Dr Walter Colombo
Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence
Cardiff University

Dr Walter Colombo is a Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at Cardiff University, with research interests spanning artificial intelligence, optimisation, agent-based modelling, social computing, robotics and interdisciplinary applications of AI. His recent research includes reinforcement learning for robotic manipulation, large language models, AI in cybersecurity and education, healthcare data analysis, image quality assessment, and the study of bias and human/social aspects of AI. Recent publications reflect this breadth, including work on LLM-based cybersecurity education, multilingual bias in large language models, healthcare applications of AI/ML models, and reinforcement learning for robotic manipulation. 

Before his appointment as a lecturer, Walter worked for six years as a Research Software Engineer in Cardiff University’s School of Computer Science and Informatics, including a role with Supercomputing Wales, the national high-performance computing programme, where he supported researchers across disciplines in setting up and making effective use of what was then a new generation of supercomputing clusters. Alongside that work he pursued his own research in computational social science as part of a long-standing collaboration between Cardiff, IBM (UK and US), the US Army Research Laboratory and the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) [under the US–UK International Technology Alliance], using large-scale simulation to study how groups form and act, with applications in both defence and civilian settings. The work led to publications with leading publishers, including Scientific Reports (Nature Portfolio); a full list is available on his Google Scholar profile.  

As a researcher, Walter has also previously worked on a series of UK and European projects alongside engineers, social scientists, psychologists and anthropologists, and with both academic and industry partners. In two European Commission FP7 projects, SOCIALNETS (exploiting social networks for adaptive networking) and RECOGNITION (cognitive approaches to self-awareness in autonomic systems), he worked with the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford, the Systems Research Group of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, CNR in Italy, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, EURECOM in France and the University of Aveiro. In the UK he contributed to GigaMobile, an EPSRC project on gigabit mobile networking through operator-controlled device-to-device communication, with Queen’s University Belfast, Samsung and O2, and to a Department of Health Policy Research Programme study on the role of social media in the aftermath of youth suicides. The common thread is applying computing and data to how people and organisations actually behave, which is the perspective he brings to enterprise AI. 

For the past four years, he has co-taught at the MBA with Artificial Intelligence programme at the Cardiff Business School, in particular co-leading the module Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Techniques and Applications. He has also supervised the students final MBA dissertations, in which they applied AI and data-driven techniques to real business challenges through consultancy-style projects with local and international organisations.

His teaching also includes experience at undergraduate level, acting as module leader on communication networks and, more recently, object-oriented design, algorithms and data structures. Across his teaching and research, he has a particular interest in how emerging AI technologies can be translated into practical applications across organisations and different disciplinary domains.