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  3. Michael Cauchi

  • Michael joined the University as a Technician Demonstrator (Computing) in January 2022 in the Technology department. He is focused on maintaining the comprehensive list of software applications as employed and required by academic colleagues in the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology (FAST). He also liaises with the IT department to oversee and maintain the desktop PCs located in the teaching rooms within the Learning Hub but also across campus. He also supports some academics in their research such as in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science and Bioinformatics.

    Michael was awarded an MChem in Chemistry with Studies in France at the University of Kent at Canterbury, and an MSc in Analytical Chemistry at the University of Salford. He worked as an analytical chemist and LabVIEW programmer at Astra in Sweden for one year, then as an analytical chemist and data analyst at Tate & Lyle Sugars in London for two years. He then undertook a PhD in Data Science at Cranfield University, during which time he honed his IT and programming skills, such as in LabVIEW, Matlab and R. He stayed on at Cranfield as an academic research fellow undertaking both teaching and research duties in the areas of bioinformatics (metabolomics), statistics and data science (pattern recognition and machine learning), as well as overseeing the group projects and supervising MSc individual project students. Michael also managed to output a number of research publications from both his funded research and some of the MSc project students.

    After a short role as a Senior Data Scientist for a startup based in Manchester, Michael later spent three years as a Lecturer in Statistics and Operations Research at the University of Limerick (UL) in Ireland before returning to London as a Data Scientist Consultant (Infosys Ltd) and then an Assistant Professor in Data Science (Northeastern University London).

    Michael has been a volunteer STEM Ambassador since 2011 visiting primary and secondary schools to deliver specialist-subject interactive talks, hands-on activities, and careers talks – or to simply help other STEM Ambassadors at STEM Fairs. He therefore also liaises with the Schools Engagement Team at the University to help with their events such as the annual STEAM Northants.

    Michael is a Technical Lead in the Recognition Strand of the Technician Commitment.

  • Michael currently supports activities on some of the Computing modules assisting students to resolve coding issues in and encouraging them to understand what the code is doing. These computing modules include:

    • CSY1020: Problem Solving and Programming (Python)
    • CSY1062: Computer Communications (Networking)
    • CSY1063: Web Development (HTML/CSS/JavaScript)
    • CSY1065: Database Design & Development (SQL)
    • CSY2080: Relational Databases (SQL)
    • CSY2089: Web Programming (PHP/SQL)

    He also delivers specialist sessions involving the use of R for data processing and analysis to Life Science students on:

    • SLS2057: Bioinformatics (R/RStudio)
    • SLS2001: Genes & Genomics (BioConductor)

  • Michael has worked on varying research projects.

    In his PhD, he developed a machine learning approach to simultaneously predict the concentrations of polluting heavy metals and organic compounds in ground water lakes (aquifers) via electrochemistry and fluorescence spectroscopy respectively. At Astra, he developed a LabVIEW program that could track in real time the simultaneous dissolution rates of up to 12 tablets from ultraviolet probes placed in the medium. At Tate & Lyle Sugars, he contributed to ways of improving the sugar refining process via solvent extraction.

    At Cranfield, Michael was involved in some Wellcome Trust funded projects including non-invasive disease diagnostics for diabetes, cancers and gastrointestinal diseases, as well as collaborating with other UK-based research groups such as with hospitals, the Open University and Birmingham University, and the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan.

    Michael is liaising with FAST academic colleagues in AI and Bioinformatics offering support where needed that will lead to co-authorship in future publications. He has recently collaborated with UL on an intervention project where he developed a web platform using Shiny in R to process and visualise questionnaire responses.