Sunderland Software City

 Two of the North East's most innovative academics have gained national recognition for their work ensuring that Sunderland graduates leave university with skills that are the envy of the world - including one for excellence in software.

Alastair Irons, the university's head of computing, engineering and technology has been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy, alongside his colleague Kevin Petrie, professor of glass and ceramics. Both will receive £10,000 for professional development in teaching and learning.

Alastair won his award for his outstanding work in the relatively new field of computer forensics, and his work on student assessment and feedback issues at Sunderland and nationally. Alastair is currently vice chair of the British Computer Society's Cybercrime Special Interest group and is a board member of the North-East Fraud Forum.

He says: "I'm hoping to develop digital forensics, both from an academic point of view, but also from a continuous professional development perspective. I hope to open up new areas in digital forensics, such as addressing digital forensic issues targeting Facebook and other social network sites. I'm also looking at multi-disciplinary approaches to tackling cybercrime, such as psychology and the psychology of cybercrime.

Cybercrime is a huge international problem, from crimes against individuals such as cyberstalking, cyberbullying, phishing, ID theft and economic theft, right through to major fraud undertaken by organised crime and even terrorist organisations.

The one thing that ties these things together is that every time someone uses computer systems, the internet or mobile phones they leave a " digital fingerprint" - a digital forensic expert can find these fingerprints, follow a trail of evidence and present it in a court case.

Alastair continued:"My aim is to raise awareness. Parents, children, teachers and businesses need to be a lot more aware of cybercrime.

"If you are a parent or teacher you should be able to spot cyberbullying. If you are setting up a business then cybercrime awareness, anti-fraud measures and system security should be part of your business plan.

"There are some very unscrupulous people out there who have no compulsion about taking every penny you have - people need to be aware of this and be prepared to take action."

The National Teaching Fellowship awards aim to raise the profile of learning and teaching, recognise and celebrate individuals who make an outstanding impact on the student learning experience, and provide a national focus for institutional teaching and learning excellence schemes.