Adrian Hopgood is Professor of Intelligent Systems, Director of Future & Emerging Technologies, and Director of the South Coast Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications at the University of Portsmouth. He is also a visiting professor at the Open University and at Sheffield Hallam University. He is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the BCS (the Chartered Institute for IT), and a committee member for the BCS Specialist Group on Artificial Intelligence. Adrian has extensive experience in both academia and industry. He has worked at the level of Dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor in four universities in the UK and overseas, and has enjoyed technical roles with Systems Designers (now part of Hewlett-Packard) and the Telstra Research Laboratories in Australia. Adrian's main research interests are in artificial intelligence and its practical applications. He has supervised 19 PhD projects to completion and published more than 100 research articles. His text book "Intelligent Systems for Engineers and Scientists” has been published in three editions and is ranked as a bestseller.

Professor Djamila Ouelhadj is the Academic Lead and the event coordinator of the SCCoE. She is a Reader in Operational Research and the Head of the Logistics, Operational Research, and Analytics Group in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Portsmouth. She is the Director of Enterprise and Innovation of the cross-faculty Centre for Operational Research and Logistics (CORL). She has carried out successful research in Operational Research and Analytics for more than 20 years. Her main research interests are OR and the development of novel mathematical optimisation models, advanced meta-heuristic methods, cooperative agent-based optimisation, and intelligent decision support systems for automatically producing high-quality solutions to a wide range of real-world optimisation, scheduling and logistics problems. Real-world problems include: manufacturing, healthcare, nurse rostering, vehicle routeing and transportation, supply chain and production management, sustainability and renewable energy, etc. Her research activities have resulted in publications in International distinguished journals and refereed conference proceedings. She has chaired and organised more than 30 conferences and workshops aimed at both the academic and practitioners.

Louise has joined the South Coast Centre of Excellence as Business Development Manager after working in the Higher Education Sector for the last six years. Passionate about the role of science and technology in solving some of the world’s greatest challenges, Louise trained and worked as a Biochemist before transitioning into a Research and Innovation Facilitation role at the University of Portsmouth. More recently, she has applied her knowledge in bid development, event management and funding support to develop interdisciplinary technology-focused projects for the academic and industry R&D community.

Tom is an expert facilitator and network coordinator, bringing his background in Geography and Environmental Sciences to the role of Regional Ambassador for London and the South East. He has been managing knowledge exchange activity since 2012 amongst mixed stakeholder groups, connecting research and innovation to business. Prior to joining the ESA Business Applications Regional Ambassador Platform, his previous roles include Innovation Fellow for the Satellite Applications Catapult South Coast Centre of Excellence, and Research and Innovation Facilitator at the University of Portsmouth. His strengths can be found in providing platforms for the development of collaborative ventures, projects and partnerships. In addition, he has a track record of delivering high quality and engaging workshops for mixed stakeholder groups and providing dedicated support in bid development.

Vicky is a great multi-tasker who is working in the Centre of Excellence to oversee the operations and events, coordinate with our stakeholders and engage in planning as required.

Emma Hatton is an Earth Observation consultant with over 17 years’ experience in the application of EO across government, academia, and industry. She has worked on creating solutions of all sizes, from bespoke analytics to near real-time processing of continental-scale data from the Copernicus satellites. As the former Head of Earth Observation in SCISYS UK Ltd, Emma understands how to build Earth Observation solutions across a wide range of sectors that are both successful and financially viable.

John Yates has 35 years of experience in the commercial space sector. After having held key satellite project management positions at SES-Astra in Luxembourg and Inmarsat in London he now provides independent expert advice on space policy and strategy and technical and business aspects of commercial satellite programmes. He is also co-Founder and Chairman of Helix Technologies Ltd and a Non-Executive Director and founder-investor at Oxford Space Systems.

Roger has worked in the space industry for many years. His early career was spent in designing hardware for deep space missions, after which he was involved in designing payload subsystems for many commercial and military telecoms, direct broadcast, and mobile spacecraft in Europe and the United States. For some years now, he has been involved in space business development and in evaluating funding proposals for a number of national and international funding agencies. He is also a Chartered Engineer and is an entrepreneur, active in and around the Harwell Space Cluster.