Victor Chang

Part of the IT Leaders 100 - a list of the most influential IT leaders in the UK in 2026.

Professor Victor Chang is the Professor of Business Analytics and AI at Aston University and a global authority on Sovereign AI. He leads six concurrent funded programmes, delivering measurable impact: supporting 1,000+ NHS patients via IoMT frameworks (>90% accuracy) and achieving >99% real-time malware blocking.

With 32,000+ citations (h-index 91), 300+ papers, and four pending GB patents, Victor bridges academia and national security priorities through key collaborations.

His leadership is recognised by recent awards, including BCS Inspirational Individual 2024, Data Leader of the Year 2025, Cybersecurity Initiative Winner 2025, and inclusion in Computing’s AI Leadership Index 2026, reflecting a career-long dedication to secure, scalable innovation.

What's the most exciting part of your current role?

The most exhilarating aspect of my role at Aston is orchestrating the transition of high-level AI theory into "Sovereign Systems" that solve urgent national challenges. I lead a portfolio that prioritises "Impact over Output." For instance, our Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) framework has evolved from a conceptual model into a system that supports earlier diagnosis for over 1,000 NHS and international patients, maintaining >90% accuracy in diabetes and cancer screening.

Simultaneously, I am spearheading the UK-Japan British Council project, where our federated learning models achieved a 96.8% malware detection rate while slashing training times by 38% for 6G edge networks. The excitement lies in the forthcoming duality: one day, I am collaborating with clinicians on perioperative risk models, and the next, I am stress-testing AI governance for national infrastructure.

Seeing these prototypes reach validated deployment in 3–6 months - rather than years - is what keeps the work vital. With 32,000+ citations and being named Data Leader of the Year 2025, from theories to practice to real-world solutions, I find the greatest reward in knowing that our technical benchmarks directly translate into enhanced security for national networks and better survival rates for patients in the clinic.

What do you do in week one of a new project to avoid pain in month six?

Success in a £15M+ career portfolio is engineered in the first five days through a "Precision Alignment" framework. In week one, I convene all stakeholders - clinicians, engineers, and government-aligned funders - to lock down three non-negotiables: measurable success KPIs (e.g., 95%+ accuracy, sub-10ms latency), a rigorous audit of data-quality risks, and a "Definition of Done." On projects like our sovereign AI pilots, this early intervention has historically reduced technical debt and later rework by 25–30%.

I immediately establish a lightweight validation pipeline to ensure we aren't building in a vacuum. Most projects fail at month six because of "expectation drift," not technical limitations. By documenting every assumption and establishing a weekly "pivot-or-persevere" review, I ensure the team remains agile, and the project maintains its trajectory toward the 250% average ROI I've delivered across recent programmes.

I treat the first week as the architectural blueprint; if the foundation is mathematically and logistically sound, the "pain" of month six is replaced by the momentum of delivery. This discipline is what allows us to scale from prototype to production with minimal friction.

What’s the part of your estate you most want to simplify in 2026?

In 2026, my primary objective is to dismantle the "Fragmented AI Pipeline." Currently, many organisations suffer from disjointed stacks for data ingestion, training, and deployment.

At Aston, and through my advisory work on national-level projects, I am consolidating these into unified, policy-driven architectures - specifically for federated and privacy-preserving systems. We have already demonstrated that streamlining these pipelines can reduce operational overhead by 20–30% in live pilots.

I am currently leveraging my four pending GB patents on sovereign AI governance and Byzantine-resilient learning to create a "secure-by-design" framework that simplifies how sensitive data interacts with edge computing. Simplification is the ultimate catalyst for trust; it allows non-specialist stakeholders, such as clinicians or SME owners, to engage with AI without being buried in technical complexity.

By reducing the "distance" between data collection and actionable insight, we are not just simplifying code - we are accelerating the adoption of a national-scale AI infrastructure that is resilient against evolving cyber threats and easier to manage at the enterprise level. I'll simplify creating an AI ecosystem that enables every participating firm to understand, improve, grow, and help one another.

Excluding smartphones, what piece of technology could you not live without and why?

My high-performance workstation is my "mission control." While the trend is toward mobile, real innovation in distributed AI requires significant local compute to iterate without the latency or privacy risks of cloud-only environments.

Whether I am training federated learning models on NHS-style datasets or stress-testing our Deep-IFS IIoT security framework - which currently blocks >99% of malware in real-time - this hardware allows me to "fail fast" and iterate in hours rather than days.

This speed was the critical factor in coordinating our UK-Japan teams; I could prototype and validate results locally before deploying to the 6G edge. I've developed and tested "FedAveVChang" algorithms that enable 97% accuracy and reduce communication time by 56%.

In a field where a week is a lifetime, having a "no-compromise" local environment is what allows me to manage six concurrent programmes and a 32,000-citation portfolio without losing my technical edge. It is the bridge between a conceptual idea and a validated solution that can be presented to UKRI or other national funders with confidence, backed by hard, real-time data. It represents the "engine room" of my research, enabling the rapid prototyping that has led to four staff promotions and national awards.

What excites you most about the future of IT?

The most transformative frontier is the convergence of Embedded AI and Real-Time Privacy. We are moving toward a world where "Intelligence at the Edge" is the default. The work we are doing with international 6G security proves that we can improve global models without moving a single byte of sensitive data - this is a total paradigm shift for sectors like healthcare and national defence.

I am also deeply invested in the rise of energy-efficient, neuromorphic approaches that can cut power consumption by 40% while maintaining performance. After seeing our projects deliver 250% average ROI and national awards like Cybersecurity Initiative Winner 2025, I am convinced the next era of IT belongs to those who can build "Trustworthy Scalability."

We are moving beyond the era of "Big AI" owned by a few, toward "Sovereign AI" that empowers governments, NHS trusts, and SMEs to own their digital destiny. The prospect of building a decentralised, resilient, and sustainable IT infrastructure that serves the public good - rather than just shareholder value - is exactly what drives my leadership and research agenda into 2026.

What talent are you quietly proud of that would never show up on LinkedIn?

My "quiet talent" is the ability to perform a "Technical Autopsy" on a project before it even dies. After 26 years and managing over 300 papers, I've developed a keen sense for spotting "ghost risks" - those unrealistic assumptions or data-quality gaps that look fine in a pitch but collapse under real-world pressure. This foresight has saved significant time and capital across my £15M portfolio, allowing us to pivot months before a crisis occurs.

Beyond the technical, I take immense pride in "Architecting People." I have mentored over 250 early-career researchers (ECRs) and directly supported four staff promotions at Aston in the last cycle alone. Turning a vague, ambitious idea from a junior researcher into a funded, high-impact deliverable is more satisfying than any individual citation.

While LinkedIn tracks titles and h-indices, it doesn't track the "ripple effect" of a well-mentored team. My greatest contribution to the UK's IT sector isn't just the code or the patents; it's the 250+ professionals I've helped prepare to lead the future of our digital economy.

What’s your most-used keyboard shortcut or command that you wish everyone knew?

Ctrl + Shift + V (Paste without formatting). It is a humble command, but in the context of high-level AI leadership, it is a metaphor for "Signal over Noise." My day involves synthesizing data from divergent sources: clinical datasets, LaTeX research papers, grant reports, and policy briefs. Carrying "legacy formatting" from one medium to another creates cognitive clutter and professional friction.

Mastering these small efficiencies is how I manage the "velocity" of six concurrent programmes and a 32,000-citation portfolio. When technical documentation is clean and consistent, it becomes accessible to collaborators and reviewers alike, reducing the chance of miscommunication in multi-million-pound bids. It reflects a mindset of precision - stripping away the unnecessary to focus on the core data.

In the complex world of 6G and federated learning, being able to move "clean" information quickly is a micro-habit that yields macro-results. It ensures that the message - and the evidence - is never obscured by the medium, which is essential for any IT leader managing cross-disciplinary teams.