The Centre for Intelligent Systems (CIS)

The Computer Science Department has always had good links with both the software industry and manufacturing industry in general. This can be seen in collaborative research projects with supporting companies, and in the consultancies and involvement of the staff. Also the associated emphasis on software engineering has been beneficial for the high employability of graduating students.

In 1993 the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales, together with the Welsh Development Agency and the European Commission, set up a programme of thirty-five "Centres of Expertise" to promote and exploit the technological research and knowledge within the then University of Wales. The aim was to support innovation in industry and commerce across SMEs in Wales. Five centres were funded in Aberystwyth, one being the "Centre for Intelligent Systems" or CIS. This centre build upon the expertise in the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Research Group and funded two of the lecturing staff, Chris Price and Jem Rowland, a computer officer, Clive King, and three research students for three years. The remit of the CIS was to promote and disseminate advanced AI software across Welsh SMEs. This activity was continued and expanded through CASIS, the Centre for Advanced Software and Intelligent Systems for another six years.

The Centre for Advanced Software and Intelligent Systems (CASIS)

Following the success of the Centres of Expertise, a further programme was launched in 2001, called "Centres of Excellence". This focussed the expertise down to 20 new centres and was funded by the Welsh Assembly Government, the WDA and the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales. CASIS extended the role of the CIS to better cover South Wales by collaborating with Computer Science in Cardiff University. Dr Jianhua Shao of Cardiff became the Deputy Director and the funding now covered a Centre Manager and a Software Engineer. The first manager was Richard Terrace (2001-02) with Rob Wyn Jones as Software Engineer (2001-05). A second round of funding in 2004 allowed the centre to continue until 2007. Managers included David Craddock (2002-03), Peter Simmonds (2003-07) and software staff included Andy Starr (2001-05) and Neil Taylor (2004-05). Many companies were visited - we had contact with over 200 SMEs in Wales - and advised and supported businesses like Halen Mon, Broadsword, Invertek Drives, and Pack-IT.

An example of a large CASIS project is the alarm system that was designed, implemented, and installed for the salt evaporation plant at Halen Mon, the Anglesey based cooking salt manufacturer. This computer system constantly monitors a range of key variables in the evaporation plant and checks that safe levels are maintained. If the plant enters any hazardous operational states the system then sends appropriate alarm messages via SMS to alert technical staff on their phone. Previously, staff had to physically check on the plant around the clock.