Dr Crispin Cooper
Lecturer
- cooperch@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44(0) 29 2087 6072
- 4.63, Abacws, Senghennydd Road, Cathays, Cardiff, CF24 4AG
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Dr Crispin Cooper is a Lecturer at the School of Computer Science & Informatics. His research track record encompasses both data science theory, and its application to support a more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable world. His software sDNA (Spatial Design Network Analysis) is used by thousands of academics and practitioners worldwide. Crispin has used sDNA himself to investigate health, pollution, accessibility, community cohesion, carbon footprinting and economic geography. Currently he is focusing on modelling pedestrian and cyclist mode choice and flows for sustainable transport and health, the use of well-being metrics to improve outcomes, and analysis of social media bubbles.
Crispin works with numerous external partners to deliver impact from his research, in particular engineering consultancies Arup Group Ltd and Wedderburn Transport Planning, and sustainable transport charity Sustrans. He is Data Science Theme Deputy for Cardiff University's strategic partnership with the Office for National Statistics.
Biography
Lecturer, School of Computer Science & Informatics, Cardiff University 2020-present
Research Fellow, Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University 2019-2020
Research Associate, Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University 2011-2019
Postdoctoral Research Associate, City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University 2010
PhD City and Regional Planning, Cardiff University 2006-2010
Development Volunteer, Uganda 2006
Software Engineer, Cambridge Silicon Radio, 2006
Research Associate, Department of Electronics, University of York 2003-2005
MA (hons) Computer Science and Physics, University of Cambridge 1999-2002
Professional memberships
AFHEA 2019
Speaking engagements
Invited presentations
2020: Institute for Public Policy Research. South Wales Valleys Climate Fairness Panel
2020: University of Lisbon. Cycling Potential Hackathon
2020: Leeds Institute for Transport Studies. Active Transport Options for New Developments Workshop. Spatial network analysis approaches for walkability
2019: Office for National Statistics Data Science Campus. Some applications for Spatial Network Analysis: transport, accessibility, health, communities, economics and classification of regions
2018: Leeds Institute for Transport Studies. Network modelling to target cycling and walking policies
2017: Business Council for Sustainable Development. Spatial Network Analysis, Smarter Walking and Cycling & the Role of the Private Sector
2017: Green Gathering Festival. How Infrastructure Helps Bicycles Take Off
2017: Bristol Data Science Meetup. Spatial Network Analysis
2016: Welsh Assembly Government. Modelling cyclist behaviour based on Welsh Active Travel data
2016: Free & Open Source Software for Geospatial (Foss4G) Cymru. The sDNA toolbox for QGIS
2016: Association for Geographical Information. GeoBig5. Network Analysis for Health, Environment and Economics, the Big Data way
2014: Hay Festival of Literature & Arts. Panel discussion on ecological footprint of the festival
2012: iBEE Innovation in the Built Environment. Introducing the sDNA software
Committees and reviewing
Data Science Theme Deputy for the Cardiff University & Office for National Statistics strategic partnership.
Reviewer for Transportation Research, Int. Jnl Geographic Information Systems, Jnl American Planning Assoc., Urban Studies, PeerJ, Jnl Transport & Health, Int. Jnl. Sustainable Transportation
Publications
2022
- Cooper, C. H. V. 2022. Exploring potential applications of quantum computing in transportation modelling. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems 23(9) (10.1109/TITS.2021.3132161)
2021
- Hossain, M. A. and Cooper, C. H. V. 2021. Spatial Network Analysis as a tool for measuring change in accessibility over time: limits of transport investment as a driver for UK regional development.. Growth and Change 52(4), pp. 2124-2148. (10.1111/grow.12512)
- Cooper, C. H. V., Harvey, I., Orford, S. and Chiaradia, A. J. F. 2021. Using multiple hybrid spatial design network analysis to predict longitudinal effect of a major city centre redevelopment on pedestrian flows. Transportation 48, pp. 643-672. (10.1007/s11116-019-10072-0)
2020
- Cooper, C. H. 2020. sDNA: 3-d spatial network analysis for GIS, CAD, command line & Python. SoftwareX 12, article number: 100525. (10.1016/j.softx.2020.100525)
- Cooper, C. H. V. 2020. Quantitative models of well-being to inform policy: Problems and opportunities. Sustainability 12(8), article number: 3180. (10.3390/su12083180)
2019
- Cooper, C. H. V. and Yin Cheung Chang, E. 2019. Using road class as a replacement for predicted motorized traffic flow in spatial network models of cycling. Scientific Reports 9, article number: 19724. (10.1038/s41598-019-55669-8)
2018
- Cooper, C. H. V. 2018. Smartphones & hills - common issues, and how to fix them. UK Hillwalking, article number: 10285.
- Cooper, C. H. V. 2018. Predictive spatial network analysis for high resolution transport modelling, applied to cyclist flows, mode choice and targeting investment. International Journal of Sustainable Transportation 12(10), pp. 714-724. (10.1080/15568318.2018.1432730)
- Cooper, C., Harvey, I. and Orford, S. 2018. Testing the ability of multivariate hybrid spatial network analysis to predict the effect of a major urban redevelopment on pedestrian flows. Presented at: GISRUK 2018: 26th GIScience Research UK Conference, University of Leicester, 17-20 April 2018.
- Cooper, C. 2018. Spatial network analysis for active travel, transport, land use and economic modelling. Presented at: Modelling World 2018, Birmingham, England, 5-6 June 2018.
- Cooper, C. 2018. A theoretical framework for accessibility applied to network models of transportation, land use and economic productivity. Presented at: NECTAR Cluster 6, Lyon, 2018.
- Potoglou, D., Cooper, C. and Arellano, . 2018. The role of the built environment on household car ownership in Santiago de Chile. Presented at: NECTAR Cluster 6, Lyon, 2018.
- Cooper, C. and Chan, E. 2018. Link level, heterogeneous models of cyclist behavior in Cardiff. Presented at: NECTAR Cluster 6, Lyon, 2018.
- Cooper, C. and Price, R. 2018. Uncovering accessibility blackspots for people with disabilities. Presented at: LANDOR Transport & Health, Portsmouth, 2018.
2017
- Webb, B., Harris, N., Cooper, C. and Healy, A. 2017. Identification of regional areas for the National Development Framework. Project Report. Welsh Government.
- Cooper, C. 2017. Could an auto logic checker be the solution to the fake news problem?. [Online]. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/could-an-auto-logic-checker-be-the-solution-to-the-fake-news-problem-73223
- Collins, A. and Cooper, C. 2017. Measuring and managing the environmental impact of festivals: The contribution of the Ecological Footprint. Journal of Sustainable Tourism 25(1), pp. 148-162. (10.1080/09669582.2016.1189922)
- Cooper, C. H. V. 2017. Using spatial network analysis to model pedal cycle flows, risk and mode choice.. Journal of Transport Geography 58, pp. 157-165. (10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2016.12.003)
2016
- Cooper, C. 2016. Spatial Design Network Analysis (sDNA) version 3.4 Manual. Cardiff University.
- Cooper, C. 2016. Spatial Design Network Analysis (sDNA) software version 3.4.5. Cardiff University.
2015
- Cooper, C. H. V. 2015. Spatial localization of closeness and betweenness measures: a self-contradictory but useful form of network analysis. International Journal of Geographical Information Science 29(8), pp. 1293-1309. (10.1080/13658816.2015.1018834)
- Cooper, C. and Chiaradia, A. J. 2015. sDNA: how and why we reinvented Spatial Network Analysis for health, economics and active modes of transport. Presented at: GISRUK, Leeds, 15-17 April 2015 Presented at Malleson, N. ed.GIS Research UK (GISRUK) 2015 Proceedings. figshare pp. 122-127., (10.6084/m9.figshare.1491375.v3)
2014
- Chiaradia, A. J. and Cooper, C. 2014. Network geography and accessibility. Presented at: 12th Annual UK Transport Practitioners Meeting, London, UK, 2-3 July 2014.
- Cooper, C. H. V., Fone, D. L. and Chiaradia, A. J. F. 2014. Measuring the impact of spatial network layout on community social cohesion: a cross-sectional study. International Journal of Health Geographics 13, article number: 11. (10.1186/1476-072X-13-11)
2013
- Cooper, C., Orford, S., Webster, C. J. and Jones, C. B. 2013. Exploring the ripple effect and spatial volatility in house prices in England and Wales: regressing interaction domain cross-correlations against reactive statistics. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 40(5), pp. 763-782. (10.1068/b37062)
2012
- Cooper, C., Chiaradia, A. J. and Webster, C. 2012. Spatial Design Network Analysis software. Cardiff University.
2010
- Howard, D., Tyrrell, A. and Cooper, C. 2010. Towards an alternative to Magnetic Resonance Imaging for vocal tract shape measurement using the principles of evolution. In: Smith, S. and Cagnoni, S. eds. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation: Medical Applications. John Wiley and Sons, pp. 191-207., (10.1002/9780470973134.ch11)
- Cooper, C. H. V. 2010. Exploratory analysis of large spatial time series and network interaction data sets: house prices in England and Wales. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University.
2009
- Howard, D., Tyrell, A., Murphy, D. and Cooper, C. 2009. Bio-inspired evolutionary oral tract shape modelling for physical modelling vocal synthesis. Journal of Voice 23(1), pp. 11-20. (10.1016/j.jvoice.2007.03.003)
2006
- Cooper, C., Murphy, D., Howard, D. and Tyrrell, A. 2006. Singing synthesis with an evolved physical model. IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing 14(4), pp. 1454-1461. (10.1109/TSA.2005.860844)
Teaching
Crispin currently teaches Modern Web Application development on the BSc Computer Science course.
He has previously taught in the Research Masterclass, and Sustainability Science Summer School, guest lectured on transport simulations in the Cardiff School of Geography & Planning, and run teaching laboratory sessions at the Cardiff School of Computer Science and Informatics and University of York Department of Electronics; including comparative programming languages seminars, Java, DSP and microcontrollers.
Crispin is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2020).
Broadly speaking I am interested in both data science theory, and its application to support a more socially, economically and environmentally sustainable world. For a while I have focussed on models of transport, and found that to really understand transport we need to understand the rest of society too - from politics and land use to health and well-being - so my models are always building outwards from that starting point.
My research background was initially in Computer Science; working for the Intelligent Systems group at the University of York I helped to develop microchips capable of evolution, growth, self-repair and learning. I also spent time in commercial research & development, as part of a team creating bluetooth firmware which was able to link to the first iPhone back in 2006.
Having a long-term interest in sustainable development, I worked as a project volunteer in Uganda during 2006.
My PhD was completed at Cardiff University's School of Geography and Planning (formerly City and Regional Planning), using high performance computing to visualise and model large quantities of housing market socioeconomic data collected from the UK census and Land Registry. This was funded by a Richard Whipp studentship.
From there I went on to become a Research Fellow in the Sustainable Places Research Institute, working there for around 10 years.
My network analysis software sDNA is used by over 2000 researchers and practitioners worldwide, particularly for planning sustainable transport networks, and was subject of a REF Impact case study in 2014. As of 2021 this is my main research focus, alongside use of well-being metrics to improve outcomes.
As of early 2021, I have contributed to to approx. £540,000 of successful funding bids:
2021: PI, Sustrans, Modelling Monmouthshire Active Travel Networks PartII
2020: PI, Sustrans, Modelling Monmouthshire Active Travel Networks
2020: PI, 3d Urban Design workflows with sDNA
2020: PI, Gamification of data collection on political meta-views, network analysis of social media bubbles and predictors of COVID19 behaviour
2019: PI, Wedderburn Transport Planning & Design Economics, sDNA enhancements for pedestrian models
2017: Co-I, Welsh Government, Data-Defined Regions for the National Development Framework
2016: Co-I, Data Innovation Institute Seedcorn, Improving pedestrian data modelling for a more vibrant high street. Resulting in the first longitudinal forecast test for a strategic pedestrian model thus providing peer reviewed scientific evidence to support ongoing use of sDNA+ in pedestrian models
2015: Co-I, ESRC Impact Accelerator, “sDNA for All” (Spatial Network Analysis for active travel, with Arup, WSP, BuroHappold, Wedderburn Transport Planning, Sustrans. Identifying and addressing barriers to uptake of sDNA in sustainable transport modelling. As a result, partners now make use of sDNA+ to deliver pedestrian and cycling analysis to clients
2015: PI, Evaluation of population catchments, Canal & Rivers Trust
2004: Initiated and wrote core contribution to Intelligent Systems (Evolvable Hardware) proposal funded by EPSRC
Supervision
I am interested in supervising PhD students with an interest in quantitative modelling of social & economic systems, especially transport. Suitable students may either
- have a background in the application domain e.g. geography, transport planning, economics, politics, social science coupled with strong quantitative skills and ability (or willingness to learn) programming
- alternatively come from a STEM discipline such as computer science or statistics
I am also open to supervising MSc Computer Science & Data Science dissertations within my field of expertise. I believe strongly in learning by doing, therefore, for projects that produce good results I aim to co-publish research with students - we have done this for several previous projects e.g. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-55669-8