Student Projects Page

School Of Computer Science

Final Year & MSc Projects

This page provides information for students who are in the process of selecting a final-year or MSc project and supervisor. Once you have a project and a supervisor, please also read the Project Guidance Notes, which is about how to conduct your project and write up your dissertation, and the deadlines and assessment process. The document is also available in the School library.

A list of members of staff is provided below together with a short description of the general project areas they are willing to supervise. Students who wish to obtain further information about specific projects should follow the corresponding links and contact directly those members of staff of interest. Please be aware some supervisors might not be available for MSc or FY projects in 2013.

You are encouraged to put forward your own suggestions for projects on topics of particular interest to you. If you wish to do this, write out a brief specification and discuss it with members of staff whom you think may be interested in the topic. You may pick up ideas from a wide variety of sources. If you do obtain an idea from elsewhere, please remember that you are expected to be interested and knowledgeable enough on the topic to be able to refine and elaborate it into a detailed specification.

^(*) For MSc project deadlines and assessment opportunities, please see also section 8 of the Project Guidance Notes

List of Supervisors by research areas:

Theoretical computer science

Artificial Intelligence and Computational Intelligence

Computing and Communication Systems

Imaging and computer vision

Human computer interaction

Computer security and cryptography

Software engineering

Interdisciplinary areas (Biology, Psychology and Mathmatics)

Theoretical computer science

Dr Martin Escardo

Real-number computation; graphics.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Prof. Achim Jung

Areas of interest: Algorithm visualisation, on-line teaching tools, programming support tools, text processing tools, student-proposed projects.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Paul Levy

Programming languages, musical harmony, anything mathematical.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Volker Sorge

(Not available in 2013)

Theorem Proving
Mathematical OCR
Distribution/Agent Technology
Gameplaying
Law

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Hayo Thielecke

I am interested in projects on secure programming or programming languages. For more details, please see my project suggestions for the different degree programmes:

Dr Steven Vickers

A prevailing theme in projects with me is to combine maths at some higher or lower level (my serious research areas are mathematical) with interactive demonstrations such as applets. I also have an interest in quantum computation.

Further Information and Specific Projects

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Artificial Intelligence and Computational Intelligence

Prof. John A Barnden

Natural language processing, figurative language, mental states, emotions, reasoning (especially when uncertain), virtual drama, conversational agents, gesture, interdisciplinary ramifications of AI (e.g. into Philosophy, Psychology, Linguistics, Literature, Education, ...).

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Ulrik Beierholm (School of Psychology)

I would be happy to supervise projects on
- Modelling of human perception, decision making and learning
- Bayesian statistics
- Reinforcement Learning
- Game theory and neuroeconomics

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr John A Bullinaria

I am happy to supervise projects in the general areas of neural networks, evolutionary computation, particle swarm optimisation, and related nature-inspired learning systems.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Richard Dearden

I am very happy to supervise projects in many areas of AI and robotics, particularly in decision-making and state estimation. I am also very interested in interdisciplinary projects, so will happily supervise projects applying computing techniques (preferably, but not exclusively AI techniques) in other fields - I've done this in the past in archaeology, neuroscience, physics, astronomy and psychiatry.

However, from May 2013, I will be only 20% employed by the university, so will be available for supervision at most one day a week.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Peter Hancox

Natural Language Processing:

helpful chatbots
child language acquisition
parsing Latin
interfaces

Constraint-based systems

timetabling
scheduling tools

Databases/decision-making

museum visiting
customer relations
deducing family relationships

Other topics:

adding ornamentation to music

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Nick Hawes

(Not available in 2013)

Artificial Intelligence projects which develop a single- or multi-agent system, including robot projects, AIs for video games (SecondLife, StarCraft), and anything else you can interest me with.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Shan He

Computational Intelligence and computational biology.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Professor Andew Howes

I am interested in supervising projects that are in the area of Cognitive Science or Human-Computer Interaction.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Ata Kaban

Probabilistic modelling, statistical pattern analysis and machine learning applications.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Manfred Kerber

Broadly my project interests can be divided in the areas of artificial intelligence, logic-related topics, and economics. Furthermore I have a particular interest in software tools, e.g., tools for manipulating/administrating digital pictures. Research wise I am interested in reasoning, heuristic search, and economic models.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Christoph Lange

Formalised mathematical reasoning in economics, particularly auction theory.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Mark G Lee

Natural Language Processing. In particular, dialogue systems, natural language understanding and text engineering.
Planning & Agent Interaction. Planning & plan recognition. Agent interaction.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Professor Ales Leonardis

Computer Vision, computational vision, robot vision, object and scene recognition, object tracking, image-based visual retrieval, 3D modelling, segmentation.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Michael Mistry

I can supervise projects involving robotics and/or human movement, especially related to physical modeling, sensing, and control. I am also interested in mobile phone applications that sense human movement for physical games or controlling robots. I am also interested in projects involving interfacing everyday objects to computers and the internet (ubiquitous computing).

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Leandro Minku

I am willing to supervise both BSc and MSc students in the areas of online machine learning and evolutionary computation.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Mirco Musolesi

The aim of my research work is to explore the design of efficient and intelligent systems that rely on novel theoretical models and algorithms, working at the interface of different areas - including computer networking, mobile systems, social computing, distributed systems, machine learning, data mining, mathematical modelling and complex networks.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Professor Jonathan Rowe

(Not available in 2013)

I will supervise projects on evolutionary computing. These should contain both a programming and a theoretical element. I will also consider proposals in artificial life, and simulation of complex systems.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Peter Tiño

Neural network and other machine learning approaches to processing static, temporal and structured data.

Statistical pattern analysis. Hierarchical data visualization.

Applications of Machine learning.

Evolutionary art.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Prof. Aaron Sloman

I am no longer involved in teaching and therefore will not normally be supervising student projects, though I am prepared to consider proposals from students who are experienced in AI programming (e.g. using Pop11 and the SimAgent toolkit) who have ideas relevant to my research activities.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr David Smith

Robot Learning, Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning, Machine Learning.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Jeremy L Wyatt

Robot Learning, Neural Networks, Reinforcement Learning, Machine Learning.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Prof Xin Yao

(Not available in 2013)

Global optimisation, evolutionary learning, co-evolution, neural network ensembles, evolutionary neural networks, analysis of evolutionary algorithms, and data mining.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Christine Zarges

Practical and theoretical aspects of nature-inspired algorithms, in particular (but not limited to) artificial immune systems and evolutionary algorithms; computational intelligence; optimisation.

Further Information and Specific Projects

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Computing and Communication Systems

Dr Rachid Anane

I am willing to supervise projects and consider student-initiated projects related to the following areas:

client-server architecture
Distributed systems
Networks
e-learning / Tutorials systems
Software support tools

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Dan Ghica

(Not available in 2013)

Pushdown Automata Library
Automated Impact Analysis
Core Visualisation
Java Runtime Visualisation

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Behzad Bordbar

Smart Dust and tinyOS programming
Bluetooth and RFID readers
Building CASE tools (my personal favourite)
Quality of Service (QoS)
Project by Dr Judge, Clinical Scientist, NHS (joint supervision)
Software Engineering for Small Businesses
e-business, Web services

Further Information and Specific Projects

Prof. Uday Reddy

Web application frameworks
Component-based applications
Email workflow management
Personal digital assistants and Mobile Devices
Speech recognition
Programming languages and compilers
Functional programming

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Mirco Musolesi

Further Information and Specific Projects

Mr Alan Sexton

Document Image Analysis
Web Applications
Content Based Retrieval
Music and Sound Analysis
SQL
Animation and Tutorial Systems
Database Design and Computer Aided Software Engineering
Database Assistants

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Eike Ritter

Operating systems, Linux, Unix for PCs, computer networks.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Dave Parker

Modelling, analysis and verification of, for example, biological systems, DNA computing, security protocols, robotic systems.

Further Information and Specific Projects

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Imaging and computer vision

Prof. Ela Claridge

(Not available in 2013)

Image processing, computer vision and graphics.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Hamid Dehghani

I am interested in various aspects of medical imaging and computing. Specific areas include: three dimensional interactive visualisation and fast computing using GPU and MATLAB

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Iain Styles

I am especially interested in supervising projects on quantum computing (especially simulation), Monte Carlo Modelling for Medical Imaging, Biomechanics, applications of computers in sport and modelling of financial markets.

Further Information and Specific Projects

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Human computer interaction

Professor Russell Beale

I am happy to supervise projects in human-computer interaction, design, mobile and ubiquitous systems, ambient systems, AI for interactive systems, and novel technologies.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Chris Bowers

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Benjamin Cowan

HCI

Further Information and Specific Projects

Mr Bob Hendley

HCI, WWW, Java, agents, visualization techniques, data mining, AI programming environments

Further Information and Specific Projects

Professor Andew Howes

I am interested in supervising projects that are in the area of Cognitive Science or Human-Computer Interaction.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Mirco Musolesi

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Mina Vasalou

User-centred design. Design thinking. Learning tools that encourage reflective thinking. Privacy attitudes and perceptions.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Jim Yandle

OOSE and reverse engineering, database design tools and GUIs, smart searching and text analysis, natural language interfaces and computer aided learning.

Further Information and Specific Projects

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Computer security and cryptography

Dr Tom Chothia

Information theory for measuring information leaks.
Alice and Bob protocol translator for ProVerif.
Checking traceablity in the applied pi-calculus.
Student proposed security project
A survey of buffer overflow attacks
Mobile Phone app. development for Blackberry, iPhone, iPad or Android.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Macro Cova

1. Web-based Malware Detection Tools
2. E-Voting Security
3. International Capture the Flag

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Hayo Thielecke

I am interested in projects on secure programming or programming languages. For more details, please see my project suggestions for the different degree programmes:

MSc in Computer Security project topics

Dr Shishir Nagaraja

Further Information and Specific Projects

Professor Mark D Ryan

(Not available in 2013)

I mostly supervise projects in any aspect of computer security, including cryptography, access control, protocols, authentication, fighting malware, trusted computing, secure programming, biometrics, and smart cards. I am also interested in projects about music, such as melody and harmony generation or analysis, and knowledge representation of composer styles and rules.

Further Information and Specific Projects

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Software engineering

Dr Rami Bahsoon

I am interested in supervising projects in Software Engineering. My current research activities revolve around the below themes.

Software Engineering IN and FOR the Cloud
Self-managed Software Architectures
Green Software Engineering (be one of the Grasshoppers Green Software Engineering Researchers)
Security Software Engineering
Regression Testing
Security Testing
Economics-Driven Software Engineering
Search-based Software Engineering
Automated Global Software Engineering(mainly for ISS projects)

Further Information and Specific Projects

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Interdiscpinary Areas

Dr Ulrik Beierholm (School of Psychology)

I would be happy to supervise projects on
- Modelling of human perception, decision making and learning
- Bayesian statistics
- Reinforcement Learning
- Game theory and neuroeconomics

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Shan He

Computational Intelligence and computational biology.

Further Information and Specific Projects

Dr Dietmar Heinke (School of Psychology)

I am interested in supervising projects which fall into my research areas: Cognitive Science, Computational Modeling, Visual Object Recognition, Visual Attention, Connectionist Models (Neural Networks) and Computer Vision. I am open to any suggestions from these areas.

Further Information and Specific Projects