Mr LS Griffiths
Contact details
Room number: 206
Tel: +44 (0) 161 2953658Qualifications
BEng MSc MBCS CITP
Responsibilities
School Widening Participation Champion (0.25)
School Retention Officer (0.25)
Lecturer in Computer Science (0.5)
Associate Programme Leader MSc Creative Games
General information
I started work in the mid 1980s as an Electrical Engineering technical apprentice for the international Oil and Gas Company, Schlumberger Limited. Following this I studied Electrical Engineering to the level of BEng (Hons), and then studied for an MSc in Computational Physics. I came to Salford as a lecturer in 1998 following a three year Research Assistantship on a successful large scale Framework 4 European Union project (IMMP) investigating deployment issues with broadband multimedia services. I am especially interested in usability of state-of-the art technology such as the Internet, mobile devices, social media and future digital media. I am a professional member of the British Computing Society and hold the status of Chartered IT Professional. See my learning technologies blog at http://www.edu.salford.ac.uk/blogs/see/Teaching Responsibilities
I am currently responsible for delivering three modules which are:
Human-Computer Interaction (level 2), 3D Games
Programming (level 3), Creative Games Programming (level M) and
Web-based Software Development (level M) computing
based on my previous employment experience and research interests.
As such I develop state-of-the-art applications to demonstrate these
areas. This development includes all the design, coding, testing and
implementation stages.
I also actively teach the following languages: Visual Basic.net, c#.net,
JavaScript (and HTML), ASP.net and ASN.1 for protocol specification.
We currently use the free DirectX based graphics engine TrueVision
(http://www.truevision3d.com/) sd well sd Microsoft's XNA on the games programming modules.
Supervisory Responsibility
In my current role as MSc programme leader I am responsible for the
day-to-day management of the course including
the production of course documentation. I also supervise on average up
to five taught MSc dissertations and ten final
year B.Sc project students each academic year.
Over the past three years I have supervised three full-time MSc by
research students for which I secured funding of
over £50K. Their projects included the development of building blocks
for SMS text messaging support for the Blackboard
VLE (http://www.ltc.salford.ac.uk/ltip_projects_2007/5/)
run at Salford
and a redevelopment of the LTC's
(http://www.ltc.salford.ac.uk/)
multimedia nuggets application
(http://www.ltc.salford.ac.uk/projects.php?type=1&id=6)
- Jane is looking at the application of learning technology for the teaching of emergency medicine theory and practice for the College of Emergency Medicine.
- Joe is working on the development of a low cost object tracking system using the Nintedo Wii, which allow will augment the interaction of real objects and their screen based representation for teaching purposes.
Recent Publications
Mooney, J., Driscoll, P., and Griffiths, L., (2009), 'Major Incident Tabletop Exercises: A High Tech, Low Cost Evolution', Exhibited at: Autumn conference of the College of Emergency Medicine, London, UK, September 16-18, 2009
Traxler, J., and Griffiths, L., (2009), IWB4D - Interactive Whiteboards for Development, in Proceedings of the International Conference, ICTD2009, ICTs and Development, Qatar.
Griffiths, L., (2008), A Poor Man's Interactive WhiteBoard: Using
Nintendo's Wii to deliver interactivity on the go, in
Proceedings of the International Conference, ALT-C 2008. Rethinking the
digital divide, Leeds, UK.
Griffiths, L., Chen, Z., (2007), Investigating the differences in web
browsing behaviour of Chinese and European users
using mouse tracking, in Proceedings of HCII 2007: 12th International
Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Beijing, China. Springer.
Griffiths, L., (2005), A Poor Man's Personal Response System: Investigating the use of Bluetooth enabled mobile phones as part of a classroom response system. in Proceedings of 12th International Conference, ALT-C 2005. Exploring the frontiers of e-learning - borders, outposts and migration Manchester, UK
Griffiths, L., and James, M., (2005), Campus-wide implementation of SMS text services within a Blackboard VLE in Proceedings of 12th International Conference, ALT-C 2005. Exploring the frontiers of e-learning - borders, outposts and migration Manchester, UK
Griffiths, L., Thornhill, S., and Tsolakis, P. (2005), Video for the masses: a further study into the effectiveness of low quality streamed video, in Proceedings of HCII 2005: 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. Las Vegas, USA. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc (LEA)
Griffiths, L. and Hmer, A.A. (2004), U R L8 4 ur exam : ) - Students opinions towards receiving timely information via SMS, in Proceedings of ALT-C 2004: Blue skies and pragmatism - learning technologies for the next decade. Exeter.
Griffiths, L., Thornhill, S., and Tsolakis, P. (2003), Video for the masses: Measuring the educational effectiveness of very low bit-rate video streams, in Gray, P., Johnson, H., and O'Neill, E. (Eds), Proceedings of HCI2003: designing for society Volume 2. Bristol: Research Press International.
Griffiths, L. and Smith, A. (2002), Internet Performance Report, Special Presentation at the House of Commons, SET for Britain event. London, March 2002
Griffiths, L. and Stott, D. (2001), An Acceptable Delay? Students perceptions of download delays on the Internet, in Proceedings of ALT-C 2001: Changing Learning Environments. Edinburgh p28.
Griffiths, L., Ashworth, J., Ward, H., and Marsden, P. (1999), Learning-Online: Student behaviour in a Virtual Campus. The Virtual University Journal, 2:4.
Personal interests
Apart from computing I am an avid collector of classic cars and have recently completed a five year restoration of my 1957 VW type II deluxe microbus. I also own a 1977 Ferrari Dino 308GT4 and I carry out all the work on my vehicles from engine rebuilds to body restoration. For a world of information on VW's and classis Ferrari's take a look at www.thesamba.com and www.ferrarichat.com.
Let's face there are few people of my age (70's kid) who aren't Star Wars
fans and I am surely a model example. I'm lucky enough
to own a Stormtrooper outfit and was employed by Lucasfilm to support
the opening of StarWards Episode II at the Odeon
in London in 2002 — that was 24 hours I will never forget!