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.

Innovative marine sensor technologies developed by ECS researchers working with the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, have been tested on a research expedition.

Nine months into the four-year £2 million project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), Professor Hywel Morgan from the School of Electronics and Computer Science and Dr Matt Mowlem at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, have developed the first of a new generation of miniaturised sensors to measure marine environments and tested them at depths of 1600 metres. The sensors were tested during a a research cruise on RSS Discovery to the Canary Islands (D333).

'These sensors were dropped into the water strapped to a device which measures the temperature and salinity of the oceans as a function of depth, and the sensors measured the nitrate and nitrite concentrations, which are important characteristics of ocean chemistry. Phosphate, iron and manganese can also be measured with this technology,’ said Professor Morgan.

Now that the researchers have established that the sensors are capable of measuring harsh environments, they will develop them further so that they can be deployed for months at a time.

'This first generation of sensor systems as they stand are about the size of a large drinks bottle,’ Professor Morgan added. ‘We aim to make them much smaller so that they are capable of operating remotely without bulky, expensive and power-hungry support systems.’

The project has two strands: to develop lab-on-a-chip chemical and biochemical analysers to detect nutrients and pollutants at the ultra low concentrations found in the ocean, and to develop small chips to identify individual phytoplankton in the oceans. The development of these biogeochemical sensors over the next three years will provide a new technology platform for marine scientists, and have applications in many allied activities such as those undertaken by the water industry, in environmental impact assessments and in monitoring ship ballast water.

‘We believe that the development of micro-sensing systems that will be utilised across the broad front in marine sensing will be a world first,’ said Dr Mowlem.

Images of the sensor chip and some taken on the cruise can be obtained from Joyce Lewis, Communications Manager, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton (tel. 023 8059 5453; email j.k.lewis@ecs.soton.ac.uk)

A new website to help treat fatigue in people with Multiple Sclerosis has been developed by a University team including technology input from ECS.MS

Invigor8, the new website, uses Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) to treat fatigue in people with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). It will be completed on Friday (12 December) and is ready to be trialled.

The research team, led by Professor Rona Moss-Morris at the School of Psychology, with the technology side led by Dr Gary Wills of the School of Electronics and Computer Science, now seeks 40 people in the UK who experience MS fatigue to take part in the web-based trial which will begin on 12 January 2009.

The team adopted an approach which used eight sessions of manualised CBT to treat fatigue in MS effectively, and developed an Internet-based version of the package.

'We know this works because six months after the manual treatment, not only had fatigue substantially reduced, but people with MS reported levels of fatigue that were significantly lower than those of a matched healthy, non-fatigued group,' said Professor Moss-Morris.

The researchers found that a limitation of the manual package is that skilled CBT therapists are not available to many people with MS due to the lack of available resources and difficulty of access. The new web-based package will enable effective treatment for more people with minimal therapist time.

The team worked with expert service users to develop eight sessions to assess users’ levels of fatigue, their patterns of activity and rest, and then to enable them to manage issues such as sleep patterns and stress. The programme is interactive and personalised allowing people to set goals for managing their fatigue and to work towards developing and maintaining a healthier lifestyle. Lawrence Gilbert, an expert service user who has been closely involved in the process from the outset, said:

'MS can be like a Duracell battery, you could be going along fine and then suddenly the energy drains out of you. My concern has always been that the fatigue, which is a part of the condition, could be wrongly attributed to being just "all in the mind". The approach taken by the Southampton team is not like that at all.'

The research programme is funded by the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

People interested in knowing more about the trials which begin next month should contact: Louise Bell on L.Bell@soton.ac.uk

ECS researchers have achieved exceptional success in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.

Computer Science has been ranked joint second in the UK for the quality of its research, with 85 per cent of its research work receiving either the top 4* rating (defined as ‘world leading’) or the 3* rating (‘internationally excellent’). In Electronics and Electrical Engineering (in which ECS was assessed jointly with the University's Optoelectronics Research Centre),* ECS (and the ORC) came second in the ‘medals’ tables, with 42 researchers rated as achieving research of either world-leading or internationally excellent quality. It also came second in the tables provided by Research Fortnight based on benchmarks combining 'quality' with 'volume' and known as 'market share' and 'power', which are likely to be used in the financial settlement next year. Overall ECS submitted 106 staff to this Research Assessment Exercise, and 97.5 per cent of their research work was deemed to be of international standard.

‘This is an excellent outcome for the School,’ said Professor Harvey Rutt, Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science. ‘We have achieved outstandingly good results and demonstrated once again that the driving force for the School remains its commitment to research work that is world-leading and transformative.

‘Across the School our academic staff are producing research that is pushing the boundaries of their subject disciplines and finding applications in areas such as transport, medicine, the environment, security, and communications, which are of real benefit to industry and society. While some caution is needed in the way that results can be interpreted across different subjects areas, the RAE results nonetheless show that our peers in universities and industry place a very high value on the work that is being achieved here in Southampton.’

The RAE results in ECS bring a very positive end to a year that has seen exciting and innovative initiatives across the School’s research groups. Most recently the School was a major beneficiary in the awards to UK universities of Centres for Doctoral Training by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). ECS will play a key role in two new Centres: for Web Science and Complex Systems Simulation. The School’s new Mountbatten Building and Southampton Nanofabrication Centre is now open and multi-million pound pieces of equipment are being installed in its clean rooms, with the prospect of an exciting future for the School’s research horizons.

‘These excellent results demonstrate to our partners that they can be assured of the international quality of the School’s research,’ said Professor Nigel Shadbolt, Deputy Head of School for Research. ‘The results also provide an excellent basis for students who are considering undertaking PhD research in leading Schools. Our strength and depth of research excellence is fully apparent in these results.’

The RAE is a UK Government-backed assessment carried out by independent reviewers who report on the quality of different areas of research in each university across the whole sector. The results of the RAE will be used to determine future funding for research groups from 2009. In the last RAE (2001) ECS achieved the top gradings of 5* for its research in Computer Science and in Electronics and Electrical Engineering.

The University of Southampton achieved excellent results across the board, confirming its position as one of the top universities in the country.

*The Optoelectronics Research Centre is one of the world’s leading institutes for photonics research, based at the University of Southampton.

Seventy ECS students graduated in the University's first winter Graduation ceremony.

Most of the ECS students who graduated on 17 December had taken the one-year MSc degree, which runs for twelve months from October. The MSc degree covers ten different subject areas, and is intended to be a prestigious one-year course at the cutting edge of technology, in subjects for which there is great demand for industry.

'This has been the best day of my life,' said Mustansar Ghazanfar, who graduated top of his class in the MSc in Software Engineering.

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Muddasser Alam, also graduating with an MSc in Software Engineering, said that he had never been to a ceremony like this before, but that he was extremely impressed, and that it was a special day for him.

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In another unusual feature of the graduation ceremony, the academic party was piped into the Graduation Hall by Dr Peter Wilson, of ECS, who is an expert bagpiper.

Both Mustansar and Mudasser are writing blogs on their life in the School, and you can also view a video of the graduation with their comments.

Professor Wendy Hall, CBE, has been appointed DBE in the New Year Honours List for services to science and technology.

One of the world’s leading computer scientists, Wendy Hall is a Professor at the University of Southampton and was Head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007. Her influence on the development of computer science has been fundamental not only in her academic work and the many successful research initiatives in which she has been involved, but also for the large number of prominent roles she has held in the scientific and technological community.

In 2003 Professor Hall was appointed President of the British Computer Society (BCS), the UK’s leading professional body for IT. In 2005 she became the first woman to be elected Senior Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in July 2008 she took up office as President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the first person from outside North America to hold this role in the organization’s 60-year history.

She is a member of the Prime Minister’s Council for Science and Technology, and a founding member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council. In November 2008 she was one of 25 European figures honoured for their contribution to Information, Communication and Technology by the EU. Among the many awards she has won is the Anita Borg Award for Technical Leadership (2006).

She is known throughout the community for her energy and vision and, in addition to her large number of commitments in areas of policy development, she continues to advance new research directions. In 2006, she was one of the founders of the Web Science Research Initiative, along with Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Professor Nigel Shadbolt and Daniel Weitzner. They are pioneering the new discipline of Web Science, to develop a better understanding of the architectural principles that led to the Web’s growth and success, and ensure that these support the Web’s future development.

Throughout her career Wendy Hall has been a prominent and vocal advocate of women’s opportunities in science, engineering and technology. In her research and her public life she has sought to ensure that women are equal beneficiaries of technological advance, and her example of achievement and dedication has made her a distinguished and powerful role model for women. ‘I am thrilled to have been honoured in this way,’ said Professor Hall. ‘It is of course exciting for me personally and for my family, but it is also a tribute to all the people I have worked with in my career as a scientist and engineer both at Southampton and in the wider community.’

Professor Dame Wendy Hall took her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of Southampton, where she met her husband Peter Chandler. They have been married for nearly 30 years and live in the New Forest.

See coverage of the announcement on BBC Technology, The Guardian, and TechRadar.com