User:Alfred Vella

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hi I am Alfred Vella

This page is ‘in the making’ and will probably always be in that state.

If you want to leave a message please do so in the ‘Message’ section. If you want to contact me privately then my contact details are at the end of this page.

1 Messages
2 End of Messages
3 Biography
4 Justice for staff and students of The ‘University of Luton’
5 Computing
6 Mathematics
7 Horticulture
8 Regarding UoB
9 Places
10 Politics
11 Contact Details

[edit] Messages

Please leave messages on my Talk page.

[edit] End of Messages

[edit] Biography

I was born in Birmingham in 1952 of Maltese parents, hence the name, which is one of the most common family names in Malta.

I have a number of passions which I probably pursue – well too passionately for some. The most mentionable are:

Justice for staff and students of Luton ‘University’ (now the 'University' of Bedfordshire), Computing, Mathematics, Horticulture and Politics

[edit] Justice for staff and students of The ‘University of Luton’

I first learnt about Luton when I was approached by a member of staff who wanted to do a PhD with me at Cranfield. He was a member of Luton’s computing staff. Some time later I was asked by some of Luton’s computing staff to apply for a headship post that was coming up. I declined.

Some time later, I was persuaded to become a visiting professor there, as there was very little research in computing at Luton at the time. Later still, I was asked to apply for Head of Mathematics which I did and was interviewed but instead of getting the job I was asked to apply for the post of Head of Computing. Staff that I knew encouraged me and although I was aware that there was a lot of infighting within the old Computing and Information Systems, I agreed. Little did I know just how fractious both the department and the University were to prove.

If you have any tales to tell about Luton (preferably with evidence), I would like to hear from you. I have been battling since 1997 to have the wrongs done acknowledged but the UK is not a very open country with lots of things hidden from its people.

I would strongly recommend that potential staff and students avoid Luton (and therefore Bedfordshire) university like the plague until it is honest about its past.

[edit] Computing

My main computing research area was Artificial Intelligence but I have also published in User Interfaces and Computer Applications.

[edit] Mathematics

My PhD is in pure mathematics, presentations of groups and in particular ‘small cancellation theory’. The sort of problems in that area that I looked solving the word problem, malnormality and ‘obvious presentations’.

Fibonacci numbers and Pythagorean triples. A series of papers on these subjects have been published.

[edit] Horticulture

I grow lots of things. I like to eat what I grow so I grow figs, grapes and most of the top and soft fruit family. In 2006 we had our first decent crop of apricots, peaches, necarines and mulberries!

For sentimental reasons I like the Himalayan Nutmeg (a sort of honeysuckle) and Tamarix (tamarisk) plants.