The School's flourishing MSc programme expands next year with a new programme in AI, as excellent results are announced for last year's programme.

Results for last year’s MSc programme have just been released and congratulations go to everyone for a series of excellent performances! Our picture shows the end-of-the-year event for MSc, and we’re very pleased that a number of students have stayed on in the School to do PhDs.

This year we have 145 MSc students in the School of Electronics and Computer Science, our biggest-ever group. ‘We’ve made a huge investment in establishing our MSc courses and are very pleased to see such a strong intake of students,’ said Dr Darren Bagnall, Director of the MSc programme. ‘This year we have more students, on more courses and from more countries than ever before. We’re pleased to announce that we have greatly increased the number of staff and resources available for the Masters courses to ensure that our students have the best possible time during their short stay with us.’

From October 2008 ECS will be offering a new Masters course in Artificial Intelligence, bringing together in one programme some of the most exciting and innovative work taking place in the School. Artificial Intelligence techniques are increasingly used in support of complex systems and applications from a number of global companies and ECS has internationally recognized expertise in areas such as computer vision, intelligent agents, machine learning, robotics and the Semantic Web. This new course will enable student to gain a thorough grounding in these areas, as well as benefiting from internationally-leading research expertise.

Pocket-sized supercomputers and zero power mobile phones are just two of the key challenges which UK engineers have set themselves for the next 20 years.

The goals are part of the Grand Challenges in Microelectronic Design, a scheme funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and co-ordinated by the University of Southampton, which has enabled the UK microelectronic design research community to develop a common vision for the future of research in its area.

Key investigators are Professor Andrew Brown (University of Southampton), Professor Steve Furber (University of Manchester) and Professor Roger Woods (Queen’s University Belfast). Four grand challenges have emerged from a number of community meetings which the investigators believe will keep the UK at the forefront of electronics for the next 20 years.

They propose to:

Build an electronic brain – a computer inspired by the principles of operation of biological brains;

Develop pocket-sized supercomputers which will deliver as much computing power as a whole building of today’s machines, as part of a drive to deliver ‘Moore for less’ (Moore’s Law describes the exponential year-on-year growth in the number of transistors available on a silicon chip);

Create a mobile phone which will not need batteries but will use renewable energy sources;

Embark on a ‘Silicon meets life’ initiative, through which they plan to develop transparent interfaces between living organisms and electronics allowing active prosthesis and biometrics.

‘We have pulled together some of the best brains in the UK in this field to address some of the long-term challenges so that we can boost our input to the knowledge economy,’ said Dr Peter Wilson, one of the researchers on the project at the University of Southampton’s School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).

Professor Steve Furber added: ‘The UK has great strengths in microelectronic design, and the Common Vision activity has provided a focus for the high quality but distributed academic research. From the outset we have involved industrial researchers in our workshops and there has been a very positive reaction to what we have proposed. The next phase is to bring this to the attention of the wider industrial community.’

The research organisers are now seeking feedback on their proposals and devising plans to move the challenges forward.

'I enjoy using the ability to design and build machines that can do neat things for us', says Dr David Swaffield, new lecturer in Electrical Power Engineering.

Dr Swaffield is himself a graduate of the School of Electronics and Computer Science, having been an MEng student of Electromechanical Engineering and then a PhD student. He has already achieved distinction in his career, with the award in 2005 of the IEEE Eric Foster Young Scientist Award for a paper based on some of the research in his PhD.

His research continues with a varied range of projects based in the Tony Davies High Voltage Laboratory which include looking at materials for superconducting applications, lightning testing of aircraft parts built from composites, and the amount of energy that can be pushed through high-voltage cables in tunnels.

Read our profile of David Swaffield.

Dr Ivan Markovsky studied in Bulgaria, the USA, and Belgium, before coming to ECS as a lecturer in the Information: Signals, Images, Systems group.

A major part of his PhD work was devoted to applying an extension of the classical least squares method to data modelling. Through his studies, he recognised that a large class of problems can be treated with one and the same algorithm, while previously each problem required a new algorithm. This was a significant breakthrough which allows data modeling stages to be bypassed thus resulting in considerable time savings.

Ivan joined ECS in January 2007 and plans to find more applications for the method that he is developing and to promote it as a universal framework for data modelling.

'Although I'm not a mathematician, I love mathematics,' he said. 'Engineering is a discipline where rigorous thinking is very important. I look forward to making the abstract theory useful in applications.'

Read our profile of Ivan Markovsky.

The dynamic fractal patterns on the glass panels of the new Mountbatten Building were inspired by the School's research on optical nanotechnology.

In association with the Optoelectronics Research Centre, this research is being applied to create new optoelectronic devices which could enhance optical communications or greatly reduce the cost of solar energy.

The £55 million building, currently under construction and due for completion in July 2008, will provide a world-class facility that will allow the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronics Research Centre to make further contributions in these exciting areas of research.

The fractals, which form an ornamental design on the glass of the new building, are inspired by research into optical metamaterials, conducted by Dr Darren Bagnall and Dr Adrian Potts at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) working with Professor Nikolay Zheludev of the ORC.

‘By drawing features that are much smaller than the wavelength of light, photons can be confused into doing things they normally wouldn’t do,’ said Dr Bagnall. ‘The chiral fractal structures when etched into glass at the nanoscale were shown to produce very unusual polarisation changes. By using similar technologies to produce other types of nanostructured arrays on the surfaces of solar cells we could also ensure that optical asymmetries are created that prevent light from escaping the solar cells.’

According to Dr Bagnall the light-trapping technologies could reduce the thickness of expensive semiconductor materials needed in solar panels, and this could directly reduce the cost of the devices. The first challenge is to prove that the technology works in practice, the second key challenge will be to develop cost-effective ways to produce nanopatterned layers.

The research will continue in the new Mountbatten Building. The state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary facility designed specifically to meet the long-term research needs of the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronics Research Centre, contains a large purpose-built clean room and associated laboratories, along with offices and meeting space.

'The technology which will be available in our new building, coupled with our high-quality academics, students and support staff, will enable us to develop faster, smaller, lower-cost, lower power, more environmentally-friendly devices for the next generations of electronic products whilst continuing our pioneering work in computer science,' said Professor Harvey Rutt, Head of ECS.

With only one week of term left, undergraduate and MSc students in ECS were able to take time out of a hard term's studying to enjoy the School Christmas Party.

The Christmas Party was organized by the Electronics and Computer Science Society, the School's own student society which organizes social events, academic and careers talks, and has an active sports programme.

Around 400 students attended the party, held in the Staff Social Centre, with entertainments from the Circus Society, the Breakdance Society, Kinki DJs, and of course Santa Claus, in the person of Alex Horn, 2nd year Computer Science student.

The University has awarded Oxford Instruments a contract for £2.5M for nine process tool systems to be used in the Mountbatten Building clean room.

The new research complex in the Mountbatten Building will serve the world-leading research of the School of Electronics and Computer Science and the Optoelectronics Research Centre. Completion of the new building is anticipated for summer 2008, when the Oxford Instruments tools will be sited within it.

The nine systems will provide leading-edge capabilities in the research and development of novel nanoelectronic, MEMS and photonic devices. The order includes both plasma etch and deposition tools, with two Plasmalab®System100 ICP etch tools, two Plasmalab80Plus open-loading RIE tools and two PlasmalabSystem100 PECVD tools, plus a number of Oxford Instruments’ newest products: a FlexAL® plasma/thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) tool, a Nanofab nanowire and nanotube growth tool, and a large-chamber Ionfab® ion beam system.

Andy Matthews, Managing Director of Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology, comments: 'We are extremely proud to have been awarded this order by the University of Southampton and to be able to further our relationship with the University. This is a very significant order for us, not only commercially, but also as an endorsement of Oxford Instruments’ position at the forefront of providing high quality, innovative process tools which are enabling the next generation of electronic and nanotechnology devices.'

The latest newsletter from ECS provides a perspective on a year in the life of the School, drawn from the blogs written by undergraduate students.

Entitled When Everything Connects (pdf), the newsletter highlights the major event of the University year, starting with the JumpStart induction week in October, running through intensive coursework in Semester 1, exams, house-hunting, more exams!, Finals, Graduation, and summer study before the year begins again.

The ECS undergraduate bloggers are a diverse group, covering all the main subject streams: Computer Science, Electromechanical Engineering and Electronics, and all the different year groups. Chris Jensen joined the School this year from Norway, Norhidayah Azman is from Malaysia, and Ian Gilham took the Foundation Year before entering a course in Computer Science.

Life isn't all plain sailing and some of the accounts written by the students demonstrate the extent of support which students in the School are able to access as they go through an intensive and often challenging degree course.

But in the end, hopefully everything does connect, and as Emma Burton writes: 'ECS ... is certainly a force to be reckoned with!'

Read more of our student blogs.

A new MSc programme in Artificial Intelligence is now recruiting students for October 2008. The course provides a wide view of the challenges and solutions in this exciting area.

The new MSc programme aims to deepen students’ interest and to provide a wide view of the challenges and solutions that exist. It is research-led and incorporates both traditional and state-of-the art aspects of AI and Machine Learning, opening the path to many different subject areas and technologies.

‘Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning are becoming ever more prevalent in our society, ‘ says Dr Craig Saunders, Joint Course Leader. ‘In the context of AI, people often think of computer programs that play chess, or a futuristic world where advanced humanoid robots walk among us. This type of robotics is perhaps far distant, however, in reality, AI and machine-learning techniques are already widespread.’

Web search, weather prediction, financial forecasting and 'personal recommended items' on shopping and music websites are just a few examples where the technologies are already employed and familiar to millions of people. Dr Saunders also instances state-of-the-art research in bio-informatics and chemo-informatics where proteomics and genomics are benefitting from novel algorithms, as well as spam filtering, opponent AI in modern games such as HALO 3, and of course, robotics.

‘There is already a diverse range of applications for these technologies, says Dr Saunders. ‘Although each of the domains requires specific techniques to deal with its unique demands and requirements, the commonality between them is that in each case we want some sort of automated decision that seems “reasonableâ€? or “intelligentâ€? by an agreed measurement.’

The course enables participants to study the fundamentals of all aspects of intelligent algorithms with the freedom to choose options and specialise where desired. Topics in the course cover a skill base which is in very high demand from the academic research community as well as a wide range of industrial companies covering sectors from biotechnology to finance.

Read about the new programme on our MSc pages.

2008 will be a year of welcome change and development in ECS as the School prepares for the opening of the new Mountbatten Building.

As work proceeds with rapid pace on the building's striking external finishing, contractors are busy inside on the complex workings that will control the clean room environments. The £55 million building, which is due for completion in July 2008, will provide a world-class facility that will allow the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) and the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) to make leading-edge contributions to new research areas in nanotechnology and photonics.

The state-of-the-art, interdisciplinary facility has been designed specifically to meet the long-term research needs of ECS and the ORC, and contains a large purpose-built clean room and associated laboratories, along with offices and meeting spaces.

'The technology which will be available in our new building, coupled with our high-quality academics, students and support staff, will enable us to develop faster, smaller, lower-cost, lower power, more environmentally-friendly devices for the next generations of electronic products whilst continuing our pioneering work in computer science,' said Professor Harvey Rutt, Head of ECS.

Mountbatten Construction images