Emeritus Professor Mike Holcombe

School of Computer Science

Honorary Academic (Emeritus)

m.holcombe@sheffield.ac.uk

Full contact details

Emeritus Professor Mike Holcombe
School of Computer Science
Profile

Professor of Computer Science since 1988, Head of Department (1988-1994), Dean of Faculty of Engineering (1999-2002). Director of Advanced Computing Research Centre (2013-2016). Chair Creative and Digital Group Sheffield City Region LEP.

Founder and Director of epiGenesys PLC. (2008). Originator of Software Hut (1987) and Genesys Solutions student company (1995).

Chair of numerous EPSRC panels. Reviewer of many universities teaching and research (QAA etc.).

Reviewer for Science Foundation Ireland and other international research councils. EU and ERC reviewer.

Research interests

Theoretical Computer Science, Software engineering, Software testing, Agile development, Agent-based modelling. Theoretical biology. Leader of the development of FLAME (Flexible Large-scale Agent-based Modelling Environment) the first such modelling system to run on supercomputers and now GPUs.

Numerous publications in biology (molecular, tissue, ecological) and economic systems. Special issue of Natural Computing journal in my honour (2008).

Grants
  • 2016 – 2019 Innovate UK, Future Engineering Systems £200k
  • 2013-2016 HEFCE Gant to set up the Advanced Computing Research Centre, £2.4m
  • 2012 – 2015 BBSRC – Investigating the TILLR co-receptor and the NFkappa-B system (£700k)
  • 2011 – 2013 EPSRC – FLAME on High performance Computers - £200k
  • 2010 – 2013 OSEPA – Open Source in Public Administrations EU InterregIV, £250k
  • 2010 – 2013 SySMo – SUMO2  BBSRC - £250k
  • 2006-2009 SySMo – BBSRC European partnership, An Integrative Multi-Level Systems Biology Approach to Understanding Bacterial Responses to Oxygen, € 2,330,741 
  • 2006-2009 Leverhulme Trust – Virtual fertilisation in Drosophila species £200K
  • 2006-2009 EU EURACE (Agent-based models of European Economy) £250,000*
  • 2005-2007 EPSRC MASSING £154,754*
  • 2005-2009 EPSRC Sheffield Software Observatory £451,618*
  • 2004-2009 EPSRC The Epitheliome £2.3 m
  • 2005-2008 BBSRC Regulation of Toll/IL-1 mediated responses through a novel receptor, IL-1RIII £204k
  • 2004-2007 BBSRC Mathematical analysis of regulation of limiting NF-B activity £174k
  • 2005-2008 EPSRC Automated abstraction of code into a state-based specification and test generation £250k
  • 2003-2005 EU FP6, STREP, COSPA (Consortium for Open Source in Public Administrations) £250k.*
  • 2001-2003 ARM technologies extra support for PhD student working on test generation for asynchronous architectures. £10,000.
  • 2002-2003 EU Thematic network NAME - Network for Agile Methodologies Experience. Euro 40,000
  • 2002-2005 DaimlerChrysler Research and Technology Grant for test set generation techniques using biologically inspired algorithms. £40,000 *
  • 2001-2004 British Telecom CASE studentship for modelling social insects. £15,000.*
  • 20001-2002 EPSRC Platform grant in Modelling tissue (with Professor Smallwood - Medical Physics). £450,000.
  • 1999-2002 EPSRC Network, "Cytocom" - computational and biological paradigms, with Dr. R. Paton, University of Liverpool. £50k.
  • 1999-2000 Grant from Daimler-Chrysler for production of integrated test tools based on X- machine techniques. £37k.
  • 1999-2002 EPSRC grant with Dr. A. Simons, "MOTIVE" - object-oriented software testing using X-machine techniques. £218k.
  • 1997 Grant from Institute for Child Health/Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital, for the development of an immunological database. £3k.
  • 1997-2000 EPSRC grant with Dr. M. Fairtlough, "Lax logic and verification of hardware". £170k.
  • 1995-8 2 Ph.D. studentships funded by Daimler-Benz Research and Technology AG, Berlin for research into testing safety-critical systems at the University of Sheffield. £28k.
  • 1994-5. Grant from Daimler-Benz Research Laboratories, Berlin, to carry out an investigation into the testing of safety critical systems. £23k.
  • 1993-1995 SERC (EPSRC) grant (with Dept. Control Engineering) “Strategic planning for mixed mode process control”. (£130k. to Dept. Computer Science.)
  • 1988-1992 IED (DTI/SERC) Programme. “Functional test set generation for high-integrity VLSI”. £150k. GR/F 34343.
  • 1984 Alvey (SERC) Grant “Abstract Data Types.” SE-011
  • HE Academy Enterprise Grant 3k *
  • IBM Eclipse Innovation grant, 2005, 15k *
  • IBM Eclipse Innovation grant, 2004, 10k *
  • 1996-1999 EU Tempus grant with the Universities of Hamburg, Arlborg, Cordoba, Bucharest, Pitesti, etc.
  • 200k ecus.
  • 1990-1993 EC Tempus grant with the Universities of Palma, Bratislava, Budapest, Warsaw.
  • HEFCE FDTL grant "Industrial Software Project Network", 1996-1999, £208k.