Professor David Parsons
School of Science, Engineering and Environment
Newton Building Room 221
Please email for an appointment.
Current positions
Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor
Biography
I am a Royal Academy of Engineering Visiting Professor (VP) at the University of Salford in the School of Computing, Science & Engineering where I am also a member of the Computer Networking and Telecommunications Research Group. I was first appointed in 2000 and my current agreement runs through to the end of 2013. For many years my VP role at Salford operated alongside my part-time teaching contract. By mutual agreement my “formal” timetabled teaching finished at the end of September 2011 – shortly after my 70th birthday. I am also a RAE VP at the University of Sheffield and have an Honorary Professorship at the Metropolitan University of London.
My earlier career included:
Barclays Bank 1958-1993. Initial working in the retail banking area but subsequently moving into the Bank’s IT Division in the early 1960’s. Following 20=years working in systems and programming at all levels, I eventually spent 12 years in senior executive roles as:
1982-1986 Head of Technical Research
1986-1989 Head of Networks
1989-1993 Group Director Advanced Technology Research.
Following early retirement from Barclays in 1993, and in addition to my work at Salford, I have:
- Established by own technology consultancy company (1993 – date)
- Worked part time for the European Commission (1993 – date)
- Worked part time for the British Computer Society as their Regional Manager North. (1996-2006)
- Worked part time as a lecturer for Sheffield Hallam University (1997-2006)
A comprehensive career resume is available.
I no longer teach formally but continue to “guest” lecture at both Salford and other institutions. In the past I have taught or assisted the teaching / assessment of the following:
- Project Planning, Project Control and Presentation Skills
- Network Architectures and Design (Post graduate)
- Management Principles and Practice. (Post Graduate)
- Introduction to Information Systems Management (under graduate)
- Global Network Architectures (undergraduate)
- Professional / ethical issues (undergraduate)
Supervision of final year undergraduate student projects.
External subject quality assessments – both UK and overseas at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Membership of external academic and industrial advisory boards and advisor on establishment of external advisory boards.
- High Performance Computation and Networking – especially context and location aware quality of service management systems.
- Ethical/Professional and related issues as they apply to Computing / IT.
- Public Engagement of Science & Engineering
- Member of the EPSRC College of Peers and have worked extensively as an Evaluator / rapporteur for the European Commission.
Professionally qualified in:
- Banking (Honours degree equivalent)
- IT / Computing (Honours degree and masters equivalents)
- CITP - Chartered IT Professional
Memberships include:
- FBCS - Life Fellow of the British Computer Society
- FRGS – Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society
- MIET – Member of the Institution of Engineering & Technology
- MITP – Member of the Institute of Telecommunications Professionals
- Also a member of the IEEE Computer Society and the ACM
- Professional Member of the World Future Society
- Member of the Institute of Financial Services