University of Glamorgan — ICRC – Faculty of Advanced Technology
The Faculty of Advanced Technology covers many subject areas including Engineering, Environmental Technology Construction and Management, Electronics and Computer Systems Engineering, and Computing and Mathematical Sciences.
The Faculty of Advanced Technology has approximately 120 full-time academic staff and 165 research students. In the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise, Computer Science was given a Grade 4 rating and Glamorgan is among the top six new universities in the UK for this subject. This submission included significant contributions from Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Mathematics, confirming the international standing of research across the Faculty. In addition, Civil Engineering was confirmed to be of national standing, underlining the importance research has within the Faculty.
The Faculty has excellent industrial links, working with Fujitsu, IBM, British Telecom, Orange, Welsh Assembly Government, Network Rail, Ordnance Survey and ESRI. We have a proud tradition of collaboration with the commercial sector through projects supporting technology transfer and applied research work. The Faculty has state-of-the-art teaching and research facilities, the result of a recent multimillion pound investment programme.
There are 14 Research Units within the Faculty and they reflect the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of the Faculty. Many of the Research Units are acknowledged to be of international standing.
Our projects are funded through the EPSRC, ESRC, NERC, the Nuffield Foundation, EU Framework 5 and 6, WDA and other European sources, industrial partners such as Ordnance Survey and Local Authorities.
Research students usually undertake part-time duties which provide additional income. Research opportunities are also available part-time and by portfolio. Opportunities exist for engineering postgraduate students in particular to engage in commercial research and consultancy activities, to cover part of the costs of their research programmes. The Faculty has successfully implemented a policy of awarding its most able postgraduate researchers post-doctoral fellowships, providing them with a stepping stone into a higher education lecturing career.
Spin-out technology companies from the University of Glamorgan have been set up by groups of postgraduate students. For example, Geo-Bureau Ltd, a navigation and tracking software development company, and totalGI Ltd, a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and digital mapping company.