Starting this fall the Department of Creative Computing will be offering two new MSc by Research degrees:
For more information please contact Dr. Elena Gaura at: e.gaura@coventry.ac.uk
Mike Allen, a PhD student with Coventry University's Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre has won the £100 first prize in the British Computer Society's "University Challenge" competition.
The competition pitted researchers from Coventry University and Warwick University in a battle to impress the judges with presentations on their research.
Each student gave a ten-minute talk on their current work, with topics including Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks, Automatic Classification of Brain Tumours using Wavelet Transforms and Machine Learning, Context-Aware Mobile Learning and Encryption with Key Integrity and Managed Oracle. Mike's work is focused on enabling small networks of embedded computers to determine their own location, which has a variety of applications in areas as diverse as environmental habitat monitoring and battlefield surveillance.
Mike, 26, from Coventry, is in the second year of his PhD at the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre, having graduated with a first class degree in Computer Science from Coventry University in 2005.
Mike said "I'm thrilled to have won the BCS' first University Challenge competition between Coventry and Warwick. The competition was tough but the evening was a great opportunity to see more of the research that goes on in the two universities."
Coventry Unveristy PhD student Mike Allen is about to start a summer internship at CENS -- one of America's leading research centres at the University of California.
Mike's Director of Studies, Dr Elena Gaura, said "We are delighed that Mike is able to take this opportunity so early on in his research career. Mike has only been with Cogent Computing since October and he has already made fantastic progress in his studies. Prof. Deborah Estrin's Centre for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) is one of the top two centres of excellence for research in wireless sensor networks world-wide, and we are very excited to be collaborating with them."
CENS is a US National Science Foundation Science & Technology Center at the University of California, developing embedded networked sensing systems and applying this revolutionary technology to critical scientific and social applications. Like the Internet, these large-scale, distributed, systems, composed of smart sensors and actuators embedded in the physical world, will eventually infuse the entire world, but at a physical level instead of virtual.
Mike, 26, from Coventry is in the first year of his PhD at the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre, having graduated with a First class degree in Computer Science from Coventry University last year.
"I'm thrilled to be spending the summer working at such a prestigious research centre," said Mike. "My work at Cogent is all about enabling small networked computers to locate themselves just by 'talking' to each other. At CENS I will be working on a similar project which is part of their ongoing research agenda."
Coventry University student Dan Goldsmith is spending the summer working on ground-breaking research with the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre, thanks to a grant from the Nuffield Foundation.
Director of Research in the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre, Dr Elena Gaura is supervising Dan's project. She said:
"Dan's excellent academic performance and enthusiasm for Computer Science made him an obvious candidate for this Bursary. Dan is working on network routing for wireless sensor networks, which is a fundamental aspect of this emerging technology. This grant provides an excellent opportunity for Dan to get involved in research early on in his career".
Dan, 25, from Hampshire is currently studying Computer Science at Coventry.
"One of my favourite aspects of Computer Science is that there is always something new to learn. In the future I would like to get involved in research into new technologies in Pervasive Computing," said Dan.
"This is one of the most exciting areas of Computer Science at the moment and will produce many technological advances in the years to come."
The Nuffield Foundation bursary scheme supports undergraduates, who are considering research as a career, to work in a research laboratory during the summer vacation before their final year.
The bursaries provide student support, normally for a period between 6 and 8 weeks, plus a sum for research expenses.
This year, 330 bursaries were made available to undergraduates.
Dr Elena Gaura, Head of the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre has received an award from the NanoScience and Technology Institute for 'Outstanding Contributions towards the Advancement of the International Nanotechnology, Micro technology and Biotechnology Community'.
The award was presented by Dr Matthew Laudon, Executive Director of the NSTI, at the annual NSTI conference, Nanotech'06 in Boston, USA.
From Coventry E-dition, no 41.
For the third year running, Dr Elena Gaura from the Cogent Computing Applied Research Centre is organising a symposium at the world's largest Nanotech conference and trade show: Nanotech 2006.
Three researchers from Cogent Computing will be travelling to Boston, Massachusetts to take part in the symposium on sensors and systems in the Modelling and Simulation of Microsystems (MSM) strand of the Nanotech conference.
Dr Gaura will be co-chairing the Symposium and Dr Robert Newman, will be giving an invited talk on the system design and applications of Wireless Sensor Networks. Mike Allen, a research student in Cogent, will be presenting a paper on "Experimental Localization with MICA2 Motes."
Dr Gaura said: "Nanotech 2006 is a global showcase for research and the fact that I have organised one of the major symposiums shows that the work we are doing at Cogent Computing is at the cutting edge of wireless sensor technology. Events like Nanotech 2006 enable me to share my work with colleagues over the world and hopefully make new contacts with a view to collaborating on projects in the future."
From Coventry E-dition, no 39.
BBC Coventry and Warwickshire filmed a segment about Cogent Computing and the Mars thread of our distributed wireless sensing research. You can download the video here.
Video courtesy of BBC Coventry and Warwickshire TV. Reported by Anita Ramdharry.
"Coventry University joins wireless revolution" - an article on the launch of the Cogent Computing applied research centre and our research - has appeared on eGov Monitor.
The Psychology of Programming Interest Group (PPIG) aims to bring together people working in a variety of disciplines and to break down cross-disciplinary barriers.
Despite its name PPIG entertains a broad spectrum of research approaches, from theoretical perspectives drawing on psychological theory to empirical perspectives grounded in real-world experience, and is equally concerned with all aspects of programming and software engineering, from the design of programming languages to communication issues in software teams, and from computing education to high-performance professional practice.
Besides an annual workshop series, PPIG also organises occasional meetings such as this one.
Elena Gaura, director of Cogent, has been made a Reader in Pervasive Computing.
Mike Allen, a former undergraduate student and winner of the Cogent Computing prize, rejoins cogent as a PhD student. Mike will be working with Elena on locationing in wireless sensor networks.