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Computing

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An image to illustrate studying computing at The Open University.

Members of the Centre for Research in Computing (CRC) research the practical problems of what software is, how it is developed, how it is used and spoken about, and how it is taught. Our diverse research community spans the OU, encompassing software, systems, knowledge media, human-centred, social and educational perspectives. We have a mixed research portfolio, embracing science and engineering approaches. Our active themes include: software engineering and design, natural language engineering, interaction design, multimedia, social computing, semantic web services, mobile and ubiquitous systems, music computing and networks. Our vibrant community of over 70 research students enjoys an infrastructure of seminars, research groups, conferences, labs and other resources.

We offer three research degree programmes: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Master of Philosophy (MPhil) and an online Virtual MPhil.

Key facts

  • We conduct internationally excellent and world-leading research. OU computing research was ranked joint 16th in the UK (of 80 submitted units) in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.
  • Researchers include a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award Holder, Advisory Board Member for Microsoft Research Cambridge, Royal Academy of Engineering/Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship, past Chair of the European Association for Computational Linguistics, and former EPSRC Advanced Research Fellows.
  • CRC researchers are editors of major journals including IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, IEEE Software, ACM Transactions on Information Systems, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, Expert Systems, and Machine Vision and Applications.
  • Our research students are ‘first-class citizens’, participating fully in the research life of the institution as well as in a coherent programme of weekly postgraduate seminars, mentoring and research skills training, annual research conferences and other online and face-to-face activities, in addition to traditional one-to-one supervision.
  • Students conduct research on projects proposed by supervisors, although we also welcome proposals for research topics that align with our research areas. We accept both full-time and part-time students. We also offer a Virtual MPhil programme for part-time study at a distance, supported by a range of technologies for online study, supervision and assessment.
  • Students have opportunities to work with industry and other universities, building on our established collaborations and network of contacts.

Facilities

We have a wide range of powerful computing resources, and an infrastructure for development and prototyping. We have a variety of configurable lab spaces for technical and human studies, and development resources for new technologies.

Further information

If you have an enquiry specific to this research area please contact:

Email:
crc-phd-enquiries@open.ac.uk
Phone:
+44 (0)1908 655682

For general enquiries please contact the Research Degrees Team via the link under ‘Your questions’ on the right of the page.

Publications

Research publications by Open University staff are available through Open Research Online (ORO), the university's repository of research publications and other research outputs. ORO can be searched or browsed by staff name or subject.

The following list, generated from ORO, provides a flavour of the most recently published work in Computing: