ECS – Past, present and future

In the School of Electronics and Computer Science we have created an environment which has inspired an extraordinary level of achievement.

The School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton is the UK’s leading academic department integrating computer science, electronics, and electrical engineering. With around 550 researchers in the School, ECS has unrivalled depth and breadth of expertise in world-leading research, new developments and their applications.

We offer world-leading education in a world-leading research environment. Our 800 undergraduate students are enrolled on 23 different degree programmes, all of them providing intensive and challenging courses which prepare students fully for roles in business and industry, as well as research and development.

The School’s history dates from 1946, when Professor Eric Zepler founded the Department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Radio Engineering. In the 60 years since then, the initial department has been transformed, encompassing Computer Science in 1987, and Electrical Engineering in 1999. However, it has retained a distinctive culture: the computer science research base was and remains firmly grounded in engineering and good mathematical principles, and at the time of the merger in 1987, the electronics department was already embracing the emerging software implications for the electronics industry. Since then the School has developed in many different directions, but always held firm to the ethos that research will be firmly grounded in theory, but that theory is always in the service of practice.

Today ECS is the UK’s largest research grouping in the area, with around 250 academic and research staff, and 270 research students. It has around 800 undergraduate students and over 350 MSc students. It receives the highest ratings for its research and is funded by UK government agencies, the European Union, and companies and agencies worldwide. Its research is carried out in 11 world-leading research groups, it hosts national research centres and unique facilities, and has a well-deserved reputation for enterprise and the establishment of spin-off companies.

School management structure

The current Head of School is Professor Harvey Rutt, supported by three Deputy Heads of School, covering Education, Research, and Enterprise. There are around 360 staff working in ECS (see statistical breakdown of staff). More information about the School’s management and administration is available on our People pages.

New developments

The School retains its remarkable reputation for innovation in research. Among new research areas it has pioneered are Web Science, now a world-scale activity, which aims to understand the current, evolving and potential Web. The Founding Directors of the Web Science Trust, which is based at Southampton, include Professor Wendy Hall, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, and Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, who holds a Chair of Computer Science in ECS.

In October 2008 the new Mountbatten Building was opened, giving the School one of Europe’s best multidisciplinary cleanroom facilities, and providing state-of-the-art facilities for research and industry. The Southampton Nanofabrication Centre is a state-of-the-art facility for microfabrication and high-spec nanofabrication.