Industrial Advisory Board (IAB)

Research and Development Expertise

Research in computing is interested in expanding the range of tasks computers, networks and devices can usefully perform. This is done by making new use of existing technology and by developing new technology when nothing appropriate exists.

For example, our computational intelligence research group is interested in improving computers' ability to learn from experience, to make educated guesses, and to make predictions about things that have not yet happened. Our care technology group is looking for ways to allow computers to monitor and control the homes of the elderly or frail to allow them to stay independent for longer.

We carry out research for companies, governement bodies and charities. Much of our research is in the public domain and available for use under licence. We also carry out bespoke research for individual clients, but this work obviously remains private. Some of the application areas for our research are listed below.

Care Technology
Stirling's care technology research group develops ways of using computers and IT to improve the quality of life for the ill, frail or at risk.

Communications
Our communication research group is concerned with service engineering across networks. The networks may be traditional computer or telephony networks, but they are equally likely to be networks of other devices such as appliances in the home, turbines on a wind farm or novel input devices such as digital pens.

Decision Support and Predictive Systems
Data measured from the past can tell us a lot about possible events in the future. Using machine learning techniques, we have helped companies predict a wide range of everyday events such as who will claim on an insurance policy, who is most likely to buy a new car, how far up the charts a song will go and the annual turnover of a planned addition to a chain of stores.