Dr Matt Dennis

I am one of the Course Leaders for Software Engineering in the School of Computing.

I am also the School of Computing's representative on the Faculty of Technology's Ethics Committee.

Office: Buckingham Building, Room 1.17

Tel: 023 9284 6664 / +44 23 9284 6664

I grew up in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.

I was awarded a BSc (hons) in Internet Information Systems from the University of Aberdeen in 2009. 

I completed my PhD entitled "Adapting Feedback to Learner Personality to Increase Motivation" in 2014, also at the University of Aberdeen, supervised by Professors Judith Masthoff and Chris Mellish. I then joined the dot.rural Digital Economy hub, working on the ASICA project which investigated how technology could help with the diagnosis of recurrent melanoma in rural communities. I then joined the University of Portsmouth in 2016.

I teach on most of the core modules for BSc Software Engineering including:

• Application Programming (L4) (Module Coordinator)
• Core Computing Concepts (web) (L4)
• Application Engineering (L5)
• Usability Engineering (L5) (Module Coordinator)
• Final year Projects (L6)
• Engineering Science (L6)

My research interests lie in Adaptive, Persuasive and Motivational systems. My PhD research focussed on learner personality and modelling how human tutors adapt their feedback to it, to enable an intelligent system to do the same. I have also worked in eHealth - looking at how reminders can be personalised to users and how we can design systems which are accessible to all.

Currently I am working with my PhD student Muhammad Sidi-Ali on examining how cultural differences affect the expectations and content of feedback to learners from teachers.