Irene Polycarpou is a Professor of Technology and Innovation in Education and the Head of the School of Sciences at UCLan Cyprus. Irene is also a founding member and co-director of the Center of Interdisciplinary Science Promotion and Innovative Research Exploration (InSPIRE). InSPIRE is a non-profit organisation that was founded in 2015 with the mission to support the advancement and development of scientific research by establishing a culture of innovative partnerships between academia and industry, within different science disciplines for the utilisation of state-of-the-art practices and the realisation of cutting-edge research and innovative programmes and activities

Irene's research focuses on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education and educational technologies, with emphasis on interactive multimedia for education, design and development of educational software, e-learning, educational technologies and investigations into students’ cognition and learning styles. Irene has been a member of numerous committees and boards, including member of the organising committee and expert judge of the Cyprus Digital Championship, jury member for the European Youth Awards, board member of the European Office Cyprus, member of the program and organising committees of international conferences, and member/local officer of the ACM-W Cyprus chapter. She also serves as an expert reviewer for EU programmes and the KACST research funding scheme and reviewer for several journals and conferences related to computer science education. She is also a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.