Irene Polycarpou

Dr Irene Polycarpou is a Professor of Technology and Innovation in Education and the Head of the School of Sciences at the University of Central Lancashire, Cyprus. She is also a founding member and Director of the non-profit Research Centre InSPIRE (Interdisciplinary Science Promotion and Innovative Research Exploration).

Her research focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and educational technologies, with emphasis on interactive multimedia for education, design and development of educational software, e-learning, educational technologies and investigations into students' cognition and learning styles.

She led and participated in numerous research projects, funded by national, European and international organisations. She has several publications in international scientific journals and conferences, and she supervised PhD students in areas related to her expertise.

She is an elected board member of the European Office Cyprus, an appointed member of the Advisory Committee for Digital Technologies in Education of the Cyprus Ministry of Education, Culture, Sport and Youth, a member of the organizing committee and judge for the Cyprus Digital Championship, a member of the grant jury of the European Youth Awards (EYA), and an elected board member of the ACM-W Cyprus chapter.

She served as an expert evaluator for EU funding programmes, a reviewer for several journals and conferences, and a member of the program and organising committee of several international conferences. She is a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.