School of Computing News

Palaniappan Ramaswamy, University of Kent Biometrics – technology that can recognise individuals based on physical and behavioural traits such as their faces, voices or fingerprints – are becoming increasingly important to combat financial fraud and security threats. This is because traditional approaches, such as those based on PIN numbers or passwords, are proving too easily compromised. For example, Barclays has intr...

The School of Computing is looking to appoint a Professor of Cyber Security to lead its highly successful Security research group. The School has an outstanding reputation for research and education in cyber security where, for example, its MSc Cyber Security has been provisionally accredited by GCHQ. We seek applications from senior academics with a distinguished and sustained track record of research leadership and attainment.  The closing date is 10 Apr...

The European Association for Programming Languages and Systems (EAPLS) Best PhD Dissertation Award 2015 has been won by Dr Maria Christakis, from the School of Computing for her dissertation ‘Narrowing the gap between verification and systematic testing‘. This award is given to the PhD student who has made the most original and influential contribution to the area of Programming Languages and Systems, and has graduated in 2015 at a European ac...

Congratulations to Alexia Zoumpoulaki, who has recently passed her PhD viva, with minor corrections. Alexia’s PhD thesis was titled ‘Detecting Perceptual Breakthrough in RSVP with Applications in Deception Detection: Methodological, Behavioural and Electrophysiological Explorations’ and was supervised by Howard Bowman. Alexia explained; ‘My research explores perceptual breakthrough in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP), for deception detect...

Students from KITC (Kent IT Consultancy) presented examples of their work at an event entitled ‘Becoming a Consultant – the Next Generation’ at the headquarters of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. Student consultants at the KITC are ‘the graduates of tomorrow helping the businesses of today’, and work on projects for paying clients, who are usually local small and medium enterprises. Their work forms as assessed part of the...

Dr Palaniappan Ramaswamy has delivered two courses on biomedical signals to colleagues in two Indian universities as part of an initiative to elevate India’s scientific and technological capacity to global excellence. Palani, who is a Reader based at the School of Computing in Medway, was invited to deliver two one week courses for university staff, medical professors and postgraduate students. He taught on the analysis of biomedical signals such ...

Congratulations to Konstantin Kapinchev, who has recently passed his PhD viva, with minor corrections. His PhD thesis was titled ‘Scalable Parallel Optimization of Digital Signal Processing in the Fourier Domain’. Konstantin’s thesis was supervised by Fred Barnes and examined by Dr Mark Batty with Professor Brian Vinter from the University of Copenhagen as the external examiner. Konstantin said: ‘As well as my supervisor and examiner...

Congratulations to Davin McCall, research student in the School of Computing, who has recently passed his PhD viva, with minor corrections. His PhD thesis was entitled ‘Novice Programmer Errors – Analysis and Diagnostics‘. The thesis detailed a systematic and thorough approach both to analysing which errors that are most problematic for students, and to automated diagnosis of errors. Abstract All programmers make errors when writing program code, and for novices the difficulty of r...

Many students are keen to learn the tech skills that will make them stand out to a graduate employer, or simply want to learn more about computing for their own interests. The School of Computing offers a ‘Year in Computing‘ for all Kent undergraduate students*. This extra year can be taken after stage 2 or the final year of a students’ current degree programme. Students interested in finding out more can come to a kickstart lunch on Wedn...

Professor Richard Jones has been appointed as Head of School, a three year post starting on 1 January 2017. Richard is Professor of Computer Systems and has worked at the School of Computing in University of Kent since 1985. He is well known for his research and books on dynamic memory management (‘garbage collection’). The role of Head of School is a high-profile one within the University and provides academic and professional leadership. Ri...