ICT Review Panel visit the ORC

The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) International Review Panel visited the University of Southampton on Tuesday 5th December 2006 to see some of the work being done by the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) and the School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).

The University of Southampton was chosen, along with only 13 other universities, because it is home to the ORC and ECS. These universities were specially selected because of their strong sense of breadth and depth of EPSRC-funded ICT research in the UK. The ORC and ECS are two of the largest and most successful research centres that the ICT Review Panel will use as a benchmark to compare and assess the quality of the UK research base in ICT against the rest of the world.

Key themes that the Review Panel were looking to address included the level of knowledge exchange between universities and industry and the contribution of the ICT research base to other disciplines. The ability to attract and retain young scientists and engineers into research was also a key feature of the review.

The Review Panel started the day by meeting a group of staff and students from the ORC before going on a tour of the world-class lab facilities where EPSRC-funded research takes place. Posters and demonstrations of ORC and ECS research projects were also available for the Panel to see during lunch. An opportunity for the panel to explore the groundbreaking research activities of ECS followed with a visit to ECS in the afternoon.