Research

Our research is focused in four major areas:

Human-Centred Computing

Human-centred computing is an emerging interdisciplinary field that focuses on the human aspects of technology, including HCI, interaction design, software design and the sociology, anthropology and psychology of computer use. At the Open University, we are a group of researchers who are concerned with the development of theory, practice and systems that move beyond the ‘old’ HCI paradigm. We embrace new frameworks, methods and approaches for studying and supporting people using mobile, ubiquitous and web-based computing technologies

Language, Multimedia and Knowledge Technologies

Our research in Language, Multimedia and Knowledge Technologies focuses on four key areas, each with a strong research group: semantic web, natural language generation, natural language understanding, and multimedia & information systems.  A distinguishing characteristic of our research is that many of our techniques are ‘hybrids’ – we develop innovative solutions that bring together results from two or more of the four areas. For example, much of our work on the semantic web builds on the integration of semantic and language technologies.

Software Engineering and Design

Our research interests in software engineering are broad, covering both early and late development activities, and drawing upon a wide range of multi-disciplinary techniques and tools, to better engineer software-intensive dependable systems.

Citizen Science and AI

A useful hypothesis allows prediction and within the accuracy of observation of the time, the prediction will be verified. As the accuracy of observation improves with time, the hypothesis may no longer provide an accurate prediction. In this case, a new hypothesis will arise to challenge the old, and to the extent that the new hypothesis makes more accurate predictions than the old, the new will supplant it. Researchers can also use a null hypothesis, which states no relationship or difference between the independent or dependent variables.