Staff Profile
Dr Christopher Bull
Lecturer Computing Science. Director of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI)
- Email: christopher.bull@ncl.ac.uk
- Personal Website:
- Address: School of Computing,
Urban Sciences Building,
缅北禁地,
1 Science Square,
缅北禁地 upon Tyne,
NE4 5TG
I am interested in the sensing, understanding, and actioning of digital health data to radically transform how people live their lives. My research interests lie in designing, developing, and evaluating secure health informatics and cybernetics platforms and ecosystem elements as a digital health infrastructure—crossing software engineering and pervasive technologies. This includes digital phenotyping, assistive and diagnostic healthcare technologies, and systems for healthcare professionals. I use co-design/creation methods to create solutions applicable to patients, service users, and health professionals. I have an interest in the ethical challenges of healthcare technologies and applying mixed methods to complex problems.
For a full list of publications, please see my or profiles.
Roles within the School of Computing
- Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)
Projects
- () – Work Package Lead on "Digital Devices and Technology".
- () – Northern Health Futures ‘Digital Health Hub’, Translational Research Work Package.
- – Integrating Generative AI into programming education.
Interests
My central interest lies in Digital Health; measuring, diagnosing, and supporting people. I have experience working towards identifying Digital Biomarkers of health conditions, co-designing and co-creating technologies, developing digital health platforms, as well as designing technology to support healthcare and medical professionals.
I also have interests in:
- Mixed/Augmented/Virtual Reality (especially in the health domain)
- Collaborative Software Engineering/Development
- Software Engineering Education
PhD supervision
- – Neonatal Nurse Experiences of Electronic Health Records
- – Design Tools to Support Novice Programming Learners
- Nada Altwala – Conversational Agents to Support People with Dementia
- Chinomnso Ekwedike – Generative AI in Computing Education
- – Augmented Reality Surgical Applications for Operating Theatres
- – Impacts of Social Media on Mental Wellbeing
- – Reminiscence Therapy for People with Dementia Using Virtual Reality
Past PhD students
- – Technology-based Interventions and Assistance for Maternal Mental Health and Wellbeing
- – Digital Technology to Empower People in Making Healthy and Sustainable Food Purchase Choices
Taught Courses
I primarily teach Software Engineering. I have a particular interest in teaching collaborative Software Engineering and reflective practice. The courses I am teaching are:
- CSC2033: Software Engineering Team Project [2021-current]
- CSC3131: Development and Operations of Systems [2021-current]
Past taught courses:
Projects (UG/PGT)
I also supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations in the following themes:
- Digital Healthcare
- HCI
- Software Engineering
- Computing and Software Engineering Education
External Examination Experience
- University of the Arts London - MSc/MA Computing and Creative Industry, at the Creative Computing Institute (2022-27)
- University of the Arts London - MA Internet Equalities, at the Creative Computing Institute (2024-27)
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Articles
- Kharrufa A, Alghamdi S, Aziz A, Bull C. . ACM Transactions on Computing Education 2026, 26(2), 20.
- Hobbs J, Bull C, Claisse C, Elameer M, Davison R. . JMIR XR and Spatial Computing (JMXR) 2025, 2, e68810.
- Hobbs J, Bull C. . Informatics 2025, 12(3), 77.
- Benthem de Grave R, Bull CN, Souza-Monteiro DM, Margariti E, McMurchy G, Hutchinson JW, Smeddinck JD. . JMIR 2024, 26, e45904.
- Bull C, Kharrufa A. . IEEE Software 2024, 41(2), 52-59.
- Graeber J, Warmerdam E, Aufenberg S, Bull C, Davies K, Dixon J, Emmert K, Judd C, Maetzler C, Reilmann R, Ng W-F, Macrae V, Maetzler W, Kaduszkiewicz H. . Digital Health 2023, 9.
- Clay I, Peerenboom N, Connors DE, Bourke S, Keogh A, Wac K, Gur-Arie T, Baker J, Bull C, Cereatti A, Cormack C, Eggenspieler D, Foschini L, Ganea R, Groenen PMA, Gusset N, Izmailova E, Kanzler CM, Leyens L, Lyden K, Mueller A, Nam J, Ng WF, Nobbs D, Orfaniotou F, Perumal TM, Piwko W, Ries A, Scotland A, Taptiklis N, Torous J, Vereijken B, Xu S, Baltzer L, Vetter T, Goldhahn J, Hoffmann SC. . Digital Biomarkers 2023, 7(1), 28-44.
- Nobbs D, Piwko W, Bull C, Cormack F, Ahmaniemi T, Holst SC, Chatterjee M, Maetzler W, Avey S, Ng WF, IDEA-FAST C. . Digital Biomarkers 2023, 7(1), 132–138.
- Stringer G, Couth S, Heuvelman H, Bull C, Gledson A, Keane J, Rayson P, Sutcliffe A, Sawyer P, Zeng XJ, Montaldi D, Brown LJE, Leroi I. . Aging & Mental Health 2023, 27(1), 193-202.
- Meira L, Liu L, Amyot D, Yu E, Alshammari M, Baslyman M, Bjarnason E, Bull C, Duarte CHC, Groen EC, Jantunen S, Kopczynska S, Lessard L, Richardson I, Weber J, Wei Z. . IEEE Software 2021, 38(3), 7-12.
- Sutcliffe A, Sawyer P, Stringer G, Couth S, Brown LJE, Gledson A, Bull C, Rayson P, Keane J, Zeng X, Leroi I. . Requirements Engineering 2020, 25, 1-20.
- Helal S, Bull C. . Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders 2019, 47(3), 157-163.
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Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)
- Haag D, Kumar D, Gruber S, Sareban M, Treff G, Niebauer J, Bull C, Smeddinck JD. . In: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25). 2025, Yokohama, Japan: ACM.
- Alghamdi S, Bull C, Kharrufa A. . In: 2024 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC). 2024, Liverpool, UK: IEEE.
- Altwala N, Bull C, Kirk D. . In: 12th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI '24). 2024, Swansea, UK: ACM.
- Alghamdi SS, Bull C, Kharrufa A. . In: ITiCSE 2023: Proceedings of the 2023 Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education V. 1. 2023, Turku, Finland: ACM.
- Rainey J, Verweij D, Dodds C, Graeber J, Farhadi F, Ali R, Zhang V, Bull CN, Smeddinck JD. . In: Adjunct Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing and Proceedings of the 2021 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers (UbiComp-ISWC ’21 Adjunct). 2021, Virtual, USA: ACM.
- Honary M, Lee J, Bull C, Wang J, Helal S. . In: IEEE 44th Annual Computers, Software, and Applications Conference (COMPSAC). 2020, Madrid, Spain: IEEE.
- Hutchinson W, Helal S, Bull C. . In: IEEE First International Workshop on Requirements Engineering for Well-Being, Aging, and Health (REWBAH). 2020, Zurich, Switzerland: IEEE.
- Knowles B, Bull C, Davies N, Simm W, Bates O, Hayes N. . In: DIS '19: Proceedings of the 2019 on Designing Interactive Systems Conference. 2019, San Diego, CA, USA: ACM.
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Editorial
- Smeddinck JD, Hussein R, Bull C, Foley T, van Gils M. . Frontiers in Digital Health 2024, 6, 1367567.