Â鶹´«Ã½

Research

Digital Futures Institute

Close-up of a circuit board

The Digital Futures Institute is a leading regional hub for technology focused research, knowledge exchange, consultancy and training. The Institute has its principal base at the DigiTech Centre on Adastral Park, and collaborates closely with partners such as BT plc and Innovation Martlesham companies.

Vision

To develop and apply computer science and engineering in creative, sustainable and responsible ways for the betterment of society, the economy and individual citizens.

Mission

The Digital Futures Institute undertakes research and knowledge exchange across a broad range of computer science and cognate engineering areas. The Institute collaborates with academic partners in the UK and internationally on activities of mutual interest. The Institute supports and works with multinational companies, small-to-medium-sized enterprises and third sector organisations on technical consultancy, funded innovation projects and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships. 

Themes

The Digital Futures Institute has four broad themes of research:

  1. Technology: This encompasses future networks, cyber security and improving software development itself. This includes considerations of quality of service and the sustainability of computing in terms of reducing energy consumption.
  2. People: This covers human-computer interaction, accessible design, mixed realities (virtual, extended, and augmented), vision science and gamification. Our work includes the development of apps, serious games and improving entertainment games.
  3. Applications: This is an information-centric theme, focusing principally on applying artificial intelligence and data science techniques to text, audio, image and video data in a variety of domains such as health. This theme also includes elements of knowledge management, computing education and responsible AI.
  4. Engineering: This theme is cyber-physical in nature combining software and equipment. This embraces interests in drones, Internet-of-Things devices, new sensors and sensing techniques, and more.

Although the Institute’s expertise can be categorised into themes, projects can and do straddle multiple themes and connect outwith to other Institutes and elsewhere in the University.

Get in Touch

If you would like to join our mailing list then please complete this . If you would like to get in touch with us to discuss research, training or opportunities to collaborate together, please contact us via email.   

Our People

Professor Nicholas Caldwell

Professor Nicholas Caldwell is Professor of Information Systems Engineering at the Â鶹´«Ã½.

Nicholas Caldwell staff profile photo

Jo Durham

Jo is a Research Institute Administrator

j.durham3@uos.ac.uk

Dr Salman Ahmed

Salman Ahmed is a Research Fellow at the DigiTech Centre, Digital Futures Institute.

Dr Adam Clayden

Dr. Adam Clayden received his PhD from the University of Edinburgh (2019). He currently leads BSc (Hons) Games Development at Â鶹´«Ã½.

Adam Clayden staff profile photo

Dr Adnane Ez-zizi

Dr Adnane Ez-zizi is a Senior Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence and Course Leader for the MSc Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.

Adnane Ez-Zizi staff profile photo

Steven Harris

Steve maintains an active interest in 'serious games' including, gaming for the visually impaired and early years educational games.

Steven Harris staff profile photo

Chris Janes

Chris was formerly a gameplay programmer who worked on various games, most notably Hidden: Source. His teaching includes software design and AI for games.

Chris Janes staff profile photo

Hisham Jaward

Hisham is a lecturer in Computing and AI. Work at previous universities in Monash, Bristol and Imperial College, UK, have included developing algorithms.

Hisham Jaward staff profile photo

Dr Chris Lewington

Dr Chris Lewington is a Senior Lecturer in Cyber Security, joining us in June 2019 after a successful career in finance, telecoms, defence and biotechnology.

Dr Felix Ngobigha

Dr Felix Ngobigha is a Senior Lecturer in Network Engineering and had previously been Scientific Officer with the Centre for Satellite Technology Development.

Felix Ngobigha staff profile photo

Dr Syed Jan

Dr. Syed Jan has been a full-time lecturer in Computing at the Â鶹´«Ã½ since June 2023. He has almost fourteen years experience working in HE.

Dr Syed Jan staff profile photo

Dr Syed Aslam

Syed joined the Â鶹´«Ã½ in August 2022 and is a Lecturer in Computing. He has a phD in Computer Science from Bangor University.

Syed Aslam staff profile photo

Dr Kakia Chatsiou

Kakia is a Lecturer in Computing with expertise in machine learning, information management systems and data science.

Kakia Chatsiou staff profile photo

Godwin Dzvapatsva

Godwin is a Lecturer in Computing in the School of Technology, Business, and Arts.

G.Dzvapatsva@uos.ac.uk
Godwin Dzvapatsva staff profile photo

Dr Shahroz Nadeem

Computing lecturer Shahroz specialises in deep learning methods for violence detection, image stegnography, image deblurring and super-resolution among others.

Shahroz Nadeem staff profile photo

Nick Thomas

Nick is a Lecturer in Computing and since joining the Â鶹´«Ã½, Nick has researched and worked on projects utilising VR technology.

Nick Thomas staff profile photo

Events

Upcoming events within the Digital Futures Institute.

Find out more
A person wearing a virtual reality headset

Additional information

A student leaning against a window
Students in front of hi-tech display screen