Simon Kendal is a senior lecturer who has worked for the University of Sunderland since 1990. He was awarded a D. Phill. in 1991 for research leading to the development of a flexible learning mechanism and has always had a keen interest in the development of intelligent computing systems, expert systems, machine learning, knowledge engineering and intelligent robotics. He is also very interested in the teaching of computing, programming and research as these are essential skills required by every business / industry and public sector employer.