UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering

The UNSW School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) is part of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering and was founded in 1991 out of the former Department of Computer Science within the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.^[1][2] It is the highest ranked^[3] and largest School of its kind in Australia. The academic staff have research focus in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Biomedical Image Computing, Data Knowledge, Embedded Systems, Networked Systems and Security, Programming Languages and Compilers, Service Oriented Computing, Theoretical Computer Science and Trustworthy Systems.^[4]

School of Computer Science and Engineering

Established	1991
Parent institution	University of New South Wales
Head of School	Professor Arcot Sowmya
Students	3218 Undergraduate 1430 Postgraduate Coursework 116 PhD
Website	www.cse.unsw.edu.au

John Lions Garden outside of CSE with the tree illuminated

UNSW was a founding member of National ICT Australia (NICTA), which merged with CSIRO in 2015 to form Data61. CSE maintains strong ties with Data61.

The school has a number of notable alumni and former staff, including Associate Professor John Lions the author of the commentary on the UNIX operating system, a two-volume book entitled, a Source Code and Commentary on Unix Level 6) (A Commentary on the UNIX Operating System) who passed away in 1998.^[5]

Excellence in Research for Australia

Computer Science and Engineering in UNSW

Australian Research Council's Excellence in Research for Australia initiative results for World-Class Research in Information Technology

• 2020/21: Ranked first in Australia in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings
• 2018/19: Shared first with ANU for Computer Software
• 2018/19: Maintained a rating of 5 for broad research fields of Engineering and Information and Computing Sciences
• 2013: Only Australian University to achieve a rank of 5 (the highest ranking) in Computer Software
• 2011: Broadest range (5 areas, the next highest was only in 2 areas) in Australia

Rankings

World Rankings	2023	2022	2021	2020	2019	2018	2017	2016	2015	2014	2013	2012	2011	2010
Leiden Rankings		52 (1st in Australia)[6]	50 (1st in Australia)[7]	41	43	52
QS World University Rankings in Computer Science & Information Systems[8]	57th (3rd in Australia)[9]	58th (3rd in Australia)[10]	59th (4th in Australia)[11]		51-100	51-100	41st	42nd	35th	35th	29th	29th	10th	42nd	-
ARWU for Computer Science and Engineering		51-75 (4th in Australia)[12]	51-75 (4th in Australia)[13]	51-75	76-100	101-150	40th			42	51-75	51-75	52-75	52-75
Times Higher Education World University Rankings[14]		65 (3rd in Australia)	54	79	126-150	101-125	51
Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities - Computer Science	38th [15]	39th [16]	42nd	42nd	64th	62nd	55th	53rd	65th	67th	86th	105th	124th	105th

School Achievements

The UNSW Garden dedicated to John Lions

Gernot Heiser (OK Labs Founder, ACM Fellow)

Toby Walsh (ARC Laureate Fellow, ACM Fellow)

The UNSW Garden dedicated to John Lions in May 2020

School Achievements
Year	Project/Achievement
2023	Jingling Xue - Fellow of the IEEE[17]
2022	Boualem Benatallah - Fellow of the IEEE[18]
2021	Toby Walsh - Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery[19]
	Ken Robinson remembered in BCS FACS Facts Newsletter (2021-1)[20]
2020	Scientia Professor Toby Walsh awarded Australian Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council[21]
	Smartsparrow (Adaptive eLearning startup by Dr Dror Ben-Naim) sold to Pearson[22]
	CSE Alumna Hannah Beder wins NSW Harvey Norman Young Woman of the Year[23]
	Carroll Morgan – Book "The Science of Quantitative Information Flow" (Springer 2020, with co-authors)
	Gernot Heiser – Chair of seL4 Foundation[24]
2019	Erik Meijering - Fellow of the IEEE[25]
	Australia’s first Cybersecurity Education Summit[26]
	Host to RoboCup 2019[27] in the Sydney International Convention Centre, chaired by Claude Sammut
	Gernot Heiser – Winner of ACM SIGOPS Hall of Fame award[28]
2018	Guinness World Record with car "VIolet" - Lowest Energy Consumption Driving Trans-Australia (Perth to Sydney) - Electric Car
	Gernot Heiser -Chief Scientist Software, HENSOLDT Cyber GmbH[29]
2016	SEARCC[usurped], 2016 ICT Researcher of the Year - Gernot Heiser
	Gernot Heiser - Fellow of Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering (ATSE)[30]
	Gernot Heiser - Fellow of the IEEE[31]
	Xuemin Lin - Fellow of the IEEE[32]
2015	Carroll Morgan - Winner (with 5 co-authors) of The USA's National Security Agency (NSA) Annual Cybersecurity Research Paper Competition[33]
	Gernot Heiser - Australian Computer Society ICT Researcher of the Year[34]
2014	Humboldt Research, prize Toby Walsh
	rUNSWift placed 1st in the RoboCup Standard Platform League
	Gernot Heiser was awarded Fellow of the ACM[35] and Engineers Australia Entrepreneur of the Year[35]
2013	Most number of Tech Startups for any Australian University
2011	Excellence in Research for Australia Only Australian University to achieve a rank of 5 (the highest ranking) in Computer Software
	Excellence in Research for Australia Broadest range (5 areas) of research in Information and Computing Sciences
	Smartsparrow founded by CSE Alumna, Dr Dror Ben-Naim[36]
2010	ARWU Ranked 1st in Australia for Computer Science
2009	HS1917 established[37]
	L4.verified
	OK L4 Deployment reaches 500 million
2008	ARTEMIS Orchestra Contest, world champions with the Robot Clarinet
	John Lions Chair in Computer Science Established
	OKL4 Deployment reaches 100 million
2007	Freescale Technical Innovation Award
	NICTA L4 Deployment reaches 10 million
	Robotics Workshops established[37]
2006	Happy Feet - Christian So, Lead Animator for "Mumble"
	UNSW L4 Deployment reaches 1 million
	Orion Search Engine, written by Ori Allon, bought by Google
2005	Fastest-ever IPC (Itanium)
2003	Establishment of NICTA (National ICT Australia, Ltd)
	Establishment of CAS (the ARC Centre of Excellence for Autonomous Systems)
2001	Establishment of the Smart Internet Technology CRC
	CSE Revue established
1999	PLEB designed
	Primary School Workshops Established
1997	Fastest-ever IPC on single-issue CPU (MIPS)
	U4600 Board designed
	UNSW ProgComp Established[37]
1996	Cane Toad Tracking Project begins
1995	UNSW L4 Project begins
1991	The School of Computer Science and Engineering was established[1]
1990	First clinical use of RDR
1976	Lions' Commentary on UNIX 6th Edition, with Source Code
1975	First non-US UNIX site (Version 6 Unix)[38]
1956	UTECOM became the first digital computer in Sydney[1][39]

RoboCup Rescue Robot League
Year	Host	Rank
2011	Istanbul	1st in Autonomy
2010	Singapore	1st Autonomy 1st mobility
2009	Graz - Austria	1st Autonomy 2nd Mobility Innovative Operator Interface
2006	Bremen - Germany	2nd in Autonomy
2005	Osaka - Japan	3rd Overall

Student projects

rUNSWift in a four-legged league game from RoboCup 2006 in Breman, Germany.

rUNSWift in a Standard Platform League game from RoboCup 2010 in Singapore.

Sunswift IVy During the World Solar-Car Speed Record attempt.

Students of the School are involved in a number of high-profile projects, including:

• rUNSWift, the University's team in the international RoboCup Standard Platform League competition, is the most successful team in the world, with wins in 2000, 2001, 2003, 2014 and 2015, as well as coming second in 1999, 2002, 2005 and 2010.

RoboCup Standard Platform League
Year	Result	Final
		Winners	Score	Runners-up
2015 (Nao)	1st	rUNSWift (UNSW)  Australia	3-1	HTWK  Germany
2014 (Nao)	1st	rUNSWift (UNSW)  Australia	5-1	HTWK  Germany
2010 (Nao)	2nd	B-Human  Germany	6-1	rUNSWift (UNSW)  Australia
2006 (AIBO)	2nd	NUBots  Australia	7-3	rUNSWift (UNSW)  Australia
2003 (AIBO)	1st	rUNSWift (UNSW)  Australia	4-3	UPennalizers  United States
2002 (AIBO)	2nd	CM United  United States	3-3	rUNSWift (UNSW)  Australia
2001 (AIBO)	1st	UNSW United (UNSW)  Australia	9-2	CM United  United States
2000 (AIBO)	1st	UNSW United (UNSW)  Australia	10-0	LRP  France
1999 (AIBO)	2nd	LRP  France	4-1	UNSW United (UNSW)  Australia

• Sunswift Solar Cars
  • 2018: Guinness World Record with car "VIolet" - Lowest Energy Consumption Driving Trans-Australia (Perth to Sydney) - Electric Car.^[40]
  • 2014: FIA Land Speed Record with car "Sunswift eVe" - Sunswift eVe breaks the record for the fastest electric car over 500 kilometres (310 mi), with an average speed of 107 kilometres per hour (66 mph). The previous record of 73 kilometres per hour (45 mph) was set in 1988.^[40]
  • 2011: Guinness World Record with car "Sunswift IVy" - Fastest Solar Powered Vehicle: 88.8 kilometres per hour (55.2 mph).^[41]
  • 2009: Winner of the Silicon Challenge Class at the Global Green Challenge with the car "Sunswift IVy".^[40]
• BLUEsat Satellite
  • 2018: 8th in the European Rover Challenge (ERC)

Student competitions

ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest
Year	Regional Finals	World Champions
2021	1st, 2nd, 3rd	Oct 2021
2020	1st	No event
2019	8th, 9th[42]	Honorable mention
2018	1st	6th Silver Medal [43]
2017	1st, 2nd	13th
2016	1st, 2nd	69th
2015	1st	51st
2014	2nd	19th
2013	1st, 2nd	60th
2012	1st[44]	36th
2011	1st[45]	Honourable Mention
2007	-	44th
2005	1st[45]	Honourable Mention
2003	1st[45]	21st
2002	1st[45]	11th
2001	1st[45]	11th

Other Contests
Year	Contest	Australian Rank	World Rank
2018	Cyber Security Challenge Australia[46]	1st, 2nd	N/A
2017	Cyber Security Challenge Australia[46]	1st	N/A
2015	Cyber Security Challenge Australia[46]	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th	N/A
2015	DEF CON CTF Qualification[47]	1st	3rd
2014	DEF CON CTF Qualification[48]	1st	3rd
2014	Cyber Security Challenge Australia[49]	1st, 2nd, 3rd, 5th	N/A
2013	DEF CON[50]	1st	10th
2013	SECUINSIDE[51]	1st	4th
2013	Cyber Security Challenge Australia[49]	1st, 2nd, 3rd	N/A
2013	Imagine Cup[52]	1st	3rd
2013	Codehire Cup[53]	2nd (Students)	N/A
2013	Appathon[54]	2nd	N/A
2013	CiSRA Extreme Imaging[55]	2nd	N/A
2012	Cyber Security Challenge Australia[49]	1st	N/A

Computing facilities

The School has computer laboratories for coursework teaching and student projects, including a number of specialist laboratories. The network supports well in excess of 1000 computers for teaching, research and administration.^[56]

• 300+ Intel-based computers running Linux in 13 generic teaching laboratories; Microsoft Windows is available 'virtualized' in all Linux labs
• 20 AppleOS computers reserved in a specialized teaching laboratory
• 40 Linux computers in laboratories reserved for thesis students
• 1200+ computing sessions available in a 'virtualized' lab environment
• 150+ heterogeneous computers dedicated to post-grad research students
• 10+ discrete GPU servers for deep-learning research
• 40+ discrete CPU servers available in Linux clusters for research
• Virtual Reality lab
• laptop locker
• 1 multi-host vSphere production cluster with dedicated 60TB SAN
  • 100 virtualized servers for academic staff teaching and research requirements
• 1 multi-host vSphere research cluster with dedicated 20TB SAN
  • 30 virtualized servers for dedicated and ad-hoc research requirements
• 30+ heterogeneous computers for administration and systems support
• extensive backup infrastructure, utilizing incremental and full backup to tape

The School is committed to a regular cycle of upgrades and invests heavily to maintain a state-of-the-art IT environment.

UNSW Sydney has a very high capacity, free, wireless Internet service for all students and staff.