Project staff and contact details

The ARIA project is a collaboration between De Montfort University (the lead partner, providing technical development) and the University of Salford (providing research and project content).

Vivian W. Liang- Project Research Assistant

Email: v.w.liang@salford.ac.uk. Tel: 0161 295 6079.

Vivian is the main point of contact for general enquires regarding the ARIA project. She works part time on ARIA, so please allow for some delay in response to any enquiry you make.

She has obtained both a Bachelor's Degree in IT and a Masters degree in Managing IT at the University of Salford, and is now studying for a PhD focussing upon the social and technical aspects of the Open Source movement, particularly in relation to the Arts and Humanities.

She has undertaken research as part of several projects including the Virtual Marketplace for Rural Tourism (VMART), business analysis for AstraZeneca and development of a marketing CD ROM for the 2001 Commonwealth Games.

Robb Ross: Project Manager / Developer

Email: rross@dmu.ac.uk. Tel: 0116 207 8161.

Robb is a Senior Lecturer within Knowledge Media Design at De Montfort University. He has expertise in video conferencing, web-based training and network development.

His role as a Project Manager involves the planning and administration of a variety of projects currently run by Knowledge Media Design.

Robb is also working towards an MPhil centred around the theory of transactional distance and its effect upon distributed electronic delivery of education and training.

Paul Sermon- Associate Project Director

www.paulsermon.org

Paul is the Director of the Creative Technology Research Group iAdelphi Research Institute for Creative Arts and Sciences, The University of Salford. His portfolio of work includes:

• The hyper media installation "Think About the People Now", which was awarded the Prix Ars Electronica "Golden Nica" in the category of interactive art, September 1991.
• The ISDN videoconference installation "Telematic Vision", produced as an Artist in Residence at the Center for Art and Media Technology (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany, from February to November 1993.
• The telepresent video installation "Telematic Dreaming", which received the "Sparkey Award" from the Interactive Media Festival in Los Angeles, June 1994.

From 1993 to 1999, Paul was employed as Dozent for Media Art at the HGB Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig, Germany. During this time he continued to produced further interactive telematic installations including "Telamatic Encounter" in 1996 and "The Tables Turned" in 1997 for the Ars Electronica Centre in Linz, and the ZKM Media Museum in Karlsruhe.

From 1997 to 2001 he was employed as Guest Professor for Performance and Environment at the University of Art and Industrial Design in Linz, Austria.

Since June 2000 he has been based at The University of Salford working primarily within the research field of immersive and expanded telematic environments.

Professor Stephen Brown: Project Director

http://kmd.dmu.ac.uk

Stephen Brown is Professor of Learning Technologies and Director of Knowledge Media Design at De Montfort University, UK. He is also president of the Association for Learning Technology.

His career includes course design, research and tutoring for the Open University, Head of Distance Learning for BT Training, Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor in Engineering Design, Director of the International Institute for Electronic Library Research at De Montfort University, Director of Knowledge Media Design at De Montfort University and Senior Technology Adviser to the JISC funded Technologies Centre.

At the Open University he worked on the design of the UK's first educational interactive video disc. At BT he pioneered and established the use of CD based training. At De Montfort University he directed a number of successful JISC and EU funded research projects, led the development of the Electronic Campus and successfully led a major bid for JISC funds to develop one of the first Managed Learning Environments in the UK.

He has directed 10 major R&D projects with total funding of over £3m from a variety of public and private sources. These include IBM, BT, Hulton Getty, RTE, the Home Office, Department of Trade and Industry, Department for Education and Employment, the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Hunt Museum, JISC, HEFCE and the European Commission.

David Gerrard: Web Designer / Developer

Email: dgerrard@dmu.ac.uk. Tel: 0116 250 6382.

David is responsible for the web design and some of the systems development for the project, and is the best point of call for enquiries about the website. Like Vivian, he is part time, and so there may be a delay in his response to enquiries.

His career in web design and development began in the mid 1990s and has involved work in the educational, business and video gaming sectors.

He is also studying part time for a MSc in Computing at De Montfort University.