Research

The School of Informatics faculty comprises over 30 research-active academics and a much larger number of research fellows, staff and doctoral students. The majority of our faculty's research in computer and information science was characterised as "world leading/internationally excellent" by RAE 2008. Research in its strategic areas has been identified as the world-leader in terms of journal publications and impact, and faculty members have been awarded the highest international awards in their disciplines. Major journal and conference awards are common. Close liaisons with key professions ensure that research results often have key impacts in domains ranging from nuclear and air traffic control to finance and urban transport. Recurring impact themes include cyber-security, health and business.

Research in the School of Informatics is arranged in Departments and Centres with international reputations for research and for teaching. This research covers:

• The use of information and data in computational environments, including for information retrieval, information visualization and visual analytics, data mining, information management, and library science;
• Human-computer interaction, including visual and interaction design, mobile computing and interaction, new forms of interaction and technology, evaluation, adaptive systems, and user diversity;
• Intelligent systems, including machine learning, service-based computing for adaptation and evolution, advanced games technologies, and computational creativity;
• Software engineering, including systems dependability and security, requirements engineering, service-oriented computing, and new forms of programming language.

One defining characteristic of the School's research is its interdisciplinary nature. Cross-domain collaborations both with the School and with other disciplines are not only common but encouraged. To this end the School is involved in three of the six University-wide interdisciplinary centres:

• Centre for Creativity in Professional Practice
• Centre for Information Leadership
• City Collaborative Transport Hub