www. northumbria. ac. uk25 In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise ( RAE) the School submitted in three units of assessment: the General Engineering and Mineral & Mining Engineering ( the main submission), and joint submission with Business and Management Studies and Nursing and Midwifery. This time the feedback given to University departments was in the form of a profile rather than one summative measure. The profile rating the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Science received was excellent and showed great progress on the previous assessment exercise. As a School, we are proud of our investment in research infrastructure and equipment ( more than £ 8 million in the last few years) and aim to continue developing a dynamic and positive research environment. For the School to align itself commercially to support growing high- tech companies in the region it has set up a ' One Stop Enterprise Solution Centre' to provide technical feasibility evaluation for research and consultancy. For further information please visit the School website: www. northumbria. ac. uk/ sd/ academic/ ceis/ Research Groups Energy Systems and Advanced Materials This is a multidisciplinary research group of physicists, material scientists, electrical and mechanical engineers involved in the research areas of energy supply technologies ( especially renewable energy technologies), delivery mechanisms and energy materials. There are two main subgroups: Northumbria Photovoltaics Applications Centre ( NPAC), which has an international reputation in photovoltaic devices and systems, and Power and Wind Energy ( PAWER). The research in NPAC encompasses a range of activity from thin film solar cell fabrication to the integration of solar systems into buildings with further activities in environmental impact assessment for energy technologies. NPAC has two research laboratories with facilities for the fabrication and characterisation of photovoltaic devices, working with photovoltaic systems installed in a range of locations. PAWER provides a focus for research and development in wind energy and power conversion.

26School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences Naomi Hay- Gibson Phd student " My work provides a qualitative investigation into the risk management of electronic records management within small businesses, through case studies. The study will address the identification of drivers and attitudes towards risk management and e- records, and will identify a corpus of vocabulary for SMEs in regard to risk and records management. Important findings will relate to the processes of evaluating records management in SMEs and the way this is discussed and described. I have published a paper describing the history and historiography of risk management, and co- edited the conference proceedings for the Second Northumbria Witness Seminars series." profile Information Management Innovation ( IMI) This group specialises in conducting high- quality research to inform the development of practice relevant approaches, methods and techniques for use by information management professionals and IT systems managers. Group members have particular competencies in qualitative research approaches including Delphi studies, surveys, systematic literature reviews, participative inquiry, action research, case studies, the social construction of technology, diffusion of technological innovation and ethnographic studies. IMI conducts research aimed at understanding how individuals, groups, organisations and society use and manage information to enable innovation in the field of electronic records and information management. IMI has a significant research track record, focusing on projects in business, the professions, education and health services. Group members have a track record of attracting significant grants from the research councils. Manufacturing and Design This group addresses the needs of UK industry, present and future. Research in manufacturing includes metal cutting machining and machinability particularly with multi- point cutting edges, supported by active international industrial collaborators. Further associated research interests include the application of advanced surface engineering technologies to cutting edges and tooling. Group members have a keen interest in design and multiple criteria decision- making and Computational Fluid Dynamics ( CFD). The availability of both commercial and in- house general purpose CFD software allows work to be carried out on fundamental research involving fluid flow and heat transfer as well as on practical design problems of engineering importance. The group also has expertise in code development and use of CFD software for designing ventilation systems in industrial and environmental applications. The Intelligent Modelling Lab This group's research is multidisciplinary and brings together knowledge and strong expertise in mathematics and computer science. The research has fundamental as well as applied aspects and the synergy between theory and application is the key to our approach. Applied research where we can directly address problems of relevance to industry has an important place. The focus of the research is in the modelling and use of intelligent methods in a variety of problems in physical and life sciences, computing, engineering, medicine, business, finance and learning. The main research areas are: symmetries and quantum theory including the application of group- theoretical and algebraic methods; modelling of complex systems; bioinformatics and bio- modelling; intelligent systems; databases including conceptual modelling, materialised views, migration and interoperability underpinned by category theory; and system architecture including the formal design and implementation of high integrity embedded systems.