Sam Deane
Sam worked with me as a school student in a summer job in the late eighties and later as a colleague in the mid-nineties.
Reflection: Sam's influence on me was profound, because he had delved deeper into the issues of software development and yet remained in touch with the wider issues of designing tools for learning. I began to understand some of the profound challenges of developing software in a team and how to manage a quality process.
Sam accompanied his friend from Hampstead School to meet me at the Computers in the Curriculum Project in Chelsea around 1990. His friend had been recommended to me by my first wife Ursula, then head of mathematics at the school, to consider a summer job as a programmer with us. In the end Sam came instead!
Later, after completing his degree in Computer Science at Bristol University, Sam joined Ultralab to program some of our most innovative pieces of software for learning. Together with Alice Mitchell we designed immersive software for language learning.
He left to continue a career developing substantial games software for some of the major industry players and remains just in touch even now.
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