Doctor Syafiq Zolkeply BIT (Hons) Software Engineering, Master of Software Engineering, Ph.D (Computer Science and Informatics), PgCert, FHEA

About

I am a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science and Software Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University, where I currently serve as the Course Leader for the BSc (Hons) Computer Science course. I first joined Sheffield Hallam in January 2021 and have since contributed extensively to teaching, curriculum development and student engagement. I bring with me more than 14 years of combined academic and industry experience in the UK and internationally.

Before moving into academia, I worked as a Junior Software Engineer in a medium-sized enterprise software house in Malaysia, where I contributed to the development of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. I also worked as an IT Executive at a major banking institution, focusing on project management for in-house IT projects, and later at the Chancellery Office of a Malaysian university, where I was involved in the development of an applicant admission system. These roles gave me valuable insights into real-world computing practice, which I now embed into my teaching through project-based and industry-informed learning.

I hold a PhD in Computer Science and Informatics (Cardiff University), a PGCert in Academic Practice (Sheffield Hallam University), and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). I also hold an Master of Software Engineering and a Bachelor of IT (Hons) in Software Engineering from Malaysian universities.

I have taught a wide range of modules across foundation, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including Databases, Software Engineering, Programming and Technical Computing. My teaching philosophy centres on making computing accessible, practical, and engaging. I use project-based learning, active learning, and industry collaborations to help students apply theory to real-world scenarios. I want my students to leave with both technical expertise and the confidence to thrive in their careers.

Senior Lecturer

Teaching

School of Computing and Digital Technologies

College of Business, Technology and Engineering

Computer Science and Software Engineering

BSc (Hons) Computer Science

BSc (Hons) Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence

BEng (Hons) Software Engineering

BSc (Hons) Digital Technology Solutions (Software Engineering)

I currently lead and teach modules across undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including:

• Databases and the Web (Module Leader)
• Databases and System Modelling (Module Leader)
• Software Projects (Module Leader 2025)
• Software Engineering Concepts and Methods (Module Leader) - Degree Apprenticeship

I have also previously taught:

• Programming for Computer Science
• Introduction to Software Engineering
• Programming Concepts and Principles
• Introduction to Technical Computing

Research

• Industry and Innovation Research Institute

My main research interest is in mining software repositories essentially software issue report, focusing on the use of natural language processing, text mining and machine learning to improve and support software maintenance and developer productivity.

I have published in international conferences, including the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, and have contributed to projects on online information sharing and language processing.

Publications

1. Zolkeply, M.S. and Shao, J. (2019) ‘Classifying software issue reports through association mining’, Proceedings of the 34th ACM/SIGAPP Symposium on Applied Computing, pp. 1860–1863. doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/3297280.3297608

2. Buja, A.G., Mishan, M.T., Zolkeply, M.S., Ahmad, I., Yusoff, S.N. and Marzuki, M.L.H. (2016) ‘An innovation of teaching information security: A lightweight browser plug-in for detecting the spoofed e-mail’, *Proceedings of the ASEAN Entrepreneurship Conference 2014*. Singapore: Springer, pp. 275–286. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0036-2_25

Media

Computing