Co-Director of the Bradford Computing Enterprise Centre
Computing Enterprise Centre
About us
The Bradford Computing Enterprise Centre is a software development unit providing custom software solutions to industry clients using a combination of academic research and undergraduate second and final year, and masters student expertise.
The students carry out work for industry as part of their study projects. The students also have the opportunity to work on placements with the Centre as part of their sandwich course.
The companies we work with get short-term projects delivered by high-quality students. This is a win-win-win activity:
- students gain crucial industry knowledge and experience to improve their employability prospects and professional skills
- academics gain knowledge of industry developments and their needs which helps enhance their teaching and research
- our industrial partners end up with software products that are used by their organisations and benefit from academic expertise.
Students are matched by the CEC team to a company’s needs based on their area of expertise and fit. The student is supervised by an academic to ensure they have the right technical input to support the project and are delivering on time and keeping on track. The student spends time getting to know the company and the chosen project to fully understand what’s needed.
Initially, students meet company representatives and start the project requirements. They stay in communication up until all the details of the project are clarified and then the students being the design and implementation phase following an agile approach involving small iterative steps with clear deliverables associated with each of them. The final product is delivered towards the end of the second semester when the students have to demonstrate the full functionality of the software product in front of the company representatives and academic supervisors.
The University is highly committed to working on Knowledge Transfer Partnership projects with companies, which often offer an opportunity for student projects that work alongside these and enhance the benefit to the company. Our Computing Enterprise Centre builds on our previous robust expertise and history of successful collaborative projects with industry and government.
Project areas
The Centre provides software projects focussed around the teaching content of our computing degrees. These include:
- Software Engineering BEng (Hons)
- Computer Science BSc (Hons)
- Computer Science for Games BSc (Hons)
- Business Computing BSc (Hons)
- Computer Science for Cyber Security BSc (Hons)
- Cyber Security MSc
- Big Data Science and Technology MSc
Projects are varied. Some examples include web applications, databases, mobile applications, and data analytics.
We are already working with a range of companies, including Jaguar Land Rover, the NHS, West Yorkshire Police, Bradford City Council, Digital Health Enterprise Zone and Rakusen’s Leeds. We are also engaging in Internet of Things and Smart Cities applications through the newly funded NorthSea and European Commission project SCORE (2017-2021).
Case studies
These are just a few examples of projects our students have undertaken in the past year.
- CT-Sim – exploring solutions for training specialists in Medical Image Processing without using real patients
- Virtual Tour of the Bradford Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Job vacancies web-based media integration system for City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, IT Services
- Manufacturing data dashboard – Student projects supporting a KTP to use production line data to improve quality and efficiency of products for Rakusens, a Leeds based cracker company.
- Establishing the Advanced Automotive Analytics (AAA) Institute – began as a summer student project to explore the potential for interpreting Jaguar Land Rover’s existing automotive data to improve customer service and maintenance of vehicles
Centre members
50th Anniversary Chair/Professor of Computational Models & Software Engineering
Lecturer in Computer Science
Contact
Professor Dan Neagu: D.Neagu@Bradford.ac.uk or Professor Marian Gheorghe:M.Gheorghe@Bradford.ac.uk
Telephone: 01274 235704
Bradford Computing Enterprise Centre
Horton D5.07
University of Bradford
Richmond Road
Bradford
West Yorkshire
United Kingdom
BD71DP
You can also contact the University's Business Partnerships Team who will facilitate a discussion with us in our absence.