Computer Science

The Computer Science department at Heriot-Watt is alive with research, discussion and debate centred around a number of thriving research groups. These explore the latest developments in Biomedical Informatics Systems Engineering; Dependable Systems; Intelligent Systems; Pervasive, Ubiquitous and Mobile Applications; Vision, Interactive Systems & Graphical Environments and Logics, Types and Rewriting. This research base, which has been independently assessed at international or national level excellence, receives strong external support from the UK Research Councils, the European Union and many industrial partners including BAe, Motorola, Qinetiq and Praxis.

Taught Programmes

Click on the link on the left to see our collection of taught Masters programmes.

All our existing specialist Computer Science MSc programmes at Heriot-Watt are accredited by the British Computer Society. They draw on the strength of the research activities carried out by academic staff. Our MScs in Artificial Intelligence and Software Engineering are available to applicants with a good first degree in Computer Science or a related discipline. Other MScs in Advanced Internet Applications, Computational Biology, Computer Services Management and Creative Software Systems are available to applicants with a good first degree and some relevant academic knowledge in that area. Flexibility is key to the programme structures at Heriot-Watt, therefore the department also offers MScs in Information Technology with specialisms in Business and Software Systems.

Research

The pace of change in Computer Science and Information Technology is rapid, underpinned by challenging and cutting edge research. The wide range of research topics addressed in the department includes:

• Synchronisation of voices and faces in cartoon animations.
• The effect of lighting variations on image texture and texture features.
• Personalised computing in a pervasive world
• The role of emotion and affective behaviour in computer systems.
• Diagnosing eye disorders using neural networks for pattern matching
• Fingerprint detection using photometric stereo computer techniques.
• Biologically inspired approaches to computation ranging from membrane, neural, glial and cerebrovascular networks to evolutionary algorithms.
• The design of robust programming languages with provably correct properties.

More details are available on our research groups and research interests.