CSR Overview

CSR at Newcastle University was established in March 1984. At that stage the aim was largely to provide an operating base, in collaboration with City University, for the national CSR group. The main aim was to provide a focus for initiatives addressing issues pertinent to the reliability of software. At that time, the Alvey and ESPRIT initiatives were strongly oriented towards fostering collaboration between industrial and academic workers in the field of software engineering, and this perspective has always influenced CSR's mode of working.

• The CSR at City University

CSR conducts research primarily in the area of dependability and safety-critical computing systems. The Centre maintains links with other investigators and practitioners in Europe, the USA and the Far East. Research is funded by a number of Government, industry and EU sponsored contracts.

The main technical thrusts of the research are concerned with advanced system architectures; adaptive software architectures for control systems; applying game theory to guide trade-offs; hybrid systems theory; diversity in the design of critical systems; requirements representation, evolution, traceability and analysis; formal methods and techniques for analysing timing properties; software safety analysis and information structures for safety cases; brokerage for electronic commerce; organisation and enterprise modelling.

The primary output of the research is in published papers and reports, but work is also strongly directed towards encouraging the take-up of advanced techniques into industrial engineering processes. Industrial collaborators include: BAE SYSTEMS, Rolls-Royce Industrial Controls, ICI Eutech, British Steel, NHS, CAP Group, Philips.

• How to find and contact us