Hazel Hall's lecture to all new students within the School of Computing at Edinburgh Napier University delivered 14th September 2012.

1. PROFESSORIAL LECTURE
Research in Computing at Edinburgh
Napier University
Professor Hazel Hall
Centre for Social Informatics
Institute for Informatics and Digital Innovation/School of
Computing
14th September 2012

2. A professorial lecture:
 How we manage Computing research at
Edinburgh Napier University
 The research that we undertake
 Reasons to get involved with research
 How to develop your research profile as a student

3. Professors you might know already?
Super Murder
Rapper hero suspect

4. Professors of Computing at Edinburgh
Napier
Benyon Hart Kennedy Hall Buchanan

5. Readers
Al-Dubai Liu Smyth Turner

6. The Faculty, School & Research Institutes
 The Faculty of Engineering, Computing and
Creative Industries (FECCI) comprises three
schools
 You are a student in one of these schools: the
School of Computing
 You’ll meet the Professors and Readers in class
(along with Lecturers and Senior Lecturers)

7. The Faculty, School & Research Institutes
 The Faculty of Engineering, Computing and
Creative Industries (FECCI) comprises three
schools
 You are a student in one of these schools: the
School of Computing
 You’ll meet the Professors and Readers in class
(along with Lecturers and Senior Lecturers)
 Research activity at Napier is carried out in
Research Institutes
 Computing research is undertaken in the Institute
for Informatics & Digital Innovation (IIDI)

10. We find practical solutions to
real-world problems.
We help address the Scottish
Government goal of using
innovative research to
support new business
development.
We cover industry sectors
such as: financial services;
manufacturing and logistics;
health; digital markets; life
sciences; energy; public
sector.

12. Research is funded from
a range of sources, e.g.
UK research councils,
Europe, companies,
charities, national and
local government

13. @IIDI_Napier

15. Time for a quick quiz
 Anyone interested in astronomy?
 Name the planets…

16. Planet B
Planet A

17. Planet B
Venus

18. Earth
Venus

19. Simulation of the morning sky as
seen from the Curiosity Landing
site on August 14th 2012
http://astroblogger.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/earth-
and-saturn-as-seen-from-mars-14.html
Earth
Mars
Venus

20. Research centre staff
investigate computing from
their particular perspective
How can computer
security be improved?
CSI: through social
solutions related to
changing individual &
CDCNS: through
organisational practice.
technical solutions
related to firewall
optimisation.
CID: through the
development of
interface design in
security systems.

21. Sample projects
 A few as illustration
 Many more on the IIDI web pages at
http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/c/grants

22. Centre for Emergent
Computing
 Which methods of
planting and harvesting
forests best minimise
the impact of wind
damage to the trees?
 Which is the best way to
route delivery vehicles
so that goods arrive on
time & CO2 emissions
are lowered?

23. Centre for Social Informatics
How can we improve democratic
participation through new
technologies?

24. Centre for Distributed
Overall Governance
Policy/ Ontology Other domains
Computing, Networking,
(Education, Law
Identify Provider Attribute Provider
Enforcement,
etc) & Security
CIPS (Cloud
Identity and
ACS (Azure LIU
Privacy Services)
Access Control
Service)
Identity LIU
Federated Governance
Identity
Provision
 How can we create a
LIU
Access secure and robust
Rights, Roles and Services
Translation Gateway
(Security Policy/
New Clinical
Services
information
ID Mapping) (Trusted)
Citizen
LIU infrastructure for the
sharing of individuals’
Statutory Health
Access
LIU
Consumer e-Health Hospital & GP
health records?
Systems Social Care
and Voluntary
eRed Book Health and Social Care
Personalised
content
Hidden Talents e-Health

25. Centre for Information and
Software Systems
How can we use data collected on
user activity to improve computer
games?

26. Centre for Interaction Design
What is the best way to design and
engineer the next generation of
interactive technologies?
What impact will these
technologies have on the way that
we work and live?

27. Apart from discovering cool new things,
why else do we enjoy doing research?
I get to explore and
I meet really
learn something
interesting people.
new.
I enjoy the I get access to new
challenge of technologies before
I get paid to travel stretching everyone else does.
abroad to tell others myself.
about my work. In the future I’ll be
My reputation and It’s great to see my able to say “I was
profile grows as my work when it is THERE!”
research career published in print.
progresses leading
to more interesting I feel a stronger
work in the future. I can be nominated connection with my
subject area.
for - and win - prizes.

28. Yahoo! 9 August 2012
 17 years old
 12000 employees
 700 million users per month
 Corporate HQ in Sunnyvale,
CA

29. Yahoo! 9 August 1995
 5 months old
 12 employees (“surfers”)
 9 million users per month
 Housed in modest, low level,
suburban building

30. Yahoo! 9 August 1995
 5 months old
 12 employees (“surfers”)
 9 million users per month
 Housed in modest, low level,
suburban building
I was there!

31. Sample students/graduates who benefited
from involvement in research
 A few as illustration
 There are many more...

32. Prize winners
Check also the cabinet
in C corridor: Steffanie
McKenna 2011

33. Reputation and
profile growth
Jamie Graves
Now: Company CEO
Then: BSc Networks
and Distributed
Systems, followed by
PhD

34. Reputation growth through
internship and publication
Lorraine Paterson
Now: User experience
designer at Royal London
Then: worked for CSI as
a summer intern

35. Now: academics
Then: Edinburgh Napier students
Buchanan Chalmers Urquhart

36. Interested? How to get involved
 Familiarise yourself with the work of the
computing researchers at Edinburgh Napier
 Look out for forthcoming research seminars
 Follow @iidi_napier on Twitter
 Participate in our projects
 Volunteer to help when calls go out (volunteer anyway)
 Apply for summer internships when advertised
 When you have something to show
 Write it up – blog, newsletter, with tutor
 Put yourself forward for student research related grants,
awards and prizes
 Become active in the professional community

37. http://about.me/hazelh
• @hazelh
• h.hall@napier.ac.uk