Self Assessment Team
The criteria for all Athena SWAN award levels require structures and processes that that enable and recognise gender equality work and, where relevant, wider equality work. So, as a department, a representative team and informed by staff and student communities, carries out self-assessment. Our team is led by Dr Cigdem Sengul.
Dr Cigdem Sengul,
Athena SWAN Lead
Cigdem joined Brunel in 2020, and is a Reader. She has more than ten years of experience in research and development in mobile and wireless networks in both academia and industry. her research focuses on Internet of Things, Usable Security and Privacy, and Personal Data Protection. Cigdem is a passionate advocate of increasing diversity awareness in computing. She is the Communication Chair of ACM Women. She is also the CS director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion championship.
Comunications Team
The communications team are currently working on the Athena Swan website to communicate activities undertaken by the Athena Swan Team. The communications team also disseminates information about past and future internal and external Athena Swan related lectures and events.
Prof. Mark Perry
Professor Mark Perry is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science. Prof Mark is an interdisciplinary ‘user studies’ researcher. Prof Perry is the co-lead of the Communications Team. His role is to manage communication of Athena Swan activities in the Computer Science Department.
Dr Armin Kashefi
Dr Armin Kashefi is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science with an interest in Modelling & Simulation. Dr Kashefi is a member of the Communications Team. His role is to manage and update the Athena Swan Website for the Computer Science Department.
Student Experience Team
Our student data team is responsible curating and analyzing all-student related data, as well as running special projects that aim to understand and improve student experience, e.g., the project related to awarding gap in computing.
Dr Nour Ali
Dr Nour Ali is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science since 2017 and is the Director of Undergraduate placements. Dr Ali leads the Student Experience Team.
Ms Fawzia Kara-Isitt
Fawzia (Fuzzy) Zehra Kara-Isitt is a final year PhD student within the Intelligent Data Analysis Group of the Department of Computer Science. She is a minority student, being a female older Pakistani student, who is also a full-time mom and carer at home. She helps actively with both the Communications as well as the Outreach Teams.
Staff Experience Team
Our staff data team is responsible of curating and analyzing all staff-related data; in addition to running special projects based that evaluate, support and improve gender equity for staff across the entire pathway from recruitment and induction to promotion on our action plan (e.g., understanding staff experiences of parental leave).
Dr Isabel Sassoon
Dr Isabel Sassoon is a Senior Lecturer. Isabel’s research interests are in data-driven automated reasoning, and its transparency and explainability. She leads the Staff Experience team.
Dr Antonios Kaniadakis
Dr Antonios Kaniadakis is a Reader in Education and the Digital Economy and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). He has an interest in socio-economic analyses of digital technology innovation and is an experienced ethnographer. He helps staff experience team with staff support and training projects.
Annette Payne
Dr Annette Payne is a lecturer in the department working on computational biology, technology and computer-assisted learning, and the use of technology to monitor and manage medical conditions. She helps the staff experience team with special projects.
Outreach Team
We need to research effective strategies for attracting more women to our courses. To this end, the outreach team works together with the Department’s Outreach team and the University STEM center, and engage in outreach projects, which includes widening participation, supporting STEM workshops, summer schools for girls, public engagement activities, and outreach to alumni.
Diversity Strategy: Policies, Structures and Functions
Dr Nadine Aburumman
Dr Nadine Aburumman is a Lecturer in the Computer Science Department. Dr Aburumman’s leads all outreach activities.
Dr Monica Pereira
Dr Monica Pereira is a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science with an interest in Human-Computer Interaction. Dr Pereira was previously co-lead of the Communications Team, managing and updating the Athena Swan Website for the Computer Science Department. Currently, she supports the outreach team, specifically outreach to alumni. Monica also supports the Staff Experience team in the parental leave study.
The entire SAT advises and co-creates a diversity strategy championed by the Head of the Department, Kate Hone. The strategy considers all aspects of student and staff life to improve our culture and inclusiveness and is often a direct result of Student/Staff Data Projects. Besides listed projects, additional examples of changes include:
- A more flexible part-time option for post-graduate studies.
- Student groups policy in undergraduate student project modules of having at least two women or no women in project groups.
- Equal opportunity for leadership, resulting from widening the membership of committees and enabling role sharing to include more junior academic staff to increase women’s representation.
Professor Kate Hone (Strategy Champion)
Professor Kate Hone is the Head of the Computer Science Department and is currently the strategy champion for the Diversity Strategy.
Alumni Members
Dr Alaa Marshan
Dr Alaa Marshan was with the Student Experience Team and a popular Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science. He had won multiple awards for teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Dr Alaa’s role within Athena Swan was to lead the collection, design and analysis of student data.