Dr Philip Hanna

Dr Philip Hanna is Director of Education in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queens University Belfast. As Director of Education, he is responsible for the development and delivery of a range of accredited degree programmes that are taught to approximately two thousand undergraduate and postgraduate students. Philip feels passionately that those studying for a degree should benefit from improved life choices. His goal is to inspire and support students so they achieve their full potential. He does this in a joined-up manner that takes into account the needs and prior experience of learners, alongside preparing them for the challenges they will face in the future. Impact of work He has helped encourage younger pupils to study computing through a series of interactive and fun workshops across a wide range of schools. He also received a significant grant from the Northern Ireland Department of Education to deliver a series of upskilling courses for A-level teachers to help them develop the programming skills needed to teach the new computing A-levels. These efforts have helped to double the number of NI students who take an A/AS level qualification in computing. Through establishing a Software Academy, Philip has introduced several new degree programmes that have been designed in collaboration with employers. This includes MEng and BEng programmes in Software Engineering and a conversion MSc in Software Development which was designed to widen access to HE by being accessible to graduates from non-computing backgrounds. Philip has worked with employers to embed guest lecturing, case studies and jointly supervised projects throughout the curriculum. Alongside this, he has incorporated a series of hackathons and tech talks, and promoted the use of innovative technology to support blended learning. Combined, these actions have resulted in significant student growth and helped Northern Ireland to become one of the most popular destinations in Europe for IT companies and software development projects. Plans for the future In the future, Philip plans to extend the teacher training initiatives to support GCSE teachers. He also plans to develop the Software Academy so that it becomes an established centre of excellence for software engineering education.