Networked systems

Our group brings together a number of academics with an interest in various kinds of networked systems, ranging from the Web to Social Media. We are interested in a variety of questions ranging from privacy and online harms to systems architecture and performance. Our approaches to these problems incorporate both the theoretical underpinnings of such systems as well as proof-of-concepts and systems-building and large-scale data-driven empirical analyses. We maintain a strong inter-disciplinary focus on socio-economic questions arising in the context of user interaction with these systems and emergent behaviours that stem from such interactions. For instance, in the £3.4 million AP4L project funded by EPSRC, we are developing tools and techniques for protecting citizens online during important life transitions such as relationship breakdowns and chronic illnesses. Previous work has involved large-scale empirical analysis of BBC iPlayer from the equivalent of half the UK population and collaborations with the UK House of Commons on how MPs and citizens interact with each other.  

We have released software out into the wild, including browser plugins on understanding and mitigating third party cookies on the web which have been used by tens of thousands across the world, content moderation and hate speech mitigation tools, etc. Current interests include Decentralised Social Platforms and Architectures for Machine Learning, Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical systems, Resilience of Critical National Infrastructures, and emerging network architectures such as LEO Satellite Megaconstellations as exemplified by Starlink. We maintain the LEOScope Global Testbed for LEO Satellite Network measurements.