Prof Liz Bacon

Professor Liz Bacon PhD, CEng, CSci, CITP, FBCS, FIScT, PFHEA is Principal and Vice-Chancellor Designate at Abertay where she leads teaching and learning, research and knowledge exchange, academic partnerships and the University’s Digital Strategy. She is a Trustee and Director of Bletchley Park Trust, and President of the European Quality Assurance Network for Informatics Education (EQANIE). She was President of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, in the year 2014-15 and is a past Chair of the BCS Academy of Computing and the CPHC (Council of Professors and Heads of Computing) national committee. Liz is a Professor of Computer Science with over a hundred refereed publications and circa 100 invited talks/keynotes. 

She is passionate about student and staff achievement, the student experience, widening participation, professionalism and how technology can transform education to provide flexible, intelligent and personalised learning. She has led many successful initiatives in supporting these ambitions. For example, working with colleagues to transform the student experience, resulting in Abertay achieving 11th in the National Student Survey (NSS) in 2020, contributing to the award of “UK University of the Year for Teaching Quality” by the Times & Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021. 

Her main research focus is in technology-enhanced, and immersive, learning, which involves bringing together expertise from a range of technologies in disciplines such as software engineering, artificial intelligence, security and computer games, to develop novel applications in areas such as crisis management and eHealth. Her work has impacted the education and training of hundreds of professionals and members of the public, from Europe to Australia. Finally, being a passionate advocate of the benefits of technology she led an initiative for many years to develop systems to deliver efficient, effective and accurate information to staff and students. This includes delivering leading-edge technology to support teaching and learning. Her experience is now driving the digital transformation programme at Abertay.