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Dr Keith Leonard Mannock

Positions held:
  • Lecturer, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
Address

Room 161, Malet Street

Email
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    A bit of history...


    I received a B.Sc. degree with first-class honours in Computer Science (CNAA) from the Polytechnic of Central London. I also have an HND with Distinction in Computer Studies! Studying at a Polytechnic was a conscious decision for me — I wanted to avoid the "ivory towers" view of life; I received some support from Esso (bang goes my Green credentials).

    Whilst an undergraduate, I did a fair amount of external consultancy — the money came in very useful! I then studied for my PhD at University College London in electronic document retrieval under Professor Clement Leung. As a research student, I continued to do external consultancy and teaching at various Colleges.

    I took up a full-time lectureship at Birkbeck in 1986 (that long ago!). I've continued to foster links with industry (see my research pages) and work in the areas of programming languages (especially languages for the JVM and OSX), software engineering, and visual information systems (multimedia information retrieval).

    Highlights

    • I am a lecturer in Computer Science at Birkbeck, University of London.
      I am involved in several open-source and commercial programming projects.
      I used to do commercial consultancy - but now I’m too busy (and probably need a rest!).
      I ❤️ writing software and trying to convince others of its elegance and artistry!

    • "It was a lot more fun being 20 in the '70s than 70 in the '20s" — Joe Walsh

    Office hours

    Please use the booking facility on MS Teams...

    Web profiles

    Administrative responsibilities

    • Programme Director for the MSc in Information Technology
    • Home and International Recruitment and Admissions Lead in the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences
    • Library representative

    Professional memberships

    • BCS - British Computer Society

    • IEEE Computer Society - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

    • ACM - Association for Computing Machinery

    • AAAI - American Association for Artificial Intelligence

    • ALT - Association for Learning Technology

    • AAISB - Association for Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour

    • IET - The Institution of Engineering and Technology

    ORCID

    0000-0001-5988-6895
  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • Programming languages - all types and forms but especially multi-paradigm languages
    • Software engineering
    • Environments, methodologies, and tools for teaching programming
    • Self modifying machine learning architectures
    • Information retrieval with particular attention focused on content-based image indexing and retrieval
    • Location aware mobile applications
    • Cloud and distributed computing as applied to the Enterprise
    • Software tooling

    Research projects

    Jellibeans is a web search tool for assisting users with Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD)

    Abstract

    The system models user interactions within the search process, utilising a user profile and integrating insights from the core features of the Autistic condition. The system has an integrated infra-red motion-controlled user interface component, using gesture and hand movement data to enhance the interactive search process. The work provides insights into how search can be improved for users on the Autistic spectrum and includes an analysis of experiments carried out with the system.

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Supervision

    Supervisions within Birkbeck:
    1

    Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

    • SOKRATIS KARKALAS
      Nature of supervision:
      Joint Principal Supervisor, to
      Title of thesis:
      Simplifying Authoring and Facilitating Component Reuse of Programming Tutors
      Awarded:
      2022

    Teaching

    My teaching focusses on software based topics utilising blended learning techniques.

    Past teaching modules

    • Software Design and Programming (2012-2022)
    • Programming Language Paradigms (2011-2022)
    • Programming Paradigms and Languages (2011-2022)
    • Programming Primer in Python (2014-2021)
    • Enterprise Computing (2012-2020)
    • Component Based Software Development (2000-2020)
    • Principles of Programming I (2017-2018)
    • Principles of Programming II (2017-2018)
    • Programming in Java (2011-2018)
    • Software and Programming II (1994-2013)
    • Middleware (2010-2012)
    • Introduction to Software Development (2009-2012)
    • Object-Oriented Design and Programming (2007-2011)
    • Component Technologies (2000-2010)
    • Introduction to eBusiness (1999-2006)
    • Object-Oriented Programming in Java (1997-2006)
    • Software and Programming I (1993-1999)
    • Object-Oriented Programming in C++ (1991-1996)
    • Neural Networks (1990-1994)
    • Information Retrieval (1990-1993)
    • Advanced Programming Techniques I and II (1987-1992)
    • Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence (1986-1995)
    • Operating Systems (1986-1989)
    • Database Systems (1982-1989)

    Teaching modules

    • Introduction to Computer Systems (BUCI008H4)
    • Introduction to Computer Systems (BUCI008H4)
    • Software and Programming III (BUCI056H6)
    • Software and Programming III (BUCI056H6)
  • Publications

    Publications

    Book Section

    Conference Item

  • Business and community

    Business and community

    Outreach

    • I've given invited talks on my research work, both on academic and industrial concerns.
    • I've run research projects, most of which have been industry-related.
    • I've also been involved in several web events in the industry, which are tiring but fun.
    • I've been an external examiner on various BSc and MSc programmes and PhDs.
    • I have given invited lecture courses at many places….
    • In my copious spare time, I write articles and books and develop online courses for programmes, whether that be beginners or professionals.