Computer Science Computer Science

Short Biography of
Professor Paul Mc Kevitt:

Professor Paul Mc Kevitt is from Co. Donegal (Dún Na nGall), Ireland on the northwest of the European Eunion (EU) and was born in the Year of the Dragon. He has contributed to genesis of `The Imagineering Quarter' [(c) 2009, PM] in the City of Derry~LondonDerry~LegenDerry, which backed the City's successful bid for First UK City of Culture 2013, and is a member of the Digital Action Team (DAT) for Digital Derry. He is Director of the International Loebner Prize 2013 Contest in Artificial Intelligence (AI) being held during CultureTECH 2013 and is Vice-Chair of the University's Convocation Executive. He is Chair in Digital MultiMedia at the School of Creative Arts & Technologies, Faculty of Arts and member of the Computer Science Research Institute (CSRI), University of Ulster, Magee, Derry~LondonDerry~LegenDerry, Northern Ireland. Previously, he was Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The Queen's University of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He has been Visiting Professor of Intelligent MultiMedia Computing in the Institute of Electronic Systems, Aalborg University, Denmark and a UK EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) Advanced Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, England. The Fellowship, commenced in 1994, and released him from his Assistant Professorship (tenured Lectureship) for 5 years to conduct full-time research on the integration of natural language, speech and vision processing. He has been Visiting Professor at LIMSI-CNRS, Orsay, Univ. Paris Sud, France, Visiting Fellow at the School of Electronic Engineering, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, and Research Scientist and Research Fellow in The Department of Computer Science, New Mexico State University, New Mexico, USA. He completed a Master's degree in Education (M.Ed.), at the University of Sheffield, England in 1999, his Ph.D. in Computer Science, at the University of Exeter, England in 1991, his Master's degree in Computer Science (M.S.), at New Mexico State University, New Mexico, USA in 1988 and his Bachelor's degree in Computer Science (B.Sc., Hons.), at University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland in 1985. He has published numerous research papers in international journals, conferences and books, has been awarded 3 UK/international patents and is co-founder of a Magee campus spin-out company, HidInImage Ltd. He has secured research and education funding from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Ireland (PRTLI-V), the British Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the European Union (Esprit [Open-LTR], TEMPUS, Erasmus, Socrates), The Royal Society, The British Council, Invest Northern Ireland (NISPO Funds, Proof-of-Concept, RTD Networking, Innovation Vouchers), InterTradeIreland (Fusion), Enterprise Ireland (Innovation Vouchers), UK Teaching Company Scheme (TCS) and industry (US WEST Advanced Technologies [Denver, CO, USA], Seagate Technology [Derry/Londonderry], 360 Production [Derry/London]). His primary research interests are in Natural Language Processing (NLP) including the processing of sentiment, beliefs and intentions in dialogue. He is also interested in Philosophy, Digital Creativity and the general area of Artificial Intelligence (AI).