ECS Computer Science graduate Tony Ambrus returned to the School last week to give a lecture to current undergraduate students.

Tony Ambrus is now a graphics programmer from Rare, and his talk to students provided advice on how to break into the games industry.

Tony gave an entertaining and informative talk that described his enthusiastic views on working for a game developer, discussing the many opportunities that exist for graduates and also providing insight into what game developers look for in applicants.

For students who wish to break into the games industry, Tony emphasised the importance for students to develop technical demos that show their ability to produce software that could be used within a game.

Developing games is not only fun for students, but it also allows them to put into practice many techniques they learn as an undergraduate in the School, from working on larger software engineering problems to implementing advanced AI techniques.

Tony graduated from the School in 2007 with an MEng Computer Science. Before he graduated, he had secured his position at Rare and not long after starting he was working on projects for their latest game.

ECS Student Robotics team members Rob Spanton and Chris Cross were among presenters showcasing their work to UK academics at a workshop discussing ‘Robotics in the Curriculum’.

According to Dr Su White, who organized the workshop, their enthusiasm and the success of their project was evidence of the many potential gains which students can experience when teaching with a robotics theme is included in the undergraduate curriculum. The Student Robotics challenge runs competitive activities in local sixth forms colleges and school. 'Robotics in the Curriculum' was convened by Su White of the ECS Learning Societies Lab in conjunction with the Higher Education Academy subject centres for Engineering and Information and Computer Science. Curriculum innovations from Southampton were showcased alongside contributions from engineering and computing colleagues from across the UK.

Student Robotics, which has won sponsorship from Motorola, demonstrates that there are accessible and low costs ways in which learning about engineering and electronics can integrate the theory with the practical and at the same time be challenging and enjoyable.

'Robotics is an important part of the undergraduate curriculum in Southampton and demonstrates practical and exciting applications of computer science and electronics,' said Dr White. 'Student Robotics is a voluntary activity which involves students drawn from across our Faculty. Students also have options to study robotics formally at various levels of their degree course. We are particularly proud of the way in which our research and our teaching mutually benefit in this subject area. Rob Stanton has now progressed to PhD studies, and his supervisor Dr Klaus-Peter Zauner can clearly identify benefits which have resulted from the challenges our undergraduates have undertaken.'

Professor Wendy Hall, Professor David Payne, and Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee are among the 25 figures honoured in the ICT 2008 Hall of Fame.

ICT 2008, taking place at Lyon between 25 and 27 November, is the most important forum for discussing research and public policy in information and communication technologies at European level. The event brings together researchers and innovators, policy and business decision-makers working in the field of digital technologies.

Over 4000 delegates are attending the three-day event at Lyon, which was opened by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information, Society and Media. Part of the Exhibition Space at the event is given over to a 'Hall of Fame' of 25 leading figures who have made a unique contribution to the development of ICT and the Web, including three Professors from the School of Electronics and Computer Science: Wendy Hall (President of the ACM), David Payne (Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre), and Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web and also Professor at MIT).

The other figures honoured in the Hall of Fame are: Claure Berra, Leonardo Chiarighone, Kalrheinz Brandenburg, Emmanual Desurvire, Hugo De Man, Marco Dorigo, Edsger W Dijkstra, Heinz Gerhauser, Albert Fert, Sten Grillner, Alain Glavieux, Theodor Hansch, Peter Grunberg, Sir Tony Hoare, Ursula Keller, Peter Scitzer, Stephen E Robertson, Karen Sparck Jones, Joseph Sifakis, Nikolas Wirth, Mateo Valero, and Anton Zeilinger.

Professor Wendy Hall, who is a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, is taking part in a plenary conference session entitled 'ICT Excellence Matters'.

The ICT 2008 Event is organised by the European Commission's Directorate General for the Information Society and Media and is usually hosted by the current Presidency of the European Union.

Professor Greg Parker's images of deep space have been described by astronomer Patrick Moore as 'of real scientific value as well as works of art'.

Greg Parker, who is a Professor in the ECS Nano research group, has established an international reputation for his images of deep space. The images are taken from his own observatory in the New Forest, and each requires many hours of processing to get such stunning effects. Along with his collaborator, Noel Carboni, he will soon be publishing a book of photographs of deep space, entitled Star Vistas. The eminent astronomer Patrick Moore has provided a foreword to the volume.

Professor Parker talks about the process of producing these images in our video podcast.

The book and images are featured in The Daily Mail, 27 November 2008.

Thirty-five student prizewinners from Years 2, 3, and 4, received their awards at a ceremony in the School this week.

The prizes were awarded on the basis of the students' outstanding work over 2007-8, and were presented by the Head of School, Professor Harvey Rutt, Susan Davis (Tony Davies Memorial Award), Steve Williams (NDS Prize), Rob Wilson (Selex S&AS Prize) and Alan Perry (IBM Hursley Prize). Eric Cooke, School Senior Tutor, congratulated all the students on their achievements.

The Prizes given were: Netcraft Prizes for Computer Science - Tristan Aubrey-Jones; Richard Clarke; Christopher Davies; Christopher Franklin; Nicholas Jones; Andrej Kazakov; Oliver Parson; Razvan Popescu; Ben Roberts; Harry Rose; Vitaly Savicks; Oliver Wells; William Westrop; Matthew Wilson; Maciej Wojcik; GD Sims Prizes - Christopher Cross; Pak Ho; Stanko Nedic; Zepler Project Prizes - Andrej Kazakov; Josh Bowman; EE Zepler Prizes - Oliver Bills; Cheng Chang; Timothy Lee; Paolo Mennea; Richard Lascelles; Jatin Mistry; Alexis Savva; David Barron Prize - David Sansome; NDS Prize - Tristan Aubrey-Jones; Tony Davies Memorial Prize - Alexis Hajiyiannis; Hursley Computer Prize - Alex Jordan; Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems Prize - Darko Matovski; Detica Prize and Adam Rutherford Prize - Matthew Wilson; National Grid Prize - Hoang Linh Truong; National Grid Prize - Maizatul Subian; Active Navigation Prize - Christopher Davies; Eddy Herman Memorial Prize – Daniel Bradberry.

The Head of School (GD Sims and EE Zepler) Prizewinners are pictured here.

As a world-leading research School with a 5* research profile, ECS offers the best possible environment in which to undertake Phd research.

Our Postgraduate Recruitment Open Event on Wednesday 3 December will provide the opportunity to find out more about research opportunities in the School and to talk to ECS academic research staff and current PhD students across the School's 10 research groups. In addition to the three-year PhD research programme, the School can offer opportunities on the four-year EngDoc programme, which provides the change to work with industry and to be paid while training and carrying out research.

The event on Wednesday takes place in Building 32, University Road, with presentations from all the ECS research groups taking place between 2.00 and 4.45 pm in the main lecture theatre, while representatives will have stands in the Level 4 coffee room throughout the afternoon. The introduction to research in ECS will by given by Dr Paul Lewin, Director of the Graduate School.

There are many opportunities for undertaking research in the School, and the School also offers a number of generous studentships.

For further information about PhD research in ECS contact our Postgraduate Admissions Office (phd-admissions@ecs.soton.ac.uk).

Professor Jan Sykulski, Head of the Electrical Power Engineering group in ECS, is currently in China for the China University Electronic and Electrical Engineering Course Forum.

The Forum is the most influential in its field in China. Founded by the Higher Education Press and universities in 2005, it aims to provide a stable and long-term platform for instructors of courses on Electronic & Electrical Engineering to communicate, discuss, and improve the quality of their teaching. Over 500 instructors attend this annual event. This year's theme focuses on comparing the teaching content and methods between China’s Electronic & Electrical Engineering Courses and practice in the rest of the world.

Professor Sykulski will be lecturing at the Forum in Xi'an on the UK's courses on electromagnetic theory and is one of only a handful of invited guests. He is also visiting the North China Electric Power University, Beijing, the Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing Institute of Technology, and Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an.

The EPSRC today (5/12/08) announced a £250M investment in UK science and engineering. ECS will play a key role in two of the new Centres for Doctoral Training awarded to the University.

The University of Southampton has won funding for three new centres that will generate the scientists needed for Britain's future, it is announced today by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) - the UK funding body for science and engineering.

The new Centres for Doctoral Training (CDT) are part of a £250million investment in the future of UK science and technology, announced by the Minister of State for Science and Innovation, Lord Drayson. Forty-four training centres will be established across the UK, generating over 2000 PhD students.

ECS will play a key role in the new CDT for Web Science and the CDT for Complex Systems Simulation, both areas in which ECS already has a growing reputation and influence. The University's third award is for the Industrial Doctorate Centre in Transport and the Environment.

CDT FOR WEB SCIENCE

The new Centre for Doctoral Training in Web Science underlines Southampton’s pre-eminence in this newly emerged research discipline. In 2006 Southampton established the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) as a joint interdisciplinary research collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and global interest in researching the Web has been growing ever since.

Web Science has an ambitious agenda; it is inherently interdisciplinary – as much about social and organizational behaviour as about the underpinning technology of the World Wide Web. Its research programme targets the Web as a primary focus of attention, adding to our understanding of its architectural principles, its development and growth, its capacity for furthering global knowledge and communication, and its inherent values of trustworthiness, privacy, and respect for social boundaries.

The new CDT in Web Science will be directed by Professor Wendy Hall, one of the Founding Directors of WSRI (along with Professor Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, and Dr Daniel Weitzner) and will train 80 students. University Schools which will participate in the interdisciplinary doctoral research and training in Web Science include Health Sciences, Law, Economics, Sociology, Mathematics, Psychology, and Humanities.

Research in Web Science will enable greater understanding of the complex technical, social, economic and cultural inter-relations that are shaping the Web’s growth and diversification, and which are fundamental to its future productive development.

‘I am delighted that we have been successful with our proposal for a Centre for Doctoral Training in Web Science,’ said Professor Wendy Hall, Director of the Centre. ‘This is a new but rapidly growing interdisciplinary research area that has been pioneered at Southampton and MIT.

‘The incredible support we obtained from industry when preparing the bid is evidence of the need industry has for people with the sort of interdisciplinary skills that we will be training our students to develop. The funding is a real boost for Web Science and we hope the Centre at Southampton will set an example that the rest of the world will follow.’

CDT FOR COMPLEX SYSTEMS SIMULATION

The huge and increasing availability of computational power, raw data and complex systems thinking is now providing unprecedented opportunities for scientists to use computational modelling and simulation to better understand the structure and behaviour of large-scale and complex systems.

These systems present some of the most pressing real-world challenges for society, government and industry – in the environment, health and medicine, finance and economics, population growth, technology and transport.

Understanding them better will drive progress in addressing global problems such as climate change, the need for better drugs and treatments, the shortage of resources, the effectiveness of global communications and the interdependence of the world's economy.

The new Centre for Doctoral Training in Complex Systems Simulation, which will be directed by Dr Seth Bullock of the School of Electronics and Computer Science, and chaired by Professor Jonathan Essex of the School of Chemistry, will provide the fundamental training and research experience necessary to create a future generation of researchers able to use complex systems simulation effectively and rigorously.

Over 50 academics spanning 14 research groups are involved in the new Centre, which will recruit 100 new doctoral research students over the next 5 years.

'We know that UK industry is short of the trained scientists and engineers needed to tackle the complex problems that exist in many sectors, and we have a very strong set of industrial partners already interested in the Centre's work,' said Dr Bullock.

'By providing PhD training in the context of live research challenges within appropriate complex systems, we will ensure that our doctoral graduates are fully equipped to act as research leaders in applying complex systems simulation to this century's most pressing scientific and engineering challenges.'

Professor Phil Nelson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Southampton, said: 'The three new centres at the University of Southampton will provide a new wave of engineers and scientists to find answers to many of the challenges we face in the 21st century, build a strong economy and keep the UK globally competitive.' University of Southampton news release

A prototype will soon be available for a new method to audit the use of private data which has been developed by ECS computer scientists.

Recent and recurrent leaks of highly confidential information prompted Professor Luc Moreau and Rocio Aldeco-Perez of the School of Electronics and Computer Science to take a concept which is more commonly used in the art world and derive a tool that operates on private data.

In a paper entitled 'Provenance-based Auditing of Private Data Use' just published in the 'BCS International Academic Research Conference - Visions of Computer Science', the academics describe how a tool called Provenance can be applied to personal and confidential information. This enables an audit trail which can be analysed to see where the information has come from, how it is being used, and how it can be made secure.

As part of their research, the academics developed a case study based on private data in a university and the requirements of the Data Protection Act.

'Provenance is a term which comes from diverse areas such as art, archaeology and palaeontology, and describes the history of an object since its creation,' said Professor Moreau. 'Its main focus is to establish that the object has not been forged or altered, and we have found that we can now do the same audit with private data.'

According to Professor Moreau, who extended the concept of Provenance to service-oriented architectures when he embarked on the EU Provenance Project in 2005, the auditing capabilities of this tool will make it possible to redesign systems so that they incorporate secure auditing strategies and are therefore more robust and trusted. 'At the moment when data is leaked, there is no systematic way to analyse the scenario,' said Professor Moreau. 'We are now working towards the first prototype capable of auditing this data.'

Dr Geoff Merrett has been appointed to a Lectureship in ECS just four years after gaining a First Class degree in the School.

Geoff joined ECS in 2001, and took a BEng undergraduate degree in Electronic Engineering. His third-year project persuaded him that he wanted to continue to do research - despite not having considered it before - and he became part of the Electronic Systems and Devices research group, undertaking a PhD on wireless sensor networks. He was appointed to a lectureship in the group from 1 December 2008, and successfully defended his PhD in the viva exam on 4 December.

Geoff is now keen to develop wireless sensors for healthcare and medical applications and is particularly interested in sensors which can be worn by users.

Read more in our People Profile.