Dr Peggy Gregory she/her

My research area is empirical software engineering from a human perspective. Over the last decade, I’ve set up and been part of an inter-university research group that investigates how agility transforms software development in IT organisations. We take a problem-based approach, investigating industry challenges to uncover causes and seek solutions. Most of my research is qualitative or mixed-methods because it usually involves talking to people. I’ve recently extended my research to include sustainable software engineering as I believe it’s an important global challenge. I can already see that there are similarities between agility and sustainability. They both involve complex adaptive socio-technical systems that need to constantly change while maintaining core stability, and that throw up many tensions and dilemmas for practitioners.

In my PhD, I investigated the way patients with diabetes responded to using novel health technologies, and I have more recently investigated how people use technology to tackle loneliness. This research made me aware of how user experience extends far beyond what the eye can see; that it is personal, diverse and often structural.

I am interested in supervising projects where there is a socio-technical element that needs exploring. I have experience in looking at sustainability, agility and health systems, but am open to considering a wide range of topic areas. I enjoy supervising PhD students and like to meet regularly to discuss how their ideas and writing are progressing. My role often involves helping students to find organisations to work with, and I’m happy to do that. I was recently nominated for the Best SICSA Supervisor award. I think the wider research environment is very important, and I encourage my doctoral students to network widely. I’m proud of all of my completed PhD students. I believe EDI is important, and I have been an STEM ambassador. I am particularly keen on encouraging more women to get involved in technology research.