University of Malta (UOM), Malta

Noellie has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Birmingham. She is Head of the Department of Cognitive Science and Dean of the Faculty of Media and Knowledge Sciences. She has published research on categorization, recognition memory, and perspective-taking in leading academic journals and conferences. Additionally, she has over 25 years’ experience in directing, designing and conducting consumer behaviour and market research projects for leading international companies.

For many years, Noellie collaborated with and provided input to inter-disciplinary initiatives of the Law & IT Research Unit (now the Department of Information Policy & Governance) of the University of Malta focusing on legal reasoning, artificial intelligence and cognitive science applications in law. She is also part of cross-disciplinary and multi-national teams working on EU-funded research projects; in particular, she has been WP coordinator in three FP7 projects dealing with citizen perceptions, attitudes, and decision making relating to giving consent on the Internet, privacy and surveillance. Currently, she is WP coordinator in two projects dealing with risk perceptions, security and fear of crime funded by the European Union's Horizon2020 programme. In CARISMAND, she additionally holds the position of deputy project co-coordinator. Her research interests comprise cognitive science and cognitive neuroscience focusing on decision making, memory, conceptualizations and perceptions of privacy, as well as perceptions of security and risk.

Sandra is a senior researcher for several FP7 and H2020 projects coordinated by the Department of Cognitive Science. After having worked for more than 10 years as a senior risk and project manager for international companies in Germany, Portugal and Poland, Sandra studied Cultural Anthropology, History and Portuguese Linguistics & Literature and completed her M.A. at the Goethe University in Frankfurt / Germany, researching the identity constructions of professionals and corporate cultures in different institutional settings within the context of Europeanisation and globalisation processes. She then progressed into the areas of Science & Technology Studies (STS) and medical anthropology. Whilst holding an honorary fellowship at the University of Manchester, she researched for her PhD thesis the identities and socialities evolving in the context of new biotechnologies, and how they mutually influence and inform perceptions of privacy, citizenship and global health-related commercialisation.

Since 2012, she has been working at the University of Malta as a full-time researcher, conducting both quantitative and qualitative studies regarding the perceptions and attitudes of user generated content websites users towards online privacy, and in 2013 she took over responsibility within the EU-funded RESPECT project (FP7), researching European citizens’ awareness and acceptance of surveillance systems and procedures based on attitudes on usefulness, efficiency and economic and social costs. Since 2015, Sandra has started developing new research methodologies for measuring risk perception and fear of crime (CITYCoP project/Horizon2020) and taken up responsibility within CARISMAND. Her research interests comprise culture-technology interfaces, in particular related to perceptions of security and risk.

Iain is a Research Support Officer within the Department of Cognitive Science at the University of Malta working on FP7 and H2020 projects. Iain began his academic career at Loughborough University where he undertook a BSc (Hons) Social Psychology, which developed his intitial interest in understanding human behaviour and interactions with technology. To further develop his research skills Iain read for an MSc in Social and Applied Psychology at the University of Kent where he conducted qualitative research exploring the discursive construction of terrorism.

In 2011 Iain began a PhD in Psychology at the University of Lincoln under the supervision of Dr Lynsey Gozna and Dr Julian Boon (University of Leicester). Iain’s PhD research involved developing a holistic model of deception exploring the deception process from the deceiver, their intent, the strategies and tactics they employ, to the processes involved in detecting deception and the decision-making processes involved in deception-truth discrimination. During the time Iain also worked as an Associate Lecturer in Psychology where he supervised research projects involving qualitative methodology and ran Thematic Analysis workshops.

Following the successful the successful defence of his PhD research, Iain joined the Department of Cognitive Science in October 2015. Iain’s current research explores community policing, fear of crime, risk perception and disaster management.