Stephen Todd

I have 40 years’ experience working with technology sector businesses, ranging from start-ups to global companies. I started my career as a computer science researcher specialising in the application of artificial intelligence. I spent ten years with Hewlett-Packard, where I led the company’s long-range research in Europe on AI in healthcare and created a new AI-focused R&D centre for HP’s Medical Products Group. After HP, I spent seven years with management consultants PRTM (now part of PwC), where I helped global companies transform their product development and innovation performance. Prior to joining UCL, I was an Associate Fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School for 12 years.

I have an MA in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge, an Executive MBA from the London Business School, and a Master’s in Creative Writing from the University of Oxford.

As a playwright I have had four stage plays performed and three radio plays recorded.

My RCA Experience
Being part of the RCA’s edgy, energetic creative community for the past two years has helped me to challenge my thinking and expand my creative practice.

My research during the Creative Education MEd has focused on “The Role of Making in a Practice-Based Pedagogy for Innovation”. My research included engaging in (and reflecting on) a range of creative practice projects to explore how making can help develop key skills that underpin innovation. This research builds on work by the Royal Academy of Engineering on Engineering Habits of Mind, work by the Harvard Project Zero Studio Thinking Project on Studio Habits of Mind, and work by Babson College on the Five Practices of Entrepreneurship Education (Play, Empathy, Creation, Experimentation and Reflection).

Other projects completed during my time at the RCA include:

• “Be Prepared” – A 5-minute live performance piece that explored recent research on the impact of scouting on the mental health of men in their 50s (developed as part of the School of Arts and Humanities “Performing Practice” elective).
• “Proud Songster” – A series of experiments using a Large Language Model (LLM) customised using the script from one my radio plays (developed as part of the School of Communication “Digital Storytelling” elective). The model was used to extend the audience experience by allowing them to interact with the play’s central character (Sarah). I also used the model to improvise new scenes between Sarah and her fiancé, with the LLM describing how what he said made Sarah feel (and the emotions it triggered) as well as providing her responses. And to develop a series of poems that explored Sarah’s emotions and experiences.
• “Untitled” – A piece of work that explored the impact of large-scale redevelopment projects on local communities – in particular the impact of the Olympic Park on the Clays Lane Housing Co-op (developed as part of the School of Architecture “Capital’s Shadow” elective). After the RCA exhibition, I did an unauthorised installation outside the new V&A, BBC and Sadlers Wells buildings, which are part of the Olympic Park’s new East Bank Cultural Quarter.