Research is a core activity of Informatics. The list below describes the various research groups and research centres that belong to the School or are closely associated with it.

Research Groups

Centre for VLSI and Computer Graphics: focused on all aspects of computer graphics and multimedia, ASIC and FPGA-based architectures and design methodologies. These include high-level design, algorithm and system modelling, virtual electronic prototyping, virtual multimedia environments, virtual and augmented reality systems for cultural heritage, and XML metadata schema design.

Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems: concerned with the interfaces between the biological and computational sciences. Research focuses on the development and application of stochastic search algorithms, adaptive robotics, evolutionary electronics and computational neuroscience.

Foundations of Computation: focus on the foundational aspects of computer science, focusing particularly on the semantics of computation. They have developed behavioural theories for a range of process languages, including features such as higher-order abstractions and distributed resources.

Human-Centred Computing Technology: concerned with understanding how people interact with and communicate through computing technology, and applying this understanding to innovative system design, particularly in educational and medical settings. [seminars]

Natural Language Processing: working on devising accurate, efficient and scalable approaches for computer-based analysis and generation of human language, driven by newly emerging application areas which demand language processing that deals with meaning. [seminars]

Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science: investigates the conceptual foundations of scientific, especially computational/robotic, models and explanations of mind. The interests of the group cover a range of topics including the philosophy of mind, consciousness, non-conceptual representation, creativity, emotion, artificial life, animal cognition, the philosophy of computation and the history of cognitive science. [seminars]

Representation and Cognition: interested in the development and application of cognitive theories. They study the higher forms of cognition including reasoning, problem solving and learning. The group has a particular focus on the role(s) of representation, emphasising cognitive and semantic dimensions. Favoured methodologies include rich data capture, protocol analysis, experimental designs, the use and design of technology to test theory, and modelling.

Software Systems: researching in the development of compiler technology for embedded systems, and in user-centred networking, where the needs and constraints of the users drive the engineering of networked systems. These two areas are coming together in the development of programming languages for pervasive computing.

Space Science Centre: researching various topics of information technology, including hardware issues such as on-board computers; multi-processors; parallel processing; fault-tolerant systems; microprocessors; field programmable gate arrays; 'silicon subroutines', and software issues such as on-board intelligence; artificial neural networks; associative memory; digital signal processing; autonomous operation; smart instruments; evolutionary instruments; data compression; database access; automatic data analysis; and human-machine interaction.

Research Labs

Bioinformatics and Machine Learning: interested in bioinformatics and various algorithms of machine learning, both theory and applications. In machine learning, we develop novel and efficient algorithms, from statistical theory or by borrowing ideas from biology (neuroscience).

Computer Vision and Medical Imaging: use a wide variety of methods and approaches from computer science, cognitive and biological sciences to research into dynamic aspects of visual perception, low level vision, spiking neural nets, data mining and machine learning and magnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Creative Systems Lab: a place for research, artistic production and discussion. The Creative Systems Lab undertakes and facilitates projects that lie at the intersection of arts, science and technology, by fostering collaborations between scientists, artists, musicians, industry and community.

Neurodynamics and Consciousness Laboratory:  We use computational modelling, theoretical analysis, behavioural experimentation, and functional brain imaging to better understand the neural mechanisms underpinning behaviour and consciousness, in humans and other animals. Work in the group ranges from mapping causal networks in invertebrate systems, to developing novel measures of complex neural dynamics underlying conscious experience and selfhood.

Cross-Disciplinary Research Centres

Centre for Computational Neuroscience and Robotics (CCNR): a collaboration between Informatics and the Neuroscience group in the School of Life Sciences. This thriving centre seeks to explore and exploit the interfaces between the biological and computational sciences. The CCNR has strong links with several other Informatics research groupings, in particular Evolutionary and Adaptive Systems and Creative Systems Lab.

Centre for Research in Cognitive Science (COGS): carries on the teaching and research work of the former School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, through members of Informatics, Linguistics and Psychology. COGS continues as an internationally recognised centre for interdisciplinary investigation into the nature of cognition, be it natural or artificial.  [seminars]

Music Informatics Research Centre: working at the intersection of arts and science, taking an interdisciplinary approach to music research from a wide variety of perspectives including artificial intelligence and human computer interaction. Links within Informatics, particularly the Creative Systems Lab and the HCT Lab, and with Music and Psychology. Also a thriving Music Informatics undergraduate degree.