Computer Science – (M.Phil.)

The Applied Computing Department is a young department of modest size but is successful in attracting research funding from various sources in the UK and the EU (including industry, research councils and charitable foundations). It supports a significant range of research interest and over the last few years the number of research students has grown steadily. The Department has a history of involvement in EU framework projects. More recently, we were partners in two EU FP6 funded projects: SecurePhone and BroadWan. We have been working and collaborating with many European research institutions including The Technical University Graz, CNUCE, Pisa, Thales, Thomson, TELENOR, RAL, Salzburg, Telephonica – Spain, Atos Origin, The University of Saarbrucken – Germany, INFORMA – Italy, and ENST – France.

The main research areas of interest in the Department cover image / video processing and analysis techniques and applications; wireless mobile network technologies; and biometric-based authentications for constrained devices / environments. In image processing we mainly, but not exclusively, use wavelet transform techniques for facial feature detection and recognition, online image / video compression for constrained devices, visual speech recognition, feature detection in biomedical images, digital watermarking, content-based video indexing for biometric video databases. In the wireless networking area, our research effort focuses on convergence and integration of different wireless technologies and standards, wireless mesh technologies, intrusion detection and prevention, efficiency and stability of ad hoc networks.

Currently the Department has a number of research groups consisting of 5 research active academics, 12 PhD and 3 MSc/MPhil students at various stages of their studies.