Dr Crispin Cooper

FHEA

Publication

• Date
• Type

Research

Broadly speaking I am interested in both data science theory, and its application to support a more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable world. For a while I have focussed on models of transport, and found that to really understand transport we need to understand the rest of society too - from politics and land use to health and well-being - so my models are always building outwards from that starting point.

My research background was initially in Computer Science; working for the Intelligent Systems group at the University of York I helped to develop microchips capable of evolution, growth, self-repair and learning. I also spent time in commercial research & development, as part of a team creating bluetooth firmware which was able to link to the first iPhone back in 2006.

Having a long-term interest in sustainable development, I worked as a project volunteer in Uganda during 2006.

My PhD was completed at Cardiff University's School of Geography and Planning (formerly City and Regional Planning), using high performance computing to visualise and model large quantities of housing market socioeconomic data collected from the UK census and Land Registry.  This was funded by a Richard Whipp studentship.

From there I went on to become a Research Fellow in the Sustainable Places Research Institute, working there for around 10 years.

My network analysis software sDNA is used by over 2000 researchers and practitioners worldwide, particularly for planning sustainable transport networks, and was subject of a REF Impact case study in 2014. As of 2021 this is my main research focus, alongside use of well-being metrics to improve outcomes.

As of early 2021, I have contributed to to approx. £540,000 of successful funding bids:

2021:         PI, Sustrans, Modelling Monmouthshire Active Travel Networks PartII

2020:        PI, Sustrans, Modelling Monmouthshire Active Travel Networks

2020:         PI, 3d Urban Design workflows with sDNA

2020:         PI, Gamification of data collection on political meta-views, network analysis of social media bubbles and predictors of COVID19 behaviour

2019:         PI, Wedderburn Transport Planning & Design Economics, sDNA enhancements for pedestrian models

2017:         Co-I, Welsh Government, Data-Defined Regions for the National Development Framework

2016:         Co-I, Data Innovation Institute Seedcorn, Improving pedestrian data modelling for a more vibrant high street. Resulting in the first longitudinal forecast test for a strategic pedestrian model thus providing peer reviewed scientific evidence to support ongoing use of sDNA+ in pedestrian models

2015:         Co-I, ESRC Impact Accelerator, “sDNA for All” (Spatial Network Analysis for active travel, with Arup, WSP, BuroHappold, Wedderburn Transport Planning, Sustrans. Identifying and addressing barriers to uptake of sDNA in sustainable transport modelling. As a result, partners now make use of sDNA+ to deliver pedestrian and cycling analysis to clients

2015:         PI, Evaluation of population catchments, Canal & Rivers Trust

2004:         Initiated and wrote core contribution to Intelligent Systems (Evolvable Hardware) proposal funded by EPSRC

Teaching

Crispin currently teaches Modern Web Application development on the BSc Computer Science course.

He has previously taught in the Research Masterclass, and Sustainability Science Summer School, guest lectured on transport simulations in the Cardiff School of Geography & Planning, and run teaching laboratory sessions at the Cardiff School of Computer Science and Informatics and University of York Department of Electronics; including comparative programming languages seminars, Java, DSP and microcontrollers.

Crispin is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2020).

Biography

Lecturer, School of Computer Science & Informatics, Cardiff University 2020-present

Research Fellow, Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University 2019-2020

Research Associate, Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University 2011-2019

Postdoctoral Research Associate, City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University 2010

PhD City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University 2006-2010

Development Volunteer, Uganda 2006

Software Engineer, Cambridge Silicon Radio, 2006

Research Associate, Department of Electronics, University of York 2003-2005

MA (hons) Computer Science and Physics, University of Cambridge 1999-2002

Professional memberships

AFHEA 2019

Committees and reviewing

Data Science Theme Deputy for the Cardiff University & Office for National Statistics strategic partnership.

Reviewer for Transportation Research, Int. Jnl Geographic Information Systems, Jnl American Planning Assoc., Urban Studies, PeerJ, Jnl Transport & Health, Int. Jnl. Sustainable Transportation

Supervisions

I am interested in supervising PhD students with an interest in quantitative modelling of social & economic systems, especially transport. Suitable students may either

• have a background in the application domain e.g. geography, transport planning, economics, politics, social science coupled with strong quantitative skills and ability (or willingness to learn) programming
• alternatively come from a STEM discipline such as computer science or statistics

I am also open to supervising MSc Computer Science & Data Science dissertations within my field of expertise. I believe strongly in learning by doing, therefore, for projects that produce good results I aim to co-publish research with students - we have done this for several previous projects e.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55669-8