The Information Systems group carries out world leading research covering four broad and overlapping areas:
- Databases, where the focus is on topics ranging from query languages and optimisation to web data extraction and the implementation of lightweight database applications for devices such as mobile phones;
- Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, where the focus is on knowledge representation formalisms, ontology languages, reasoning systems, and applications in areas such as e-Science and the Semantic Web;
- Computational Linguistics, where the focus is on combining established knowledge-based approaches with statistical and machine learning methods; and
- Spatial Reasoning, where the focus is on problems whose solution is highly dependent on the exact shape of objects, such as collision detection, path planning, wire-loom design, and assembling jig-saws.