Umran Ali

Current positions

Senior Lecturer in Creative Media

BIOGRAPHY

After graduating (BSc in 2004, and later  with an M.A in 2005) I worked as a freelance 3D artist & creative designer, and then as a visiting lecturer and private tutor teaching across Art & Design, 3D, CGI and Animation, I later joined the School of Media, Music & Performance  at the University of Salford as a lecturer in creative media, and taught across a variety of areas from design, production, & project management for video games, specifically around creative design and production of virtual environments.

From 2006 to 2011 I acted as Programme Leader for the BSc (Hons) Computer & Video Games at the University and was responsible for curriculum design, programme management and developing the programme's partnerships with a variety of major industry partners. Many of my students since, have gone on to work in the creative industries including the videogame industry. From 2011 to 2013 I worked as Director oF Creative Media, overseeing the directorates' move to our new MediaCity UK campus.

My freelance work included several large projects ranging from PlastiCity; a Will Alsop driven project visualising the regeneration of Bradford city centre in a fully interactive form, the Virtual Jean Claude virtual knowledge space project recreating the French composer Jean Claude Risset, into a 3D avatar for 'virtual lecturing', to working on projects in partnership with UK based organisations such as the DarkHorse organisation, BT and the Foundation for Art & Creative Technology (FACT).

I currently works as a senior lecturer in creative media, at the University of Salford. and continue to explore virtual natural environment design through my teaching and research, maintaining a deep interest in the meaning, impact, and design of natural spaces, in particular around video games.

In my spare time, I am a keen videogames player, and landscape photographer.

Areas of research

Virtual, Games, Landscape, Design, Environment