Research focus areas
The research focus of the Department of Computer Science and Informatics falls within the following areas:
Blockchain Technologies
The research area focusses on blockchain technologies. The digital transformation of industries, known as Industry 4.0 has already started and blockchain forms part of the digital revolution. The research areas include blockchain algorithms and data structures, blockchain security, blockchain applications and crypto assets.
Contact person: Dr Wynand Nel
Business Intelligence and Text Mining
The research area focuses on algorithms and methods to process big data sets with a data science approach. These datasets are predominately structured data (SQL databases) or unstructured natural language text (tweets, email messages, blogs, and web pages). The goal is to derive high-quality information through the discovery of patterns and trends using concepts from data and text mining. Methods and algorithms include data warehousing, dimensional data modelling, natural language processing (NLP) techniques, text categorization, sentiment analysis, topic modelling, feature extraction, machine learning, and deep learning.
Contact person: Prof Eduan Kotzé
Computer Science Education (CSE)
The aim of the Computer Science Education (CSE) research area is to promote research and scholarship both in the field of Computer Science Education and the application of Computer Science to improve teaching and learning. CSE research typically focuses on finding more effective approaches to teach Computer Science to a larger and more diverse audience, or the development of software that can impact upon the teaching and learning environment.
Contact person: Prof Liezel Nel
Eye-tracking Applications
This research area is aimed at promoting eye tracking applications research. This means that eye-tracking is used as a tool to collect data or as part of a proposed solution, such as eye gaze interaction. The focus of the research is currently on eye gaze interaction and reading research.
Eye-tracking Applications Research – Contact person: Prof Tanya Stott
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
The focus of HCI research is Usability and User Experience (UX) evaluation. Different evaluation methods may be applied, with emphasis on physiological testing involving brain-computer interfaces.
Contact person: Prof Lizette de Wet