Mel Romualdez

Join us tomorrow evening!

New CRAE Director Dr Anna Melissa (Mel) Romualdez appointed as new Director of the UCL Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) We are delighted to announce that Dr Anna Melissa (Mel) Romualdez will take o…

Big CRAE news!
From January 2026, @melromualdez.bsky.social will be taking over as CRAE Director, when @annaremington.bsky.social steps down after almost 9 years at the helm!

Read about the news here
crae.ioe.ac.uk/dr-me...
1/2

Brian & Mel in front of the CityLit Slide

Today, CRAE’s Mel & Brian were delighted to join the City Lit #MentalWealth Festival with the great MH TedXer Shaun Flores and NHS ND Network founder Hannah Jones. We bounced around neurodiversity paradigm & movement, mentoring & employability. Full house. Great crowd… 🤩

We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. The emissions from individual AI text, image, and video queries seem small—until you add up what the industry isn’t tracking and consider where it’s heading next.

A chunky article out today on the energy costs of AI: www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/20/1...

tl:dr The problem isn't really now but the future - massive & rapid expansion is almost inevitable. And the bigger problem is tech companies are keeping the real (& likely gigantic) energy costs secret.

Why the autism jigsaw puzzle piece is such a problematic symbol To many autistic people, the puzzle piece represents stigma, exclusion and a harmful push to make them conform.

New article out on @theconversation.com on why many Autistic adults don't like puzzle pieces symbols being used to represent us:

theconversation.com/why-the-auti...

#Autism #ActuallyAutistic

Where is the love? It was definitely around us and inside us tonight all things #autistic #mentalhealth with amazing co-authors of our book
So many smiles and tears and that wonderful human called @lauramaycrane.bsky.social

Georgia Pavlopoulou standing and talking to a panel of seated chapter authors, against a backdrop of the book cover on a giant screen. One panellist is wearing a colourful dress to match the colourful book cover!

Georgia Pavlopoulou at a lectern, delivering a lecture with a slide that asks ‘Where is the love?’

Such a joy to be back at @craeioe.bsky.social to celebrate our book on Improving Mental Health Therapies for Autistic CYP. Beautiful talk by @jopavlopoulou.bsky.social and what an amazing panel of discussants ❤️

Graphic titled 'Social Connections in the Workplace' with UCL logo, a quote saying 'That's what's kept me there... the fact that people are so nice,' and a simplified icon of two people embracing.

“I did what I could to earn some money and be of use”: A qualitative exploration of autistic people’s journeys to career success and fulfilment #CRAEresearchSummaries crae.ioe.ac.uk/i-did...

A purple graphic with a pale lilac background featuring two simplified, outlined figures standing close together with one arm around the other. To the right is a quote in bold dark purple text: “That’s what’s kept me there… the fact that people are so nice.” The top-left corner reads “Social Connections in the Workplace” in light purple text. In the bottom margin is a reference in small text: “Davies et al. (2024). ‘I did what I could to earn some money and be of use’: A qualitative exploration of autistic people’s journeys to career success and fulfilment. Autism.” To the top-right, the UCL logo appears in white against a purple background.

New paper alert
“I did what I could to earn some money and be of use”: A qualitative exploration of autistic people’s journeys to career success and fulfilment.

A summary:
crae.ioe.ac.uk/i-did...

#AutRes
1/2

A holiday greeting card from CRAE featuring a purple ornament with the CRAE logo in the upper left and purple text saying, “Happy holidays from all at CRAE and huge thank you to Sophia who designed our card.” Below, three round, hand-drawn ornaments resembling Poké Balls hang against a painterly background of green and brown brushstrokes. The ornaments are colored in vibrant reds, purples, and blues, and have a black band across the middle.

Happy holidays & our best wishes for the new year.

Tracking and Evaluating Employ Autism Tracking and Evaluating Employ Autism: an Internship Programme for Autistic Adults without a Learning Disability

Next month’s #CRAEwebinar -
Maria Ashworth shares thoughts on ensuring autistic interns experiences and training have a lasting impact.

5th Dec 4pm GMT

www.eventbrite.co.uk...

She was one of the best.

🚨NEW PRE-PRINT🚨 ‘It just feels unnatural being here’: Autistic secondary school students' experiences of sensory sensitivities in the school environment.

It was an absolute pleasure to supervise this brilliant research project by Jenny Price!

@craeioe.bsky.social

osf.io/pks8t/

Laura and her leaving sash

A bittersweet day at CRAE, as we say goodbye to our colleague and friend @LauraMayCrane. Wishing her all the best as she joins the brilliant team up at @UoBautism.

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

Come and work with us!
We are looking for an Associate Professor to join the team.
More details here:
bit.ly/AssocProfAuti...

Deadline 28th Nov.

Congratulations!!