Welcome to the Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at AUT!

Introduction

The Computer Science and Software Engineering Department at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is a dynamic and innovative department that equips students with the knowledge and skills to excel in these fields. CSSE has totally over 40 staff. Here's a breakdown of our academic staff:

• 2 Emeritus Professors
• 8 Professors
• 8 Associate Professors
• 18 Senior Lecturers
• 2 Lecturers
• 2 Teaching Assistants
• 1 Research Fellow

Teaching Capabilities

At AUT's Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE) department, we pride ourselves on offering diverse, advanced, and comprehensive Information and Communication Technology (ICT) teaching programmes. We are committed to equipping our students with the critical skills necessary to thrive in an ever-evolving technological landscape. Our courses cover a broad spectrum of ICT specializations and academic levels:

• Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences: A comprehensive undergraduate degree that lays the foundation for a wide range of ICT disciplines.
• Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences Conjoint Programmes: An innovative programme that merges creativity with technology.
• Bachelor of Business and Bachelor of Computer and Information Sciences Conjoint Programmes: A blend of business acumen and technical expertise, preparing students for leadership roles in ICT.
• Graduate Certificate in Computer and Information Sciences: A short, focused programme designed to refine the ICT skills of professionals.
• Graduate Diploma in Computer and Information Sciences: An advanced programme offering specialized courses in ICT for those seeking to elevate their careers.
• Postgraduate Certificate in Computer and Information Sciences: A targeted course enabling professionals to update and expand their knowledge in the ICT sector.
• Postgraduate Diploma in Computer and Information Sciences: A comprehensive study into advanced aspects of ICT, with a focus on research and project work.
• Master of Computer and Information Sciences: An intensive programme that dives deep into the intricacies of ICT and prepares students for ICT research or leadership roles.
• Master of Cyber Security and Digital Forensics: A specialized course designed to arm students with essential skills to tackle cybersecurity threats in an increasingly digital world.
• Master of IT Project Management: A unique blend of project management principles and IT skills to groom leaders for efficient project execution in the ICT industry.

Our courses are designed with a strong emphasis on industry relevance and the practical application of theoretical knowledge. We believe in the philosophy of learning by doing and consistently update our courses to reflect the latest advancements in the field. This ensures our graduates are not only well-versed in current technologies and methodologies but are also ready to adapt and thrive in future ICT landscapes.

Research Entities

Our department is proud to be the home of several research entities that are pushing the boundaries of computer science and software engineering. Here is the list of our research entities:

Centre for Robotics and Vision (CeRV)

• Director: Assoc. Prof. Wei Qi Yan & Assoc. Prof. Wei Qi Yan
• Contact: weiqi.yan@aut.ac.nz
• Originally formed by Reinhard Klette, focusing on 20 different research areas including computer vision, autonomous vehicles, robotic imaging. In 2022, received a total of 17 awards and recognitions including Summer Research Scholarships, new PhD students.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "Sign language recognition from digital videos using feature pyramid network with detection transformer"
  • "Prediction of tinnitus treatment outcomes based on EEG sensors and TFI score using deep learning"
  • "Non-destructive measurements of Toona sinensis chlorophyll and nitrogen content under drought stress using near infrared spectroscopy"
  • "Flexible neural network for fast and accurate road scene perception"
  • "Grading methods for fruit freshness based on deep learning"

Network and Security Research Centre (NSRC)

• Director: Assoc. Prof. Nurul Sarkar
• Contact: nurul.sarkar@aut.ac.nz
• From 2019 to 2021, published 37 journals, 15 book chapters, and 32 conference papers on Network and Security. Supervised 22 PhD and 26 Masters completion. Future plan includes international collaborations and industry collaboration with TATA communications ltd in India.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "A Secure Long-Range Transceiver for Monitoring and Storing IoT Data in the Cloud: Design and Performance Study"
  • "Analyzing TCP Performance in High Bit Error Rate Using Simulation and Modeling"
  • "TCP-LoRaD: A Loss Recovery and Differentiation Algorithm for Improving TCP Performance over MANETs in Noisy Channels"
  • "Towards a Fog-Based Traffic Flow Framework for Tactile Internet"
  • "The Time-Free Comparison Model for Fault Diagnosis in Wireless Ad hoc Networks"

Software Engineering Research Centre (SERC)

• Director: Assoc. Prof. Roopak Sinha & Assoc. Prof. Tony Clear
• Contact: roopak.sinha@aut.ac.nz
• Focused on three research areas: CS-SEER, GSE-PP, and next generation systems. Received multiple funding and engaged in various industry collaborations. Future plan includes external grants, targeting high quality publication arising from international collaborations, and developing centre's culture.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "Tracing security requirements in industrial control systems using graph databases."
  • "FLASc: a formal algebra for labeled property graph schema."
  • "Adaptable socio-cyber physical systems for supporting disaster."
  • "Hairlines removal and low contrast enhancement of melanoma skin images using convolutional neural network with aggregation of contextual information."
  • "What makes agile software development agile?"

Ubiquitous and Web Computing (UbiWeb)

• Director: Assoc. Prof. Jian Yu
• Contact: jian.yu@aut.ac.nz
• Produced 15 publications in 2023, and a total of 40 publications in the past two years. Future plans include a grant application with NSFC collaboration and the development of motif graph neural networks.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "High-order Autoencoder with Data Augmentation for Collaborative Filtering."
  • "Special Issue on Intelligent Software Services for IoT and Edge Computing."
  • "Accurate and Reliable Service Recommendation based on Bilateral Perception in Multi-Access Edge Computing."
  • "Transformer With Bidirectional GRU for Nonintrusive, Sensor-Based Activity Recognition in a Multiresident Environment."
  • "Deep CNN-LSTM Network for Indoor Location Estimation Using Analog Signals of Passive Infrared Sensors."

Data Science Research Centre (DSRC)

• Director: Dr. Farhaan Mirza
• Contact: farhaan.mirza@aut.ac.nz
• Accomplishments and ongoing projects include receiving an HRC grant for machine learning research related to asthma patients and Maori health, publication in a paid journal, and the completion of a PhD by a student named Rashi, who is now working in industry. The centre has invited academics from Waikato and UoA for collaborations and regularly updates its activities on its website.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "Multi-class skin lesions classification using deep features."
  • "State of asthma-related hospital admissions in New Zealand and predicting length of stay using machine learning."
  • "TinyLFU-based semi-stream cache join for near-real-time data warehousing."
  • "Novel method for optimizing performance in resource constrained distributed data streams."
  • "Effects of Similarity Score Functions in Attention Mechanisms on the Performance of Neural Question Answering Systems."

Knowledge, Engineering and Discovery Research Innovation (KEDRI)

• Director: Dr. Maryam Doborjeh
• Contact: maryam.gholami.doborjeh@aut.ac.nz
• The lab has accomplished 45 completed PhDs and 23 Masters degrees. Research focuses on neurosciences and computer sciences. Two main software tools currently in use by students are NeuCOM and NeuCube. The lab has secured multiple funding grants, including a NZ-SG data science research project funded by MBIE, a joint MedTech fund with UoA, and a DCT funded project. It is also due to host the international ICONIP conference in 2024.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "Spatiotemporal EEG Dynamics of Prospective Memory in Ageing and Mild Cognitive Impairment" - M Crook-Rumsey, CJ Howard, Z Doborjeh, M Doborjeh, JIE Ramos, etc. (Cognitive Computation, 2022)
  • "Personalized Spiking Neural Network Models of Clinical and Environmental Factors to Predict Stroke" - M Doborjeh, Z Doborjeh, A Merkin, R Krishnamurthi, R Enayatollahi, etc. (Cognitive Computation, 2022)
  • "Artificial intelligence: a systematic review of methods and applications in hospitality and tourism" - Z Doborjeh, N Hemmington, M Doborjeh, N Kasabov (International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 2022)
  • "Prediction and Detection of Virtual Reality induced Cybersickness: A Spiking Neural Network Approach Using Spatiotemporal EEG Brain Data and Heart Rate Variability" - AHX Yang, NK Kasabov, YO Cakmak (2022)
  • "Object Tracking Based on a Time-Varying Spatio-Temporal Regularized Correlation Filter With Aberrance Repression" - J Wang, Z Jia, H Lai, J Yang, NK Kasabov (IEEE Photonics Journal, 2022)

High Performance Computing Research Laboratory

• Director: Associate Professor David Wilson
• Contact: david.wilson@aut.ac.nz
• Core members include Seth and Willem van Straten. The lab is currently focusing on a project involving data positions. Research is focused on data precision, image formation algorithms, and low to high-resolution imaging. There are 3 students, 1 PhD candidate due to submit in mid-2023 and 2 new master's students. The lab is waiting for 2 new dual GPU machines to arrive.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "Tracing security requirements in industrial control systems using graph databases."
  • "FLASc: a formal algebra for labeled property graph schema."
  • "Adaptable socio-cyber physical systems for supporting disaster."
  • "Hairlines removal and low contrast enhancement of melanoma skin images using convolutional neural network with aggregation of contextual information."
  • "What makes agile software development agile?"

Service and Cloud Computing Research Lab

• Director: Dr. Brian Cusack
• Contact: brian.cusack@aut.ac.nz
• Focused on improving outcomes for Maori, Pasifika, and indigenous communities through work on decentralised and distributed systems. Published 11 papers and served on 3 conference committees and 2 journal editorial boards. Engaged in outreach activities such as blockchain NZ podcast and video series, presenting at James Cook High, and working on NFTs to protect iwi IP. A core project for the lab is still being defined.
• Sample Research Outputs:
  • "Smart agriculture IoT network communications security improvement"
  • "LoRaWAN Applications for Agriculture and Security"
  • "Cloud disruption impacts business IT role requirements"
  • "Gaining better control of information security risk"
  • "Industrial Internet of Things information security"
  • "Investigating working from home security risks"