About
Biography
Head of Data Science @ Black Duck Software, recovering academic, former robo-psychiatrist, hackerspace founder, meetup organiser, and player-of-calendar-tetris.
Currently Senior R&D Manager (Data Science) at Black Duck Software, using advanced data mining and machine learning to detect, assess and remediate vulnerabilities and malware attacks on cloud infrastructure.
Previously a Data Scientist working in the fields of Affective Computing, Wearable Technologies and Cyber Security.
Completed PhD Research at The University of Liverpool (formerly at Queen’s University Belfast’s ECIT Institute) investigating Trust and Reputation in Marine Communications for Autonomous Systems of Systems under the joint Anglo-French Defence Research Group, established at the 2010 Anglo-French Summit
Founding (former) director of Farset Labs, Northern Ireland’s First Hackerspace, located in Weavers Court Business Park, Belfast, developed while I was finishing off a Masters in Electronics and Software Engineering at QUB. Farset Labs now provides the technical and entrepreneurial community with a place to share resources, knowledge and experience in a relaxed atmosphere, laying the foundation for the next wave of Northern Irish industry-leading technologists and business leaders.
Recipient of the 2012 Belfast Business Top 50 for my work at Farset Labs, the QUB T G Christie Award for Most Promising Postgraduate, and The Liggard Prize for Best Communications Engineering Masters Project. Also an IET Excellence Grant recipient and a National Finalist in the IET Present Around the World competition, presenting on information theory of social networks in 2010
A sucker for Doctor Who, Scottish and Japanese Whiskey, Craft Beer, any movies involving Christoph Waltz, Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, or Quentin Tarantino, and heavily caffinated German softdrinks.
Current Roles
- Senior R&D Manager (Data Science) @ Black Duck Software
- Treasurer @ BSides Belfast CIC
- Director @ Northern Ireland Open Government Network
ETC
Speaking Engagements / Panels
- 2024
- University of Ulster MSc Data Analytics - Building Beyond Buzzwords - Lecture
- 2023
- BelTech 2023 - Practical ML for Cyber Security - Speaker
- SISTEM2023 - Practical ML for Cyber Security - Speaker
- BringITOn “Top 12 Tech Jobs” - Interviewee
- 2022
- University of Ulster MSc Data Analytics - Practical ML for Cyber Security - Lecture
- AI NI 17 - AI in Cyber Security, Healthcare & Data Science Success Stories - Practical ML for Cyber Security - Speaker
- 2021
- University of Ulster MSc Data Analytics - Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics - Guest Lecturer
- BLUG Technical: Universal screwdrivers - Apache Arrow in 5-10 Mins - Lightning Talk
- 2020
- Northern Ireland Developers Conference: Kids Track - Tell me about your Programmer - Robopsychologist and other careers that don’t exist (yet) - Speaker
- Northern Ireland Developers Conference - A Stranger in a Strange Land: Data Science Onboarding In Practice - Speaker
- BelTech - AI Explainability - Panellist
- DevBash - Pragmatic Data Science - Speaker
- 2019
- PyConIE - Planning Your Hackerspace With Python - Speaker
- Northern Ireland Developers Conference - Data Art: Creative collisions and getting out of your comfort zone - Speaker
- PyBelfast - The Joys of Python 3
- 2018
- PyConIE - An Idiots Guide to (Open) Data Science - Speaker
- PyBelfast - Scalable Analytics with Dask
- University of Ulster PgDip/MSc Digital Media Communications - Guest Lecturer
- University of Ulster MSc Data Science - Guest Lecturer
- DigitalDNA/AINI - Unfeeling Fire; Autonomy in Defence - Speaker and Panellist
- Northern Ireland Developers Conference - An Idiots Guide to (Open) Data Science - Speaker
- Machine Learning BASH HODL-AI: Live Coding RNN on the Blockchain - Speaker
- BelFOSS - The Ballad Of Farset Labs: Redux - Speaker
- Cambridge House Grammar School - Annual Awards Ceremony - Guest Speaker
- Drive105 - For Arts Sake with Eileen Walsh - Radio Interviewee
- 2017
- University of Ulster MSc Data Science - Guest Lecturer
- BLUG - Open Data Science in Python - Speaker
- PyBelfast - Pandas for Data Science - Speaker
- 2016
- BelTech - Innovation Engineering - Panellist
- Open Data Day - Community Use of Open Data - Speaker
- 2015
- Ignite Liverpool - A Rant About A Visitors Perspective of Liverpool - Speaker
- 2014
- Liverpool Social Media Cafe - The Ballad of Farset Labs - Speaker
- InterTradeIreland All-Island Innovation Conference Permitting the Creative Insanity of Your Community - Speaker
- 2013
- CXNI Creative Collaborative Futures From Ceramics to 3D Printing: Discussing Maker Research Culture in Northern Ireland - Speaker
- TEDxBelfast - Dr Strange Sub or How I learned to stop worrying and accept Emergence - Speaker
- Innovation in Northern Ireland: Nesta in Belfast - Speaking
- Blick Shared Studios Creative Camp - Speaker
- 2012
- Bank of Ireland Junior Dragons Den Regional Heat - Speaker
- NISP - Generation Innovation Awards Ceremony 2012 - Speaker
Press/Publications/Podcasts
- 2024
- Panic over new ChatGPT that ‘reasons’ as expert warns of terror AI raids that steal cash from ‘huge numbers’ of victims - The Sun - Commentary/Interview
- What is WRAP and how can it help train AI more efficiently? - ITPro - Commentary/Interview
- Microsoft Copilot could have serious vulnerabilities after researchers reveal data leak issues in RAG systems - ITPro - Commentary/Interview
- Unmasking the ChatGPT Threat: How AI Raiders are Stealing Cash from Thousands! - Central Recorder - Commentary/Interview
- AI Scientist LLM goes rogue: Creators warn of “significant risks” and “safety concerns” - The Stack - Commentary/Interview
- Hackers are trying to exploit a new critical MOVEit vulnerability – here’s what you need to know - ITPro - Commentary/Interview
- Data Privacy Day 2024 - ITSecurityGuru - Commentary/Interview
- Zero-Click GenAI Worm Spreads Malware, Poisoning Models - DarkReading - Commentary/Interview
- Generative KI hat enorme Auswirkungen auf Softwareentwicklung und Softwaresicherheit - ManageIt - Guest Publication of Blog Post
- Generative AI has a huge impact on software development and software security - Teiss - Guest Publication of Blog Post
- 2023
- One Year Anniversary of ChatGPT by Synopsys - Technology Reseller - Author
- To improve cybersecurity, is an annual one-month awareness pep rally enough? - NerdForTech - Commentary
- Over 800k Flagstar Bank Customers Impacted by Third Data Breach Since 2021 - itsecurityguru - Commentary
- TP-Link Smart Bulb Users at Risk of WiFi Password Theft - HackRead - Commentary
- TP-Link Smart Bulb Spills Wi-Fi Passwords - Infosecurity Magazine - Commentary
- We’re getting poisoned by bad software. Why not talk about it that way? - NerdForTech - Commentary
- Is your smart light bulb giving passwords to hackers? - Cult of Mac - Commentary
- Officials Point To Russia After Electoral Commission Hack - Silicon.co.uk - Commentary
- Cyber-attack hits the UK’s electoral registers - itsecurityguru - Commentary
- Unraveling the EC Data Breach: Cybersecurity Experts Weigh In on the Implications - Infosecurity Magazine - Commentary
- UK Electoral Commission systems breached for over a year - BetaNews - Commentary
- 2021
- WhyNI - Enzo Recruitment - Podcast Guest
- Unattested Pod - Podcast Guest
- Dr StrangeBot: or how I learned to stop worrying and trust machine learning
- 2020
- Is Your AI Ethical? - RTInsights - Author
- The Importance of Active Learning in Data Science and Engineering - Cybersecurity Insider - Author
- 2018
- Moving to Belfast? Here are 10 people you need to know - SiliconRepublic - Listee
- 2017
- 2016
- Analytical Metric Weight Generation for Multi-Domain Trust in Autonomous Underwater MANETs - Invited paper for Underwater Communications Security session at IEEE UComms 2016, Lerici, Italy - Author
- Pending: Physical Behaviours for Trust Assessment in Autonomous Underwater MANETs - Submitted to The 13th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), Brasilia, Brasil - Author
- 2015
- Single and Multi-metric Trust Management Frameworks for Use in Underwater Autonomous Networks. In Trustcom/BigDataSE/ISPA, 2015 IEEE, Helsinki, Finland - Author
- How The Future Gigabit Internet Is Likely To Play Out - MakeUseOf - Author
- Raspberry Pi Farset Labs ‘jams’ teach kids how to code computers - BBC - Interview
- Big Data Is Big Business In Northern Ireland - TechWatch - Interview
- 2014
- Analysis of Trust Interfaces in Autonomous and Semi-Autonomous Collaborative MHPC Operations, The Technical Cooperation Program, Technical Report TR-C3I-06-2014, May 14, 2014, Portsmouth, UK not publically available - Author
- A Multi-Vector Trust Framework for Autonomous Systems, AAAI Spring Symposium Series, Palo Alto CA, USA - Author
- How to Optical and Quantum Computers work? - MakeUseOf - Author
- GPS III: Where Are We? And Where Are We Going? - MakeUseOf - Author
- Becoming an Expert Andrew Bolster on Suspicious Submarines - University of Liverpool - Appearance
- A Multi-Vector Trust Framework for Autonomous Systems - Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence Spring Symposium - Author
- 2013
- Experimenting with ICT in Belfast - AgendaNI - Appearance
- Tech Britain Coverage - TechBritain - Interview
- Global Game Jam Hits Belfast - Following The Nerd - Appearance
- Global Game Jam: Belfast to take part for first time - BBC News - Interview
- Belfast Hub for Global Games Jam - Newsletter - Appearance
- Weekend hackathon set for Belfast - Ulster Business
- Global Game Jam hackathon set for Belfast this month - Silicon Republic - Appearance
- 2012
- Imagining a Digital Future - Ulster Business - Appearance
- Northern Ireland economy needs to make space for technological innovation and creativity - BusinessFirstOnline - Interview
- The Tech Show (Podcast) - iChrisTaylor - Guest
- Top entrepreneurs inspire next generation - Appearance
- Farset Labs makes it into Belfast Business Top 50 - Belfast Media Group - Appearance
- Belfast one of 16 UK cities to get 4G mobile services in 2012 - BBC News - Interview / Co-Author
- Andrew Bolster from Farset Labs talking to Linzi Corr at ITE Belfast - Brightwater Recruitment - Interview
- Muckraker Partners with Farset Labs (Blog) - Muckraker - Appearance
- A Different Road - New Scientist - Interview