Dr Sophie Hide

Dr Sophie Hide joined the team in September, to run our evaluations of the toolset in people’s homes. Sophie has worked with older people at different stages of her career. Her most recent experience includes a year working for a local authority as an ‘Independence and Wellbeing Practitioner’. In this role she worked with people in their own homes, establishing what they were able to achieve, where their worries and concerns lied, and how these might be addressed. She worked with clients in developing a personalised care and support plan to meet these needs and enhance their quality of life. Such visits might also have identified needs for home adaptations and the adoption of assistive technology to enhance desired outcomes. This role required sensitive engagement and being alert to an individual’s ability to understand information and to contemplate and make decisions. It often involved liaison with the wider sphere or family and friends, the voluntary sector, community health care, and other associated providers.

Sophie came to this role from a career incorporating education, research and practice in ergonomics (designing things for people): she also has experience in caring for the elderly and had a first career in nursing.

James Lockerbie

James is a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Management at the Cass Business School. He started his research career in 2005 straight after graduating with an MSc in Electronic Business Systems from City, University of London. He has worked on a range of research and industrial projects, mainly in the areas of requirements analysis, modelling and specification. His most recent research has been involved in developing digital creativity support for professional work and care for older people.

His main research interests are goal modelling and analysis, and the development of creativity support tools.

Dr. Konstantinos Zachos

Dr. Konstantinos Zachos is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice, Cass Business School of City University London. He holds a PhD on Service-Oriented Requirements Engineering and Creativity from the School of Informatics, City University London, and a Diploma degree in Computer Science from RWTH Aachen, Germany. Konstantinos has an extensive research background in computer science and software engineering and has been involved in research in the areas of computer science and creativity with a focus on designing and developing digital creativity tools to reinforce learning in creative problem solving and enhance creativity in sectors from journalism and manufacturing to social care and elite sports training.

His current research focuses on intelligent digital support to improve the care of older people with dementia as well as to support journalists during the early stages of news story and feature development.