OpRaise

Dr John Burden is programme co-director of the Kinds of Intelligence programme at the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI). Here his work focuses on evaluating AI systems by drawing on techniques and methodologies from Cognitive Science and Metrology—-aiming to more accurately measure salient properties of AI systems. 

John has a background in Computer Science, having completed his PhD at the University of York, as well as holding a Master’s degree from Oriel College, Oxford. 

Dr Gladson Chikwa is a Higher Education professional with almost two decades of successful experience of working in different universities. He has championed learning and teaching enhancement projects at various institutions in China, Oman, the UK, and Zimbabwe. Dr Chikwa is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (now Advance HE) (PFHEA) and a Fellow of the Staff & Educational Development Association (FSEDA). His research expertise is extensive, with numerous publications in areas such as learner autonomy, assessment and feedback, and technology-enhanced learning. Currently, he works as a Senior Lecturer in Academic Development at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he teaches on the PGCert/MA in learning and teaching in Higher Education. In 2021, he established an international cross-institutional network that now includes academics from over 15 countries (see: https://itlsig.mmu.ac.uk). 

Professor Keeley Crockett  SMIEEE SFHEA is a Professor in Computational Intelligence at Manchester Metropolitan University She has over 27 years’ experience of research and development in Ethical and responsible AI (for both SME’s and an advocate for citizen voice), computational intelligence algorithms and applications, including adaptive psychological profiling, fuzzy systems, semantic similarity, and dialogue systems. Keeley has led work on Place based practical Artificial Intelligence, facilitating a parliamentary inquiry with Policy Connect and the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Data Analytics (APGDA), leading to the inquiry report “Our Place Our Data: Involving Local People in Data and AI-Based Recovery”. She is one of the five EPSRC Public Engagement Champions and currently the Principal Investigator on the EPSRC “PEAs in Pods: Co-production of community based public engagement for data and AI research.” Keeley was one on the Founders of the People Panel for AI, funded originally by The Alan Turing Institute and in 2024 by Manchester City Council. She is currently working on several Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnerships with business such as COUCH and Greater Manchester Combined Authority. She is a steering committee member for the UK Government Inquiry on Skills in the Age of AI.  Keeley is working with the UK Government Digital Cabinet Office and was a collaborator on the AI Playbook for the UK Government released in 2025. She is also part of the International Agentic AI Safety Experts Focus Group (25 members) which includes the development of the Guidelines for Agentic AI Safety Volume 1&2 (2024, 2025). Keeley was appointed to the UKRI’s AI & Robotics Strategic Advisory Team (SAT) on 1st April 2024 and is a collaborator with HMG Digital Cabinet Office. She is a member of the IEEE Computational intelligence Society ADCOM (2023-25), Founder and past (2022-2024) Chair of the IEEE Technical Committee SHIELD (Ethical, Legal, Social, Environmental and Human Dimensions of AI/CI) and chairs the IEEE AI Coalition Responsible AI subcommittee. She is passionate about people.

Dr Carolina Kuepper-Tetzel (CPsychol, SFHEA) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow, an expert in applying Cognitive Psychology to education, and an enthusiastic science communicator. She leads the TILE Network and is part of the Learning Scientists. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and pursued postdoc positions at York University in Toronto, Canada, and the Center for Integrative Research in Cognition, Learning, and Education at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. Before joining the University of Glasgow, she was a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Dundee, UK. She has delivered workshops and talks on research-informed teaching worldwide. Carolina is convinced that psychological research should serve the public and engages in scholarly outreach activities. She is passionate about research-informed teaching and aims to provide students with the best learning experience possible. She is on the advisory boards for Evidence-Based Education and for a project of the National Institute of Teaching. See her linktree with links to papers, open educational resources, and outreach projects. In her free time, Carolina enjoys books, vinyl records, running, and movies/series. 

Hayley Spain is an Education and Student Experience Senior Administrator at the University of Nottingham.

I am the school-based Education and Student Experience (ESE) Senior Administrator for the School of Psychology. I work closely with students, academic staff within the school and the wider ESE team across the Faculty of Science to improve the education and student experience for all Undergraduate and Postgraduate students.

Dr Steve Watson is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge. He is also co-founder of the University of Cambridge knowledge enterprise spinout, Cambridge Global Knowledge Nexus. His research uses transdisciplinary approaches, social systems theory, cybernetics; his current focus is on the philosophy and sociology of technology, and in particular the role of generative AI in organisations, education, and society. While his research is strongly theoretical, he integrates this with contextual empirical research and development. His previous professions include secondary school mathematics teacher and telecommunications engineer. He holds degrees in Engineering from the University of Cambridge, a masters in education from the Open University and a PhD Education from the University of Nottingham. He is currently working on four books, Emergent Discourses on Generative AI in Education and Society (Expected publication 2025), Generative AI and Meaning Mediation (forthcoming), Autopoietic Ecology (Forthcoming) and Educational Research: an autopoietic ecological systems approach (forthcoming).  Linkedin 

Dr Gabriela Zapata holds a PhD in Spanish (Linguistics track) from the Pennsylvania State University. She is Associate Professor in Education at the University of Nottingham. She also serves as the editor of the book series Multiliteracies and Second Language Education (Routledge) and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Diversity & Inclusion Research (Wiley). Her main research areas are Generative AI in higher education instruction, assessment, and teacher training; AI literacy; multiliteracies-based instruction (focus on Learning by Design); and multimodal social semiotics. Throughout her career, she has published articles in a variety of peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, as well as four books on multiliteracies-based second/heritage language education and four textbooks for the teaching of Spanish as a second language. She has also been involved in the development and implementation of inclusive, research-guided methodologies and open educational resources for language teaching and teacher education. Dr Zapata has been part of several interdisciplinary collaborative projects that have had the objective of serving Hispanic/Latinx and Black/African American students and communities in Southern United States and the Salinas Valley in California. She has recently completed two new volumes with a focus on AI, Generative AI technologies, multiliteracies, and language education (Routledge) and Literacies: Learning how to mean in the age of digital media and Artificial Intelligence (Wiley, co-authored with Drs Bill Cope and Mary Kalantzis). These books are scheduled to appear in the upcoming months. 

Cathy Cheung is a Software Engineer at Google Research, where she focuses on the intersection of Generative AI and Education. Her work centers on developing innovative ways to integrate AI into the classroom, not merely as a tool for efficiency, but as a catalyst for fostering 21st-century skills like critical thinking, creativity and collaboration.

Yashraj is a first-year Psychological and Behavioural Sciences undergraduate at Cambridge. Previously, he has assisted Cambridge laboratories in conducting research at the intersection of neuroscience and psychology. Through this experience, he honed his computational modelling skills, while also gaining insight into various AI-based data analysis tools like machine learning. Additionally, Yashraj is an avid writer, having published ‘Journey of a Teenager’s Mind – a self-help guide for adolescent wellbeing in a. digital world – along with a research paper on social media use and narcissistic tendencies in Indian adolescents. Yashraj’s passion for initiating pedagogical changes and improvements in the education system has been honed by his role as an Undergraduate Representative for the Council of the School of Biological Sciences. Not only has this role enabled him to grapple critically with the challenge of curriculum development, but it has allowed him to envision the future of education in a digital world. He is enthusiastic about harnessing his skillset in research and policy application to grapple with the socio-ethical challenge of an AI-centred summative evaluation system. 

I am a mature international student who is studying with dysgraphia which makes me especially attentive to how marking and feedback can be influenced by writing mechanics, confidence, and access to support. As a 3rd year psychology student, I am particularly interested in how different feedback styles affect motivation, self-efficacy, and learning strategies over time.  I am keen to contribute a student perspective that is ethically alerted to discussions on fairness, accessibility, and how universities might integrate AI in ways that strengthen learning and protect confidence in assessment.

My name is Rowan (they/them), and I am a second-year psychology student at the University of Nottingham. I care very much about the way the teaching in my course is run, and so I'm excited to be able to contribute to this project. While I do not have any direct experience with AI myself, I learned about it during my workshops in first year and found the subject very interesting. 

Former OpRaise Research Coordinator and current advisory board member.