Computer Science Research and Impact

Our Research

Research Excellence Framework (REF), 2021: We are delighted to have achieved 100% world leading and internationally excellent ratings in impact, showing that we as a department are dedicated to embedding real world impact in everything we do. 90% of our research is world leading and internationally excellent, with an increased in number of our world leading publications.

Located in the £32.5M Computational Foundry since 2018, the Department of Computer Science is home to world-class researchers, fine laboratory facilities and excellent teaching programmes. 

Our ethos is to pursue research that matters in the long term, inspiring students and encouraging them to help change the world.

For more than 50 years researchers at Swansea have made interesting and significant contributions to computer science in the areas of data-centric computing, semantics of specification and programming languages, formal methods for designing software and hardware, operating systems, computer graphics, multimedia communication, modelling of complex fluids, human-computer interaction, and the social impact of science and technology.

The AI Research Group at Swansea University Department of Computer Science is a vibrant and interdisciplinary team of researchers. We aim to advance the state-of-the-art in AI by developing novel methods, models, and systems. Our group collaborates widely with academia, industry, and the public sector to provide effective, efficient, and ethical solutions for challenges in biology, engineering, healthcare, and legal reasoning.

Security is an essential requirement in today’s world where every single digital entity is connected. Can one trust a service on the internet or a network? How well secured is personal data in this connected world? Such questions require new scientific solutions based on fundamental and applied research covering aspects such as cryptography, information theory, formal methods, hardware design, protocols design, and human-centred design.

Swansea University's Human-Centred Computing Research Group is based in purpose-built lab, study and maker facilities in the Computational Foundry. Founded in 2006 as the Future Interaction Technology Laboratory (FIT Lab), the group has grown to become internationally recognised as a world-leading centre for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research.

Our Visual Computing research group works in a broad range of subjects in the areas of visual computing since its establishment in 1992. The group has grown to a team of 12 academics and over 30 researchers and research students.

The Visual Computing group has contributed a large collection of novel techniques and significant breakthroughs in the fields of Data Visualization, Computer Vision, Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Visual Analytics, Data Science, Computer Graphics, Interaction and GPU programming.

The Swansea Theory Group is internationally renowned for its research in Logic in Computer Science. Active research areas include: Computability Theory, Computational Complexity, Proof Theory, Type Theory, Game Theory, Concurrency, Artificial Intelligence (Satisfiability Solving, Multi-agent Systems, Argumentation Theory, Machine Learning, AI and Law), and Formal Methods (Cyber Security and Blockchain Technology).

The Education, History and Philosophy group takes a holistic and multidisciplinary approach to such questions, bringing together knowledge in fields as diverse as, e.g., mathematical logic, the theory of computation, software engineering, artificial intelligence, data science, global and local history, classical philosophy, philosophy of science and technology, social and media studies.

The Swansea Railway Verification Group explores the multidisciplinary problems between formal methods, management of new technologies, and rail engineering posed by Invensys Rail (now Siemens Rail UK), a multinational technology leader, providing state-of-the-art software-based signalling, communication and control systems that enable the safe and efficient operation of trains in mainline and mass transit networks across the world.

The Intelligent Robotics group focusses on how robotics can revolutionize various sectors, particularly through intelligent assistive robotics, agricultural robotics, open world robotics, and smart search and rescue robotics. Intelligent assistive robots can significantly improve the quality of life for individuals, including the elderly and people with disabilities, by providing personalized and safe assistance in daily tasks using advanced AI and computer vision techniques. 

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Our research contributes to the success of these specific UNSDG goals.

CORE (Computer Science Research Energies) is a newly formed group that organise workshops on grant writing activities to help ECRs move a step closer to submitting their first grants. The group invite talks from ECRs and senior colleagues within Swansea, nationally and internationally. The group also enable new appointees at Swansea to engage with colleagues, showcase their work, and develop connections within the university and internationally.