Abdul Sadka

Professor and Director of Aston Digital Futures Institute, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University
Professor Sadka is a Chartered Computer & Communications Engineer (CEng) with 27 years' worth of research leadership, business engagement and significant contributions to the area of AI-enabled visual media technologies. He is the founding Director of Aston Digital Futures Institute. This is a nationally leading powerhouse of research and innovation expertise, making strides in developing groundbreaking generative AI solutions to automate industry workflows and enhance the customer's quality of experience.

Professor Sadka previously served as the Director of the Institute of Digital Futures at Brunel University London (2020-23) and as the Lead Academic of Brunel Fellowship Academy 2022-23, reporting directly to the Provost in both roles.

He served as the founding Director of “Brunel Digital Science & Technology Hub” (2018-20) and as the Director of the Centre for Media Communications Research (2012-18). Professor Sadka is also the former Head of Electronic & Computer Engineering and Digital Media (2006-12).

During the period 2020-23, he chaired the Government-supported West London FE-HE Partnership Group, representing seven Universities and 6 FE Colleges, developing the post-COVID skill and knowledge transfer agenda for the UK digital industries. Professor Sadka led the development of the L7 degree apprenticeship and L6 top-up programmes in digital specialisms such as data analytics and EEE. He served on the Steering Board of the NEM technology platform, which shapes the European strategic research agenda in networked media.

Thus far, he has worked on over £15m worth of research projects as Principal Investigator, and supervised more than 50 Research Assistants and PhD students to completion. Professor Sadka has published widely, with over 300 papers in refereed journals and conferences, three patents and four books, including a seminal textbook titled Compressed Video Communications, published in 2002.

He frequently serves on industry advisory boards and evaluation panels, and provide consultancy services to the tech industry in the area of digital media, AI and data analytics. He has had several entrepreneurial business engagements with particular success in the health tech and real estate sectors. He is a fellow of the HEA, IET and BCS.