Abstract: Research is an endeavour of passion. However, it is never straight-forward or linear. Whilst this is well known, what is perhaps less so is that we have to deal with contradictions at each and every step. In this talk. Prof. Ghinea is going to reflect on his career as a researcher, on the opportunities research offers, as well as the sometimes paradoxical but wonderful conclusions it leads to.

Biography: Dr. Gheorghita (George) Ghinea is a Professor in Mulsemedia Computing in the Department of Computer Science, at Brunel University. Dr. Ghinea's research activities lie at the confluence of Computer Science, Media and Psychology. In particular, his work focuses on the area of perceptual multimedia quality and how one builds end-to-end communication systems incorporating user perceptual requirements. To this end, recognising the infotainment duality of multimedia, Dr. Ghinea proposed the Quality of Perception metric as a more complete characterisation of the human side of the multimedia perceptual experience. Dr. Ghinea has applied his expertise in areas such as eye-tracking, telemedicine, multi-modal interaction, and ubiquitous and mobile computing, leading a team of 8 researchers in these areas. He has over 350 publications in his research field and was the lead Brunel investigator of a H2020 project NEWTON (http://www.newtonproject.eu/) applying mulsemedia to STEM learning across Europe.