~/about.txt

About

1. AI in archaeology: training data, bias and where human expertise stays

   May 2026

   Archaeological Data, AI and Human Expertise — MAIA Stakeholder Workshop

   Panellist and speaker · Lisbon, Portugal

   MAIA COST Action (CA23141), funded by the European Union

   Gave a presentation and took part in the roundtable at an EU-funded stakeholder workshop bringing together researchers, heritage professionals and data specialists. I spoke to how the organisation currently uses AI and where it could be used well.

   The discussion kept returning to the same point: AI is only as good as the data behind it. Archaeological data carries its own biases, and a model trained carelessly amplifies them rather than correcting them. Alongside that, the session covered dataset construction and standardisation, shared infrastructure, the skills gap across the heritage sector, licensing and IP, and where human archaeological judgement has to stay in the loop.

   Write-up of the event →

2. HS2 and UNPATH'D Waters, with respect to FAIR principles

   2023

   CAA (Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology), Amsterdam

   Author and speaker · Amsterdam, Netherlands

   Wrote and delivered a paper in person on two major archive projects and how they measure against FAIR principles — findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable.

3. 3D modelling and XML ontologies workshops

   2022

   Workshops, Pisa

   Attended, representing the Archaeology Data Service · Pisa, Italy

   Represented the organisation at workshops on 3D modelling and XML ontologies for cultural heritage data.

1. MSc Digital Archaeology

   University of York

   2019–2020

   Where spatial data, metadata standards and digital preservation stopped being separate subjects — and where I first ran a project far enough to find out it would not work.

   • GIS mapping (ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Online)
   • Spatial analysis in GIS
   • Dublin Core, CIDOC-CRM and FAIR metadata standards
   • 3D modelling (3DS Max) and virtual reality modelling
   • Geophysical survey
   • Pre- and post-excavation practice

   Dissertation

   Technology at the 'Trowel's Edge': exploring the digitisation of single-context sheets

   Archaeological excavation records a lot of structured data on paper single-context sheets, which then gets typed up afterwards. I built a digital alternative on ESRI's cloud stack — ArcGIS Online holding the data, a map system published from ArcGIS Pro, and Survey123 forms feeding records in from a device in the field, with Collector tying it together. There was no database of my own behind it; the data lived in ESRI's hosted layers.

   It did not fully work, and the reason is the interesting part. Single-context recording depends on the Harris matrix — the stratigraphic sequence describing how every context relates to every other — and that is graph data, not spatial data. The platform was built for the second kind. I could capture the sheets; I could not represent the relationships between them, which is the part archaeologists actually need.

   The conclusion was therefore negative: this stack gets you digital forms in the field, and stops short of the thing that would make it worth adopting. Establishing where a promising approach hits its ceiling is a legitimate result, and finding it took building the thing.

   modules (8) ▸▾

   • Analysis & Visualisation
   • Gathering Field Archaeology Data
   • Virtual Reality Modelling
   • Geographic Information Systems
   • Digital Knowledge Production in Archaeology
   • Geophysical Survey
   • Mesolithic Funerary Archaeology
   • Spatial Analysis in GIS

2. BSc (Hons) Computer Science

   York St John University

   2016–20192:1 (68%)

   Where the programming came from, and where the two Microsoft certifications below were taken.

   • Operating systems
   • Network systems management and administration
   • Cyber security and cryptography
   • Databases, SQL and information management
   • Software engineering
   • Compiling techniques
   modules (10) ▸▾

   • Programming
   • Mathematics and Statistics
   • Computer System Fundamentals
   • Databases
   • Networking
   • Human Computer Interaction
   • Internet of Things
   • Cyber Security
   • Advanced Web Development
   • Major Project

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals

  AZ-9002024

  Cloud concepts, core Azure services, and the pricing and governance model.

  Microsoft

  Verify credential →

• Agile Software Development

  Dec 2023

  Iterative delivery practice, taken alongside the VLE transformation work.

  University of Minnesota, via Coursera

  Verify credential →

• Data Engineering with AWS, Part 1

  Dec 2023

  A short course, and the first AWS work I did — two years before building the archive's S3 mirror.

  LinkedIn Learning

  id ba9e6160e72957e13132c2cf6d690596a8a7816d365aa83842fd3f08f97be419

• TTNTC Python Level 1 Programming Course

  Nov 2020

  Introductory Python, taken while moving from the masters into archive work.

  Teach the Nation to Code — certified training in association with the National Cyber Security Centre

  View certificate →

• MTA: Introduction to Programming Using HTML and CSS

  MTA 98-3832018

  Taken during my Computer Science undergraduate degree.

  Microsoft

  Verify credential →

• MTA: HTML5 Application Development Fundamentals

  MTA 98-3752018

  Taken during my Computer Science undergraduate degree.

  Microsoft

  Verify credential →

Levels are self-assessed and deliberately uneven — the low numbers are as informative as the high ones.