The School of Informatics is an academic unit of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, responsible for research, teaching, outreach and commercialisation in

informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...

. It was created in 1998 from the former department of artificial intelligence, the Centre for Cognitive Science and the department of computer science, along with the

Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute The Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute (AIAI) at the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh was a non-profit technology transfer organisation that promoted research in the field of artificial intelligence. History ...

(AIAI) and the Human Communication Research Centre. Research in the School of Informatics draws on multiple disciplines. The school is particularly known for research in the areas of

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

computational linguistics Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field concerned with the computational modelling of natural language, as well as the study of appropriate computational approaches to linguistic questions. In general, computational linguistics ...

systems biology Systems biology is the computational modeling, computational and mathematical analysis and modeling of complex biological systems. It is a biology-based interdisciplinary field of study that focuses on complex interactions within biological system ...

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of Logic#Formal logic, formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory (also known as computability theory). Research in mathematical logic com ...

and

theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science is a subfield of computer science and mathematics that focuses on the Abstraction, abstract and mathematical foundations of computation. It is difficult to circumscribe the theoretical areas precisely. The Associati ...

; but also contributes to many other areas of informatics. The School of Informatics is ranked 20th in the world by the

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

2023. As of 2022, the school is ranked 1st in the UK according to ''CSRankings'', 1st in the UK in the latest 2021

Research Excellence Framework The Research Excellence Framework (REF) is a research impact evaluation of British Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It is the successor to the Research Assessment Exercise and it was first used in 2014 to assess the period 2008–2013. REF is ...

(REF) by research power, and 1st in the world for

natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of computer science and especially artificial intelligence. It is primarily concerned with providing computers with the ability to process data encoded in natural language and is thus closely related ...

(NLP).

Research

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The School of Informatics was awarded a 5*A in the UK

HEFCE The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in Engl ...

's 2001

RAE Rae may refer to: People *Rae (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Rae (surname), including a list of people with the surname Nicknames for *Rachel (given name) * Rachelle * Raquel * Raven (given name) * Reema *Reena ( ...

, the only computer science department in the country to achieve this highest possible rating. In the 2008

, the School's "Quality Profile" was 35/50/15/0/0, which means that of the over 100

Full-time equivalent Full-time equivalent (FTE), or whole time equivalent (WTE), is a unit of measurement that indicates the workload of an employed person (or student) in a way that makes workloads or class loads comparable across various contexts. FTE is often use ...

(FTE) staff research outputs evaluated, 35% were found "world-leading (4*)" and 50% "internationally excellent (3*)". These figures can be interpreted in a number of ways, but place the School first by volume and tied for second (following Cambridge with 45/45/10/0/0) by percentage of research rated 3* or 4*. The School has a number of research Institutes:

Institute for Adaptive and Neural Computation: ANC

ANC investigates theoretical and empirical study of brain processes and artificial learning systems, drawing on neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, computational science, mathematics and statistics.

Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute: AIAI

Previously known as CISA (Centre for Intelligent Systems and their Applications), the Artificial Intelligence and its Applications Institute (AIAI) works on the foundations of artificial intelligence and autonomous systems, and their application to real-world problems.

Institute for Language, Cognition, and Computation: ILCC

ILCC performs research on all aspects of natural language processing, drawing on machine learning, statistical modeling, and computational, psychological, and linguistic theories of communication among humans and between humans and machines using text, speech and other modalities.

Institute for Computing Systems Architecture: ICSA

ICSA performs research on architecture and engineering of future computing systems: performance and scalability; innovative algorithms, architectures, compilers, languages and protocols.

Institute of Perception, Action and Behaviour: IPAB

IPAB links computational action, perception, representation, transformation and generation processes to real or virtual worlds: statistical machine learning, computer vision, mobile and humanoid robotics, motor control, graphics and visualization.

Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science: LFCS

The LFCS Develops and applies foundational understanding of computation and communication: formal models, mathematical theories, and software tools.

Senior academic staff and alumni

Current

Senior academic staff include: *

Malcolm Atkinson Malcolm Phillip Atkinson (born 13 October 1943, Cornwall, UK) is a professor of e-Science, in the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics. He is known for his work in the areas of object-oriented databases, database systems, software engi ...

Alan Bundy Alan Richard Bundy (born 18 May 1947) is a professor at the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh,http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/bundy/ Professor Alan Bundy's website known for his contributions to automated reasoning, especially ...

Peter Buneman Oscar Peter Buneman (born 1943) is a British computer scientist who works in the areas of database systems and database theory. Education Buneman was educated at the University of Cambridge, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts while studyin ...

Christopher Bishop Christopher Michael Bishop (born 7 April 1959) is a British computer scientist. He is a Microsoft Technical Fellow and Director oMicrosoft Research AI4Science He is also Honorary Professor of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh, and ...

Rod Burstall Rodney Martineau Burstall (11 November 1934 – 13 February 2025) was a British computer scientist who was one of four founders of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh. Biography Burstall studied p ...

, emeritus *

Kousha Etessami Kousha Etessami is a professor of computer science at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He has received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1995. He works on theoretical computer science, in particular on computation ...

* Wenfei Fan * Michael Fourman * Igor Goryanin * Sharon Goldwater * Dragan Gasevic *

Jane Hillston Jane Elizabeth Hillston (born 1963) is a British computer scientist who is professor of quantitative modelling and former head of school in the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Early life and education Hillston recei ...

Aggelos Kiayias Aggelos Kiayias () is a Greek cryptographer and computer scientist, is a professor at the University of Edinburgh and the chief science officer at Input Output Global (formerly IOHK), the blockchain company that developed Cardano. Education ...

* Elham Kashefi * Frank Keller * Mirella Lapata *

Alex Lascarides Alexandra Lascarides is a linguist and chair in Semantics in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research investigates computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. Early life and education Lascarides gradu ...

Leonid Libkin Leonid Libkin is a computer scientist who works in data management, in particular in database theory, and in logic in computer science. Libkin is a professor at the University of Edinburgh, where he is chair of Foundations of Data Management i ...

* Fiona McNeill *

Ursula Martin Dame Ursula Hilda Mary Martin (born 3 August 1953) is a British computer scientist, with research interests in theoretical computer science and formal methods. She is also known for her activities aimed at encouraging women in the fields of co ...

* Johanna Moore *

Michael O'Boyle Michael O'Boyle is a professor of Computing and Director of the Institute for Computing Systems Architecture at the University of Edinburgh School of Informatics. Education O'Boyle received a Master of Science degree in computer science from ...

Gordon Plotkin Gordon David Plotkin (born 9 September 1946) is a theoretical computer scientist in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Plotkin is probably best known for his introduction of structural operational semantics (SOS) and his ...

Don Sannella Donald T. Sannella is professor of computer science in the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Sannella graduated from Yale University, University of California, Berk ...

Mark Steedman Mark Jerome Steedman (born 18 September 1946) is a computational linguist and cognitive scientist. Biography Steedman graduated from the University of Sussex in 1968, with a B.Sc. in Experimental Psychology, and from the University of Edinburgh ...

* Perdita Stevens * Keith Stenning * Amos Storkey *

Austin Tate Austin Tate is Emeritus Professor of Knowledge-based systems in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. From 1985 to 2019 he was Director of AIAI (Artificial Intelligence Applications Institute) in the School of Informatic ...

* Sethu Vijayakumar *

Philip Wadler Philip Lee Wadler (born April 8, 1956) is a UK-based American computer scientist known for his contributions to programming language design and type theory. He holds the position of Personal Chair of theoretical computer science at the Laborato ...

* Barbara Webb *

Bonnie Webber Bonnie Lynn Nash-Webber (born August 30, 1946) is a computational linguist. She is an honorary professor of intelligent systems in the Institute for Language, Cognition and Computation (ILCC) at the University of Edinburgh. Education and caree ...

Former

Donald Michie Donald Michie (; 11 November 1923 – 7 July 2007) was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve " Tunny ...

, founder of

Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

in the UK *

Sidney Michaelson Sidney Michaelson (5 December 1925 – 21 February 1991) was Scotland's first professor of Computer Science. He was joint founder of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. As an author he is remembered for his analysis of the Bible. Li ...

foundation chair of the former computer science department. * Jon Oberlander

Notable alumni

Alumni of the school of informatics include: *

Geoffrey Hinton Geoffrey Everest Hinton (born 1947) is a British-Canadian computer scientist, cognitive scientist, and cognitive psychologist known for his work on artificial neural networks, which earned him the title "the Godfather of AI". Hinton is Univer ...

, computer scientist at

Google Brain Google Brain was a deep learning artificial intelligence research team that served as the sole AI branch of Google before being incorporated under the newer umbrella of Google AI, a research division at Google dedicated to artificial intelligence ...

and winner of the

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

. *

Nigel Shadbolt Sir Nigel Richard Shadbolt (born 9 April 1956) is Principal of Jesus College, Oxford, and Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford. He is chairman of the Open Data Institute which he co-founde ...

, Chairman of the

Open Data Institute The Open Data Institute (ODI) is a non-profit private company limited by guarantee, based in the United Kingdom. Founded by Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Sir Nigel Shadbolt in 2012, the ODI's mission is to connect, equip and inspire people around the ...

(ODI) and master of

Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College (in full: Jesus College in the University of Oxford of Queen Elizabeth's Foundation) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship ...

Accommodation

The 2002 Cowgate fire destroyed a number of buildings, including 80 South Bridge, which housed around a quarter of the school and its renowned AI library. By January 2003, space was made available in the University's

Appleton Tower Appleton Tower is a tower block in Edinburgh, Scotland, owned by the University of Edinburgh. History Construction When the University developed the George Square, Edinburgh, George Square area in the 1960s, a large swathe of Georgian Ed ...

as a replacement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Edinburgh Informatics, University Of Computer science departments in the United Kingdom Universities and colleges established in 1998 Schools of informatics

Informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...

1998 establishments in Scotland