Ahmed Kharrufa

Ahmed Kharrufa is a Reader in AI for Education at Open Lab, Newcastle University (40% FTE in the university profile), where he leads educational technology research. His work addresses the potential and implications of generative AI for learning and education, the design, development, implementation and evaluation of educational technologies, school-community engagement, cultural and language learning, and interaction design for digital surfaces, spaces, IoT and online platforms. In parallel, he spends 60% of his time at Kinnu Ltd leading learning-engine development and the application of AI in learning products.[1][2]

He leads the Year 3 Human-Computer Interaction module in the School of Computing and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. His background is in Electronics and Communication Engineering (BSc and MSc) and Computing Science (PhD). Before joining academia full time in 2016, he worked for almost two decades in the software industry as a developer, development manager, director and entrepreneur.[1]

• Current | Newcastle University / Open Lab | Reader in AI for Education

  • Leads educational technology research on AI, learning and education, and the design and evaluation of educational technologies.[1][2]
  • Leads the Year 3 Human-Computer Interaction module in the School of Computing.[1]

• Current | Kinnu Ltd | Learning-engine and AI development lead

  • Leads development of the learning engine and the application of AI; the university profile describes this as 60% FTE of his work.[1]
• 2011–2017·Reflective Thinking·Founder
  • Commercialized the PhD-related Digital Mysteries work, releasing 30 iPad apps across educational topics and age groups, with more than 500,000 downloads from over 60 countries.[1][2]
• Before 2016·Software industry·Developer, development manager, director and entrepreneur
  • Worked for almost two decades in software before moving into full-time academia.[1]

• Research areas include AI in education, computer-supported collaborative learning, reflective and metacognitive thinking, school-community engagement, coding education, mobile and place-based learning, HCI education and the evaluation of educational technologies.[1]
• Representative work: The Potential and Implications of Generative AI on HCI Education (2024, with Ian G. Johnson).[4]

• Year not stated | Newcastle University | PhD in Computing Science[1]
• Years and institutions not stated | Electronics and Communication Engineering | BSc and MSc[1]

1. Newcastle University School of Computing staff profile (accessed 2026-09-23).
2. Open Lab profile (accessed 2026-09-23).
3. LinkedIn profile (accessed 2026-09-23; direct page fetch was restricted, so it is not used for education dates).
4. arXiv paper (accessed 2026-09-23).

Information verified on 2026-09-23.