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Computing

From the software industry’s astonishing rise to the hardware systems that keep the world securely ticking along, computing reaches into every part of daily life.  That reliance brings huge responsibilities (and vulnerabilities), increasing demand for those computing experts who can keep society one step ahead of the game.

Research programme

Research Environment

Half of our Department of Computing’s research is rated either ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ with staff who are publicly recognised experts in their field. Employability of our Computing students is exceptionally high, and the Department performs well in student surveys.

Computing at Surrey has a booming postgraduate research programme of over 60 PhD students, with many industrial sponsorships. The PhD community is very active and well organised in arranging research and social activities for the students. An annual PhD conference, now in its ninth year, is organised by the students to showcase their research work.

As you would expect, we have the best computing resources to support your research, including an Access Grid-equipped seminar room, a Grid infrastructure supporting leading-edge distributed technologies, a software testing lab for embedded software, as well as a number of high-performance servers. In 2006 the Department was awarded an SRIF 3 grant for a high-performance computing cluster.

Key Research Areas

  • Digital ecosystems
  • Formal methods and security
  • Multimedia security and forensics
  • Nature-inspired computing and engineering

Research centres and groups

Digital Ecosystems

The work of this group is focused on understanding and leveraging the impact of digital technology on industry and society. Our research is intensely interdisciplinary and covers a number of themes including:

  • Digital and industrial ecosystems as complex  adaptive systems
  • Use of ICT to support sustainable living and social change
  • Social-constructivist approaches to education and professional development
  • Formal models of interactive computing  
  • The use of machine learning to support knowledge discovery in the connected age

Our work currently finds application in the cloud computing and future Internet domains, but is not limited to them.

www.surrey.ac.uk/computing/research/de

Formal Methods and Security

Research in the Formal Methods and Security Group is concerned with the development and verification of high-integrity systems. In particular, the focus is on developing mathematically well-founded techniques and approaches to software and hardware systems design and development, especially with respect to concurrent and embedded systems.
This includes integration of formal approaches, particularly CSP with the B-Method and Event-B, and practical techniques into systems development. Our security activities are currently focused on trustworthy voting systems.
We are playing a leading role in the design and development of the prize-winning Prêt à Voter end-to-end verifiable voting system, and in more general aspects of voting systems design and verification. Other interests include the formal modelling and analysis of security protocols, and the analysis of information flow in concurrent systems.

www.surrey.ac.uk/computing/research/fms

Multimedia Security and Forensics

The Multimedia Security and Forensics Group focuses on the development of multimedia security technologies using digital watermarking and authentication, steganography and steganalysis and their deployment for image, video, audio and binary content. Research into digital watermarking was recently recognised by winning the IET Innovation in Engineering Award 2006 for digital watermarking under the security category. Research within the group encompasses the following areas:

  • Digital watermarking and authentication of audio, image and video content
  • Image and video forensics for forgery detection
  • Imaging device identification and forensics
  • Binary watermarking for printing and scanning
  • Digital steganography and steganalysis techniques and applications

www.surrey.ac.uk/computing/research/msf

Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering

The Nature Inspired Computing and Engineering (NICE) Group aims to understand natural and biological systems through analysis and synthesis, using computational models of these systems. We investigate, in computational environments, natural intelligent systems at different levels, ranging from populations and societies to nervous systems and brains, and to genes, proteins and metabolites.
We are particularly interested in neural information processing in the brain and the organising principles of neural development from the evolutionary perspective. Examples of engineering applications include medical image analysis, human behaviour detection, brain machine interfacing, data mining and knowledge extraction, modelling and analysis of genetic and metabolic networks for drug design and disease analysis, aerodynamic structure design, multi-criterion decision making and self-organisation of collective systems.

www.surrey.ac.uk/computing/research/bima

Career Development

Examples of positions achieved by our students after earning their postgraduate qualification with us:

  • CapGemini – Software Engineer
  • Art and Smart AE – Web Developer

The teaching staff ... second to none.  Without their guidance and support, I would not have achieved all that I have.

Arati Gurung
MSc Information Systems

After a Bachelors degree in Computer Engineering from Pokhara Engineering College, Nepal, I started my career as a Java programmer in a software company.  A deep passion for knowledge inspired me to undertake an MSc in Information Systems. The course provides a blend of technical and managerial skills relevant to today’s business market.

Surrey’s academic reputation and status as a research-led institution confirmed my belief in the University. I think that people stay in education to evolve their knowledge base or to increase their career prospects. In my case, it was both.

Graduating from Surrey is a matter of great pride for me. A Surrey degree combined with my past work experience make me confident of finding a job in the UK. The University is a home away from home. Although I am thousands of miles away from Nepal, I have been able to quench my thirst for knowledge in a safe and friendly community.

Surrey is a melting pot for thousands of students coming from different parts of the world with one goal – to enhance their academic knowledge. The teaching staff throughout the Department of Computing and the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences are second to none.

Without their guidance and support, I would not have achieved all that I have. It’s a pleasure to have such enthusiastic staff at the University of Surrey.