Professor D W Barron, who died in Southampton on 2 January 2012, was the first Professor of Computation in the University of Southampton, and the Foundation Professor of Computer Science.

David Barron began his academic career in Cambridge, where his initial research in the Cavendish Laboratory involved some of the earliest work in computer applications. In the early 1960s he worked with Ferranti on the Titan project, and led Cambridge efforts to develop the Titan Supervisor (a multi-programming operating system) and the Combined Programming Language (CPL). CPL broke new ground in language design and application generality, and led eventually to B and then C – one of the most widely used programming languages of all time.

Professor Barron joined Southampton’s Mathematics Department in 1967 as the first Professor of Computation, and he combined this for a number of years with the Directorship of the University’s Computing Services department. In 1986, having written many of the key texts which helped shape the then-emerging subject of Computer Science, he was appointed the first Professor of Computer Science in the University, marking the establishment of the Department of Electronics and Computer Science. He was Head of ECS from 1989 to 1994.

Professor Barron’s many books include influential texts on Recursive Programming, Assemblers and Loaders, Operating Systems, Programming Languages, Pascal Implementation, Text Processing and Typesetting, and Scripting Languages. He was one of the founding editors of ‘Software – Practice and Experience’ and edited the journal for over 30 years from 1971. He also undertook pioneering work on radio wave propagation with Professor Henry Rishbeth, providing understanding of how radio waves were reflected at the ionospheric boundary.

His inaugural lecture, given 40 years ago in the University of Southampton, was entitled ‘The Computer, the University, and Society’, and extolled the benefits of computer programming as a discipline, in a way that has been echoed recently by governments and industry leaders (it also demonstrated his waspish sense of humour: “[C]omputer programming has all the educational benefits that were ever claimed for the study of Latin, and it is likely to come in useful, too.â€?

He concluded his lecture with a rousing and far-sighted statement of his belief in his subject which also provided a strong insight into his relish for his position as a university researcher and teacher: “If computers are to be used for good, then it is essential that everyone should understand what they are, and what they can do. Equally, those of us who are behind this technological revolution must gain a greater understanding of our tools, because out of understanding comes judgement. We are only witnessing the beginning of the changes in Society that the wide-scale use of computers will bring. The changes are not going to be comfortable, but it is the job of those of us in the University to ensure, by education and research, that they are not catastrophic. That is why I am in the game. And, to be honest, it is great fun, too.â€?

Professor Dame Wendy Hall has described David Barron as “one of the founding fathers of computer science as an academic disciplineâ€?, attributing to him the strong foundations of Computer Science at Southampton which enabled the consequent development of ECS.

Professor Barron’s funeral is at Southampton Crematorium at 14:45 on Friday 20 January. All friends and colleagues are welcome to attend. Memories and tributes to David can be left on our webpage: David Barron: In Memory and Celebration.

Some of the critical problems facing the world’s power systems will be discussed by Professor Alun Vaughan in his inaugural lecture on Wednesday 1 February.

Professor Vaughan, Head of the Electronics and Electrical Research Group in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science, will look at the critical role that dielectrics – the materials used for insulation in the storage and transmission of electricity – play in high voltage systems, and will highlight the need for a step-change in materials technology to address such problems.

The lecture will move from reviewing the principles of self assembly that make polymers such a versatile class of materials, to looking at the strategies that are currently being used in the design of next-generation insulation systems and the problems that will need to be overcome if the ambitious targets being set for future plant are to be met.

Alun Vaughan joined the University of Southampton in 2000, having previously worked at the University of Reading’s Polymer Science Centre, and at the Central Electricity Research Laboratories of the Central Electricity Generating Board. His research on the use of polymers in power transmission has developed in different directions but his major research continues to focus on the linkage between the structure of polymeric materials and their properties. He is also involved in nanodielectrics and the developments of thermoplastic cable insulation systems based on polymer blends. He was appointed to a Professorship in the University of Southampton in 2007.

The lecture: “Living in a Materials World: Powering the future through designer dielectricsâ€?, takes place at 5 pm on Wednesday 1 February, in Nightingale Lecture Theatre on the Highfield Campus. All are welcome and no tickets are required. Refreshments are available in the Nightingale Building from 4.30 pm.

The Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) system developed by Dr Kirk Martinez of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science along with Archaeology colleagues at the Universities of Southampton and Oxford has recently been deployed in The Louvre, Paris, to capture items from the Oriental artefacts department.

This new technology makes it possible to study the finer details of some of the world’s greatest historical artefacts. The systems take multiple pictures of artefacts with the light in 76 different positions, then create a new type of image (RTI), which enables the viewer to move the virtual light around the image to enhance surface detail.

This version of the system, 'Dome3', incorporates a new design with its own transit box. A custom-build camera mount makes Dome3 easier to construct. The RTI technology systems developed by the project will allow researchers to study documentary and other artefacts remotely in great detail without being restricted by fixed lighting angles. The result will be to ensure that high-quality digital versions of these materials can be consulted by scholars worldwide.

“Hewlett Packard Research Laboratories invented this technology a few years ago and it has been used sporadically around the world,â€? said Dr Martinez. “What we have done is develop the technology so that it is fast enough to be usable every day in a museum situation where you have lots of objects that need scanning." The RTI technology systems developed by the project will allow researchers to study documentary and other artefacts remotely in great detail without being restricted by fixed lighting angles. The result will be to ensure that high-quality digital versions of these materials can be consulted by scholars worldwide.

The technology has already been used in the British Museum, the National Gallery, and the Ashmolean in Oxford. Having completed the work in The Louvre where it gathered around 40GB of data each day, Dome3 will now be taken to the United States, where it will remain permanently. It was built for the Mellon Foundation Funded-Imaging Campaign.

The earlier 12-month Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) System for Ancient Document Artefacts was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Digital Equipment and Database for Impact. The team members were: Dr Graeme Earl, Dr Kirk Martinez, Hembo Pagi, Leif Isaksen, PhD student Philip Basford, Michael Hodgson and Sascha Bischoff of the University of Southampton, and Professor Alan Bowman, Dr Charles Crowther, Dr Jacob Dahl and Dr Kathryn Piquette of the University of Oxford.

Philip Basford and Jacob Dahl are pictured here early in the morning, outside the Louvre in Paris.

Researchers from the University of Southampton will be collaborating with scientists from Masdar Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to tackle the MyHeartMap Challenge, using social network and crowdsourcing.

Launched today (Tuesday 31 January), by the University of Pennsylvania, MyHeartMap Challenge invites members of the public to participate by submitting geo-tagged pictures of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) they see around Philadelphia, to create an effective location database of AEDs.

Masdar Institute’s computer scientists Dr Iyad Rahwan and Sohan D’Souza and University of Southampton computational game theorists James McInerney, Dr Victor Naroditskiy and Professor Nick Jennings, will join MIT Professor Sandy Pentland and UCSD Research Scientist Dr Manuel Cebrian, aiming to solve the MyHeartMap Challenge – and they are inviting social networkers to be involved in the activity.

It is estimated that around 300,000 people die every year in the US from sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, some of which could be prevented through the timely use of a defibrillator. The University of Pennsylvania has observed that the inability to locate AEDs in such emergency situations greatly reduces their life-saving potential.

The team or individual that finds and photographs the most AEDs in Philadelphia County over the next six weeks will receive the grand prize of US$10,000. The competition has also flagged a number of ‘Golden AEDs’ - which have a US$50 bonus for the first team or individual who photographs and submits a Golden AED to the contest.

Dr Rahwan said: “Our team will use crowdsourcing to encourage people to report the location of AEDs, to verify other reports, and to recruit new participants. If we win, the money will be split among the participants who helped find defibrillators and the participants who recruited them.

Crowdsourcing provides an unprecedented ability to accomplish information-gathering tasks that require the involvement of a large number of people, often at geographically-spread locations. The success of a task relies on the ability to identify trustworthy information reports, while false reports are bound to appear either due to honest mistakes or sabotage attempts. This information verification problem is a difficult task, which, just like the information-gathering task, requires the involvement of a large number of people. Our team develops methods for solving this problem through crowdsourcing: we crowdsource not just for gathering, but also for verification of information."

Dr Rahwan recently co-authored a paper with the DARPA Network Challenge winners on their use of social networks to mobilize people to contribute to their team’s efforts. The paper was recently published in the prestigious Science journal.

Dr Naroditskiy said: “When your goal is to find as many AEDs within as large an area as possible, it would seem obvious that the best way to do that is to involve as many people in the search as possible. That’s what our team is trying to achieve through our expertise in social networking, mobilization and technology.â€?

The team will use the challenge to test some of their theoretical research on social network mobilization and incentivisation as well as verification, which adds a new layer of complexity not yet seen in crowdsourcing challenges.

Dr Cebrian said: “To most people social networks are just a way to talk to their friends or share videos. But to scientists like us, they represent a unique way to form large teams of people to work in a coordinated way to achieve difficult tasks. If we can harness that power of social networks, then we can enlist countless numbers of helpful volunteers to canvass Philadelphia and seek out and verify the AEDs that are currently not geo-tagged or on any map. This information can later prove to be lifesaving for someone going through sudden cardiac arrest.â€?

The team has launched its own website to attract team recruits who will help identify as many AEDs as possible. Visit http://scailab.media.mit.edu/heartcrowd to find out how you can be involved.

The MyHeartMap Challenge was launched on 31 January and will run through March 13.

For further information on this news story, contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

Sixty-six of the UK’s leading technology graduate recruiters will be attending the Engineering and Technology Careers Fair organized by ECS-Electronics and Computer Science and the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences at the University of Southampton on Tuesday 7 February.

Despite the economic downturn, and the current bleak news about graduate recruitment, highly skilled and capable graduates are still very much in demand, and Southampton students have a very strong reputation for the breadth and depth of their knowledge of different technologies, as well as for the strong mix of practical and theoretical understanding gained in their degree programmes.

This year’s Fair, the fifth in the series, is 25 per cent larger than last year’s. Companies attending will be offering graduate recruitment opportunities, as well as summer internships and industrial placements, and aiming to build relationships with students as they progress through their degrees. Many of the companies also sponsor student activities in ECS, provide prizes and awards for academic course modules, and pay regular visits to give technology presentations.

Imagination Technologies, one of the country’s leading technology companies, is a regular recruiter of ECS graduates, whose skills and knowledge fit well with the company’s needs. Its multimedia and communications semiconductor Intellectual Property (IP) cores are at the heart of today's most innovative and exciting consumer electronics products and the company relies on recruiting leading graduates.

“We believe it is critical for industry and universities to work together to mutually benefit,â€? says Raeeka Yassaie of Imagination Technologies. “As a company we are represented on the Industrial Liaison Board in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science. This helps us maintain a strong understanding of the teaching ECS delivers and we are also able to advise and influence so that the School can ensure it is producing graduates with the skills that industry needs.

“We attend and sponsor many events each year across UK universities with strong engineering and computing departments, including sponsorship of multiple events and attendance at a number of careers-focused activities in Southampton for ECS."

ECS has one of the UK’s best records for the employability of its graduates. In last year’s University league tables, Southampton's Electronics and Electrical Engineering employability ranking (indicating the percentage of students in graduate jobs or further training six months after graduation) was 97 per cent - the highest in the subject table.

“It’s essential that we produce graduates who have the skills and understanding to play an effective role in developing future technologies,â€? says Professor Neil White, Head of Electronics and Computer Science. “As a school we have worked hard over recent years to ensure that our courses are providing our students with the skills needed in the workplace. We also place a very high value on our employer liaison activity, including our annual Careers Fair and our Careers Hub web site.

“This enables students to work closely with companies who can sponsor projects and course modules, to take up summer internships and work placements in vacations, and to have the best possible information about employment opportunities.â€?

Over 1000 students attended last year's event, and so this year's Fair is already hotly anticipated. The event takes place in the Garden Court, Students' Union, on the Highfield Campus, from 10.45 am to 3.00 pm on Tuesday 7 February, and is open to all students in the University, with a particular emphasis on engineering and technology degrees.

This year’s Fair is sponsored by the IET – The Institution of Engineering and Technology, and the Fair helpers are sponsored by Snowflake Software, a local Southampton company.

The Fair brochure with a list of companies attending is here: http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/careers/resources/careers_fair_brochure.pdf

For further information about the Careers Fair or careers activity in the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences, contact Joyce Lewis; tel. +44(0)23 8059 5453.

His Royal Highness Prince Andrew, Duke of York, opened the 2012 Engineering and Technology Careers Fair, organized by ECS-Electronics and Computer Science for the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences at the University of Southampton.

The Duke of York toured the Fair, speaking to many of the companies present, finding out how they work with ECS and other university departments, and learning more about the skills they are seeking from top-level university graduates. He was keen to explore the technologies on display, from the touch screen technology developed by Atmel Technologies to the optical fibre-lasers of SPI Lasers. He was particularly interested in the flight simulation display on the Snowflake Software stand (pictured right). Speaking to Max Toti, Managing Director of Captec, and ECS graduate, Prince Andrew was particularly keen to discuss how universities and businesses together are contributing to the UK’s economic recovery through innovation in engineering and technology.

“It is a great pleasure to join you at the University of Southampton, which is globally renowned and a university of which the United Kingdom is extremely proud,â€? said His Royal Highness.

“The fact that the Careers Fair has grown to the size it is today – and is actually bursting at the seams – is a sign of how important this University is and how keen businesses are to come here and attract students to work for them.â€?

The Duke of York then led a roundtable discussion on entrepreneurship and employability with students and graduates joined by University Vice-Chancellor Professor Don Nutbeam, University Chancellor Dame Helen Alexander and Dean of the Faculty of Physical and Applied Sciences, Dame Professor Wendy Hall. ECS students Don Ndwiweni, Alejandro Saucedo, Adam Malpass and Tom Dell all took part in the discussion.

The visit concluded with a tour of the research facilities in the Mountbatten Building, where the Duke of York was able to learn about the Next Generation Internet Project led by the Optoelectronics Research Centre, and the graphene transistor developed in the Southampton Nanofabrication Centre.

“It’s been a great privilege for us to be able to demonstrate how hard we work to transfer new knowledge and technology into the economy, and for His Royal Highness to meet with some of the employers who are especially interested in the talents of our highly skilled students,â€? said University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Don Nutbeam.

Well over 1000 students attended the Fair, held in the Garden Court, Highfield Campus. This year was the fifth Fair in the series, which began in 2008 with 22 companies present. Many ECS graduates were on the company stands, illustrating the strong links between ECS and some of the most innovative parts of UK industry. The full list of companies attending the Fair was:

Aardvark Swift, Accenture, ARM, Atmel Technologies, BAE Systems, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BBC Research & Development. Bloomberg, BT Security, Cambridge Silicon Radio, Captec, Centrica, Chamsys, Cisco Systems, Climax Studios, Contact Singapore, Corefiling, Critical Software Technologies, Deloitte, Detica, Dialog Semiconductors, EA Technology, Enterprise Recruitment, Ericsson Television, Estee Lauder, FactSet, FDM, Fidessa, GCHQ, Gloucester Research, Goldman Sachs, Gradcracker, Gresham Computing, HSBC, IBM, Imagination Technologies, JP Morgan, Keeler. KPMG, Logica, MatchTech, MicroFocus, NATS, NDS, Netcraft, NewVoiceMedia, Ocado, OpenMarket, PwC, Qualcomm, Roke Manor Research, Sagentia, Schlumberger, SELEX Galileo, Snowflake Software, SPI Lasers, STI, STR, Switch Concepts, TeachFirst, Telesoft Technologies, Telsis, Texas Instruments, Thales UK, Winton Capital Management, The Year in Industry

For further information about this news story, contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

A new series of videos about undergraduate life in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton focuses on what our students say - about their coursework, the things they like (free cake) and maybe dislike (deadlines), the atmosphere in a School that combines Electronics and Computer Science, what they do outside their coursework, and what they plan to do when they leave.

The series of eight videos What ECS Students Say gives a great view of undergraduate life in ECS and shows how much our students value the experience they have here.

From the free cake, to the bright yellow decor of the Mountbatten Building, late-nights in the Lab, and the injustice of competing coursework deadlines, What ECS Students Say captures some of the most important elements of student life, but also looks forward to the future: "I think that my best memory of ECS will be all the people I've worked with through my projects and coursework and the friends from my course, because I know that they are people who are going to go on to do really great things in industry and it will be exciting to work with them in the future ... and if not, just to see what they do." (Adam Malpass, 'Best Thing About ECS?')

The full playlist is available on the ECS News Channel on YouTube:

Why did you Choose ECS? How hard are the Courses? What do you do Outside ECS? Best Thing about ECS? Worst Thing about ECS? What's the Atmosphere in the School Like? Plans for the Future? The One with the Out-takes ....

For further information contact: Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

The Energy Harvesting Network is holding its annual one-day conference “Energy Harvesting 2012â€? on Wednesday 28 March, where it will announce details of the Energy Harvesting Open Access Data Repository. The repository is an online resource for researchers to share detailed data on energy availability and characteristics.

At present the data available for download include detailed vibration data from a variety of transport and machinery applications and these will be expanded to include data on wind, light irradiance and human-body motion. All data is contributed by the community, and researchers are encouraged to upload their data. All data is available for free download allowing researchers to compare and evaluate their energy harvesting designs and analysis using a common dataset. The repository can be viewed at http://eh-network.org/data

The ‘Energy Harvesting 2012’ event on 28 March provides a platform for disseminating energy-harvesting advances in the UK, and includes presentations from well-respected speakers from academia and industry, demonstrations from companies, and posters from postgraduate students. Registration costs £50 (a subsidised rate of £25 is available for academics), while PhD students who bring and present a poster can attend for free (there are only a few poster spaces left).

Speakers at the event include Professor Peter Woias (IMTEK, Germany), Frank Schmidt (CTO Enocean), Professor Vittorio Ferrari (University of Brescia, Italy), Roy Freeland (Perpetuum) and Professor Eric Yeatman (Imperial College, London). For further information and instructions on how to register, please visit http://eh-network.org/events/eh2012.php

The Energy Harvesting Network is managed by Professor Steve Beeby and Dr Geoff Merrett of ECS-Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and was launched in March 2010. The Network is funded by the EPSRC, and aims to define new research challenges, facilitate interaction between researchers and industry, and to disseminate latest advances in technology.

Further information on the Energy Harvesting Network, including details of how to join for free, can be found at http://www.eh-network.org

This year’s Careers Fair continues to make waves! BBC Research & Development attended the Fair for the first time and have provided an account of the experience in their new blog. "Our virtual steadicam demo got the students’ attention and they were genuinely interested in how it worked, how it was developed and its potential applications in industry," writes Rosie Campbell.

The atmosphere of the Fair – held on 7 February and the biggest so far, with 66 companies and organizations represented – can also be gauged from our new video ECS Careers Fair 2012.

Many students who will be graduating from ECS-Electronics and Computer Science this summer already have jobs, but many are still considering their options, and new opportunities are being made available to students every day.

ECS students in the middle of their degree programmes are encouraged to do summer internships in companies relevant to their degree programmes, and many are now attending interviews with some of the country’s leading technology companies.

All vacancies notified to ECS are placed on our Careers Hub website which is available to students throughout the University.

Next year's Careers Fair will be held on Tuesday 12 February 2013.

For further information about this story contact Joyce Lewis; tel.+44(0)23 8059 5453.

International student Alejandro Saucedo had high expectations of his Computer Science course in ECS-Electronics and Computer Science when he arrived in Southampton last October … but they didn’t include visits to 10 Downing Street and to Silicon Valley, or a meeting with the Duke of York.

All of this has resulted from Alejandro’s participation in Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVc2UK), a national competition held last October at six of the UK’s leading universities. The appathon event involved students in using open government data to create innovative consumer applications in healthcare, education and the environment. Alejandro and his team-mates, ECS students Unmesh Gangadharan and Anthony Brown, won the Southampton event with their Emergency Button app, and were then invited to 10 Downing Street to meet the Prime Minister David Cameron, other Cabinet Ministers, and leading entrepreneurs. Alejandro’s mother, who had waved him off from Mexico City only a few weeks before, flew to London to witness the events!

In February Alejandro joined other ECS and University students to meet the Duke of York at the Engineering and Technology Careers Fair, to talk about student entrepreneurialism and how this can be fostered in a university course.

But the highlight of SVc2UK took place earlier this month when Alejandro, representing the Emergency Button team, joined other winners for a trip to Silicon Valley, California, and was able to tour some of its leading companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google, and to meet the entrepreneurs who have made Silicon Valley the hub of the global tech world.

“The atmosphere was incredible!â€?, says Alejandro. “The culture is amazing; everyone is extremely happy and enthusiastic towards their professional and personal life! They are constantly interacting with brilliant people with the desire to create and contribute!â€?

Taking part in SVc2UK has been inspirational for him, he believes: “The real objective of this competition was to find enthusiastic, entrepreneurial students, and show them the amazing entrepreneurial culture in the Valley, with the objective of making them go back with the desire of building this entrepreneurial culture in the UK - and I believe they succeeded!!â€?

Despite having experienced the incredible atmosphere of Silicon Valley, Alejandro is not convinced that he will aim himself there in the future and is happy to be based in Europe for the next few years: “Having the opportunity here to deal with so many languages, so many cultures, so many countries, I feel it wouldn't be smart to limit myself to a single continent when I have the opportunity to experience so much here! The competition organizers said that the entrepreneurial culture in the UK and Europe is still quite young, but still eager to grow!â€?

The SVc2UK event was sponsored in Southampton by ECS-Electronics and Computer Science and Snowflake Software.

Read Alejandro's Blog and his account of what he learned in Silicon Valley.