School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

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Higher education institution

University of Edinburgh School of Informatics

The Informatics Forum, home to the School of Informatics since 2008

Established| 1998 (1998)

Parent institution

| University of Edinburgh
Head of School| Helen Hastie[1]

Academic staff

| 370[2]

Administrative staff

| 96[2]
Students| 1717[3]
Undergraduates| 1020[3]
Postgraduates| 697[3]
Location|

Edinburgh

Scotland

Website| www.ed.ac.uk/informatics

The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in informatics. It was created in 1998 from the former department of artificial intelligence, the Centre for Cognitive Science and the department of computer science, along with the Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) and the Human Communication Research Centre.[citation needed]

Research in the School of Informatics draws on multiple disciplines. The school is particularly known for research in the areas of artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, systems biology, mathematical logic and theoretical computer science; but also contributes to many other areas of informatics.

The School of Informatics is ranked 20th in the world by the QS World University Rankings 2023\. As of 2022, the school is ranked 1st in the UK according to CSRankings,[4] 1st in the UK in the latest 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) by research power,[5] and 1st in the world for natural language processing (NLP).[6]

## Research

[edit]

Professor Malcolm Atkinson Professor Philip Wadler Professor Austin Tate Professor Gordon Plotkin Professor Wenfei Fan Professor Christopher Bishop Professor Alan Bundy Professor Sethu Vijayakumar Professor Peter Dayan was awarded the Rumelhart Prize in 2012 and The Brain Prize in 2017. He completed his PhD at the University of Edinburgh in 1991.[7]

The School of Informatics was awarded a 5*A[8] in the UK HEFCE's 2001 RAE, the only computer science department in the country to achieve this highest possible rating.[8] In the 2008 RAE, the School's "Quality Profile" was 35/50/15/0/0, which means that of the over 100 Full-time equivalent (FTE) staff research outputs evaluated, 35% were found "world-leading (4*)" and 50% "internationally excellent (3*)".[9] These figures can be interpreted in a number of ways, but place the School first by volume and tied for second (following Cambridge with 45/45/10/0/0) by percentage of research rated 3* or 4*.[10]

The School has a number of research Institutes:

### Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation: ANC

[edit]

ANC[11] investigates theoretical and empirical study of brain processes and artificial learning systems, drawing on neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, computational science, mathematics and statistics.

### Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute: AIAI

[edit]

Previously known as CISA (Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications),[12] the Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute (AIAI)[13] works on the foundations of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and their application to real-world problems.

### Institute for Language, Cognition, and Computation: ILCC

[edit]

ILCC performs research on all aspects of natural language processing, drawing on machine learning, statistical modeling, and computational, psychological, and linguistic theories of communication among humans and between humans and machines using text, speech and other modalities.[14]

### Institute for Computing Systems Architecture: ICSA

[edit]

ICSA[15] performs research on architecture and engineering of future computing systems: performance and scalability; innovative algorithms, architectures, compilers, languages and protocols.

### Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour: IPAB

[edit]

IPAB[16] links computational action, perception, representation, transformation and generation processes to real or virtual worlds: statistical machine learning, computer vision, mobile and humanoid robotics, motor control, graphics and visualization.

### Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science: LFCS

[edit]

Main article: Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science

The LFCS[17] Develops and applies foundational understanding of computation and communication: formal models, mathematical theories, and software tools.

## Senior academic staff and alumni

[edit]

### Current

[edit]

Senior academic staff[18] include:

* Malcolm Atkinson
* Alan Bundy
* Peter Buneman
* Christopher Bishop
* Rod Burstall, emeritus
* Kousha Etessami
* Wenfei Fan
* Michael Fourman
* Igor Goryanin
* Sharon Goldwater
* Dragan Gasevic
* Jane Hillston
* Aggelos Kiayias
* Elham Kashefi
* Frank Keller
* Mirella Lapata
* Alex Lascarides
* Leonid Libkin
* Fiona McNeill
* Ursula Martin
* Johanna Moore
* Michael O'Boyle
* Gordon Plotkin
* Don Sannella
* Mark Steedman
* Perdita Stevens
* Keith Stenning
* Amos Storkey
* Austin Tate
* Sethu Vijayakumar
* Philip Wadler
* Barbara Webb
* Bonnie Webber

### Former

[edit]

* Donald Michie, founder of Artificial Intelligence in the UK
* Sidney Michaelson foundation chair of the former computer science department.
* Jon Oberlander

### Notable alumni

[edit]

Alumni of the school of informatics include:

* Geoffrey Hinton, computer scientist at Google Brain and winner of the Turing Award.[19]
* Nigel Shadbolt,[20] Chairman of the Open Data Institute (ODI) and master of Jesus College, Oxford

## Accommodation

[edit]

The 2002 Cowgate fire destroyed a number of buildings,[21] including 80 South Bridge, which housed around a quarter of the school and its renowned AI library.[22] By January 2003, space was made available in the University's Appleton Tower as a replacement.[23]

## See also

[edit]

* Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre
* ML
* Prolog
* WxWidgets
* Moses
* Hope
* NPL
* Freddy II
* Festival Speech Synthesis System
* LCF
* Edinburgh Multiple Access System
* Edinburgh IMP
* QCDOC
* Symbolic artificial intelligence
* Lighthill report

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "Contact us". University of Edinburgh School of Informatics. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
2. ^ a b "Staff Headcount & Full Time Equivalent Statistics (FTE) as at Oct 17". Human Resources, The University of Edinburgh. October 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
3. ^ a b c "University of Edinburgh Factsheet 2017/2018" (PDF). Governance & Strategic Planning, The University of Edinburgh. 31 January 2018. Retrieved 9 May 2018.
4. ^ Berger, Emery D. (2020). "CSRankings".
5. ^ "Research rankings confirm Edinburgh as world leader". The University of Edinburgh. 11 May 2022. Retrieved 15 May 2022.
6. ^ Berger, Emery D. (2020). "CSRankings".
7. ^ Dayan, Peter Samuel (1991). Reinforcing connectionism: learning the statistical way. lib.ed.ac.uk (PhD thesis). hdl:1842/14754. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.649240.
8. ^ a b "RAE 2001 : Results". rae.ac.uk.
9. ^ "RAE 2008 : Quality profiles". rae.ac.uk.
10. ^ "Informatics News: RAE 2008 results: Informatics and Computer Science".
11. ^ "Welcome — ANC - Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation". www.anc.ed.ac.uk.
12. ^ "CISA is changing its name | InfWeb". web.inf.ed.ac.uk. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
13. ^ "AIAI - InfWeb". web.inf.ed.ac.uk. 22 November 2024.
14. ^ "ILCC - InfWeb". web.inf.ed.ac.uk. 22 November 2024.
15. ^ "ICSA - InfWeb". web.inf.ed.ac.uk. 22 November 2024.
16. ^ "IPAB - InfWeb". web.inf.ed.ac.uk. 8 December 2024.
17. ^ "Welcome to LFCS — LFCS". wcms.inf.ed.ac.uk. 8 December 2024.
18. ^ "People". The University of Edinburgh. 18 March 2024.
19. ^ Hinton, Geoffrey Everest (1977). Relaxation and its role in vision. lib.ed.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Edinburgh. hdl:1842/8121. OCLC 18656113. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.482889.
20. ^ Anon (2014). "Shadbolt, Prof. Nigel Richard". Who's Who (online edition via Oxford University Press ed.). A & C Black. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U245873. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
21. ^ Seenan, Gerard (9 December 2002). "Fire devastates Edinburgh's Old Town". the Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
22. ^ agencies, Staff and (9 December 2002). "Edinburgh AI archive lost in fire". the Guardian. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
23. ^ Fourman, Michael Paul. "Emergency Arrangements". www.inf.ed.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2021.

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