School of Informatics

2020

All the news from 2020.

City bus firm’s app upgrade helps keep ticket fraud in check

Data experts are helping to boost the security of a ticketing app used by a leading UK public transport company.

Teaching a Robot Dog New Tricks with Dr. Alex Li

In collaboration with Zhejiang University, Alex Li and team have created a quick-thinking quadruped that has the ability to use pre-learned skills to respond and adapt to previously unseen situations.

Björn Ross awarded the Stafford Beer Medal for Best Paper in EJIS in 2019

Lecturer in Computational Social Science Björn Ross has been awarded the prestigious Stafford Beer Medal for best paper published in the European Journal of Information Systems (EJIS) in 2019.

Edinburgh Students Win the Official MLH 2020 Europe Season

The University of Edinburgh is announced the winners of the 2020 Europe Major League Hacking (MLH) Season, coming first out of 150 Universities across eighteen Hackathon events.

Edinburgh-Leeds collaboration produces first ever 3D-printed tongue surface

Scientists from the Universities of Leeds and Edinburgh including Dr. Rik Sarkar have created the first ever 3D-printed synthetic soft surface that replicates the human tongue.

Female Informatics Students Benefit from DeepMind Funding

School of Informatics students from under-represented groups are being supported on their academic journey by a new scholarship funded by DeepMind.

Edinburgh to lead £3.2 million project into the Governance and Regulation of Decision-making Machines

Researchers across the University and beyond have come together to ensure the trustworthiness of systems that put machines in charge of decisions, from virtual assistants like Alexa to aircraft autopilot.

Take Part in Call for Code 2020 University Spot Challenge Virtual Hackathon

Join the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics, IBM and the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) for a virtual hackathon.

Sam Lindley Awarded Prestigious UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship

One of the recipients of this year’s Future Leader’s Fellowship, Dr. Sam Lindley is currently an honorary member of the School of Informatics and will re-join us fully in February 2021.

Scientists to create a Digital Twin of Antarctica

The University’s Schools of GeoSciences and Informatics have received further funding to advance our understanding of the Antarctic Ice Sheet by creating a digital twin of Antarctica.

Cyber centre set to reduce digital harm

A team of Edinburgh scientists led by Dr Tariq Elahi will play a key role in a new cyber security centre that will help keep citizens safe online.

Undergraduate Students Win Filecoin Challenge in Spark University Hackathon

Students Stephen Waddell, Alex Shand, Mahbub Iftekhar and Michael Michaelides were part of Código, the winning team of the Filecoin and IPFS challenge at the Spark University Hackathon.

Virtual Doors Open Day in the School of Informatics

Doors Open Day returns on the weekend of 26th-27th September 2020, in the new virtual format.

Edinburgh joins ELLIS, European AI collaboration

Edinburgh is joining the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) – a pan-European Artificial Intelligence collaboration.

Diego Oyarzun involved in Principal’s Innovation Award-winning Project

Reader in Computational Biology Diego Oyarzun is part of one of seven winning research teams named in this year's Principal's Innovation Award.

University joins quantum leap in computing

A team of Edinburgh scientists led by Elham Kashefi are part of a national consortium that will build and operate Britain’s first commercial quantum computer – a revolutionary computer with huge processing power.

Perdita Stevens works on empowering non-computing specialists

School of Informatics’ Perdita Stevens and Steffen Zschaler, Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at King’s College London are spearheading a new academic and industry network that aims to increase the UK’s ability to develop high-quality software needed for economic success.

Alan Bundy Presented with EurAI Distinguished Service Award 2020

Professor of Automated Reasoning Alan Bundy has been awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the European Association for Artificial Intelligence for his contribution to the advancement of AI.

New Deputy Vice Principals Research from the School of Informatics

Two senior academics from the School of Informatics have been appointed new deputy Vice Principals Research.

EIE20 goes Virtual on 14th October 2020

Powered by Informatics Ventures, Engage Invest Exploit (EIE) is the international flagship event for Data Driven Innovation, attracting world class investors to the heart of the aspirational Data Driven capital of Europe.

Talos the 6-foot humanoid robot, the latest addition to our robotics research lab

The Statistical Machine Learning and Motor Control group are pleased to welcome Talos, a high performance robot standing at 1.75m tall, as the newest addition to the robotics research lab.

EUFS AI Team win Formula Student UK AI competition for the third consecutive year

For the third time the University’s Formula Student AI team won the ADS Design and Class Awards for the best software and hardware design of an autonomous race car at the FS UK competition.

Bonnie Webber awarded 2020 ACL Lifetime Achievement Award

Bonnie Webber was awarded 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award by the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

Our BSc in AI hits Forbes top 10 ranking for 2021 AI courses

School of Informatics BSc in Artificial Intelligence programme was named among the 10 best AI and data science undergraduate courses for 2021 by Forbes.

PhD candidate reveals Edinburgh cycling boom through animated map video

Using data from Just Eat bikes Benedek Rozemberczki has created a video showing the routes taken by users across the city, revealing a dramatic increase in usage after lockdown was introduced.

Two Informatics projects gain DDI funding to aid local Covid-19 recovery

Two projects led by Rik Sarkar and DK Arvind have received funding from the Data-Driven Innovation (DDI) Programme to support local responses to the Covid-19 pandemic.

George Karabassis creates Covid-tracking website that centres user experience

Second year student George Karabassis has created Covid19livespread, a website that presents detailed Covid-19 data and statistics from around the world in one clear, user-friendly place.

William Waites involved in test, trace and isolate study to save lives and economy

Population-wide testing, contact tracing and isolation in the UK could save more than 50,000 lives and around £700bn over the next two years, research suggests.

Privacy is key to success of contact tracing, says Aggelos Kiayias

Professor Aggelos Kiayias, Chair in Cyber Security and Privacy, has written about the importance of prioritising privacy in contact tracing for the University's Covid-19 'Expert insights' site.

Undergraduate students create website comparing Covid-19's impact in Scotland

Third-year Computer Science students Mark Swan and Calum McMeekin have developed CovidMaps, an interactive website that facilitates comparison of the impact of Covid-19 between local authorities in Scotland.

Barbara Webb and developing beetle-brained robots

IPAB Institute Director Barbara Webb to develop computational models for robots based on the navigation system of a dung beetle for her latest project, Ultimate compass.

Kwabena Nuamah leads software start-up tracking Covid-19 symptoms in Ghana

Research Associate Kwabena Nuamah has adapted his previous work for Ghana-based start-up Cognate Systems in order to track Covid-19 symptoms in the country using accessible mobile technology.

Mohsen Kadhem to develop a CPS for Lung Disease diagnosis and treatment

Robotics lecturer Mohsen Kadhem has been awarded UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship funding to work on a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) for the Unified Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Diseases.

The Appleton Tower face shield factory

​​​​​​​Informatics technicians have been 3D printing over 100 face shields a day since the end of March in an attempt to help the NHS and Care Homes with an increasing shortage of personal protective equipment.

Three Informatics Nominations Make the Shortlist in the 2020 Teaching Awards

This year's Teaching Awards saw over thirty academics and courses from Informatics nominated across all categories, with three making the shortlist: Pavlos Andreadis, Iain Murray and Philip Wadler's course 'Types and Semantics for Programming Languages'.

E-voting protocol developed by Myrto Arapinis' team used in election experiment

Reader in Computer Security Myrto Arapinis led a team to develop a self-tallying e-voting protocol, named E-cclesia, which is being implemented on the TEZOS blockchain in an international cross-university election experiment run by the Electis foundation.

SDP Course Trade Fair replaced by Online Showcase

Not even a global pandemic can stop the final of the System Design Project. This year the Trade Fair where third-year students usually exhibit their group projects has been swapped for an online showcase.

On-campus offer holder days cancelled

The University of Edinburgh is open, and the health and safety of staff, students and visitors remain its priority. Recognising the rapidly evolving impact of Covid-19, the difficult decision to cancel on-campus offer holder events have been taken.

SigInt Cyber Security Society's CTF Tournament a Resounding Success

Students from Edinburgh University Cyber Security Society (SigInt) hosted their first Capture the Flag competition which was a resounding success, bringing together over 60 undergraduate participants in 20 teams representing 8 Scottish universities.

RSE Honours Chair in Design Informatics in 2020 Fellowship List

Professor Chris Speed, Chair of Design Informatics based at the Bayes Centre, has been named a Fellow by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) in their latest election.

Ex-Informatics Professor Wins CONCUR Test-of-Time Award

Colin Stirling, recently-retired professor at the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, is a co-author of one of the winners of the Test-of-Time Award at this year's International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR).