Deborah Taylor

Prior to joining the University of East Anglia (UEA) Deborah (Debbie) Taylor spent 25 years working for a global insurance company and was involved in multiple software engineering and information technology projects, from basic testing through to co-project management. During this time, she became a fully qualified Quality Assurance Technician and Software Engineer, and this led to her performing consultancy roles across multiple companies with headquarters in both the UK and Europe.

Debbie joined the UEA in September 2014 as an undergraduate student in Computing Sciences, during which she worked as an Associate Tutor. Following successful completion of her First-Class Honours degree, in 2018 she changed career path and became a full time Tutor/Lecturer in the School of Computing Science.

Her current responsibilities include teaching and organising multiple modules, for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, across a wide range of topics, including Cyber Security, Software Engineering, Python programming, Information Retrieval, Human Computer Interaction and User Experience (UX). 

Alongside, her teaching roles she holds the role of Senior Adviser for the school of Computing Sciences, is a member of the Equality and Diversity committee and Cyber Security research group and chairs the Staff Student Liaison Committee, to ensure students possess a voice in how the school is run. She is also the developer and facilitator of Big Sister Little Sister, a mentoring group for female identifying students in Computing Science, as she is passionate about improving and promoting gender equality in a male dominated environment.  

Debbie is currently working towards a PhD in Cyber Security, researching sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and computational linguistics for sensitive data disclosures via conversational agents (chatbots). The overall aim of the research is to identify if chatbots can be trusted enough to support routine data collection tasks for health, mental health, and disabilities. The first study established that humans believe chatbots can, and should, exhibit a range of different human-like attributes, characteristics, and phrases. As part of the second study, data is being collected to identify if chatbots, using these requirements, are more successful at establishing trust, than a standard online form. If this is confirmed, the final study will evaluate the most effective linguistic approaches for maximising this trust, via chatbot interaction. 

Professional Memberships:

• Professional Member of the British Computer Society (MBCS) 
• Member of Association for Computing Machinery
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy – (PR208211)

September 2018 – Current: UEA Tutor in Computing Science and Senior Adviser

• Member of the UEA Cyber Security Research Group 
• Member of the UEA Data Science Research Group 
• Current Module Organiser for Developing Secure Software (143 students), Applications Programming (101 students) and Information Retrieval (54 students)
• Previous Module Organiser for Introduction to Cyber Security (113 students) in 2020/21 when MO bought out
• Currently teaching on Human Computer Interaction (96 students) 
• Previously taught on Software Engineering (199 students), Programming for Non-Specialists (80 students), Human Computer Interaction (96 students), Information Visualisation (70 students), Systems Development (230 students), Architectures and Operating Systems (205 students) and Introduction to Cyber Security, Information Retrieval and Applications Programming
• Using 25 years of industry experiences to provide real life non-NDA examples of successful and unsuccessful software development projects, and their potential cyber security impacts
• Overseeing modules, creating content, delivering lectures and labs, marking and handling student disputes and issues
• Supporting students with issues including wellbeing, academic and personal, at both adviser and senior adviser level

 Other responsibilities:

• 2023/24 – Member of the Data Science Research Group
• 2022/23 - Appointed as Senior Adviser (Deputy in 2021/22)
• 2022-23 – Appointed to CMP Executive Team committee
• 2021/22 – Appointed as chair of Staff Student Liaison Committee (SSLC)(Acting chair since 2019/20) 
• 2021-22 - Member of the CMP Cyber Security Research Group
• 2020/21 - Co-designed Post Graduate Support Group for all PGT CMP students
• 2019 - Founded Big Sister Little Sister for female identifying students in CMP. Co-run with current students each year since. Currently liaising with other SCI schools and Athena Swan team to expand the programme
• 2019 - Outreach lecture for Pint of Science 
• 2018/19 and 2019/20 – Outreach project running Code First Girls sessions – one evening per week in SEM1 and SEM2. Currently liaising to restart programme in 2023/24
• 2018/19 - Judge for outreach Scratch Off competition for local schools
• 2018/19 - Appointed as member of the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) committee 
• All years - Support school by regularly engaging in Open Days and Applicant Days 

June 2008 – June 2018: Self Employed Quality Analyst and Security Consultant

• Accomplished alongside working for Aviva and completing an Undergraduate degree
• Worked for multiple IT and security companies across Britain as Quality Assurance (QA) or security consultant
• Project Managing, developing and designing bespoke Secure web and mobile systems
• Designing and delivering bespoke risk management and governance processes
• Designing and delivering Incident Management procedures
• Teaching developers how to test and deliver secure software using QA methodologies and secure software lifecycle techniques
• Monitoring budgets and costs of new software
• Designing and delivering test scripts
• Designing and delivering User Experience based testing
• Producing impact reports for Company Owners and CEOs 

July 1990 – April 2014: Aviva Relationship Manager and Co-Project Manager

• Started in Life Area then moved full time into to IT Projects in 1999
• Helped design, develop and deliver new software and upgrade legacy systems for both Life and Cyber Security areas
• Worked with design teams to help create secure and useable software and systems
• Researching, planning and designing project and scope
• Provided expert knowledge to help design security add-on’s to existing legacysystems
• Providing training on how to test effectively using Quality Assurance techniques
• Co-project managing million-pound IT projects
• Managing teams and coordinating budgets and skills for teams in UK and India
• Strategic planning, along with Security, Data and Risk analysis

October 2019 – Current: Part time PhD University of East Anglia

• Fourth year of a part time PhD in Cyber security - being completed alongside full time Tutor role at the University of East Anglia (UEA)
• Title: Understanding User Preferences for Gaining Trust, When Utilising Conversational Agents for Mental Health Data Disclosures
• Aim: Identify if chatbots with human-like features can improve sensitive data disclosure from multiple different demographics and mental health issues
• Investigate if this can also be used for financial, government, military and/or mental health interviews and data collections
• Graduated 2020: Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education 
• Graduated 2018: BSc Computing Science : First Class Honours