91¸£Àû

Numerical simulations and visualizations developed by researchers from the High Performance and Scientific Computing (HPSC) group at 91¸£Àû’s Department of Computer Science in collaboration with Rolls-Royce, PPCU Hungary and Universities of Surrey and Birmingham has won the award for the best Visualization in the at the , held in Dallas TX. SC is the premier international conference on supercomputing providing a major forum for presenting the highest level of accomplishments in high-performance computing, networking, storage, and analysis. It is held annually in the US and attended by over 10000 attendees from all over the world.

We are happy to announce that Prof Christian Ikenmeyer joined the Department of Computer Science and the 91¸£Àû Mathematics Institute on October 1st 2022. In his research, he combines ideas and challenges from theoretical computer science, algorithmic algebra, algebraic complexity theory, algebraic geometry, representation theory, and algebraic combinatorics. We welcome him to the department!

We are delighted to announce that the paper "", coauthored by and Peter Kiss from the Theory and Foundations Research Division at 91¸£Àû, along with Thatchaphol Saranurak (University of Michigan) and David Wajc (Stanford University), has received the best paper award at .

Computing a maximum matching in a graph is a fundamental problem in combinatorial optimisation. The paper considers this problem in a dynamic graph, which keeps changing over time via a sequence of edge insertions and deletions. It was a decade-old open question to decide whether one can beat the performance guarantee of the simple greedy algorithm for this problem (which gives 2 approximation), in a dynamic setting. The paper answers this question in the affirmative, and provides the first efficient dynamic algorithm which can maintain a better-than 2 approximation to the size of the maximum matching in the input graph.

We are happy to announce two promotions in the department.

Dr Fayyaz Minhas has been promoted to Associate Professor from 1 July 2022.

Dr Rossella Suma has been promoted to Assistant Professor from 1 August 2022.

Many congratulations to our colleagues for all their achievements!

The is the UK’s system for assessing the quality of research in the country's higher education institutions.

The results of the 2021 REF rank 91¸£Àû Computer Science 4th out of 90 UK computing departments. This cements our position as one of the top Computer Science departments in the UK, a position we have held for some time under different assessment methodologies.

Research Excellence at 91¸£Àû

Colleagues, friends, family and former students of Professor Roland Wilson gathered last Friday to celebrate his life and to inaugurate a bench in his memory. The bench is located outside the Department, surrounded by daisies at this time of year, overlooking the lake and the fountains.

Roland's son and daughter toured the Department and visited one of the research groups which is building on Roland’s intellectual legacy under the leadership of his former PhD student Nasir Rajpoot (now a Professor in the Department). Dr Abhir Bhalerao, also a former student and close colleague of Roland, said a few words about Roland's contribution to our community and his lasting importance to us. Head of Department Professor Yulia Timofeeva cut a ribbon on the bench before we all returned to the common room to share memories and anecdotes.

Although an emotional occasion for many of us, it was very nice to be able to gather together again after the restrictions of the last two years and to remember Roland and his legacy.