Thomas Neligwa

Biography

I have been a Lecturer in Computer Science at Keele University since September 2001 and I have held various roles including the Course Director for BSc(Hons) in IT Management for Business (ITMB), and Examinations Officer for Undergraduate and MSc degree programmes. I am currently a Deputy Director of Undergraduate and Postgraduate Computer Science Programmes and Subject Link Tutor for the International Study Centre at Keele. I also have a number of PhD students under my supervision.

After completing a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science and Mathematics degree at the University of Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania (1996), I worked as a Software Engineer for Service and Computer Industries SCI/NCR (Tanzania) and later as an Assistant Lecturer in Computing & IT at the Institute of Finance Management (IFM) in Tanzania. I came to Keele University for postgraduate studies where I earned an MSc with Distinction in Data Engineering (1998) and a PhD in Computer Science (2006). I also have a postgraduate certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from Keele (2004), and I am a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy.

Research and scholarship

I am generally interested on architectures and intelligent techniques for structured data exchange (or semantic interoperability) between autonomous distributed systems such as intelligent autonomous agents (or knowledge-based systems), heterogeneous information sources, and databases. The ultimate objective is to achieve seamless model-driven interoperability between systems, mainly based on Relational, XML and Object data models. Related topics include computationally efficient data retrieval strategies and access control mechanisms in distributed databases.

Between 1998 and 2005, I worked within a large, international R & D project for developing intelligent manufacturing systems known as Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS). This project brought together some of the leading manufacturing companies including DaimlerChrysler and Softing GmbH (Germany); Toshiba and Fanuc Robotics (Japan); and Rockwell Automation (USA). Academic partners included Keele University (UK); CSIRO (Australia); Fraunhofer IPA (Germany); KU Leuven (Belgium); Calgary University (Canada); and many more. The HMS project was a ten-year multi-million pound project (1993 – 2003), funded by the EU, Japan’s Ministry of Industry and Trade, and several industrial partners. The aim of the HMS project is to develop the next-generation of manufacturing systems characterised with intelligent approaches to production control in order to accommodate low-volume, high-variety manufacturing requirements.

My specific contribution to the HMS project was to devise an agent-based operational framework for Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS), which is comprised of an agent-based architecture (Cooperating Knowledge Based Systems) and some intelligent operational strategies for robust, versatile and fault-tolerant scheduling and control in a holonic manufacturing shop floor. This work was submitted as a PhD thesis in Computer Science under the supervision of Professor S. Misbah Deen at the University of Keele and was successfully defended in July, 2005.

Other funded projects:

• 2009 - 2010: A Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) project (with Dr Colin Rigby as Knowledge base supervisors) between Keele University and KMF Sheet Metal Fabrication Ltd. This project aims at developing a robust computational model as well as a fully working system for active production monitoring and rescheduling for precision sheet metal fabrication. The work is funded by The Technology Strategy Board (UK) & KMF Sheet Metal Fabrication Ltd.
• 2009 - 2010: Database Disciplinary Commons (Computing Education Research), with colleagues from a number of universities in the UK – led by Prof Sally Fincher of Kent University (Grant Holder).  This is an inquiry into Learning, Teaching and Assessment of database courses from about fifteen UK universities.
• 2010 - Present: Green IT - studying the performance of various database designs, storage policies, and query execution strategies with a view to developing computationally efficient strategies and a framework for Green IT in data centre databases. This research is funded by Keele University.

Teaching

• CSC-10029 Fundamentals of Computing
• CSC-20002 Database Systems
• CSC-30002 Advanced Databases and Applications
• CSC-40045 Distributed Intelligent Systems

Research themes