SFIA Specialist
David Bowers
Dr David Bowers, is a SFIA Accredited Consultant and a Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics at the Open University
David Bowers is a specialist consultant based in United Kingdom
Website: http://www.open.ac.uk/people/dsb69
About David Bowers
Professional biography
After my first lecturing post at UEA, Norwich, where I specialised in teaching database management and programming, I moved to the University of Surrey. At Surrey, I led the introduction of the undergraduate degree programme in Computing & IT, and served as Course Director for that programme for ten years.
In 2001, I moved to the Open University, and was soon appointed as Programme Director for undergraduate computing, a post I held for over thirteen years until July 2016. My responsibilities included oversight of the introduction of the first OU named degree in Computing in 2004, and its subsequent merger with the degrees in IT & Computing and Information and Communication Technologies to form the current undergradute degree in Computing & IT.
After standing down from the role of Programme Director, I then served as Deputy Head of the School of Computing and Communications until October 2018.
Having finally escaped from a succession of leadership and management roles, I am now trying to rekindle my research activities, alongside leading the accreditation standard workstream for the Institute of Coding.
Research interests
Over the years, my research interests have focussed on database and semantic modelling, and, more recently, exploring some of the challenges of object-relational database design.
A growing interest, which is now my main focus, is the presentation of navigational information for maritime navigation. In particular, I am exploring a number of issues related to supporting navigators as they seek to recognise landmarks to aid visual navigation, and how landmarks are used to improve the safety of navigation.
Teaching interests
In addition to contributing to database teaching throughout my career, I have more recently started to teach IT service management, an important but often overlooked aspect of software development and management.
External collaborations
I am a Fellow of BCS: the Chartered Institute for IT, a Chartered Membership Assessor and an assessor for academic accreditation. Until 2007, I was also responsible for the University Professional Development Scheme for placement students.
I am a professional member of the ACM.
I represent the Open University on the SFIA Council, and I am an accredited SFIA consultant. I am currently leading a project to map certifications and curricula - including degrees - to the SFIA framework.
I'm an Ocean Yachtmaster and Cruising Instructor through the Royal Yachting Association, a member of the Royal Institute of Navigation, and - when I get time - I sail my Westerly Oceanlord, O.D.1, which I also use for some of my navigation experiments.