Professor Faisal Mushtaq

Professor Faisal Mushtaq

Profile

I am a Professor of Cognitive Science and the Director of the Centre for Immersive Technologies at the University of Leeds. 

I’m the founder of the Immersive Cognition Research Group which specialises in the study of learning and skill acquisition using virtual environments. I also Co-Direct the #EEGManyLabs projects- one of the largest replication efforts in the world, involving over 200 laboratories from >30 countries. 

My colleagues and I have received several national and international awards for our work in neuroscience and on virtual reality. My team created and maintains the most widely used open-source VR research toolbox- the Unity Experiment Framework

I am a former Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute, the UK's National Centre for Data Science and AI. I currently sit on the British Neuroscience Association's Credibility Advisory Board and am part of the Global Brain Consortium

I am also the Founder of Code/Place and the Scientific Director of the Digital Makers programme at the Centre for Applied Education Research- working to digitally upskill children and young people to bridge the skills gap blocking employment and innovation using evidence-based methodologies.

Responsibilities

  • Director, Centre for Immersive Technologies
  • Co-Director of #EEGManyLabs
  • Scientific Lead, Digital Makers

Research interests

My research sits at the interface between psychology, engineering and computer science and takes a multi-modal approach to understanding the relationship between action and cognition; from capturing neural activity (primarily EEG) and behavioural markers of performance using Virtual and Augmented Reality technology in laboratory-controlled environments through to extracting measures of performance in the real world from large-scale datasets. I’ve also been driving forward the application of principles from cognitive science to real world contexts to accelerate the acquisition of skilled behaviour - from surgeons performing minimally invasive surgery through to facilitating human-like decision-making in robots.

Professional memberships

  • British Standards Institute
  • EPSRC Human-Like Computing Network
  • Global Brain Consortium
<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>