¡°I am the first Regius professor for computer science. That¡¯s a nice thing to be able to say,¡± said Nick Jennings, who has been appointed to the post at the University of Southampton.

¡°Preparing for my interview, you look back at some of the older [Regius professorships] that started in 1540 or whatever and you think: well, in 100-200 years¡¯ time when people look at whatever Wikipedia becomes, they¡¯ll see the first Regius professor of computer science was me, and I think that¡¯s quite cool.¡±

Professor Jennings, who assumed the role at the beginning of March, said that the benefits of having the title were numerous. ¡°I¡¯m really pleased that there is now a computer science professor. Obviously, when [Regius professorships] started, computing wasn¡¯t around.¡±

A dozen new Regius posts were created to mark the Queen¡¯s Diamond Jubilee in 2012, but before that only two new Regius professorships had been created in the past hundred years. Most Regius professorships are in ¡°quite traditional areas, so it¡¯s great that there actually is one in the field, full stop¡±.

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¡°It gives you a platform to amplify and talk about the field on a broader stage. I could do it as Nick Jennings, professor of computer science at the University of Southampton ¨C that¡¯s fine; that will gain some visibility. Or I could do it as Nick Jennings, the Regius professor of computer science at Southampton. It adds more cachet to it,¡± he said.

Groundbreaking developments such as the internet, humans¡¯ increasing technological interconnectedness and the creation of ¡°ever more data produced by lots of different means¡± are forcing businesses and governments to recognise the field¡¯s importance and to acknowledge that ¡°manually processing this is just not going to happen¡±.

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¡°You really need the computers to be much smarter,¡± Professor Jennings said. ¡°I think [artificial intelligence] is now one of those natural technologies we need to be able to cope with [in] our modern everyday environment.¡±

As such, it was not surprising that Southampton ¨C home to computer science pioneers Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Dame Wendy Hall ¨C lobbied for the position so keenly, nor that Professor Jennings applied for it.

¡°One of the things Southampton was keen to recruit, which came through very strongly in the way they advertised the [position], was someone who was a research leader in their field, who would not just sit in a dark room on their own and produce fantastic stuff,¡± he said.

¡°The aim is to produce fantastic stuff but also [to] get out there and lead research teams. I¡¯ve always been keen to see the research I do used by people and companies. I intend to carry on showing the value that computer science research can have for the economy and organisations.¡±

john.elmes@tsleducation.com