Jacob (Jake) Hobbs

Full CV available on Request

Professional Summary

PhD student in health technology evaluating the role of Augmented Reality (AR) in tertiary care. Skilled at translating complex research into actionable insights, managing data-driven projects, and engaging with stakeholders across clinical and academic environments. Experienced in requirements gathering, process analysis, and solution evaluation, with a strong foundation in both qualitative methods. Adept at bridging the gap between technology and end-user needs, and motivated to apply analytical and problem-solving skills in business analysis to deliver impactful, evidence-based solutions.

PhD

Newcastle University | Sept 2022 – March 2026

“Investigating the Role of Augmented Reality in Tertiary Care”

Completion of four studies qualitatively investigating the interactions of AR for clinical radiology and radiological training. At this time, two of these studies have been published in well regarded peer-reviewed journals.
Conducting workshops and interviews with expert stakeholders to gain pivotal insights and ensure results are aligned with what end users will need.
Rigorous qualitative interpretation and critique of interview and workshop data to inform decisions and direct future work.
Communicating aspects of the PhD through presentations, reports, and networking has been essential throughout.
Communicating qualitative analysis approaches and the results to various groups of people with differing expertise.
Personal project management and time management to ensure deadlines were met and relevant experts were recruited in time.
[Oct 2023] APMG International Agile Project Management Foundation Course - A certified introduction to agile project management approaches.
[Oct 2025] Pursuing Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) – Develops and recognises teaching activity at a higher education level.
[March – Nov 2023] Conception X – Completed the accelerator program which trains PhD students with the skills needed to turn research into deeptech startups.

EDUCATION

Newcastle University | 2019 - 2022

Bachelor of Computer Science, BSc, First Class with Honours

Completed a broad range of coursework assignments including games engineering, cyber security, and major dissertation project in which a basic digital twin was built as an exercise in defining the development process of digital twins.
[June 2022] NCL+ Award – Awards and accredits a minimum of 40 hours of extra-curricular activity, plus recognises attendance of workshops to get more from the participation in this activity.
[2021 - 2022] Peer Mentor - Helping 14 first year students adjust to the University environment. Including organising to meet once a fortnight, answering questions, and pointing them to any resources they may need.
[2021 - 2023] - TNT&C – President of the University Cycling Club for two years. Organising the club activities and managing the rest of the committee. Including merging the Cycling Club and Triathlon Club at the end of the second year to boost membership, increase team cohesion, and afford more like-minded people the opportunity to make connections.

Beaumont Secondary School, St. Albans | 2012 - 2019

A Level Computer Science, Maths, Physics
[Sept 2017 – May 2018] Coding Club - Successfully ran the Beaumont school coding club for years seven and eight pupils, exercising organisation, presentation, and coaching skills.
[Sept 2018] Gold Duke of Edinburgh - Completing two 5-day, team camping expeditions, in the Peak District and Brecon Beacons.
[June 2018] School Summer Festival Entertainment Coordinator - Supplying the festival with children’s entertainment such as bouncy castles as well as coordinating football and netball tournaments.

WORK EXPERIENCE

Summer Placement Educational Practices in Computing (EPiC) Research Group | School of Computing, Newcastle University | June – Sept 2022

Built on games engineering experience from the BSc and built an educational tool for students learning to use command line interfaces.
Identified a need that could be addressed within the time of the summer placement, defined requirements and an achievable scope of the project. The project was delivered at the end of the placement along with documentation detailing deployment and maintenance.

BC Cycles, St. Albans, UK, Customer Service Representative and Mechanic | 2017 - 2022

Helping customers work out what was wrong with their bikes and providing the expertise to find an appropriate solution, be that a product or service.
Understanding customer needs to find a bike or other product that suited the need they described, including sizing up children for bikes and steering customers to the appropriate level of maintenance for their bike.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

PhD Demonstrating and Teaching Assistant | Sept 2022 – March 2026

Supervising a master’s student through their dissertation project by meeting with them regularly to discuss ideas, potential directions, and techniques. Plus reviewing written content and providing feedback to help them improve.
Demonstrating as a teaching assistant in practical sessions for undergraduate and master’s courses. Including running activities planned by the lecturer, helping students to understand the material, and answering any questions they have.
Marking coursework according to a specified criteria while providing fair and informative feedback for the student to build on. This includes meeting with the lecturer and other markers to calibrate marking and discuss borderline submissions.
This is reflected in AFHEA application.

PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES

Hobbs, J.; Bull, C. Designs and Interactions for Near-Field Augmented Reality: A Scoping Review. Informatics 2025, 12, 77. https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics12030077
Hobbs, J., Bull, C., Claisse, C., Elameer, M., & Davison, R. Investigating the Role of Augmented Reality in Tertiary Care Using Thematic Analysis. JMIR XR and Spatial Computing 2025, https://doi.org/10.2196/preprints.68810
Student Volunteer at the 2024 DIS Conference (Designing Interactive Systems) in Copenhagen – Assisting in organising and managing the two-day online meeting between academics where decisions about papers submitted to the conference were made. Tracking the decisions made on each paper and managing attendees of the meeting where conflicts of interest must be removed from the meeting before discussion may begin.

OTHER EXPERIENCE

Marine Cadets | 2012 - 2018

Reached the highest rank of Sergeant which is indicative of extended commitment, leadership skills, teaching and mentoring ability, and teamwork.