School welcomes new lecturers

The School of Computer Science and Informatics has welcomed three new lecturers this autumn.

Dr Jing Wu, Dr Yulia Cherdantseva, and Dr James Osborne began their lectureships in the School last month, continuing their careers with Cardiff University.

Dr Jing Wu has spent the past seven years conducting research in the School of Computer Science and Informatics, reconstructing 3D models from 2D images. Now she will be teaching two modules, Computational Thinking and Problem Solving with Python, to first-year students.

"I am delighted to become a lecturer here”, says Dr Wu. “Being a lecturer is different from the research-only jobs I had before, it requires and develops a diversity of skills and knowledge beyond research. It's a challenge, but I am looking forward to it."

Fellow new lecturer, Dr Yulia Cherdantseva, will also be teaching undergraduates. Dr Cherdantseva completed her PhD in the School in 2015, and since then has been working as a research associate studying Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems Cyber Security Lifecycle (SCADA-CSL). Dr Cherdantseva’s recent review of cyber security risk assessment methods for SCADA systems has been the most downloaded article of Computers and Security since December last year.

Dr Cherdantseva will spend the majority of her time at the National Software Academy in Newport, a partnership between Cardiff University, Welsh Government and industry leaders to produce skilled software engineering graduates with industrial experience using a range of innovative teaching methods. She is sharing with students her experience of research in cyber security and her industrial experience as a web-application developer.

“Teaching at the NSA involves active participation of our industrial partners, and a solid understanding of, and alignment with, real business needs. I believe that the teaching strategy pursued by the NSA is one of the most effective ways of teaching applied software engineering and I am happy to be a part of this educational process”, says Dr Cherdantseva.

Also teaching at the National Software Academy is new lecturer, Dr James Osborne. Dr Osborne began his career at Cardiff University 10 years ago in the University’s central IT team. Since then he has taken part in a HPC Wales project responsible for developing and delivering training courses across Wales, and practised a DevOps culture using CI and CD tools. Most recently Dr Osborne has worked on a big data analytics platform hosted in the Amazon cloud.

Dr Osborne is teaching two core modules to second-year BSc Applied Software Engineering students - Agile Project Management and DevOps.

“It’s great to be back at the university after a stint in the commercial world”, says Dr Osborne. “It has given me the insight to know what is needed in graduate software engineers and I’m enjoying shaping the curriculum.”

For more information about the National Software Academy, please visit https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/software-academy.