Research

The Department is a world leader in machine learning and fundamental areas of theoretical computer science, and carries out outstanding work in bioinformatics and computational biology, distributed and global computing, and software language engineering.

Our academics and their research

For further information about academic staff and research students in the Department, including their publications and projects, please visit this webpage|.

Research groups

Bioinformatics

This is a new research area involved in a variety of different areas within Bioinformatics including gene prediction, Protein-DNA interactions, reconstructing Biological networks from transcriptomic data and identifying markers in human serum using proteomic data. In particular, we are adapting machine learning and other methods developed in the Department in this area.

For further information, visit the Bioinformatics website|.

Computer Learning

This group is involved both in fundamental research and in commercial industrial applications in various fields of machine learning. The current research topics are universal prediction, Support Vector method, probabilistic reasoning, the theory of Kolmogorov and predictive complexity, on-line prediction with expert advice, transductive inference, reinforcement learning, and computational finance. 

For further details, visit the Computer Learning Research Centre's website|.

Distributed and Global Computing

This group was established in late 2012 and is researching a wide spectrum of topics spanning all aspects of theory and practice of distributed systems. The group's unique focus in on large-scale and dynamic distributed systems exemplified by the modern days clouds, service-oriented architectures, and distributed intelligence, among others. The research directions being pursued within the group complement each other, and address diverse facets of distributed computing and systems.

Software Language Engineering

Work in the Centre for Software Language Engineering focuses on the theory and application of grammar-based techniques. Our interests encompass traditional programming language design and implementation; Domain Specific Language development; reverse compilation; modular syntax and semantics; the interpretation of biological sequence data; and the semi-automatic derivation of customised computer architectures for embedded systems.  

For more information, visit the Centre for Software Language Engineering's website|.

Theory of Computing

The group is concerned with the modeling of computing systems and application areas in order to derive principled and practically effective solution strategies. Such modeling ensures that the development of solutions is guided by a scientific and well-founded analysis, which can provide practical guidance into the scaling and extent of their applicability. The research strands include Combinatorial Optimisation and Graph Theory, Algorithms and Complexity Theory, Constraint Satisfaction, Compilers, Logics, Languages and Reasoning and Multi-agent Systems.

For further information, visit the Theory of Computing research site|.

 

Links with Information Security Group

The department is establishing close research links with the Information Security Group. At a recent mini-conference| members of the department and the ISG gave review talks with the aim of finding common research interests.