Alasdair Rawsthorne, FREng, FBCS
Room number: IT 4.11
email:
Alasdair.Rawsthorne@manchester.ac.uk
Tel.: +44 161 275 6161
Fax: +1 925 663 1633
I am Professor of Computer Science at the University of Manchester.
Previously, until May 2009, I was CTO of Transitive.
Teaching
COMP32111 System-on-chip Modelling with SystemCCOMP25212 System Architecture (this is the 2010 page - bug me to update it!)
Interests
I'm interested in real-world computing problems - challenges that real users are prepared to pay real money to solve. Almost everything I do is driven by intellectual curiosity, the need to have fun, or a sense of inevitability. Often it's combinations of these.I am fascinated by creativity and innovation - many Computer Scientists have the urge to create something, very similar to the urge that drives visual artists and musicians. One of the delights of the 21st century is the way that so many professional-class tools are becoming affordable for every-day use: 3-D printers, laser cutters, professional operating systems, document preparation, mathematics tools, animation, music collaboration, and photo processing tools are all very accessible, where only 20 years ago, each was only available to the dedicated professional.
I'm also a passionate advocate of the Manchester region - the place has so much to offer its residents and visitors. Plus, there are so many interesting and innovative people in the area, and I never know who I'm going to bump into in the coffee shop for a buzzy conversation.
This combination of interests keep me interested in all sorts of loosely related topics:
- Behavioural Economics - how our evolved human psychology causes us to react - sometimes incorrectly - to every-day and unusual circumstances
- Aircraft, autopilots, helicopters and drones - almost everything that can get off the ground
- Laser-cutting and 3D printing, particularly for artists and designers
- Storytelling and open source animation software
- Visualizations of all sorts
- Continuous Optimization - we now know how to monitor long-running software, so let's make it run faster and faster, day after day (Oprofile started life as a Master's project here in Manchester)
- Virtualization and hypervisors for interesting architectures
- Building CPUs out of a mixture of hardware and software
- Scheduling for modern multi-core CPU chips
External Activities
I founded Transitive, a University spin-out company, with my research group to commercialize dynamic binary translation software we had developed using a new set of challenging targets. Over the period 2000-2008, Transitive grew from a dream to over 100 employees; operated as a multinational with headquarters in Sillicon Valley, raised over $30M in venture capital investment, contributed a key technology to Apple's migration to using Intel CPUs in Macintosh computers, saw 16 million copies of our software delivered to end-users, and was acquired by IBM.Elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2008. Engineering (not least in Computer Science) is critical to our lives in the 21st century, and I'm enthusiastic about encouraging and recognising engineering skills, particularly among young people. I serve on the Academy's prize committee, and I think there are lots of opportunities to nominate good people for worthwhile prizes. It's a great form of recognition.
I'm a judge of Manchester's Big Chip Awards.
I am a board director of Manchester Knowledge Capital, dedicated to making Manchester the Knowledge Capital of the UK.
Social Networks
I'd like to connect on LinkedIn if we have a professional or business relationship.If we do/did/will have fun together, let's connect on Facebook. (Considerable overlap!)
I tweet occasionally.
Dopplr seems a good way of coordinating uncoordinated travel.
Aardvark is rich with... possibilities?
Open to recommendations for other networks - if (iff) they fill other ecological niches.