Staff Profile
Dr Christopher Bull
Lecturer Computing Science. Director of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)
- Email: christopher.bull@ncl.ac.uk
- Personal Website: https://chrisbull.net/
- Address: School of Computing,
Urban Sciences Building,
Newcastle University,
1 Science Square,
Newcastle upon Tyne,
NE4 5TG
I am interested in the sensing, understanding, and actioning of digital health data to radically transform how people live their lives. My research interests lie in designing, developing, and evaluating secure health informatics and cybernetics platforms and ecosystem elements as a digital health infrastructure—crossing software engineering and pervasive technologies. This includes digital phenotyping, assistive and diagnostic healthcare technologies, and systems for healthcare professionals. I use co-design/creation methods to create solutions applicable to patients, service users, and health professionals. I have an interest in the ethical challenges of healthcare technologies and applying mixed methods to complex problems.
For a full list of publications, please see my Google Scholar profile.
Roles within the School of Computing
- Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
Projects
- IDEA-FAST (EU Horizon 2020 #853981) – Work Package Lead on "Digital Devices and Technology".
- NortHFutures (EPSRC) – Northern Health Futures ‘Digital Health Hub’, Translational Research Work Package.
- Generative AI in Computing Education – Exploring integrating Generative AI into programming education.
Interests
My central interest lies in Digital Health; measuring, diagnosing, and supporting people. I have experience working towards identifying Digital Biomarkers of health conditions, co-designing and co-creating technologies, developing digital health platforms, as well as designing technology to support healthcare and medical professionals.
I also have interests in:
- Mixed/Augmented/Virtual Reality (especially in the health domain)
- Collaborative Software Engineering/Development
- Software Engineering Education
PhD supervision
- Sami Alghamdi – Design Tools to Support Novice Programming Learners
- Nada Altwala – Conversational Agents to Support People with Dementia
- Remco Benthem De Grave – Digital Technology to Empower People in Making Healthy and Sustainable Food Purchase Choices
- Chinomnso Ekwedike – Generative AI in Computing Education
- Jake Hobbs – Augmented Reality Surgical Applications for Operating Theatres
- Yiwen Shang – Impacts of Social Media on Mental Wellbeing
- Nick Smith – Reminiscence Therapy for People with Dementia Using Virtual Reality
Past PhD students
- Viana Zhang – Technology-based Interventions and Assistance for Maternal Mental Health and Wellbeing
Taught Courses
I primarily teach Software Engineering. I have a particular interest in teaching collaborative Software Engineering and reflective practice. The courses I am teaching are:
- CSC2033: Software Engineering Team Project [2021-current]
- CSC8428: Software Design Lifecycle [2023]
- CSC3131: Building Systems for People [2021]
Projects (UG/PGT)
I also supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations in the following themes:
- Digital Healthcare
- HCI
- Software Engineering
- Computing and Software Engineering Education
Examination Experience
University of the Arts London - MA/MSc Computing and Creative Industry course, at the Creative Computing Institute (2022-27)
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Articles
- Benthem de Grave R, Bull CN, Souza-Monteiro DM, Margariti E, McMurchy G, Hutchinson JW, Smeddinck JD. Smartphone Apps for Food Purchase Choices: Scoping Review of Designs, Opportunities, and Challenges. JMIR 2024, 26, e45904.
- Bull C, Kharrufa A. Generative AI Assistants in Software Development Education: A vision for integrating Generative AI into educational practice, not instinctively defending against it. IEEE Software 2024, 41(2), 52-59.
- Graeber J, Warmerdam E, Aufenberg S, Bull C, Davies K, Dixon J, Emmert K, Judd C, Maetzler C, Reilmann R, Ng W-F, Macrae V, Maetzler W, Kaduszkiewicz H. Technology acceptance of digital devices for home use: Qualitative results of a mixed methods study. Digital Health 2023, 9.
- Clay I, Peerenboom N, Connors DE, Bourke S, Keogh A, Wac K, Gur-Arie T, Baker J, Bull C, Cereatti A, Cormack C, Eggenspieler D, Foschini L, Ganea R, Groenen PMA, Gusset N, Izmailova E, Kanzler CM, Leyens L, Lyden K, Mueller A, Nam J, Ng WF, Nobbs D, Orfaniotou F, Perumal TM, Piwko W, Ries A, Scotland A, Taptiklis N, Torous J, Vereijken B, Xu S, Baltzer L, Vetter T, Goldhahn J, Hoffmann SC. Reverse Engineering of Digital Measures: Inviting Patients to the Conversation. Digital Biomarkers 2023, 7(1), 28-44.
- Nobbs D, Piwko W, Bull C, Cormack F, Ahmaniemi T, Holst SC, Chatterjee M, Maetzler W, Avey S, Ng WF, IDEA-FAST C. Regulatory Qualification of a Cross-Disease Digital Measure: Benefits and Challenges from the Perspective of IMI Consortium IDEA-FAST. Digital Biomarkers 2023, 7(1), 132–138.
- Stringer G, Couth S, Heuvelman H, Bull C, Gledson A, Keane J, Rayson P, Sutcliffe A, Sawyer P, Zeng XJ, Montaldi D, Brown LJE, Leroi I. Assessment of non-directed computer-use behaviours in the home can indicate early cognitive impairment: A proof of principle longitudinal study. Aging & Mental Health 2023, 27(1), 193-202.
- Meira L, Liu L, Amyot D, Yu E, Alshammari M, Baslyman M, Bjarnason E, Bull C, Duarte CHC, Groen EC, Jantunen S, Kopczynska S, Lessard L, Richardson I, Weber J, Wei Z. Requirements Engineering for Well-Being, Aging, and Health: An Overview for Practitioners. IEEE Software 2021, 38(3), 7-12.
- Sutcliffe A, Sawyer P, Stringer G, Couth S, Brown LJE, Gledson A, Bull C, Rayson P, Keane J, Zeng X, Leroi I. Known and unknown requirements in healthcare. Requirements Engineering 2020, 25, 1-20.
- Helal S, Bull C. From Smart Homes to Smart-Ready Homes and Communities. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders 2019, 47(3), 157-163.
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Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)
- Alghamdi S, Bull C, Kharrufa A. Thematic Analysis of Self-Regulation Narratives in Textual Posts by Informal Programming Learners on Social Media. In: 2024 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC). 2024, Liverpool, UK: IEEE.
- Alghamdi SS, Bull C, Kharrufa A. Exploring the Support for Self-Regulation in Adult Online Informal Programming Learning: A Scoping Review. In: ITiCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1. 2023, Turku, Finland: ACM.
- Rainey J, Verweij D, Dodds C, Graeber J, Farhadi F, Ali R, Zhang V, Bull CN, Smeddinck JD. Data Contribution Summaries for Patient Engagement in Multi-Device Health Monitoring Research. In: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (UbiComp-ISWC ’21 Adjunct). 2021, Virtual, USA: ACM.
- Honary M, Lee J, Bull C, Wang J, Helal S. What Happens in Peer-Support, Stays in Peer-Support: Software Architecture for Peer-Sourcing in Mental Health. In: IEEE 44th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC). 2020, Madrid, Spain: IEEE.
- Hutchinson W, Helal S, Bull C. GP Benchmark: Engineering a Crowd-Sourcing Platform for Real-Time Understanding of Personality and Cognitive Biases in Clinical Error. In: IEEE First International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for Well-Being, Aging, and Health (REWBAH). 2020, Zurich, Switzerland: IEEE.
- Knowles B, Bull C, Davies N, Simm W, Bates O, Hayes N. Examining Interdependencies and Constraints in Co-Creation. In: DIS '19: Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference. 2019, San Diego, CA, USA: ACM.
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Editorial
- Smeddinck JD, Hussein R, Bull C, Foley T, van Gils M. Editorial: Supporting sustainable behavior change and empowerment in ubiquitous and learning health systems. Frontiers in Digital Health 2024, 6, 1367567.