Research Environment
Research is concentrated in areas that are considered to be vital and lively topics: Applied Formal Methods, Medical Informatics, Computational Intelligence, Communications and Services, Algebraic Graph Theory and Mathematical Biology. Research is pursued that is (or will become) relevant to industry, commerce or general quality of life. Cooperation with external organisations stimulates research through real problems, and allows research results to be validated on realistic applications.
Research Support
We support research financially through equipment and travel. Staff receive internal funding to set up external collaborations and to present papers at conferences. We support some PhD students through our own funding. These mechanisms are managed to give focus and direction to the Department's research. We apply the University's rules for sabbatical leave, which allows research-active staff to have six months research leave after every three years. Where possible, we also accommodate unpaid leave of absence for teaching staff to take up invitations as visiting research fellows.
The importance of research is reflected in staffing policy. Research productivity is central in evaluating promotion prospects. Strategic senior appointments are made to develop an area, while other appointments strengthen existing research groups. A good track record in research is an essential requirement for all appointments. Research activity is a vital element of staff appraisals and evaluation for promotion.
Our technical staff provide support for research, including development and maintenance of the computing infrastructure. Research is underpinned by the expected computing and networking facilities.
Research Students
Most of our research students study for a PhD, but an MPhil by research is also possible. Each student is allocated a supervisor, and usually also a second supervisor. Students generally meet weekly with their supervisors to discuss progress. A designated member of staff also acts as a source of general advice to research students. In addition to our research training, research students have access to the University's Graduate Research School. This offers research training on matters such as IPR, patents, technology transfer, information retrieval and communication skills.
Research Coordination
Our research is under the overall direction of the Deputy Head of Department (Research & Strategy), supported by the Research Convenor and senior researchers in a Research Subcommittee that promotes, oversees and supports research. The Research Committee has particular responsibility for helping newly appointed lecturers to develop their research potential, and for advising research students. Routine activities include internally reviewing and monitoring research publications and grant applications.
The Research Convenor maintains a register of funding opportunities: UK and European, academic and industrial. From the Research Convenor and from the University's Research Office, staff obtain regular advice on matching their activities to research opportunities. Internal feedback is provided during drafting of research proposals, including help from an external research consultant. Internal research funding is used to pump-prime new initiatives, particularly to help the development of young researchers.
Most staff work in just one of the research groups, but inter-group research is encouraged. Some staff contribute to more than one group in Computing Science and Mathematics, and there is interdisciplinary collaboration with other divisions. Individual research groups hold their own meetings and, in some cases, their own seminar series. We run two seminar series, one largely in computing science and the other largely in mathematics. Both feature external and internal speakers. The mathematics series includes regular meetings with the Edinburgh Mathematical Society.
We actively seek industrial input into research planning. The Computing Science Industrial Advisory Board has external members representing local and national IT companies. Thrice-yearly Board meetings advise on opportunities for industrially-relevant research, and give feedback on the industrial relevance of our research. Further links with industry have been fostered through a Software Engineering Club run for Forth Valley Enterprise (the Local Enterprise Company), and through industrial collaborations.
Computing Research Collaborations
In recent years, Computing staff have been invited to take part in a wide range of activities at an international level: conference chairmanship, committee membership and editorships. The proceedings of two major international conferences have been edited (Feature Interactions in Telecommunications and Software Systems, Neuromorphic Systems). Staff have also served on the programme committees of 21 internationally respected conferences including Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology, Artificial Neural Networks, Formal Description Techniques, Feature Interactions in Telecommunications and Software Systems, Neural Networks and their Applications, Neuromorphic Systems and Protocol Specification Testing and Verification. We are also represented on the editorial board for the Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology series in Computing.
Staff have acted as invited editors for recent special issues of the International Journal of Neural Systems and Computer Networks and ISDN Systems. We are represented on the review panels for the Australian Research Council and the Canadian Foundation for Innovation. All staff regularly review papers for respected international journals and conferences.
At national level, we provide EPSRC college members for IT and Communications. A byproduct of research in Neural Computing has been the launching of a spin-off company called Stirling Hearing Systems. The technical innovation behind this won the John Logie Baird Prize for Innovative Design.
Much Computing research has been collaborative. Joint work has been undertaken with international and national companies: British Telecom, Citel, Ericsson UK, Marconi Communications, Mitel, Nokia (Hungary), SERI (Korea), Siemens (Germany), and others. All these organisations have been direct beneficiaries of our research.
European collaborations with research institutes have included CWI (Amsterdam, Netherlands), CSELT (Turin, Italy), GMD (Berlin, Germany), INI (Zürich, Switzerland), INRIA Rhône-Alpes (Grenoble, France), the Institute of System Engineering (Linz, Austria), and the Software Verification Research Centre (Brisbane, Australia). International University collaborators have included Bremen (Germany), Brescia (Italy), Budapest (Hungary), Gröningen (Netherlands), Humboldt (Germany), Ilmenau (Germany), Lisbon (Portugal), Madrid (Spain), Middle East Technical University (Turkey), Nancy (France), Nantes (France), Picardie (France) and Twente (Netherlands).
Normal academic liaison is maintained with other Universities in the UK, including jointly funded research projects.
Mathematics Research Collaborations
The Algebraic Graph Theory Group collaboration with researchers in Yugoslavia
began in 1985 and is now well established, thanks in part to financial
support from the Carnegie Foundation, EPSRC and the Serbian Academy of
Science and Arts.
The Group at Stirling has organized the following international meetings:
- A workshop on Algebraic Graph Theory at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences [ICMS], Edinburgh in July 1993. This attracted 45 mathematicians from 17 countries; it was supported by SERC, the Edinburgh Mathematical Society, the London Mathematical Society and the British Council.
- The 15th British Combinatorial Conference, held at Stirling in July 1995, and organized on behalf of the British Combinatorial Committee. This attracted 230 reseachers from 29 countries; it was supported by the London Mathematical Society and the Institute of Combinatorics and its Applications.
- A EuroWorkshop on Algebraic Graph Theory at the International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh in July 2001. This attracted 68 mathematicians, computer scientists and mathematical chemists from 21 countries. This was a High Level Scientific Conference supported by the European Commission as part of its Framework V programme, with additional funding from the London Mathematical Society and the British Combinatorial Committee.
The Mathematical Ecology Group works very closely with the Department of Biology and the Institute of Aquaculture within the university. The Group regularly writes jointly authored journal articles and has several studentships and grants that are held jointly between two departments. In addition the Group collaborates with, for example, the Universities of Liverpool (Mathematics Department), Glasgow (Mathematics), Heriot Watt (Mathematics), Edinburgh (Vet School) and Imperial College (Silwood Park).
