Elena Gaura BSc, MSc, PhD   Senior Lecturer   Tel: +44 (0) 24 7688 7751 Fax: +44 (0) 24 7688 8585 Email: e.gaura@coventry.ac.uk     Elena Gaura is a Senior Lecturer with the School of Mathematical and Information Sciences, Coventry University, specialising in Computer Hardware, Artificial Intelligence and Pervasive Computing. She is the leader of the Informatics, Media and Design (IMD) research group. Dr Gaura became an active researcher soon after graduating with a MSc in Applied Electronics from Technical University of Cluj, Romania, in 1991. Her research interests were in the field of Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), with a focus on ANN VLSI implementations. By 1996, her work resulted in 11 conference/journal publications and a MSc level course on ANNs for the above university. She developed a novel software environment for the modelling and simulation of several types of ANNs and software for ANN based character recognition. Both packages were adopted by a number of other universities and used for teaching and research purposes. She was a member of the Romanian Society of Neural Networks and published a book on “Artificial Neural Networks. Architectures and Basic Algorithms” (link to publications list). Dr. Gaura also investigated the potential of applying ANNs to solve industrial problems, including researching the feasibility of controlling motor drives by using ANNs. In 1995 she was awarded an Individual Tempus Grant for further developing her newly designed course on ANNs. Prior to joining Coventry University, she worked for Brunel University on a research project funded by Glaxo Wellcome and subsequently for Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. In 1998 she was offered a HEFCE PhD grant at Coventry University. Dr Gaura expanded her research interests to include: micromachined inertial sensors (in particular accelerometers), intelligent sensing, closed loop sensors, modelling, simulation and control of microsystems using artificial intelligence methods, ANN architectures and training algorithms for sensorial signal processing. She was awarded her PhD at Coventry University, School of Engineering, in April 2000, with a thesis entitled: ‘Neural Network Techniques for the Control and Identification of Acceleration Sensors’. The research also benefited from industrial support provided by Druck Ltd, Leicester, in form of technical advice and a number of micromachined acceleration sensors. Dr Gaura has been invited to Chair ANNs and Intelligent Control related sections at various conferences, is a member of the Program Committee of the International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks and Genetic Algorithms (ICANNGA). She received several IEEE, Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering grants for presenting her research work at various conferences. She is the organiser of a Special Track on “Smart MEMS and Sensor Systems” at the largest Nanotechnology American Conference, Nanotech. She is a Journal reviewer for the Journal of NeuroComputing (Elsevier Science) and the Mechatronics Journal (Pergamon Press, Oxford, UK). Presently, her research interests pursue the issues of Microsensors-Artificial Intelligence Integration, Sensor Fault Detection, Self-diagnosis, Microsensor Applications to Safety Critical and Biomedical Systems and Sensor Arrays. The work explores the new avenues brought about by MEMS technology to enhance the functionality of micro measurement systems, develop new techniques for integrating sensors, actuators and control functions and ultimately aim at designing autonomous systems which can sense, think and react to their working environment. Equally, she is exploring the opportunities and feasibility of applying AI techniques to solve Design problems, in particular in the area of Creative Design. Publications Please see the Informatics, Media and Design (IMD) research group.