computer science

Karen Rafferty

Karen Rafferty is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Karen Rafferty rather than just read about it. In short: Karen Rafferty (née McMenemy) is the Head of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen's University Belfast. She works with virtual and augmented reality for health care and automation.

Key takeaways

Karen Rafferty belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Karen Rafferty to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Karen Rafferty from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Karen Rafferty (née McMenemy) is the Head of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Queen's University Belfast. She works with virtual and augmented reality for health care and automation.

Early life and education Rafferty is an alumnus of St. Patrick's Girls Academy, Dungannon County Tyrone and studied Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Queen's University Belfast. After undertaking a year of industrial practice with NIE and in Norway she earned her master's degree with distinction in 1999. She stayed there for her graduate studies, and was a doctoral student specialising in imaging processing. Her PhD was supported by the Civil Aviation Authority to investigate pattern recognition techniques and image processing. Her research involved environmental sensing, and in particular considered the automatic assessment and validation of the performance of airport landing lighting arrays. After completing her PhD, under the guidance of Dr. Gordon Dodds, she worked as a teaching fellow, and completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education in 2005. Rafferty made various innovations in teaching, including introducing computer graphics and animation into the assessment modules of the course in Electrical and Electronic Engineering. Since 2000 her research interests have led her to focus most on Virtual and Augmented Reality, especially: how the visual aspects of VR and AR can be enhanced through the interface to other senses.

Research and career Rafferty was appointed a lecturer in the School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at Queen's University Belfast. She became interested in virtual reality and tactile feedback. Her research focuses on health and training and industry and automation. She is involved with Performance without Barriers, a research program that improves access to music and performance. In 2016 Rafferty was made Deputy Head of the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EEECS) at Queen's University Belfast. She was promoted to Head of School in 2018. She serves as the Athena Swan coordinator for EEECS, and has been involved with their Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Inclusion Matters grant. She serves as a judge for the Belfast Telegraph IT awards. In 2019 she announced forty full scholarships in cybersecurity at Queen's University Belfast.

Awards and honours Her awards and honours include;

2005 Royal Academy of Engineering Teaching Award 2011 Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers Award 2011 Institution of Engineering and Technology Innovation Award 2018 Queen’s University of Belfast Students Union Most Inspiring and Motivating Teaching Staff Members 2019 Springer Best Paper Award

Selected publications Her publications include;

Rafferty, Karen (2014). Engineering Innovative Products Practical Experience. Wiley. ISBN 9781118757734. Rafferty, Karen (2010). "Short, medium and long term load forecasting model and virtual load forecaster based on radial basis function neural networks" (PDF). International Journal of Electrical Power & Energy Systems. 32 (7): 743–750. doi:10.1016/j.ijepes.2010.01.009. McMenemy, Karen (2007). "A hitchhiker's guide to virtual reality". AK Peters/CRC Press. doi:10.1201/b10677. ISBN 9780429108334.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Karen Rafferty

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Karen Rafferty claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Karen Rafferty before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Karen Rafferty ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Karen Rafferty

In research: Karen Rafferty appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Karen Rafferty in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Karen Rafferty is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 21st-century Irish women educators, 21st-century Irish women engineers, Academics of Queen's University Belfast, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Karen Rafferty outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Karen Rafferty in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Karen Rafferty means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Karen Rafferty out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Karen Rafferty in simple terms?

Why does Karen Rafferty matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Karen Rafferty?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Karen Rafferty.