Role
Principal Lecturer – Undergraduate Course Manager (Information Technology Clusters)
Dr Robert Ranson is the Course Manager of the Information Technology undergraduate cluster of courses within the academic team of Computing and Technology. With 20 yrs experience in the field of Computing, he has held numerous positions at Nottingham Trent University including final year project tutor, admission Tutor; membership of Standards and School Quality Committee (2005 - 2017); Chair of UG course committees, Exam Boards and working groups; Course validation committees (internal and external); Course Accreditation committees; and Chair of Academic Irregularity panels., and academic team leader of the computing team.
Currently the module leader of Level 4 module – Web-based Programming, his area of expertise lies with internet based applications and development.
Career overview
Having initially joined NTU as a Research Fellow in 1999, his career swiftly moved towards lectureship and since early 2004 has been Course Leader of the UG Information Technology cluster. This initially involved the development of the cluster structure, preparation of all required module and programme specifications and additional validation documentation, as well as resource specification and budget allocation to ensure the delivery of high quality courses. Subsequently, he has have led and managed other academic team members in the continued development of these courses, including individual modules, in order to maintain a high standard of teaching and adapt to an ever changing market. In addition, I assisted in the development of the Computer Systems cluster (upto 2012), ensuring shared modules between the two clusters maintained learning outcomes suitable to all programme specifications.
In 2008, he became a Principal Lecturer in the School of Science and Technology whilst leading 7 UG courses. Key roles undertaken have included –Admission Tutor; membership of Standards and School Quality Committee (2005 - 2017); Chair of UG course committees, Exam Boards and working groups; Course validation committees (internal and external); Course Accreditation committees; and Chair of Academic Irregularity panels.
Finally, from May 2013-September 2016 he took up the role of acting Academic Team Leader (or Head of Dept) for the Computing and Technology team within the School of Science and Technology, but more recently has taken a step back to lead the UG courses for the information Technology.
Research areas
Initial research focused on photoluminescent characterisation of phosphor based materials. This included extensive work in the field of sputtering phosphor based materials to produce thin film materials for use in high temperature environment, and then the subsequent characterisation of laser induced luminescent properties for use within sensor development for high temperature environments.
Over more recent years, he has assisted with the supervision of PhD students in the field of robotic based learning of human activities.
Publications
Selected Publications
- Adaptive segmentation and sequence learning of human activities from skeleton data. ADAMA, D.A., LOTFI, A. and RANSON, R., 2020 Expert Systems with Applications: 113836. ISSN 0957-4174
- Fuzzy transfer learning of human activities in heterogeneous feature spaces. ADAMA, D.A., LOTFI, A. and RANSON, R., 2019. In: Proceedings of the 12th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments - PETRA '19, Rhodes, Greece, 5-7 June 2019. New York: ACM, pp. 593-598. ISBN 9781450362320
- Enhanced electrical and optical properties of room temperature deposited Aluminium doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) thin films by excimer laser annealing. EL HAMALI, S.O., CRANTON, W.M., KALFAGIANNIS, N., HOU, X., RANSON, R. and KOUTSOGEORGIS, D.C., 2016 Optics and Lasers in Engineering, 80, pp. 45-51. ISSN 0143-8166
- Transparent and Flexible Thin Film Electroluminescent Devices Using HiTUS Deposition and Laser Processing Fabrication. TSAKONAS, C., WAKEHAM, S., CRANTON, W.M., THWAITES, M., BOUTAUD, G., FARROW, C., KOUTSOGEORGIS, D.C. and RANSON, R., 2016. IEEE Journal of the Electron Devices Society, 4 (1), pp. 22-29. ISSN 2168-6734
- Intrinsic photoluminescence from low temperature deposited zinc oxide thin films as a function of laser and thermal annealing. TSAKONAS, C., CRANTON, W., LI, F., ABUSABEE, K., FLEWITT, A., KOUTSOGEORGIS, D. and RANSON, R., 2013 Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 46 (9). ISSN 0022-3727
- Temperature dependent characteristics of La2O2S: Ln [Ln = Eu,Tb] with various Ln concentrations over 5-60 ºC. Yap S V, Ranson R M, Cranton W M, Koutsogeorgis D C and Hix G B, Journal of Luminescence, 2009, 129 (5), 416-422
- Performance enhancement of ZnS:Mn thin film electro luminescent devices by combination of laser and thermal annealing. Koutsogeorgis D, Cranton W, Ranson R and Thomas C, Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 2009, 483 (1-2), 526-529
- A new reactive sputtering technique for the low temperature deposition of transparent light emitting ZnS:Mn thin films. Wakeham S J, Thwaites M J, Tsakonas C, Cranton W M, Ranson R and Koutsogeorgis DC. In: European Materials Research Society (E-MRS) Spring Meeting, Strasbourg, 2009, 6
- Decay time characteristics of La2O2S:Eu and La2O2S:Tb for use within an optical sensor for human skin temperature measurement. Yap S V, Ranson, R M, Cranton W M and Koutsogeorgis D. Applied Optics, 2008, 47 (27), 4895-4899.
- Excimer laser processing of inkjet-printed and sputter-deposited transparent conducting SnO2:Sb for flexible electronics. Cranton W, Wilson S L, Ranson R M, Koutsogeorgis D C, Chi K, Hedgley R, Scott J, Lipiec S, Spiller A and Speakman S. Thin Solid Films, 2007, 515 (24), 8534-8538
- Laterally emitting thin film electroluminescent device engineering for sunlight readable vehicular displays. Cranton W M, Stevens R, Koutsogeorgis D, Ranson R, Needham A, Thorne M and Magon A. In: Society For Information Display (SID) Vehicles and Photons, 14th Annual Symposium on Vehicle Displays, University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, Michigan, United States, 2007, 10, 27
Patents
- Thin Film Coating for Phosphor Thermography. Ranson R M and Thomas CB, GB 9826281.9 (1998)
- Phosphor Thermography Using Rise Time Analysis. Ranson R M, Thomas C B and McClean I P, GB 9723018.9 (1997), EP 98308317.1 (1998), US 09/175,451 (1998)