Who Are GUSS?
GUSS is led and managed by a multidisciplinary team within the School of Computing Science.
Core Team
Omar Tufayl
I work best at the intersection of people and technology. Interests include: software engineering, entrepreneurship, interface and experience design, and systems thinking. I excel at high-level strategy and low-level execution, and love building and empowering software teams towards clear mission-oriented visions. Making the complicated, simple and accessible, is the joy I chase.
I’m a Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering at the School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, where I leads the Software Engineering Lab. I’m fascinated by the messy details of the real world practice of software engineering, studying how teams and practitioners build, operate and maintain code bases. I like to use these insights to develop and test new practices and tools that can make practitioners’ lives easier. I’ve found it’s really important to work with partners in the software industry – our research is at its best when it is informed by the perspectives and challenges faced by practitioners.
I’m also Deputy Director of the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance, the research pooling body representing Scottish Computer Science in Higher Education.
Tim Storer
Jill Dykes
I have been working in the fields of business development, research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology in various guises since 1999. I joined the School of Computing Science as Business Development Manager in 2014, to work on growing entrepreneurship and industry engagement within the School. In that time, I’ve co-founded and co-run the School’s Industry Advisory Board, our Graduate Apprenticeship Programme, led on spin-out support, and delivered various start-up support initiatives that have led to the formation of exciting new companies by our students and graduates.
In 2019 I co-founded GUSS with Tim Storer and Omar Tufayl (with most of the credit there due to Omar and Tim for doing all the heavy lifting).
As Director of Business Development for GUSS, my focus is on growth, strategy, and financial administration of our “business”. It’s a hugely rewarding role to work with such a great team of dedicated people, to see the help we provide to small businesses and research realised, and to be part of the journey our fantastic students take towards personal and professional growth.
I joined GUSS as Assistant Manager in 2021 having previously worked at the College of MVLS. I manage a range of projects for GUSS, and love supporting our student developers to deliver professional project work for our customers. I love the learning opportunities that working here affords me, in terms of the technologies we work with, the challenges of developing GUSS as a service and ensuring that our student development teams are well looked after. I enjoy learning about our customers’ fields of work and appreciate how our projects can inform students of wider opportunities available to them on graduation.
Tess Vaughan
Len Lukowski
I joined GUSS in 2021, having previously worked in support roles at Imperial College, the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies and the NHS. I love working with a friendly, supportive core team and the learning opportunities GUSS has given me. I enjoy hearing from students about the positive experiences they’ve had while working at GUSS, as well as learning about the diverse range of projects and initiatives GUSS supports.
As an Assistant Manager at GUSS, I bring a wealth of experience in steering complex engineering projects towards success. I have experienced corporate world as a product manager looking after the complete project cycles and firmly believes in the saying “You’re either the one that creates automation or the one being automated” by Tom Preston Werner.
From designing product architectures to overseeing the complete life cycle of projects, I revel in the challenge of marrying cutting-edge technologies with real-world applications. I enjoy working with developers and helping clients turn their ideas and problems into reality and solutions using the best and the smartest way possible.
Nihanth Manyam
Software Developer Team
Our software developers are recruited from the current pool of undergraduate and postgraduate students at the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. Our developers have broad ranging skills across different technologies so we can offer a flexible service to meet the needs of different customers.
Design Team
Our User Interface / User Experience designers are recruited from the student body at Glasgow School of Art for their skills in making the technologies we create user-friendly, attractive, and on-brand.
Specialist Skills
For customers who need specialist technical skills, GUSS is well-placed to tap into the knowledge and expertise of academic and research staff within the School of Computing Science, and wider Scottish Computing Science academic domain via our membership of SICSA.
