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Computer Science at Swansea - the ITWales Interview

by Sali Earls

Computer Science is a young subject, but its impact is felt in almost every aspect of everyday life. The Computer Science department at Swansea University is one of the most renowned within the UK, and in the past 12 months has seen significant growth in both academic staff and disciplines.

Sali Earls spoke to Professor John Tucker, head of department, to find out more about the subject and the plans at Swansea.

The Computer Science department at Swansea University is growing, and in the past twelve months, it seems to have almost doubled in size. Can you explain what's been happening?

There has been investment in Computer Science at Swansea. We're building up a department that can lead internationally in some key areas.

In the last two years we have hired computer scientists from around the world to support our existing research programmes, and also started research in the new subject of Interaction Technologies. So our existing research groups have been strengthened, and this new subject has been introduced to Wales.

Is it hard to find good people?

Not at the moment! The competition for our posts is intense - so many talented scientists apply, and I would have loved to employ more people. Although the department has long been admired, we find that more and more people are aware of our work and what we have to offer them.

You've achieved great things with a really small team...

...exactly. We have achieved great things with a small team. For example, at the time of the last UK Research Assessment Exercise in 2001 we had 12 academic staff and won a Grade 5, or "excellent" rating, but we were among the smallest outfits in the UK. If you looked at the other top departments for research, the smallest one was more than twice our size.

Computer Science in Swansea has taken a step forward.

How would you describe the Department to our readers in the business community?

For over a decade the Department has been small but excellent at what we do, in our research and teaching, and in knowledge transfer, development, and supporting the business and community through ITWales. I hope you'll agree this is a fair judgement!

The Department is equally balanced between theoretical research and experimental and applied research. Our experimental work is focussed on visual computing, interaction technologies, and simulation. Colleagues in these areas have a considerable experience in working with industry internationally.

In particular, the visual computing group has a fantastic record of research - in three-dimensional computer graphics, data visualisation, and multimedia communications - and of development work with Welsh companies. They are the main technical force behind our contribution to industry in Wales. I have lost count of the awards they have received and the start-ups they have instigated.

And the theoretical work?

Our theoretical research is about the fundamental ideas of computation in all its forms; its applications lie in the design of software and computers. It is heavily mathematical and is too advanced and long term for most industry to collaborate with us. Theoreticians do some industrial work (e.g., on security standards for Swiss electronic payments) and we collaborate with our experimental colleagues on their problems.

I think that the addition of the new Future Interaction Technologies team will make the department a lot more accessible to businesses, simply because that area of research is much more tangible than the more advanced theoretical areas you've specialised in, and as such will lead to greater opportunities for the department.

Well, that's the plan!

Generally speaking, the quality of software is low. Given the importance of software interfaces to users, it is exceedingly low. How can companies improve their products? The Future Interaction Technologies (FIT) group is primarily about software interfaces. The interesting thing about interfaces is that they are everywhere because computers, calculators, etc. are embedded in everything. From iPods and telephones to aircraft and life support machines, the range of products containing software broadens enormously the relevance of the science.

Unfortunately, the design of interfaces for gadgets is often appalling. By making these devices in the millions, we often spread frustration and, say, in the case of medical tools, risk. The traditional example of incompetence in interface design is the video recorder, which only 12 year olds could use properly! Now we have the Combined DVD and VCR, which even the 12 year olds have trouble with! When will industry and business take up the challenge of looking at their practices and investing their energy in producing better designs, products they themselves understand completely?

One thing is for sure - those people that do it will profit. That's been proved time and time again. An eye for detail, an uncompromising attitude to technical quality, and attention to the needs of users is what is needed in developing software, as with most products.

The general level of design consciousness in software products is very low, I think. So what Swansea can offer the industry a much greater awareness in this whole area of software product design, and improved tools and procedures. The FIT group will be taking on the scary world of medical instrumentation, for example.

The problems are only going to increase with greater technological convergence.

Exactly. The thing is that, from the point of view of existing companies, the invasion of software into products old and new will accelerate. Over the last decade, we've seen it invade all kinds of consumer products, and it will invade many more aspects of the domestic scene; in cars it has been really quite remarkable.

So the arrival of this FIT group is very timely. One thing is for sure, whether Welsh industry is interested in profiting from this or not, the quality of our team is absolutely first rate. So we'll certainly be making a contribution to the subject, and so to somebody's competitiveness!

Of course, people like me are forever saying that the opportunities offered by Computer Science to businesses are quite vast: not only are they vast in terms of what might be achieved, they are also vast in terms of what may be lost. Failure on a grand scale is definitely an option. We have seen enough of industrial under-investment in Wales these past 50 years.

You mentioned software development, and the department is holding a series of conferences on the subject of "Exploring the Science of Software Development", starting with CALCO late last year, and continuing with BCTCS next month. How did you secure such a prestigious series of international conference at Swansea, and what does it mean to the Computer Science department?

One of the strongest research programmes is in formal methods for software and hardware, for which Swansea is well known in the international research community. As we have grown, we have had more time to play a leading role in the research community. So instead of flying around to other people's conferences, we can host, even launch, these prestigious and select events here.

We attracted them simply because our bids for these conferences were attractive: we can provide very good facilities and organisation, and attract great speakers. We have no difficulty in attracting people from all over the world - over 30 countries were represented at CALCO. And it's helped enormously too that with this investment in the department, we've responded immediately by not just organising one, but organising three - the next are in April and June, and we have an attracted elite set of speakers. ITWales and the WDA have been helping us connect these conferences with Welsh industry through special events.

ITWales is a unique programme - what does it mean to the department?

ITWales is now an established programme, with over a decade of work. For many years it's been a contributor to the general level of knowledge and professional activity in Wales, supporting computer related businesses.

To say it's unique I think is true. I know of no department anywhere with anything like ITWales, and certainly nothing like its track record. Some of the big departments have very good "supporters clubs" where big business lends a hand, but one rather suspects that it's something more to do with marketing or charity than with the grassroots partnerships we enjoy through ITWales.

I think the whole ethos of the department for many years has been to pursue high professional standards, and to make a real contribution. That culture affects the people working in the department and promotes the whole culture of getting things done. ITWales is perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of a set of people who get things done.

The primary thing is that ITWales is open and involves all businesses, it's not restricted itself in anyway to purely software houses, and it has not restricted itself to problems that the department's computer scientists are professionally interested in. You see, it is a means for us to listen and respond, and it's through that listening that we've all learned a huge amount about our own subject, and its significance for the software industry and wider business community.

ITWales is playing a very important role in educating us: it is amazing that every few years the technological agenda can be revised. For instance, cybercrime, and things of this kind, is relevant now, whereas a few years ago they were not an issue. It's interesting to reflect on the agenda of ITWales, and the events and activities that have been organised over the last ten years because you will see a thumbnail of a continuing revolution in computing and technology.

ITWales has played a very important role and one of the things that the team always wanted to do was to provide real support to the development of the software industry in Wales, and it has achieved a great deal in that area, now in North Wales as well as South Wales. As that grows, it will of course benefit Computer Science departments like ours, and our graduates and researchers.

The next university Research Assessment Exercise is coming up in 2008, so is work underway to prepare for that?

Yes. Computer Science in Swansea lives or dies by its contribution to the international research community. The Exercise focuses the mind greatly on where we should spend our resources, which are hopelessly limited. So our plan is to develop the subjects that we currently do and make quite clear to the world what Swansea currently stands for.

We've got incredibly capable people applying for jobs to work with us or visit or have sabbaticals; and we have an enormous international network of contacts in industry and the scientific community, which brings together the best knowledge available of what is going on around the world.

With the world of Computer Science changing at an ever-increasing rate, where do you see the department going in the future?

Computer Science is a gigantic subject, with gigantic potential, and given its infiltration into modern society, gigantic responsibilities.

Computer Science provides some of the most magical technologies that our parents could not possibly imagine. It produces the most gigantic corporations by value and size, and we have to get used to the fact that these kinds of businesses are here to stay. Computer Science is exciting, enormous, and everywhere - it's truly global as a subject - and we here in Swansea want to contribute. We hope that people locally - whatever their role, whatever their company - will exercise their imagination on just how big and powerful all of these things are going to be, not just for our economy, but for the proper conduct of social and domestic life.

I expect to see the department grow in size. It should also develop new subjects, but not before we've sorted out large-scale operations in the subjects we already cover.

For instance, I want to see partnerships that enable us to work on economic, social and cultural aspects of IT. Everywhere I look I see plenty of rhetoric and received opinion, but few facts and little understanding in public debate. The role of ICT in the regional economy is not properly analysed or understood. The impact of internet on society is barely charted.

I think that wherever we do go, we'll be pursuing subjects that have tremendous long term potential. At Swansea we work with long-term goals all the time, and we never settle for second best.

Find out more about the work of Computer Science at Swansea University at www.cs.swansea.ac.uk.

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