ageing creatively bios for chairs and speakers

Value Ageing Seminar

Bios for Chairs and Speakers

Professor David ClelandDavid Cleland is a Civil Engineer with research interests in the behaviour of concrete structures and the durability of concrete. He has published over 150 papers in these areas and is a member of Federation internationale du Beton Commission 5 as well as other international research committees. David is a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Structural Engineers and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Since 1996 he has been Head of the School of Civil Engineering, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and, now Head of the School of Planning, architecture and Civil Engineering. Outside Queen’s he sits on the Board of the Engineering Council and has been a Board member of the Construction Industry Training Board.

Minister Carál Ní ChuilínCarál Ní Chuilín is the recently appointed Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure for the North of Ireland. Carál began her political career as the elected Sinn Feín representative for the Oldpark ward in North Belfast in 2003.

In addition to being a lifelong political activist Carál has a particular interest in human rights, housing, community development, and the Irish language. Carál was born and bred in the New Lodge area of Belfast, where she still lives.

Mr Conn MurrayConn Murray is Louth County Manager his career commenced 30 years ago in his native County of Meath. He has since worked in nine different local authorities including Clonmel, Limerick City, Cork City and was appointed City Manager in Waterford in September 2003.

He took up his present appointment as Manager of Louth County Council in September 2007. As a member of the County & City Manager’s Association he is Chairman of the Housing Committee, and serves on the Private Rented Tenancies Board, the National Traveller Consultative Committee, the Centre for Housing Research Board, and the Joint SOLACE/ CCMA All Island Forum. He also serves on the Local Authority National Council, the Change Management committees of the Local Authority Management Services Authority. He is a board member of the Low Carbon Initiative, The Highlanes Gallery and the Louth County Enterprise Board.

In November 2008 Conn, as County Manager of Louth County Council, announced the adoption the WHO Age Friendly Initiative and was the first in Ireland to do so. As a champion and early adopter he has demonstrated leadership in implementing change at County level and has supported the successful roll out of the National Programme across Ireland.

Dr Gerry MulliganGerry Mulligan is the Head of the Office of the Northern Ireland Executive in Brussels. The Office is one branch of the European Division in the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister The other branch is the European Policy and Coordination Unit based in Belfast. Gerry became Director of the European Division in May 2010. He previously worked as Director of Equality within the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister and has been Head of the Equality, Rights and Social Need Division. In this post he had responsibility for the Northern Ireland Administration’s Strategy for Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion, for advising on the future direction of social needs policy generally and for Anti Discrimination Legislation.


Mr Stephen McGowanStephen McGowan is Head of Creative Industries and Innovation at DCAL - the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. DCAL is the NI government lead on the creative industries. His role includes catalysing new partnerships and collaborations across government, industry and academia to tackle challenges in the economy, health, education, social inclusion and the environment. Previously he has held economic development, public affairs and corporate communications roles in the higher education and voluntary sectors.

Ms Fionnuala Walsh Fionnuala Walsh is Head of Community and Participatory Arts with the Arts Council of Northern Ireland. She has worked in the field of participative arts for the past 15 years, as an artist/ facilitator, project manager and teacher of Arts and Design within the formal education sector.

Fionnuala’s role with the Arts Council includes direct client management with a number of arts organisations as well as leading a team of specialist officers in community and participatory arts Additional programmes within the Participatory and Community portfolio include the Re-Imaging Communities Programme, an initiative enabling communities across Northern Ireland to address visible signs of sectarianism; and the Arts & Older People Programme, a three year arts initiative jointly funded by the Arts Council and The Atlantic Philanthropies, utilizing the arts as a means in which to strengthen the voice of older people.

Dr Emilio Mordini Emilio Mordini is a Medical Doctor and Philosopher. He has been trained as a psychoanalyst and was partner of the Psychoanalytic Institute for Social Research (1986-2001). From 1994 to 2006 Emilio taught bioethics in the Medical School of the University “La Sapienza” of Rome and served as a scientific secretary of the Bioethical Commission of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). Focusing his efforts on creating an international research centre devoted to ethical, political and social implications of emerging technologies, in 2002 Emilio founded the Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC), an independent, non-partisan, research centre, whose aim is to contribute to a better understanding of the contemporary world by clarifying the human (social, cultural and ethical) factors which shape technological innovation. Emilio serves as a coordinator of VALUE AGEING - Incorporating European fundamental values into ICT for ageing

Dr. R. Benjamin Knapp Ben Knapp is the Founding Director of Institute for Creativity, Arts &Technology (ICAT) Virginia Tech, USA. This institute fosters and studies the creative process, from imagination to innovation, to create new possibilities for exploration and expression. Its mission is to forge a bidirectional pathway between trans-disciplinary research and artistic output, scientific and commercial discovery, and educational innovation. In his own research, Dr. Knapp has been working at the boundaries between human-computer interaction, universal design, and creative practice. His research on human-computer interaction has focused on the design of user interfaces and signal processing software that enable the composer and performer to augment the physical control of a musical instrument with more direct neural interaction using physiological/biometric indicators of gesture and emotion. His research also involves the design of home environments that support people as they age. Using ambient sensing, he has been exploring ways to understand behavioural and emotional changes that predict changes in physical and mental status.

Professor Holly Jimison PhDHolly Jimison, Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Informatics and Clinical Epidemiology at OHSU received her Doctorate in Medical Information Sciences at Stanford University. Dr. Jimison has both academic and industry


experience in the design and evaluation of medical technologies. Her research is focused on consumer health informatics, with an emphasis on in-home monitoring and technology for successful aging. Professor Jimison’s current projects include cognitive monitoring and remediation using computer games, automated health coaching research, and interactive exercise systems for home-bound elders. she is a Fellow of the American College of Medical Informatics, Past President of the Oregon Chapter of Health Information Management Systems Society, and serves on the Executive Council for Oregon’s Royal Center for Aging & Technology. She is temporarily living in Washington DC while on loan to NIH as an advisor to their Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research.

Dr Maeve Rea

Maeve Rea is a Consultant Physician and Senior Lecturer in Geriatric Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast and the Belfast City Hospital. She studied medicine at Queen’s University, and genetics and immunology at Stanford University, United States. She set up the Belfast Elderly Longitudinal Free-Living Ageing Study, looking at factors involved in successful ageing in nonagenarians and is a Principal Investigator in the Genetics of Healthy Ageing (GeHA) European Project which is looking at family clusters of nonagenarians across Europe to establish if genetics and lifestyle interact to contribute to good quality ageing. Maeve is past Chair of British Geriatrics Society Northern Ireland, Chair Elect of the Policy Committee of British Geriatrics Society UK and a Trustee of AGENI.

Dr Karim HadjriKarim Hadjri is a Reader in Architecture, School of Planning, Architecture & Civil Engineering, Queen’s University Belfast (www.qub.ac.uk/space) at Queens University Belfast and is the research theme leader for the Architecture group. Karim is an architect with a Master of Philosophy (1989) and a Doctor of Philosophy (1992) in housing studies completed at the Joint Centre for Urban Design at Oxford Brookes University. He has worked as a scholar in the United Kingdom, UAE and Saudi Arabia, and managed academic units and research centres in both Cyprus and Colombia. His teaching and research interests include architectural design, housing, Computer-Aided-Design, and post-occupancy evaluations. Karim is particularly interested in inclusive design and how the physical environment can be improved to fit the needs and requirements of the older user in particular. His more recent research explores the influence of the domestic environment on various user groups including people with cognitive impairment. He currently supervises six PhD students examining ageing related topics such as Computer-Aided-Design tools to achieve inclusive design, interdisciplinary approach to inclusive design, way-finding for dementia patients, and older people's perception of comfort at home. Karim has led and contributed to over twenty research projects worldwide since 1992. He was the PI on the Cogworks collaborative network funded by the Lifelong Health and Wellbeing Phase 2, and is currently the PI and project manager for the €1.2m EU FP7 project BRAID - Bridging Research in Ageing and ICT Development. He is an affiliate member of the Royal Institute of British Architect (RIBA), and a fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.

Ms Wendy Osborne OBE, Wendy Osborne Chief Executive Volunteer Now is a graduate of the University of Ulster and her early career was spent in the Museum Service as Research Assistant in the Department of Local History, Ulster Museum. In 1979 Wendy took a family career break returning to full-time employment in the voluntary sector in 1987, working for Voluntary Service Belfast. In 1990 she took up a post with a project based in the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action. This project developed into a new organisation, the Volunteer Development Agency. Since its launch on 1 April 1993 the Agency developed into a key leadership organisation for the promotion and development of volunteering in Northern Ireland. Wendy was recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of Volunteer Now, a new organisation formed on 1 April 2010 as a result of the merger of nine Volunteer Centres and the Volunteer Development Agency. Over the past 30 years Wendy has been involved in a range of volunteer activities, from youth work to adult literacy tutoring; from establishing a local history society to school governor. This voluntary involvement has made a vital contribution to her personal and professional development. In 2000 Wendy was awarded the OBE for services to volunteering.


Mr Rodd BondRodd Bond is Director of the Netwell Centre, Dundalk Institute of Technology. A native of Dundalk, Rodd graduated with distinction from the school of architecture at Brookes College, Oxford in 1982, where his major study, focused on computer-assisted design and evaluation frameworks applied to primary care facilities in the UK. An important formative project in his early career was the master-planning of the Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad, while with CRI based in Princeton, New Jersey.

As an architect and researcher committed to inquiry by design, Rodd has a unique blend of experience promoting innovation energised by the attractive power of a positive and inclusive future. Rodd’s creative approach seeks to fuse sustainable and inclusive neighbourhood design, models of community caring centred on citizenship and personhood, and ‘context aware technologies’ in a manner that together can enhance and enrich the health and well-being of people of all ages, and those who care for them.

Rodd’s action research agenda has culminated in the formation of the Netwell Centre, in the School of Health and Science at DkIT, which he now directs. Netwell is a collaborative venture between DkIT, the HSE (Dublin North East) and Louth County Council, and is part funded through a grant from the Atlantic Philanthropies. In partnerships including the WHO and AGE-Platform in Europe, Rodd has influenced the growth of the Age-Friendly County initiative in Ireland and Europe, and is fostering cultural transformation in Irish long term care through the ‘places to flourish’ resource. Rodd works as a catalyst for innovation and change, and continues to work with teams to un-fold new ways to make a difference in the quality of peoples’ lives.

Dr. Marc BovenschulteMarc Bovenschulte is head of the department Demographic Change of VDI/VDE-IT, Berlin.

Marc received his Ph.D. from the University of Göttingen in the year 1997 and afterwards he was a scientific employee at the German Parliament, Bonn, covering the topics biotechnology, telecommunication and general aspects in research policy. In the following position he became personal assistant of the scientific director of the Max Delbrück Centre for Molecular medicine, Berlin, and later head of the scientific unit of the Forum for Science and Technology, Göttingen. There he focused on biomedicine, new media and public understanding of science. In 2000 he started as a consultant in the socioeconomic section of VDI/VDE-IT, Berlin. Since the year 2011

Main interests of his work are: Interaction between regional and value creation structures (regional development, innovation milieus, reflexive processes of knowledge generation). Maintaining innovation, productivity and competitiveness in demographic change. Technical and social innovation related to Ambient Assisted Living. Analysis of innovation processes; a geographic focus is set on Latin America.

Professor Alison Bowes Alison Bowes is Professor of Sociology and Head of the School of Applied Social Science at the University of Stirling. Alison’s research areas have covered minority ethnic groups and their access to housing, health and social care services, as well as older peoples’ quality of life and social care and support, including people with dementia and particularly focusing on telecare. She publishes extensively in these areas. For the last three years, she has held the post of Professor in Dementia Research, responsible for developing dementia research in the University of Stirling, linked with the internationally renowned work of the Dementia Services Development Centre.

Professor Karin Coninx

Karin Coninx is leader of the Human-Computer Interaction group of the Expertise Centre for Digital Media at the Hasselt University, Belgium. Karin is responsible for guidance of (PhD) researchers and


for various research projects relating to (multimodal) interaction in virtual environments, rehabilitation robotics, mobile and context-sensitive systems, interactive work spaces and user-centered software engineering. She has coordinated several Flemish and international project consortia.

Karin is co-author of more than 250 international publications (about 80 journal publications or book chapters), co-organizer of workshops and a member of several program committees. Besides leading the HCI group in EDM, Karin Coninx takes management responsibility e.g. as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Sciences in Hasselt University, Belgium.

Ms Ruth Taillon

Ruth Taillon is the Deputy Director (Research) at the Centre for Cross Border Studies. Ruth has many years’ experience as a researcher and evaluator working with a range of public and community-based organisations in both jurisdictions. Prior to joining CCBS, Ruth was Research Coordinator for Border Action (formerly ADM/CPA). Previously, she worked as an independent research and evaluation consultant, specialising in gender, equality and peace and conflict issues. She is joint author of the Impact Assessment Toolkit for Cross-Border Cooperation with colleagues based at the Euro Institut in Kehl, Germany.


Value Ageing Researchers

Ms Anthie SideraAnthie Sidera holds a Degree from the School of Philosophy at the University of Ioannina in Philosophy, Education and Psychology Cambridge International Diploma in IT Skills; Greek State degree of level B2 in Italian language and proficiency of Michigan in English language. Anthie is currently completing a Masters in Science of Education and in the School Psychology. Since January 2012 she has been seconded as an Early Stage Researcher (ESR) from Frontida, Greece to the Netwell Centre in Dundalk. Anthie is working with colleagues in Netwell, CSSC, QUB and VuB to write a report discussing the ethical, social, and legal aspects of ICT developments for older persons with dementia as they affect autonomy and freedom.

Reflecting on her time at Netwell Anthie said:

“Since coming to Ireland and the Netwell Centre, I have learnt many new things. First of all, my English is improving every day. I find that my list of new words is decreasing and I am able to read the literature and write more quickly. In the beginning I had to write in Greek first and then do the translation but not anymore. In addition, I am learning a lot about research and my research skills have been improved. Another benefit has been the opportunity to work within in a multidisciplinary team – i am working with architects, computer programmers, nurses and psychologists and of course the older people who help out with research at Newell centre. Besides work, the fact that I am in a new country gives me the opportunity to learn things about a different culture and how people are ageing here compare to Greece.”

Mr Donal O'Brien Donal O'Brien is a PhD candidate at the Sonic Arts Research Centre in Queen’s University Belfast. His work on the SONICS project is concerned with mobile digital game design and evaluation for seniors. His main interests are user-centred design, technology development and acceptance, qualitative research and computer programming. Donal was seconded from QUB in the summer of 2011 to work with software design company Vegan Solutions Srl, Vicenza, Italy for three month.

Reflecting on the value of the secondment Donal said:“Seeing how the business operated at Vegan Solutions was very interesting. Also, observing the requirements / tactics involved in promoting future strategies for growth and development, including press strategies was a worthwhile outcome. Overall I would consider the exercise beneficial to my future professional development on 3 levels:

1. Knowledge of the overall business model2. Knowledge of recruitment processes3. Knowledge of business structure, i.e. professional roles and the division of responsibilities.

Dr Daniel Lopez Daniel Lopez is post-doctoral researcher at LSTS Centre (VrijeUniversitetBrussel). He graduated in Psychology (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) in 2000 and obtained a Phd in Social Psychology (UAB) in 2009 with a thesis titled "Securing care: Networks, Immediacy and Independence in a Home Telecare Service". He has been trained as an STS ethnographer. He is lecturer professor at UniversitatOberta de Catalunya from 2009.Currently his research activity is focused on the consequences of developing and implementing new technologies, mainly a) the emergence of new spatialities and temporalities of care; b) the emergence of new practices of caring and security; and c) the enactment of hybrid forms of autonomy and independence. He has recently being involved on the EU Marie-Curie IAPP


Project, Value Ageing. This project is devoted to the incorporation of ethical values in industrial strategies and technological awareness in policy setting.

Reflecting on his participation in Value Ageing Daniel said:

I've been recruited by VUB as a post-doctoral researcher to work on WP2- ICT-DEVELOPMENTS IMPACTING ON FREEDOM AND AUTONOMY OF OLDER CITIZENS for 18 months. Along with Eugenio Mantovani from VUB and Emma Dora from VEGAN we have carried out a comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and intersectoral analysis of the main ICT-developments impacting on freedom and autonomy of older citizens. Besides that, as we are the responsible of this WP, we have supervised FRONTIDA through deliverable A2.2. (on consent of older citizens in situations of dependency) and also NETWELL through deliverable A2.3. (on ethical and Social issues related to people with dementia) (A2.4 will be the next) giving feedback and methodological and theoretical guidance. Working together with people with different backgrounds while swapping institutions and without even had the chance to meet up in flesh has been a challenge for our management and supervising skills. So I've learned a lot about. The most fruitful experience has been working with a lawyer like Eugenio on the same topic. The first thing we noticed was that values such as autonomy, independence and liberty have different meanings depending on the discipline: in my case, those values are enacted/produced by the people in their daily life, whereas in the case of the law they are well-defined abstract values to be respected. This clash between perspectives has been extremely fruitful because we have had to merge our understandings to create a common framework for the project and as a consequence our own approaches as lawyer and social scientist have been enriched.

Ms Verity Faith Verity Faith is an Architecture PhD Candidate is from Northern Ireland, she studied at Queen's University, Belfast where she completed a BSc in architecture in 2007. She worked in a local architecture firm on various projects and international competitions; including healthcare, leisure and education buildings. In 2010 she completed the postgraduate degree in architecture, with a thesis focusing on healthcare. Following this, she commenced a PhD within architecture supervised by Dr Karim Hadjri. Her research interests include design for dementia and improving way-finding.

From November 2011 to February 2012 she was on secondment to Rome working within the Centre for Science Society and Citizenship (CSSC) as part of the Value Ageing Project. Her role as an ESR was primarily to complete deliverable D1.2 of the Value Ageing Project which involved examining the extent to which EU policies on eInclusion and eAccessbility considered issues of dignity and non-discrimination for older people.

Reflecting on her Value Ageing secondment Verity said:

“The ethical focus of the research has been beneficial and the ESR has acquired knowledge which will be influential and relevant in considering her own research within architecture, this is particularly important in successfully engaging older people with cognitive decline in design research. CSSC staff are from various disciplines, including: psychiatry, psychology, law and philosophy and they use a multi-disciplinary approach, formal (through theoretical discussions and presentations) and informal (through emails and through general conversation) knowledge sharing. This is believed by the ESR to have a positive outcome on the research, promoting knowledge sharing and providing different perspectives and viewpoints from different backgrounds.”

Mr Eugenio MantovaniEugenio Mantovani is a Researcher at Research Group on Law Science Technology & Society (LSTS) at the VrijeUniversiteitBrussel (VUB). Eugenio is a legal researcher in international human rights law. After working on FP7 project SENIOR on the ethical, social and privacy issues in ICT for the elderly, he is currently researching the human rights of older persons, which is the subject of his Phd research. Since March 2010, he has been involved in research on the legal aspects of e-health as part of FP7 project Reaction. His other interests include literature, international


relations (in particular the Middle East), and European environmental law (in particular incinerators).

As of February 2012, Eugenio has been seconded as a researcher at Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship (CSSC), Rome within the framework of Marie Curie VALUE AGEING project. At CSSC, in Rome, Eugenio is currently occupied with the development of a series of scenarios involving the use of identification, wireless, and augmentation technologies for older persons. The ethical, legal and social issues emerging from these scenarios will be subsequently enlightened and the resulting report validated by a panel of international experts on ageing. Eugenio is also collaborating with Anthie and the team at Netwell to write the report on the ethical, social, and legal aspects of ICT developments for older persons with dementia as they affect autonomy and freedom.