Professor Anne James

Anne James is Professor of Data Systems Architecture in the Distributed Systems and Modelling Applied Research Group at Coventry University. She obtained her BSc degree  at Aston University, UK in 1980 and her PhD at the University of Wolverhampton UK in 1986. She specialized in the area of data management in her PhD.

Since then Anne has been active in teaching in higher education and in participating in research projects as part of national and international teams. Her main duties currently involve leading research, supervising research students and teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

The research interests of Professor James are in the general area of creating distributed systems to meet new and unusual data and information challenges. Examples of current projects are the development of Quality of Services in grid computing,  the construction of special techniques to accommodate appropriate handling of web transactions, the development of advanced systems for information retrieval, the advancement of intelligent collaborative systems  and the use of parallel processing to improve performance in the context of a mass data environment.

Professor James has successfully supervised around 30 research degrees and has published around 150 papers in peer reviewed journals or conferences.

• Iqbal, K., Odetayo, M.O., and James, A.E. (2012) 'Content-based image retrieval approach for biometric security using colour, texture and shape features controlled by fuzzy heuristics'. Journal of Computer and System Sciences 78 (4), 1258-1277
• Albodour, R., James, A.E., and Yaacob, N. (2012) 'High level QoS-driven model for Grid applications in a simulated environment'. Future Generation Computer Systems 28 (7), 1133-1144.
• Khachana, R.T., James, A., and Iqbal, R. (2011) 'Relaxation of ACID properties in AuTrA: The adaptive user-defined transaction relaxing approach'. Future Generation Computer Systems 27 (1), 58-66.
• Hamad, F., Smalov, L., and James, A. (2009) 'Energy-aware Security in M-commerce and the Internet of Things'. IETE Technical Review 26 (5), 355-360.
• Shah, N., Iqbal, R., James, A.E., and Iqbal, K. (2009) 'Exception representation and management in open multi-agent systems'. Information Sciences 179 (15), 2555-2561.
• Shah, N., Chao, K.M., Godwin, N., and James, A. (2007) 'An Abstract Knowledge-Based Approach to Diagnosis and Recovery of Plan Failure in Multi-Agent Systems'. Advanced Engineering Informatics 21 (2), 183-190.
• Hedley, Y.L., Younas, M., James, A., and Sanderson, M. (2006) 'Sampling, Information Extraction and Summarisation of Hidden Web Databases'. Data and Knowledge Engineering Journal 59 (2), 213-230.
• Iqbal, R., James, A., and Gatward, R.A. (2005) 'Designing with Ethnography: An Integrative Approach to CSCW Design'. Advanced Engineering Informatics 19 (2), 81-92.
• Condos, C., James, A., Every, P., and Simpson, T. (2002) 'Ten Usability Principles for the Development of Effective WAP and M-commerce Services'. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives 54 (6), 345-355.
• James, A., and Shipley, S.D.E. (2000) 'The Development of OCPL, Object Conceptual Prototyping Language'. Information and Software Technology 42 (15), 1045-1056.

• CLEM (Cloud E-learning in Mechatronics) 2011-2014: 
The practical study of Mechatronics is enhanced by the development of actuator- enabled mechanical devices, sensitive to control stimuli. Highly sophisticated robotics laboratories, which enrich this learning, are not available to all colleges and schools.  This project is exploring how such advanced facilities can be delivered through Cloud technology.

• Contextualised Information Retrieval 2009-2013: 
This EPSRC project explored the extent of predictability of human information behaviour and investigated how information retrieval support systems can be contextualised to take advantage of predictability. This was an EPSRC funded project.

• Innovative Learning Tool 2011-2012: This TSB project was a knowledge transfer programme with a local company which aimed to develop a  product that would allow students to build up web presences such as e-commerce sites, information sites or social network sites within the context of a school academic project.  It was intended to be usable across a variety of subjects.

• DEHEMS 2009-2012: The Digital Environment Home Energy Management System (DEHEMS) project was a European Union funded project looking at how technology can improve domestic energy efficiency. DEHEMS extended  the current state of the art in intelligent meters, moving beyond energy ‘input’ models that monitor the levels of energy being used to an ‘energy performance model’ that also looks at the way in which the energy is used. Part of the solution was innovative data representation.

• Integrative Environmental Database 2005-2008: This TSB project was a knowledge transfer programme with a local company which aimed to develop an innovative database product which gathered and integrated environmental information from a variety of sites.