About Us
The Industrial Advisory Panel's role is advisory, rather than decision-making. The aim is to be a forum for strategic discussion and to assist with industry-related operational aspects of the Department’s undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research programmes.
Purpose and Objectives:
- Provide expert advice on the relevance of teaching programmes.
- Advise on areas of computer science, software production, and digital technology development relevant to industrial growth, productivity, and success.
- Identify emerging best industry practices, new digital roles, and recent technologies.
- Assist in securing industrial projects for integration within our programmes.
- Sponsorship of Undergraduate and Postgraduate prizes, including the selection of the Industrial Advisory Panel Project Prize winner.
Benefits:
- For the Department: Enhance program quality and curriculum, ensure graduate employability, expand industrial networks, and advise on research activities meeting industrial needs.
- For Industrial Partners: Raise awareness of their activities, influence graduate outcomes to ensure students are equipped with essential skills, and access a large pool of students for projects.
Optional attendees are the Program Leads plus there will be a panel consisting of 10 industrial members. The panel positions will eventually be open for application through an email advertisement and expression of interest via the department website.
The Annual Meeting will take place alongside the Computer Science Student Conference in May.
Simon Lewis, Tata Steel, Port Talbot
After completing a Doctor of Engineering in Materials Engineering I have spent 26 years working in the Steel Industry in a variety of roles including new product development, business analysis (IT), works area technical, product management and surface inspection.
My most recent role has been section manager for surface inspection systems, leading a team of 5 people to develop and enhance the camera inspection systems. My team also develops quality management and material repair optimisation systems.
My current role is supporting the imported materials process while the steelworks moves from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces.
I am a fellow of IOM3, chartered engineer and chartered manager. I am a member of the Technocamps/Institute of Coding Industrial Panel, have industrially supervised 3 doctoral projects in Computer Vision and regularly supported CDT centre on selection and sponsor company activities. I am a volunteer CEng/FIMMM assessor/mentor and Engineering Council Liaison Officer for The Institution of Royal Engineers.
Jonathan Jones, ITSUS Consulting Ltd.
Jon is a Swansea University Alumni and Senior Consultant at ITSUS, sitting on the Technical Leadership Team. He obtained his PhD from Swansea in computer vision and machine learning. Since working in industry, he has built upon the knowledge gained from academia, applying it to provide real world data analysis solutions, whilst strengthening his existing research skills. Jon has worked on projects with various stakeholders such as Tier-1 defence primes, Dstl, UK Armed Forces, NATO, and other international stakeholders.
He oversees ITSUS's academic engagement, and internally acts to develop ITSUS's research portfolio and capability development.
Gareth Jenkins, Hywel Dda University Health Board
Gareth Jenkins is the Head of Data Science for Hywel Dda University Health Board, a position he has held since 2021. He has 8 years of healthcare experience and understands the importance of data science within health. He is passionate about using data science within the NHS for the benefit of the NHS. This drive led him to help establish the first dedicated data science team within a Welsh Health Board.Working in the digital and data sphere, Gareth has over 25 years of industry experience, across government, private and public sector organisations. Professionally he has been involved in some of the largest IT projects in the UK. He has experience of working within global IT service providers, such as CGI, HP and EDS.
Gareth’s qualifications include a MSc in Health Data Science, from Swansea University, and a BSc in Physics from Imperial College London.
Liam Butler, Dwr Cymru Welsh Water
I am the Data & Analytics Manager at Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water, where he leads the Data Science Team. With a strong background in data science and analytics, Liam has been instrumental in driving data-driven decision-making within the organisation.
I joined Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water on the graduate programme after graduating from Swansea University in 2016. In my current role, I am responsible for overseeing the development, deployment, and maintenance of analytical solutions that add significant business value. I work closely with stakeholders to ensure that the data science initiatives align with the overall business objectives and meet the needs of the users.
Dŵr Cymru Welsh Water's purpose is to provide high quality and better value drinking water and environmental services, so as to enhance the well-being of our customers and the communities we serve, both now and for generations to come.
Paul Thomas, Swansea Council
International Broker in Lloyd's of London Insurance market from 1986 to 1999 and was one of the first brokers to visit Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Left the City in 1999, moved to Wales and became self-employed before joining the Public Sector in 2002. Currently the Community Integration & Partnership Manager in Swansea Council and have the strategic lead and direct line management for officers responsible for Community Safety and the Safer Swansea Partnership, Anti-Social Behaviour, Community Cohesion, Hate Crime, Prevent and Channel Partnership, Regional CONTEST Board, and Countering Extremism.
Robert Bismuth, Fermat International Inc., Seattle, Washington, US/Paris, France
Robert is a pragmatic innovator and leader coming from a strong technology background tempered with a broad background in high technology business development and business operations. His experience covers a number of diverse technology segments including software, network, and user interface design. He also has significant experience in the semiconductor, and nano technology industries. In addition to serving in technical fellow and senior executive roles in large multinational companies, Robert has led, and in some cases founded, many startup high technology companies.
He credits a large part of his success to the early training he received as an undergraduate and post graduate student in pure mathematics – a discipline which not only gave him a sharp problem-solving mind but also taught him how to think intuitively.
Robert is currently the President and CEO of Fermat International Inc, a company that has developed significant intellectual property and products concerned with software and hardware for high performance big data analytics. . He also serves on the boards and as a strategic advisor to several other companies and organizations.
