ECS - Research -

Optoelectronics Research Centre: The Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) was established in 1989 as a national interdisciplinary research centre for optoelectronics, including optical materials and fibres, light generation and manipulation, optical networks and sensors, and nanophotonics and biophotonics. The ORC, which has around 150 researchers, has particularly close links with the School of Electronics and Computer Science, including a number of staff whose roles are shared between ECS and ORC: Professor Harvey Rutt (Infrared science and technology), Professor Peter Smith (Planar optical materials), Professor James Wilkinson (Integrated optics and microstructures), Dr Neil Broderick (Non-linear integrated devices) and Dr Trevor Newson (Distributed optical fibre sensors).

ALADDIN

Autonomous Learning Agents for Decentralised Date and Information Networks ALADDIN is an ambitious five-research programme, funded by the EPSRC and BAE Systems, which aims to find solutions to some of the most complex and challenging problems that we currently face in managing disaster scenarios. A key characteristic of these scenarios is the need for robust information systems and their maintenance during the events and in their aftermath. ALADDIN is developing techniques, methods and architectures to build decentralised information systems that can operate effectively in these extremely difficult circumstances, using computer agents which can sense, act, and interact in order to achieve individual and collective aims. The programme is directed by Professor Nick Jennings, and involves teams from Southampton, Bristol, Imperial and Oxford.

DTC (Defence Technology Centre)

The DTC focuses on Data and Information Fusion and involves teams of researchers at Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cambridge, Cranfield, De Montfort, Imperial and Surrey, with General Dynamics, BT Exact and Qinetiq as industrial partners. The Centre brings together world-class university research groups and appropriate UK companies in a virtual research centre for resolving critical defence research issues.

EPrints

ECS has played a leading role in the worldwide drive towards Open Access to academic research. This movement was instigated in the early 1990s by ECS Professor Stevan Harnad. ECS was the first academic institution in the world to adopt a self-archiving mandate (2001) and since then all its published research has been freely available on the Web. It created the first and most widely used archiving software (EPrints) which is used worldwide by 213 known archives and continues to be evolved and supported from the School.

IT Innovation

IT Innovation is an applied research centre that focuses on enabling the innovative application of information technology by industry, commerce and the public sector. We research, develop, architect, engineer and integrate novel IT systems. We collaborate on R&D projects, provide consultancy, and develop proofs-of-concept, demonstrators and novel operation aystems. We specialize in multimedia anad knowledge technologies, business processes and security in distributed systems and cover all aspects of the digital content lifecycle from storage and preservation through to access and delivery.

MailScanner

MailScanner, the highly-respected open source e-mail security system, was developed in ECS by Julian Field, the School’s Postmater. With more users than AOL and Hotmail combined, MailScanner processes 500 million e-mail messages every day, removing 2 million viruses and identifying 75 million spam messages. It protects 20,000 sites worldwide, including top government departments, commercial corporations and educational institutions.

Nanomaterials Forum

The Southampton University-wide forum brings together all those in the University who are working at the nanoscale.

OMII-Europe: Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute for Europe
This EU-funded Institute was established in April 2006 and is led by Professor Peter Henderson. OMII-Europe will provide key software components for building e-Infrastructures within the European Research Area (ERA). The initial focus for OMII-Europe is to facilitate the development and porting of a common set of application level services to a number of major Grid software distributions, and to develop tighter interoperability between those distributions.

OMII-UK: Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute UK
OMII-UK makes Grid software - which is developed by the UK e-Science Programme and its international collaborators - available and easy to use by e researchers in all disciplines. Formed in October 2005 by bringing together internationally recognised e-Science expertise at Southampton, Edinburgh and Manchester Universities, OMII-UK provides a powerful source of well-engineered software and enables an integrated approach to the provision of higher-level and more advanced tools. Funding from the EPSRC of £5.6 million will enable OMII-UK to commission further development of open source e-Science software components within the community, and extends Southampton’s original funding to support OMII-UK until 2010.

Pervasive Systems Centre: The Pervasive Systems Centre was established in January 2007 to facilitate interdisclinary research collaboration in electronics, wireless communication, and computer Science. The research activities are co-ordinated under four main research themes: sensor networks, energy, healthcare, models and programming languages. The Centre brings together world-class expertise from across the school nine research groups to address timely and important research issues in the idenified themes. The Centre is led by Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi and Professor David De Roure.

Regional e-Science Centre: ECS is a major partner in the Southampton Regional e-Science Centre supporting e-science activities within Southampton and other universities in the South,as part of the national programme.

WSRI (Web Science Research Initiative): Launched in November 2006, WSRI is a long-term collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southampton that will have a direct influence on the future development of the World Wide Web.

The joint initiative will comprise a global forum of scientists, academics and thinkers that will collaborate in the first multidisciplinary scientific research effort specifically designed to study the Web in order to: truly understand the nature of the Web, including the architectural principles that have enabled its growth; model the Web and engineer its future, based on greater understanding; ensure its societal benefit by supporting basic social values of trustworthiness, privacy and respect for social boundaries.

The Founding Directors are Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Wendy Hall, Professor James Hendler, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, and Daniel J Weitzner.


ECS Research Research Groups Researcher Profiles Research Themes Graduate School Seminars Research Facilities Centres and Institutes Publications Publications Home This weeks new additions Search Browse by research group Browse by year		Centres and Institutes Optoelectronics Research Centre The Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) was established in 1989 as a national interdisciplinary research centre for optoelectronics, including optical materials and fibres, light generation and manipulation, optical networks and sensors, and nanophotonics and biophotonics. The ORC, which has around 150 researchers, has particularly close links with the School of Electronics and Computer Science, including a number of staff whose roles are shared between ECS and ORC: Professor Harvey Rutt (Infrared science and technology), Professor Peter Smith (Planar optical materials), Professor James Wilkinson (Integrated optics and microstructures), Dr Neil Broderick (Non-linear integrated devices) and Dr Trevor Newson (Distributed optical fibre sensors). ALADDIN Autonomous Learning Agents for Decentralised Date and Information Networks ALADDIN is an ambitious five-research programme, funded by the EPSRC and BAE Systems, which aims to find solutions to some of the most complex and challenging problems that we currently face in managing disaster scenarios. A key characteristic of these scenarios is the need for robust information systems and their maintenance during the events and in their aftermath. ALADDIN is developing techniques, methods and architectures to build decentralised information systems that can operate effectively in these extremely difficult circumstances, using computer agents which can sense, act, and interact in order to achieve individual and collective aims. The programme is directed by Professor Nick Jennings, and involves teams from Southampton, Bristol, Imperial and Oxford. DTC (Defence Technology Centre) The DTC focuses on Data and Information Fusion and involves teams of researchers at Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Cambridge, Cranfield, De Montfort, Imperial and Surrey, with General Dynamics, BT Exact and Qinetiq as industrial partners. The Centre brings together world-class university research groups and appropriate UK companies in a virtual research centre for resolving critical defence research issues. EPrints ECS has played a leading role in the worldwide drive towards Open Access to academic research. This movement was instigated in the early 1990s by ECS Professor Stevan Harnad. ECS was the first academic institution in the world to adopt a self-archiving mandate (2001) and since then all its published research has been freely available on the Web. It created the first and most widely used archiving software (EPrints) which is used worldwide by 213 known archives and continues to be evolved and supported from the School. IT Innovation IT Innovation is an applied research centre that focuses on enabling the innovative application of information technology by industry, commerce and the public sector. We research, develop, architect, engineer and integrate novel IT systems. We collaborate on R&D projects, provide consultancy, and develop proofs-of-concept, demonstrators and novel operation aystems. We specialize in multimedia anad knowledge technologies, business processes and security in distributed systems and cover all aspects of the digital content lifecycle from storage and preservation through to access and delivery. MailScanner MailScanner, the highly-respected open source e-mail security system, was developed in ECS by Julian Field, the School’s Postmater. With more users than AOL and Hotmail combined, MailScanner processes 500 million e-mail messages every day, removing 2 million viruses and identifying 75 million spam messages. It protects 20,000 sites worldwide, including top government departments, commercial corporations and educational institutions. Nanomaterials Forum The Southampton University-wide forum brings together all those in the University who are working at the nanoscale. OMII-Europe Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute for Europe This EU-funded Institute was established in April 2006 and is led by Professor Peter Henderson. OMII-Europe will provide key software components for building e-Infrastructures within the European Research Area (ERA). The initial focus for OMII-Europe is to facilitate the development and porting of a common set of application level services to a number of major Grid software distributions, and to develop tighter interoperability between those distributions. OMII-UK Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute UK OMII-UK makes Grid software - which is developed by the UK e-Science Programme and its international collaborators - available and easy to use by e researchers in all disciplines. Formed in October 2005 by bringing together internationally recognised e-Science expertise at Southampton, Edinburgh and Manchester Universities, OMII-UK provides a powerful source of well-engineered software and enables an integrated approach to the provision of higher-level and more advanced tools. Funding from the EPSRC of £5.6 million will enable OMII-UK to commission further development of open source e-Science software components within the community, and extends Southampton’s original funding to support OMII-UK until 2010. Pervasive Systems Centre The Pervasive Systems Centre was established in January 2007 to facilitate interdisclinary research collaboration in electronics, wireless communication, and computer Science. The research activities are co-ordinated under four main research themes: sensor networks, energy, healthcare, models and programming languages. The Centre brings together world-class expertise from across the school nine research groups to address timely and important research issues in the idenified themes. The Centre is led by Professor Bashir M. Al-Hashimi and Professor David De Roure. Regional e-Science Centre ECS is a major partner in the Southampton Regional e-Science Centre supporting e-science activities within Southampton and other universities in the South,as part of the national programme. WSRI (Web Science Research Initiative) Launched in November 2006, WSRI is a long-term collaboration between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Southampton that will have a direct influence on the future development of the World Wide Web. The joint initiative will comprise a global forum of scientists, academics and thinkers that will collaborate in the first multidisciplinary scientific research effort specifically designed to study the Web in order to: truly understand the nature of the Web, including the architectural principles that have enabled its growth; model the Web and engineer its future, based on greater understanding; ensure its societal benefit by supporting basic social values of trustworthiness, privacy and respect for social boundaries. The Founding Directors are Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Wendy Hall, Professor James Hendler, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, and Daniel J Weitzner.

Centres and Institutes