40 Years of Computing at Newcastle

Centre for Software Reliability
Department of Computing Science
University of Newcastle upon Tyne

Tom Anderson

Overview

CSR at Newcastle University was established by Senate and Council in March 1984, at that stage largely to provide an operating base, in collaboration with City University, for the national CSR group. The main aim was to provide a focus for initiatives addressing issues pertinent to the reliability of software. At that time, the Alvey and ESPRIT initiatives were strongly oriented towards fostering collaboration between industrial and academic workers in the field of software engineering, and this perspective has always influenced CSR's mode of working. Originally located on the third floor of the Claremont Bridge, CSR moved up in the world to the ninth floor of the Claremont Tower in 1987. Despite the appalling debacle/fiasco of the Inter-disciplinary Research Centre submission (when, after CSR won the national £10 million Safety Centre competition, the SERC decided that it did not want one after all), British Aerospace awarded a contract for a major long-term research project in Dependable Computing Systems (the DCSC contract) to York and Newcastle in 1990. As a result CSR had to move to 20 Windsor Terrace in 1991 to accommodate the influx of research staff. Over the next three years the group rapidly expanded but was nevertheless moved to Floor 2 of the Bedson Building in February 1994; continued expansion subsequently led to an increase in the space allocated by converting the UCS "Lake" Computer Cluster room in the Spring of 1996. A list of personnel currently working in CSR is given as Appendix I. Further successes have had the inevitable effect that the enlarged space in the Bedson Building is once again insufficient, and rooms are being borrowed from the adjacent Geomatics department.

CSR conducts research primarily in the area of dependable and safety-critical computing systems, maintaining links with other investigators and practitioners in Europe, the USA and the Far East. Research is funded by a number of Government, industry and EU sponsored contractsÑa listing of current and recent contracts is provided as Appendix II. The main technical thrusts of the research are concerned with advanced system architectures; adaptive software architectures for control systems; applying game theory to guide trade-offs; requirements representation, evolution, traceability and analysis; formal methods and techniques for analysing timing properties; software safety analysis and information structures for safety cases; organisation and enterprise modelling. The primary output of the research is in published papers and reports, but work is also directed towards encouraging the take-up of techniques into industrial engineering processes. Recent publications by CSR staff are listed in Appendix III. Industrial collaborators include: British Aerospace, Scottish Nuclear, Rolls-Royce Industrial Controls, ICI Eutech, British Steel, NHS, CAP Group, Philips.

CSR's early participation in the Alvey initiative, and especially its support for the Software Engineering thread of that initiative, resulted in DTI funding for the formation of an industrial community Club on Software Reliability and Metrics, established in 1984. Successful operation of this Club doubtless contributed to the award of a DTI/EPSRC contract in 1991 to build up a second Club on Safety-critical Systems, with collaboration from the HSE. The 2,500 strong membership of these Clubs can receive six newsletters per year, and are offered a programme of about 10 technology transfer events each year. A total of 90 events have now been staged by CSR, attracting an average attendance of about 100 delegates. These events are recognised by both the BCS and IEE for their Continuing Professional Development schemes, and also earn continuing education FTEs for this University. The most recent development was the award of a CEC contract (in total about 1 Mecu) to establish a network of safety and reliability clubs throughout the EU.

Maintaining a funded research programme requires continued success in attracting support. New business (contracts, contract extensions and direct earnings) awarded to CSR in 1996 totalled £1,030,000. Over the five years 1992-96 the average annual turnover of the research group was £664,000. A minimal financial profile is included at the end of Appendix II. Success in attracting funding has enabled the CSR research suite in the Bedson building to be maintained as an attractive and well-equipped environment; increases in our staffing levels continue to impose pressure on our allocation of space.

Appendix I

Current Personnel

Appendix II

Current Projects (October 1997)

DTI & Self-financing - Reliability Club; PI: Prof. T. Anderson
Start: 1/10/84; On-going
Total value (from 1992): £126,627 (+ some VAT)

British Aerospace Ltd - DCSC; PI: Prof. T. Anderson
Start: 1/1/91; End: 31/12/99+; Duration: 108+
Total value: £1,463,549 (+ VAT)

DTI & Self-financing - Safety Club; PI: Prof. T. Anderson
Start: 1/5/91; On-going
Total value: £820,622 (+ some VAT)

ESPRIT ESSI - FME Ind Sem; PI: Dr J.S. Fitzgerald
Start: 1/6/96; End: 30/11/97; Duration: 18
Total value: £5,728

ACTS - COBRA; PI: Prof. J.E. Dobson
Start: 1/7/96; End: 31/5/98; Duration: 23
Total value: £234,483

EPSRC - ADAPT; PI: Prof. T. Anderson, Dr. R. de Lemos
Start: 1/9/96; End: 31/8/99; Duration: 36
Total value: £263,703

EPRSC - DISCS; PI: Prof. T. Anderson
Start 1/12/96; End: 30/11/99; Duration: 36
Total value: £128,941

EPSRC - SafeGames; PI: Prof. T. Anderson, Dr. R. de Lemos
Start 1/12/97; End: 30/11/99; Duration: 24
Total value: £93,336

Recently Completed Projects (1992-1996)

ESPRIT - ORDIT; PI: Prof. J.E. Dobson
Start: 1/1/89; End: 31/12/93; Duration: 60
Total value: £430,000

DTI - Bainbridge; PI: Prof. T. Anderson, Prof. J.E. Dobson
Start: 1/10/89; End: 30/9/92; Duration 36
Total value: £141,000

EPSRC - SCHEMA; PI: Prof. T. Anderson
Start: 1/3/92; End: 29/2/96; Duration: 48
Total value: £330,000

CEC - BRAIN; PI: Prof. J.E. Dobson
Start: 1/10/92; End: 30/9/95; Duration 36
Total value: £40,000

CEC - Impact of architecture on telecommunications; PI: Prof J.E. Dobson
Start: 1/3/93; End: 31/10/93; Duration 8
Total value: £28,000

DTI & EPSRC - Proteus; PI: Prof. J.E. Dobson, Prof. T. Anderson
Start: 1/3/93; End: 30/4/96; Duration: 38
Total value: £346,684

NCC & HSE - SDSM; PI: Prof. T. Anderson
Start: 4/6/93; End: 18/3/94; Duration: 10
Total value £31,850 (+ VAT)

ESPRIT ESSI - ConForm; PI: Dr J.S. Fitzgerald
Start: 1/10/93; End: 30/9/96; Duration: 36
Total value: £21,800

ESPRIT ESSI - ENCRESS; PI: Prof. T. Anderson
Start: 1/7/94; End: 30/6/97; Duration: 36
Total value: £210,362

HSE - Designs Amenable to Safety Case Demonstration; PI: Mr P.A. Barrett
Start: 1/9/94; End: 31/8/96; Duration: 24
Total value: £94,249 (+ VAT)

ESPRIT Copernicus - ISAT; PI: Dr A. Saeed, Dr R. de Lemos
Start: 1/4/95; End: 31/3/97; Duration: 24
Total value: £64,615

ACTS - NICE; PI: Prof. J.E. Dobson
Start: 1/1/96; End: 31/12/96; Duration: 12
Total value: £173,600

ESPRIT ESSI - FME Inf Res; PI: Dr J.S. Fitzgerald
Start: 1/1/96; End: 30/6/97; Duration: 18
Total value: £13,388

Financial Profile

Annual "Turnover" for years 1992-96, and as already
confirmed for 1997.

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
£625k £763k £637k £584k £709k £534k

Contents Page - 40 years of Computing at Newcastle
Centre for Software Reliability, 17 October 1997