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OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDY IN COMPUTING SCIENCES
AT NEW ZEALAND UNIVERSITIES 1994
Edited by
Department of Computer Science
University of Otago
Please contact the relevant Head of Department for further information about
specific projects:
Auckland University University of Otago
Private Bag PO Box 56
Auckland Dunedin
New Zealand New Zealand
Canterbury University Victoria University
Private Bag PO Box 600
Christchurch Wellington
New Zealand New Zealand
Lincoln University Waikato University
Centre for Computing and Biometrics Private Bag 3105
PO Box 84 Hamilton
Lincoln University New Zealand
Canterbury
New Zealand
Massey University
Private Bag
Palmerston North
New Zealand
Funding to Study at New Zealand Universities
All funding for study at New Zealand Universities, including scholarships, are
now administered by the individual Universities themselves. Please direct
enquiries about funding and methods of application to the relevant University
or Department. Applications for scholarships or funding may be made to more
than one University.
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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND
Graduate Degree Programme
Diploma in Computer Science
MSc (2 year)
MSc (by thesis only)
PhD
Academic Staff
Cristian (Cris) Calude, Since 1992. (Associate-Professor)
Bucharest University (Romania) BScHons and Ph.D. Worked at Bucharest University
(Romania) and The University of Western Ontario (London, Canada). Author of
eleven books and over 100 publications. Interests are in recursion theory,
computational complexity, algorithmic information theory, mathematical
modelling.
Christian Collberg, Since 1993. (Lecturer)
Lund Univ BSc and PhD. Interests are in design and implementation of
programming languages, formal aspects of software engineering, distributed
systems. Previously worked at Lund University, Sweden.
Alan Creak, Since 1984. (Senior Lecturer)
Cambridge University BA. Leeds University PhD. Worked at Loughborough CAT,
University of Singapore (as a chemist), Derby and District College of
Technology, Auckland University Computer Centre. Interests are in
rehabilitation computing, user interfaces, artificial intelligence, computer
control systems.
Robert (Bob) Doran, Since 1982. (Professor and Head of Department)
Canterbury University BScHons. Stanford University MS. Worked at City
University London, Massey University, Amdahl Corporation, California (as
computer architect). Interests are in computer architecture, history of
computing, parallel algorithms and programming.
Peter Fenwick, Since 1984. (Senior Lecturer)
Auckland MSc, PhD. Worked at ANU (Canberra) and at the Computer Centre,
University of Auckland (1972-1984). Interests are in computer architecture,
data comunications and text compression.
Bill Flinn, Since 1993. (Senior Tutor)
University of Auckland M.Sc. University of Warwick Ph.D. Research interests in
formal specification of systems and programs, and in theories of program
derivation.
Jeremy Gibbons, Since 1991. (Lecturer)
BSc (Hons), Edinburgh University; DPhil, Oxford University. Research interests
in theories of program derivation, program specification and transformation,
algorithm design, functional programming; also in digital typography.
Peter Gibbons, Since 1980. (Associate Professor)
Massey University BSc(Hons), MSc. University of Toronto PhD. Lecturer at
Massey University prior to coming to Auckland. Research interests in
computational combinatorics.
Richard Grossman, Since 1989. (Part-time Senior Tutor)
BSc Yale University (Engineering, Linguistics and Psychology), MSc M.I.T. (AI).
Previously worked for computer manufacturers and software houses in US and NZ,
and as part-time Senior Lecturer in Management Studies (Auckland). Interests
include AI, ethics, computer education and computer languages.
Hans Guesgen, Since 1992. (Lecturer)
Bonn University DiplInform. Kaiserslautern University DrRerNat. Hamburg
University DrHabil. Worked at the German National Research Center for Computer
Science (GMD) in St. Augustin and the International Computer Science Institute
(ICSI) in Berkeley. Interests are in artificial intelligence, especially
constraint satisfaction and spatial reasoning, and neural networks.
John Hamer, Since 1988. (Lecturer)
PhD (Auckland, 1990). Interests include: application of semantics to language
design and implementation; functional, object-oriented and logic programming.
John Hosking, Since 1981. (Senior lecturer)
Auckland University BSc PhD. Junior Lecturer then Lecturer, Senior Lecturer in
Computer Science at Auckland. Interests are in programming languages, software
development environments, visual programming, and computer integrated
construction
Bruce Hutton, Since 1980. (Lecturer)
University of Auckland BSc, MSc. University of Warwick PhD. Interests in
computer language design and implementation, Operating systems.
Jennifer Lennon, Since 1985.(Senior Tutor)
University of Auckland MSc, DipTchg. Interests in applications of multi-media
technology to teaching, and other applications of hypermedia within
universities.
Michael Lennon, Since 1989. (Senior Lecturer)
University of Auckland MSc. PhD from MIT. Lecturer in Mathematics at the
University of Auckland from 1971 to 1988. Interested in cryptogreaphy, parallel
programming, and algorithms.
Xiaosong Li (Mrs), Since 1993. (Part time tutor & part time Ph.D student)
Harbin Shipbuilding Engineering Institute( HSEI ), Harbin, P.R.China, BE, ME.
University of Illinois at Chicago(UIC), Chicago, USA, MS. Worked at HSEI, UIC
and Whitcoulls Ltd, Auckland. Interests are in formal specification.
Richard Lobb, Since 1979. (Senior Lecturer)
Auckland University MSc, PhD. Previously worked for Software Houses in UK and
Holland. Primary interest is in Computer Graphics.
Hermann Maurer, Since 1993. (Professor)
University of Vienna Ph.D 1965. Assistant and Associate Professor at the
University of Calgary, Canada, and Professor for Computer Science at the
University of Karlsruhe, Germany, for 5 years each. Professor for Computer
Science and Head of Research Institute at Graz University of Technology since
1977. Visiting Professor at Dallas and Denver, USA; Waterloo, Canada;
Brasilia, Brazil; and Patras, Greece. Author of eleven books and over 300
publications. Head of Hypermedia Unit of the University of Auckland since June
1993. Main interests: computer networks, computer assisted instruction,
computer supported new media, hypermedia systems and applications, social
implications of computers.
Warwick (Rick) Mugridge, Since 1981. (Senior Lecturer)
Massey University: BA Hons. University of Auckland: MSc, PhD. Interests are in
programming languages and systems and software engineering.
Robert Sheehan, Since 1988. (Senior Tutor) Auckland University, BA and
DipCompSci. Auckland College of Education DipTchg. Taught at Papatoetoe
Intermediate School, St Mary's College and St Paul's College, Auckland, before
returning to university. Interests in rehabilitation computing and computers
in education.
Mark R. Titchener, Since 1993. (Lecturer)
BSc (Physics) University of Auck. 1974, MS 1976 (Physics) Arizona State
University. PhD (Elect Eng) 1986 University of Auck. Technical Director TRL
(UK) Ltd 1988--1992, Research Scientist, Institut fur Angewandte Physik,
Universitat Frankfurt a.m. 1989--1990 Research Fellow, Dept Elect. Eng.
Victoria University of Manchester 1987--1988. Interests in information
coding/complexity, communications (satcoms), data compression.
Hany Tolba, Since 1993. (Lecturer)
MSc Cairo, Mastre de l'Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications, PhD
Nancy. Interested in knowledge based systems, multi-reasoning (temporal,
hypothetical, qualitative), planning.
Robert Uzgalis, Since 1993. (Senior Lecturer)
Worked at University of California Los Angeles, Bell Labs (Murray Hill),
Unisys, University of Hong Kong. Interests are in programming languages,
reliable knowledge, operating systems, algorithms, and graphics.
Xinfeng Ye, Since 1992. (Lecturer)
Hua Qiao University BSc. Manchester University MSc, PhD. Interested in fault
tolerant computing and distributed algorithms.
Equipment
Most graduate computing is supported within the department on a network of some
16 Unix and 250 Macintosh workstations.
The hypermedia unit computing resource includes a SPARC-10, Silicon Graphics
Indy, 2 high-end 486 DX2s, several high-end Macintosh workstations, and a
variety of specialised peripheral equipment (scanner, high-quality colour
printer, CDR, film scanner, video editing equipment, video player, etc.).
Additional equipment is available through computing resources in the Centre for
Information Studies (CIS) and the Computer Centre. These resources include an
IBM 3081 running MVS, a high-end Unix processor and a DEC VAX/VMS cluster.
Research Opportunities
Theoretical Computer Science
Algorithm design, algorithmic information theory, artificial intelligence,
computational complexity, computational combinatorics, constructive
mathematics, cryptography, data compression, distributed computing, formal
language theory, formal methods, graph theory, parallel algorithms, program
specification and transformation, programming language semantics.
Contact:
Associate Professors Peter Gibbons and Cris Calude
Email: theory@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Hypermedia
In 1993, the University opened a Hypermedia Unit which is located within the
department. The is directed by Professor Hermann Maurer. The function of the
unit is to facilitate the spread of multimedia and hypermedia techniques within
the University and to engage in research in these areas. The unit involves
about 10 of the department staff and students on a full or part-time basis.
A very wide range of research opportunities is offered by the Hypermedia Unit.
For example: three dimensional modelling using Silicon Graphics workstations;
cooperative work in a distributed Hypermedia system; and automatic data
maintenance in a distributed Hypermedia system. In addition, many specialised
isolated topics are available.
Contact:
Professor Herman Maurer
Email: H_Maurer@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Hypermedia group
Email: hmu@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Rehabilitation Computing
It is widely accepted that people with physical disabilities should live as far
as possible in just the same way as the majority of people around them. It is
inevitable that there will be things which most people find easy, and which are
therefore assumed in designing common machinery of all types, but which are
much more difficult for disabled people. In some cases computers can be useful
by providing the basic "intelligence" for the machines, by managing a good
control interface between the person and the machine, or in making optimum use
of the person's abilities to facilitate effective communication. We are
interested in any computer applications in this area, but particularly in
communication and control for domestic machinery.
Typical projects: neural network techniques in adaptive interfaces (MSc or PhD
thesis); synthesising real-time manual sign displays (MSc or PhD thesis); a
portable virtual machine for rehabilitation purposes (MSc thesis); CAI system
for teaching specialised Braille (MSc thesis)
Contact:
Dr. Alan Creak
Email: A_Creak@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Graphics
Algorithms for high-quality image rendering; antialiasing algorithms;
object-space hidden surface algorithms; integrating ray tracing and radiosity
methods; exploitation of algorithmic coherence in ray tracing and radiosity.
Contact:
Dr. Richard Lobb (note: Richard is on leave during 1994)
Email: R_Lobb@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Topics in Operating Systems and Language Implementation
Simulating an operating system on top of Unix, for educational use, and
experimenting in operating system ideas (MSc thesis); extending the MacVAX
simulator (MSc thesis).
Development of a notation for describing not only the syntax of a language, but
also the relationships between the attributes of the nodes of the parse tree
(MSc thesis); automation of code generation (MSc or PhD thesis); error recovery
in parsing (MSc thesis); implementation of a computer language (MSc thesis);
develop a language for simulating logic (MSc thesis); developing a
sophisticated debugging tool (MSc thesis).
Contact:
Dr. Bruce Hutton
Email: B_Hutton@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Distributed Algorithms and Fault-Tolerant Computing
Distributed systems are playing an increasingly important role in computer
science. Many algorithms have been designed to co-ordinate the operations in
the distributed systems. The use of some of the algorithms have been restricted
due to the unrealistic assumptions to the working environment of the
algorithms. It should be interesting to see whether these algorithms can be
improved, so that they can be used in a real system.
A reliable system can continue its operation in the presence of the partial
failure of the hardware system. Most software designers tend to add the fault
tolerant features after the system is completed. However, this approach is
unsatisfactory. Therefore, it should be interesting to develop a framework
which allows the designers to consider the fault tolerant issues at the
beginning of their design.
Contact:
Dr. Xin Feng Ye
Email: X_Ye@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Artificial Intelligence
Constraint satisfaction; spatial and temporal reasoning; fuzzy set theory;
knowledge-based systems; multi-reasoning; planning.
Contact:
Drs. Hans Guesgen and Hany Tolba
Email: H_Guesgen@cs.auckland.ac.nz
H_Tolba@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Programming Languages and Systems
Visual programming; design of multi-paradigm languages, such as functional,
object-oriented and constraint languages.
Contact:
Drs. Rick Mugridge, John Hosking and John Hamer
Email: R_Mugridge@cs.auckland.ac.nz
J_Hamer@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Software Engineering
The construction of integrated visual CASE tools for analysis, design,
user-interface design, programming, debugging and testing; object-oriented
frameworks for visual tools; automatic test generation.
Contact:
Drs. John Hosking and Rick Mugridge
Email: J_Hosking@cs.auckland.ac.nz
R_Mugridge@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Communications, Coding
Coding, compression, with applications in satellite messaging, global paging,
etc.
Special techniques must be used to achieve coding rates of 2-2.5 bits/char for
messages of 20-2000 characters. Dictionary based schemes provide excellent
gains but are sensitive to the assumptions made on the source statistics. A
recently proposed model for structures implicit in code strings gives rise to
the possibility for numerically evaluating (absolute?) coding-efficiencies. The
coding model is particularly suggestive of an adaptive compression technique
which may be effective for the compression of short messages.
Contact:
Dr. Mark Titchener
Email: M_Titchener@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Current Thesis Students
Robert Amor (PhD) Design tool integration
Shaun Blackmore (MSc) OO CAD database with constraints
Simon Dixon (PhD) Multimedia technology as an educational tool
Peter Dobscanyi (PhD) Distributed combinatorial algorithms
Justin Elliott (MSc) Implementing C-Linda
Stephen Fenwick (MSc) Visual debugging
Peter Gutmann (PhD) Data compression
Brent Hewitt (MSc) Hemispherical neural networks
Jennifer Lennon (PhD) Aspects of hypermedia systems
Xiaoge Li (MSc) Implementing multi-methods
Xiaosong Li (PhD) Dialogue specification for user interfaces
Kenneth McLeod (MSc) Functional programming in computer graphics
Paul Qualtrough (PhD) Vision control for robotics
Azam Riazuddin (PhD) CCS-based tools for design, specification and
verification of parallel algorithms
Nicola Sanders (MSc) Software testing
Mark Scaletti (MSc) Neural networks for vision
Achim Schneider (PhD) Aspects of hypermedia systems
Clare West (MSc) Developments in fuzzy rendering
Weisheng Yan (MSc) Internet accounting
Further Information
Graduate Admissions
Department of Computer Science
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland
New Zealand.
Email: Grad.Enquiries@cs.auckland.ac.nz
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DEPARTMENT Of MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
AUCKLAND UNIVERSITY
Graduate Degree Programmes
BCom (Hons) ?
Diploma in Business
MCom, MPhil
PhD
Staff
The Department of Management Science and Information Systems is a growing and
enthusiastic team. Its staff embrace a wide range of areas in the fields of
Management Science, Operations Management and Information Systems.
Full-time members and their interests are:
Kathy Boardman BSc(Canterbury), MCom(Canterbury)
Econometrics, Forecasting, Law and Economics
Susan Byrne BSc Hons(Wellington), DIC, PhD(London)
Information Integration, Strategic Modelling. OR Applications.
Joseph Davis BSc, PGDM(IIMA), PhD (Pittsburgh)
Human-computer Interaction, Data Modelling, Decision Support and
Knowledge-based Systems.
Justo Diaz BSc, PhD(Berkeley)
Systems Architecture, Information Models, Quality and Productivity in Software
Development.
Lech J Janczewski MEng(Warsaw), MASc (Toronto), DEng(Warsaw)
Social and Economical Aspects of Information Systems, Data Security and
Quantitative Methods.
Hans Lehmann MA(Natal)
Strategic Information Systems, Management of the Information Technology
Environment.
Grace Loo BSc, DipEd(Malaya), MSc( CompSc, London)
Object-oriented database systems, Software Engineering, Expert Systems
Kambiz E Maani MS(Tehran), MS, PhD(Illinois)
Service and Manufacturing Strategy, Management of Service Operations, Quality
Management, Performance Evaluation, Management of Technology, Simulation.
Pete Mazany BSc, MCom(Auckand), PhD(Yale)
Strategy Development for Manufacturers, Computer Integrated Manufacturing,
the Manufacturing/Marketing Interface, Gaming and Simulation in Organisations.
Michael D Myers BA, MA, PhD(Auckland)
Management of IS, Organisational Impacts of IS.
John Paynter BSc(Auckland), MSc(Auckland), BCom(Auckland)
Object-oriented Analysis and Design, CASE, Data Modelling, Data Administration,
System Development Methods.
Donald H Peters BA(Wash. and Jefferson), MBA(Stan.)
Strategic Information Systems, Marketing Information Systems.
Victor Portougal BSc, MSc(Gorky, USSR), PhD(Moscow), Dr of Economics(Kiev)
Production and Operations Planning, Decision Support Systems, Scheduling,
Mathematical Modelling
David Robb BE(Auckland), MBA, PhD(Calgary)
Time-baed competition, project management, Flow-Shop/Job-Shops Schedule
David M Ryan MSc(Otago), PhD(ANU)
Applications of OR/MS Techniques in industry, with emphasis on modelling,
efficiency, optimisation and scheduling.
James Sheffield MSc(Auckland), MBA(Wisconsin), PhD(Arizona)
Human and Organisational Information Processing, Work Group Communications,
Office Automation.
Ananth Srinivasan BTech(Madras), MBA(Illinois), PhD(Pittsburgh)
Information Modelling, Database Management, Decision Support Systems.
General Information
The Department is part of the School of Commerce and Economics at the
University of Auckland. Other departments in the School are Accounting and
Finance, Commercial Law, Economics, Marketing and International Business, and
Management Studies and Labour Relations. It is located in Old Choral Hall, a
pleasant building close to the Library, Computer Centre, Student Union and
Recreation Centre.
The Department offers an extensive network of computing resources which
include IBM RS6000s, ES/9000 and Silicon Graphics computers, a wide array of
powerful, networked workstations, a Decision Support Centre and an Electronic
Classroom with state-of-the-art multimedia hardware and software. The School
of Commerce has developed its own information and data centre with an on-line
data retrieval system which provides ready access to business and labour
market data as well as literature search facilities. Students will also have
full access to the extensive collection of the University of Auckland Library.
Located in the centre of Auckland, the School of Commerce and Economics
retains close links with the downtown commercial and financial enterprises.
Individual staff members of the Department of Management Science and
Information Systems have contacts with professional firms, the computer
industry, manufacturing and service companies. These links and contacts
facilitate student access for research and observation.
Financial assistance is available to most Masters students. A limited number
of Research Assistantships are also available to top class candidates. The
School of Commerce and Economics also has its own research fund available to
postgraduate students to meet reasonable expenses for research needs.
Outline of Programme
The suggested format for the degree is four papers and a thesis. Most students
focus on either Information Systems or Operations Management but students are
encouraged to determine individual programmes of study in consultation with
their supervisors. There is a variety of courses to choose from, including:
Advanced Database Managment, Advanced Operations Management, Research Methods,
Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Concepts, Information Technology
and Competitive Advantage, Studies in Operations Research, Deterministic
Modelling in OR, Stochastic Modelling in OR, Management of Service Operations,
Information-integrated Operations, Total Quality Management.
Subject to approval by the Head of Department, a student can take up to two
Masters papers from other departments of the University. Computer Science and
Engineering departments, as well as other departments in the School of
Commerce and Economics offer Masters papers of direct relevance to both
Information Systems and Operations Management.
Although the Masters degree can be completed in one calendar year, this
requires discipline, and a full-time commitment. Full-time study is
recommended, but part-time students who can commit substantial time to the
Programme are also encouraged to apply.
For further information about the Masters Programme in Management Science and
Information Systems write to:
Dr Joseph Davis (For Information Systems)
or Dr Pete Mazany (For Operations Management)
Department of Management Science and Information Systems,
The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
AUCKLAND
or Telephone (09) 3737 599, Extn 8563 (Joseph Davis), Extn 7160
(Pete Mazany) or 7154.
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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY
Graduate Programs
Are available for the Diploma in Science, and for the degrees of M.Sc, M.Com,
and Ph.D.
B J McKenzie B.Sc(Hons), Ph.D (Head of Department)
(B.McKenzie@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Compiler construction, formal language definition, automatic compiler
generation, functional languages.
J P Penny M.Sc, Ph.D (Adelaide), FACS, FNZCS (Professor)
(penny@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Systems performance evaluation, geographic information systems.
W Kreutzer Dip.Kfm, Ph.D (Frankfurt), (Associate Professor)
(wolfgang@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Object-oriented programming, system simulation, artificial intelligence.
L R Hunt M.E(Electrical), (Senior Lecturer)
(ray@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Packet switching systems, communications architecture, public data
networks, LANs.
K Pawlikowski M.E (Electronic), Ph.D (Gdansk), SMIEEE (Senior Lecturer)
(krys@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Discrete event and parallel simulation, protocols and architectures for high
speed fibre-optic data networks, reliable data communication.
P J Ashton B.Sc.(Hons), Ph.D (Lecturer)
(paul@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Performance measurement, distributed operating systems.
T C Bell B.Sc(Hons), Ph.D (Lecturer)
(tim@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Text compression, Computer Science for children, computer music.
N I Churcher B.Sc(Hons), Ph.D (Lecturer)
(neville@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Database systems and applications, software engineering.
A Cockburn B.Sc.(Hons), Ph.D (Lecturer)
(andy@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Computer Support Cooperative Work, Human-Computer Interaction.
R Harries M.Sc, Dip.Tchng (Lecturer)
(rod@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Functional languages, compilers, formal language definition, CAI.
P Krishnan B.Tech (Kanpur), Ph.D (Michigan), (Lecturer)
(paddy@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
Semantics, concurrency.
A J E Dale B.Sc(Hons) (Senior Programmer)
(tony@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
G M Bryant B.Sc(Hons), Ph.D (Programmer)
(gill@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
P Glassenbury B.Sc (Programmer)
(pete@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
B J McMaster B.Sc(Hons), Ph.D (Programmer)
(blair@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
A Hendry B.Sc (Technician)
(adrian@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
A Marshall B.A. (Secretary)
(adrienne@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz)
E-mail Addressing:
User@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz
Where User is first initial then "." then surname. For example, for John
Smith: J.Smith@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz
Computer Facilities
The Computer Science Department (COSC) runs the UNIX operating system on an
Ethernet network of several Sun SPARCstations and about 65 X-terminals. It
also runs an AppleTalk network of about 60 Apple Macintosh computers. Each
staff member has a SPARCstation or Macintosh, and all research students have
their choice of an X-terminal or Macintosh.
The main UNIX servers are three 150-mips SPARCstation-10 systems which serve
all the X-terminals. A SPARCstation-2 is used exclusively by some staff and
postgraduate students for research work. There are about 12 Gigabytes of disc
capacity online, as well as access to secondary storage such as CD-ROM and
various tape media.
A wide variety of programming languages, software and application packages are
supported, as well as protocol analysis equipment used in data communication
courses. The department is connected to Usenet - a distributed electronic
bulletin board accessed by close to two million people - giving worldwide
access to news and databases. Students enrolled in COSC courses above Stage 1
have access to Usenet, providing them with a rich source of information -
particularly for computer-related topics, although a huge range of other
topics is also available.
Computer Services Centre
The university's Computer Services Centre (CSC) operates a campus-wide network
that is available 24 hours a day. Computer Science students can use the CSC
networks to access the COSC UNIX network when the COSC labs are closed. Modem
access to the university network is also provided by CSC for off-campus users.
Research activities of the Department are carried out within the broad areas
of:
- Data Communications
- Programming Languages & Programming Techniques
- Simulation, Modeling, Computer Performance Evaluation
- Information Systems
Current and Recent Thesis Projects
Ph.D Theses completed since 1990 Supervisor
Ashton, P J P Penny
The Interaction Network: a Performance Measurement
and Evaluation Tool for Loosely-Coupled Distributed Systems
Ewing, G J P Penny
Experiments in Interactive Map Retrieval
Ph.D Thesis Topics
Hartanto, F K Pawlikowski
Data Flow Control in ATM Data Networks
Horlor, J B J McKenzie
Functional Language Prototype Generators
Naguleswaran, M, W Kreutzer
Reusable Application Frameworks
Pascoe, R J P Penny
Cartographic Data Interchange
Yau, V K Pawlikowski
New Protocols and Architectures for High Speed LANs
M.Sc Theses completed since 1990
Allan, R W Kreutzer
Stress : a Smalltalk rule-based expert system shell
Garner, S N I Churcher
A Software Metrician's Workbench
Jaggar, D V M Maclean
A performance study of the Acorn RISC machine
Karthikayan, C K Pawlikowski
Performance Modeling and Evaluation of High Speed
Metropolitan Networks
Logan, C A L R Hunt
The computer-aided evaluation and synthesis
Pascoe, R J P Penny
Translating data between geographic information systems
Quak-Yoong, L K Pawlikowski
Performance Evaluation of Enhancements to DQDB Protocol
Sharman, N T C Bell
Picture Compression
Sundralingam, Y W Kreutzer
Multilayered Graphical Prototyping and Animation of
Wilson, R N I Churcher
RIPPLE: A Metadata Repository for CASE Tool Support
Wilson, T T C Bell
Animation of Text Compression Algorithms
M.Sc Thesis Topics (at 31 July 1993)
Anggawijaya, H K Pawlikowski
Congestion Control Algorithms for Broadband ISDNs
Ashby, D J P Penny
The Fuzzy Boundary Problem for GIS
Bainbridge, D T C Bell
Optical Music Recognition
Chisnall, M B J McKenzie
Type Systems for Functional Languages
Croke, N L R Hunt
The Strategic Advantages of Computer Integrated Manufacturing:
A New Zealand Perspective
Daly, E K Pawlikowski
Medium Access Protocols for High Speed Fibre-Optic
Data Networks
Eaves, D T C Bell
Kid/CAD/CAM
Emberson, M A H B J McKenzie
A Customising Optimising Scheme Compiler
Farquhar, C L R Hunt
Computer Security and Risk Analysis
Hardie, M T C Bell
Programming Languages for Children
Ralston, S T C Bell
Juggling in Virtual Reality
Thomas, G T C Bell
Virtual Musical Instruments
Lynders, R K Pawlikowski
Stochastic Simulation of Data Communication Networks Under
Nonstationary Conditions
Vollebregt, T K Pawlikowski
Automated Experimental Designs for Quantitative Stochastic
Simulation
Watson, N L R Hunt
Client-Server Security: An Intrusion Detection System for
Novell Netware
Weir, L T C Bell
A Video Transcription Tool Using Quicktime on the Macintosh
Whitehead, R T C Bell
The DMC Data Compression Scheme
Research Areas
Data Communications
(Dr T. Bell, Mr L. Hunt, Dr K. Pawlikowski)
Communication Networks
(Mr L. Hunt, Dr K. Pawlikowski)
Coding and Information Theory
(Dr T. Bell, Dr K. Pawlikowski)
Research in data communications includes the modeling, design and performance
evaluation of wide and local area networks, network topologies, communication
protocols, and data compression and data security.
Projects (current and proposed)
Dr Bell:
Compression of images, compression algorithms, statistical properties of
compressed teletraffic.
Mr Hunt:
Performance evaluation of a private packet switching network, risk analysis and
security in computer networks, development of EDI systems for small businesses,
tools for network management.
Dr Pawlikowski:
Architectures and medium access protocols for high speed fibre
optic data communication networks, Fast Packet Switching for broadband ISDNs,
reliable network structures, integrity of data transmitted over data networks.
Publications since 1990
T C Bell, J G Cleary and I H Witten
Text Compression. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1990.
L R Hunt
The CCITT X.500 directory system. In Proc. of the Conference on Electronic
Messaging and Communication Systems, Online, London, UK, December 1990.
M Asgarkhani and K Pawlikowski
Analysis of a satellite tdma-reservation channel with multi-message buffers in
mixed traffic environments. In Proc. of the 2nd Int. Conf. on Comm. Syst
ICCS90, volume 1, pages 4.2.1-5, Singapore, November 1990. Elsevier Science
Publ. BV.
C Karthikeyan, K Pawlikowski and H. Sirisena
Batch means techniques in steady state simulation of DQDB networks. In Proc.
5th Aust. Teletraffic Research Seminar, Melbourne. Session 7, Paper 2, pages
1-10, December 1990.
I H Witten and T C Bell
Source models for natural language text. Int. J. Man-Machine Studies,
32:545-579, 1990.
J Spragins, J Hammond and K Pawlikowski
Telecommunications Networks: Protocols and Design. Addison-Wesley, New York,
1990. Also: Solutions Manual, Addison-Wesley, New York, 1991.
L Quak-Yoong and K Pawlikowski et. al.
Fairness improvements using multiple-slot reservation on dqdb networks.
In Proc. of the 2nd Int. Conf. on Comm. Syst, ICCS91, volume 1, pages 79-84,
Singapore, September 1991. Elsevier Science Publ. BV.
F Hartanto and K Pawlikowski
et. al. Performance study of dual queues with limited cyclic service in ATM
switching. In Proc. of the 2nd Int. Conf. on Comm. Syst, ICCS91, Singapore,
pages 253-258. Elsevier Science Publ. BV, September 1991.
I H Witten, T C Bell and C G Nevill
Models for compression in full-text retrieval systems. In Data Compression
Conference, DCC U91, Snowbird, Utah, April 1991.
T C Bell and K Pawlikowski
The effect of data compression on packet sizes in data communication systems.
In 13th ITC congress, pages 551-556, Copenhagen, Denmark, June 19-26, 1991.
Also in: Teletraffic and data traffic in a period of change, A Jensen and V B
Iversen (eds), Studies in Telecommunication, 14:556-562, Amsterdam,
North-Holland.
I H Witten and T C Bell
The zero-frequency problem: estimating the probabilities of novel events in
adaptive text compression. IEEE Trans Information Theory, 37(4):1085-1094,
July 1991.
L R Hunt
Osi directory standards - architecture, functionality and applications. In
Proc. of INTERCONNECT'91, Auckland, NZ, 4-6 Nov, 1991, 1991.
K Pawlikowski and V Yau
Independent replications versus spectral analysis of output data in
steady-state simulation of high speed data networks. In Proc. of the 6th
Australian Teletraffic Research Seminar, Wollongong, Australia, pages 322-330,
November 1991.
V Yau and K Pawlikowski
A class of protocols for heavy loaded multiple channel local area network. In
Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Communications, ICC'92 (Chicago, June 1992), volume 1,
pages 23-27. IEEE Comm. So. Press, 1992.
I H Witten, T C Bell and C G Nevill
Indexing and compressing full-text databases for cd-rom. Journal of Information
Science, 17:265-271, 1991.
K Pawlikowski and V Yau
ATM buffer overload control: A nested threshold cell discarding with suspended
execution. In Proc. Australian Broadband Switching and Services Symp, ABSSS'92,
volume 3, pages 699-706, Melbourne, July 1992. AOTS Press.
Neil B Sharman, Timothy C Bell and Ian H Witten
Compression of pyramid coded images for progressive transmission. In Proc. of
the 7th N. Z. Image Processing Workshop, pages 171-176, University of
Canterbury, Christchurch, N. Z., 1992.
H Hartanto and K Pawlikowski
et. al. Dissecting call establishment procedures in ATM networks. In Proc.
Australian Broadband Switching and Services Symp, ABSSS '92, volume 3, pages
605-612, Melbourne, 1992. AOTS Press.
V Yau and K Pawlikowski
Improved nested-threshold-cell- discard buffer management mechanism. In Proc.
1992 IEEE Region 10 Int. Conf. on Computers, Communications and Automation,
IEEE TENCON'92, volume 1, pages 820-824, Melbourne, Australia, November 1992.
IEEE Comm. So. Press.
C Logan and L R Hunt
Network designers workshop - a case study in network design. In Proc. of
Networks '92. The European Conference on Computer-Communications, Birmingham,
June 1992.
L R Hunt
CCITT X.500 directories - principles and applications. Computer
Communications, U.K., 15(10):636-645, 1992.
L R Hunt
Frame relay networks. In Proc. of the Conference on LAN-WAN '93, Auckland, N.
Z., pages 1-14, Auckland, March 1993.
A Moffat, N. Sharman, I H Witten and T C Bell
An empirical evaluation of coding methods for multi-symbol alphabets. In Data
Compression Conference, pages 108-17, Snowbird, Utah, 1993. IEEE Computer
Society.
L R Hunt
Frame relay networks. Proc. of Networks '93, European Conference on Computer
Communcations, NEC, Birmingham, June 1993.
V Yau and K Pawlikowski
AKAROA: a package for automatic generation and process control of parallel
stochastic simulation. In ACSC '93, volume A, pages 71-82, Brisbane,
Australia, February 1993. Australian Computer Science Conference.
T C Bell and D Kulp
Longest match string searching for ziv-lempel coding. Software - Practice and
Experience, (in press).
Programming Languages & Programming Techniques
(Dr N Churcher, Mr R Harries, Dr W Kreutzer, Dr B McKenzie, Dr P Krishnan)
Formal Language and Semantics
(Dr B McKenzie, Mr R Harries, Dr P Krishnan)
Language Design and Implementation
(Dr B McKenzie, Mr R Harries)
Tools and Techniques
(Dr W Kreutzer, Dr N Churcher, Mr R Harries)
Software Engineering
(Dr N Churcher)
Concurrency
(Dr P Krishnan)
Language design, implementation and use form the basis of these areas of
research. Dr McKenzie's, Dr Krishnan's and Mr Harries' major interests lie
mainly in the (formal) design and implementation of languages with particular
interest in the area of functional languages. Dr Krishnan is also interested
in the formal modeling and design of concurrent systems. Dr Churcher has
interests in developing tools and methodologies to assist in the use of
languages. Dr W Kreutzer's research currently centers on object oriented
programming and the design of graphically supported programming environments
for modeling systems, with emphasis on queueing networks and control system
scenarios.
Publications since 1990
W Kreutzer
Grundkonzepte und Werkzeugsysteme objektorientierter Syste- mentwicklung -
Stand der Forschung und Anwendung (in German). (Invited paper for special
issue on `Object-Oriented Programming'). Zeitschrift fuer
Wirtschaftsinformatik, May 1990.
B J McKenzie
Parsing CFG's and restrictions with LR parsing methods. Software: Practice and
Experience, 20(8):823-832, 1990.
W Kreutzer
C-flavours - a scheme-based flavour system with coroutines and its application
to the design of object-orientated simulation software. International Journal
of Computer Languages, 1990.
B J McKenzie, R Harries and T Bell
Selecting a hashing function. Software: Practice and Experience,
20(2):209-224, February 1990.
W Kreutzer and B J McKenzie
Programming for Artificial Intelligence: Methods Tools and Applications.
International Computer Science Series. Addison-Wesley, Workingham, Reading,
1991. 682p.
R A Volz, P Krishnan and R J Theriault
Distributed Ada - A case study. Journal for Information and Software
Technology, May 1991.
P Krishnan
Real-time Action. In Euromicro Workshop on Real-Time Systems, pages 174-182,
Paris, France, 1991. IEEE.
P Krishnan
A Model for Real-Time Systems. In 16th International Symposium on Mathematical
Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS):LNCS 520, pages 298-307.
Springer-Verlag, September 1991.
P Krishnan
Distributed CCS. In Theories of Concurrency: Unification and Extension:
CONCUR-91, LNCS:527, pages 393-407. Springer-Verlag, August 1991.
P Krishnan
A Semantics for Multiprocessor Systems. In European Symposium On Programming
(ESOP): LNCS 582, pages 307-320, Rennes, France, February 1992.
Springer-Verlag.
P Krishnan and B J McKenzie
A Process Algebraic Approach to Fault-Tolerance. In Proc. of the 15th
Australian Computer Science Conference, volume 14, pages 473-485, 1992.
P Krishnan and P D Mosses
Specifying Asynchronous Transfer of Control. In J. Vytopil, editor, Proc. of
the Symposium on Formal Techniques in Real-Time and Fault-Tolerant Systems:
LNCS 571, pages 291-306, Nijmegen, Netherlands, January 1992. Springer Verlag.
P Krishnan
A Calculus of Timed Communicating Systems. International Journal of
Foundations of Computer Science, 3(3), September 1992.
P Krishnan
Pre-Orders for Fault-Tolerance. In Proc. of the 16th Australian Computer
Science Conference, Brisbane, 1993.
P Krishnan
Specification of Systems with Interrupts. Journal of Systems and Software:
Special Issue on Applying Specification, Verification and Validation Techniques
to Industrial Software Systems, 21(3):291-304, June 1993.
Information Systems
(Dr N Churcher, Prof J Penny)
Work on geographic Information Systems (Prof Penny), including the following
projects: design of geographic databases, construction of interactive mapping
interfaces, design of interfaces between geographic information systems.
Dictionary based database applications (Dr Churcher) use a system encyclopedia
to store data about system components and their relationships. A DBMS is used
to maintain the integrity of the dictionary, and to enable it to be accessed,
using an appropriate set of operators, by a variety of database design and
software engineering tools. Current projects include support for software
metrics analysis and metadata repositories for CASE and IPSE. Research
projects are available in both these and related areas. Computer Supported
Cooperative Work (Dr Cockburn) involves the interaction of computing
facilities, especially with respect to making contact between users working on
similar projects and facilitating groupwork.
Publications since 1990
Penny J P, P C Forer, G F P Deecker and T K Poiker
Networked geographic information systems: Issues of software design and data
sharing. In Proc. of the 2nd Canadian National Conference on Geographic
Information Systems, Ottawa, pages 478-488, March 1990.
Pascoe R T and J P Penny
Interchange of data between geographic information systems. NZ Geographer:
Special Issue on Geographic Information Systems, 46(1):26-8, April 1990.
J P Penny Forer P C, T K Poiker and G F P Deecker
New technology and new concepts of map use. In Proc. of the 4th International
Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, Zurich, July 1990.
Richard T Pascoe and John P Penny
Construction of interfaces for the exchange of geographic data. International
Journal of Geographic Systems, 4(2):147-156, 1990.
R T Pascoe and N I Churcher
Sharing geographical data. In Proc. Second Colloquium of the Spatial
Information Research Centre, pages 274-287, Dunedin, N.Z., November 1990.
R T Pascoe and N I Churcher
Modelling the sharing of geographic data. N.Z. Journal of Computing,
2(1):45-53, 1991.
N I Churcher and K Kuiper
Designer dictionaries. In Proc. 12th N.Z. Computer Conference, pages 23-30,
Dunedin, August 1991.
L R Hunt
An EDI system for small businesses - automation of forms design and data input
via a graphical user interface. In Proc. of Networks '92. The European
Conference on Computer-Communications, Birmingham, June 1992.
L R Hunt
Automation of forms design with a graphical user interface for small business
edi systems. In Proc. of INTERCONNECT'92, Wellington, October 1992.
G C Ewing, R T Pascoe, D G Ashby and J P Penny
Geographic information systems: Some problems of interest to computer
scientists. In Proc. of the 4th Annual Conference of the Spatial Information
Research Centre, pages 227-233, Dunedin, May 1992.
R T Pascoe and Penny J P
Transforming geographic data between different concrete representations. In
Proc. of the 16th Australian Computer Science Conference, Brisbane, February
1993.
H Thimbleby, S Marsh, S Jones and A Cockburn
Trust in cscw. In S Scrivener, editor, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work.
Ashgate Publishing, 1993. To appear.
A J G Cockburn and S Greenberg
Organisational Computing Systems, Milpitas, California, November 1993. ACM
SIGOIS, IEEE-CS, TC-OA. To appear.
A J G Cockburn and S R A Jones
Four principles for groupware design: encouraging adoption and easing system
use. Paper presented at DTI Seminar on Implementation Perspectives on CSCW
Design, 1993.
Simulation, Modeling, Performance Evaluation
(Dr P Ashton, Dr W Kreutzer, Dr K Pawlikowski, Prof J Penny)
System Programming (Dr W Kreutzer)
Concurrent discrete-event simulation
Automation of simulation output data analysis
(Dr K Pawlikowski)
Queuing theory and its applications
(Dr K Pawlikowski)
Performance Measurement for Distributed Systems
(Prof J Penny, P Ashton)
In the area of simulation Dr Kreutzer is currently mainly interested in the
programming aspects of model design, implementation, and animation, while Dr
Pawlikowski's research concentrates on automated concurrent simulation, and
simulation output data analysis. In 1992 a new methodology of concurrent
stochastic simulation was implemented in a simulation package named Akaroa.
Current projects in this area are on topics in sequential and concurrent
simulation, simulation of rare events, automation of data analysis in
sequential and concurrent simulation, modeling and analysis of nonstationary
processes and graphical user interfaces in concurrent simulation. Dr
Pawlikowski's research in queueing theory centres on theoretical models for
computer communication including models applicable for packet switching in
fibre optical communication. Its main emphasis is on comparability of results
obtained for different embedded Markov chains. Prof Penny and Dr Ashton are
currently working on devising methods for measurement and description of
interactive performance for distributed systems, in particular for the case of
a network of Sun workstations.
Publications since 1990
W Kreutzer
Tiny Tim - a smalltalk toolbox for rapid prototyping and animation of models.
Journal of Object-Oriented Programming, 3(1):27-36, January 1990.
W Kreutzer and M Stairmand
C-flavours - a scheme-based flavour system with coroutines and its
application to the design of object- oriented simulation software.
International Journal of Computer Languages, 15(4):225-249, November 1990.
W Kreutzer
The modeller's assistant - a first step towards integration of knowledge bases
and modelling systems. In Proc. 1990 Summer Simulation Conference, Calgary,
pages 874-879. SCS, 1990.
K Pawlikowski
Steady state simulation of queueing processes: A survey of basic problems and
solutions. ACM Computing Surveys, pages 123-170, June 1990.
C Karthikeyan K Pawlikowski and H Sirisena
Batch means techniques in steady state simulation of DQDB networks. In Proc.
of the 5th Australian Teletraffic Research Seminar, Melbourne, pages
7.2.1-7.2.10, December 1990.
W Kreutzer
An object-oriented programming environment for queueing network simulation.
Asia-Pacific Journal of Operations Research, 7(1):97-103, January 1991.
W Kreutzer
User-interface aspects of Tim - a smalltalk-based multi- layered simulation
system. In Proc. European Simulation Multiconference, Copenhagen, pages
97-103, June 1991.
K Pawlikowski and V Yau
Independent replication versus spectral analysis of output data in
steady-state simulation of high-speed data networks. In Proc. of the 6th
Australian Teletraffic Research Seminar, Wollongong, pages 322-330, Nov 1991.
Paul Ashton and John Penny
Decomposition of interactive response times for loosely-coupled distributed
systems. In Proc. of the 14th Australian Computer Science Conference, pages
19-1-19-10, February 1991.
Paul Ashton and John Penny
Experiments with an algorithm for high- resolution clock synchronisation. In
Proc. of the 15th Australian Computer Science Conference, pages 41-55, Hobart,
January 1992.
W Kreutzer
Model presentation and process visualisation in tim - a programming
environment for model construction. In Proc. Fachtagung Visualisierung und
Praesentation von Modellen und Resultaten der Simulation, Magdeburg, Germany,
1992.
W Kreutzer
Tools and techniques of simulation programming - past, present and future.
keynote address. In Proc. 1992 Summer Computer Simulation Conference, Reno,
July 1992.
W Kreutzer
The role of graphics and animations in simulation software. In Proc. NZ
Conference on Operations Research, Christchurch, August 1992.
K Pawlikowski and V Yau
An empirical comparison of sequential estimations in steady-state simulations
of high-speed data networks. In N. Z. Operational Research. Proc. 28th Annual
Conf, pages 166-169, Christchurch, August 1992.
K Pawlikowski and V Yau
On automatic partitioning, runtime control and output analysis methodology
for massively parallel simulations. In Proceeedings of the European Simulation
Symposium, ESS'92, pages 135-139, Dresden, Germany, 1992.
W Kreutzer
The role of visulization in model design and animation. In Proc. 12th IASTED
Conference on Modelling, Identification and Control, pages 143-7, Innsbruck,
February 1993.
W Kreutzer
The challenge of direct interaction interfaces for model design and animation.
In Proc. IASTED Conference on Modelling and Simulation, Pittsburg, February
1993.
V Yau and K Pawlikowski
AKAROA: a package for automatic generation and process control of parallel
stochastic simulation. In ACSC '93, volume A, pages 71-82, Brisbane,
Australia, February 1993. Australian Computer Science Conference.
Paul Ashton and Peter Smith
The CLB load balancing system. In Proc. of UniForum NZ Conference '93, pages
1.1-12, Masterton, May 1993.
A J E Dale
Tuning networked unix systems. In Proc. of UniForum NZ Conference '93, pages
9.1-12, Masterton, May 1993.
Miscellaneous
Computer Music
(Dr T Bell)
Dr Bell is interested in the use of computers for the composition, performance
and printing of music. A recent project is in the area of optical music
recognition.
Computer Education
(Dr T Bell, Prof J P Penny)
Dr Bell has several projects in the area of teaching computer science principles
to young children. Prof Penny has a research interest in computer education,
especially in relation to the use of teaching laboratories.
Publications since 1990
John Penny and Paul Ashton
Laboratory-style teaching of computer science. In Proc. of the 21st ACM SIGCSE
Technical Symposium, pages 192-196, Washington, February 1990.
T C Bell
Computer science for the uninterested: designing displays for a science
centre. Computers in N. Z. Schools, 4(1):40-46, March 1992.
T C Bell
Making computer science into child's play. In N. Z. Computer Science Research
Students' Conference, pages 31-38, Waikato University, Hamilton, N. Z., 1992.
I H Witten and T C Bell
Getting research students started: a tale of two courses. In Proc. of the
24th ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium, Indianapolis, February 1993.
General Information
Enquiries can be made by letter, telephone, email, or personal visit:
To the Head of Department:
Dr B J McKenzie (email:bruce@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz),
or to Prof J P Penny (email: penny@cosc.canterbury.ac.nz),
or to any staff member whose research is of particular interest.
*****************************************************************************
CENTRE FOR COMPUTING AND BIOMETRICS
LINCOLN UNIVERSITY
Graduate Degree Programmes
Postgraduate Diploma in Commerce
M. Applied Science
M. Commerce and Management
PhD
Staff
Walt L Abell, BS. (Lecturer)
Computer assisted learning, information systems
Tim Bennison, M Math. (Lecturer)
Computer graphics, geographic information systems, object-oriented software
development
Malcolm J Faddy, PhD. (Reader)
Applications of probability and statistics in biology, medicine and other
areas
G Don Kulasiri, PhD. (Lecturer)
Modelling natural systems, finite element methods
B George Love, M Agr Sc. (Senior Lecturer)
Applications of multivariate analysis and experimental design
Alan E McKinnon, PhD. (Reader, Head of Department)
Modelling natural systems
Theresa J McLennan, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
End-user computing
A Bruce Robson, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Modelling natural systems
J R (Dick) Sedcole, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Applications of linear model, genetic statistics
Nancy Zinatelli, M App Sc. (Lecturer)
Information systems
Equipment
Computer Services Centre (Part of the Centre for Computing and Biometrics)
VAX Cluster (VMS) (Local area VAX cluster consisting of
10 VAXs with a wide range of applications software)
DECstation 5000/200 (ULTRIX) for GIS (Arc/Info)
Novell Network (file servers supporting about 600 PC workstations in
labs and departments throughout the campus. There are only a few
Macintosh workstations)
4-node transputer network
All these computer systems share a common network with a high degree of
interoperability.
Research Opportunities
Many of the projects below are collaborative with other departments at Lincoln
or external organisations, reflecting the applied nature of the research in the
department.
Modelling and Simulation
(Dr Kulasiri, Dr McKinnon, Dr Robson, Dr Faddy)
Research is focused on the application of modelling techniques as an aid to
better understanding biological and natural resource systems and as a tool for
predicting system behaviour.
Projects (current and proposed):
(1) Simulation of the development of the root system and associated
microbial community in Pinus Radiata (in collaboration with the
Plant Science Department).
(2) Modelling of the drying of biological materials, particularly timber,
using finite element techniques (in collaboration with Natural
Resources Engineering Department).
(3) Development of a simulation model for the woollen processing system
(in collaboration with the Wool Research Organisation).
(4) Modelling mineral metabolism (such as magnesium and copper) in animals
(in collaboration with the Animal Science Department)
(5) Modelling production of pituitary hormones (in collaboration with the
Animal Science Department).
Sample Publications:
T Brown & G D Kulasiri (1993)
Validation of complex, stochastic, bio- logical systems. Proceedings of the
International Congress on Modelling and Simulation 1993, Perth, Australia.
T Brown & G D Kulasiri (1992)
Simulation of Pinus radiata root- architecture development. New Zealand
Computer Science Research Students' Conference, Waikato University, Hamilton.
G D Kulasiri & D H Vaughan (1989)
Predicting soil temperature from solar radiation. American Soc Agricultural
Engineers paper no. 894563. G.D. Kulasiri et al (1988) Recirculation of air
in peanut drying. Virginia Journal of Science 39(2), 95.
A E McKinnon & T J McLennan (1989)
Educational Software. Proceedings of the third international workshop on
modelling digestion in farm animals. Lincoln University, Canterbury.
A B Robson (1989)
Model of Magnesium Metabolism in Sheep. Proceedings of the third
international workshop on modelling digestion in farms animals. Lincoln
University, Canterbury.
A B Robson (1993)
Mathematical modelling in the natural sciences. Invited paper presented to
the NZ Mathematics Colloquium, University of Canterbury, August 1993.
M J Faddy (1992)
Structured compartmental models. Proceedings of the XVIth International
Biometric Conference, Vol. 2: 58 (abstract of contributed paper).
M J Faddy (1992)
A structured compartmental model for drug kinetics. Biometrics (in press).
Information Systems
(Mr Abell, Dr McLennan, Ms Zinatelli)
Research is focused towards the practical problems an organisation confronts
when developing information systems. These are in requirements determination
and end-user computing.
Projects (current and proposed):
(1) The appropriate role for end-user computing in modern business.
(2) Relevant training for end-user computing.
(3) User participation in prototyping for requirements determination in
system development.
Sample Publications
N Zinatelli (1992)
End User Computing Success in Small Firms: A Research Model. Proceedings of
New Zealand Computer Science Research Students' Conference, pp319- 326.
Computer Assisted Learning
(Mr Abell)
Research is on both the development of systems in particular speciality areas
and the broader problem of determining the requirements for, and specifying a
particular CAL implementation.
Projects (current and proposed):
(1) Computer assisted learning for people undergoing pain therapy.
(2) Strategies for developing the requirements for CAL systems.
Sample Publications:
W L Abell & K J Petrie (1987)
Cybernetic psychology: Using computers to prevent suicide. Proceedings of NZ
Computer Society Conference, Christchurch.
Geographic Information Systems
(Mr Bennison)
Research into computer graphics techniques for visualising effects of
development proposals on natural and urban landscapes.
Projects (current and proposed):
(1) Using image synthesis in planning for rural environments.
(2) Integrating multimedia and image synthesis into the planning process.
Sample Publications:
J Moore & T Bennison (1993)
Image Synthesis. The Landscape Journal, Issue 53.
R Dickinson, D Brady, T Bennison, T Burns, S Pines (1991)
The Process of Videotape Making: Presentation Design, Software, Hardware.
Proceedings of SPIE/IT&T 1991 Symposium on Imaging Science and Technology.
[Ed. E Farrell]
Further Information:
Dr A McKinnon
Centre for Computing and Biometrics
PO Box 84
Lincoln University
Canterbury
e-mail: computing@lincoln.ac.nz
fax 3-325-3840
*****************************************************************************
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
MASSEY UNIVERSITY
Graduate Degree Programmes
M.A., M.Sc., M.Tech., M.B.S.,
Dip.Soc.Sci., Dip.Bus.Studs., Dip.Sci., Dip.Tech.
Ph.D.
Staff
M D Apperley, Ph.D
(Professor and Head of Department)
Human-computer interaction, graphics and image processing, computer-aided
design
J L Alexander, B.A.(Hons) (Senior Lecturer)
Data modelling, database design and support tools, database systems.
J F P Hudson, Ph.D .(Senior Lecturer)
Programming languages, graphics, automated reasoning, formal language theory,
algorithmic problems in pure mathematics.
P Kay, Ph.D. (Senior Lecturer)
Data communications, operating systems, distributed systems.
R H Kemp, M.Sc. (Senior Lecturer)
Knowledge based systems, intelligent computer assisted instruction, logic
programming, artificial intelligence.
D Mehandjiska-Stavreva, Ph.D. (Senior Lecturer)
Object oriented design, expert systems, software engineering.
C H E Phillips, Ph.D.,(Senior Lecturer)
Human-computer interaction, data modelling, database design, computers in
distance education,
S J S Cranefield, Ph.D.(Lecturer)
Artificial intelligence, planning, equational logic programming, algebraic
specification.
E A Kemp, B.Sc.(Hons.) (Lecturer)
Human computer interaction in expert systems, data modelling, CASE.
P J Lyons, M.Sc .(Lecturer)
Visual languages, high level architecture design, TV storage devices
G S Moretti, M.Sc .(Lecturer)
Knowledge based systems, artificial intelligence, programming languages,
computer aided design.
N Perry, Ph.D.(Lecturer)
Design and implementation of concurrent functional programming languages.
Anand V Raman, Dip.Sci.(Assistant Lecturer)
Functional programming, programming languages, compiler construction, code
optimisation.
R J Thomas, B.Sc .(Tutor)
End-user computing, computers in educations, multi-media, interface design.
P Clark, B.A.(Graduate Assistant)
The interface in expert systems
T Cochrane, B.Sc .(Hons.) (Graduate Assistant)
Direct manipulations interfaces and relational databases, artificial
intelligence.
M Masoodian, B.Sc.(Hons.) (Graduate Assistant)
Computer assisted co-operative work.
D Page, B.Sc.(Hons.) (Graduate Assistant)
Object oriented development, expert systems, artificial intelligence,
concurrent programming.
C Simmons,B.Sc.(Graduate Assistant)
Visual programming systems.
S Smith, B.Sc.(Hons.) (Graduate Assistant)
Intelligent computer assisted instruction, artificial intelligence, tutoring
systems.
N Leslie, M.Sc.(Graduate Assistant)
Concurrent functional programming languages, logic, constructive type theory.
Research Opportunities
The largest research groups in the department are the Human-Computer
Interaction research group, the Programming Languages group and the Object
oriented design group. Research is also being carried out , expert systems,
artificial intelligence, image processing, local area networks, automated
vehicle navigation and sound discrimination. Many of these research projects
are being done by inter-departmental research groups.
Current Ph.D. Projects
P S Anderson Prototyping systems for direct manipulation interfaces
L A Haist Systems practices and value in information systems
T Cochrane Direct manipulation with relational database languages
E A Kemp The interface in expert systems
R H Kemp Intelligent tutoring systems
Y K Leung Data visualisation using distortion oriented displays
M Masoodian Computer supported cooperative work systems
A J McGregor Distributed database systems
M L Shore Distributed systems management
W Tietz Object oriented Analysis techniques and development
methodologies.
Further information:
Professor M D Apperley
Department of Computer Science
Massey University
Private Bag
Palmerston North
*****************************************************************************
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
MASSEY UNIVERSITY
Graduate Programmes
BBS(Hon), BA(Hon)
MA, MSc, MBS
DipSocSc, DipBusStuds
PhD
Staff
C Atkins, BA(Hons). (Lecturer)
Data modelling, evolutionary prototyping
P Blakey, MCom. (Senior Lecturer)
End user computing
C A Freyberg, MSc Hons (Associate Professor)
Distributed systems, executive support systems.
L A Haist, MSc. MIEEE (Senior Lecturer)
Organisational impact of information systems, information systems research
methodologies
B Jackson, MSc. DipSocSci MIDPM (Senior Lecturer)
Computers and the learning process, effective teaching strategies,
metacognition and computer based learning cultures Soft systems methodology
D J Monin, MA, MNZCS (Senior Lecturer)
Information systems strategy and management
J D Patrick, Dip. Land Surv, MSc, PhD, BSc, Dip Behav. Health Psych.
(Professor and Head of Department)
Data modelling, databases for human behaviour, applied computing, decision
trees,inductive inference, archaeoastronomy, neuro-linguistic programming.
E G Todd, MSc. (Lecturer)
Knowledge based systems, systems analysis and design methodologies,
human-computer interaction, spatial information systems
D Viehland, MA PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Executive support systems, IT applications in universities, economics of
information capital
R W Whiddett, BSc MA PhD (Senior Lecturer)
Expert systems, distributed systems design
Equipment
University Computer Centre
Dec 3100s, VAX 3300
School
Sun workstations, Apple Macintoshes, IBM compatible PCs, Wang
Research Opportunities
Other that individual staff members research activities, there are two
inter-disciplinary research groups, viz:
Database Interest Group
A joint grouping with the Computer Science department.
Computers in Education Research Group
An inter-disciplinary research group to support research in the use of
computers in education. Research interests include the use of expert systems
in the educational context, hypermedia applications in education and
co-operative learning within the computer assisted learning environment.
Further Information:
Assoc. Professor Chris A Freyberg
Department of Information Systems
Massey University
Private Bag 11222
PALMERSTON NORTH
Internet C.Freyberg@massey.ac.nz
Facsimile ++64 6 350 5611
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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO
Graduate Degree Programmes
Diploma in Science
MSc, MA
PhD
Staff
B G Cox, PhD. (Professor, Head of Department)
Data structures, languages, operating systems, spatial information
G Wyvill, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Computer graphics
J R McDonald, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Medical information systems, databases
M E Alexander, PhD. (Lecturer) Computer vision and image processing, analysis
of neural networks, numerical methods, architectures
P Gorman, PhD. (Lecturer) Software engineering, natural language processing,
data structures, object-oriented programming.
C C Handley, MSc. (Lecturer)
Algorithm design, image processing, visual texture
M E Jefferies, MSc. (Lecturer)
Artificial intelligence, data structures, compilers
A V Robins, DPhil. (Lecturer)
Connectionism, artificial intelligence
W K Yeap, PhD. (Lecturer)
Artificial intelligence, expert systems
Equipment
University Computing Services Centre
DEC VAX 8550, VAX 6320, VAXstation 3100 (5) (Common Lisp, Prolog)
VAXstation II/GPx (Ultrix, C) (2), DECstation 3100 (2), MicroVAX (Pascal, C)
Department
Hardware Operating Systems
Department Macintosh Computers (38) SunOS
Sun Workstations(4) Ultrix
Sun Sparc Stations (7) OSF/1
DEC Stations (6) A/UX
Alpha (1) DOS
486/50 (1) System7
Quadra 950 (1)
Mac II (1)
AT&T 6386WGS (1)
Commodore AMIGA (1)
IBMPC (1)
Applications
MacPascal, Think Pascal, WriteNow, Canvas, AAIS, Prolog, MacCommon Lisp,
MPW, MacApp, Franz Lisp, Harlequin Lisp, Oracle, Katachi, Sicstus,
Prolog, Gnu Sofware
Research Opportunities
Artificial Intelligence
(Dr Yeap, Dr Alexander, Dr Robins, Ms Jefferies)
Research in the AI Laboratory is concerned with exploring how perceived
sensory information can be used to provide meanings to the symbols manipulated
in traditional AI research, and with developing principles of expert systems.
There is also a strong interest in neural networks, in particular: cognitive
modelling and simulation of biological neural systems. Our research activity
is interdisciplinary, in collaboration with the Departments of Mathematics &
Statistics, Medicine, Philosophy, Psychology, Information Science and Zoology.
We currently seek students to work in the following projects:
(1) Low-level vision [MSc, PhD]
(2) Neural networks [MSc]
(3) Planning using commonsense knowledge [MSc, PhD]
(4) Understanding how children acquire natural languages [MSc, PhD]
(5) Developing Intelligent Computer aided instruction systems [MSc, PhD]
(6) Developing Computational methods for inexact reasoning [MSc, PhD]
(7) Developing deductive databases using logic [MSc]
(8) Building medical and other expert systems [MSc, PhD]
Sample Publications:
M E Alexander (1991)
Analysing Images using the Wavelet Transform. Proc. of the 6th NZ Image
Processing Workshop, DSIR Physical Sciences, Lower Hutt, 1-7
J R Wickens, M E Alexander & R Miller (1991)
Two dynamic modes of striatal function under dopaminergic-cholinergic control:
simulation and analysis of a model. Synapse, 8, 1-12.
M E Alexander and L M Woudberg (1992)
Texture Analysis using Wavelets. Proc. of the 7th NZ Image Processing
Workshop, Canterbury University, Christchurch.
M E Alexander (1992)
Computational Techniques for finding Transitions of behaviour in Neural
Systems: Application to a Model for the Striatum. 10th International
Australasian Winter Conference on Brain Research, Queenstown (Abstract Only).
M E Alexander and J R Wickens (1993)
Analysis of Striatal Dynamics: The Existence of Two Modes of Behaviour.
Journal of Theoretical Biology (in press).
J R Wickens, R Kotter and M E Alexander (1993)
Effects of connectivity and dopamine on Striatal Function: Simulation and
analysis of a model (to be submitted).
A Robins (1991)
Multiple Representations in Connectionist Systems. International Journal of
Neural Systems, 2(4), 345-362.
A Robins (1992)
Incorporating Supervised Learning in the Domains Account of Categorisation.
Connection Science, 4(1), 45-56.
W K Yeap and G A Finnie (1992)
Re-planning from a cognitive map. Proc. of the 2nd Pacific Rim International
Conference on AI, Seoul, Korea.
Database Systems
(Dr McDonald)
We continue to focus attention on the use of databases in specialised areas
such as medicine and surveying. Small clinical databases often have particular
requirements which provide interesting research problems and there is still
useful work to be done on temporal aspects of land information systems.
Research projects available are:
(1) Temporal data models
(2) Extending various database applications by adding temporal capabilities
(3) The use of multi-media databases in clinical research
(4) Reasoning databases
Computer Graphics
(Dr Wyvill, Mr Handley)
Our emphasis is on 3D computer graphics. We make images and animation using the
Katachi CSG system, developed here over nine years. Emphasis is on
understanding and developing fundamentals in modelling and imaging. Some
projects and applications are:
(1) development of new parametric modelling for free form surfaces
(2) 3D data capture from photographs and radiographs
(3) representation of fuzzy objects
(4) direct milling of 3D components from solid models
(5) characterisation, recognition and reproduction of textures
(6) rendering and the modelling of optical phenomena
Sample publications:
Wyvill G and Sharp P
Stereoscopic images (Computer Art Forum) The Visual Computer, Volume 6 Number
5, November 1990, 300-303
Wyvill G, Sharp P
Commercial Animation using a Solid Modeller. The Journal Of Visualization And
Computer Animation Vol 2:1 1991, 9-15
Wyvill G, Cao En and Trotman A
The Cao En Surface: A new approach to freeform geometric Models.
Programmirovanie (4) 1992 (also to be published in English in Programming and
Computer Software, Plenum Publishing Corporation)
Wyvill G
New directions in graphics animation and visualization (Invited paper)
AUSGRAPH '90 Proceedings, 135-143
Max N and Wyvill G
Shapes and Textures for Rendering Coral Proceedings of CG International '91.
Boston, Springer Verlag, 1991, 333-343
Wyvill G and McNaughton C
Three Plus Five Makes Eight: A Simplified Approach to Halftoning Proceedings
of CG International '91. Boston, Springer Verlag, 1991, 379-392
Wyvill G and Trotman A
Exact Ray Tracing of CSG Models by Preserving Boundary Information.
Proceedings of CG International '92, Visual Computing, Springer-Verlag Tokyo
(c) 1992, 411-428
Wyvill G, Witbrock A, Trotman A
Hierarchy, Labels and Motion Description (invited paper) Proceedings of CA
'92, Creating and Animating the Virtual World, Springer-Verlag Tokyo (c) 1992,
237-247
Wyvill G, McRobie D
Local and Global Control of Cao En Surfaces, Proceedings of CG International
'93, Communicating with Virtual Worlds, Springer-Verlag Tokyo (c) 1992,
216-227
Spatial Information Technology
(Professor Cox, Dr McDonald, Dr Yeap)
We are investigating the construction and practical use of geographical
information systems (GIS), in conjunction with members of the Departments of
Surveying, Information Science and Geography. A number of computerised
mapping systems are available including Geovision and ARC/INFO. Research
projects available are:
(1) Constructing GIS on SUN Workstations [MSc]
(2) Data Models for GIS [MSc]
Software Engineering
(Dr Paul Gorman)
We are investigating the production of software development environments with
the intention of using an enviroment during teaching. Other areas of interest
are the production of reusable components and the production of a
computer-readable grammar of English. Research projects available are:
(1) Use of Software Development Environemnts - Teaching [MSc]
(2) Constructing a Software Development Environment [MSc, PhD]
(3) A grammar for English [MSc, PhD]
Publications:
P Gorman, N W Hardy (1993)
CLAWS, Ada and Software Components, Corpus-based Computational Lingusihics, p
163-180.
Current Work
Theses in progress
Dean McRobie (PhD) Freeform Solid Modelling
Mark Williams (PhD) Constructing 3-D Models from 2-D Images
C C Handley (PhD) Texture Analysis and Synthesis
M Jefferies (PhD) Cognitive Maps
B Phease (PhD) AI & Go
C Robertson (PhD) Temporal Database Research
M Adams (MSc) Automated Processing of Legal Documents
A McPherson (MSc) Simulation and Analysis of a Model of Corticostriatal
Interactions
M Stack (MSc) Primitive Objects, Bends and Curvy Things etc
A Witbrock (MSc) Animating Articulated Objects
L Woudberg (MSc) Wavelet Techniques in Computer Vision
B Lowther (MSc) Automatic Autoradiogram Feature Extraction
Theses submitted or acceptedince 1991
S Jin (PhD) 1993 Depth Acquisition & Surface Reconstruction in 3D
Computer Vision
G Finnie (MSc) 1992 Planning with Commonsense Reasoning
C McNaughton (MSc) 1992 Design and Rendering of Free Form Solids
D Rendall (MSc) 1992 Computer-aided 3D Reconstruction of X-ray Data
A Trotman (MSc) 1993 Ray Tracing Efficiency and Correctness
E Elikkos (MSc) 1992 A Land Information System to support historical data
T Noever (MSc) 1993 Neural Network Approaches to Pattern Recognition
Further Information
Professor B G Cox
Head of Department
Department of Computer Science
University of Otago
Box 56
Dunedin
*****************************************************************************
DEPARTMENT OF INFORMATION SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO
Graduate Degree Programmes
Diploma in Commerce (Information Science)
Diploma in Science (Spatial Information Studies)
MCom (Information Science)
PhD
Staff
P J Sallis, PhD. (Professor, Chairman of Department)
Software engineering, natural language processing
M R Anderson, BSc(Hons), MBA. (Senior Lecturer)
Project management, strategic planning, IS services management
G Benwell, BSurv, MPhil, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Petri-nets, spatial data modelling
D Campbell, BA, BSc(Hons). (Lecturer)
Databases, 4GLs, CASE
P G Firns, BCom(Hons). (Lecturer)
Spatial information system design, data modelling methods, databases
N K Kasabov, MSc, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Artificial intelligence, expert systems, neural networks
G J Kennedy, MA, MSc. (Senior Lecturer)
Information systems, decision support systems, expert systems
M Purvis, MS, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Software engineering
H B Wolfe, MS, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Computer security, cryptography, viruses
W Wong, BCom(Hons.) (Asst. Lecturer)
Information design
N J Stanger, BSc. (Asst. Lecturer)
Databases, programming languages, software engineering
Equipment
University Computing Services Centre
A VAX cluster including
DEC VAX 8550, VAX 6240, VAXstation 3100's (6)
running VMS and supporting software including
Rdb, Rally, SQL, Powerhouse, Pascal, C, LisP, Prolog.
Department
Stand alone PC's (20), Staff NEC APC's (10),
Macintosh SE/30 (1), Macintosh IIci (2),
Macintosh IIsi (1), Macintosh SE (1)
Vaxstation 3100
Commerce Division
DECstation 5000 (Ultrix), VaxStation 3100m48,
VaxStation 4000 (2), Stand alone 486 PC's (14)
Networked PC's (164), Macintosh LCII (23)
Research Opportunities
Spatial Information Systems
(Professor P Sallis*, Dr G Benwell, Mr P Firns, Mr M Anderson)
In conjunction with other departments working through the Spatial Information
Research Centre, we are investigating the design and implementation methods
best suited for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) applications. Most of
this work currently concentrates on the application of object-oriented methods
for data analysis and design, particularly the entity-relationship modelling
method. Algorithm design for spatial data handling and the construction of
rule and knowledge-based systems also constitutes current work in this area.
Students are sought to work in these areas at MCom and PhD level. Petri Nets
are also being used to understand spatial information processes so the
re-engineering can also occur to improve business efficiency.
Sample publications:
Aldridge C H, Benwell G L, Turnbull I, Glassey P, Henderson J, Harris M
and Tay A L (1993)
Dunedin Pilot Hazards Information System - A System Analysis and Proposal,
Fifth Annual Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre, University
of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 247-264.
Anderson M R, Benwell G L (1993)
A survey of GIS Usage amongst Local Authorities in Western Australia, Fifth
Annual Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre, University of
Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 213-218.
Benwell G L and Sutherland N C (Eds) (1993)
The Fifth Annual Colloquium of The Spatial Information Research Centre,
Conference Proceedings, University of Otago, Dunedin, 327 pages.
Benwell G L (1993)
On the Spatial Analysis of Hieracium and Towards a Fuzzy Representation, Fifth
Annual Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre, University of
Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 279-288.
Firns P G (1993)
Semantic Data Modelling Abstractions and the Modelling of Spatial
Relationships, Fifth Anual Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research
Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand, 73-84.
Firns P G and Benwell G L (1993)
Spatial Data Modelling, Journal of the American Society for Information
Science, in preparation. Kasabov, N.K., Trifonov, R.I. (1993), Using Hybrid
Connectionist Systems for Spatial Information Processing, Fifth Annual
Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre, University of Otago,
Dunedin, New Zealand, 85-96.
Purvis M, Gaskin C, Smith I, McLennan B (1993)
Life at Taiaroa Head (Pukekura), Fifth Annual Colloquium of the Spatial
Information Research Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand,
265-278.
Sallis P J and Benwell G L (1993)
Geomatics: the Influence of Informatics on Spatial Information Processing,
accepted for the 2nd SEARCC SIG on Informatics Teaching, Hong Kong, 10 pages.
Expert Systems
(Dr N Kasabov, Mr G Kennedy, Professor P Sallis*)
We are concerned with the development of new methods and software tools for
knowledge engineering. The focus is on dealing with inexact data and knowledge
and fuzzy data and knowledge in particular. Hybrid systems, which combine both
standard techniques of artificial intelligence and new ones (as for example
neural networks) are under development now. Development of application
oriented expert systems in medicine, business, banking, agriculture, control,
education and other areas is within the scope of interests. Postgraduate
research on both application oriented expert systems, and methods for
knowledge engineering will be considered.
Sample publications:
Kasabov N K (Ed) (1993)
Artificial Neural Networks and Expert Systems, Proceedings of ANNES'93 - the
First New Zealand International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks and
Expert Systems, Dunedin, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos.
Kasabov N K (1993)
Hybrid Connectionist Production Systems, Journal of Systems Engineering (ed.
D.Pham), vol 3, No 1, Springer Verlag, London, 15-21.
Kasabov, N., Shishkov,
S. (1993), A Connectionist Production System and the Use of its Partial Match
for Approximate Reasoning, "Connection Science", special issue.
Kasabov N (1993)
Learning Fuzzy Production Rules for Approximate Reasoning with Connectionist
Production Systems, in: Artificial Neural Networks III (Proceedings of the
International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, Amersterdam, 13-16
September), Springer Verlag.
Kasabov N, Shishkov S (1993)
Parallel Connectionist Fuzzy Production Systems, in: K. Fukushima (Ed),
Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Neural Networks IJCNN'93,
Nagoya, Japan.
Kasabov N (1993)
Towards Connectionist Realisation of Fuzzy Production Systems. In: P. Leong
and M.Jabri (Eds), Proceedings of ACNN'93 - the Fourth Australian Conference
on Neural Networks, Sydney Electrical Engineering, 134-137.
Kasabov N, Jain L C (1993)
Connectionist Expert Systems. In: N.Kasabov (ed), Artificial Neural Networks
and Expert Systems (Proceedings of ANNES '93), IEEE Computer Society Press,
Los Alamitos, 220-221.
Software Engineering
(Professor P Sallis*, Dr M Purvis, Mr D Campbell)
Incorporating elements of software design, testing and measurement, this area
refers to much of the Department's teaching and research interest. Computer
Aided Software Engineering (CASE) is the latest aspect of this work and
requires further research commitment.
Sample publications:
Purvis M K (1993)
Casual Modelling in Software Engineering Design. In Proceedings of the IFIP
W.G. 3.4/SRIG-ET (SEARCC) Conference '93 on Software Engineering Education,
Hong Kong.
Purvis M K and Ziaodong L (1993)
Connectionist Computations Based on an Optical Thin- Film Model. In
Proceedings of the First New Zealand International Two-Stream Conference on
Artificial Neural Networks and Expert Systems, Dunedin.
Purvis M K and Benwell G L (1993)
A Casual Agent Approach for Modelling Dynamic Systems. In Proceedings of the
13th New Zealand Computer Society Conference, Auckland, 598-604.
Purvis M K and Benwell G L (1993)
A Computer Model of the Resource Management Act of New Zealand. In Proceedings
of the XIIth Conference of the South East Asia Regional Computer
Confederation, Hong Kong.
Purvis M K, Benwell G L. and Purvis M A (1993)
Dynamic Modelling of the Resource Management Act, to be published in the New
Zealand Journal of Computing.
Purvis M A and Purvis M K (1993)
Dynamic Modelling of the Resource Management Act. Proceedings of the Fifth
Annual Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre, Dunedin,
225-240.
Purvis M K, Gaskin C, Smith I and McLennan B (1993)
Life at Taiaroa Head. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Colloquium of the
Spatial Information Research Centre, Dunedin, 265-278.
Natural Language and Computational Linguistics
(Professor P. Sallis) * - Professor Sallis is on sabbatical for 1993
New methods for natural language processing and their use in data base
interfaces will be considered.
Sample Publications:
P J Sallis (1978)
A partial-parsing Algorithm for Natural Language Text Using a Simple Grammar
for Arguments. ALLC Bulletin, 6, 170-176.
P J Sallis (1978)
Text processing: a matter of definition or application. Program 12(4),
185-187.
P J Sallis
A Meta-Information Structure for Representing Arguments in Science Text. (PhD
Thesis, City University, London, 1979).
P J Sallis & R Anderson (1990)
Semantic Processing of Science Text. JALC.
Artificial Neural Networks - models and applications
(Dr N Kasabov )
Artificial Neural Networks constitute a very fast developing area which deals
with computational "brain - like" models and their applications. Though a lot
of different types of connectionist models are now available on the shelf,
more psychologically plausible and also close to the known artificial
intelligence techniques models are being sought as well as their software and
hardware implementation. The applications area of neurocomputing is very wide.
We are more interested how neural networks can be applied for knowledge
acquisition, representation and processing and processing fuzzy information in
particular. Neural Networks applications in continuous speech recognition,
expert systems, spatial information processing and other areas will be
considered for postgraduate research.
Sample publications:
Kasabov N (1993)
Learning Fuzzy Rules Through Neural Networks. In: N.Kasabov (ed), Artificial
Neural Networks and Expert Systems, Proceedings ANNES'93, IEEE Computer
Society Press, Los Alamitos, 137-140.
Kasabov N, Nikovski D and Peev E (1993)
Speech Recognition with Kohonen's Self Organized Neural Networks and Hybrid
Systems. In: N.Kasabov (ed), Artificial Neural Networks and Expert Systems
(Proceedings of ANNES '93), IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos,
113-118.
Kasabov N (1993)
Neural Networks and Fuzzy Systems for Knowledge Engineering. In: Proceedings
of the 13th New Zealand Computer Society Conference, August, 1993, Auckland.
N K Kasabov and S Shishkov (1992)
On the problem of connectionist production systems - models and their
implementation, in: Eds. I.Aleksander and J.Taylor. Artificial Neural Networks
II, Elsevier Science Publishers.
N K Kasabov and S Shishkov (1992)
A concurrent asynchronous connectionist production system with a partial
match, IEEE Trans. on Neural Networks (submitted for publication).
N K Kasabov and G Clarke (1992)
A Template Based Implementation of Connectionist Knowledge Based Systems for
Classification and Learning, in :"Progress in Neural Networks", vol.3,
ed.O.Omidvar, Ablex Publ. Comp., USA.
Theory and Practice of Information System Development
(Mr G Kennedy)
There is a steady stream of international research relating to the evolution
of theories concerning the process of information transfer in the areas of
Management Information and Decision Support Systems. Post-graduate students
are sought to take part in this research into the design and use of
information systems and the information transfer process.
Sample Publications:
G J Kennedy (1989)
A new Model for the Process of Information Acquisition. Proc. 11th NZ Computer
Conf. 161-170.
G J Kennedy (1989)
Towards a Theory of Information Acquisition. NZ Journal of Computing 1 (1)
46-53.
G J Kennedy (1990)
Realising the Commercial Potential of Expert Systems. Proc. NZCS ESSIG, Massey
University, October, 1990.
Computer Security
(Dr H Wolfe)
Research is being done on computer viruses that have occurred on IBM or
compatible micro computers. This includes disassembly of working viruses and
documenting of the disassembled virus so that its techniques used can be
studied. A defence strategy is constantly updated and improved to provide
protection against this type of electronic vandalism.
Sample publications:
H B Wolfe (1992) Virus defense - preventing entry into your system, in
Conference on Computer Security: Preventing Information Abuse and Fraud.
Auckland, Business Information Seminars, 1-12.
Current work
Theses in progress
G J Kennedy (PhD) Information Systems Design Methodology
P G Firns (PhD) Automating the Design of Database
W Wong (PhD) Information Design: How information may be presented
to facilitate understanding
P Jones (PhD) The Object Model and Programmer Efficiency
C Aldridge (PhD) Mapping of Multidimensional Data with Electronic
memory Space
H Tomaszewska(PhD) Derivation of Data Structure Models from Process
Models of Reality
A Mohammed (PhD) End User Modelling
Further Information:
Professor P J Sallis
Department of Information Science
University of Otago
Box 56
Dunedin
*****************************************************************************
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
VICTORIA UNIVERSITY
Graduate Degree Programmes
BSc(Hons), BA(Hons)
Diploma in Computer Science
Diploma in Applied Science
Master of Computer Science
MSc, MA
PhD
Staff
P M Andreae, BE(Hons), MS PhD M.I.T. (Senior Lecturer)
Artificial intelligence, Machine learning, Qualitative physical reasoning.
G Bartfai, BSEE MSEE PhD Budapest (Lecturer)
Neural networks, Dual computing structure, Machine Learning
R Biddle, BMath(Hons) MMath Waterloo, PhD Cant, DipTchg (Lecturer)
Programming languages, Software engineering, Human factors, Education.
B E Boutel, MA Camb (Senior Lecturer)
Functional programming, Programming languages, Operating systems.
J Brown, BA MSc Queens (Lecturer)
Computer architecture, System software, Software development tools.
G Dobbie, BTech(Hons) MTech Massey, PhD Melbourne (Lecturer)
Object-oriented databases, Deductive databases, Software engineering.
L J Groves, BSc Auck, MSc Massey (Senior Lecturer)
Formal methods in software engineering, Formal specification, Program
refinement, Logic programming.
P M Hall, BSc Leeds, MSc Middlesex, PhD Sheffield (Lecturer)
Computer graphics, Image processing, Human computer interaction.
J H Hine, BSEE Union, MSc PhD Wisc (Professor)
Distributed systems, Design and evaluation of operating systems, Computer
networks.
E K Jones, BSc(Hons) Otago, MS MPhil PhD Yale (Lecturer)
Artificial intelligence: Machine learning, Intelligent database retrieval,
Natural language understanding, Case-based reasoning.
W J McKenna, BS South Carolina, MS PhD Colorado (Lecturer)
Query optimisation, Object-oriented and extensible database systems, Operating
systems.
A Omondi, BSc(Hons) Manchester, PhD North Carolina (Lecturer)
Computer architecture, Computer arithmetic, Computational logic.
E Tempero, BSc(Hons) Otago, PhD Wash (Lecturer)
Theory of distributed computing, Distributed systems, Computer networks,
Object-oriented languages, Type theory.
Equipment
Most graduate computing is supported within the department on a network of
Unix workstations. The network contains various compute and file servers,
personal workstations and X-terminals. Network access is also available to a
four processor Silicon Graphics Unix system and several VMS systems in the
Computing Services Centre. Both Macintosh and PC clone personal computers are
also available.
Software includes Common Lisp, Prolog, the Oracle relational database system,
various CASE and system design tools, network simulation packages, neural
network simulators, a variety of editors, document processors, etc.
The University has a 128 kbps connection to the Internet which is available to
all graduate students.
Research Opportunities
Computer Systems Architecture
(Amos Omondi)
Investigation of hardware algorithms for computer arithmetic. This work is
mainly concerned with "elementary" functions (square-root, logarithms,
trigonometric, hyperbolic, etc.).
The design, programming, and evaluation of high-performance machines,
especially of pipelined machines and of machines capable of interpreting
languages of different classes (imperative, logic, etc.)
Sample publication:
A R Omondi
Design of a high-performance instruction pipeline, Computer Systems Science
and Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1991, pp 13--29.
Management of Distributed Systems
(John Hine, Robert Biddle)
Design and analysis of scheduling mechanisms for a system of distributed
workstations. A highly available, distributed database for collecting and
providing load and performance information has been built. The design of an X
based performance monitor for a system consisting of a large number of
distributed workstations is being undertaken.
Sample publications:
Andy Bond
Load Sharing in a Distributed Environment. In Proceedings of the 9th Annual
Conference of Uniforum New Zealand, New Plymouth, New Zealand, May 1992.
UniForum NZ.
Robert Biddle, John H Hine and Zhiqing Zhang
CR: A Monitor for Distributed Systems. In Proceedings of the 10th Annual
Conference of UniForum New Zealand, Masterton, New Zealand, May 1993.
UniForum NZ.
Andy Bond and John H Hine
Predicting Task Resource Use Through Classification. In Proceedings of the
13th NZCS Conference, Auckland, New Zealand, August 1993, pp637-654.
Analysis of Network Protocols
(Ewan Tempero)
Developing models for analysis of network protocols and examining protocols
for non-standard network channels.
Programming Languages
(Ewan Tempero, Brian Boutel)
Developing concurrent programming models for object-oriented languages.
Functional programming languages, design and implementation issues,
particularly associated with Haskell and Haskell2. Areas of investigation
include the use of compile-time analysis to improve run-time performance, e.g.
partial evaluation and heap management.
Sample publication:
Paul Hudak, Simon Peyton Jones, Philip Wadler, Brian Boutel, Jon Fairbairn,
Joseph Fasel, Maria M. Guzman, Kevin Hammond, John Hughes, Thomas Johnsson,
Dick Kieburtz, Rishiyur Nikhil, Will Partain, John Peterson.
Report on the Programming Language Haskell ACM SIGPLAN Notices, 27 (5) May
1992.
Code Reuse
(Robert Biddle, Ewan Tempero, Peter Andreae)
Constructing code that can be easily, safely, and widely reused is difficult.
The project aims to identify the issues involved in the design of reusable
code and to construct practical guidelines and tools to assist real
programmers to construct reusable code.
Sample publication:
Peter Andreae, Robert Biddle and Ewan Tempero
How to Reuse Software, Really: A Guide to Creating Reusable Code with C++. In
Proceedings of the 13th New Zealand Computer Society Conference, Auckland,
August 1993, pp236-260.
Programming by Demonstration
(Peter Andreae)
We have been working for many years on developing a programming by
demonstration system in the domain of robotics. We are now turning our
attention to programming in other areas, including text editors, spread
sheets, and general programming environments. The central concern of our
approach is constructing procedures with complex control structures.
Visual Programming Systems
(Robert Biddle, Lindsay Groves)
Investigation of the use of graphical techniques for animating the execution
of programs, based on a hierarchy of objects corresponding to abstract data
types and multiple views at various levels of abstraction.
Design and development of software to assist programming language learners.
Despite the improvement of applications software, there is still a need for
many people to program computers -- though often now in specific application
based languages. To help these people learn to program well, both better
programming models and better programming tools are needed.
Sample publications:
R James Noble and Lindsay J Groves
Tarraingim -- A Program Animation Environment. New Zealand Journal of
Computing, Vol. 4, No 1 (December 1992), pp29--40.
Robert Biddle
Graphic User Interfaces Made Easy?: A Tcl/Tk Tutorial. In Proceedings of the
9th Annual Conference of Uniforum New Zealand, New Plymouth, New Zealand, May
1992. Uniforum NZ.
Formal Methods
(Lindsay Groves, Amos Omondi)
The use of logic in the specification and design of computer systems. We are
investigating techniques for formal specification and development of programs,
and the design of software tools to support these activities. A prototype
refinement tool has been developed and is currently being expanded.
Sample publications:
Lindsay Groves, Raymond Nickson and Mark Utting
A Tactic Driven Refinement Tool. In Proceedings of the 5th Refinement
Workshop. British Computer Society, January 1992.
Lindsay Groves
Deriving Sorting Algorithms using Data Refinement. Proc. 16th Australian
Computer Science Conference, Brisbane, February, 1993. Australian Computer
Science Communications Vol. 15, No. 1, Part B, pp523--534.
Mike Ainsworth, Tony Cruickshank, Lindsay Groves and Peter Wallis.
Formal Specification via Viewpoints Proc. 13th New Zealand Computer Society
Conference, Auckland, August 1993, pp218-237.
Database Systems
(William McKenna)
Improving the functionality and performance of extensible, object-oriented,
and scientific database systems by research into generating effective,
efficient query processing frameworks for such systems.
Sample Publications:
J Blakeley, W J McKenna and G Graefe
"Experiences Building the Open OODB Query Optimizer", Proc. ACM SIGMOD
Conference, May 1993.
G Graefe, W J McKenna
"The Volcano Optimizer Generator: Extensibility and Efficient Search", Proc.
IEEE Conference on Data Engineering, Apr. 1993.
Deductive Object-Oriented Databases
(Gillian Dobbie)
Developing an object-oriented database system on top of a deductive database.
The project tests a proposed deductive object-oriented database model and
allows investigation of possible optimisations.
Sample publication:
G Dobbie and R Topor
A Model for Sets and Multiple Inheritance in Deductive Object-Oriented
Systems, in Proceedings DOOD'93 3rd International Conference on Deductive and
Object-Oriented Databases, Phoenix, Arizona, Dec 1993.
Normalisation in the Object-Oriented Model
(Gillian Dobbie)
Investigate how the real world can be modelled in the object-oriented model.
In the relational model, it is possible to be somewhat mechanical in producing
a database scheme according to a well-developed theory. This project
investigates parallels in the object-oriented model.
Object-Oriented Modelling for Architectural Design
(Lindsay Groves)
An object-oriented database system is being developed, in conjunction with the
School of Architecture, to allow a single model of a building to be used to
generate input to, and collect output from, a variety of systems for analysing
building designs. A prototype of the database, several translation modules
and a graphical user interface have been completed. The main focus of future
work in this area will be on techniques for combining data models.
Sample publication:
Robert Amor, Mike Donn, Lindsay Groves and John Hosking.
Design Tool Integration: Model Flexibility for the Building Profession. In
Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Building Systems
Automation and Integration, Dallas, Texas, June 1992.
Data Clustering
(Peter Andreae, Brian Dawkins (ISOR), Eric Jones)
There are a number of different algorithms that have been proposed for
clustering large collections of data. The project aims to evaluate and
improve clustering methods based on the COBWEB approach, and to apply the
methods to a variety of practical data bases.
Natural Language Processing and Knowledge Representation
(Eric Jones)
Developing a test-bed for knowledge-intensive natural language understanding.
This project addresses the following research issues: using multiple knowledge
sources in disambiguation, explicit reasoning about indexing and retrieval of
real-world knowledge, and representing and reasoning about time. Modules are
under development for syntactic parsing, plan recognition, and extraction of
temporal information from texts.
Sample publications:
Eric K Jones and Linton M Miller
Eager GLR Parsing, in Proceedings of the First Australian Workshop on Natural
Language Processing and Information Retrieval. Melbourne, Australia, Nov
1992.
Eric K Jones
Extending Schema-Based Reasoning to Cope with Multiple Descriptions, The AAAI
Workshop on Tractable Reasoning, July 1992.
Intelligent Database Retrieval
(Eric Jones)
Developing a case-based decision aid for weather forecasting that supports
intelligent retrieval of historical meteorological data from high-level
descriptions of weather situations. The key research issues are designing a
representational vocabulary for encoding meteorological phenomena, and
developing suitable mechanisms for case selection and similarity assessment.
In cooperation with the Institute of Geophysics, we have thus far constructed
a prototype multimedia database called MetVUW Workbench for retrieval and
display of historical meteorological data. The system currently supports the
following types of data: laser disc video imagery, digital satellite imagery,
time-tagged text descriptions, hydrological data, and numeric fields from the
European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasting. Existing components of
MetVUW Workbench allow this information to be retrieved by date and time, by
full text search, or by scanning the laser disc.
Sample publications:
Eric K Jones and Aaron Roydhouse
Intelligent Retrieval of Historical Meteorological Data, Workshop on
Artificial Intelligence and the Natural World. Melbourne, Australia, Nov
1993.
James McGregor and Eric K Jones
MetVUW: A Multimedia Teaching Aid, First International Conference on
Computer-Aided Learning and Distance Learning in Meteorology, Hydrology, and
Oceanography. Boulder, Colorado, Jul 1993.
Eric Jones
Model-Based Case Adaptation in Proceedings AAAI-92 Tenth National Conference
on Artificial Intelligence, Morgan Kaufmann, July 1992.
Construction and Exploration of a Hypertext Database.
(Eric Jones)
Developing a graphical editor for specifying the argument structure of a legal
case; developing a hypertext database for navigating these argument structures
to retrieve legal documents relating to some aspect of the case. The key
research issues are designing a vocabulary for representing the structure of
legal arguments, and developing graphical notations for displaying argument
structures.
Other Related Publications
Eric K Jones
Brainstormer: Refining Abstract Planning Advice, In Inside Computer
Explanation, Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1993.
Eric Jones
Communicating Abstract Advice: the Role of Stories, Proceedings of the
Fourteenth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, July 1992.
Eric K Jones
The Flexible Use of Abstract Knowledge in Planning. (Yale University Ph.D.
thesis.) Technical Report 28, The Institute for the Learning Sciences,
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, May 1992.
Neural Networks
(Guszti Bartfai)
Investigation of various artificial and natural information processing
structures which involve massively interconnected networks of simple
processing elements. Emphasis is given to the creation and study of
self-organising network models, such as variants of Adaptive Resonance Theory
(ART) neural networks, and their application to various learning tasks. Part
of this work is the research and development of a variety of tools (e.g.
visualisation tools), by extending existing public domain simulators, that can
help in studying the behaviour of novel network models. Another aspect of the
work is investigating models that combine neural and traditional computing
with special respect to image processing.
Sample publications:
G Bartfai & al
A Digital Multiprocessor Hardware Accelerator Board for Cellular Neural
Networks: CNN-HAC, International Journal of Circuit Theory and Applications,
Vol. 20, 1992, pp589-599.
G Bartfai, M Elliffe and P Wood
SOTA -- A Visualisation Tool for ART Neural Networks, To appear in Proceedings
of ANNES'93, The First New Zealand International Two-Stream Conference on
Artificial Neural Networks and Expert Systems, IEEE Computer Society Press,
1993.
Scientific Visualisation
(Peter Hall)
Scientific visualisation is an emergent discipline drawing on a diverse range
of computer science areas including data base management, human computer
interaction, and artificial intelligence. However, scientific visualisation
always involves both the analysis of data and the subsequent synthesis of
images. Within this context my interests have been three-dimensional
reconstruction of cerebral vasculature, and visualisation of fluid flow in
three dimensions. Work in the first of these area has produced a unique model
of vasculature that is capable of learning. Work in the second area has
produced totally new algorithms for presenting three dimensional flow. The
relationship between word and pictures is of interest too, and I am involved
in a collaborative project that aims to integrate natural language processing
and computer vision for application in vascular reconstruction.
Representative papers:
Peter Hall
Volume rendering for vector fields, The Visual Computer, 1993 (accepted for
publication)
Peter Hall
Visualising three-dimensional vector fields using colour, Proc. Eurographics
UK '93.
Peter Hall
A graph based model of a collection of physical vasculature, Proc. DICTA '93
(accepted for publication)
Peter Hall
Segmenting and reconstruction lesions vascular lesions from biplane angiogams,
Proc. DICTA '93 (accepted for publication)
Peter Hall
Automatic interpretation of vasculature, Proc. Royal Society of Medicine,
Conf. Forum on Computers in Medicine, 1993.
Women and Computing
(Judy Brown)
Study of the retention rate of women in first year computing science major
programme. A joint study with the Sociology department.
Other Recent Publications
John H Hine
Open What, or Where Do I Go From Here? In Proceedings of the 9th Annual
Conference of Uniforum New Zealand, New Plymouth, New Zealand, May 1992.
Uniforum NZ.
John H Hine
A Review of Educational and Research Networking Activity in Southeast Asia and
the Pacific. In H. Ishida, editor, INET '92, pages 39--44, Kobe, Japan, June
1992. The Internet Society.
John H Hine
The Next Step -- Global Information Networks, in SEARCC '92, Kuala Lumpur,
August 1992, pages 3.01-3.08, Gabungan Komputer Nasional Malaysia.
Current PhD and MSc Projects
David Andreae (PhD) Learning Descriptions of Structural Concepts
From Examples
Lindsay Groves (PhD) Formal Derivation of Unification and Mathing
Algorithms
Ray Nickson (PhD) A Tool for Investigating Strategy in the
Refinement Calculus
James Noble (PhD) Visual Programming
Francis Gardner (MSc) Intelligent Alarm Mechanisms for Performance
Monitoring
Paul Hosking (MSc) Representing the structure of legal arguments
Linton Miller (MSc) Syntactic Processing for Natural Language
Aaron Roydhouse (MSc) Intelligent retrieval of historical
meteorological data
Zhiqing Zhang (MSc) A Performance Monitor for Distributed Systems
Further Information
Graduate Admissions
Department of Computer Science
Victoria University of Wellington
PO Box 600
Wellington
e-mail: grad.enquiries@comp.vuw.ac.nz
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DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF WAIKATO
Graduate Degree Programmes
Diploma in Computer Science
MCMS, MSc, MSocSc, MPhil
DPhil
Staff
I D Graham, PhD. (Professor, Dean)
Parallel processing using transputer systems.
I H Witten, PhD (Professor)
Programming by example, text compression, machine learning, interactive
systems.
J G Cleary, PhD (Associate Professor)
Distributed systems, logic programming, data compression.
R J McQueen, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Groupware, information systems strategy.
K Hopper, MA. (Senior Lecturer)
Operating system interfaces to hardware/software/people, and system
programming facilities.
L A Smith, PhD. (Senior Lecturer, Head of Department)
Speech analysis, machine learning and computer applications in music.
R Barbour, DPhil. (Senior Lecturer)
Education and HCI.
G Holmes, PhD. (Senior Lecturer)
Speech analysis and neural networks.
S J Cunningham, PhD. (Lecturer)
Machine learning, computer applications in textiles.
P Denize, MSc. (Lecturer)
ADA, program environments, graphics systems.
J Grundy, MSc. (Lecturer)
Programming environments, visual programming, software engineering
object-oriented systems.
M Humphrey, MS. (Lecturer)
Human-computer interaction.
M Pearson, PhD. (Lecturer)
Hardware description languages, ULSI design, computer architecture.
W J Rogers, MSc. (Lecturer)
Programming languages, graphics, machine learning.
Equipment
Apple Macintoshes (including teaching labs of 80 color LC/IIs)
HP Workstations (Unix)
IBM PC compatibles (including teaching labs of 80 color 386s)
NeXTs (NeXTstations turbo)
SUN Server
11 SparcStations
15 Xterminals (Unix)
SPARCcentre 1000 multiprocessor
Transputer network
VAX cluster (VMS)
Miscellaneous computers such as Amiga, Archimedes, Microvax
Comprehensive networks in all offices and labs (Ethernet,
Appletalk,
Novell)
Research Opportunities
Research activities in the Department take place in five research labs, and
although many staff participate in projects in different labs we have grouped
the survey below into these areas. In practice there is considerable overlap
and cross-fertilization between the activities in the various labs.
Computer technology lab
Keith Hopper, Geoff Holmes, Bill Rogers, John Grundy
The main activity is the Portable Language Implementation Project, which aims
to produce computer language systems which are portable across a wide range of
target machines and target operating systems. Using the Modula-2 language as a
vehicle, a variety of implementation modules are being designed and
constructed. Careful design for independence means that a particular version
required can be assembled in plug-and socket fashion. Members of the project
are also actively participating in the Modula-2 standardisation effort.
Sample Publications:
J C Grundy and J G Hosking (1993)
"A visual programming environment for an object-oriented prolog". Proc of the
OOPSLA `93 Workshop on Visual Programming for Object-Oriented Languages,
Washington DC, ACM Press.
J C Grundy and J G Hosking (1993)
"Constructing multi-view editing environments using MViews". Proc 1993 IEEE
Symposium on Visual Languages, Bergen, Norway, IEEE Press.
J C Grundy
"Constructing multiview editing environments". New Zealand Journal of
Computing, 4(2) 31-40.
K Hopper (1989)
"Language Standardization." Standards 35(3). K. Hopper, G. Holmes, and W.
Rogers (1991) "The Magic of Modula-2." Addison-Wesley.
Machine learning and applications lab
Ian Witten, Sally Jo Cunningham, Geoff Holmes, Bob McQueen Lloyd
Smith, and John Cleary
One of the most exciting and potentially far-reaching developments in
contemporary computer science is the invention and application of methods of
machine learning. These have evolved from simple adaptive parameter-estimation
techniques to ways of (a) inducing classification rules from examples, (b)
using prior knowledge to guide the interpretation of new examples, (c) using
this interpretation to sharpen and refine the domain knowledge, and (d)
storing and indexing example cases in ways that highlight their similarities
and differences. Such techniques have been applied in domains ranging from the
diagnosis of plant disease to the interpretation of medical test data.
Projects being undertaken in this newly-established lab include the
development of new methods of machine learning and studies of their
application to economically important problems, particularly in the
agricultural and primary production industries.
Sample publications
Conklin D and Witten I H
(in press) "Complexity-based induction" Machine Learning.
Cunningham S J and Denize P (1992)
"Learning by example: finding the rules hidden in the data" Proc South East
Asia Regional Computer Confederation `92 Conference, Kuala Lumpur.
Cunningham S J, Humphrey M and Holmes G (1993)
J. "Improving the image recognition capability of a Hopfield neural network".
To appear in ANNES `93, Dunedin, November.
Cunningham S J and Holmes G (1993)
"Expert system development using data mining". Submitted to Expert Systems
`93 Conference, London, December.
Nevill-Manning C G (1993)
"Programming by demonstration" New Zealand Journal of Computing 4(2): 15-24;
May.
Witten I H, Cunningham S J, Holmes, G, McQueen, R J and Smith LA (1993)
"Practical machine learning and its application to problems in agriculture"
Proc NZ Computer Conference 1: 308-325; August.
Parallel and Distributed Systems Laboratory
John Cleary, Murray Pearson, Ian Graham, Matt Melchert
One of the most important current problems in Computer Science research is how
to harness the power of multi-processor systems. Parallel hardware is becoming
cheap but the cost and complexity of parallel software that is correct and
performs well remains a formidable barrier to actual use of such systems. The
major ways of dealing with these issues are: new parallel algorithms;
transformation of existing code so that it can execute in parallel; hardware
support for parallel programming paradigms; and use of new programming
languages that transparently support parallelism and compilation techniques
for them.
Research in this laboratory is supported by a 35 node Transputer system, a TI
320040 system, a four processor SparcCenter 1000 and access to large
multi-processor systems overseas. Projects currently under way include the
following. Use of the TimeWarp algorithm for distributed simulation including
underlying implementation techniques and performance testing and analysis.
Construction of distributed logic programming systems including
AND-parallelism based on TimeWarp and bottom-up execution of temporal logic
programs. Design, analysis and simulation of novel memory management systems
for distributed shared memory architectures. A new model for the detection of
deadlock in parallel systems which is grounded in static analysis using
Hoare's CSP formalism. Image processing on parallel computers, operating
systems for parallel computers.
Another area is the development of a visual hardware description language
(called PICSIL) to help manage complexity of VLSI chip design. To support
design using PICSIL, an editor and synthesis manager have been implemented,
allowing the direct capture and automatic synthesis to chip layouts of PICSIL
designs.
Sample Publications
Baezner D, Cleary J, Lomow G and Unger B (1989)
"Algorithmic Optimizations of Simulations on TimeWarp". Eastern Simulation
Conference, Tampa, Florida.
Cleary J G (1990)
"Colliding Pucks Solved in a Temporal Logic". Proc Distributed Simulation
Conference, San Diego, California.
Graham I, King T (1990)
"The Transputer Handbook", Prentice Hall, London.
Graham I D, Murray D C, Willcock J.A. and Bossomaier T R J (1992)
"Data parallel programming under Helios". Parallel Computing and Transputer
Applications, IOS Press.
Leung E, Cleary J G, Lomow G, Baezner, D and Unger B (1989)
"The effects of feedback on the performance of conservative algorithms".
Eastern Simulation Conference, Tampa, Florida.
Li X, Cleary J G and Unger B (accepted 1992)
"The Virtual Time and Virtual Space". Int J. Parallel Processing.
Li X, Cleary J G and Unger B (1992)
"CSP* - The model and the language". ACM Trans Modelling and Comp
Simulations.
Lomow G, Cleary J G, Unger B and West D (1988)
"A Performance Study of TimeWarp". Proc Distributed Simulation Conference,
San Diego, California.
Melchert M (1992)
"Detecting Communication Deadlocks in occam". Proc of NATUG-5 Conference,
Baltimore, Maryland.
Olthof I and Cleary J G (accepted 1993)
"The Design of an Optimistic AND-parallel Prolog". Journal of Logic
Programming.
Pearson M W, Applerley M A and Lyons P J (1990)
"Data Flow Diagrams as Input to a Silicon Compiler". Proc 9th Australian
Microelectronics Conference.
Pearson M W and Applerley M A (1991)
"PICSIL A Data Flow Approach to Silicon Compilation". Proc NELCON 91.
Unger B, Cleary J, Dewar A and Zhong-e X (1990)
"A Multilingual Optimistic Distributed Simulator". Tran. of Society for
Computer Simulation, 7(2), 121-151.
User interface and audio systems lab
Matt Humphrey, Bob McQueen, Lloyd Smith, Ian Witten
Research projects presently being undertaken in the user interface and audio
lab fall into several areas. The first encompasses programming by example,
machine learning, prediction, and compression. The premise underlying this
research is that compression and prediction are two sides of the same coin,
and that user interfaces can take advantage of predictive techniques that have
been developed for text compression. The research has a theoretical component
in the foundations of computational induction and the role of
complexity-guided search mechanisms in producing appropriate generalization.
Another area is the object-oriented design of human interfaces, including a
foundational analysis of the Seeheim model of human- computer interaction in
terms of computational power and expressiveness. We are also investigating
computer-supported cooperative work, and the application of voice interfaces
in decision- making situations. We have a strong research interest in the
computer analysis and generation of music, as well as educational applications
of computers in music. Finally, work is progressing on the inference of
lexical categories and grammars from plain text.
Sample publications
T C Bell, A Moffat, C G Nevill, I H Witten and J Zobel (in press)
"Data compression in full-text retrieval systems." J American Society for
Information Systems.
J J Darragh and I H Witten (1992)
"The reactive keyboard." Cambridge University Press.
M C Humphrey and J Nemoto (1993)
"Decision support software development in hypercard" Educating with Technology
Conference, sponsored by the Apple University Consortium, Christchurch, New
Zealand.
L C Manzara, I H Witten and M L James (1992)
"On the entropy of music: an experiment with Bach Chorale melodies." Leonardo
Music Journal 2(1): 81-88.
L Maulsby, I H Witten, K A Kittlitz and V G Francescin (1992)
"Inferring graphical procedures: the compleat Metamouse." Human- Computer
Interaction 7(1): 47-89.
D H Mo and I H Witten (1992)
"Learning text editing tasks from examples: a procedural approach." Behaviour
and Information Technology 11(1): 32-45.
I H Witten, T C Bell, M E Harrison, M L James and A Moffat (1992)
"Textual image compression." Proc Data Compression Conference, edited by J.A.
Storer and M. Cohn, IEEE Computer Society Press, 42-51.
I H Witten, B A MacDonald, D L Maulsby and R Heise (1992)
"Programming by example: the human face of AI." AI and Society 6: 166- 185.
Software engineering and systems lab
Bob Barbour, Sally Jo Cunningham, Paul Denize, Geoff Holmes, Bill Rogers
Recent work on programming languages includes the definition and
implementation of an extension to the Modula language for information hiding
amongst groups of modules, the definition and implementation of programming
language constructs to support software development and project organization,
and the formulation of abstract data types with alternative precision.
Members of the lab are also interested in computer graphics. Current projects
centre around image interpretation and retrieval, the representation and
animation of the human face, the use of 3D caricatures for facial expressions,
and the provision of graphical programming environments for young children.
More generally in education, research is progressing on the provision of
computer-based learning environments that take account of individual
differences in learning strategy, and the development of software tools to
support the preservation of indigenous languages and language teaching.
Finally, we are working on the computer modeling of problems in creative
artistic design, and also on speech and language processing, including neural
networks and architectures.
Sample publications
C E Beardon, D Lumsden and G Holmes (1991)
"Natural language and computational linguistics: an introduction." Ellis
Horwood.
S J Cunningham and A Tzvieli (1991)
"Techniques to support validation, testing, and maintenance of knowledge-based
systems." Proc IJCAI-91 Workshop on Software Engineering for Knowledge-Based
Systems, Sydney, 41-55.
S J Cunningham and P Denize (1992)
"A knowledge-based approach to crochet doily pattern generation: creative or
knot?" Proc Second International Round-Table Conference on Computational
Models of Creative Design.
S J Cunningham (1993)
"A tool for model generation and knowledge acquisition". Proc Fourth
International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics, Ft.
Lauderdale, FL, 199-205.
G Holmes and A C Veitch (1991)
"Benchmarking and fast learning in neural networks: results for real-time
recurrent learning." Proc Australian Conference on Neural Nets.
A C Veitch and G Holmes (1991)
"A modified Quickprop algorithm." Neural Computation 3: 310-311.
Theses in progress
D Carnegie (DPhil) Speech processing using auditory models
S Garner (DPhil) Programming by demonstration and related machine
learning paradigms
M Hall (DPhil) Adaptive prediction from multi-dimensionaldata
M Humphrey (DPhil) Human-computer interaction using relational algebra
S Inglis (DPhil) Textual image compression
S Irvine (DPhil) Compression and cryptography
N Kock Jr. (DPhil) Groupware support quality in service industries
A Malcolm (DPhil) Visual signal processing and communication
M Melchert (DPhil) Describing communication patterns in parallel
programs
C Nevill-Manning (DPhil Programming by example
W Rogers (DPhil) Schematic Pascal
W Teahan (DPhil) Context-based prediction and compression
Y Tian (DPhil) Fault tolerant multi-processor systems
L Trigg (DPhil) Retrieval of cases in case-based systems
D Troy (DPhil) CASE development environments in factory automation
D Wong (DPhil) Debugging of distributed systems
J Wood (DPhil) Secondary school timetabling
L Hall (MPhil) Learning methods
A Mills (MPhil) Information systems quality
A Colley (MCMS) Philosophical, psychological and physiological of
virtual reality
R Davies (MCMS) Data compression
Y Ku (MCMS) Compiler intermediate codes
R Sellars (MCMS) Compiler intermediate codes
M Vallabh (MCMS) Routing schedules in a GIS
S Cook (MSc) Computer music
M Day (MSc) A pH balance
G Gaylard (MSc)
J Nemoto (MSc) Meeting support systems
M van Walraven (MSc) An ultra-lightweight kernel: origins and
implementation
Recent graduate theses
P Hoban (DPhil) Lateral electron disequilibrium in radiotherapy
treatment planning
R J McQueen (DPhil) The effect of voice input on information exchange in
computer supported asynchronous group communication
D Murray (DPhil) The application of parallel processing to
radiotherapy dose computation
R Wheadon (MPhil) Transputer performance monitoring
G Ford (MCMS) Ta Kupu Tamariki
A Saheed (MCMS) Processing textual images
M Baguley (MSc) Tape drive hardware
P Denize (MSc) A keyboard emulator for a disabled user on a
multi-tasking microcomputer
D Edwards (MSc)
D Neal (MSc) Towards a self-adaptive human-computer interface
P Rowe (MSc) The implementation of an object-oriented data model
D Van der Sluis (MSc) Pitch-changing
J Scheurich (MSc) A loader for Transputers
A Veitch (MSc) Learning in neural networks
J Wood (MSc) Computerized timetabling in secondary schools
R Anderson (MSocSci) A case against IEW case tool
D Gillgren (MSocSci) An investigation into the structure of crime data
Further Information:
Prof Ian H Witten
Graduate Studies Co-ordinator
Department of Computer Science
University of Waikato
Private Bag 3105
Hamilton
email ihw@waikato.ac.nz
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