Meet the CVI Team
School of Medicine
Dr Andrew Blaikie
Andrew is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine and Consultant Ophthalmologist with NHS Fife. He is an advisor to our partner charity, CVI Scotland and technical advisor to the eye care NGO Christian Blind Mission Global. He was the lead ophthalmologist that established the Visual Impairment Network for Children and Young People and the National Dataset for Childhood Visual Impairment.
Dr Andrew Blaikie, School of Medicine
Helen St Clair Tracy
Helen in an Honorary Teaching Fellow at the School of Medicine and runs our partner charity, CVI Scotland. Helen’s interests include developing simple, inexpensive yet widely accessible resources, to identify and support people affected by CVI, including through virtual reality simulation. Helen consults with the CVI community and experts in the field to direct the creation of simulations of cerebral visual impairments. Helen’s son has CVI.
School of Computer Science
Students
Previous Students
- Hafeez Abdul-Rahaman 2018/9 Final Year Undergraduate Project
- Cristina Bikanga Ada 2020/21 Final Year Undergraduate Project
- Cameron Wilson 2020/21 Master’s Degree Project
- Jingjing Lu 2023 Master’s Degree Project
- Jiantong Yang 2023 Master’s Degree Project
- Aloka Jayasinghe 2023 & 2024, Laidlaw Scholarship Student
- Tallulah Swinscoe 2023/24 Final Year Undergraduate Project
External Advisors
Prof Gordon Dutton
Professor Gordon Dutton is a Paediatric Ophthalmologist who worked for over 20 years at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Visual Science at Glasgow Caledonian University. Gordon has contributed to a range of books and published many papers on cerebral visual impairment and is considered by many to be the world leading expert on the subject.
Dr Nicola McDowell
Dr Nicola McDowell is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Education at Massey University, New Zealand. Nicola is an expert in CVI, has published many papers and presents and teaches about CVI around the world. Nicola has developed the world’s first CVI screening app called the Austin Assessment and is a founder member of CVI Scotland. Nicola acquired CVI due to a brain injury when she was sixteen.
Prof John Ravenscroft
Professor John Ravenscroft was awarded Chair of Childhood Visual Impairment by the University of Edinburgh and is a leading international CVI expert, with special interests in education and CVI, and research methodology in cvi. Professor Ravenscroft will be advising us, as we develop new ways to explain CVI, including for children, alongside other CVI training and learning resources, and the CVI-SIM programme.
Project Partners
CVI Scotland
CVI Scotland (the Cerebral Visual Impairment Society of Scotland charity) provide information on CVI through their website and resources. As project partner, CVI Scotland share their international network of CVI experts, importantly including many people with CVI, whose contributions have formed the core of important new knowledge gained. CVI Scotland is a leading global resource used in nearly every country in the world.