to critical acclaim. You'll find her building patterns and patches in her studio in rural Suffolk.

Dr Herbert Daly is a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science based at the University of Hertfordshire. He began his tech career developing software for large telecoms systems, before moving on to handsets and embedded devices. He was lured back into research, where he worked on systems modelling projects before becoming a full time academic.

Herb first met mainframes while chairing a professional group for performance and capacity specialists. Fascinated by their role, their potential and the unique technology culture of critical enterprise computing, he encouraged his students to learn about mainframe technology. In 2018 he became an IBM Champion for System Z in recognition of his work with the mainframe community. He currently chairs the Mainframe Skills and Learning working group for Guide SHARE Europe (GSE) UK – an industry group for IBM Z users.

Dr Rain Ashford is a wearable technology designer, technologist, researcher and educator, with an industry background in research and innovation for digital, AI, robotics and IoT. She has a computing PhD, for which her research investigated responsive and emotive wearables, focusing on the development of new forms of nonverbal communication using physiological and environmental data.

Rain was listed in Women of Wearables ‘Top 100 Women in Fashion Tech 2019’ and ‘Top 100 Women in Wearable and Consumer Tech 2017′. She has presented and exhibited her research on wearables in journals, and at conferences, exhibitions and workshops in the UK including V&A, Science Museum, QCON, CHI, ISWC, UbiComp, RCA Biennale, and internationally, in Amsterdam (Quantified Self), Ghent (MIAT Museum), Heidelberg (Kongresshaus Stadthalle), Geneva (CERN), Zurich (ETH), New York (NY Digital Salon & NY Maker Faire), Seattle (Museum of Pop Culture), Las Vegas (Microsoft), Redmond (Microsoft), Singapore (Suntec Centre), Osaka (Grand Front Theatre).

Rain’s work in education and outreach includes teaching, educational initiatives, PhD / MSc mentoring and industry supervision in wearables, human computer interaction, robotics, AI / ML and interaction design, as well as conference and event chairing, exhibition curation and peer reviewing. Her current work explores AI for sensory wearables, including diversity and inclusivity in design, ethical practices and responsible AI.

Paul founded Open Innovations in 2013 with the mission to create a place and community to unleash the power of open data and deliver innovation across the region.

He is an entrepreneur who has built Open Innovations into a 21st century institution and co-founded The Data City which is a data as a service Company, whilst running his own innovation company. His primary role at Open Innovations is twofold - providing the drive, direction and purpose, and leading and developing our Innovation Services.

Originally trained as an environmental scientist at Lancaster University and Imperial College, he worked for British Coal, ICI and leading global consultancies and clients for nearly 20 years, before transitioning his skills to apply them in the domains of smart cities, open data, open innovation and innovation.

He is an accredited Cognitive Edge practitioner and applies these techniques in the Open Innovations practice.

Rod Moody started an electrical engineering apprenticeship at 15 years of age with Dale Electric, a manufacturer of diesel-engine driven electrical generators ranging from a few kilowatts up to several megawatts. Through day release and night class he gained an HNC in electrical engineering, and at the age of 19 was appointed to the post of Test Department Manager.

In his mid-twenties Rod was appointed to the position of Electrical Engineering Manager responsible for running the design office and designing control systems using relay logic. As technology advanced, and as a self-taught electronics engineer, he designed complex control systems using CMOS logic, and alternator AVRs using semiconductor analogue technology.

In 1992, at 52 years of age Rod joined Deep Sea Electronics as their Engineering Manager, and through improved product design and the introduction of SMT production they grew very rapidly over the eight years before Rod retired in 2000 at 60 years of age.

In retirement Rod spends most of his spare time with projects involving mechanics, electronics, and software using the Raspberry Pi and Arduino microcontrollers. He continues to be a keen gardener as he has been from an early age, has a keen interest in all aspects of science and engineering, and is currently leader of the York U3A Science & Engineering World group.

Libby Miller is a technologist and maker, who enjoys making poor-quality robots and thinking about connection, embodiment, and meaning. She recently spent 14 years with BBC Research and Development and is currently deciding what to do next.

David Eastman has been a London-based professional software developer with Oracle Corp. and British Telecom, and a consultant helping teams work in a more agile fashion. He writes regular tech posts for thenewstack.io often on AI and software development. He is returning to his first love, games development. In 1990 he released the video game “Conflict: Middle East Political Simulator”, in which you play the Israeli government. Yes, you read that correctly. In 1991 he completed “Floor 13”, which had the player heading up a clandestine department within the British government. Just as the COVID pandemic started, he worked on completing the rewrite of this cult game.

Dr. Michelle Kasprzak is an artist, writer, curator, and educator based in the Netherlands. Currently, she is Course Director of the MA Design at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, and a postdoctoral researcher at the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences. In 2024, Michelle is also an invited seminar leader for the Digital Art department at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria.

Michelle has curated exhibitions across North America and Europe, at V2_ Institute for Unstable Media, Future Flux Festival, Dutch Electronic Art Festival, ZERO1 Biennial, and others. She has written critical essays for HOLO, C Magazine, Volume, Spacing, CV Photo, Public, Mute, Blackflash, and several online journals on a wide range of subjects in the realm of contemporary culture. She was most recently published in the anthology From Commons to NFTs on Aksioma Press.