Contact
- Email Katy Dobson: K.L.Dobson@Leeds.ac.uk
- Phone Katy Dobson: +44(0)113 343 6775
- View Katy Dobson's LinkedIn profile
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Areas of expertise
- Widening participation
- Adult education
- Mathematics support
- Discrete mathematics
- Abstract interpretation
- Theoretical computer science
My role
As Programme Manager for Science, I support students throughout their Science Foundation Year with the Lifelong Learning Centre. I manage the science team and am responsible for all aspects of programme development, quality of teaching and learning, student support and recruitment. I also teach mathematics on the Science Foundation programmes.
Professional experience
I have over 15 years’ experience teaching mathematics across multiple disciplines focusing on transitional mathematics support. I joined the Lifelong Learning Centre in 2013 to provide mathematics teaching and support to foundation and widening participation students, and in 2019 became the Programme Manager for Science.
My role includes the strategic leadership and management of the development and delivery of science foundation years. These programmes provide students with a stimulating and supportive environment in which to acquire knowledge and skills for progression to a range of science degrees across the University.
Research interests
My current research interests include investigating mathematics as a threshold concept or barrier to educational opportunities, especially in relation to adult learners. Since 2016 I have led an outreach project using mathematics to build confidence and inspire participants to consider returning to education.
Previously, my research focused on numerical abstract domains, a static program analysis method that uses abstract interpretation to provide a convenient but approximate representation of the accumulated information during the evaluation of a program.
My research focused on domains that capture the distribution or patterns of values the program properties can take whilst ensuring quantitative degrees of precision and efficiency.
Qualifications
- PhD in the Abstract Interpretation Static Analysis area of Theoretical Computer Science
- First-class honours Masters in Mathematics (MMath) degree from the University of Leeds
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Institute of Mathematics and its Applications
- Sigma Network
- Foundation Year Network