Professor Muffy Calder
Vice Principal & Head of College of Science & Engineering
'We are developing the mathematical models, reasoning techniques, and computer software that will us enable us to trust sensor based systems, especially those that operate in uncertain environments.'
Professor Calder leads research in modelling and reasoning about the behaviour of complex software and biochemical systems using computer science, mathematics and automated reasoning techniques. She has developed and used a variety of process algebras, temporal logics and mathematical reasoning techniques to solve problems in a range of systems; ranging from telephone networks and communications protocols, to domestic home care systems and intracellular signalling transduction pathways that contribute to diseases such as cancer. She is Chair of Formal Methods in Computing Science and Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Science and Engineering at the University. Previously she was the Chief Scientific Adviser for Scotland.
Professor Calder leads the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council programme grant "Science of Sensor System Software" that is developing unifying science, across the breadth of mathematics, computer science and engineering, that will let developers engineer for the uncertainty and ensure that their systems and the information they provide is resilient, responsive, reliable, statistically sound and robust. Throughout her career she has collaborated with scientists and engineers from a wide range of disciplines, from electrical and aerospace engineering, to cancer and cardiovascular medicine, and with many world-leading companies in the UK and USA.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Find out more about Professor Calder.
The overarching question Professor Calder tackles is "does your system work". This means articulating what you intend a system to do (its function, how fast, how secure, ...), proof that it does or doesn't meet those criteria, and offering insights into how to intervene in or redesign a system.
