Alan started his career in civil engineering consultancy, designing and assessing surface and subsurface infrastructure. He then carried out PhD research on settlement damage to buildings. In 2000 he joined the University of Southampton as a lecturer, teaching and carrying out research in tunnelling and structural engineering. From 2016-21, he was Course Director for the MSc Tunnelling and Underground Space at Warwick. He now teaches at the new higher education institution TEDI-London on their Global Design Engineering programme, which seeks to take a holistic view of engineering with emphasis on design, making and data analysis. Alan is Civil Engineering Lead and co-ordinator of the smart cities theme at TEDI