 |
| New Informatics Building, University of Edinburgh |
View Video Case Study of Edinburgh University, School of Informatics
The School’s reputation attracts leading researchers from all over the world. With 20 professors, over 200 academics and researchers, 200 Doctoral students and around 150 Master students, it has a “critical mass” of research in many frontier technologies. The School was awarded the top 5*A rating in Computer Science in the latest Research Assessment Exercise and its teaching was rated as 'excellent' in the last Teaching Quality Assurance exercise.
With research income of £5m a year, the School is expanding, with a new £42m “Informatics Forum”, opened in September 2008, at the heart of the University’s centrally-located campus on Crichton Street.
The state-of-the-art facilities will provide space and facilities for visiting researchers and students and act as a base for international visitors, establishing the Forum as a recognised international centre that will draw on all of Scotland’s research excellence in informatics and enable Scotland to take a lead in realising the opportunities that this strength will generate.
As well as being the best and largest computer science department in the UK, The School of Informatics is a contributor to the Scottish economy. Many of the School’s researchers and graduates choose to stay in Scotland and a few have started up technology companies locally.
In this article:
Research
Leading Researchers
Current developments
Collaboration projects
Overseas attraction
More Information
|
|
Research:
The vision for the School of Informatics is to develop a new discipline where the study of computation, cognition and communications transcends the usual boundaries of artificial computer systems and natural systems.
Edinburgh is a pioneer of AI research, a leader in theoretical computer science and speech technologies.
The School includes six key research institutes:
- Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation (IANC) fosters the study adaptive processes in both artificial and biological systems. The main areas of work are machine learning, bioinformatics and neuroinformatics.
- Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications (CISA) undertakes “classical” AI research, using mathematical modeling of intelligence, with the aim of getting machines to “think for themselves”.
- Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems (ICCS) create “talking machines”, which can both understand and produce spoken and written language.
- Institute for Computing Systems' Architecture (ICSA) is primarily concerned with the architecture and engineering of future computing systems. Its fundamental research aims are to: extend the understanding of the performance and scalability of existing computational systems; improve the characteristics of current systems through innovations in algorithms, architectures, compilers, languages and protocols; develop new and novel architectures and to develop new engineering methods by which future systems can be created and maintained.
- Institute for Perception, Action and Behaviour (IPAB) is concerned with the automatic acquisition of models in the areas of architecture, industrial parts and people, using 3D data. It works at the leading edge of 3D technology, using data acquisition and interpretation. Otherwise known as robotics to the layperson.
- Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science LFCS) Interests of LFCS researchers include the theory of concurrent and distributed systems, databases, progamming languages, logics of systems, complexity of algorithms, and many other topics.
Return to Top
Leading Researchers:
The School of Informatics attracts to Scotland many world-class researchers.
Edinburgh has a real lead in bioinformatics research, studying for example how organisms function and new technologies related to medical research.
Professor Chris Williams, IANC Director, has a long record of tackling the issues of how machines “learn”, using statistical pattern recognition, probabilistic graphical models and computer vision.
Professor Igor Goryanin, a Russian by birth, holds the Henrik Kacser Chair in Computational Systems Biology.
Robotics is another area where Edinburgh has always been a leader.
Professor Bob Fisher has been an academic in the School of Informatics at Edinburgh since 1984 and a full Professor since 2003.
Edinburgh is also world famous for its research in cognitive science and computational linguistics.
This area has also attracted world-class researchers to Edinburgh such as Professor Mark Steedman, a leading academic in his field.
More recently, Edinburgh has developed the strongest research group in databases in Europe, led by Professor Peter Buneman.
Professor Philip Wadler is Professsor of Theoretical Computer Science at Edinburgh.
Return to Top
Current developments:
The School of Informatics is engaged in a range of research activities which are expected to lead to the creation of new institutes in future.
These include:
Arts Informatics research (AIR), which brings together researchers and practitioners in the arts to study convergent ideas in design and space planning, for example. Researchers are also involved in Future Academy / Studiolab, a joint venture between the University and Edinburgh College of Art.
The school’s Artificial Life programme promotes work between different research schools within the university,
Bioinformatics is becoming a discipline in its own right, bringing together specialist interest and skills in informatics, biology and biomedicine. Examples include understanding gene regulation and embryo development, understanding the forces that shape gene and genome evolution and studying the development and function of specific neural structures.
The impact of computers on human life go way beyond using email, word processing or surfing the Web. Computational thinking is having an increasing influence on the way researchers approach their disciplines, whether in computer science or genetics.
Other key areas of current research include music informatics, software engineering and system level architecture.
Return to Top
Collaboration projects:
The School is also the focus of several national and international research ventures, including the Edinburgh Stanford Link which brings together from both Universities specialising in language and information research, and technology transfer in speech and language processing.
There are also inter-disciplinary research projects in dependability and advanced knowledge technologies, including groups from several British universities.
The School is extensively involved in the national “Digital Curation Centre” (see separate article), the National e-Science Centre and the Human Communications Research Centre.
Return to Top
Overseas attraction:
The School attracts leading researchers from all over the world. Out of 252 research staff, 145 come from abroad. “We attract researchers and students from all over the world. They come here primarily because of our growing reputation and the quality of work available.”
Observes Professor Phil Wadler, himself an American who has lived and worked in Edinburgh for the last 3 years.
“But it helps that Edinburgh is a very attractive city, and there is a lot to do here and in Scotland as a whole. There is a good atmosphere about the place and people report that they are well-accepted generally at a local level.”
See profile on Professor Philip Wadler
Contact:
Diana Sisu
School of Informatics
Appleton Tower, Crichton Street,
Edinburgh EH8 9LE
Tel: 0131 651 3248
More information:
Video Case Study of Edinburgh University, School of Informatics
View the TalentScotland magazine article on the School of Informatics
Edinburgh University, School of Informatics
Real Life Story: Professor Peter Buneman
News: Scotland's Role as World Leader in Informatics Reinforced
|
