ACADEMIA

A new Professor in the UK at the School of Electronics & Computer Science (ECS), University of Southampton is working towards making global computing a dependable reality. Professor Vladimiro Sassone, previously Head of the Department of Informatics at the University of Sussex, has joined ECS to help raise the School's profile and promote its external visibility in theoretical computer science. Vladimiro Sassone After completing his MSc and PhD in Computer Science at the University of Pisa, Professor Sassone worked for a range of industrial and academic organisations, including Hewlett-Packard, and the universities of Aarhus (Denmark), Catania (Italy) and Queen Mary, University of London, where he developed operational and denotational models for mobile, distributed systems. During his career, he developed an interest in the foundations of computation, with a particular interest in global ubiquitous computing and in how theoretical results can impact on practice and the industry at large. He believes that the infrastructure will soon exist for global computing, but is not just about weaving sensors and processors into fabrics, or positioning RFID tags and ad hoc networking everywhere: it requires an in-depth understanding and a substantial furthering of the foundations of computer science. He commented: 'We are moving towards seamless computing or, what is increasingly known as, global ubiquitous computing, which means that we will have information available everywhere which can be processed cheaply and at high speed by a multitude of diverse computing devices. My interest is not in just making the technology happen, but in making sure that we have the right foundational tools and that we understand the systems we deploy.' Professor Sassone joined ECS because he believed that it would provide more opportunities for him to apply his foundation perspectives to applied research. He believes that as his understanding of the underpinning theories increases, he will be able to find synergies with applied research and mount joint attacks to the ubiquitous computing 'grand' challenge.