About the Computing Department
The Department of Computing at Imperial is one of the largest computing departments in the UK and is a world leader in academic research in computer science. We are particularly well known for our work on distributed computing, logic and artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, visual information processing, computing theory, and computational aspects of management science.
There are over sixty academic staff, almost all of whom are actively involved in research. This creates a lively and stimulating atmosphere in which to study Computing and ensures that our teaching is bang up to date. We also enjoy strong links with UK industry, which helps to ensure that our research and teaching is well informed and relevant to the needs of society.
The Department has been awarded the top rating in each of the Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs) and Teaching Quality exercises, undertaken by the Higher Education funding Council for England (HEFCE).
Location
Imperial College is located in the heart of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, a quiet and green part of the capital, yet close to several of London's major cultural landmarks. We are next door to the Royal College of Art and the Royal College of Music. The Natural History museum, Science museum, Victoria and Albert museum and Royal Albert Hall are all adjacent to the College and Hyde Park, Kensington Palace and the Serpentine Gallery are just a short walk away. London's West End is a few minutes by bus or tube, offering all the opportunities for entertainment, clubbing and culture in one of the world's most vibrant capital cities.
Map/Travel Information
Local maps and travel information.
Computing Facilities
The Department of Computing provides all thecomputing facilities needed by students on its undergraduate and postgraduate courses, as well as for academic research work. The Department traditionally offers student computing facilities which are among the best in the UK, and academics, laboratory organisers and the Computing Support Group make sure that the most appropriate computing systems are available. Research groups within the Department also have extensive computing resources of their own and individual access to these may also be possible when students are doing project work. Full details of all systems and facilities can be found on the Department's Computing Support web pages (http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/csg/), though for security reasons some of these pages are only viewable within the college.
The Department's teaching laboratories are modern and spacious, With over 250 workstations available for students to use at any one time. To ensure our facilities remain state of the art we renew over one-third of the laboratories PCs every year. Students using these facilities can chose to use systems running Windows, Linux, or the Mac operating system. All our workstations have flat-screen TFT monitors and fast networking. Those students who prefer to use their own laptops can also have access to high-speed wireless networking with dedicated special areas set aside for such use.
We also provide unlimited academic printing (both colour and black and white) through high-capacity laser printers and our systems are installed with an extensive range of the latest software. The Department is also a member of the Microsoft Academic Alliance, allowing us to provide some Microsoft software for home use to all our students free of charge.
Other services provided by the Department to all students include file storage, email, personal web space, and high-speed Internet access. The workstations are supported by a range of the latest Sun Solaris and Intel servers running Linux connected by fast ethernet and Extreme Networks' gigabit backbone switches. All students, like staff, have personal email accounts and the use of email and the internet in general is central to life in the department.
