Complex new technological systems including robotic and autonomous systems are employed in tasks that have high dependability requirements, i.e. require the system to be safe and perform its tasks uninterrupted by failures. Dependability, therefore, is a property that must be designed well. These systems are typically reactive, i.e. they respond to changes in the environment, and use concurrency and parallelism to achieve their tasks.

The module focuses on these specific aspects of dependable, reactive, and real-time design, and introduces students to the appropriate concepts and design methods. It focuses on design of single systems and goes further to discuss specific challenges encountered today in the design of cooperative and multi-robot systems, i.e. system teams and swarms that use collaborative and social intelligence to carry out tasks beyond the competency of a single system.

Modern large scale software development can be improved through utilising advanced approaches such as component based development. Reliable and secure software can be supported through managed programming environments. This module will be your chance to look deeper at these virtual machines beneath and see what makes it all work, and to develop solutions utilising component libraries.

This module introduces the key principles and techniques for building secure, reliable, and privacy-preserving computing systems. It examines the nature of security risks in modern IT systems, including how vulnerabilities arise and why they occur.

Students will explore fundamental concepts such as trust, authentication, and access control, together with the principles of cryptography and common cryptographic algorithms. The module also covers language-based security and the role of virtual machines in supporting system security.

A strong emphasis is placed on secure software development, highlighting the relationship between coding flaws, system correctness, and security. Students will learn how software errors can lead to vulnerabilities and undermine trust in a system.

In addition, the module addresses security policies and approaches for securing distributed systems, as well as ethical, legal, and professional considerations.

By the end of the module, students will understand how to design systems that are both functionally correct and secure, ensuring they can be trusted in real-world applications.

This module enables review of cutting-edge and emerging concepts and methods across the spectrum of computer science. We will meet as a reading group to select, review and discuss academic publications of high quality, that take topics beyond the curriculum and into the current state of the art; students will learn how to read and review academic materials critically.

Undertake a project-based placement within Commercial Development Practice, the School of Computer Science’s software development initiative. You will work as part of a development team on software for an external commercial client or an internally defined product. You will experience the software lifecycle from requirements gathering and design through to implementation, testing and documentation. With academic support, you will also develop skills in Agile working, project management, client communication, teamwork, commercial awareness and professional practice. 

Your MSc Dissertation is your chance to spend a full third of your study time working on a topic of interest to you, and producing something major as a result. You can design your own project, working with a member of staff to develop an idea. Perhaps you will develop an AI program, do some research in virtual reality, or build a new robot butler – the choice is yours.

With regular support from a supervisor, you’ll learn to create, undertake, evaluate and report on a significant individual project which you’ll be proud to show off to an employer or perhaps provide a stepping stone into further research.