REF 2021: Unit of Assessment 11

UOA 11: Computer Science and Informatics

REF 2021

Our submission demonstrates our substantial growth of research in related subject areas and diversification of research activities.

We endeavour to make sure that research is framed by the needs of industry, ultimately being applied for the benefit of the economy and society. We have collaborated with a large number of industrial partners which has led to successful research projects to facilitate knowledge exchange and generate direct impact to the related sectors.

Find out about the impact of our work:

Defeating the pirates: creating a technical guide to support EU law enforcement agencies in combatting audiovisual piracy

Staff contributing to research: Professor Vasilis Katos

In 2018, audiovisual (AV) piracy generated more than €940m in unlawful revenue in Europe alone. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) commissioned a technical guide to combat illegal Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) – television content formatted for internet delivery. Three areas of research undertaken by BU and academic collaborators – malware forensics, open-source intelligence and digital forensics – provided the basis for the 217-page guide.

The final version of the guide was distributed to all EU law enforcement organisations, who now use it in IPTV investigations. The guide also demonstrates how to identify pirate services and, for the first time, maps the illegal online video streaming ecosystem. It is also included in training material by the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Training.

The guide has supported operations by six EU member states to dismantle an international criminal network responsible for IPTV crime, with estimated damages of €6.5m, and helped in the closure of an illegal international service with more than 2m subscribers.

Productive security and privacy by design: building security and privacy tools into the earliest stages of software development

Staff conducting research: Dr Shamal Faily, Dr Jane Henriksen-Bulmer, Professor John McAlaney

BU research has explored how personas – as a vehicle for user experience (UX) techniques in general – can be instrumental in incorporating security into software design prior to architectural design and software development. Other projects identified factors that influence how security analysts interpret risk, as well as principles for designing software used by cybersecurity risk-based decision-makers.

The research was adopted by Ricardo Rail (RR), a consultancy that provides technical expertise, assurance and specialist engineering services to rail companies around the world, enabling its clients to better understand emergent qualities of their systems such as safety, security and usability and the relationship between them.

BU researchers have worked with the UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) to support its work with Defence Spectrum Management and remove the potential for conflict between different users.

The research has also been used to support charities across the region, helped them reduce the amount of time and resources spent on privacy compliance activities.

Journey into SPACE: using socially-aware computing to inform the design of an app to reduce digital addiction

Staff conducting research: Professor Raian Ali, Dr Nan Jiang, Professor Keith Phalp, Professor Angelos Stefanidis, Dr Huseyin Dogan, Professor John McAlaney, Dr Emily Arden-Close

The power and affordability of smartphones, together with the pervasiveness of digital technology, has massively increased time spent online. For people worldwide, particularly adolescents, high smartphone usage has negative effects on personal relationships, work, study and finances. In extreme cases, it may become a substantive digital addiction.

BU researchers identified the critical importance of empowering individuals to take greater control of their smartphone usage. They showed how phones themselves could deliver intelligent, data-driven, harm-reduction strategies to people with moderate digital addiction.

The team joined with commercial partners to develop SPACE – a smartphone app offering real-time harm-reduction strategies to promote self-control, allowing users to achieve a life/phone balance. It has been downloaded more than 2,000,000 times, received highly favourable user feedback, and improved wellbeing and productivity.

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Creating internationally-recognised standards for crowdsourced systems

Staff conducting research: Dr Marios Angelopoulos, Professor Raian Ali, Professor Keith Phalp, Dr Jacqui Taylor

Crowdsourcing can be defined as the practice of soliciting input from the general public. However, the highly personal nature of devices like smartphones poses significant trust and privacy issues, which can hinder the adoption and development of crowdsourced systems.

In addition, the community has lacked a common understanding of which systems can be classified as crowdsourced systems and how such systems can be built following a trustworthy and transparent method.

BU research identified the taxonomy of features which characterise crowdsourcing, as well as providing definitions on crowdsourcing. Research with EU collaborators also assessed how crowdsourcing methods and tools can be used in designing systems (particularly in requirements engineering) and how these can be applied in industrial contexts.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations’ special agency for information and communication technologies, accepted the definitions and reference architecture developed through BU research as the formal definitions for crowdsourced systems.

By helping to provide this formal, standardised framework – accepted by the global community through the ITU – BU has delivered a foundation of common understanding that will facilitate the growth and further adoption of crowdsourced systems and reference architecture, as well as identifying and addressing relevant security, privacy and trust issues.