UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering

School of Computer Science and Engineering
Established1991
Parent institution
University of New South Wales
Head of SchoolProfessor Arcot Sowmya
Students3218 Undergraduate
1430 Postgraduate Coursework
116 PhD
Websitewww.cse.unsw.edu.au
John Lions Garden outside of CSE with the tree illuminated

The UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is part of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering and was founded in 1991 out of the former Department of Computer Science within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.[1][2] It is the highest ranked[3] and largest School of its kind in Australia. The academic staff have research focus in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Image Computing, Data Knowledge, Embedded Systems, Networked Systems and Security, Programming Languages and Compilers, Service Oriented Computing, Theoretical Computer Science and Trustworthy Systems.[4]

UNSW was a founding member of National ICT Australia (NICTA), which merged with CSIRO in 2015 to form Data61. CSE maintains strong ties with Data61.

The school has a number of notable alumni and former staff, including Associate Professor John Lions the author of the commentary on the UNIX operating system, a two-volume book entitled, a Source Code and Commentary on Unix Level 6) (A Commentary on the UNIX Operating System) who passed away in 1998.[5]

Excellence in Research for Australia

Computer Science and Engineering in UNSW

Australian Research Council's Excellence in Research for Australia initiative results for World-Class Research in Information Technology

  • 2020/21: Ranked first in Australia in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
  • 2018/19: Shared first with ANU for Computer Software
  • 2018/19: Maintained a rating of 5 for broad research fields of Engineering and Information and Computing Sciences
  • 2013: Only Australian University to achieve a rank of 5 (the highest ranking) in Computer Software
  • 2011: Broadest range (5 areas, the next highest was only in 2 areas) in Australia

Rankings

World Rankings 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010
Leiden Rankings 52 (1st in Australia)[6] 50 (1st in Australia)[7] 41 43 52
QS World University Rankings in Computer Science & Information Systems[8] 57th (3rd in Australia)[9] 58th (3rd in Australia)[10] 59th (4th in Australia)[11] 51-100 51-100 41st 42nd 35th 35th 29th 29th 10th 42nd -
ARWU for Computer Science and Engineering 51-75 (4th in Australia)[12] 51-75 (4th in Australia)[13] 51-75 76-100 101-150 40th 42 51-75 51-75 52-75 52-75
Times Higher Education World University Rankings[14] 65 (3rd in Australia) 54 79 126-150 101-125 51
Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities - Computer Science 38th [15] 39th [16] 42nd 42nd 64th 62nd 55th 53rd 65th 67th 86th 105th 124th 105th

School Achievements

The UNSW Garden dedicated to John Lions
Gernot Heiser (OK Labs Founder, ACM Fellow)
Toby Walsh (ARC Laureate Fellow, ACM Fellow)
The UNSW Garden dedicated to John Lions in May 2020
School Achievements
Year Project/Achievement
2023 Jingling Xue - Fellow of the IEEE[17]
2022 Boualem Benatallah - Fellow of the IEEE[18]
2021 Toby Walsh - Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery[19]
Ken Robinson remembered in BCS FACS Facts Newsletter (2021-1)[20]
2020 Scientia Professor Toby Walsh awarded Australian Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council[21]
Smartsparrow (Adaptive eLearning startup by Dr Dror Ben-Naim) sold to Pearson[22]
CSE Alumna Hannah Beder wins NSW Harvey Norman Young Woman of the Year[23]
Carroll Morgan – Book "The Science of Quantitative Information Flow" (Springer 2020, with co-authors)
Gernot Heiser – Chair of seL4 Foundation[24]
2019 Erik Meijering - Fellow of the IEEE[25]
Australia’s first Cybersecurity Education Summit[26]
Host to RoboCup 2019[27] in the Sydney International Convention Centre, chaired by Claude Sammut
Gernot Heiser – Winner of ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame award[28]
2018 Guinness World Record with car "VIolet" - Lowest Energy Consumption Driving Trans-Australia (Perth to Sydney) - Electric Car
Gernot Heiser -Chief Scientist Software, HENSOLDT Cyber GmbH[29]
2016 SEARCC, 2016 ICT Researcher of the Year - Gernot Heiser
Gernot Heiser - Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE)[30]
Gernot Heiser - Fellow of the IEEE[31]
Xuemin Lin - Fellow of the IEEE[32]
2015 Carroll Morgan - Winner (with 5 co-authors) of The USA's National Security Agency (NSA) Annual Cybersecurity Research Paper Competition[33]
Gernot Heiser - Australian Computer Society ICT Researcher of the Year[34]
2014 Humboldt Research, prize Toby Walsh
rUNSWift placed 1st in the RoboCup Standard Platform League
Gernot Heiser was awarded Fellow of the ACM[35] and Engineers Australia Entrepreneur of the Year[35]
2013 Most number of Tech Startups for any Australian University
2011 Excellence in Research for Australia Only Australian University to achieve a rank of 5 (the highest ranking) in Computer Software
Excellence in Research for Australia Broadest range (5 areas) of research in Information and Computing Sciences
Smartsparrow founded by CSE Alumna, Dr Dror Ben-Naim[36]
2010 ARWU Ranked 1st in Australia for Computer Science
2009 HS1917 established[37]
L4.verified
OK L4 Deployment reaches 500 million
2008 ARTEMIS Orchestra Contest, world champions with the Robot Clarinet
John Lions Chair in Computer Science Established
OKL4 Deployment reaches 100 million
2007 Freescale Technical Innovation Award
NICTA L4 Deployment reaches 10 million
Robotics Workshops established[37]
2006 Happy Feet - Christian So, Lead Animator for "Mumble"
UNSW L4 Deployment reaches 1 million
Orion Search Engine, written by Ori Allon, bought by Google
2005 Fastest-ever IPC (Itanium)
2003 Establishment of NICTA (National ICT Australia, Ltd)
Establishment of CAS (the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems)
2001 Establishment of the Smart Internet Technology CRC
CSE Revue established
1999 PLEB designed
Primary School Workshops Established
1997 Fastest-ever IPC on single-issue CPU (MIPS)
U4600 Board designed
UNSW ProgComp Established[37]
1996 Cane Toad Tracking Project begins
1995 UNSW L4 Project begins
1991 The School of Computer Science and Engineering was established[1]
1990 First clinical use of RDR
1976 Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code
1975 First non-US UNIX site (Version 6 Unix)[38]
1956 UTECOM became the first digital computer in Sydney[1][39]
RoboCup Rescue Robot League
Year Host Rank
2011 Istanbul 1st in Autonomy
2010 Singapore 1st Autonomy
1st mobility
2009 Graz - Austria 1st Autonomy
2nd Mobility
Innovative Operator Interface
2006 Bremen - Germany 2nd in Autonomy
2005 Osaka - Japan 3rd Overall

Student projects

rUNSWift in a four-legged league game from RoboCup 2006 in Breman, Germany.
rUNSWift in a Standard Platform League game from RoboCup 2010 in Singapore.
Sunswift IVy During the World Solar-Car Speed Record attempt.

Students of the School are involved in a number of high-profile projects, including:

  • rUNSWift, the University's team in the international RoboCup Standard Platform League competition, is the most successful team in the world, with wins in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2014 and 2015, as well as coming second in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2010.
RoboCup Standard Platform League
Year Result Final
Winners Score Runners-up
2015
(Nao) 		1st rUNSWift (UNSW)
 Australia 		3-1 HTWK
 Germany
2014
(Nao) 		1st rUNSWift (UNSW)
 Australia 		5-1 HTWK
 Germany
2010
(Nao) 		2nd B-Human
 Germany 		6-1 rUNSWift (UNSW)
 Australia
2006
(AIBO) 		2nd NUBots
 Australia 		7-3 rUNSWift (UNSW)
 Australia
2003
(AIBO) 		1st rUNSWift (UNSW)
 Australia 		4-3 UPennalizers
 United States
2002
(AIBO) 		2nd CM United
 United States 		3-3 rUNSWift (UNSW)
 Australia
2001
(AIBO) 		1st UNSW United (UNSW)
 Australia 		9-2 CM United
 United States
2000
(AIBO) 		1st UNSW United (UNSW)
 Australia 		10-0 LRP
 France
1999
(AIBO) 		2nd LRP
 France 		4-1 UNSW United (UNSW)
 Australia
  • Sunswift Solar Cars
    • 2018: Guinness World Record with car "VIolet" - Lowest Energy Consumption Driving Trans-Australia (Perth to Sydney) - Electric Car.[40]
    • 2014: FIA Land Speed Record with car "Sunswift eVe" - Sunswift eVe breaks the record for the fastest electric car over 500 kilometres (310 mi), with an average speed of 107 kilometres per hour (66 mph). The previous record of 73 kilometres per hour (45 mph) was set in 1988.[40]
    • 2011: Guinness World Record with car "Sunswift IVy" - Fastest Solar Powered Vehicle: 88.8 kilometres per hour (55.2 mph).[41]
    • 2009: Winner of the Silicon Challenge Class at the Global Green Challenge with the car "Sunswift IVy".[40]
  • BLUEsat Satellite
    • 2018: 8th in the European Rover Challenge (ERC)

Student competitions


ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest
Year Regional Finals World Champions
2021 1st, 2nd, 3rd Oct 2021
2020 1st No event
2019 8th, 9th[42] Honorable mention
2018 1st 6th Silver Medal [43]
2017 1st, 2nd 13th
2016 1st, 2nd 69th
2015 1st 51st
2014 2nd 19th
2013 1st, 2nd 60th
2012 1st[44] 36th
2011 1st[45] Honourable Mention
2007 - 44th
2005 1st[45] Honourable Mention
2003 1st[45] 21st
2002 1st[45] 11th
2001 1st[45] 11th
Other Contests
Year Contest Australian Rank World Rank
2018 Cyber Security Challenge Australia[46] 1st, 2nd N/A
2017 Cyber Security Challenge Australia[46] 1st N/A
2015 Cyber Security Challenge Australia[46] 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th N/A
2015 DEF CON CTF Qualification[47] 1st 3rd
2014 DEF CON CTF Qualification[48] 1st 3rd
2014 Cyber Security Challenge Australia[49] 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th N/A
2013 DEF CON[50] 1st 10th
2013 SECUINSIDE[51] 1st 4th
2013 Cyber Security Challenge Australia[49] 1st, 2nd, 3rd N/A
2013 Imagine Cup[52] 1st 3rd
2013 Codehire Cup[53] 2nd (Students) N/A
2013 Appathon[54] 2nd N/A
2013 CiSRA Extreme Imaging[55] 2nd N/A
2012 Cyber Security Challenge Australia[49] 1st N/A

Computing facilities

The School has computer laboratories for coursework teaching and student projects, including a number of specialist laboratories. The network supports well in excess of 1000 computers for teaching, research and administration.[56]

  • 300+ Intel-based computers running Linux in 13 generic teaching laboratories; Microsoft Windows is available 'virtualized' in all Linux labs
  • 20 AppleOS computers reserved in a specialized teaching laboratory
  • 40 Linux computers in laboratories reserved for thesis students
  • 1200+ computing sessions available in a 'virtualized' lab environment
  • 150+ heterogeneous computers dedicated to post-grad research students
  • 10+ discrete GPU servers for deep-learning research
  • 40+ discrete CPU servers available in Linux clusters for research
  • Virtual Reality lab
  • laptop locker
  • 1 multi-host vSphere production cluster with dedicated 60TB SAN
    • 100 virtualized servers for academic staff teaching and research requirements
  • 1 multi-host vSphere research cluster with dedicated 20TB SAN
    • 30 virtualized servers for dedicated and ad-hoc research requirements
  • 30+ heterogeneous computers for administration and systems support
  • extensive backup infrastructure, utilizing incremental and full backup to tape

The School is committed to a regular cycle of upgrades and invests heavily to maintain a state-of-the-art IT environment.

UNSW Sydney has a very high capacity, free, wireless Internet service for all students and staff.

References

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