InspiredResearch Winter 2016 Issue 9 News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford Computational FabulousBiology: Striving for Newexcellence Title– p17

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Welcome Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee: Inventor of the World Wide Web, joins us – p3

Surveilling surveillance: Examining how smartphone apps track people – p26

Keeping Social Media Social: New video launched – p16

CompSciOxford DepartmentOfComputerScienceUniversityOfOxford Inspired Research Letter from the is a twice-yearly newsletter published by the Department of Computer Science at the University Head of Department of Oxford. If you would like to learn more about anything you read in these It’s official: Oxford is the best! At least, according pages, please get in touch: to the 2016 Times Higher Education world [email protected] university rankings. Oxford is the first UK To subscribe to future issues, university to achieve first position in this ranking, e-mail: [email protected] a huge coup for the whole institution, and a wonderful boost for our new Vice Chancellor, To download previous issues, visit Professor Louise Richardson. The announcement www.cs.ox.ac.uk/inspiredresearch made headline news in the UK, but the following week the THE gave us news that, to us in the Editorial board Department of Computer Science at least, was Suzanna Marsh (Editor) even more important. For the first time, the THE published a subject ranking of computer science departments, and Kiri Walden (Sub-Editor) according to this, Oxford is ranked third in the world (and first in the Suvarna Designs (Designer) UK). Perhaps that might not sound so impressive, but when one Benjamin Neal considers that our competition in the USA includes giants like MIT and Berkeley, this is a huge achievement. Daniel Marsden Emma Dunlop I am delighted to be able to confirm that Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor Faris Abou-Saleh of the World Wide Web, joins the Department of Computer Science as Jason RC Nurse a Professor. More on that on page 3. Leanne Carveth One of my main goals when I took over as Head of Department Martha Lewis two years ago was to increase our undergraduate intake, which in Maureen York practice means persuading more colleges to admit Computer Science Megan Schaible students. This process has to be done on a college-by-college basis, and there is no simple way to affect a step change. It is therefore Peter Jeavons very gratifying that I am able to report that Lady Margaret Hall, Sarah Baldwin Christ Church, Hertford, and Jesus Colleges have all agreed to admit Seyyed Shah undergraduate computer scientists in the years to come. This is but a Sharon Lloyd step – we still have a long way to go! Varun Kanade Whenever one writes an article of this type, there is a natural Will Smith temptation to simply list all the wonderful things that have happened to us since the last report, and you will have guessed that this is Contributors indeed the rule of thumb I use for the most part (see above!). However, Alex Rogers Michael Wooldridge it would be criminally negligent of me to write a report on the life of Arnau Erola Sir Nigel Shadbolt the department over the last six months without mentioning Brexit. David Gavaghan Paul Harrenstein Whatever one’s views on the rights and wrongs of Brexit, the simple truth is that research-led universities in 2016 must be international Emma Espinosa Prince Abudu in their outlook. We seek to attract the best students, irrespective Gabriel Inelus Reuben Binns of their origins, and the best academics, wherever they may be Helena Webb Sadie Cresse found. Anything that impedes this makes it harder for us to be as Ioannis Agrafiotis Seyyed Shah excellent as we can be. And quite apart from this, about 40% of Jassim Happa Thomas Gibson- our research income derives from EU sources – in particular, the Robinson Jim Davies wonderful European Research Council (ERC), which funds large scale Jun Zhao pure research projects on the sole basis of scientific excellence. Our Katherine Fletcher department has been the recipient of twelve ERC grants in total, a Laura Jones total which I believe exceeds that of any other UK Computer Science Maria Sueiro department. The ERC has been, in my opinion, the most important Max Van Kleek development for European science of the last century. It is painful Michael Goldsmith indeed to contemplate a future without it: there are challenging times ahead for UK universities. But amidst all the doubt and uncertainty, Cover image: Blanca Rodriguez continued on next page

2 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford NEWS

from previous page there is one thing that I am quite Sir Tim Berners-Lee certain about: the University of Oxford will not just continue joins the University of Oxford’s but will prosper in the years to come. And there is no institution, anywhere in the world, that I Department of Computer Science would rather work for – Brexit or no Brexit! Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, We are very much looking inventor of the World Wide Web, has forward to celebrating the joined the Department of Computer department’s 60th anniversary in Science at the University of Oxford 2017. (See page 8.) as a professor. Sir Tim, who has become a member of Christ Church, DEPARTMENT REVIEW 2016 will be undertaking research. Sir Tim is also a full-time professor One of the big changes in at the Massachusetts Institute of academic life since the 1980s Technology (MIT), in Massachusetts, is the ever increasing scrutiny USA, where he is based, and of our activity. As well as where he leads the Decentralized national activities such as the Information Group research. He will Research Excellence Framework, continue to shape the future of the universities typically organise Web as Director of both the World their own internal assessments, Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and and Oxford is no exception. Our the World Wide Web Foundation. last such evaluation, in 2010, made recommendations that Named as one of Time magazine’s have changed the department 100 Most Important People of the ‘Few living individuals have changed dramatically – the establishment 20th Century, Sir Tim is best known our world as profoundly as Tim of an algorithms research group as the inventor of the World Wide did, with his invention of the World being the most obvious example. Web. In 1989 he wrote a memo Wide Web’, said Head of Computer In June 2016 we underwent the called ‘Information Management: Science Professor Mike Wooldridge. latest such assessment. With A Proposal’ in which he married ‘We are delighted and honoured to a panel of external assessors, up hypertext with the Internet, to welcome Tim back to Oxford, and we submitted 130 pages of create a system for sharing and are tremendously excited about self-evaluation reports, critically distributing information globally. He what we will be able to do together assessing all aspects of our also created the first web browser, in the years to come.’ activity. This was followed by server and editor, and ensured that two visits by the panel, over 3 the technology was made freely The Dean of Christ Church, the Very days in total, where the panel available to everyone. Revd Professor Martyn Percy, said: had the opportunity to meet ‘we are delighted that Professor with staff and students. Despite Sir Tim graduated from the Sir Tim Berners-Lee will be joining the incredible amount of work University of Oxford with a first- us. As one of the most significant that such reviews entail, and class degree in Physics in 1976, innovators and scholars of our the stress that they inevitably and we are very glad that he has time, his work with us here in generate, I am pleased to report returned 40 years later to become Oxford will continue to consolidate that the review was an extremely a member of the Department of our standing as the world’s top positive event, with praise – and, Computer Science. Sir Tim is also university. Christ Church also of course, suggestions for further pleased to join, at Oxford, his long intends to appoint a new Associate improvement – offered across the time research collaborator Sir Professor in Computer Science to whole spectrum of our activities. Nigel Shadbolt, who was recently enhance our collaboration with the appointed Principal of Jesus Department, and hopes to offer at Professor ANNIV College, and with whom he co- least three undergraduate places E R

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www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 3 NEWS News in brief

Max Whitby, first year DPhil student, won the Best Student Paper Award at the DNA22 conference for the paper titled ‘Chemical Reaction Network Designs for Asynchronous Logic Circuits’. The paper proposed the first design for an asynchronous computing device using chemical reaction networks.

Anna Muszkiewicz has been awarded an EPSRC Doctoral Prize. During her DPhil project, Anna has constructed multi- scale models of human atrial muscle cells and whole atria to investigate the role of the nNOS protein in human atrial electrophysiology. During the EPSRC Doctoral Prize project, Grant awarded The aim of this award is to accelerate Anna will design and conduct the use of computer simulation in silico drug trials for atrial for research into in the research of cardiotoxicity fibrillation using a population of cardiotoxicity and specific cardiac diseases human whole-atria computer such as myocardial infarction and models. heart failure. The team includes an The National Centre for the impressive list of collaborators from Replacement, Refinement & Oxford DPhil student Martin 11 countries including industry and Reduction of Animals in Research Strohmeier has been awarded academic scientists, clinicians and (known as NC3Rs) has just awarded an EPSRC Doctoral Prize. regulators. During his DPhil project, £500k to Professor Blanca Rodriguez and co-lead investigator Alfonso Martin analysed the changing Using data provided by this Bueno Orovio. The award is focused technological environment that international network, a database on Blanca’s team’s research into threatens the security of wireless of human cardiac electrophysiology cardiotoxicity – a major cause of communication in air traffic and contractility in computer models drug attrition in pharmaceutical control and aviation. will be created. Research evaluation development and an area where will compare computer model- many thousands of animals are Computer Science DPhil student based human predictions to clinical used in safety assessment for drug Bushra AlAhmadi has been outcomes, animal data and in vitro screening purposes or for in vivo awarded a 2016 Google Anita models, with the overall aim of studies. Borg Memorial Scholarship. building confidence and capacity in She has received a €7000 computer modelling. scholarship, and attended the Google Scholarship Retreat in Funding awarded to remove the need to July in Zurich, Switzerland. She is one of only two students in the use animals in pain research UK to receive an award. Bushra is undertaking her doctorate in Oliver Britton and Professor Blanca Rodriguez have been awarded funding the field of cyber security, where for a project that aims to develop and validate new computational models her research explores malware of human sensory neurons that are involved in pain signalling. By making detection using software-defined human-specific neuronal models and the software to use them openly networks (SDN). accessible and usable by providing training and teaching materials, the research team hopes to enable the replacement of certain types of animal experiments in pain research.

4 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford NEWS Oxford rises in global News in brief Computer Science rankings In new subject-specific rankings, compiled by the Times Higher Education Professor Leslie Ann Goldberg (THE) Oxford University has been ranked as top in the UK and 3rd in the was honored at an event on world for Computer Science. 11 October at Bletchley Park, which saw the launch of the The Times Higher Education World University Rankings previously included Medical Research Council Computer Science degrees in the engineering and technology subject (MRC) Clinical Sciences Centre’s ranking, but this year, for the first time, there is a dedicated league table for initiative to celebrate women Computer Science. in maths and computing. This will be a new development of The University of Oxford, which became the first UK university to top the Suffrage Science scheme, the overall World University Rankings, makes the top five in seven of the which aims to encourage individual subject rankings – more than any other institution. women into science, and to reach senior leadership roles. Read more about the Computer Science rankings here: goo.gl/FLXJ6h Leslie was one of 12 women to receive awards to celebrate their scientific achievements Prize for PRISM and ability to inspire others. The awards themselves are science- Professor Marta Kwiatkowska inspired pieces of jewellery, is part of a research team that designed by students at the has been given the 2016 Haifa renowned arts college Central Verification Conference (HVC) award Saint Martins-UAL. After two for the invention, development years, the 12 winners will hand and maintenance of the PRISM on their jewellery to a recipient of probabilistic model checker. The HVC their choice, at another awards award is given to the most influential ceremony – thus extending the work in the last five years in formal thread of recognition to more verification, simulation, and testing. women within the maths and PRISM is a software tool for modelling computing field. Read more and studying the behaviour of real-life about the awards, and an systems whose behaviour exhibits interview with Leslie here: uncertainty or randomness. The tool goo.gl/Dl5a0W has been in continuous development for over 15 years. The Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is the largest gathering of women in computing. It aims to shed the Computer-aided light on research by women in verification award computing and technology as well as provide them with workshops and career opportunities. The Professor of Computer Science Oxford Women in Computer Hongseok Yang is part of a team Science society (OxWoCS) and that won the highly regarded CAV the Department of Computer (Computer-Aided Verification Science have initiated an annual conference) 2016 Award. The award scholarship for students to recipients have been honoured for attend the celebration. This year the development of the theory of DPhil students Bushra Alahmadi, separation logic, which includes the Mariam Nouh and Paula Fiddi key notion of separating conjunction, were awarded full scholarships the work showing its applicability in to attend the celebration which the analysis of non-trivial programs, took place in October, in and the tool development that Houston, Texas. culminated in Facebook Infer.

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 5 NEWS

Emanuele D’Osualdo Undergraduate 18% compared to last year’s wins 2016 BCS/ numbers grow figures. CHPC Distinguished The number of colleges offering Dissertation Award This October saw the biggest ever Computer Science courses is also intake of undergraduate computer increasing. From Michaelmas term scientists into the department. We 2017, Lady Margaret Hall and The Council of Professors and made a record-breaking 82 offers Christ Church will join the rank of Heads of Computing (CPHC), in to students across the Computer colleges where students may read conjunction with BCS, The Chartered Science, Maths & Computer Computer Science. Jesus College is Institute for IT, annually selects for Science and Computer Science & planning to offer courses from 2018 publication the best British PhD/ Philosophy degrees. onwards, with Hertford College DPhil dissertations in Computer beginning to offer single honours Science. Emanuele D’Osualdo has Early figures indicate that Computer Science, alongside the won this prestigious distinguished competition for places on Philosophy & Computer Science dissertation award for his DPhil undergraduate Computer Science course it already offers. Keble, St thesis ‘Verification of Message courses starting in 2017 will be Anne’s and St Catherine’s colleges Passing Concurrent Systems’. particularly fierce. Already some have all recently increased their of the most competitive courses provision, with the addition of a at Oxford, applications across the second Computer Science tutor in L’Oréal-UNESCO three degrees have risen about each college. Women in Science Fellowship award granted

Maria Bruna has been awarded one of the 2016 L’Oréal- UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women in Science Fellowships (FWIS). The winning scientists, selected from nearly 400 applicants, were announced at a prestigious ceremony hosted at the Royal Society. Maria [pictured centre] received recognition for her research developing methods to represent systems of interacting particles that can capture phenomena at Turing and Strachey’s multiple scales. musical recordings restored

Researchers in New Zealand have succeeded in restoring the first recording of computer-generated music, made by Alan Turing and Christopher Strachey when they were working together in the early 1950s. Christopher Strachey (1916–1975) was a pioneering computer scientist and the founder of the Programming Research Group, now part of the Oxford Department of Computer Science.

If you would like to know more about Strachey and his work with Turing, come along to the Strachey 100 Conference, which has been organised on the centenary of Strachey’s birth to celebrate his life and research. To read more about the work to restore Turing and Strachey’s music visit goo.gl/dnfi9e

6 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford NEWS

Cicada - Students tracking in program themselves to the New competition Forest victory

Professor Alex Rogers, members of Department of Computer his research team (and Charlie the Science students were part of dog) visited the New Forest in May the St Catherine’s College team to deploy 80 smart acoustic sensors that won the UK/Ireland round in areas where the New Forest of the International Collegiate cicada has previously been found. Programming Contest. The sensors worked as expected but unfortunately there was no sign The team was made up of Hristo of the cicada. Updated versions Venev, Mihail Jianu and Sauyon of the sensors have since been Lee, with Nick Hu as organiser/ used to survey for bats in Maderia student coach. Hristo and Mihail (in collaboration UCL), and will be are first year Computer Science used by the Zoological Society of students; Sauyon and Nick are London to search for the endangered in their second year. The team Cuban greater funnel-eared bat won by a considerable lead in in January. For more details see a competition round that had newforestcicada.info and 171 teams, from 26 universities soundtrap.io. competing at 13 sites, all substantial increases on last year.

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is a multi-tier, team-based, programming competition. The contest involves a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. Participation has grown to several tens of thousands of the finest students and faculty in computing disciplines at almost 2,736 universities from over 102 countries. For more details, see nwerc.eu News in brief

‘Ada Lovelace and the abstract machine’ is the title of Professor Ursula Martin’s article, recently Head of Department Professor Michael Wooldridge visited Shenzhen, China published in The Times Literary where he was invited to give the key-note speech at the Global Artificial Supplement. Intelligence & Robotics Summit. There were 2000 tech entrepeneurs and You can read the full article here: investors in the audience. goo.gl/kTTwna

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 7 A letter from the Alumni Weekend 2017 will follow as part of our shared anniversary in the next issue of Inspired celebration. Development and Research. Save the date now for 15-17 September 2017 to make What was your most inspirational Alumni Manager sure you don’t miss out on a very moment during your time as a special 60th anniversary celebratory student? How has your time in the weekend. Oxford educational environment impacted your career beyond these Forthcoming events walls in a way that is perhaps unique amongst your peers and We are once again hosting an ANN colleagues? In a broader context, IV Alumni Christmas Drinks event E as the world becomes more R at the iconic Royal Society on 7 S interconnected and dependent on

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9:30pm. We do hope you will join is your greatest hope to impart on us to hear the latest news about the next generation of innovators at exciting developments in the Oxford? department as part of our ambitious plans for the next 60 years of Building our Future computing at Oxford, hosted by Professor Michael Woolridge. We In the previous issue of Inspired look forward to welcoming you in Research, you read about the London! department’s need for space as we have outgrown our current building Upcoming 60th to the point of bursting. The solution to these issues is a new Computer anniversary Science building that will form a Our next issue of Inspired Research collaborative central hub in Oxford will be a special edition, focusing on to bring together our research the 60th anniversary of Computer teams, students and staff in a state- Science at Oxford, which we will of-the-art environment that will celebrate in 2017. As we look enable us to reach our full potential forward with excitement and for contribution and impact both nostalgia to this year ahead, we are within the University’s academic It has been a very exciting start keen to involve our ever-growing community, and in the wider of the term for our department as community of alumni around the world. We will have some major we look forward to a full year of world to share their memories events and milestones ahead. It and hopes for the future with us continued on next page is my pleasure to share the most recent activity with you, and to formally announce our upcoming celebratory year with the 60th anniversary of Computer Science at Oxford in 2017. Alumni Weekend Many thanks to those of you who came to Oxford to celebrate the 2016 Alumni Weekend. A highlight of the annual festival included Professor Nigel Shadbolt’s lecture ‘Artificial Intelligence: Fact and Fiction’ in which the latest developments in Oxford’s cutting- edge research were used to address and discuss the perceived threat of AI on humanity. Details of a full weekend of lectures and celebrations over

8 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford Nigel Shadbolt Computer Science alumna Emily Howard premieres new piece at Proms

Emily Howard, composer, Senior Lecturer at the Royal Northern College of Music, and Oxford Computer Science alumna, premiered a new piece, Torus (Concerto for Orchestra), at the BBC Proms on 25 August. from previous page Emily was a member of Lincoln College and completed a BA in developments and concrete(!) Maths and Computer Science before details on this in the very near switching to musical composition future. In the meantime, if you for her postgraduate education and would like to find out more about becoming a successful classical this project or have an interest composer. The late Sir Geoffrey in contributing to the future of Hill, former Professor of Poetry, Computer Science at Oxford, described her work as ‘austerely please don’t hesitate to email me. sensuous and sensuously austere’ ©SamFairbrother and Classical-music.com, whilst And finally – keep in BBC Music Magazine’s website piece about Ada Lovelace called touch! picked out Torus, as one of six ‘don’t Ada Sketches which was performed miss’ premiere highlights in the 2016 in Oxford under her direction in We’d love to hear your news Proms season. December 2015, forming part of the and find out what you’ve been celebrations of the 200th anniversary up to. Please also let us know Emily’s early interest in maths and of Ada Lovelace’s birth. Emily if you have any suggestions or science has influenced her musical enjoys ongoing collaborations with comments about our Alumni career and many of her pieces make the University, including with the programmes – we really want reference to this, with titles including Mathematics Institute and the Oxford to make sure that we are Calculus of the Nervous System. A e-Research Centre (OeRc). providing the kind of events and opportunities to engage with the community and department that works best for your interests and Alumni news in brief needs. Your feedback really does make a difference. Edward Molyneux is the Chief Alumnus Toby Abel (Computer Executive Officer of FreeAgent, Science, Keble College, 2008) If you would like more information a cloud-based accounting is the co-founder of Krzana, a on any of the above please software designed specifically to search engine which enables contact me: help ‘micro-businesses’ of fewer users to filter vast amounts of than 10 employees. The hugely data from news channels, social Megan successful company is just about media, RSS feeds and blogs in Schaible, to be floated on the stock market. ‘real time’. Toby has coordinated Development Edward studied for his degree in the development of the and Alumni Engineering and Computer Science technology behind Krzana, which Manager whilst also learning to fly with the has an agile system of filters that at megan. RAF. He became an RAF pilot have been proving especially schaible@ then left the military to become a useful to those working within cs.ox.ac.uk consultant for defence technology the fast-paced financial markets. businesses, before deciding to Read more at krzana.com launch his own venture.

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 9 Alumni news in brief

OpenRent is a success story for alumnus Darius Bradbury (Computer Science, St Catherine’s, 2004). Darius co- founded OpenRent as a way to improve the property rental experience for both tenants and landlords, cutting out the cost and bother of using a high-street estate agent. OpenRent is an online service that connects tenants and landlords via a secure platform, using SMS and cloud messaging to ensure a speedy tenancy creation process. The system is cloud based, with enquiries from across the web all entering a centralised system. In 2015, OpenRent became the largest letting agent in the country, and now lets over 50,000 Well done Paul! properties annually. We were delighted to congratulate alumnus Paul Bennett (front, right) openrent.co.uk at the 2016 Olympics. Paul, who graduated with an MSc in Computer Science, won a gold medal as part of the Men’s Eight rowing team.

Oxford Software

Well done to department alumna Incubator Anne-Marie Imafidon, named by Computer Weekly as one of the supports top 50 most influential women in UK IT 2016. Anne-Marie alumnus’s founded volunteer organisation Stemettes to inspire the next start up generation of women into science, technology, engineering Department of Computer Science We want people to enjoy their and mathematics via a series of alumnus Son ‘Sean’ Pham is one of travels, so instead of them having to panel events, hackathons and the founders of Esplorio, a tech start- manually log their journey, Esplorio through the media. up which is beginning to make name automatically checks you in at each for itself in the travel app market. place you visit.’ The 2016 Gödel Prize has been The Esplorio iOS app lets travellers awarded to Oxford alumnus automatically check in to favourite The company was founded in Stephen Brookes — and co- places, map out routes via GPS, and December 2015 and received funding winner Peter W. O’Hearn — for upload photos in order to create a from several sources, including the their invention of Concurrent digital travel journal. European Space Agency Business Separation Logic. The Gödel Incubator, and the London TravelTech Prize recognises their major Co-founder Essa Saulat explains, ‘Our lab, plus support from the University contributions to mathematical app doesn’t require roaming data to of Oxford Software Incubator. logic and the foundations of record journeys, so users can travel esplor.io Computer Science. the world without having to worry about racking up roaming charges.

10 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford to address perceived problems Members of the Human UnBias around human decision-making after complaints about political bias in Centred Computing the types of item chosen. However, (HCC) group are project: this led to other kinds of problem as collaborating with the the new system allowed false news University of Edinburgh Are ‘fair’ items to be promoted alongside in two exciting initiatives items containing offensive terms and images. that explore the algorithms implications of new Other concerns over algorithms technologies for our possible? relate to issues of fairness. Some social lives. argue that particular algorithms are not designed as neutral or that the in partnership with Oxford and Algorithms are a fundamental datasets they are trained on are not Edinburgh. The project, full title part of our browsing experience – neutral; both instances might then ‘UnBias: Emancipating Users even though many of us may be produce results that are biased. Against Algorithmic Biases for unaware of their existence or know We have seen these concerns a Trusted Digital Economy’, what exactly they do. Algorithms arise through complaints that the runs from September 2016 to provide the rules or processes results of searches put into Google 2018 and will look at users’ through which online sites and Images reinforce racial prejudices experiences of algorithm-driven platforms operate. They assist us by depicting black and white people internet services and the process in sifting through the vast amounts differently and that enquiries in of algorithm design. Work will of content available online and LinkedIn promote male names ahead include user-group studies can help us to find content that is of female ones. to understand how citizens personally relevant. conceptualise matters of bias and Concerns over the adequacy fairness in relation to algorithms. However, algorithms are rarely and fairness of algorithms, We particularly focus on the transparent and public concerns combined with their typical lack of browsing behaviours of young have been raised about their transparency, mean that algorithms people and their understandings ubiquity. Some concerns relate to become an ethical issue of societal of fairness and transparency the adequacy of the algorithms concern. How fair is it that our when online. UnBias will provide used to shape our browsing browsing behaviours are shaped by policy recommendations, ethical experience. For example, in August processes we know so little about? guidelines and a ‘fairness 2016 Facebook replaced human Is it possible to design algorithms toolkit’. This toolkit will be co- staff on its trending news team that can be fair and visible to all? produced with young people with an automated system that These questions are taken up by the and other stakeholders and will used algorithms to determine what ‘UnBias’ project – a collaborative include resources to support news items would be put into EPSRC funded research study led understanding about online users’ feeds. This was an attempt by the University of Nottingham environments. Anthrobotics: the growing role of intelligent machines and social robots The rapid pace of contemporary University of Edinburgh to explore of tasks and alleviation of human technological innovation suggests these issues through a series of labour – as well as negative ones an ongoing development and workshops. The Anthrobotics Cluster – co-dependency, addiction and deployment of intelligent machines was created by PhD student Luis loss of responsibility. Among the and social robots that will induce de Miranda; its aim is to reflect on issues discussed in the session radical changes in our lives. the becoming of social automata were: identity in social groups How can we understand the from an interdisciplinary perspective. and the processes through which relationships between humans and Its activities include reading group identity is constituted; symbiosis artificial cognitive systems? sessions, the first of which was between humans and intelligent held in Edinburgh and led by the machines; fairness and bias in Members of the Human Centred HCC’s Mark Hartswood. The group multi-agent systems, safety by Computing (HCC) group at discussed definitions of robots design and collective agency. Oxford are collaborating with as ‘enablers’. Enablers have both Further reading group sessions are the Anthrobotics Cluster at the positive attributes – the facilitation planned.

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 11 The 2020 Science programme

2020 Science is an ambitious research programme that has the dual aims of developing novel computational approaches to tackling fundamental problems in the natural sciences, whilst taking an innovative approach to supporting the career development of the young scientists who are actually undertaking that research. Designed from the outset as a fellowship programme, 2020 Science has focused on developing appropriate training and support mechanisms aimed at ensuring that the fellows have the right skills and knowledge to engage with genuinely rewarding but difficult problems at the interface between the mathematical and physical sciences and the life sciences. Head of the Computational Biology theme in the Computer Science Department, and Principal Investigator of the project, Professor David Gavaghan discusses the 2020 programme.

In developing our programme, we approaches to the modelling of recruited a cohort of outstanding particular natural systems are early career researchers who had critical to future progress. Our already demonstrated research work in this area has looked to excellence in their own domain. By address these issues by focusing bringing them together and providing on the dissemination of the outputs appropriate individually-tailored of our research, in particular our Informing our approach right training, we have facilitated the computational models and software, across the 2020 Programme is the formation of a substantial research in a manner that makes it as easy increasingly apparent dichotomy network. Each individual research as possible for the wider research faced by individual (particularly fellow uses the network not only to community to re-use or build upon young) researchers in computational inform their own research directions, our work. science to balance the necessity to but also to explore new research further their own careers through avenues as a collective. This has Our new approach to research dissemination of their results through allowed the programme as a whole to dissemination builds largely on traditional channels (such as journal utilise the expertise of the individual existing software development efforts papers), against the competing to inform larger multi-disciplinary in the Computer Science Department demand to make work available in projects, resulting in the development at Oxford in the area of functional less traditional formats (typically of new and innovative computational curation. Our aim is to provide an online and open source) that promote methods, approaches, and tools online environment within which other the re-use of their work. that are being applied to important researchers can gain access not research questions in computational only to our open source software but 2020 Science was funded through systems biology and ecology. also to all of the data and meta-data EPSRC’s (The Engineering and required to fully replicate, and hence Physical Sciences Research The complexity of natural systems in build upon, our results. To date we Council) Cross-Disciplinary Interface general results in quantitative models have built web repositories in cardiac Programme ‘Landscapes’ call as that are either computational from cell modelling, species distribution an experiment to test whether the the outset or that are analytically modelling, and uncertainty cohort-based approach to training intractable, so computational quantification. Our ultimate goal is introduced through its Centres for solution methods are essential. This that these research communities Doctoral Training (CDT) might be complexity often (and increasingly) will be able not only to access all of extended favourably to post-doctoral requires that models are built the information necessary to repeat training. Our proposal was submitted by composition of sub-models the results in our own publications jointly with the Microsoft Research describing processes at differing in these areas, but will also be able Laboratory in Cambridge (MSRC), levels of biological organisation or to upload their own software and the CoMPLEX CDT at University differing spatio-temporal scales. models, and compare them against College London (UCL), and the These properties of natural systems other, competing computational Systems Biology and Life Sciences mean that the development of models, algorithms and approaches. Interface CDTs at the University of reliable and reusable software, the Researchers will also be able to Oxford. Funding of £4m from EPSRC development of infrastructure to ‘validate’ their approach against any was awarded in September 2010, support routine model composition, experimental data that we can make supplemented by a direct grant from and the comparison of differing available or link to. MSRC to Oxford of £0.5m. (mathematical and) computational continued on next page

12 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford Genome sequencing progress

The University of Oxford is for translational research. playing a leading role in the Colleagues from the Medical delivery of a project that will Sciences Division in Oxford change the way in which have developed the procedures diseases are diagnosed and for sample management and treated within the UK National processing, organised initial Health Service (NHS), and pilot studies, and advised around the world. This is the on scientific and ethical 100,000 Genomes Project, an foundations. ambitious programme, funded by the UK Department of Health, in More than 17,000 samples which DNA will be extracted from have been collected so far, and 100,000 samples of blood and more than 13,000 of these have tissue provided by NHS patients been sequenced. The results of from previous page and ‘sequenced’ to reveal the analysis, based upon existing The 2020 Science project is now information it holds. knowledge, are being validated nearing its conclusion and has been and fed back to the patients tremendously successful in each of The information held in a genome and their families by a network its primary goals. Of the seventeen helps to determine susceptibility of Genomic Medicine Centres fellows employed over the course to disease and response to (GMCs), commissioned by NHS of the programme, ten are already treatment. Using this information England. The Oxford NHS GMC in permanent academic posts. All in diagnosis and treatment has provided samples from more remain in research positions in planning can lead to significant than 350 patients with cancer academia or industry. The programme improvements in care. Before we and more than 300 patients with has developed several large suites can do this, we need to obtain rare, inherited disorders. of software that are available and and analyse data on a large widely used within the academic and number of cases, to help us to Some of these patients will industrial research communities, and understand how variations in the get a new diagnosis: a more collectively the fellows have published genome are related to disease, precise, scientific explanation almost 300 papers in leading journals treatment, and outcomes. At the for their condition, which may and conference proceedings over the same time, we need to ensure lead to a change in treatment. lifetime of the programme. that the results of this research Others will have the satisfaction are translated into clinical of knowing that they have Our recent final meeting with our practice. contributed samples and data to external advisory board was attended a world-leading programme of by representatives of the Wellcome A team of researchers from collaborative research, including Trust, and the EPSRC, BBSRC the Department of Computer many clinical researchers and (Biotechnology and Biological Science, led by Professor data scientists from Oxford, Sciences Research Council), MRC Jim Davies, has designed aimed at developing new (Medical Research Council), NERC and developed the software understanding, new diagnostics, (Natural Environment Research used for data acquisition and new treatments that will Council), and ESRC (Economic and and management, as part of benefit others with the same Social Research Council). A lively and a model-driven architecture condition. positive discussion on the merits of this new approach to post-doctoral career development was chaired by Lesley Thompson (Director of Academic and Government Strategic Alliance at Elsevier), and our hope is that some of the innovative directions developed during 2020 Science will feed into policy changes within the major research funders.

For more information see www.2020science.net or contact [email protected]

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 13 Sentiment analysis of OUP’s Children’s Corpus

123,436 stories. 54 million words. A unique window into the inner world of children and an opportunity to discover what they care about and what makes them happy, sad or anxious.

Earlier this year, children from all with happiness and fear being the over the UK submitted stories most common emotions. There for BBC Radio’s ‘2,500 Words was a significant drop of average Competition’. In association with positive sentiment with age. In fact, the Oxford University Press (OUP), a 20% drop of average positive department spin-out TheySay was sentiment was detected from the invited to analyse the children’s youngest age group to the oldest writing in order to provide valuable one, showing that older children insights into the sentiment and submitted stories that on average emotions detected in the stories for were darker, more complex, and dragons or monsters were hiding. the first time in the competition’s multi-layered. history. Intriguing differences appeared Happiness peaked in stories between stories submitted from Using advanced computational submitted by 7-year-old children, different parts of the country. There linguistics and machine learning with a noticeable drop after that. The were more mentions of scary or techniques TheySay was able to detected levels of fear and anger unpleasant aunts in stories from unearth fascinating information on rose in stories submitted by children Northern Ireland than any other the emotional signals detected in in the older age groups, perhaps a region; aunts in other parts of the stories and highlight how these result of teenage angst. the UK were presented as mostly change in different age groups harmless. The word ‘maths’ was and locations. The text from all There was also a small difference used in a highly positive context submitted stories was analysed between the sentiment levels in much more frequently in stories and data was collected around stories submitted by girls and submitted in Scotland compared the positive, neutral, and negative those submitted by boys. On to those submitted elsewhere. In sentiment as well as the emotional average, girls’ stories contained stories written by English children, content of every story. TheySay also slightly higher levels of positive the words ‘refugees’ and ‘Syria’ were determined what entities, ideas, or and neutral sentiment than those among those most frequently used in opinions appeared most frequently written by boys. Similarly, there association with positive sentiment. in a positive or negative context in was variation observed in the levels Interestingly, these words appeared the entire set of submissions. of related emotions: boys’ stories most often in stories that expressed expressed more fear and anger while high levels of hope and happiness, Overall, the stories submitted were girls’ stories had higher levels of with the children’s attitude towards complex tales that contained both happiness and surprise. refugees being largely positive and negative and positive sentiment, empathetic. Perhaps surprisingly, the words ‘school’ and ‘teacher’ were among Finally, TheySay was able to provide ‘There were more those used in a positive context a heat-map of happiness, showing mentions of scary or most frequently. Schools were how happiness in the children’s often mentioned in association stories varied by post-code. The unpleasant aunts in with happiness and excitement. highest average happiness levels stories from Northern The words ‘adventure’, ‘heart’, and were detected in stories submitted in ‘chocolate’ were also very popular Llandudno, Wales. Ireland than any other words associated with positive region; aunts in other sentiment and happiness. On the The insights provided by TheySay other end of the spectrum, the word around the sentiment and emotions parts of the UK were ‘door’ was used most often in a contained in the children’s stories presented as mostly highly negative context; many of gave a new layer of understanding the submitted stories talked about of children’s language and a unique harmless.‘ ‘locker’ or ‘creaky doors’, or doors look at how age, gender, and behind which scary creatures like location can affect children’s writing.

14 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford Five go to…

Five Department of Computer Science academics made a successful debut at the Hay Festival in May 2016.

Their topics ranged from algorithms and Artificial Jason’s talk ‘Social Media: The use of your online Intelligence to security in social media, covering a variety information for the good, the bad, and the ugly’ keyed into of the research undertaken at the department. the fear we all have about the negative potential of social media. Leslie explained a little of what we know about the Professors Mike Wooldridge, Ursula Martin, Leslie limitations of algorithms, and also explored the famous P Ann Goldberg and Dr Jason RC Nurse gave lectures vs NP problem. to packed-out and enthusiastic audiences, while Professor Peter Millican ran a programming workshop Lecturing in a Welsh field is quite a change from the kind for teenagers. Quite a brave undertaking when you are of environment our academics are used to working in, relying on technology to work in a marquee. and at a festival you must always expect the unexpected – from challenging audience questions and celebrity Ursula explored the earliest foundations of Computer involvement (Dara Ó Briain asked a question from the Science, talking about Ada Lovelace in a sold-out back row of Ursula’s lecture), to the rather un-Welsh lecture, while Peter hopes that his children’s workshop sunshine. The very smart department fleece jackets we on programming for beginners might inspire Computer took with us were just too warm to wear! Science pioneers of the future. The development of Computer Science has an impact on Artificial Intelligence is one of the more obvious topics so many aspects of our day to day lives, by taking part in that crosses over from the realities of scientific research the Hay Festival, computer scientists at the cutting edge into the distorted fantasies of science fiction. The news of research had the opportunity to explain how things is full of stories about robots taking our jobs, but in his work today, and how they might work in the future. lecture Head of Department Mike Wooldridge helped audience members see past this paranoia, explaining The academics who took part all had a great time and the reality of AI today: what makes AI work after half we certainly hope that our first ‘Five go to Hay’ adventure a century of effort, what is possible, and what the won’t be our last. implications are for all of us.

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 15 Funding awarded for personal Media wall technologies for Our pick of the latest podcasts and vodcasts that active health feature Computer Science research at Oxford research • Oxford Sparks and a group • The Networked Quantum of Oxford researchers have Information Technologies commissioned a new animation (NQIT) project has just released about ‘Keeping Social Media an animation about quantum Social’. The video aims to increase computing which was created awareness of how social media using funding awarded by may be used as a tool for good the Engineering and Physical purposes while making people Sciences Research Council aware that it is being used for (EPSRC). The NQIT Hub, part bad purposes. It explores ethical of the UK National Quantum questions relating to social media, Technology Programme, is led and raises questions about how by the University of Oxford and we document ourselves on social involves 9 UK universities and media, leaving not only our friends over 30 companies all working and relatives to explore our lives, together to develop a quantum but undesirables, and how this computer demonstrator. can also be a force for good if goo.gl/FZ1Ztv utilised effectively by security Professor Marta Kwiatkowska and services. The academics involved, • The Group Design Practical her team have been awarded EC Jason RC Nurse, Helena Webb projects are an important funding for AffecTech – a project to and Professor Marina Jirotka, element of the second year for develop ‘Personal Technologies for hope that the video will encourage our undergraduate students. Affective Health’. Affective (or mood) and enlighten younger students on The group design practicals disorders are predicted to be the the topics of Computer Science encourage teamwork and allow highest ranking cause of disease and mathematics as well as show students to put their recently by 2020. This project advances the the possibilities of change with gained knowledge to practical state-of-the-art of personal health new algorithm creation. use. This year the end of project technologies for affective disorders goo.gl/y8q33q showcase day was filmed, and such as depression and anxiety. the results can be seen here: Current wearable technologies can goo.gl/u4qQU4 capture emotional responses but understanding this data usually requires a physician’s input. AffecTech will see a shift to low-cost These videos, and many others are available on the department’s self-help technologies which will Media Wall: www.cs.ox.ac.uk/mediawall enable the individual to visualise, explore and regulate emotional responses.

Quantum group observable properties of a system computation (ie magic state cannot be assigned predetermined distillation and measurement-based has a new 3-year outcomes in a manner independent quantum computation) and more of the method of observation. The abstract models of computation. EPSRC funded main themes of the project involve project synthesising and developing The team will work in collaboration the various frameworks for with international experts in nonlocality/contextuality towards theoretical computer science, Professor Samson Abramsky a structural understanding of quantum information and (University of Oxford) and Simone the role contextuality plays in computation, and quantum Severini (University College London) achieving quantum advantage in foundations, including with are co-inventors of the two leading information processing and towards Researcher Co-Investigator Nadish frameworks for understanding applications of these tools in both de Silva (UCL) and Researcher Rui contextuality: the notion that the concrete models of quantum Soares Barbosa (Oxford).

16 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford A Centre of Excellence Oxford-Emirates in Computational Biomedicine Data Science Lab to

Professor Blanca Rodriguez is streamline air travel the Oxford University Principal The Department of Computer Investigator in a collaborative Science is involved in a new scheme that has established Data Science Lab which a new Centre of Excellence in Oxford University has opened Computational Biomedicine in collaboration with Emirates. (CompBioMed). It will see experts from around the University use cutting-edge CompBioMed is a user-driven Centre analysis to help the airline make of Excellence in computational Computer-based modelling and its services more efficient and biomedicine, intended to nurture and simulation is well established in customer-focused. promote the uptake and exploitation physical sciences and engineering, of high performance computing where the use of HPC is now routine. Academics will work with the (HPC) within the biomedical Research will focus on three key airline’s ever-growing datasets to modelling community. The users areas, cardiovascular medicine, help it understand its processes come from academia, industry and molecularly-based medicine and and customer preferences in clinical practice. neuro-musculoskeletal medicine. greater detail.

The Centre of Excellence will provide Lead by a group of 15 ‘core partner’ a focal point for the development universities and companies, the Staff appointments and sustainability of software tools centre will also support and facilitate and changes and services which are capable of modelling and simulation activities, delivering modelling and simulation and provide education and training of all aspects of the human body, for a diverse set of communities, Since the last edition of Inspired from the genomic level to the whole spreading knowledge, tools and best Research, there have been some human and beyond, in health and practice to students and researchers changes. The following people have disease. across this domain. joined the department: n Dancing with The showcase featured Anthony Lin: Assistant Professor presentations from the Being of Programming Languages robotlets at There robotics researchers, n the Being There and quick-fire sharing sessions Christoph Haase: Departmental with the project leads spanning Lecturer in Theoretical Computer showcase technology, engineering, Science psychology and security. There n In September the Watershed were opportunities to play with Milos Nikolic: Departmental digital creativity centre in some robot games, and even Lecturer in Databases dance with ‘robotlets’. The Bristol hosted the ‘Being There’ n showcase – a celebration of three showcase culminated in a robot Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee: years of collaborative EPSRC cabaret featuring three fantastical Professorial Research Fellow robot performances, hosted by Bill funded research exploring the n opportunities and challenges that Thompson of BBC Click. Tim Muller: Departmental arise when humans and robots Lecturer in Security. share public space. Department of Computer Science academics are involved in two Congratulations to Edith Elkind Being There is a four-year project projects, Happilee and Localisation and Dan Olteanu who have been funded by the Engineering and System. Read about them here: awarded the title of Professor in Physical Sciences Research goo.gl/xMyuHq Oxford University’s 2016 Recognition Council (EPSRC), which brought goo.gl/SeylLy of Distinction exercise. Edith is together five collaborative a Non-Tutorial Fellow at Balliol teams of researchers from the Read more about Being There: College. Her research is focused in Universities of Exeter, Bath, being-there.org.uk the area of algorithmic game theory Oxford, Cambridge and the Bristol and computational social choice. Robotics Laboratory, to explore Dan is a Fellow of St Cross College, some of the current themes in teaching and researching in the area robotics. of databases.

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 17 News in brief Sir Jonathan Ive receives Associate Professor an honorary degree Standa Živný has been awarded Sir Jonathan Ive, the Chief Design a European Officer at Apple, Inc., received an Research Council honorary degree from the University (ERC) Starting of Oxford at the University’s annual Grant totalling Encaenia ceremony on 22 June over €1.4m over 2016. Sir Jonathan’s nomination 5 years. Standa’s work on the from the Department of Computer Power of Algorithms in Discrete Science recognises his iconic, hugely Optimisation project (PowAlgDO) influential, and incredibly successful is tackling one of the fundamental contributions to industrial design. questions in algorithms: the power of convex relaxations.

In July, Google Vice President and Funding granted for ‘Chief Internet Evangelist’ Vint Cerf gave a talk in the department on Quantum research Internet evolution. The talk took a historical view of the Internet from Associate Professor Jonathan the ARPANET period of the late Barrett and Professor Bob Coecke 1960s to some speculation about of the department’s Quantum the year 2036. Widely known Group are part of a new John as one of the ‘Fathers of the Templeton Foundation funded Internet,’ Cerf is the co-designer project called Quantum Causal of the TCP/IP protocols and the Structures, worth US$3.7m. Besides architecture of the internet. Oxford, the consortium includes the Perimeter Institute, Canada, and the Professor Samson Abramsky is Universities of Vienna, Pavia, Hong one of the co-organisers of a new Kong, Queensland and Western programme, ‘Logical Structures Ontario. The project concerns the in Computation’ at the Simons study of causality as the scaffolding Institute, Berkeley, University of underlying the fabric of space and California. The aim of the program time, accounting both for quantum is to bring together researchers theory and general relativity, towards from selected areas of logic in a theory of quantum gravity as well as Computer Science, hopefully Bob Coecke quantum-relativistic technologies. resulting in a significant and lasting impact in advancing the field, bringing different communities together and stimulating the fruitful Samson Abramsky cross-fertilization of ideas. awarded honorary Emeritus Fellow Bernard Sufrin degree by Middlesex has been involved in the Oxford Students Refugee Campaign. Professor Samson Abramsky FRS The campaign aims to get every has been awarded an honorary student at Oxford University to degree by Middlesex University. pledge a monthly £1 contribution Samson has been recognised for for two years. If every student his work in game semantics, an took part, the funds could provide approach to formal semantics which as many as 20 fully funded uses game-theoretic concepts to scholarships for asylum-seeking analyze the structure of computation and refugee students. in terms of interaction between a Read more: system and its environment. oxfordrefugeecampaign.org

18 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford Strachey Lectures: News in brief The Foundational Questions The once and future Turing Institute (FQXi) has released a list of their top ten most popular The most recent Oxford Strachey wartime codebreaking allowed articles, videos, podcasts, and Lecture was given on 31 October, theory to turn into practice. After essays from the past decade. to a sold out audience of over 700 1951, Turing was no less innovative, The list features an article people at the beautiful Sheldonian applying computational techniques about Professor of Quantum Theatre. The lecture was given by to mathematical biology. His sudden Foundations, Logics and Oxford’s Professor Andrew Hodges death in 1954 meant the loss of most Structures, Bob Coecke. The on ‘The Once and Future Turing’. of this work, and its rediscovery in article, titled ‘The Quantum modern times has only added to Linguist’ explores how Bob has In 1951, when Christopher Strachey Turing’s iconic status. developed a new visual language – former Head of the Department that could be used to spell out of Computer Science – began his Andrew Hodges authored Alan a theory of quantum gravity— career, his colleague Alan Turing Turing: The Enigma (1983), which and help us understand human had already made far-reaching inspired the 2014 film The Imitation speech. and futuristic innovations, from the Game. If you missed the lecture, a definition of computability and the recording is available at Postdoctoral researcher Efthymia universal machine to the prospect goo.gl/tFfLJk Tsamoura has become an Alan of Artificial Intelligence. Andrew’s Turing Institute (ATI) Research talk described the origins and The event was generously supported Fellow. Efi’s research interests impacts of these ideas, and how by OxFORD Asset Management. lie in the fields of databases, knowledge representation, query answering under constraints, distributed systems and multi- objective query optimization. In collaboration with researchers from ATI, Intel, the University of Oxford, and the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), she will create tools and techniques enabling scientists to more easily Andrew Hodges integrate web-based data into their activities. Oxford is one of the founding universities involved Quantum supremacy in the Alan Turing Institute, which was launched in 2015. In May, Scott Aaronson delivered raise fascinating questions for The Queensland government has a Strachey Lecture on quantum computational complexity theorists: confirmed a AU$0.4m funding supremacy. In it he discussed three for example, on what grounds agreement with Open Data proposed ‘quantum supremacy should we believe that a given Institute Queensland (ODIQ) experiments’. quantum system really is hard to for the first Australian node of simulate classically? Does classical the UK-headquartered Open In the near future, it will likely simulation become easier as a Data Institute Global Network. become possible to perform special- quantum system becomes noisier? The Open Data Institute was purpose quantum computations And how do we verify the results of founded in 2012 by Sir Nigel that, while not immediately useful such an experiment? The examples Shadbolt and Sir Tim Berners- for anything, are plausibly hard of quantum supremacy experiments Lee, now both Professors to simulate using a classical discussed were: BosonSampling, at Oxford’s Department of computer. These ‘quantum IQP / commuting Hamiltonians, and Computer Science. The intention supremacy experiments’ would be random quantum circuits. of the institute is to bring a scientific milestone – decisively together commercial and non- answering quantum computing The Strachey Lectures are commercial organisations and skeptics, while casting doubt on generously supported by OxFORD governments around specific one of the foundational tenets of Asset Management. sectors to address today’s global Computer Science, the Extended challenges. Church-Turing Thesis. At the same Watch the lecture here: time, these experiments also goo.gl/7Zf584 www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 19 The world outside Happy The department’s students and academics are not only Birthday to accomplished computer scientists. Below are some other achievements by members of the department. our Head of Matthew Smith, a DPhil student Leanne Carveth, the Deputy in security, took part in the Academic Administrator, ran her Department Oxford Shield Regatta. This was first half marathon. This event was held in the All Japan University held in Oxford on 9 October, and It was Monday, September 5 — Championships as part of a rowing saw 7,000 competitors weave the end of the holiday season, exchange with the University their way through Oxford’s historic and Head of Department of Tsukuba. His team, the St buildings, finishing in Broad Street. Professor Michael Wooldridge Catherine’s college boat club made was all set for what promised it to the semi-final, missing out on This year the department once to be a productive day, a final spot by half a length. again took part in the annual starting with a meeting with charity Dragon Boat race. Our his predecessor Professor Bill Elisa Passini, a departmental team, ‘The Floating Points’, Roscoe... Research Assistant, gained her dressed as bumble bees, came first level teaching certificate of second in the fancy dress category Mike encountered a rather the Royal Scottish Country Dance and rowed their way roughly half cheerful Bill, and a sign saying Society during the summer, in St way up the leader board of 21 ‘Workshop in Honour of Michael Andrews. The certificate includes competing teams. Wooldridge: 50 Years of Human assessments on the music, and Artificial Intelligence.’ Many formations, general appearance of his colleagues and friends and techniques, as well as the had gathered from all over history of the dance. Elisa will be Europe for a surprise event to doing some teaching practice in celebrate his 50th birthday. Oxford over the next few months The day was devoted to talks to gain experience for the full highlighting his extensive certificate, in order to teach her contributions in the past own class. decades to Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science. Topics included Mike’s importance in Making a The Oxford team have been developing the Liverpudlian exploring how the rich data- Department of Computer domain schemas can be used Science, plus his research on to automatically derive high- areas including reasoning about SPLASH quality software. This will lead to computational economies (the cost and overhead reduction in RACE project), computational the development of tailor-made aspects of cooperative game Members of the Software data management systems. The theory, and dynamic epistemic Engineering group hosted a workshop involved talks and a series logic. full-day workshop on Semantic of interactive sessions on Booster Aware Model Driven Engineering and The Model Catalogue. These by Paul Harrenstein. (SA-MDE) at SPLASH 2016. The tools form part of the data and conference is a premier venue schema-aware software generation for programming, languages, and pipeline. Participants had a chance software engineering, and was held to try out the tools and to generate this October in Amsterdam. The their own systems, first hand. workshop highlighted progress on the ALIGNED Horizon 2020 funded One of the co-organisers of the project for quality-centric, software workshop, Christian Dirschl from and data engineering. The project Wolters Kluwer Germany commented applies the expertise of computer ‘This workshop has shown that scientists from Oxford, Dublin data-intensive applications gain and Leipzig with a broad range of importance in the field and that they data intensive applications from require schema-aware software tools archaeology and anthropology to like Model Catalogue or Booster, in jurisprudence and encyclopedic data order to address the challenges of management. complexity, scale and inconsistency’.

20 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford Student prizes

Across different year groups our most successful undergraduate students have received awards and prizes to recognise outstanding performance in their studies. Prelims (end of first year) prizes: n Alexander Rice (M&CS, St Congratulations John’s) & Long Pham (CS, Keble) – Gibbs Prize n Catalin-Andrei Ilie (CS, Oriel) to the 2nd year – BCS Prize for best overall performance undergraduates! Third year prizes: n Dominic Kennedy (M&CS, Balliol) – BT Prize for best overall Industry representatives formed part sponsors – GResearch, Bloomberg performance and the Junior of the judging panel that chose the and Metaswitch – plus University Maths Prize for outstanding winners in the second year students’ experts. Each industry partner performance in Maths papers group design practicals. Teams of awarded the teams a prize of £500 n Victor Porras (CS, Balliol) – four to six undergraduates presented per winning team, based upon their Gibbs Prize for best performance their projects in May, having chosen own criteria. in Computer Science papers a topic to work on in January from a n Dan-Andrei Gheorghe (CS, set of 13 different challenges. Project Somerville) – G-Research Prize topics were presented as outline for Best Third Year Project design briefs. Part of the work was to n Anthony Guo (CS, Somerville) undertake a requirements analysis, & Christopher Kew (CS, New) – working with the project mentor. The Hoare Prize for best performance practicals have been designed to in Computer Science allow students to develop and apply Fourth year prizes: theory learnt on the course. Some n challenges were set or sponsored Benjamin Dawes (CS&P, by the industry partners, which Hertford) & Matthew Pickering this year, in addition to the prize (CS&P, Oriel) – Hoare Prize for sponsors, included OxFORD Asset Best Performance in Computer Science and Philosophy Management and Bank of America. n The judging panel consisted of one Angus Tayler (M&CS, St representative from each of the other John’s) – Hoare Prize for Best Performance in Maths and Computer Science Oxford Computer Science n Ashok Menon (CS, Oriel) – Hoare Prize for Best Performance in Computer Science Conference winners announced n Matthew Sjodin (CS, Worcester) & Jakub Sliwinski (CS, St Hugh’s) Congratulations to everyone involved in this year’s Oxford Computer – The Microsoft Research Prize Science Conference. Especially to William Rathje who was awarded best for Best Project presentation for ‘On the Fly Construction of Perceptually Uniform Color n Pui Yiu Carol Mak (M&CS, St Spaces from User Surveys’. Best abstract went to Meredydd Williams for Catherine’s) – G-Research Prize ‘The Privacy Paradox and the Internet-of-Things’, and Nathalie Cauchi for Best Project in Maths and who received best poster for ‘Modelling Smart Buildings Dynamics’. Computer Science. Prizes ranged between £100 - £200. The Oxford Computer Science Conference is a forum for department members to gain experience with the all-important practice of research community participation. Established in 2004, the conference was CS = Computer Science. originally held biennially and has since become an annual event. M&CS = Maths and Computer Science. CS&P = Computer Science and Philosophy.

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 21 Emergination – a project to mentor students in Africa

Prince Abudu began his DPhil this constantly be asked to leave the accounts and modules – connecting year having previously studied at school until my fees were paid. Zimbabwean high school students Morehouse College, USA. Prince Given those dynamics, I had to work with American college students grew up in Zimbabwe, where his harder and strive to harness any for advice and assistance with mother struggled to get him access opportunity that came my way. college applications and career to education. However, he won a development. Mentees learn skills in Higher Life Foundation scholarship Reflecting upon that experience, SAT preparation, college applications to study at Morehouse, where he I realised that there are more than and get general career guidance. was one of 10 inaugural Ambassador 20,000 high school students in Students can also talk to college Andrew Young International Zimbabwean high schools who are admissions officers directly. Scholars. This group of students seeking opportunities to attend from Zimbabwe and Burundi all university or college, but have The project has so far been working previously lost one or both parents, no idea how they can get those with 13 high schools in Zimbabwe. but were among the top students in opportunities. Furthermore, these Sixty students will initially be their nations. students lack the knowledge enrolled on the online platform to required to make informed decisions receive mentorship, attend classes Prince decided to try and help about their future studies and on various topics and access children in Zimbabwe to access careers.’ he explains. professional panel sessions. EA is educational e-mentoring, by currently in talks with the Ministry founding Emergination Africa (EA) in EA is pioneering Zimbabwe’s first of Primary & Secondary Education 2012 with a Morehouse colleague. e-mentoring service, in partnership in Zimbabwe to bring this ambitious ‘My motivation to start the program with a tech company in Boston, program to all the Primary and came from my background and USA. As a co-founder, Prince Secondary schools in the country. upbringing. I attended my secondary has been engaged from the start education at Kutama College. As a working as the Chief Operations emerginationafrica.org single parent, my mother struggled Officer and Operations Lead for the to pay for my education. I had to EA programme. EA uses an online [Pictured above]: Global mentoring: miss a lot of classes as I would platform to host mentor and mentee the key to the Emergination project.

22 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford Analysing online personae

Today more than ever, people across the world are exploiting the internet for work and pleasure, utilising a vast variety of devices (eg computers, mobile phones, smart devices) and services to do so. Exploitation of cyberspace results in conscious information-sharing of personal and corporate data, and, inevitably, the creation of persistent data that many users may be unaware of – this is perhaps as metadata or as old data thought to be removed or put out of reach. While there are undoubtedly many benefits to our interaction in cyberspace, the quantity of threats, risks and general peril constantly grow, with data breaches, hacks and identity-fraud almost commonplace. Jason RC Nurse, Arnau Erola, Thomas Gibson-Robinson, and Professors Michael Goldsmith and Sadie Creese discuss their work.

Over the last two years, based on similarity metrics we have been conducting and likeness thresholds research into these online to ascertain whether the risks, and specifically persona of interest is real into the problem of or fake (ie, unnatural). fake (or unnatural) online identities, and To evaluate our approach their increasing use to we have engaged in an manipulate, deceive initial case study involving and defraud people and 35 individuals, with data organisations. Within the spanning over 41 online academic literature, there sites and networks. We has been considerable found that our method work in the space of to conceptualise an detecting fake accounts identity characteristics and data individual’s complete and bots. Proposed approaches points, we draw on our established online presence was very successful. include using unsupervised machine- data reachability model for online and This was undoubtedly linked to learning to detecting anomalous user offline identity data. its detailed consideration of how behaviour, assessing social-graph cyberspace is typically used, while properties to rank users’ likelihood The approach we propose has two also building on our existing model of being fake, and a range of other main phases: the definition and of identity which has been used to techniques. One key weakness characterisation of naturalness, and aid law enforcement in identification which these approaches suffer from, the measurement of a newly identified tasks. In terms of developing effective however, is their failure to consider persona to determine whether it analytics for naturalness however, complete online personas as might be natural or fake. In the first improvements in our approach (eg opposed to single individual profiles. phase, we utilise our identity model to features selected and nuanced This therefore limits their utility for create a conceptual persona structure metrics) are required. We now aim to the detection of well-crafted fake for each natural individual. We rely on conduct further assessments on the identities, such as those used in natural individuals for a baseline, and criteria through which naturalness catfishing for instance. build the persona structure based is defined, and refine our analytics on what online profiles the individual and combinatorics to measure Our research has sought to maintains, how they are used, and a persona’s naturalness. We will significantly advance existing work on the data they share on them. Next, also explore clustering approaches addressing this problem through the we examine a set of natural personae based on complete online personae, in-depth analysis of a complete online to define what might be naturally as a means to complement our persona; this includes all of its data expected for this group of individuals identification of naturally occurring elements, identity characteristics, (ie a naturalness template). For personae groups in large datasets. It and how these are naturally used instance, academics are likely to have is expected that the outcome of this across multiple websites. We interpret a university webpage and teenagers research will be a system whereby the naturalness as the extent to are more likely to share certain types individuals can better identify fake which a persona of interest (eg a of information online. The second personae, and thus be more cautious potentially fake online identity) shows phase uses a range of analytical in their interactions online. characteristic features similar to those methods to examine the extent to expected for comparable personae which a new persona conforms to the More information available at: online. To attain this full range of natural template. These methods are goo.gl/OmTS9M www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 23 News in brief

In October, Professor Sadie Creese was a speaker at the Scholarships awarded for part-time MSc first WIRED Security conference. in Software and Systems Security This new event aims to explore, explain and predict new trends, As announced by the Chancellor in November 2015, the UK Government threats and defences in cyber is investing £1.9bn over the next five years to protect the UK from cyber security. Read more at: attack. Some of this investment focuses on an ambitious skills programme wired.co.uk/article/sadie-creese- to grow the UK’s cyber capable workforce, as our ability to defend ourselves threat-to-enterprise in cyber space relies on a strong skills and knowledge base. The department has been awarded a grant as part of a pilot programme, seeking to retrain The collaboration between individuals in cyber security. The grant will cover the payment of half the Oxford’s Global Cyber Security tuition fees for up to four students undertaking our GCHQ-certified MSc in Capacity Centre (GCSCC) and Software and Systems Security. the Government of Victoria, Australia, is now officially underway, following the launch of the new Oceania Cyber Security Centre (OCSC) in Melbourne. The new facility, the first international regional partnership for the GCSCC, is intended to be the focal point for cyber security capacity building in the Oceania region. New government funding for Cyber Security Training Centre The Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Cyber Security has been awarded £3.5m in government funding, starting from October 2016.

The centre admits up to 16 students each year to undertake advanced study and research in cyber security. Cybersecurity Early machine learning, authentication, Students come from all over the security analytics, international world to study on this four-year Careers Researchers relations, insurance, maths, law, programme, and graduate with Symposium update medical research, sociology, and a DPhil degree, having made a the University’s own IT systems. The significant research contribution The 2nd Annual Cybersecurity Early keynote speaker was Professor Basie towards addressing one of the Careers Researchers Symposium von Solms, Director of the Centre many challenges which arise in took place on 30 September 2016 at for Cyber Security at the University this fast-moving area of study. The the Oxford e-Research Centre (OeRC). of Johannesburg, who started with government funding, together with This event was organised by Cyber a barnstorming talk on research university funding, will support 12 of Security Oxford as an opportunity for ethics. Prizes were awarded to Grace these students, paying their full fees Oxford students, Research Assistants Leung (Johannesburg: ‘Protecting and a stipend. and Postdoctoral Researchers to Cybersecurity Machine Learning’), showcase their work and make new Laurie Pycroft (Nuffield Department The new grant was awarded after connections, including guests visiting of Surgical Sciences: ‘Brainjacking: a review from industry leaders from the University of Johannesburg Risks of Neurological Implants’), and and academics from outside the and Columbia University. Submissions Mike Davies (Computer Science: University. It is part of the funding were encouraged from across the ‘Are we managing the risk of sharing for the UK government’s new Cyber University and the range of talks Cyber Situational Awareness? A UK Security Strategy. spanned human-computer interaction, public sector case study’).

24 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford CYBER SECURITY Assessing Estonia’s observations, code reviews, and adversarial testing on system online voting components. As a result of these system concerns, some parties have concluded that there are various Online voting is becoming an ways in which insider threats and increasingly popular option in sophisticated external attacks could today’s heavily connected world. compromise the system’s integrity As a part of a collaboration with and thus the voting process. the Cyber Studies Programmme at Oxford’s Department of Politics and The full text article, titled ‘An International Relations, academics Independent Assessment of the at the Department of Computer Procedural Security Components of Science have engaged in an analysis the Estonian Internet Voting System’, of one of the most well-known that outlines the groups’ findings and electronic voting systems. recommendations, can be accessed here: goo.gl/5tMGqp The I-Voting system that was designed and implemented in Computer Science academics Estonia in 2005 is the first internet involved in the project include Jason voting system to have been fully RC Nurse, Ioannis Agrafiotis, Arnau adopted anywhere in the world. Erola, Meredydd Williams, and Since its inception, it has been Professors Michael Goldsmith and met with both praise and scrutiny. Sadie Creese. Concerns include in-person election

PROTECTIVE: The PROTECTIVE system is designed to be done. Oxford’s task is to to provide solutions for public document current practices and cyber security domain cyber security incident propose means to improve them grant awarded response teams (CSIRTs) and small for the PROTECTIVE system, and medium-sized enterprises as well as contribute to the (SMEs) who both have needs assessment of the system. The Jassim Happa and his co- outside the mainstream of cyber project is being coordinated by the investigators, Jason RC Nurse, security solution provision. Public Athlone Institute of Technology, and Professors Michael Goldsmith CSIRTs needs arise in part because and joined by Synyo, Poznan and Sadie Creese are part of commercial tools do not address Supercomputing and Networking a consortium that have been their unique requirements, while Center, Clean Communications awarded an EC project (H2020) SMEs are vulnerable to cybercrime Limited, Technische Universitat on ‘proactive risk management as they have limited resources to Darmstadt, RoEduNet, GMV, through improved cyber situational protect themselves and often a CESNET and ITTI SP ZOO. awareness’ (PROTECTIVE) limited understanding of what needs

Michael Goldsmith

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 25 Surveilling surveillance: examining how smartphone apps track people

The 1.9 billion people around the world who currently for skimming fragments of information about users, use smartphones have the luxury of choosing from which are channelled to vast networks that reassemble over 4.4 million apps offering particular kinds of digital them into descriptive and predictive models of people’s functionality. Among these apps are those that have interests and activities. re-defined how people work, learn, socialise, and live. Yet, most of these apps have a second purpose that Whilst such practices have given rise to a multi-billion remains largely hidden: to feed vast digital marketing dollar digital marketing industry, they also pose a ecosystems. Such ecosystems use apps as sensors significant threat to users’ long-term interests, and, consequently, to their own long-term sustainability. The rapid, unbridled establishment of user surveillance as the de facto business model of the app ecosystem means that people have little choice but to submit to being constantly monitored as they interact with digital apps, devices, and services. Moreover, the hidden nature of such practices means that people have little understanding of the scope and nature of this surveillance, and how their data is being used. As a result, end-users cannot practically assess whether or how such practices are violating their privacy preferences.

The effects of this ever-widening gap between the reach of digital surveillance and users’ ability to ensure such practices stay aligned with their privacy preferences has already had visible consequences. Privacy and security fears over data collection are driving record numbers of people to withdraw from digital ecosystems entirely, by ceasing to use apps or smartphones altogether.

Previous research into the privacy and security of apps has focused primarily on apps in isolation. However, the fast evolving ecosystem of third-party tracking companies poses a challenge to this app- centric approach, and suggests privacy decisions may need to be informed by an understanding of the complex data-sharing networks behind these apps and services, as well as of the broader, social and economic consequences of a personal-data driven industry.

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26 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford from previous page more advertising networks, whilst 18% used obfuscation techniques to deter others from such an analysis. The EPSRC-funded SOCIAM (Theory and Practice of Social Machines) project, is being undertaken by Impact on privacy – The second is to understand how Oxford Computer Science Department’s Max Van such practices affect people’s privacy. Whilst prior Kleek, Reuben Binns, Jun Zhao, and Professor Sir Nigel work has looked at overall perceptions of privacy, this Shadbolt. It is an interdisciplinary effort examining such work focuses on the relationships between tracking human-digital ecosystems, including understanding behaviours and people’s perceptions of control, how various entities use social and technical autonomy, security, and privacy. mechanisms to accomplish their goals. Informed by this ‘social machines’ perspective, we are examining the Re-establishing user control – Another area of following aspects of smartphone app privacy: research pertains to empowering people with better control over their information. In an initial experiment, Digital surveillance ecologies – A primary goal is we designed personalised visualisations to illustrate to map app surveillance ecosystems as collective how data was collected about them, finding that they ecologies, to understand the entities, relationships and enabled people to make significantly more robust, methods involved, as well as the technical, social and consistent and confident judgements. As a next step, economic forces that influence their function. As a first we are looking at mechanisms to enable people to step, we have developed methods to collect and analyse control how their data is used even after they are large collections of apps. An initial analysis of 5000 disclosed, through distributed accountability and policy popular apps from the Google Play Store (UK) revealed mechanisms. over 60% of apps transmitted information to two or Read more about SOCIAM: sociam.org

A year in industry doesn’t form part of undergraduate Computer Science Internships degrees at Oxford. However, many of our students use the long summer break to gain real-world experience. From start-ups to multi-nationals, at home and abroad. Here’s what two of our students have been up to this summer.

Emma Espinosa Gabriel-Robert Inelus Computer Science, Computer Science, Worcester College Keble College

Internship at ARM, Cambridge, UK. Internship at Bloomberg LP, London. July – September 2016 June – September 2016

In the summer after my second This summer I was delighted to year I headed off to Cambridge (!) accept the challenges of applying in to work in the Development Solutions Group at ARM. industry, both the knowledge gained in my university I was in the Advanced Product Development team, courses, and C++ experience that I previously got doing some investigation on compiler feedback driven throughout different programming competitions. optimization. This involved running lots of benchmarks During the vacation between my first and second year, and delving into the LLVM codebase, written in C++. I worked as a Software Infrastructure Developer at The Compilers course I took in my 2nd year proved very Bloomberg LP, and while there I won the ’Bloomberg useful, and I found it really interesting to learn about the Summer Intern 2016 – Stand Out Project Award’. more advanced optimizations a compiler performs, a topic which wasn’t covered in the course. In addition to My task was to optimise the performance of the my project, the company put on several intern events, software infrastructure using algorithms and data and I visited the Manchester office as well. I also got structures. Therefore, I had the opportunity to use my to experience an acquisition which made international algorithmic skills in order to come up with efficient news – a pretty eventful summer! solutions to the company’s challenges on a global-scale system. During my internship I enjoyed working at full I stayed at Peterhouse, a Cambridge college, time employee standards and also took part in many throughout the summer which meant I was right in the events and lectures, which broadened my horizons city centre. even further. Overall, I had an excellent experience at Bloomberg LP, which I would definitely recommend.

Interested in advertising your vacancies or internship opportunities to current students? Please visit: cs.ox.ac.uk/recruiters/

www.cs.ox.ac.uk Issue 9 Winter 2016 27 A web portal for cardiac safety in pharmacology

Members of the Computational Biology team have developed a web portal ‘Action Potential-predict online’, or APportal, which makes it easier for pharmaceutical companies to model how likely it is that particular drugs will have a negative effect on the electrical activity of heart cells.

Pharmaceutical drugs can have can manually enter data on drug been used to perform thousands of unwanted interactions with heart effects on the currents flowing compound safety simulations and is cells, which in some cases can lead through individual ion channel being used internationally by some to fatal disturbances to the heart’s proteins, and get predictions of the of the largest global pharmaceutical normal rhythm. Over the past 20 effects on the whole cell, which companies. years the membrane proteins that has been shown are also a good drugs bind with to cause these prediction for heart tissue. The project has been awarded new disturbances have been identified, funding though an EPSRC Impact and the degree to which drugs The portal has three principal Acceleration award that will enable influence the ionic currents flowing components: the user-facing further development of the portal. through an individual type of protein component which stores simulation The aim is to make testing via the can be measured in early drug results and generates HTML for portal easier for pharmaceutical development routinely and cheaply. rendering the portal web page companies and regulatory bodies, However, it isn’t clear what the in a web browser; the simulation by generating generic programming collection of results for a handful of manager component which invokes interface components, as well as different proteins means for the whole the ‘AP predict’ simulation software training materials and technical cell or whole heart. This is where and monitors simulation progress; documentation, to enable their own simulation of the electrical activity of and finally the ‘AP predict’ cardiac IT departments to install and couple heart cells comes in useful. electrophysiology simulation the software to their own databases. software itself, based on the The Oxford team, Professor David Computational Biology Group’s The requirement to perform such Gavaghan, Geoff Williams and Gary Chaste C++ library. The portal takes testing, and the need to make this Mirams, have developed and released care of gathering input data, running testing easier continues to be of a public version of a web portal user the simulation, storing the results, importance. Screening for cardiac interface to open-source cardiac and presenting them to the user as safety has to be done for all drug safety simulation software at graphs in the portal, or for download candidates, and costs billions goo.gl/1pg3iS. In this portal, users as a spreadsheet. It has already of pounds a year worldwide. By providing more accurate predictions of risk, earlier in drug discovery, we can reduce the risk to patients, minimise animal testing and save time and money in pharmaceutical research and development.

The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that mathematical model simulations should form part of a new Comprehensive In-Vitro Pro- arrhythmia Assay (CiPA). This ongoing project is a rare opportunity for mathematical modelling in biology to have a direct impact on international policy, and the provision of open and easy-to-use tools such as this web portal are going to be instrumental in simulations being accepted and successful.

28 Inspired Research: News from the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford