Chair and Vice Chair
Dr James Flint MEng (Hons) CEng FIET
James is a Professor of Wireless Systems Engineering. His research focuses on various aspects of wireless systems, especially in the area of electromagnetics and transducer design in electromagnetics and acoustics. He has a keen interest in biomimetics, ultrasound and converting systems found in nature into workable engineering solutions.
James also has a long history of supporting the IET, including being a past IET Council Member, and a member of various committees including the Professional Network on Antennas and Propagation. He will become the Chair of the IET Academic Accreditation Committee in September 2023-2026 and will represent the IET on the Engineering Accreditation Board (EAB).
Dr Elaine Clafferty CEng FIET
Elaine is a chartered electronic and electrical engineer with a doctorate in engineering education. She is currently a senior lecturer and year tutor at Glasgow Caledonian University and specialises in electronic and electrical engineering, software development, learner transition, widening access to education and the student experience.
She has also held a number of educational leadership roles including Year Tutor, Student Success Centre Director, Head of Learning and Teaching, and Associate Dean of Learning, Teaching and Quality in the university’s technical schools.
Elaine has been an Academic Accreditor for 8 years and a member of the AAC for 6 years.
Members
Mr Neil Ashurst BEng (Hons) MSc CEng FIET
Neil has 25 years’ experience within the UK civil nuclear industry from a Design, Operations and Decommissioning point of view and is a Principal Control, Electrical and Instrumentation Engineer within the UK Civil Nuclear Industry.
He is also a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.
Professor Tony Brown BSc CEng FIET
Tony is a Professor at QMUL and Emeritus Professor at University of Manchester. He was head of EEE at Manchester and a former Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning. Tony founded Easat Antennas Ltd in 1987. He is currently part time CTO.
As an external expert Tony has undertaken strategic reviews and aided in curriculum design/delivery development for UK Universities and internationally. He has been external examiner at eight institutes and formerly member of the HE SEMTA Committee and a Council Member for the EPC. Professor Brown works in Transnational Education for over 20 years, particularly China.
Mrs Gordana Collier BSc (Hons) MSc CEng FIET
Gordana is the Head of School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics at Oxford Brookes University, previously a Programme director and Associate Professor at Kingston University London. Previously she held R&D and senior management roles in the military and security industry. She specialised in embedded systems with current research in electric vehicles.
She also has 10+ years of experience of running student extra-curricular projects including Formula Student, greatly enhancing student learning experience and employability.
As an external examiner, Gordana has been supporting curriculum review for UK Universities and internationally. She has been an accreditor for over ten years, and a member of the AAC for over four years.
Professor Rob Deaves, CEng, FIET, FHEA, FLSW, FREng
Rob has over 35 years of engineering experience gained at 3 iconic companies: BAE Systems, STMicroelectronics and Dyson respectively.
At Dyson, Rob is a Roboticist working on full product lifecycle. He was the Product Technical Lead for the 360Heurist, an autonomous vacuum cleaner that achieved mass market, World-wide sales.
He was awarded a RAEng Visiting Professorship at ICL in 2017 enabling teaching support for 29 national/international universities. Further, he is an Honorary Professor at the School of Engineering, Birmingham University. He has also chaired EPSRC/ERDF research projects with total funding of £15M.
Rob has supported 13 engineers achieve CEng status and joined the Academic Accreditor Committee (ACC) in 2022.
Professor Michael Fernando BEng MSc PhD CEng MIET
Professor Fernando is a senior academic leader with a proven record of accomplishment in HE leadership. Mike has experience in leading change management and strategy implementation. Mike is a Professor and Head of School of Engineering at University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
Mike is a QAA reviewer and a member of the IET’s Academic Accreditation Committee. Before joining UCLan, Mike served as the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, Computing and Engineering (FACE) at University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD). Professor Fernando is a Chartered Engineer and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Misha Filip CEng FIET
Dr Filip is the External Business Engagement Lead for the Faculty of Technology at University of Portsmouth and the Operations Director of ASTA Technology UK Limited, the only ESA-accredited certification centre in the UK. Prior to this, Dr Filip has been a head of department for twelve years.
In his academic career, Dr Filip taught digital electronics, embedded systems and telecommunications. He has extensive experience as an External Examiner for both UK and International HEIs and has been an IET accreditor since 2010. Dr Filip holds an electronic engineering degree and a PhD in Digital Satellite Communications.
Professor Chris Guy, BSc, BA, FIET, CEng
Chris graduated from the University of Durham in 1976 and worked in industry before becoming an academic. He is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Reading, where he was the Head of the School of Systems Engineering until 2010. He specialised in wireless computer networking and systems reliability. He has been an accreditor for over ten years, and a member of the AAC for over six years. He has chaired two international panels tasked with reviewing how accreditation works, first in Canada and then in the USA.
Eur Ing Professor Mike Joy
The British Computer Society (BCS) Representative of the IET Academic Accreditation Committee
Mike is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Warwick. He received his BA in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge and PhD in Computer Science from the University of East Anglia, and also has an MA in Post-compulsory Education from the University of Warwick. He is a Chartered Engineer, a Chartered Fellow of BCS – the Chartered Institute for IT, a Fellow of the IMA, a Chartered Scientist, a Senior Member of the ACM, and a Senior Fellow of the HEA. His research interests focus on educational technology and computer science education, and he is the author or co-author of over 200 papers in journals and in international conferences. Mike is a member of the BCS AAC and sits on the IET AAC as a representative of BCS
Dr Chiew-Foong Kwong BEng (Hons) MSc PhD CEng MIET SFHEA
Dr Chiew-Foong “C.F.” Kwong is currently the Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Nottingham Ningbo, China. He is a Chartered Engineer (CEng) with the Engineering Council U.K. and a Senior Fellow of Advanced HE (SFHEA). Dr Kwong has over 20 years of experience in teaching and research in both U.K. and Malaysian based universities. In the IET, he currently serves as a Professional Registration Interviewer and a member of the Academic Accreditation Committee. Dr Kwong is also a former member of the IET Council and recently retired from the Registration and Standards Committee.
Professor Claire Lucas SFHEA, MIET, FIMechE
Claire is a Professor of Engineering Education and Deputy Head (Education) in the Department of Engineering at King’s College London. Her research focusses on Engineering and Social Justice (including sustainability, ethics, systems thinking and inclusive engineering) and identification and assessment of non-functional behaviour and competencies within the curriculum. Previously, Claire was Director of Studies for General, Biomedical and Systems Engineering at Warwick University and prior to that a mathematical modelling specialist at JLR (Jaguar Land Rover).
Claire is a fellow of the IMechE and a Senior Fellow of Advance HE. She was deputy chair of the 2022 QAA subject benchmark statement review for Engineering.
Mr Denis Marchant CEng SFHEA, FIMechE, FIET
A Chartered mechanical engineer, Associate Professor and faculty Director of Academic Quality at a large London university until 2021. Denis has been an IET academic accreditor since 2012 and a member of the Academic Accreditation Committee since 2016. He is a member of the Engineering Council (EngC UK) International Advisory Panel and International Registration Committee. In 2021 Denis was appointed as the EngC (UK) member to the European Network for Accreditation of Engineering Education (ENAEE) label committee and voting member of the ENAEE General Assembly. Denis has extensive experience of chairing accreditation events in the UK and worldwide.
Professor Dik Morling BSc (Hons) PhD CEng FIET
Dik is an experienced consultant specialising in improving graduate competence and student learning experience in Engineering. He has worked extensively in India and the Middle East, and previously served as the Head of Department of Electronic, Network, and Computer Engineering at the University of Westminster in London.
Additionally, he is a prolific researcher with expertise in local-area networks, signal processing, image processing, and teaching methods in engineering. He has jointly authored over 100 conference and journal publications and supervised 18 PhD and 2 MPhil students.
Dik is a Fellow of the IET and the IMA, a Senior Member of the IEEE, and has been an accreditor for the IET since 2003.
Professor João Ponciano MEng (Hons) CEng MIET
João is the Vice Dean Glasgow College UESTC and responsible for the management and operation of a long-standing partnership between the University of Glasgow and the University of Electronics Science and Technology of China.
João’s has held public office as chairman of the Institution of Engineering and Technology in Greater Manchester, UK and been an Accreditor and Panel Chair under the Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes. João has also held role as an Associate of the Higher Education Academy promoting and ensuring the professional standards and guidelines for higher education providers and leaders across the UK Higher Education Institutions.
Professor James Taylor BSc (Hons) FIET
James holds a Personal Chair in Control Engineering at Lancaster University. He is Impact Champion for the School of Engineering and Director of the Nuclear Science and Engineering Research Group, having previously held School Director of Teaching roles for over 10 years. His interdisciplinary research on statistical modelling and control of uncertain systems in the natural sciences and engineering, involves applications spanning robotics, transport, energy, health, and the environment. He teaches university courses and supervises projects in these areas for students across a spectrum of mechanical, electronic, nuclear and chemical engineering disciplines.
Dr Ken Wallace BSc (Hons) CEng FIET
Ken is discipline lead for software engineering for the Maritime & Land Division of BAE Systems Plc. He has previously held management and engineering positions in a range of enterprises working on the development of information and software-intensive systems. Prior to moving into industry, he spent several years in academia in the UK and North America working in the fields of computing and neuroscience. Ken has been an accreditor for the IET since 2017 and an AAC member since 2019.
Mr Andy Watson BSc (Hons) CEng FIET
Andy is active in delivering and supporting Engineering Education for 40 years, mostly in the HE sector. This initially included concurrently contributing to the development and quality assurance of both HN and degree programmes. The result is experience in working with national bodies on programmes for home and abroad.
The development, delivery and auditing of engineering programmes plus involvement in IET activity underpins his work in delivering and supporting TNE programmes in China.
Following PEI local network activity, involvement in academic accreditation began in 1996, since then along with professional registration activity as registrar, moderator, assessor, PRA, PRI.
Mr Chandra Mouli Vemury FHEA CEng MCIHT FSI FRSA
Engineering Council Liaison Officer for the IET Academic Accreditation Committee
Chandra is a Chartered Engineer and the Chair of Construction Industry Council (CIC) North East region. He runs a structural design practice based in Newcastle, UK. Prior to establishing the design consultancy in 2017, he taught civil/structural engineering at further and higher education institutions. His research interests include sustainable design, self – healing concrete and smart materials such as Nitinol. Chandra serves on IStructE Northern Counties committee and Newcastle Conservation Advisory Panel (NCAP). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation (CIHT) and a sustainability think tank called the Schumacher Institute.
Dr John Williams BSc (Hons) CPhys CEng FIET
John is a Reader in Electronic Engineering at Aston University with 22 years’ experience in Academic Leadership and Management (as programme director, head of department, and associate dean), 28 years’ experience in the design and implementation of tertiary level courses and programmes and has been using online/digital delivery and assessments for 26 of those years.
His subject level teaching experience ranges from software engineering and programming, telecommunications systems through to a range of topics in analogue and digital electronic design, implementation, and testing. John particularly focuses in designing courses using "authentic" assessment, and a blended learning approach.
Professor Bernard Weiss BSc DSc PhD FREng CEng FIET
Bernard is an Emeritus Professor of Microelectronics, having been Head of School and Pro-Vice Chancellor at Surrey University and Head of School at Sussex University. He has held honorary and visiting appointments at international Universities and been an external examiner for UK and international universities. He is a member of the IET Fellowship Policy Committee and has been a member of numerous other IET Committees and Boards, including Chair of the Awards and Scholarships Committees. He is a member of the Engineering Council Quality Assurance Committee and the Royal Academy of Engineering Membership Committee Electrical and Electronic Engineering Panel.
Professor Mark Zwolinski BSc CEng FIET
Mark Zwolinski is a professor in the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. He has been Associate Dean International from 2018 to 2023. He has published 220 refereed papers and written three text books. He has supervised 30 PhD students to completion and more than 100 MSc student projects. Mark has taught digital electronics at undergraduate and masters levels. He has been an external examiner at several leading universities and has been on over 20 IET accreditation panels. Since 2015 he has been a member of the IET AAC and represents IET on the BCS AAC.