Shen Wang and Professor Feng Hao from the Systems and Security theme at the Department of Computer Science and Ehsan Toreini from Durham University, have had the paper ‘Anti-Counterfeiting for Polymer Banknotes Based on Polymer Substrate Fingerprinting’, published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, in which they propose a novel technique called Polymer Substrate Fingerprinting, which can identify each banknote’s own unique, unclonable fingerprint.

The researchers have found that every polymer banknote has a unique "fingerprint", which is caused by the inevitable imperfection in the physical manufacturing process, whereby the opacity coating, a critical step during the production of polymer notes, leaves an uneven coating layer with a random dispersion of impurities in the ink. This imperfection results in random translucent patterns when a polymer banknote is back-lit by a light source.

Congratulations to Samuel Ward, one of our third year Discrete Mathematics students, who has received a silver award as part of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists’ (WCIT) Charity University IT Awards 2021. The awards, which were first held in 2015, seek to recognize outstanding undergraduate and postgraduate IT students within the UK. Applicants are judged based on their academic excellence, ability to overcome adversity, entrepreneurial skills, and contribution to charity or community.

The Warwick International Higher Education Academy (WIHEA) has announced that Jackie Pinks has been selected as a Fellow for the next three years. Jackie has been a crucial part of the team in the Department of Computer Science responsible for managing our taught courses.

The Academy aims to develop and embed outstanding learning and teaching at Warwick, in line with the distinctive nature of the University and the excellent reputation we have for academic achievement, both in research and teaching. The Academy also works to increase the recognition and reward of outstanding achievements in learning and teaching for individuals, teams and the institution as a whole.

Jackie said about her appointment:

Over the last 15 years I have worked in a range of student-facing and teaching and learning support roles and worked alongside senior teaching leads on various strategic projects. I’m keen to learn from, and help develop, best practice in teaching and learning across the University from a Professional Services perspective.

The Warwick Institute of Engagement has announced that Dr. Claire Rocks has been chosen as one of 38 Foundation Fellows. The Warwick Institute of Engagement is a new group within the University of Warwick that aims to champion the future of high quality public engagement. It brings together Warwick’s extensive practical engagement expertise with pioneering academic research.

Dr. Claire Rocks has been a vital part of the Department of Computer Science's outreach team, having organised and run many successful events in the past few years with the aim to raise the profile of Computer Science and introduce it to new demographics. Claire is currently a Co-I on the Play Code Share project which brings Computer Science and the Arts together to teach computing in a creative and playful way.

Dr. Claire Rocks said about her appointment,

I’m delighted to be one of the Foundation Fellow of the Warwick Institute of Engagement and look forward to working with both staff and students to champion high quality public engagement with the fantastic work that we do.

For more information on the Department's outreach activities please click here.

Technical Manager Dr. Roger Packwood is retiring from the Department of Computer Science. Roger has been a part of the department longer than most of the buildings have been on campus, including the current Department of Computer Science. Roger provided invaluable support for staff and students in the department and his presence will be very much missed.

Prof. Graham Cormode of the Department of Computer Science has been
named among the 2020 Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Fellows,
for contributions to computer science. The ACM is the world's leading
learned society for computer science.

Prof. Cormode is recognized for his contributions to data summarization
and privacy enabling data management and analysis. His work on data
streams and sketching has been widely implemented in many high tech
companies and organizations.

This year’s Warwick Postgraduate Colloquium in Computer Science (WPCCS) was held on Monday 14th December and marked the 18th edition of this beloved event. For the first time in its history, WPCCS took place online, on the communication platform MSTeams, to allow everyone to participate safely during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

A cherished occasion to present one’s research, receive valuable feedback, and create connections within the department to develop new ideas, the Colloquium saw the participation of 50 PhD students who gave presentations spread across seven major themes, showcasing the quality and diversity of the research carried out in the Computer Science Department at Warwick. 22 PhD students also submitted longer, more detailed presentations which were made available to participants and attendees on the official WPCCS MSTeam, so to receive constructive in-depth comments.