Professor Martin Loomes

Professor Martin Loomes is the Dean of School and the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Science and Technology School at Middlesex University. The unifying theme of my research is a deep interest in the nature and role of theories. This has been motivated by a belief that the software community spends too much time “polishing the shiny bits” (that is, making marginal improvements in those areas where such progress is easy) rather than biting the bullet and working on the difficult areas. For example, I think there is considerable mileage in exploring the view that theories are the true artifacts created during software design, and that “programs” and “systems” are side-effects of this process of theory construction. My research during the past 15 years has taken me into the Philosophy of Science (where theory construction is a major topic of discussion), cognitive science (how do people work with theories?) and AI (how might machines manipulate symbols so as to emulate theory construction?). I have also developed an interest in pedagogy, and see many similarities between the design of software systems and the design of the curriculum; after all, both depend intimately on the relational structures that we construct regarding some domain of interest.