Julie Ann McCann is a British computer scientist who is a professor at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a ...

. She is the leader of the Adaptive Emergent Systems Engineering. She is a Fellow of the

British Computer Society Sir Maurice Wilkes served as the first President of BCS in 1957 BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, known as the British Computer Society until 2009, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in infor ...

and was awarded the

Suffrage Science award The Suffrage Science award is a prize for women in science, engineering and computing founded in 2011, on the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences (LMS). There are three categories of awar ...

in 2018.

Early life and education

As a teenager, McCann became interested in

electronic music Electronic music is a Music genre, genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or electronics, circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromech ...

, particularly listening to

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize t ...

and

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groundb ...

. She lived close to the

Armagh Planetarium Armagh Planetarium is a planetarium located in Armagh, Northern Ireland close to the city centre and neighbouring Armagh Observatory in approximately fourteen acres of landscaped grounds known as the Armagh Astropark. History Armagh Planeta ...

Armagh Armagh ( ; ga, Ard Mhacha, , " Macha's height") is the county town of County Armagh and a city in Northern Ireland, as well as a civil parish. It is the ecclesiastical capital of Ireland – the seat of the Archbishops of Armagh, the ...

. She joined

Ulster University sco, Ulstèr Universitie , image = Ulster University coat of arms.png , caption = , motto_lang = , mottoeng = , latin_name = Universitas Ulidiae , established = 1865 – Magee College 1953 - Magee Un ...

for her academic studies, working toward a bachelor's and doctorate in computer science. She completed her doctorate in 1992.

Research and career

McCann develops

spatial computing Spatial computing was defined in 2003 by Simon Greenwold, as "human interaction with a machine in which the machine retains and manipulates referents to real objects and spaces". With the advent of consumer virtual reality, augmented reality, and ...

and

wireless communications Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...

, which combine information from their environments with their digital components. Her group investigate convergence and anarchical spatial computing systems. To better understand this, she uses established understanding from systems beyond computing infrastructure (e.g. economics, biology, physics). She combines decentralised algorithms and protocols using low-powered sensing devices. These devices are very small and communicate with one another via radio signals. McCann joined

in 2002 from

City, University of London City, University of London, is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, and a member institution of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute, and became a university when The City Univ ...

. She works on Adaptive Emergent Systems Engineering. Her interests lie in harnessing the various interactions between the cyber and physical to improve performance, resilience and to make secure. She oversees the

Alan Turing Institute The Alan Turing Institute is the United Kingdom's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, founded in 2015 and largely funded by the UK government. It is named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician and computing p ...

Resilient and Robust Infrastructure challenge. McCann leads the National Research Foundation Singapore Eco Cities initiative. McCann also serves as deputy director of the PETRAS National Centre of Excellence.

Awards and honours

* 2018

* 2022

Turing Talk The Turing Talk, previously known as the Turing Lecture, is an annual award lecture delivered by a noted speaker on the subject of Computer Science. Sponsored and co-hosted by the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and the British C ...

Selected publications

Her publications include: * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCann, Julie British computer scientists Fellows of the British Computer Society Alumni of Imperial College London Academics of Imperial College London Year of birth missing (living people) Living people