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.

www. northumbria. ac. uk27 Northumbria Communications Research Laboratory ( NCRLab) The NCRLab is a multidisciplinary research group pursuing cutting- edge research topics in photonics, microwave technology, DSP and non- linear control with a focus on device technologies and system applications. The NCRLab is an active research group comprising funded research council students and other full- and part- time students from many parts of the world. NCRLab has dedicated research laboratories with state- of- the- art equipment. Research areas include: photonic communications with a focus on devices and systems for high- speed optical switching; free space optical communications; modelling, simulation and implementation of novel all- optical packet switching routers; new receiver design based on the wavelet transform and artificial neural network for optical wireless communications; application of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing for indoor optical communication links; ultra- fast all- optical wavelength division multiplexing router; coherent optical OFDM communication systems. Learning Education and Practice Research This group captures the excitement of good and innovative teaching practice evaluation and quality across the School. Exploiting the subject specialisms within the School, this group is currently developing its activities around two core themes: professional practice and technology innovation. The first theme brings together research activities that underpin the professionalism of our programmes and associated learning and teaching practice. The second theme draws on the subject specialisms within the School to investigate how we can successfully use novel technology, such as virtual learning environments, and tools varying from online assessment to social networking. Wasiu O Popoola Phd student profile " After achieving my MSc degree in Optoelectronic and Communication Systems I was awarded the PhD studentship to pursue a PhD degree in Communication Systems Engineering. I also hold the overseas research students award scholarship ( ORSAS). I have published over 15 papers in high impact journals and reputable conferences and one of my journal papers was ranked the second most downloaded paper in terms of the number of full text downloads within ' IEEE Xplore' in 2008, from the hundreds of papers published by IET Optoelectronics since 1980. I am also a student member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE), the Institution of Engineering and Technology ( IET) and an associate member of the Institute of Physics ( IoP) and the North East branch student representative. In addition to the favourable research environment and the continual improvements in research facilities, the University offers the following as part of the whole research package: an opportunity to acquire teaching experience and earn extra money; development and improvement of one's soft skills through sponsored conferences, seminar presentations and a variety of generic and tailored trainings; leadership and entrepreneurship trainings and collaboration with the industry and other local and international institutions." '' I have a supportive supervisor, who has been prepared to dedicate time to me in the early stages of my PhD. This has helped the transition to conducting research a much easier one.''