September 2026 round-up

September was a mix of starting, re-starting and closing loops on various work and personal projects.

Research

As soon as we returned from Portugal, I went to the Sprite+ experts fellows event, in Edinburgh, where we explored trust, identity, privacy and security challenges related to AI, AR, and other technologies. It was a great wait to get my brain back into gear on this topic! It was also a great opportunity to catch up with former and new collaborators; and it was great timing as we had just discussed the book John of Johns in the book club, which includes some snippets about Edinburgh.

I also went to London for an event by The Washing Machine Project, a social enterprise that I first became aware of back in 2021. You can see slides from a related talk that I did, then, here, and the recording here. Hopefully, we can get funding to develop an impactful research idea that we have been working on for some time, now.

There was also a very productive meeting for an international research team; plus, working on two ideas. And, most of all, preparing the AI in advertising and marketing forum, that I am co-organising, and which takes place on October 14^th. Still time to join!

Writing

We got the contract for the 3^rd edition of the research methods book. Yay.

I worked on a paper due very soon, another at a very early stage, and two others somewhere in between.

Teaching

Marked and moderated MBA dissertations. And prepared the new academic year: updating the syllabus and assessment briefs, setting up the virtual learning environment, and preparing and delivering one session.

Service

In the SeNSS role, I worked on a report for the funder (ESRC) and worked on a few forthcoming initiatives. In the ethics role, I had four key meetings and worked on the associated reports. Moreover, I reviewed one paper and submitted an external examiner report.