School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton
Encyclopedia
The School of Electronics and Computer Science , generally abbreviated "ECS", at the University of Southampton
was founded in 1946 by Professor Erich Zepler
. The School currently offers 23 undergraduate courses (in computer science, electronic engineering, electrical and electromechanical engineering and IT in organisations), 11 MSc intensive one-year taught programmes and PhD research opportunities.
ECS was the first academic institution in the world to adopt a self-archiving mandate (2001) and since then much of its published research has been freely available on the Web. It created the first and most widely used archiving software (EPrints
) which is used worldwide by 269 known archives and continues to be evolved and supported from the School.
Electronics and Electrical Engineering in ECS was ranked 2nd in the UK in both Good University Guide published by the Times and the Complete University Guide published by the Independent. Computer Science in the School was ranked 4th and 5th in the UK respectively in these two publications.
fabrication laboratories. It is estimated that the costs for rebuilding the centre and replacing the equipment will be around £150 million, making this what is believed to be the world's most destructive university fire. The fire that consumed the Mountbatten Building on 30 October 2005 had devastating consequences not just for research in the School of Electronics and Computer Science but for many other partners and collaborators in the UK and around the world whose work was destroyed along with the Building.
The replacement facility was constructed on the site of the previous Mountbatten, and was completed in October 2008. The modern design includes glass curtain walls, decorated by a mathematical fractal pattern, which allows those outside to view the research taking place in the clean rooms . The chiral fractal
design was chosen as it had been used by Southampton researchers working with optics and nanotechnology
.
The School is home to a number of notable staff including Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and Dame Wendy Hall
, president of the Association for Computing Machinery
, ex-president of the British Computer Society
, and Co-Founding Director of the Web Science Research Initiative
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...
was founded in 1946 by Professor Erich Zepler
Erich Zepler
Erich Ernest Zepler , later known as Eric, was a German-born electronics expert and chess problem composer....
. The School currently offers 23 undergraduate courses (in computer science, electronic engineering, electrical and electromechanical engineering and IT in organisations), 11 MSc intensive one-year taught programmes and PhD research opportunities.
ECS was the first academic institution in the world to adopt a self-archiving mandate (2001) and since then much of its published research has been freely available on the Web. It created the first and most widely used archiving software (EPrints
EPrints
EPrints is a free and open source software package for building open access repositories that are compliant with the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. It shares many of the features commonly seen in Document Management systems, but is primarily used for institutional...
) which is used worldwide by 269 known archives and continues to be evolved and supported from the School.
Reputation
The School is regarded by the IET as having the "biggest and strongest academic unit in the country in Electrical and Electronic Engineering." .Electronics and Electrical Engineering in ECS was ranked 2nd in the UK in both Good University Guide published by the Times and the Complete University Guide published by the Independent. Computer Science in the School was ranked 4th and 5th in the UK respectively in these two publications.
Research
The research conducted by ECS has achieved the top 5* rating in the last two Research Assessment Exercises, and in 2003 it was awarded the prestigious ‘best 5*’ rating by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). ECS currently contains six research groups:- Agents, Interaction and Complexity
- Communications, Signal Processing and Control
- Electronic and Software Systems
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Nano Research Group
- Web and Internet Science
Fire and reconstruction
In 2005, a large fire destroyed part of the Mountbatten Building, holding optical fibre research laboratories (the world-renowned Optoelectronics Research Centre, ORC) and the microchipIntegrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
fabrication laboratories. It is estimated that the costs for rebuilding the centre and replacing the equipment will be around £150 million, making this what is believed to be the world's most destructive university fire. The fire that consumed the Mountbatten Building on 30 October 2005 had devastating consequences not just for research in the School of Electronics and Computer Science but for many other partners and collaborators in the UK and around the world whose work was destroyed along with the Building.
The replacement facility was constructed on the site of the previous Mountbatten, and was completed in October 2008. The modern design includes glass curtain walls, decorated by a mathematical fractal pattern, which allows those outside to view the research taking place in the clean rooms . The chiral fractal
Chirality (mathematics)
In geometry, a figure is chiral if it is not identical to its mirror image, or, more precisely, if it cannot be mapped to its mirror image by rotations and translations alone. For example, a right shoe is different from a left shoe, and clockwise is different from counterclockwise.A chiral object...
design was chosen as it had been used by Southampton researchers working with optics and nanotechnology
Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...
.
Notable Staff
Main: Notable Staff of the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of SouthamptonThe School is home to a number of notable staff including Sir Timothy Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and Dame Wendy Hall
Wendy Hall
Dame Wendy Hall DBE, FREng, FBCS, FIET, FCGI, FRS is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, England.- Background :...
, president of the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
, ex-president of the British Computer Society
British Computer Society
The British Computer Society, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology in the United Kingdom and internationally...
, and Co-Founding Director of the Web Science Research Initiative
Web science
The Web Science Trust is a joint effort originally started between MIT and University of Southampton to bridge and formalize the social and technical aspects of the World Wide Web...