Department of Computer Science

Teaching and Research Overview

Bernie Tiddeman

• Academic Staff 3 Professors 1 Reader 7 Snr Lecturers (6.1 FTE) 11 Lecturers (10.8 FTE) 8 Teaching Fellows (6.8 FTE)

• Research Staff 3 Research Fellows 8 PDRAs

• Support Staff (Now institute) 5 Computer Officers (3.5 FTE) 3 Admin Assistants (2.6 FTE) 2 Secretaries (1.6 FTE)

• Other Externally Funded Support/R&D Staff 2 Research/Outreach

Technicians 1 Project Manager 2 Business/Academic Liaison

Officers 2 Secretaries

• >650 students 40 PGRs 19 PGTs >600 UGs

DCS Staff and Students

Infrastructure• Buildings, labs and spaces

– B57, C56, ISL, DSL, workshop, PAT Lab• Vehicles and mobile operations equipment

– Van (wifi, power, etc...), trailers, generator• Robots

– Large 4x4 all-terrain, 6x6 amphibious– Autonomous cars, Sailing robots– Powered surface craft– Mars rover, Aerobots (kite/balloon)– Indoor mobile robots and manipulators– iCub– “Desktop” test platforms

• UG Degree Schemes– 7 Main Single UG schemes:• BSc in Computer Science, • BSc in Comp Science & AI, • BSc in AI & Robotics, • BSc in Computer Graphics Vision & Games, • BEng and MEng in Software Engineering• BSc in Business IT,• BSc in Internet Computing & System Administration,

– 6 of these available with or without year in industry– 4 Joint UG schemes (Geography, Math, Phys, Psych), plus 6 UG

Major/Minor combinations

Learning and Teaching

• PGT Degree Schemes– 2 MSc schemes:

• Computer Science (Software Engineering), • Intelligent Systems

– Coming soon:• MSc Advanced Computer Science

(Mauritius) and • MSc Computer Science (Software

Engineering) with IY– 2 Joint MSc schemes:

• Remote Sensing & Computer Science (with IGES),

• Statistics for Computational Biology (with DMAPS and IBERS)

• PGR and PGT – funding main issue

Learning and Teaching

• DLHE highlights for CS Dept. (2013/2014):– ‘graduate’ role: Aber 92%, nationally 70% – work/further study; Aber 95%, CS nationally 89%.

Employability

Industrial year– Paid year in employment (average

salary £16K)– More than half of students– Still registered as students – reduced

fees of around £700– Students need to find job themselves,

but we help– Gregynog 2nd year trip used to prepare – Visits from staff– Lots of benefits

• British Computer Society (BCS) links and accreditation– BCS accredits all schemes except BITS and

IC– Many members of staff active members of

the BCS• BCS Mid-Wales branch• BCS Women – including supporting

Lovelace colloquium and London Hopper colloquium• BCS local events – e.g. show and tell,

public talks

BCS

• Current links / agreements– Mauritius Branch Campus– Staff teaching at NEU (China)– 3.5 + 1.5 scheme with NEU– Norway recruitment– French work placement students

International

• New ventures– South China Agri. Uni. 2+2– GRD India planning MSc with 1st semester at GRD, semester 2 and

project here– GEC Nigeria Academy Foundation Year Programme (IT, Business

and Law) to enter into our Year 1 BSc degree programmes– University of Applied Sciences (Åland, Finland) Erasmus

agreement related to sailing robotics

International

Outreach• Technocamps• Software Alliance Wales• Advanced Sustainable Manufacturing Technologies (ASTUTE)• British Computer Society• Others e.g.

– New Computer Technologies Wales– Heritage Together project– Friends of Cardigan Bay

Research Groups

Vision, Graphics &

& Computational Biology

REF 2014Institute FTE 4* 3* 2* 1* 4*/3* GPA Power

Aberystwyth University 24.8 21 53 24 2 74 2.93 0.218University of St Andrews 24 22 55 23 0 77 2.99 0.218Swansea University 19.6 40 40 17 3 80 3.17 0.203Cardiff University 13.73 26 53 20 1 79 3.04 0.129Bangor University 10 8 34 38 20 42 2.3 0.059

11th in UK for Research Intensity (THE 2014)

AR Research GroupQualitative and approximative reasoning, including • knowledge representation, • model generation,• model-based problem solving• fuzzy rough techniques

– Applications• crime detection and

prevention, • engineering design analysis,

and • computer-based diagnosis

e.g. in automotive circuits.

IR Research Group• Intelligent Robotics Group

• Research Areas– Autonomous survey– Space robotics– Marine robotics– Psychologically

inspired learning– Evolutionary robotics– Machine vision

VGV Research Group• (Mostly) vision

– Extracting information from images– Images include 2D, 3D, surfaces,

videos, 3D videos etc.• Topics

– Medical Image Analysis– 3D image registration– Facial image analysis– Plant modelling– Robot vision

Bioinformatics Research Group• The Bioinformatics and

Computational Biology Group conducts research in areas including:

• data analysis of large scale biological data

• formalisation of biological data• systems biology• biomedical informatics• genetics• pharmacogenomics

Recent Project Funders• EU Framework 7• Technology Strategies Board• EADS Foundation Wales• EPSRC• NERC• DSTL• STFC• AHRC• ESRC• Unilever• Costain• European Space Agency• Qinetiq?

• Learning and teaching– Range of flexible degrees– Highly sought graduates– Great employment statistics

• Outreach– Good engagement with schools, SME’s, industry,

community• International

– Partners• Research

– 4 groups all related to intelligent systems– Strong research track record– Good record of attracting funding / working with

industry

Summary