Overview
ICT research at UB can be clustered into three major areas: information science, computational science and human-computer interaction. These three research clusters build upon strong foci of research excellence at UB and have the potential to expand our boundaries in innovative ways. They freely interact with one another as well as with other non-ICT streams to yield interesting initiatives. Information Science is concerned with the capabilities of humans and machines to create, discover and reason with information by advancing the ability to represent, collect, store, organize, locate, visualize and communicate information. Computational Science is the integration of fundamental disciplinary science with advanced computing and mathematical modeling. Along with experiments and theory, computational science is recognized as the third method of scientific enquiry. Human-Computer Interaction is concerned with the design, implementation, and evaluation of human-computer interface technologies that are useful, usable, and intuitive.
Two synergistic initiatives have been proposed to help direct further ICT research at UB: (i) Smart Environments and (ii) Enabling Discovery. Smart Environments embed sensors and computing devices in everyday objects enabling seamless and intelligent interaction with humans. High performance computing, high-end visualization, and advanced simulation and modeling techniques enable discoveries in diverse domains including sciences, engineering, and management. These two initiatives share common research areas in networking, user interfaces, processing large data, and advanced computing techniques.
Smart Environments will focus on: Human-centric Interfaces, Sensor Technologies, RFID, Context Aware Systems, Distributed Computation, Secure Networking, Real-time Systems, Fault Tolerant Wireless Networking, Privacy, Trust, and Societal Issues.
Enabling Discovery will focus on: High-dimensional Data, Data Mining, Geo-spatial Visualization, Multi-scale Modeling, Reliability, Grid Computing, Middleware, Interoperability, Computational Mathematics, and Computational Biology.
These initiatives serve as a basis for identifying 25 ICT faculty profiles which will fill in gaps and bridge disciplinary research areas in multiple decanal units at UB, including architecture, science, engineering, law, and management.
