Bristol
is a research led University. This means that world class research
is carried out alongside our degree courses. It also means that our
teaching is continually being updated to reflect new advances and
you will be gaining in-depth knowledge from people who are at the
forefront of the subject. This is particularly true in a dynamic subject
like Computing, in which new ideas, techniques and applications are
always emerging.
We carry out research in the areas described below. There are plenty of opportunities for you to work
with our research groups, for example by undertaking a final year
project or by working on a project over the summer. Having graduated,
you may also want to continue your studies at a higher level by undertaking
a PhD degree within one of the research groups.
Research within the department of computer science is organized around five broad research themes, which are
themselves divided into research groups of specific expertise. Due to the many cross-linkages between the
interests of the members of staff, it is common for one staff member to be a member of multiple groups, so that
research groups and themes are non-disjoint. We feel that this allows our research to be more dynamic and less
liable to a silo-mentality, and thus enables us to respond to a changing research landscape with greater
agility.
The Computer Vision group carries out research in a wide range of areas in Computer Vision and Image
Processing. This includes motion analysis, stereo vision, image segmentation, object recognition and 3D
tracking and reconstruction, in application areas such as robotic vision, wearable computing, medical imaging,
biological research, security and entertainment.
The Cryptography group conducts research into the underlying hard problems on which cryptography is
based and
the hardware and software needed to implement secure systems. The group has particular interest in provable
security, pairing based cryptography, bit commitment on noisy and quantum channels and cryptography on small
computing devices.
The HARE group is a collective of researchers with a common interest in making faster things. They
conduct
research in a wide range of topics including programming language design, implementation, analysis,
transformation, parallelisation and the specification, design, analysis and verification of both software and
hardware systems, approximate string matching, complexity theory, external memory data structures, data
streaming algorithms, randomised algorithms, and realtime and online algorithms.
The Intelligent Systems group investigates how computers can automatically learn things from data. For
example,
it develops data mining algorithms, which allow a computer to discover what a group of things have in common,
be they documents or protein sequences, and then to recognise them automatically when analysing new data. It
also works in the interface between computer science and the biological sciences, finding links which not only
help to make computers more intelligent but also to provide a deeper understanding of natural intelligence as
well. This research will allow sophisticated new information systems to be developed, enabling us to manage and
make full use of the vast amounts of data that can now be collected easily and at an unprecedented rate. The
research focus of the group is on Machine Learning: software that improves with experience; Computational
Biology: models of biological systems; and Bio-inspired Computation: imitating nature's solutions.
Interaction: Ordnance Survey
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Digital
Media: Vision and Graphics
The Interaction and Graphics group explores creative interdisciplinary research topics spanning
human-computer
interaction, visual and tactile perception, imaging, visualisation and computer-supported collaboration. They
design novel interfaces, sensing mechanisms and practical applications, including wide-area interactive games
and location mapping systems. This work will enable us to take advantage of the continuing miniaturisation and
increased portability of computing devices. In addition we also conduct a number of projects to investigate
novel uses of intelligent devices in the real world, especially related to educational experiences.
In addition to these five research themes, the department is involved with four research centres which span
across different parts of the University:
The Centre for Law and Information Technology is a pioneering centre looking at the new legal challenges
associated with the rapidly changing world being created by the deployment of information technology. It is a
cross-disciplinary venture between the Law and Computer Science Departments and is supported by a group of
international businesses and legal experts. It has initially focused on issues related to privacy, DRM and
e-commerce and has strong links with our researchers in cryptography.
The Centre in Quantum Computation and Information Processing brings together the university's efforts in
the
new field of quantum information. The work in this area is organized on a non-departmental basis, supported by
an EPSRC IRC, and brings together people from various disciplines. Bristol is world-renowned for its work in
this area.
The Advanced Computing Research Centre brings together all researchers within the university who are
interested
in topics related to computational science.
The Bristol Robotics Laboratory is a new collaborative research partnership funded by the University of
Bristol, the University of the West of England and HEFCE. It brings together researchers in computer science,
anatomy, electronics, neuroscience, psychology and statistics.
The department is also involved in the university-wide Research Themes. These are a UoB strategy to help focus
strategic investments into areas in which Bristol is, or can be, world-leading. In particular, we are heavily
involved in driving the agendas behind the following themes:
- Exabyte Informatics aims to bring together all the researchers in the university looking at the handling,
storing and processing of large amounts of data.
- Neuroscience aims to bring together all the researchers looking into the form and function of the
brain.
- Nanoscience and Quantum Information aims to unite the university's work in small scale phenomena, as
exemplified by the processing of quantum information.
- Robotics and Autonomous Systems is a focus for
work in systems which act under their own control, as
exemplified by our robotics work.
- Information Processing in Biological Systems brings together the
university's work in genomics,
biologically-inspired computing and other areas in which biologists can inspire and be inspired by the
processing of information.
Funding for our research comes from a variety of sources including EPSRC, ESRC, AHRC, SSRC, MRC, EU, DTI and
Industry. We are committed to inter-disciplinary academic research and applied research with industrial
partners. To this end, we have pursued a strategy of employing energetic new staff with interests in areas such
as neuroscience, quantum information, robotics, and biologically-inspired computing. In Bristol, we are
fortunate in that our nearby industry includes computing (HP), Microelectronics (ST, Infineon, Broadcom, Icera,
Picochip) and media (BBC, Granada, 422, Ardmann). The activities of each of our research groups involve
visiting industrial staff. At present there are 20 of these drawn from various companies drawn from the list
above and others.
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