Roger Boyle: research and other projects

Roger Boyle is Professor of Computing at, and currently Head of, the School of Computing at the University of Leeds.

Any comments made on these pages made be taken for publication, with due attribution, without seeking permission.

This page is always slightly out of date.

Current projects

Recognition via shoes
With Ms Garsah Al-qarni

2008 -
We seek to build a system that will recognise, or re-recognise, an individual from footwear.
Analysis of student use of time
With Dr Royce Neagle

2008 -
We are studying how and where students spend their time physically in studying for a degree: the hypothesis is that undisciplined and unregulated study time in isolation, outside the academy, may be detrimental.

Key Publications:
Evolving modes of student use - whither the VLE? R D Boyle and R Neagle and N D Efford, Proceedings of Informatics Education Europe, Venice, December 2008.
Watermark extraction from archaic documents
With Mr Hazem Hiary

2006 -
We are looking at using backlighting to extract data about paper manufacture and marking from difficult and damaged originals. Artifacts of interest such as chain-lines and watermarks are often damaged and heavily obscured, but are of interest to papyrologists and similar scholars in tracing the origin and manufacture of paper.

Key Publications:
The Leeds Arabic texts projects
Visual tracking of musical performance
With Mr Garry Quested

2006 -
Score following using audio input is already an active area of research. we seek to discover what independent input may be available from visual input.

Key Publications:
Polyphonic note tracking using multimodal retrieval of musical events, G Quested, R D Boyle and K Ng, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), Belfast, August 2008
Developing UG internships to feed the teaching-research ethos
conducted as part of the Active Learning in Computing CETL.

2005 -
We wish to introduce research into the undergraduate experience both as curricular material and, more importantly, as an ethos. We have researched ways of maximising the intern experience.

Key Publications:
Making Research Internships Work, R D Boyle and J Briggs. Proceedings of the IEEE Conference Meeting the Growing Demand for Engineers and Their Educators 2010-2020, Munich, November 2007.
Digital materials to motivate and explain mathematics;
conducted as part of the Active Learning in Computing CETL.

2005 -
Maths is the standard problem for introductry CS courses and motivation for is is key: it is simply not enough to say "This stuff will be useful for you one day". We are producing materials that put substance into the [true] statement that will present as short (5 minutes or so) web-readable "videos".
Analysis of Dynamic MRI of the metacarpophalangeal joint
With Ms Olga Kubassova

2004 -
We consider data-rich 4D images of the wrist and seek visualisation techniques of use to clinicians. This has led to work in data registration, segmentation and evaluation.

Key Publications:
Quantitative Analysis of Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI Datasets of the Metacarpophalangeal Joints O Kubassova, R D Boyle, A Radjenovic, Academic Radiology, 14(10), Pages 1189-1200, 2007
Determining the place of computing in the academic landscape

Ongoing
Issues surrounding the teaching of computing, and why this might be different to the teaching of other subjects, are an ongoing concern in university CS departments.

Key Publications:
Bringing Professionalism to Computer Science, R D Boyle, Proc. 3rd Annual Conference on Teaching Computer Science, 31-36, Dublin City University, 1995
A keynote address was given at ITICSE 2008.
The value and use of pre-university qualification for CS degree study
with Dr Martyn Clark

2001 -
Computing occupies a difficult place on the landscape with regard to preparation for HE; it is often suggested that prior qulaifications are detrimental to university study. We have been interested in the history of this issue and consider the current state of flux as an area of study.

Key Publications:
Computer science in English high schools: we lost the S, now the C is going, M A C Clark and R D Boyle, Proceedings of the International Conference on Informatics in Secondary Schools (ISSEP), Vilnius, Lithuania, Springer Verlag LNCS 4226/2006, 83-93, 2006.
Pre-university issues R D Boyle, A McGettrick, R D Boyle, R Ibbett, J Lloyd, G Lovegrove, K Mander, Grand Challenges in Computing: Education (18-20), BCS, 2005,
What makes them succeed? Entry, progression and graduation in Computer Science, R D Boyle, J E Carter, M A C Clark, Journal of Further and Higher Education, 26(1), 3-18, 2002,
Understanding and developing the project experience
now being conducted as part of the Active Learning in Computing CETL.

1997 -
The project experience is of the highest importance to students, staff and employers but is often incompletely understood. Experience is often concentrated in selected individuals whose expertise can approach irreplacable, but who rarely interact with each other. We seek to address these issues across departments, faculties and institutions.

Key Publications:
Computer Science Project Work: Principles and Pragmatics, S A Fincher, M Petre, M A C Clark, R D Boyle, P Capon, G Evans, K Mander, W Milne, Springer Verlag, 2001.
A personal theory of teaching computing through final year projects, M A C Clark and R D Boyle, Computer Science Education, 9, 200-214, 1999.

For more information: Prof. Roger Boyle.
School of Computing
University of Leeds
Leeds LS2 9JT
United Kingdom

+44 113 343 5487
+44 113 343 5868 (fax)