Lecturer in Computer Science
Birkbeck, University of London , Dept of Computer Science
Keith Mannock
Birkbeck, University of London
Bio
I am a lecturer in Computer Science at Birkbeck, University of London. I am also involved in several open-source and commercial programming projects. I used to do commercial consultancy - but now I'm just too busy. Basically - I love writing software and try to convince others of its elegance and artistry!
What I’m interested in:
- Programming languages - all types and forms but especially multi-paradigm languages
- Software engineering
- Environments and tools for teaching programming
- Information retrieval with particular attention focused on content-based image indexing and retrieval
- Location aware mobile applications
- Cloud and distributed computing as applied to the Enterprise
- Software tooling
The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows
-- Frank Zappa
If I were to pick a language to use today other than Java, it would be Scala
-- James Gosling, creator of Java
Photo credits: Hayley Madden (click2images and Getty Images)
Text copyright © 1991-2015 KLM
These pages have not been reviewed or approved by Birkbeck, University of London.
Academic Positions
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Present 1986
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2008 2000
Visiting Lecturer
Royal Holloway, University of London , Dept of Computer Science
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1996 1992
Visiting Lecturer
Middlesex University , Dept of Computing
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1988 1980
Part-time Lecturer
Polytechnic of Central London , Dept of Computer Science
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... 1980
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... , ...
Education & Training
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Ph.D. 1990
Ph.D. in Computer Science
University College London, Dept of Computer Science
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B.Sc. 1983
Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Polytechnic of Central London, Dept of Computer Science
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HND 1982
Higher National Diploma in Computing
Polytechnic of Central London, Dept of Computer Science
Memberships, Commercial contracts, Awards, etc.
- AAAI - American Association for Artificial Intelligence
- AAISB - Association for Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behaviour
- ACM - Association for Computing Machinery
- BCS - British Computer Society
- IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
- IET - The Institution of Engineering and Technology
TBC
Teaching
My lecturing focusses on software based topics utilising face-2-face and distance learning techniques.
Currrent Teaching
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Present 1995
Software and Programming II
Undergraduate - 15 credits - Autumn (option)
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Present 2011
Enterprise Computing
Undergraduate - 15 credits - Spring
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Present 2013
Programming Paradigms
Undergraduate - 15 credits - Autumn (option)
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Present 2013
Programming in Java
Postgraduate - 30 credits - Autumn and Spring
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Present 2000
Component Based Software Development
Postgraduate - 15 credits - Spring (option)
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Present 2013
Programming Paradigms
Postgraduate - 15 credits - Autumn (option)
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Present 2014
Software Design and Programming
Postgraduate - 15 credits - Spring
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Present 2014
Introduction to Software Development
Postgraduate - 30 credits - Autumn
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Present 2014
Software Engineering in Practice
Postgraduate - 15 credits - Spring
Miscellaneous
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xxxx yyyy
Research Methods in Learning Technologies --- Personalised learning environments: design, implementation, evaluation
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xxxx yyyy
Creating Your Thesis using Microsoft Word
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xxxx yyyy
Using Microsoft PowerPoint effectively for academic presentations
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xxxx yyyy
Empirical Approaches to Software Engineering Research
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Teaching History
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2012 2010
Middleware
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2012 2009
Introduction to Software Development
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20132011 2007
Object-Oriented Design and Programming [programming part]
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2006 1999
Introduction to eBusiness
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2006 1997
Object-Oriented Programming [in Java]
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1998 1995
Software and Programming I
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1996 1992
Object-Oriented Programming [in C++]
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1994 1991
Neural Networks
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1993 1990
Information Retrieval
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1992 1987
Advanced Programming Techniques I and II
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1995 1986
Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence
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1989 1986
Operating Systems
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1989 1983
Database Systems
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Student Projects
If you have any ideas for a project that fits within my interests, then please feel free to come and discuss it with me.
I look to take on students who are intelligent (which you are by definition of being a Birkbeck student!) and who have an interest in the project that they are about to undertake. Students should be self-motivated to a degree and be keen to explore the topic. You should not be afraid to express your ideas and follow them. However, you need to be balanced in your approach and practice scientific practices in evaluating your own work. If you have the basics, we can work together to put together a good solid project.
I like to see students take control of the project and run with their ideas and thoughts. This means that students exercise a degree of independence - however, I don't expect this to translate to going off into a dark corner and never seeing me. My role is to provide some guidance and advice. There is clearly a conflict between these two expectations and so what we need to do is work together to strike a suitable balance between self-direction/independence and guidance/direction.
- Guide to writing MSc dissertations (yes it is for Maths but most of the recommendations carry over) [pdf]
- Report writing: A generic report structure
- A writing style guide I have found useful is The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White
- Some useful thoughts from the University of Birmingham (pdf)
- Information for project students (local access only)
- Possible topics (local access only)
- Sample projects (local access only)
Interests
- Software engineering with particular attention to multi-paradigm programming languages
- Environments and tools for teaching programming
- Information retrieval with particular attention focused on content-based image indexing and retrieval
- Location aware mobile applications
- Enterprise level applications using JEE, Spring, .NET, etc.
- Deployment and scaling of applications for "The cloud"
- Software tooling
- ...
Research Summary
Some of the projects mentioned here are associated with commercial companies and covered by NDAs...
Current Interests
- Programming languages - all types and forms but especially multi-paradigm languages
- Software engineering
- Lego Mindstorms
- Contemporary Dance Choreography annotations
- Visual interaction for Autism
- Environments and tools for teaching programming
- Information retrieval with particular attention focused on content-based image indexing and retrieval
- Location aware mobile applications
- Cloud and distributed computing as applied to the Enterprise
- Software tooling
Selected Publications
To be completed...
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Contact information
Dept of Computer Science and Information Systems
School of Business, Economics and Informatics
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HX, UK
Office: MAL157 (Extension building)
- office: +44 20 7631 6713
- fax: +44 20 7631 6727
- keith@dcs.bbk.ac.uk
- @keithmannock
- keithmannock
- keithmannock
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For registered students who require an appointment for project supervision, tutoring, etc. then:
A Brief History
I received the B.Sc. degree with first class honours in Computer Science (CNAA) from the Polytechnic of Central London. I also have an HND with Distinction in Computer Studies for what it is worth! Studying at a Polytechnic was a conscious decision for me - I wanted to avoid the "ivory towers" view of life; I received some support from Esso (bang goes my Green credentials).
Whilst an undergraduate I did a fair amount of external consultancy - the money came in very useful! I then went on to study for my Ph.D. degree at University College London in the area of electronic document retrieval under Professor Clement Leung. As a research student I continued to do external consultancy and teaching at various Colleges. I took up a full-time lectureship at Birkbeck in 1986 (that long ago!). I've continued to foster links with industry (see my research pages) and work in the areas of programming languages (especially languages for the JVM), software engineering, and visual information systems (multimedia information retrieval).
I've given invited talks on my research work, both to academic and industrial concerns. I've also been involved in several web cast events to industry, which are tiring but fun. I've been an external examiner on various BSc and MSc programmes and PhDs. I have given invited lecture courses at too many places….
My conference presentations can be found on my research page....... (I hope)