Victor Callaghan Victor Callaghan (Vic) is Professor of Computer Science, leader of the Intelligent Environments Group (IEG) and a director of the interdisciplinary Digital Lifestyles Centre (DLC) at Essex University. He holds a B.Eng and PhD in Electronics and Computing (respectively), from Sheffield University in the UK.
Before joining the University sector Prof Callaghan worked for over 10 years in the avionics industry, designing airborne and ground electronics and automation systems. At Essex University he established and directed mobile robotics research before founding a centre for intelligent environment research. Both areas now host world-class teams and facilities. In particular, the IEG hosts the iSpace which is a full size digital home, the iCampus, a Living lab based on an instrumented campus, the iClassroom, an intelligent agent supported teaching facility and the iWorld, an online mixed–reality implementation of these spaces.
In general terms, his main expertise concerns the intersection of electronics and computing for the creation of real-time control and intelligent automation that can be found in intelligent environments ranging from automated factories, through smart cars to intelligent buildings. He has multidisciplinary interests and works closely with colleagues in Industry, Business Schools, Education and Sociology departments, which he believes, are fertile intellectual grounds for innovative thinking. These interests have led him to joining a number of commercial ventures such as Fortito.com. More specifically, his work has been directed at developing intelligent embedded agents, robots, quantum controllers, end-user programming, control networks intelligent environment simulation and methods for ensuring stability of complex intelligent agent systems.
Professor Callaghan has authored almost 200 papers in international journals, conferences and books and holds 4 key patents in his field. He has been principal investigator on numerous international and national projects in the area of intelligent environments attracting over 2 million pounds in research funding.
Vic founded the international Intelligent Environments conference series that has now been running for 8 years. In addition, he is a key member of the organizational team for the Pervasive Computing & Applications, Ubiquitous Intelligence & Computing conferences, founder member of the Intel supported Creative Science Foundation (and associated workshops) and a member of the editorial teams of the Intelligent Buildings International, Pervasive Computing & Communications and Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments journals plus the Transactions of Future Intelligent Education Environments. Currently, Vic is working of a second volume of a book exploring the singularity AI hypothesis.
