Research opportunities in Computing, IT and Multimedia are available for either full-time or part-time study.
Research and knowledge exchange
The Department of Computing is active both in research and Knowledge Transfer Programmes. Expertise within the department covers a wide area, but has a strong applied focus engaging with the concerns of the user, the needs of businesses and the rapid developments within the IT industry.
Staff research interests include application development and human-computer interaction on various platforms including mobile and ubiquitous technology. This ranges from personal computers, portable or wearable computers, mobile phones and games consoles. The potential of this technology and the internet to support teaching, learning and assessment is also a growing focus of interest within the department.
The computing staff also research and supervise in the broad area of software development, looking at different programming paradigms and methodologies, with applications in e-business, system modelling, visualisation, engineering and robotics. Within the e-business context there is also a growing interest within the department to support research in the area of information assurance and in understanding threats to security, as well as investigation through forensic computing.
Sustainability is also increasingly important in relation to computing and offers further avenues for investigation. We would particularly welcome applicants interested in researching in any of these areas, but also consider applications for research in other areas of computing.
Crossover projects
As part of the Business School, there is effective supervision for crossover projects which major on computing and IT application in the field. If you have a particular interest, then please contact the Faculty Research Director.
Current work
Areas of current interest include e-learning, training and virtual reality, patient and therapist support tools, and authentication protocols and verification.
Training in Research Methods
The Department of Computing offers supervision for three research degrees — MA/MSc, MPhil, PhD. All research students who have not completed a relevant Masters Degree, or other appropriate research methods training, are required to complete two core modules of the Master of Research (MRes).
Entry requirements
- You will normally need an honours degree of upper second class or above from a UK university, or an equivalent qualification, in a subject area relevant to the proposed research topic
- In exceptional circumstances, the university will consider applications from non-graduates with experience of undertaking research. Registration is usually for MPhil or MSc (by research) with the possibility of transfer to PhD
- Candidates may register for PhD directly if they have a recent masters qualification in a relevant subject that contained appropriate research methods training.
Staff offering supervision
Vicky Bush BSc MSc PhD
Senior Lecturer in Computing
Applications for formal methods, software engineering, programming paradigms, pedagogic research into teaching programming, sustainable computing
Kevin Hapeshi BSc (Econ) PhD
Head of the Department Computing
Human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, human cognition & performance, human factors & ergonomics in product design, training & learning through multimedia and computer games, e-learning and e-assessment, design and evaluation of websites, techniques for forensic computing and issues in sustainable computing
Nina Reeves MSc PhD
Senior Lecturer in Multimedia
Human-computer interaction, accessible interface design; usability studies of multimedia and interactive game interfaces, information retrieval systems, e-Learning, implementation of ICT in business environments, active learning using multimedia speech and language therapy
David Wakeling BSc DPhil
Senior Lecturer in Computing
Functional programming, industrial applications, network security, bioinformatics, forensic computing, embedded systems, parallel programming, mobile and remote technology, robotics
Martin Wynn BA MA PhD
Reader in Business Information Technology
e-Business, IT strategy and practice, urban planning
Shujun Zhang BSc MSc PhD
Reader in Computing
Bio-computing, 3D computation, visualisation and simulation, virtual reality, e-business, IT for manufacturing, engineering system modelling and simulation, web applications for commercial settings