DCU School of Computing enjoys a vibrant research community. It currently has over one hundred postgraduate research students and a wide range of funded projects at national and international level. The School houses the Centre for Next Generation Localisation (CNGL) and CLARITY - Two large scale CSETS funded by SFI, part of the Centre for Digital Video Processing (CDVP), the National Centre for Language Technology (NCLT), and the Biocomputation arm of the National Institute of Cellular Biotechnology (NICB), the NDRC in Scientific Computing and Complex Systems Modelling (SciSym) and the Interoperable Systems Group (ISG).

Research is funded by national and international agencies including Science Foundation Ireland; Enterprise Ireland; the Higher Education Authority; the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology; Teagasc; Bord Iascaigh Mhara; the Department of Education and Science; and the E.U. Sixth and Seventh Framework Programme.

The School enjoys close links with industry, and this is evidenced in the significant number of research collaborations it has forged with companies such as IBM, Google, Microsoft, Symantec, Oracle/Sun Microsystems, Xerox, Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs and Ericsson.

Research in the School of Computing is classified into four groups:

1/ Language and Intelligence

The Language and Intelligence group is primarily involved in research into and development of applications in two main areas:

• Speech and Language Processing, including Machine Translation, Speech Processing, Computational Models of Semantics, Treebanks, Formal Syntax, Digital Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Probabilistic Natural Language Processing and Parsing.
• Artificial Intelligence, including Artificial Minds, Computational Models of Cognition, Knowledge Representation, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, The Origins of Intelligence, Neural Networks and Autonomous Agents.

The group takes active part in the National Centre for Language Technology's weekly seminar series in DCU, and co-hosts the Dublin Computational Linguistics Seminar series.

2/ Dependable Systems

The Dependable Systems Group has three major themes: Software Engineering, Formal Methods and Security. The research conducted in this group is broad, dynamic and multi-faceted, and can vary from highly theoretical, abstract models, through the development of numerous branches of technology, into empirical studies of industrial practice.

The focus of the Dependable Systems Group is the development of reliable and secure software. This encompasses a number of different approaches to ensuring the dependability of software, from the softer approaches through software development methods and software project management, to more formal approaches through refinement, verification and automatic program construction.

Several researchers from the Dependable Systems Group are also affiliated with Lero - The Irish Software Engineering Research Centre.

3/ Information Management

The Information Management Group has four major themes: Database Engineering and Interoperable Systems, Information System Engineering, Educational Technologies, Business Informatics, and Digital Multimedia (incorporating the Centre for Digital Video Processing).

The Database Engineering and Interoperable Systems researchers develop formal and informal models for constructing database systems, and construct interoperable layers between heterogeneous information systems. Information System Engineering research focuses on models and methodologies for increasing the value of data in information-intensive and networked economies. Business Informatics research focuses on models and methodologies for increasing the value of data in information-intensive and networked economies. Educational Technologies research is currently focused on the improvement of the use of ICT in higher education through Action Research. In the area of Sensor Web, CLARITY is involved in research and development.

4/ Modelling and Scientific Computing

Modelling and Scientific Computing (Modsci) is a highly-active interdisciplinary research group comprising some 25 full-time researchers (plus associates and student interns) with wide-ranging mathematical, statistical and computational modelling expertise. The Group has extensive external collaborations, which include RCSI, TCD, DIT, ITT, WIT, LM Ericsson and SUN, as well as academic partners in Europe, US and China. The over-arching focus of the group is on computational models and methods in exploring the natural and artificial world through solutions to problems, which, because of their complexity, are intractable by conventional methods. Complex systems arise in many fields, e.g. physics, biology, chemistry, finance, socio-economic phenomena, eco-and other hybrid sciences, to name just a few.

Recently, members of the group, together with colleagues in Maths, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical and Mechanical Engineering and Biotechnology, have been recognised as a University Designated Research Centre (UDRC), led by the School of Computing, under the title of Centre for Scientific Computing & Complex Systems Modelling (SCI-SYM).

5/ Cloud Computing Research Centre (CloudCORE)

The Cloud Computing Research Centre is active in research and development projects in key areas of Cloud Computing and has funded positions available for Research Interns and PhD students interested in the area.

CloudCORE consists of 4 main research groups which are:

• Business Models and Best Practice
• Security and Governance
• Cloud Services Development and Autonomic Computing
• Cloud Applications