Dr Jason Nurse

Working in higher education is very rewarding as it gives me the ability to engage with students but also to engage in research, and to work on interesting and topical problems.

It opens one’s mind to different experiences, to knowledge, to information, and that’s the really important thing about it. That for me is the key value and why I would suggest individuals pursue a higher education, because there's a breadth of topics you can get involved in at many different levels, from undergraduate to masters and PhD’s, such a variety of domains. One can therefore specialise in a field so that for me is a key value.

I studied at the University of Warwick, that’s where I completed my PhD/doctorate. Prior to that I did a Masters at the University of Hull, and before that I studied at the University of the West Indies in the Caribbean. I am learning more and more about Kent each day, I think it’s a really nice campus and a vibrant environment, slightly different to the environments I’ve engaged with before. Of course Kent is much more of a campus university, some universities I’ve been at in the past are much more city orientated and that brings a different dynamic.

I’d say family and friends (many of which are mentors). They can be very important as a motivator, to getting you thinking and trying different environments and different ideas.

Unfortunately I have only been here for a short period so I can’t really talk much about how it transformed me but I think it’s been a really good experience, especially with my school and the different people I meet across the university. Everyone is very friendly, everyone’s always engaged and always interested to talk about research, and the students are passionate about their work, especially when you get into third year when everyone wants to talk about what they want to do for their careers. One extremely exciting part of the School of Computing is that students are offered a year in industry which allows them to do academic study for 2 years, then have a year where they actually go to a company and see how it works in practice, and then come back for their final year much more informed about how industry works and how the topics they’ve studied apply in industry. That makes a big difference.

It’s the variety of students that you get and trying to help students to go from not understanding an aspect or problem, to then understanding it. It’s a great feeling to help someone understand and for some students even allowing them the ability to go on and learn more just by teaching them the basics. Then allow them to go on and even teach you simply because they’ve had the time to dive into problems that potentially, as an academic, I haven’t had the time.

It’s just new ideas. The biggest thing about engaging in research is the fact that you can think about a different problem or encounter something online or offline or via conversation, and that’s something you are free to pursue. For me it is this level of thinking you don’t usually get in normal companies or industries. You get this ability to go and think about really interesting problems, and that benefits society really as it’s about how we can push forward the thinking or push forward knowledge in a particular area.

I think my most memorable moment is the ability to engage with the people, especially in the school of computing as we have a good dynamic among people there, whether it be engaging academically or in a more social context. I believe it is really important when it comes to working or studying in a place that you can work hard but you can also play hard.

I’ve had a few good opportunities, and a few successful projects and research grants being awarded. I’ve gained the opportunity to bring in the necessary funding as academics do, write articles, research papers, as academics do and engage with a wider community of people here. For me it’s probably bringing in research funding that’s always really important for an academic and also for the university.

I’ll be starting a few new projects over the upcoming months. One is about chatbots and trying to understand how chatbots actually engage with individuals, which is really interesting. Especially today where we see various chatbots, conversation agents expanding, whether it be sales, marketing, university, there’s a wide variety of them now. Also, other projects I’m focusing on concern cyber security, mainly aspects in the home and workplace, and lastly focusing a bit more on cyber criminals and how cyber criminals behave and act. Those are probably the three strands I have started and I’m really excited about them.

For me the biggest push is new ideas and different ideas, waking up one day and thinking "I can research a completely different theory", or I can hear something based on a conversation and think “that sounds really interesting, I’d like to research that!”. Having that flexibility is such an exciting thing, why would you not want to wake up and go to a job where you can do practically what you want. Also you get the ability to engage with the minds of the future, in that you can engage with them whether it’s teaching, small research projects, and internships. It’s a really good opportunity to push forward knowledge, to set up students and help them expand their knowledge.

Always study hard, don’t think of study for the sake of it, always think about the things you learn, the things you do, whether it be projects, assignments, even just being in class, how it can push you forward when you come to finishing university. Whether you want to join industry, academia or even do a PhD, always think about how the work you’re currently doing helps you to get to that point, because I think that instills a bit of additional motivation for you. Not just trying to pass an exam but thinking, “if I do well in this, it means that I can apply this to my future in this particular way”.