Data Science STEM Research Centre

Our strategic target for growth in Data Analytics has enabled the Department of Computer Science to found and lead our interdisciplinary STEM research centre, which draws expertise from multiple subjects across the University.

Developing simulation software in order to improve technology enhanced learning of modern computer architecture

Teaching and learning of computer architecture has been enhanced using highly interactive simulations with carefully constructed visualisations and animations. Computer scientists need to understand and observe how different parts of a modern computer system’s architecture and organization fit together, interact and support each other. Unique educational simulation software has been designed, developed and evaluated with these requirements in mind. Since the software and teaching materials have been made public, numerous universities worldwide adopted it in their courses with claimed positive impact on student engagement, course popularity, grades, speed of delivery of curriculum, attendance and peer recognition of best practice.

Improving quality assurance of a large software model through relative debugging

As a result of collaborative commissioned research, the lead developers of a major atmospheric research and operational weather forecasting model have changed their approach to quality assuring model source code. Drawing directly on the research findings, the lead developer has taken the decision to adopt a new approach to the correction of inconsistencies and inefficiencies in source code and to alter the software build procedure to be followed by a large model development community. An additional impact, in the form of improved business competitiveness, is felt by a British software and consultancy company, which has been able to enhance a key tool used in their quality assurance and platform migration work with a global client base.