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  3. Distinguished Dissertations in Computer Science

The Conference of Professors of Computer Science (CPCS), in conjunction with the British Computer Society, selects annually for publication a few of the best British PhD dissertations in computer science. Its aim is to make more visible the significant British contribution to this field, and to provide a model for future students. At most three or four dissertations are selected for publication each year. They have a high standard of exposition and place results particularly clearly in the context of computer science. Computer scientists with significantly different interests will be able to grasp the essentials of each book and use it as a means of entry to an unfamiliar research topic.

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10 results in Distinguished Dissertations in Computer Science

Axiomatic Domain Theory in Categories of Partial Maps
  • Marcelo P. Fiore
  • Published online:
    23 November 2009
    Print publication:
    08 August 1996
  • Axiomatic categorical domain theory is crucial for understanding the meaning of programs and reasoning about them. This book is the first systematic account of the subject and studies mathematical structures suitable for modelling functional programming languages in an axiomatic (i.e. abstract) setting. In particular, the author develops theories of partiality and recursive types and applies them to the study of the metalanguage FPC; for example, enriched categorical models of the FPC are defined. Furthermore, FPC is considered as a programming language with a call-by-value operational semantics and a denotational semantics defined on top of a categorical model. To conclude, for an axiomatisation of absolute non-trivial domain-theoretic models of FPC, operational and denotational semantics are related by means of computational soundness and adequacy results. To make the book reasonably self-contained, the author includes an introduction to enriched category theory.

The Map-Building and Exploration Strategies of a Simple Sonar-Equipped Mobile Robot
  • An Experimental, Quantitative Evaluation
  • D. C. Lee
  • Published online:
    05 March 2012
    Print publication:
    26 July 1996
  • There are two radically different approaches to robot navigation: the first is to use a map of the robot's environment; the second uses a set of action reflexes to enable a robot to react rapidly to local sensory information. Hybrid approaches combining features of both also exist. This book is the first to propose a method for evaluating the different approaches that shows how to decide which is the most appropriate for a given situation. It begins by describing a complete implementation of a mobile robot including sensor modelling, map–building (a feature–based map and a grid–based free–space map), localisation, and path–planning. Exploration strategies are then tested experimentally in a range of environments and starting positions. The author shows the most promising results are observed from hybrid exploration strategies which combine the robustness of reactive navigation and the directive power of map–based strategies.

A Compositional Approach to Performance Modelling
  • Jane Hillston
  • Published online:
    24 November 2009
    Print publication:
    13 June 1996
  • This is the first book presenting a stochastic extension of process algebra, PEPA; this is shown to be suitable for specifying a Markov process, which can then be applied to performance modelling. The method, which is illustrated with case studies taken from the area of communication systems, can readily be used to construct a variety of models that can be analysed using standard numerical techniques. One of the major advantages of PEPA over the standard methods for specifying stochastic performance models is the inherent apparatus for reasoning about the structure and behaviour of models. In the later chapters this apparatus is exploited to define four equivalence relations over PEPA components. Each of these notions of equivalence has intrinsic interest from a process algebra perspective. However, they are also demonstrated to be useful in a performance modelling context. To conclude the book, a section has been added surveying recent results in the area and discussing open questions.

Affine Analysis of Image Sequences
  • Larry S. Shapiro
  • Published online:
    18 December 2009
    Print publication:
    13 July 1995
  • Computer vision is a rapidly growing field which aims to make computers 'see' as effectively as humans. In this book Dr Shapiro presents a new computer vision framework for interpreting time-varying imagery. This is an important task, since movement reveals valuable information about the environment. The fully-automated system operates on long, monocular image sequences containing multiple, independently-moving objects, and demonstrates the practical feasibility of recovering scene structure and motion in a bottom-up fashion. Real and synthetic examples are given throughout, with particular emphasis on image coding applications. Novel theory is derived in the context of the affine camera, a generalisation of the familiar scaled orthographic model. Analysis proceeds by tracking 'corner features' through successive frames and grouping the resulting trajectories into rigid objects using new clustering and outlier rejection techniques. The three-dimensional motion parameters are then computed via 'affine epipolar geometry', and 'affine structure' is used to generate alternative views of the object and fill in partial views. The use of all available features (over multiple frames) and the incorporation of statistical noise properties substantially improves existing algorithms, giving greater reliability and reduced noise sensitivity.

Qualified Types
  • Theory and Practice
  • Mark P. Jones
  • Published online:
    05 May 2010
    Print publication:
    03 November 1994
  • This book describes the use of qualified types to provide a general framework for the combination of polymorphism and overloading. For example, qualified types can be viewed as a generalization of type classes in the functional language Haskell and the theorem prover Isabelle. These in turn are extensions of equality types in Standard ML. Other applications of qualified types include extensible records and subtyping. Using a general formulation of qualified types, the author extends the Damas/Milner type inference algorithm to support qualified types, which in turn specifies the set of all possible types for any term. In addition, he describes a new technique for establishing suitable coherence conditions that guarantee the same semantics for all possible translations of a given term. Practical issues that arise in concrete implementations are also discussed, concentrating in particular on the implementation of overloading in Haskell and Gofer, a small functional programming system developed by the author.

Specification and Proof in Real Time CSP
  • Jim Davies
  • Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    20 May 1993
  • This book was first published in 1993. Computing systems are becoming highly complex, harder to understand, and therefore more prone to failure. Where such systems control aircraft for example, system failure could have disastrous consequences. It is important therefore that we are able to employ mathematical techniques to specify the behaviour or safety critical systems. This thesis uses the theory of Communicating Sequential Processes (CSP) to show how a real-lime system may be specified. Included is a case study in which a local area network protocol is described at two levels of abstraction, and a general method 14 structuring CSP descriptions of layered protocols is given.

Efficient Algorithms for Listing Combinatorial Structures
  • Leslie Ann Goldberg
  • Published online:
    14 January 2010
    Print publication:
    22 April 1993
  • First published in 1993, this thesis is concerned with the design of efficient algorithms for listing combinatorial structures. The research described here gives some answers to the following questions: which families of combinatorial structures have fast computer algorithms for listing their members? What general methods are useful for listing combinatorial structures? How can these be applied to those families which are of interest to theoretical computer scientists and combinatorialists? Amongst those families considered are unlabelled graphs, first order one properties, Hamiltonian graphs, graphs with cliques of specified order, and k-colourable graphs. Some related work is also included, which compares the listing problem with the difficulty of solving the existence problem, the construction problem, the random sampling problem, and the counting problem. In particular, the difficulty of evaluating Pólya's cycle polynomial is demonstrated.

Logic Programming
  • Operational Semantics and Proof Theory
  • James H. Andrews
  • Published online:
    23 November 2009
    Print publication:
    17 December 1992
  • Dr Andrews here provides a homogeneous treatment of the semantics (operational and logical) of both theoretical and practical logic programming languages. He shows how the rift between theory and practice in logic programming can be bridged. This is achieved by precisely characterizing the way in which 'depth-first' search for solutions to a logical formula - the usual strategy in most practical languages - is incomplete. Languages that perform 'breadth-first' searches reflect more closely the theory underlying logic programming languages. Researchers interested in logic programming or semantics, as well as artificial intelligence search strategies, will want to consult this book as the only source for some essential and new ideas in the area.

Three-Dimensional Integrated Circuit Layout
  • A. C. Harter
  • Published online:
    05 May 2010
    Print publication:
    28 November 1991
  • First published in 1991, this thesis concentrates upon the design of three-dimensional, rather than the traditional two-dimensional, circuits. The theory behind such circuits is presented in detail, together with experimental results. Winner of the Distinguished Dissertation in Computer Science award, this work will prove invaluable to both designers and hardware engineers involved in the development of practical three-dimensional integrated circuits.

Project Factorisations in Partial Evaluation
  • John Launchbury
  • Published online:
    04 August 2010
    Print publication:
    24 October 1991
  • Programming frequently requires that problems are broken down into subproblems and then each subproblem solved independently. These solutions may then be combined to provide a solution to the original problem. Partial evaluation is a serious attempt to tackle this issue, allowing the programmer to write programs in a highly interpretive style without paying the price in efficiency. This thesis covers the theory and practice behind practical evaluation.