ECS - Research - History of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science

The history of ECS began in 1947 when the UK’s—possibly the world’s—first university department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Radio Engineering was established at Southampton, under the leadership of Professor Eric Zepler.

Zepler arrived in England in 1935, a refugee from Nazi Germany. He was at the forefront of radio receiver technologies; indeed systems he developed were adopted by the German air force and the British land forces in World War 2. Under his influence electronics at Southampton grew in significance and scale, with a distinctive culture of research and innovation.

In the 60 + years since Zepler founded his department, it has grown in strength and in scale, encompassing Computer Science in 1987, and Electrical Engineering in 1999. The merger with Computer Science was particularly important, and has created an academic department which is unique in the UK through its integration of Electronics and Computer Science and the scale and distinction of its activities. The merger of the two groups gave ECS a very 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, the electronics department was already embracing the emerging software implications for the electronics industry. Since then ECS 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.

A prime example of this is optical fibre communications, which in the last century was the Department’s most significant work in electronics, led initially by Professor Alec Gambling, and currently by Professor David Payne. Southampton research developed much of the enabling technology for the Internet, with a series of inventions culminating in the Erbium-Doped Fibre-optic Amplifier, which revolutionised trans-oceanic communication. In 1989 a new research grouping was set up—the Optoelectronics Research Centre (the ORC), which has acquired worldwide eminence in this field and continues to develop new applications which contribute to global communications. The ORC continues to share many staff and resources with ECS, and the two groups are co-located and work closely together.

ECS today

Today ECS is the UK’s largest research grouping in the area, with around 270 academic and research staff, and 270 research students. It also has around 900 undergraduate students. It receives the highest ratings for its research and is funded by UK government agencies, the European Union, and companies and agencies worldwide. It hosts national research centres and unique facilities, and has a well-deserved reputation for enterprise and the establishment of spin-off companies.

ECS also retains its remarkable reputation for innovation in research. In recent years it has pioneered Web Science as a new academic discipline and, through the work of Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Professor Tim Berners-Lee, and Professor Dame Wendy Hall, has been influential in the movement towards Open Linked Data in government and business.

Industrial partnerships play a crucial role in ECS research activities and help advance fundamental and application-inspired research at the leading edge. Strategic long-term partnerships in ECS include the ORCHID project, led by Professor Nick Jennings, and funded by BAE Systems, PRI Ltd, the Australian Centre for Field Robotics and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The five-year £10M programme will tackle the challenge of understanding, designing, building, and deploying systems that are composed of human-agent collectives – such as crowd-sourcing traffic information.

Thematic research across ECS includes aspects of energy; the environment; healthcare; information, data, and security; the Web; biometrics; electronic systems; and new devices.


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		History of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science The history of ECS began in 1947 when the UK’s—possibly the world’s—first university department of Electronics, Telecommunications and Radio Engineering was established at Southampton, under the leadership of Professor Eric Zepler. Zepler arrived in England in 1935, a refugee from Nazi Germany. He was at the forefront of radio receiver technologies; indeed systems he developed were adopted by the German air force and the British land forces in World War 2. Under his influence electronics at Southampton grew in significance and scale, with a distinctive culture of research and innovation. In the 60 + years since Zepler founded his department, it has grown in strength and in scale, encompassing Computer Science in 1987, and Electrical Engineering in 1999. The merger with Computer Science was particularly important, and has created an academic department which is unique in the UK through its integration of Electronics and Computer Science and the scale and distinction of its activities. The merger of the two groups gave ECS a very 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, the electronics department was already embracing the emerging software implications for the electronics industry. Since then ECS 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. A prime example of this is optical fibre communications, which in the last century was the Department’s most significant work in electronics, led initially by Professor Alec Gambling, and currently by Professor David Payne. Southampton research developed much of the enabling technology for the Internet, with a series of inventions culminating in the Erbium-Doped Fibre-optic Amplifier, which revolutionised trans-oceanic communication. In 1989 a new research grouping was set up—the Optoelectronics Research Centre (the ORC), which has acquired worldwide eminence in this field and continues to develop new applications which contribute to global communications. The ORC continues to share many staff and resources with ECS, and the two groups are co-located and work closely together. ECS today Today ECS is the UK’s largest research grouping in the area, with around 270 academic and research staff, and 270 research students. It also has around 900 undergraduate students. It receives the highest ratings for its research and is funded by UK government agencies, the European Union, and companies and agencies worldwide. It hosts national research centres and unique facilities, and has a well-deserved reputation for enterprise and the establishment of spin-off companies. ECS also retains its remarkable reputation for innovation in research. In recent years it has pioneered Web Science as a new academic discipline and, through the work of Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Professor Tim Berners-Lee, and Professor Dame Wendy Hall, has been influential in the movement towards Open Linked Data in government and business. Industrial partnerships play a crucial role in ECS research activities and help advance fundamental and application-inspired research at the leading edge. Strategic long-term partnerships in ECS include the ORCHID project, led by Professor Nick Jennings, and funded by BAE Systems, PRI Ltd, the Australian Centre for Field Robotics and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The five-year £10M programme will tackle the challenge of understanding, designing, building, and deploying systems that are composed of human-agent collectives – such as crowd-sourcing traffic information. Thematic research across ECS includes aspects of energy; the environment; healthcare; information, data, and security; the Web; biometrics; electronic systems; and new devices.