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School of Computing

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Publications

My publications are available from the Computer Science department publications repository.

Research Interests

I belong to the following research groups:

• Programming Languages and Systems Group

All things parallel. More specifically my research interests centre around the CSP model of parallel processing, encapsulated by the occam-pi multiprocessing language. This is a message-passing based model of concurrency, but I am also interested in the others (e.g. shared variable, including lock-free and wait-free algorithms, join calculus based abstractions, etc.). I'm also interested in parallel computing across clusters and on GPUs. Other interests include programming language design and implementation, operating systems and embedded systems. In other activities I'm responsible for organising and running the School of Computing's Open Day activities and their schools' outreach activities.

Outside of work (though being an academic makes the work/life distinction blurry sometimes!) I enjoy bell-ringing (campanology), rock-climbing, kung-fu and beer.

Teaching

I teach on (or am otherwise involved with) the following modules:

• CO527 Operating Systems and Architecture (15 level-I credits, spring term, module catalogue, internal moodle).
  This module teaches some of the low-level issues surrounding computer architecture (how the CPU/etc. work) and operating systems (structure, memory-management, scheduling, multiprocessors, filing-systems, etc.).
• CO538 Concurrency Design and Practice (15 level-I credits, autumn term, module catalogue, internal moodle).
  This module provides a grounding in concurrent programming techniques, as a way to design systems as well as implement them (which is done primarily using the occam-pi programming language).
• CO890 Concurrency and Parallelism (15 level-M credits, spring term, module catalogue).
  This module covers a wide range of topics surrounding concurrent and parallel programming, including methodologies, programming techniques/tactics and the hardware support provided.
• CO648 Systems and Services, Design and Management Spring Term (15 level-H credits, spring term, module catalogue).
  I'm convening this module, but not teaching on it. The module itself covers the fundamentals of systems administration, in a hands-on way, plus scripting using shell and Perl.
• CO600,CO620 final-year group and research projects (30 level H credits, both terms).
  This year I'm supervising two group CO600 projects and four individual CO620 research projects.
• CO646 Computing in the Classroom (15 level-H credits, spring term, module catalogue).
  I'm not teaching or convening this module but I am involved in the selection and examination of students. Essentially this is the module where students go into local schools to teach (in varied capacities) computing and related subjects; everything from ICT and year 7/8 up to computer-science or computing A-levels in years 12/13.
• CO531 Software Engineering (15 level-I credits, autumn term, module catalogue).
  This is the software engineering module for our undergraduate students; I "facilitate" (supervise) one of the group-project groups, comprising most of my stage-2 tutees. This year's project is to build a system for managing child social service records.

Projects

Here are some of the projects I'm currently involved with:

		RMoX: A Lightweight, Flexible and Concurrent Operating System People: Fred Barnes, Peter Welch, Carl Ritson
		CoSMoS: Complex Systems Modelling and Simulation People: Peter Welch, Fred Barnes, Carl Ritson, Douglas Warren
		MirrorGC: Garbage Collection for Multicore Systems People: Richard Jones, Fred Barnes, Carl Ritson, Matthew Mole
		Occam-pi on LEGO: occam-pi on the LEGO Mindstorms RCX People: Fred Barnes, Jon Simpson
		TUNA: Theories Underpinning Nanite Assemblers People: Peter Welch, Fred Barnes, Carl Ritson
		KRoC: Kent Retargetable occam-pi Compiler People: Peter Welch, Fred Barnes, Carl Ritson
		NOCC: A new occam-pi compiler People: Fred Barnes
		jctld: Job Control Daemon People: Fred Barnes
		AQuest: Auto-Question People: Fred Barnes

Here are some teaching-related things, that also count as research interests:

• A mini operating-system simulator (MOSS), written in Java and used as the basis for some of the CO501 coursework (2004/2005).

Resources

• An occam tutorial.
• A Java glossary.
• A list of projects, aimed at the general area of 3rd/4th-year projects. Along with that, a list of PhD projects. Also the SSE research projects page.
• Javadoc output for MOSS
• My (GPG) public key for `F.R.M.Barnes@kent.ac.uk' (formerly `frmb2@ukc.ac.uk'). Key fingerprint is 5421 5D16 CEB7 90F3 A750 6BB2 2167 8C61 B53F D4E5. This is also available from key-servers at wwwkeys.pgp.net and subkeys.pgp.net.
• UCAS day stuff, slides, code and links from the UCAS day demonstrations.
• colortest.pdf, for test-driving a data-projector's colour capability.
• Decoding scribbles that I've left on your scripts/dissertations/theses.
• Research group Wiki (editable version, authenticated users only)
• Schools-liaison Wiki
• Material/resources for summer-school taster sessions

Other links

• KRoC occam-pi system - distribution and installation instructions.
• JCSP - CSP library for java
• home-page - my home page
• publications - publications on my home page (with other documents/presentations/etc.)
• Programming Languages and Systems research group events web-page
• Various project mailing lists
• pi-cluster usage
• why choose a career in computing / computer-science?
• Professional bodies I am a member of: ACM, BCS, IET, HE-Academy, UCU.

• I was curious to know how much spam vs. mail I get, so I graphed it (and a good excuse to play around with rrdtool): How much spam..?

• If you're a student looking for an internship with me, please see this page.