1. About the authors
David Bell graduated from Queen’s techniques with distributed database
University, Belfast in 1969 in Pure work
Mathematics, and has three research
degrees in different topics:
programming language design, Nuala Brady received a BA in
database performance, and artificial Psychology from Trinity College
intelligence in database systems. He Dublin (1987) where she held a
worked as a programmer in industry Foundation Scholarship in
for three years before embarking on Psychology. She has a PhD in
an academic career. He has been a full Experimental Psychology from
professor since 1986. He has well over Cornell University (1994) and was a
300 publications, including co- postdoctoral research fellow at McGill
authoring of ‘Distributed Databases’ University and Harvard Medical
(Addison-Wesley) and ‘Evidence School. Dr Brady was a lecturer in the
Theory and its Applications’ (North Department of Psychology at the
Holland), and has supervised more University of Manchester from
than 30 PhDs to completion. He has 1994-2000 and joined the School of
been a prime investigator on many Psychology at UCD in 2000. Her
national and EU-funded projects (eg current research interests are in social
MAP, ESPRIT, DELTA, COST, AIM, cognition, the perception of faces and
…) in IT since1981. He is a member biological motion and in the links
of the editorial boards of Information between perception and action.
Systems and The Computer Journal,
and he has been guest editor of
special issues of well-known journals, Derek Bridge is a senior lecturer in
on subjects such as Data Mining and the Department of Computer Science
The Semantic Web. He has also at University College Cork, where he
chaired /co-chaired several leads the Knowledge Engineering
programme committees, including Group. His Ph.D. from the University
those for VLDB and ICDE. His of Cambridge was in the area of
research is in data and knowledge computational linguistics. His
engineering - often linking reasoning subsequent research has covered
under uncertainty, machine learning, topics such as machine learning of
and other artificial intelligence natural language grammars, ant

2. algorithms for solving optimisation Science and Technology (UMIST),
problems, collaborative recommender United Kingdom, which he completed
systems, analyses of case-based in 1995. Following this, he also
learning, similarity measures for case- completed a one year M.Phil. at
based reasoning, and applications of UMIST, which he completed in 1996
case-based reasoning to product before commencing a Doctorate in
recommendation, software Computer Science in the Department
engineering and spam filtering. of Computer Science, Faculty of
Science, University College Dublin,
Dave Bustard is currently a Professor entitled "Agent Factory: A Framework
of Computing Science and Head of for the Engineering of Agent-Oriented
School at the University of Ulster. Applications". In 2002, he returned to
Before that he was at Queen’s academia as a Post-Doctoral
University, Belfast (1974-90) and researcher in the University College
worked briefly as a programmer for Dublin, before taking up his current
Ferranti Digital Systems (1972-74). lecturing post in 2003. His primary
He has also been a visiting scientist at research interests are Agent-Oriented
the Software Engineering Institute, Software Engineering, Agent-Oriented
Pittsburgh and BT Research Labs, Programming Languages, and
Martlesham. He holds a BSc in Autonomic Computing Systems.
Physics (1971) and an MSc (1973)
and PhD (1980) in Computer Science
from Queen's University, Belfast. His Fred Cummins is a College Lecturer
broad area of research is software in the School of Computer Science
engineering, with particular emphasis and Informatics, University College
on the requirements, design and Dublin. He is co-director of the
management aspects of the process. Cognitive Science Programme at
This has included work on risk UCD. His research has focussed on
management, agile development and issues of coordination and timing in
autonomic computing. Since 1990, speech production, with a view to
much of this work has been dynamical modelling. The dynamical
underpinned by general systems ideas. systems approach to cognitive science
extends to newer work in the fields of
visual perception and the
Rem Collier is a Lecturer in the epistemological foundations of
School of Computer Science and cognitive science. He is holder of a
Informatics, College of Engineering, Science Foundation Ireland Principle
Mathematical, and Physical Sciences, Investigator grant for the study of
University College Dublin, Dublin, methods for automatic speaker
Ireland. He completed a B.Sc. in Pure identification. Previous funded
and Applied Mathematics in the research projects included the study of
Department of Mathematics, synchronous speech and the
University of Bristol, United Kingdom development of multimodal interfaces.
in 1994, and went on to study for a He obtained his PhD from Indiana
M.Sc. in Computation at the University in 1997, and completed
University of Manchester Institute of postdoctoral research positions at

3. Northwestern University and the Dalla School of Computer Science and
Molle Institute for Artificial Informatics in University College
Intelligence, Lugano, CH, before Dublin in 2006. He is a former
joining the faculty at UCD in 1999. director of New World Commerce,
He also directed the Adaptive Speech now New WorldIQ, a Dublin e-
Interface group within Media Lab commerce IT company that employed
Europe from 2000 to 2004. over 40 people. He is a former director
of start-up companies New World
Commerce and Prediction Dynamics.
Ronan Cummins received a B.Eng. Dr. Cunningham has published over
(Hons) in Computer Engineering from 140 peer-reviewed papers in the
the University of Limerick in 2000 general area of applied AI, focusing
and an M.Sc.(Hons) in Software on machine learning and knowledge
Design and Development from NUI based systems for decision support in
Galway in 2004. He is currently a engineering, e-commerce, finance and
Ph.D. student in the Department of medicine.
Information Technology in NUI
Galway and is funded by an IRCSET
scholarship. His main interests are in Sarah Jane Delany is a lecturer in the
Information Retrieval, Artificial School of Computing in the Dublin
Intelligence and Evolutionary Institute of Technology and a member
Computation. of the Artificial Intelligence Research
Group. Her research interests are
primarily in machine learning and text
Pádraig Cunningham: Dr. mining.
Cunningham is Professor of Her Ph.D., from Dublin Institute of
Knowledge and Data Engineering in Technology, investigated the problem
the School of Computer Science and of
Informatics at University College concept drift in spam filtering.
Dublin. His current research focus is
on the use of machine learning
techniques in processing high- John Dunnion is a Senior Lecturer in
dimension data. He has a B.E. and the School of Computer Science and
M.Eng.Sci. from NUI Galway and a Informatics, University College
Ph.D. from Dublin University which Dublin, where he is co-director of the
he received in 1989. He was elected to Intelligent Information Retrieval
Fellowship in TCD in 1998. He Group. A graduate of University
became a Fellow of ECCAI (European College Dublin, his principal research
Coordinating Committee on Artificial interests are in Information Retrieval,
Intelligence) in 2004. After Document Summarisation and
completing his PhD he worked with Question Answering, and the
Digital Equipment Corporation as a application of Computational
Software Engineer and with Hitachi Linguistics techniques in these areas.
Europe Ltd. as a Research Scientist.
He joined Trinity College Dublin as a
lecturer in 1992 and moved to the

4. Sa’adah Hassan is a PhD student in Galway in 2004. He is currently a
the School of Computing and Ph.D.
Information Engineering at the student in the Department of
University of Ulster. Her research Information Technology in NUI
study is sponsored by the Ministry of Galway. In 2004 he was awarded an
Higher Education Malaysia and IRCSET Embark scholarship. He is
Universiti Putra Malaysia, where she currently a member of the
has been a member of the academic Computational Intelligence Research
staff since 2004. She completed an Group (CIRG). His main research
MSc in Software Engineering at the interests include Multi-Agent
University of Malaya in 2003 and a Systems, Game Theory, Artificial
BSc (Hons) in Computer Science at Intelligence and Evolutionary
the Universiti Technologi Malaysia Computation.
(UTM) in 1999. She also holds a
Diploma in Computer Science from
MARA University of Technology, Stuart Jackson is a PhD student in
Malaysia, where she worked as a the School of Computer Science &
programmer for several years before Informatics at University College
beginning her undergraduate studies at Dublin (UCD). He completed an MA
UTM. Her research interests include in Cognitive Science at UCD in 2006,
software engineering, intelligent and previously graduated from UCD
systems, and autonomic computing. with a BA in Psychology in 2003. His
current research focus is on action
Patrick Horgan is currently a Clinical perception and biological motion
Research Fellow in the Faculty of processing, and the role of body
Medical and Human Sciences in The perception in the development of
University of Manchester. He obtained theory of mind. His graduate work has
an MSc in Cognitive Science in 2005 also taken in research on multistability
in University College Dublin (UCD), in vision, and the application of
Ireland. He also trained in psychiatry movement perception tasks in motor
obtaining Membership of the Royal rehabilitation. He is a member of the
College of Psychiatrists in 2003. He Cognitive Neuroscience Society and
obtained a Higher Diploma in the Vision Sciences Society. He is
Computer Science in 1998 in supported by the Irish Research
University College Cork (UCC), Council for Science, Engineering &
Ireland.. He completed his Technology (IRCSET).
undergraduate Medical Degree in
University College Dublin (UCD),
Ireland in 1997. Current interests Patrick Kirwan is a PhD student,
include the investigation by studying the interactions between
neuroimaging of the role of dopamine malaria and geohelminths, at the
in learning in humans. School of Natural Science, University
of Dublin (Trinity College), Ireland.
Enda Howley received a B.Sc.(Hons) He completed his Bachelor's degree in
in Information Technology from the Natural Science (B.A, Hons.) from
National University of Ireland, University of Dublin, Ireland in 2003.

5. His primary research interests are in first class honours in Mathematics in
parasitology with particular interest in 1973 and was awarded the degrees of
parasite interactions. MSc and PhD by the same university
in 1974 and 1976. He held academic
posts at Queen's University Belfast
David Lillis is a PhD student in the and Lancaster University before
School of Computer Science and moving to the University of Ulster in
Informatics, University College 1993. With research interests in case-
Dublin, where he is a member of the based reasoning (CBR), intelligent
Intelligent Information Retrieval systems, and autonomic computing, he
Group. He graduated from the has been active in artificial
University of Limerick in 2002 with a intelligence research since the 1980s.
BA in Law and Accounting. He is an author or co-author of more
Following this, he completed a Higher than a hundred scientific publications,
Diploma in Computer Science in 2003 and has won best paper awards at two
and a MSc in Computer Science in conferences related to artificial
2006, both from University College intelligence.
Dublin. His principal research
interests are Information Retrieval and
Multi Agent Systems. Peter Milligan is a senior lecturer in
the School of Electronics, Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science.
Weiru Liu is a Reader at the School His research interest include the
of Electronics, Electrical Engineering design and implementation of semi-
and Computer Science, Queen's automated development environments
University Belfast. She received her for parallel, distributed and mobile
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Computer computing; software modelling and
Science from Jilin University, P.R. re-engineering: the use of object
China, and her Ph.D. degree in models as a basis for the design,
Artificial Intelligence from the development and maintenance of
University of Edinburgh. Her main software systems; meta-heuristic
research interests include reasoning knowledge engineering: the use of
under uncertainty, knowledge combined AI techniques as intelligent
representation and reasoning, agents in the development,
uncertain knowledge and information transformation and maintenance of
fusion, and knowledge discovery in sequential and parallel codes.; meta-
databases. She has published over 70 computing systems: the dynamic
journal and conference papers in these transformation and generation of
areas. software and hardware systems; the
utilisation of FPGAs for dynamic
hardware construction.
David McSherry is a Senior Lecturer
in the School of Computing and Kenneth Monaghan is a College
Information Engineering at the Lecturer in University College Dublin,
University of Ulster. He graduated School of Physiotherapy &
from Queen's University Belfast with Performance Science. He completed

6. his PhD (2006) in the area of 3D Chain Optimisation solutions for
Motion Analysis of Chronic Ankle specific problems within the forestry
Instability (CAI) and has published in industry. He completed a Ph.D. in
Physiotherapy Ireland, Clinical Artificial Intelligence with the
Biomechanics, Gait & Posture, and Department of Computer Science in
JOSPT. Recent Seed funding grants Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland in
(Euro50k) have developed research in 2005. He also completed a BA, BAI
the areas of Motor perception in (Hons) in Computer Engineering from
stroke, kinematic analysis of golf Trinity College in 2002. He held
putting, and further analysis of CAI. short-term Post-Doctorate positions in
He completed his MMedSc(Sports Trinity College and Dublin City
Physiotherapy) in 2000 from UCD, University before joining 4C in 2006.
and graduated with a BPhysiotherapy His previous work and interests
in 1992 (UCD). He is currently a include; Knowledge Discovery, Case-
member of the ISCP Overseas based Reasoning, Explanation
Assessment Sub-Committee (OASC) Systems, Active Learning and Image
and was part of the International Recognition.
organising committee for the 3rd
International Ankle symposium held
in UCD 1st-3rd September 2006. He is Diarmuid O'Donoghue received his
course director for the Graduate B.Sc. and M.Sc. from University
Diploma/MSc in Healthcare College Cork in 1988 and 1990, and
(Acupuncture) and is co-ordinating his PhD from University College
numerous undergraduate courses in Dublin.
UCD. His research interests include He has been a lecturer at the
Sports Biomechanics, Exercise and Department of Computer Science NUI
Fitness, Falls in the Elderly, and has Maynooth since 1996. Diarmuid is
an active participation in the also an associate of the National
development of e-learning courses in Centre for Geocomputation. His
UCD. interests are in artificial intelligence,
cognitive modelling, analogical
Emma-Claire Mullally graduated reasoning, qualitative spatial
from NUI Maynooth, where she reasoning and evolutionary
studied computer science and software computation.
engineering, in 2004. She is currently
perusing a PhD. in the area of
Structure Matching in GIS. Colm O'Riordan lectures in the
Department of Information
Conor Nugent is a Post-Doctorate Technology, National University of
Researcher with the 4C group in Ireland, Galway. His main research
University College Cork. He is interests are in the fields of Artificial
currently working on an Enterprise Life, Evolutiionary Computation and
Ireland Innovation Partnership project Information Retrieval. His current
with Cork based firm TreeMetrics. research focusses on cooperation and
This project is focused on developing coordination in Artificial Life
Artificial Intelligence and Supply societies and Multi-agent systems.

7. Guilin Qi is a postdoctoral researcher Fergus Toolan is a lecturer in the
working at the Institute for Applied Faculty of Computing Science in
Informatics and Formal Description Griffith College Dublin. He is
Methods (AIFB) at the University of currently completing his PhD in the
Karlsruhe in Germany. He received Intelligent Information Retrieval
his PhD in Computer Science from Group in University College Dublin.
Queen's University of Belfast in 2006. His research focuses on Classifier
Before he moved to Belfast, he Ensembles in Machine Learning and
completed a Master degree in the use of Machine Learning
Mathematics at Jiangxi Normal techniques in Information Retrieval
University in China. His research Systems. He completed an M.Sc in
interests include knowledge Computer Science from University
representation and reasoning, College Dublin in 2002 focusing on
uncertainty reasoning, and semantic the area of Web Personalisation, and
web. He has published more than 30 obtained his primary degree from
papers in these areas; some of them University College Dublin in 2000.
appeared in top conferences or
journals. He is Editorial Board
Member for Journal of Advances in
Artificial Intelligence. He was PC
members of the International
Workshop on Ontology Dynamics
(IWOD’07) and of the first
International Workshop on Semantic
e-Science.
Paul Sage is a lecturer in Computer
Science in Queen’s University,
Belfast, from where he previously
gained his honours degree and
doctorate. His research interests
include the application of artificial
intelligence techniques in the areas of
code transformation for parallel
architectures, grid and P2P computing
surfaces.
Michael Smullen graduated with a
first class honours degree in
Information Technology from NUI,
Galway in 2004. He completed his
M.Sc in 2007 researching the domain
of Information Retrieval. His research
interests include modelling context in
information retrieval, user modelling
and data mining.