University of Edinburgh School of Informatics

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The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in Informatics.

It was created in 1998 from the former Department of Artificial Intelligence, the Centre for Cognitive Science and the Department of Computer Science, along with the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute and the Human Communication Research Centre. Research in the School of Informatics draws on these component disciplines and much of it is interdisciplinary in nature. The school is especially well known for research in the areas of artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, systems biology and theoretical computer science but also contributes to many other areas of informatics. The school has a research staff of over 130 individuals, and an academic staff of 75. Current enrollment includes around 250 research students, and 475 taught masters and undergraduate students. The school was ranked 1st in the UK according to the Guardian University Tables 2008^[1].

1 Research
2 People
- 2.1 Professors
- 2.2 Notable alumni
3 Accommodation
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Research

The School of Informatics was awarded a 5*A in the UK government's HEFCE Research Assessment Exercise, the only computer science department in the country to achieve this highest possible rating. The School is generally considered world-leading, standing with the foremost U.S. institutes.

The School has six research Institutes:

Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation: Theoretical and empirical study of brain processes and artificial learning systems, drawing on neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, computational science, mathematics and statistics.
Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications: Basic and applied research and development in knowledge representation and reasoning.; Through its Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) it works with others to deploy the technologies associated with this research.
Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems: Research on all aspects of natural language processing, drawing on machine learning, statistical modeling, and computational, psychological, and linguistic theories of communication among humans and between humans and machines using text, speech and other modalities.
Institute for Computing Systems Architecture: Architecture and engineering of future computing systems: performance and scalability; innovative algorithms, architectures, compilers, languages and protocols.
Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour: Linking computational action, perception, representation, transformation and generation processes to real or virtual worlds: statistical machine learning, computer vision, mobile and humanoid robotics, motor control, graphics and visualization.
Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science: Developing and applying foundational understanding of computation and communication: formal models, mathematical theories, and software tools.

A new Informatics Life Sciences Institute will be formed in 2007.

[edit] People

[edit] Professors

Established and personal Chairs^[2]

Malcolm Atkinson (e-Science),
Chris Bishop (Computer Science),
Alan Bundy (Automated Reasoning),
Peter Buneman (Database Systems; Royal Society Andrew Wolfson Research Merit Award^[3]),
Vincent Danos (Computational Systems Biology),
Wenfei Fan (Web Data Management),
Bob Fisher (Computer Vision),
Michael Fourman (Computer Systems—Software),
Igor Goryanin (Systems Biology),
Jane Hillston (Quantitative Modelling),
Ewan Klein (Cognitive Systems),
Leonid Libkin (Foundations of Data Management; Marie Curie Chair^[4]),
Johanna Moore (Artificial Intelligence),
Jon Oberlander (Epistemics),
Michael O'Boyle (Computer Science),
Gordon Plotkin FRS (Computation Theory; Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award^[3]),
Steve Renals (Speech Technology),
Don Sannella (Computer Science),
Mark Steedman FBA (Cognitive Science),
Keith Stenning (Human Communications),
Colin Stirling (Computation Theory),
Austin Tate (Knowledge-Based Systems),
Nigel Topham (Computer Systems),
Phil Wadler (Theoretical Computer Science; Royal Society Wolfson Wolfson Research Merit Award^[3]),
Bonnie Webber (Intelligent Systems),
Chris Williams (Machine Learning),
David Willshaw (Computational Neuroscience)

[edit] Notable alumni

Previous staff and students, including alumni of the departmental forebears of the school.

[edit] Accommodation

The Edinburgh Cowgate fire of December 2002 destroyed a number of buildings, including 80 South Bridge, which housed around one third of the school and its renowned AI library. Space was quickly made available in the University's Appleton Tower as a replacement.

The School is currently dispersed over five sites: three in the George Square Campus: Appleton Tower, Buccleuch Place, Forrest Hill; and two at King's Buildings: James Clerk Maxwell Building, and the Darwin Building.

A new home for the School's research, The Informatics Forum, is being built in the George Square campus, on the former Crichton Street car park, adjacent to the Appleton Tower. The Forum, a building for interaction designed by Bennetts Associates, will house some 500 researchers - staff and students. Construction began in October 2005. Occupation of the new building is scheduled for 2008, finally bringing the School's researchers together, under one roof, some ten years after its inception.

The Appleton Tower, which will house all the School's teaching and commercialisation activities, is also undergoing extensive refurbishment.