I'm Alex, a PhD student in Real-Time Systems at the University of York. Although I go to York Uni, I do live in Newcastle city centre, where I spend most of my time.
I am currently single after a 5 year relationship.
My interests include:
Doctor Who (loved it since I was knee high to a grasshopper)
Computers
Mobile Phones and general gadgets (especially taking them apart and trying to them back together again)
Accessibility - more specifically with respect to Human Computer Interface/Interaction (HCI) for people with visual impairments
meeting up and going out with friends
my niece (who is adorable)
I would describe myself as someone who is shy at first, but once I become more comfortable I tend to become more dominant in leading/controlling the situation. This occurs in my academic, professional and personal life. I am a very sociable person, and tend to believe that collaborative work is more beneficial than working on your own as the flow of different ideas and experience levels enables a larger range of solutions. Having said that, I have done a lot of solitary work where I hope my ability to 'think out of the box' has proven quite successful.
I never believe it's enough to just do a task/job in the same way as a trained monkey may do so, the mantra 'If a jobs worth doing, it's worth doing well' is how I like to live my life, and will try to go that extra mile to not only do the job/task, but make it a quality and rock solid solution. I believe that is it this attitude that meant that I not only received multiple awards for my undergraduate degree, ultimately being top of my year in Computer Science, but has made me strive to better myself further by doing a PhD. Enough of my twaddle now, hopefully that is enough of an initial taster of who I am to be getting on with.