As a group, we have a wide range of interests and application areas from computational molecular biology to networking (firewalls and DNS) to verification to applications of robot motion planning.
Although there are wide range of application areas for our work, there is a core theoretical and academic interest that cuts across the work. We believe that the investigation of the appropriate formal and mathematical techniques in system analysis and development is one of the central questions in computer science. In a theoretical sense, much of our work addresses the theoretical questions data structures and algorithms for the representation and manipulation of state machines, transition systems and logic. We believe that a thorough background in algorithm analysis and design is critical for the cutting-edge applications we work on.
We see the exciting interplay between theory and pratice in the work we do. We are passionate about the role of theory in computer science, because of the importance of theory in its own right, but also because we see that this theory gives us the appropriate tools for tackling hard real- world problems. Moreover, theory developed to solve problems in one area often can be applied successfully in another.
The University Research Committee accorded us programme status in 1997. Initially we focussed on the use of formal methods and fault- tolerant systems. However, as our research interests have grown and we have seen new application areas for our techniques, or focus has changed over the last five years.
The work of PHDS is divided into a number of projects, looking at different application areas. However, much of the underlying academic and theoretical work is cross-cutting, which gives us our academic focus.
Computational molecular biology (CMB) deals with applictations of computer algorithms to problems in molecular biology. We are interested in problems related to the classification/matching of DNA and protein sequences. Our interest and expertise in CMB started with the application of techniques we had developed in other areas to CMB problems. At the same time both the National Research Foundation and the Medical Research Council have identified bioinformatics as one of the national priority areas for research. We are responding to this call because we believe that our theoretical expertise will be useful in building up research skills and solving problems that are not only interesting computer science problems to solve, but also have real-world applications that are national and international priorities.
We are collaborating with the South African National Bioinformatics Institute based at UWC, and with the Schools of Molecular and Cell Biology, and Human Genetics.
Over the last five years we have had strong collaborative links with number of individuals and organisations. In particular we have had links or co-authored papers with individuals from