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Strathclyde University CIS Department


The Computer and Information Science Department (CiS) of Strathclyde University is located on the 11th-14th floors of the Livingstone Tower at the John Anderson Campus in Glasgow City Centre. When it was established it became part of the Faculty of Science. The current head of department is Professor Ian Ruthven.



Overview of Department
Although the CiS is an individual department it also works closely with other departments such as the Department of | Mathematics and Statistics. The curriculum for the department spans virtually all areas of computing both theoretical and practical. Specific courses are listed on the Courses section of this article. The Faculty of Science contains almost 3000 students.

Within the CiS department there are close to one hundred staff and around 75 postgraduate students, many of whom have come to study from overseas. For a full list of staff please visit the Strathclyde staff page. The CIS department undertakes research into artificial intelligence, software systems, information systems and management, mobile systems, HCI and mathematically structured programming. We have a lively programme of visitors and seminars and a large portfolio of international and cross-disciplinary collaborative projects.The Department also holds external research funding from EPSRC, ESRC, AHRC, EU, industrial partners, government bodies and charities. We offer a wide variety of opportunities for PhD and post-doctoral research.

Courses
The department offers wide variety of undergraduate courses to prospective students :


 * MEng/BSc(Hons) Computer Science: This course is one of the departments most exciting and rapidly developing subjects. Graduates in computer science are in great demand, as computers play an increasingly critical role in the support of almost every aspect of life.


 * BSc(Hons) Software Engineering: Software engineering is the systematic development and application of techniques which lead to the creation of correction and reliable computer software. Almost every aspect of modern life now relies on software - at work, in the home, and at play. This course equips students with the technical and personal skills and knowledge to become a proficient professional developers of high-quality software.


 * BSc(Hons) Business Information Systems: The Business Information Systems degree combines the essential aspects of Computer Science with the key facets of Business Technology, with a view to producing technically proficient graduates who are also business literate. This combination of technical skills and business acumen allows graduates to play essential roles in modern business operations.


 * BSc(Hons) Computer Science with Law: The fascinating interplay between Computer Science and the Law provides the basis for our unique BSc Honours Computer Science with Law degree which gives an in-depth understanding of both areas and allows students to choose a career that focuses on either or spans both.


 * BEng/MEng Computer and Electronic Systems: This degree is run jointly by the Departments of Computer & Information Sciences (CIS) and Electronic & Electrical Engineering (EEE). These disciplines have become increasingly intertwined in recent years, so there is an acute need for engineers with the ability to create and embed intelligence into the products and systems of the future. Engineers with operational and technical expertise in both electronics and software engineering are needed to design the next generation of computer Apps, interactive vehicle robotic agents that monitor driver information and respond accordingly, or digital cinema technology. These professionally-accredited degrees are designed to produce such highly skilled engineers and offer excellent international career prospects.

The department also provides many post-graduate as well as research degrees:


 * MSc/PgDip Information and Library Studies
 * MSc/PgDip Information Management
 * MSc/PgDip Advanced Computer Science

There is also the opportunity to study for a PhD and a Masters Degree by Research (MPhil).

Courses such as Mathematics and Computer Science (although they contain the element of computer science) are not part of the CIS curriculum and can be found at the Strathclyde University website. For more information on any of the above subjects please go to the Strathclyde CiS courses page.

Research
The Department of Computer and Information Sciences(CIS) is situated in the Faculty of Science where it enjoys close research collaborations with the Department of Mathematics & Statistics and the Bio-Sciences. As part of the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) they are engaged in collaborations with other Scottish centres of excellence in Computer Science research.

The CIS department operate across the traditional discipline. boundaries of Computer and Information Sciences, hosting world-class research in Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Information Retrieval, Mobile and Ubiquitous Interaction, Functional Programming, Data-flow Systems, Database Indexing and Information Science. Our research is informed by real-world problems and is characterised by theoretical discovery underpinned by strong empirical science. The department not only collaborate with the different faculties at the univeristy, but also with a wide range of external partners including; Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Metropolitan Police, NASA, European Space Agency, and NHS Scotland. Current research include;

Constructing Information Systems for Children

The Internet offers children exciting new ways to meet people, learn about different cultures and develop their creative potential. However, children’s ability to use the Internet is severely hampered by the lack of appropriate search tools. Most Information Retrieval (IR) systems are designed for adults: they return information in a form that is unsuitable for children. PuppyIR is a project co-funded by the European Union under the 7th Framework ICT Programme (INFSO-IST-231507) to develop an Open Source Framework that will provide the infrastructure to develop ‘child-focused’ and ‘child-friendly’ components to be deployed within child information services. The University of Strathclyde will lead the development of intuitive, supportive interfaces for children’s searching and contribute to the development of child-centred evaluation methodologies for investigating children’s exploration of information. Working with leading researchers in other European countries, museums, hospitals and schools, our work will contribute to the development of interactive, child-centred search systems. You may wish to visit PuppyIR homepage for further information, there is a link at the bottom of the page.

Mathematically Structured Programming

The Mathematically Structured Programming group was set up one and a half years ago. The remit of the group was to understand the mathematical foundations of computation so as to help generate the next generation of programming languages and programming paradigms. The group has had an enormously successful time since its foundation. It has had three large grants from EPSRC and one from Microsoft. This has allowed the group to hire two new senior research fellows and three PhD students. More generally the MSP group has gained an international reputation for the excellence of its research. It was invited to join a consortium of leading European research groups bidding for EU funds to support research on continuous models of computation and another, similar, research consortium focusing on type theory. Within the Scottish academic community, the MSP group has been active as well. It hosted a meeting of the Scottish Programming Languages Seminar and set up the Scottish Category Theory Seminar. It also obtained two SICSA funded Distinguished Visitor Programmes.

Recent Awards
Strathclyde's CiS Department and students have received many awards since its creation. One of which was the Amor Group Award. This award was won by a student (Alistair Smith) studying software engineering at Strathclyde. For his project, Alistair developed a software tool that analyses complex software applications as they are running, to find the relations between their components. Results are displayed to the user in an infographic, highlighting the interactions in real time, meaning that the user can see how the application works He received £1500 and Strathclyde was awarded the Amor Group trophy.

Another such award is the LIRG SCAN Award(see external links).Christine Rooney-Browne has been awarded the first ever CILIP Library and Information Research Group (LIRG) SCAN award .The prize for this award was £500. This award is relatively new (ongoing since 2010) so she is one of only few people to have earned it. As the recipient of this award, Christine will be conducting a comprehensive review of quantitative and qualitative methodologies and best practice for investigating and commun-icating the value of public libraries in the UK.