The learning environment

In the tradition of all research-oriented universities, the Department of Computer Science has a strong commitment to research-led teaching. In the context of our MSc degrees, this means that our students are not only taught well-established fundamentals in their courses, but also the most advanced theories and techniques currently under consideration. This is developed further by the research activities of the students themselves, both in exploring topics as part of their course work and in the completion of a dissertation. As a result, students graduating with a degree from us are highly valued in industry, commerce and academia.

High marks for student satisfaction

The Department of Computer Science has scored consistently highly in the National Student Survey. In the 2009 survey, 100% of our computer science students agreed that they were satisfied with their course - a better result than any other computer science department in the UK.

Reputation

The Department of Computer Science has a reputation for innovative teaching. In particular, our student-run software company, Genesys Solutions, is unique in the UK and has attracted praise from employers and UK government ministers.

The Department has an international reputation for the quality of its research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), 65% of our research work was rated world leading or internationally excellent in terms of its originality, significance and rigour. According to the widely used "research power" measure (research quality multiplied by volume) the Department is ranked 15th out of 81 similar departments in the UK.

Excellent facilities

Our main computer lab has high-end PCs, running both Windows and Linux software. Facilities are fully wireless enabled. You can also connect personal laptops to the University network. You’ll have free access to all Microsoft development products under the MSDN licensing programme so you can even install them on your own machine if you need to.

You’ll also have access to the University network: hundreds of PCs across the campus and in student accommodation. These facilities include powerful UNIX systems for high performance grid computing, and internet and email access.

The Department uses some exciting hardware devices in its teaching. We have a fleet of Lego Mindstorm NXT robots and a large number of state-of-the-art SunSPOTs, small wireless devices that run Java programs. Most recently, we have established a dedicated laboratory for software development on mobile devices, equipped with Apple iMac computers, iPod touch devices and Android phones and tablets.