Department of Computer Science

The Management and Information Systems Group aims to extend the theory and practice of information systems through the analysis of the social and technical factors that relate to them. We seek to engage with the area at both a strategic and an operational level to create Information Systems that meet the needs of both people and the organizations that use them.

Our research interests focus on the theory that underlies such systems but also embraces the practical application of those theories to real world problems. The approach of the group is avowedly multi disciplinary and much of its work is undertaken in conjunction with individuals from other areas in Computer Science and other academic disciplines.

Research Areas

Members of the group have active research interests in more than one of these areas; the more specialised areas appear in section (3) below, although again more than one member of the group may share an interest in these areas.

Management Information Systems
The study of the interaction between groups of people, collections of machines and sets of procedures that allows the right information to be communicated to the right people at the right time.

Enterprise Systems
The study of very large scale Information Systems that act as a platform to support an entire organisation; crossing functional, hierarchical, geographical and temporal divisions in that organisation.

Computer Based Learning
The use of computers by people to acquire knowledge or skills. The term encompasses e-learning, distance learning and mobile learning and includes the identification of semantic detail that can lead to intelligent learning support for differing perceptual and cognitive preferences and a variety of learning styles.

Virtual Working
Is a generic term for the use of technology to undertake "work at a distance". Seen in this way, it overlaps notions of the networked organization, virtual communities, distributed working and teleworking and may be applied in such areas as computer-based learning.

Research Projects

• Knowledge Management
• Information Systems and Organisations
• Virtual Teams
• Social Network Analysis
• Ontologies
• Hypermedia
• Conversational Interface
• Multimedia Indexing
• Search Engines

Industrial Contacts

• BT
• Channel 6 Microstyle
• Hewlett-Packard
• Nortel
• Watson Wyatt