Open Day Talks: Abstracts

11:00-11:30 — Jim Davies,  Introduction to the Programme

The Software Engineering Programme delivers one-week graduate-level courses in about 30 different subjects. The Programme is aimed primarily (although not exclusively) at professional software engineers: courses are taught with a view to current and emerging practice and technologies, and the Programme's structure reflects the fact that its students often have to deal with many and varied competing pressures. In this talk, we will introduce the Software Engineering Programme and the benefits it provides.

11:30-12:00 — Steve McKeever,  The Role of XML in Health Care Research

Modern research in the area of health care relies ever more on quantitative methods. Not only are the various scan data sets digitized and patient data stored electronically but actual simulations of organ functions are used to predict novel drug behavior. In this talk we'll focus on how modern Software Engineering methods have been applied to physiological modelling through the use of XML languages to enable modularity and interoperability. We will also argue how these methods are essential for on going and future work to enable multi-scale modeling from the molecular level right up to the whole body level and ensuring experimental validation through the use of associated clinical trials.

12:00-12:30 — Jeremy Gibbons,  Reusability and Dependent Types

Robin Milner coined the slogan that "well-typed programs cannot go wrong". Types express properties of programs. More expressive type systems — such as "dependent typing", in which types depend on values — can state properties more precisely, providing stronger guarantees of behaviour and additional guidance in development. However, this expressivity comes at a price: more specific typing can reduce opportunities for code reuse. We have just started working on a new research project investigating techniques for promoting reuse without sacrificing precision; in particular, how can we layer dependently typed programs, imposing stronger invariants onto more general library code?

Read about the Programme, see some testimonials from past and present students, find out how to apply, return to the open day schedule, look up directions to the Computing Laboratory, or register or ask for more information.