Richard Thomas is a Senior Lecturer and Director of International in the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the University of Queensland, within the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology. His research focuses on cyber security and software engineering, with particular emphasis on computing education, software engineering processes, agile methodologies, big data processing, and distributed software engineering. Thomas has an extensive publication record spanning over three decades, with 35 works documented in UQ eSpace from 1992 to 2024, including journal articles, conference papers, book chapters, and creative outputs. Key contributions include the 2019 journal article "Haery: a Hadoop based query system on accumulative and high-dimensional data model for big data" published in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, co-authored with Jie Song, Hongyan He, Yubin Bao, and Ge Yu; "Energy efficiency optimization in big data processing platform by improving resources utilization" in Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, also in 2019 with Jie Song, Zhongyi Ma, and Ge Yu; and "Taking a studio course in distributed software engineering from a large local cohort to a small global cohort" in ACM Transactions on Computing Education in 2019, collaborating with William Billingsley, Rosemary Torbay, Peter R. Fletcher, Jim R. H. Steel, and Jörn Guy Süß. Other significant works encompass "Planting bugs: a system for testing students' unit tests" (2015 conference paper with Samuel A. Brian, James M. Hogan, and Colin Fidge), "Predicting fault-prone software modules with rank sum classification" (2013 with Jaspar Cahill and James M. Hogan), and the recent conference paper "A systematic review of paper-based versus computer-based testing in engineering and computing education" (2022 with Andrew Valentine and Paul Vrbik).

Thomas has also developed educational resources such as the open-source "Software Architecture" textbook in multiple editions (2022, 2023, 2024), co-authored with Brae Webb and Evan Hughes. His scholarship addresses pedagogical innovations, including industry-based projects for large classes ("RWSP: industry-based projects and modern software engineering practice for large classes," 2006), engaging students in programming (2010), renewing undergraduate IT education (2010), and multi-institutional collaborations ("The Carrick vision and computing education," 2007). He serves on the School Leadership Committee and as Faculty Representative on the Academic Board's Digital Learning Sub-Committee, contributing to teaching and learning governance. Thomas's publications have appeared in leading venues like IEEE, ACM, and international conferences, influencing software engineering education and practices globally, with citations exceeding 293 on ResearchGate.

Professional Email: richard.thomas@uq.edu.au