Computer Laboratory > Teaching > Course material 2009–10 > Current Research Topics

 

Current Research Topics
2009–10

Principal lecturer: Mr Nishanth Sastry
Taken by: MPhil ACS

Evaluation: While this is not an examinable course, there will be a Quiz for those who choose to take it. The top student will receive a prize worth 100 £. There will also be two runner-up prizes worth 25£ each.
When: Fri, Jun 11, 3:30-4:30PM (before Happy Hour in the Lab)
Where: SW 01, Gates Building

Schedule: (Also available for subscription from talks.cam)

All lectures from 3-4pm in Lecture Theatre 1.

Date Lecturer Topic Lecture Materials
Fri, 23 Apr
Systems
Fernando Ramos Green IPTV: A Resource and Energy Efficient Network for IPTV abstract, ppt, pdf Refs
Mon, 26 Apr
Systems
Nishanth Sastry Building Secure Systems On and For Social Networks
This lecture will first explore the privacy consequences of online social networks and show how to support social applications without trusing an external provider like Facebook. Then we will turn tables and look at ways to build secure systems by leveraging the trust embedded in social links.
ppt, pdf
Tue, 27 Apr
Systems
Derek Murray Introduction to Data Center Computing
After attending this lecture, students should be able to: * describe the main applications of data-centre computing * explain the software and hardware factors that influence the construction of modern data centres * explain the trade-offs when choosing a programming model for distributed computation
ppt, pdf
Fri, 30 Apr
Graphics and Interaction
Christian Richardt Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR)
At its core, NPR is aiming to make communication more effective and aesthetic, by abstracting and stylising digital images or videos. We will first look at historical developments in NPR and then concentrate on state-of-the-art techniques.
pdf
Mon, 03 May
Graphics and Interaction
Laurel Riek Social Human-Robot Interaction
This lecture will provide an overview of the emerging area of social interaction with robots. We will first explore the field as a whole and then focus on specific examples of creating and studying interaction with emotionally expressive robots in social contexts.
Tue, 04 May
Security
Joseph Bonneau Side-Channel Cryptanalysis
Most cryptosystems are designed and argued secure at a mathematical level. In the real world, however, implementations of ciphers often leak additional information to attackers-timing, power consumption, heat, and more. This talk will describe a variety of side channel attacks against common systems, and discuss possible countermeasures.
Notes
Fri, 07 May
Natural Language Processing
Ekaterina Shutova Computational approaches to figurative language
Could a computer read Hamlet? The use of figurative language is ubiquitous in natural language texts and it is a serious bottleneck in automatic text understanding. In this lecture I will introduce the main computational models of metaphor, metonymy, humor and irony and illustrate the automatic treatment of these phenomena with a number of exciting examples.
Notes
Mon, 10 May
Programming Research
Stephen Kell Modularity: What, why and how
Goals understand the different goals of modularity, and the tensions between them; understand the basic similarities and differences (in both approach and target problem) among several approaches to modularity in the literature.
pdf + Intro to Programming Group Lectures
Tue, 11 May
Programming Research
Robin Message Meta Programming and You
Goals Understand the advantages of meta-programming in terms of clarity and expressivity; Understand meta programming for domain specific languages in some modern programming languages: Java, Ruby and Lisp
Notes, pdf
Fri, 14 May
Programming Research
Dominic Orchard Mathematically Structuring Programming Languages
Goals gain a feel for using a language as a meta language to describe another - understand the concept of a monad and its use for structuring effects, in particular exceptions - understand the merit of using abstract mathematical structures to help structure programs and language semantics
Notes, pdf
Mon, 17 May
Theory
Arno Pauly Algorithmic Game Theory
What is a game? What are Nash equilibria? How can they be computed? This would include a brief introduction of complexity classes such as PPAD and PLS, as well as the basic solution concepts of game theory.
pdf
Tue, 18 May
Theory
Eric Koskinen Verification of infinite-state programs
Symbolic model checking; Abstract interpretation; Temporal logic
Fri, 21 May
Theory
Bjarki Holm Logics of polynomial-time computation
Fixed-point logics and generalised quantifiers; Computational models for relational structures; Model comparison games
Notes
Mon, 24 May
Programming Research
Max Bolingbroke Optimising Functional Programming Languages
Goals explore optimisation of functional programming languages using the framework of equational rewriting; compare some approaches for deforestation of functional programs
pdf