Informatics
School research in the field of informatics specialises primarily in distributed information management, informatics in a wide range of inter-disciplinary contexts and in strategic information systems. Several of our research projects are concerned with the exploitation of GRID based information for e-Science.
Our informatics research is embedded in a variety of application domains, where we work closely with end-users. We develop novel techniques for representing and processing information, to support knowlegeable decision-making. Increasingly, we are looking at informatics in a mobile and ambient context, able to support people in the field. We also study technology and systems to help people collaborate in a secure and resilient way.
Putting information in the field: multi-sensor task allocation applied to the highly dynamic sensor networks used in emergency response.
Embedded Informatics
Our main areas of focus are geoinformatics, biodiversity informatics, and health informatics. Examples include more human-friendly ways of representing and reasoning about the geographical world, improved management of species data for environmental management, and better coordination of care teams for patients.
Resilient Informatics
We study human organisations and systems involving people and technology working together. We aim to make organisations more agile - to cope better with change - but also more resilient, with more effective ways of handling privacy and security.
Ambient Informatics
People need access to information to support their activities anywhere, anytime. Examples include monitoring patients' health in their own homes, giving emergency responders in an earthquake the best-available picture of what is happening, and allowing environmental scientists in the lab and in the field to work together.
Researching in this Field
Staff
- Dr A.I. Abdelmoty
- Dr P. Burnap
- Mrs N. Edwards
- Professor W.A. Gray
- Mr A.R. Hardisty
- Dr W.K. Ivins
- Dr A.C. Jones
- Professor C.B. Jones
- Dr G. Loukides
- Mr S.B. McIntosh
- Professor A.D. Preece
- Dr S. Schockaert
- Dr J. Shao
- Dr I. Spasić
- Professor R.M. Whitaker
- Dr R.J. White
- Dr Y. Chen
- Mr J.C. Hilton
- Mr D. Jones
- Dr Chang Liu
- Mr D. Pizzocaro
- Mr F. Quevedo Fernandez
- Dr V. Tanasescu
- Ms S. Walton
Researchers
Honorary Professor(s)
Additional group members can be seen on the full list of School research students.
Seminars
See what this group is discussing in the School's Informatics Research Seminar programme.
Research Expertise
Particular areas of strength and expertise in the School include:
- Ambient information systems
- Bioinformatics and biodiversity
- Constraints and data semantics
- Data/knowledge mining
- Geoinformatics and spatial information systems
- Grid-based distributed information management
- Healthcare and medical informatics
- Information quality
- Information security and privacy
- Legacy information systems
- Linked data and the Semantic Web
- Resilient information systems
- Sensor information processing systems
- Strategic information systems
- Tractable ontologies/hybrid reasoning
- Virtual organisations/enterprises/coalitions
Impact
- The Catalogue of Life: keeping track of species in managing biodiversity
- Improved management of cancer patients: the CANISC information system
- Automated captioning of photo images: the TRIPOD geoinformatics system
Student Contributions
Recent successful PhD students have submitted the following theses:
- A. Al Qauod - Publish/subscribe scientific workflow interoperability framework (PS/SWIF)
- P. Smart - A semantic web rule language for geospatial domains
- J.S. Pahwa - MDSSF - A federated architecture for product procurement
- A. Tawileh - Adaptive Enterprise Security: A Holistic Approach for Information Assurance Management in Small to Medium Sized Enterprises
- G. Loukides - Data utility and privacy protection in data publishing
- B. Al-Mutairy - Data mining and integration of heterogeneous bioinformatics data sources
Current Grants & Research Projects
| Holder | Project Title | Source | Value (£Ks) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mr A. Hardisty | Biodiversity Virtual eLaboratory | European Commission (FP7) | 1137.6 |
| Dr J Shao | Development of data analysis capability to support comprehensive labour and overhead cost reporting and effective decision making in operation | Industrial partner | 170.93 |
| Mr AR Hardisty, Dr AC Jones and Dr RJ White | Distributed Dynamic Diversity Databases for Life (4D4life) | EC | 266.84 |
| Mr JC Hilton | Effective EPAC Knowledge Transfer (EFFEKT) | EPSRC | 158.21 |
| Professor A Preece and Professor R Van Deursen (School of Health Care Studies) | Functional recovery from stroke during rehabilitation in the Cardiff stroke unit and home environment | NISCHR | 60 |
| Dr Andrew Jones, Mr A Hardisty & Dr RJ White | Indexing for Life (I4Life) | EC (FP7) | 135.01 |
| Professor A Preece | International technology alliance in network and information sciences | IBM UK Ltd | 272.42 |
| Dr E Conley & Dr P Burnap | miConsent: Revocable patient consent | TSB via Abies Ltd | 64.47 |
| Dr J. Shao and Dr G. Loukides | Privacy protection in event-based data sharing and analysis | Royal Academy of Engineering | 515.4 |
| Professor RM Whitaker | Relevance and cognition for self awareness in a content-centric internet (RECOGNITION) | EC | 493.89 |
Recently Completed Research
The following projects have successfully completed:
- Construction of the lifewatch research infrastructure
- IDEA Factory - Curative resilience scoping study
- ITA: International Technology Alliance in Network and Information Sciences
- Process Optimisation Through Data Analysis