Within our department, we conduct research across a variety of fields and have identified six main areas of focus: Cyber Security, Smart Technology, Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Intelligence, Engineering of Social Informatics, and Computing and Education. Each of these fields involves collaboration between academic members of our team and our postgraduate researchers.
Research centres
Research areas
Cyber Security
Our research helps people design, manage, and use technology in such a way that security helps rather than hinders people’s everyday lives. Our research is centred around Cyber Physical System Security, Cyber Security Education, Digital Forensics & Incident Response, Intelligence & Security Informatics, Security & Privacy by Design and Social Cybersecurity.
Computing in Education
We explore ways of improving computing education by investigating innovative software-facilitated learning, modern technology, and teaching practice and methods that enhance student engagement and student outcomes. We also investigate the learning and teaching of computing and informatics to develop solutions to the challenges it introduces.
Engineering and Social Informatics
We view software as an integral part of a larger ecosystem that, besides technology, incorporates business and social aspects. We focus on the interrelation and mutual dependency between software and its dynamic organisational and social context. We study various kinds of social requirements and the engineering challenges to build a system able to accommodate them and adapt, intelligently when possible, to their changes and dynamics.
Human Computer Interaction
We collaborate with researchers and professionals from multiple disciplines including Psychology, Design and Marketing to evolve this focus area. We have expertise in applying user experience techniques and HCI design processes to interactive systems and its demonstration through experimentations. To maximise impact and the practical nature of our research, we also collaborate with industry nationally and internationally.
Machine Intelligence
We aim to understand and develop theoretical foundations of machine intelligence in relation to the areas of scalable machine learning, computational intelligence, statistical modelling and knowledge engineering. To validate the results, we are particularly interested in decision making systems and Internet of Things covering a certain number of areas such as smart environments, assistive technologies, and telecare/telehealth systems.
Smart Technology
Our primary aim is the investigation and development of smart systems and technologies providing seamless integration of information from various sources for, among others, innovative technology-driven services, extraction and intelligent analysis of information from large commercial and scientific databases, reduction of operational costs of industrial processes, analysis of complex systems or improvement of quality of life.
Future and Complex Networks
We conduct fundamental and applied research in the broad area of networks – from natural and physical networks (e.g. social networks, transportation systems, utility grids, brain structure) to digital infrastructures (e.g. the internet, computer networks, etc). The research focus areas of FlexNet include network science, information-centric networking (ICN), the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G, crowdsourced systems and other emerging network paradigms.