News from Head of
School
New Posts Advertised
You will be pleased to learn that the Dean has
agreed that we can proceed to advertise most of the appointments in our
School plan, despite our projected deficit. Advertisements for a
chair in Computer Engineering, a Career Development Fellowship, and six
fixed-term Teaching Fellowships will appear over the next week or
two. This is excellent news, since all these posts are critical to
our long-term ambitions. Please pass on the news to anyone you know
who might be interested.
Strategic Investment in Research
Funding
I’m pleased to announce that we have been
successful with several bids for University and Faculty Strategic
Investment in Research Funding (SIRF). The funds we have been
allocated will provide University collateral for a submission to EPSRC to
renew the APT portfolio grant (allowing the appointment of an additional
Career Development Fellow and purchase of large-scale computing
facilities), has allowed us to bring forward the chair in Computer
Engineering, will support the appointment of a Senior Fellow in
computational science, jointly with Earth Atmospheric and Environmental
Sciences, and will allow us to attract a high-profile Professorial
Visiting Fellow to a 20% appointment, jointly with
Maths.
Teaching Innovation Funding
Congratulations to Mary Wood and John Sargeant who have been awarded funds from
the EPS Teaching Innovation Fund to continue their work on ABC (Assessment
by Computer). The aim of this phase is to raise awareness and uptake
within EPS, to a level similar to that it enjoys in other faculties.
Mary and John are always keen to explore opportunities for applying the
software more extensively within the School.
Disposal of Equipment
The School will shortly be disposing of some
equipment. Any one interested in upgrading to a newer CRT monitor
for use in their office (not to take home!) should contact Aidan
Loyns.
Energy-efficient SIMD Processors for Multimedia
Applications New 1 Mar 06
Professor Nigel Topham. University of
Edinburgh 1415-1515,
Kilburn Lecture
Theatre
1.5
More
Information
Authentication and Authorisation for Grid-Based
Services New 1 Mar
06
Advanced Authentication and
Authorisation Methods for Grid-Based Services Alexandra Nenadic 1300 – 1400, Atlas 1
Rules of Uncertain Inference
New
2 Mar 06
The Quantitative/Qualitative
Watershed for Rules of Uncertain Inference David Makinson (visiting MIMS) 1200-1300, Room G17,
Newman Building, Booth St East
More
Information
The ONDEX Framework New
17 Mar 06
Uniting Concept-based Data
Integration, Biological Homology Searches & Data
Analysis. Dr Jacob Koehler,
Rothamsted
Research 1400-1500, E7 lecture theatre,
Renold
Building
More
Information
Regular Seminar Series
See links in
contents bar for information on seminar series organised by the School of
CS, E-Science North
West and National Centre for Text Mining.
Internal Meetings and
Events
top
BBSRC Workshops on Research Funding
New
1 Mar 06
The BBSRC Head of Grants and Awards and his team
are visiting the University and will present a series of workshops for
Administrators and researchers covering the following
areas:
·
fEC and the
peer review process / committee structure;
·
post award
management of grants - good practice tips;
·
pre-award
and grant application issues, JeS and cross-council
harmonization.
To register for one or all of the above sessions
please send an email stating the session(s) you wish to attend to: edsmail@manchester.ac.uk
BBSRC Regional
Roadshow
2 Mar 06
Manchester Conference Centre
This is the first is a series of
roadshows across the country designed to highlight BBSRC and how we
undertake our business.
More
Information
North
West Grid
Workshop: Bioinformatics and the Grid
20 Mar 06
E-Science North West (ESNW)
& NW Institute for Bio-Health Informatics (NIBHI)
0930-1615,
Atlas 1&2.
Registration:
email name and organisation to castreos@manchester.ac.uk
More
Information
Enabling a Business Process
Revolution
21 Mar 06
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM Vice
President, Technical Strategy and Innovation. A digital revolution, led
by continuing advances in IT, and an Internet revolution, born of open
standards, are begetting a business process revolution. It, in turn, is
creating conditions for a “perfect storm” of collaborative innovation with
the potential to restructure individual enterprises and entire industries,
perhaps even entire economies.
To find out
more and to register to attend the lecture please visit
Website
Grantsmanship Training
sessions
6 & 7 April 06
Grantsmanship courses are organised by Faculty,
but run by EPSRC. The last set of these were attended by some of our staff
who found them very useful - especially the mock panel sessions. The
courses are also very popular, so if you would like to attend I would
suggest you put your name forward asap to avoid disappointment. The
courses are aimed at new staff (young as well as recent appointments who
are new to the UK) and established members of
staff who have not had any recent interaction with the EPSRC, either as
applicants, grant holders or referees/panel members. Please forward
me the details of any members of staff you wish to nominate to attend:
louise.rogers@manchester.ac.uk
EPSRC Public Engagement
Workshops
9 Mar 06
Introducing PE to ‘virgins’ and passing on best
practice. Space limited. More information and
registration.
Manchester Inter Varsity Debating Tournament New
12 Mar 06
Grand final of the Inter Varsity
Debating Tounament. An opportunity to enjoy stimulating debate and
support Sivaraja Sivanesan, one of our students who has acted as convenor
for the competition this year. If you wish to attend email iv@mdu.manchester.ac.uk for
tickets.
1330 – 1600, Lecture Theatre A, Roscoe Building
Genomes to Systems
Conference
22-24 Mar 06
An important conference concerning the
latest concepts and breakthroughs in genomics and systems biology.
Discounted registration before 31 Dec 05. More
Information
BCS/IEE Accreditation
Visit
18-19 May 06
Those who will definitely need to be
involved should already know and have these dates in their diaries, but
could all staff involved in teaching please note the dates and try to
ensure they will be available if required.
Funding
Opportunities
top
BBSRC International Scientific Interchange Scheme
(ISIS)
Open
BBSRC's International Scientific Interchange
Scheme (ISIS) provides support to help scientists make and establish new
contacts with their international counterparts. Funding is available to
BBSRC grantholders, and researchers working on BBSRC-supported projects at
BBSRC-sponsored Institutes for travel and subsistence for three main types
of visit. The scheme is open to bids at any time (at least 6 weeks before
travel) with payments being made in advance of any visits. Please note
BBSRC-supported students are not eligible to travel under ISIS support.
More
Information
Royal
Society Conference
Grants
01 Mar 06
The Conference grants scheme supports UK based scientists to either
present their own paper/poster or chair a session at an overseas
conference. Subjects covered:Conferences related to all sciences, ie
the disciplines in which the Society will elect researchers to the
Fellowship of the Royal Society (for further details see the sectional
committee information on RS website).
More
Information
Fellowships at the Life Sciences/Physical Sciences
Interface
3 Mar 06
In recognition of the importance of
cross-disciplinary approaches across the Life Sciences, our Faculty has
established 3 new (5 year) fellowships at the Life Sciences/Physical
Sciences Interface. We wish to appoint exceptional researchers with a
proven background in mathematics, computer science, chemistry, physics, or
engineering, who have successfully applied these skills to address a
biological problem. Each fellowship will cover the salary of the fellow
for 5 years, and will allow them to attract external funding during the
tenure of the fellowship to establish their independent
laboratory.
More
Information
Royal Society Research
Grants
4 April 06
The Research grants scheme
provides seed-corn funding for new projects of timeliness and promise
initiated by research scientists at an early stage of their career or by
established scientists wishing to change the direction of their
research. The objectives of the scheme are to increase the
availability of equipment and consumables for high quality
research.
More
Information
Royal
Society Wolfson Research Merit
Awards
27 April 06
Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the
Office of Science and Technology, this scheme aims to give universities
additional support to attract key researchers, with great potential or
outstanding achievement, to this country or to retain those who might seek
to gain higher salaries elsewhere. The focus of the award is salary
enhancement. Research expenses are also considered for research costs not
suitable for Research Councils research grants applications and for
overseas applicants to support integration into theUK research and funding
environment.
More
Information
RAEng
Industrial Secondment
Scheme
Open
The Industrial Secondment Scheme provides an
invaluable opportunity for university lecturers in engineering to gain
state-of-the-art industrial experience. Applicable to engineers of all
disciplines, the Scheme's objective is to enable the secondees to impart
the fruits of this experience to their students through teaching, through
case studies using up-to-date material and, in the longer term, through
course design. The benefits also accrue to the host organisation which
gains a temporary but highly qualified member of staff, and to the
university which has the opportunity of strengthening its links with
industry. The Scheme provides funding for the university to employ a
temporary replacement for the secondee. In this way it minimises the
effects on the normal flow of teaching, and makes it easier for
universities to release members of staff for secondment. The Scheme has
also been well received by industry, and many organisations have indicated
a willingness to offer places to engineering academics: where possible The
Royal Academy of Engineering helps in the 'matchmaking
process'.
More
Information
Royal Academy of Engineering Global
Research Awards
Global Research Awards provide an opportunity for
engineers currently engaged in research and development to undertake
projects in centres of excellence overseas. Projects should focus on
activities which could help stimulate wealth creation and improvements in
the quality of life, supporting the international development of research
networks and encouraging the uptake of globally competitive technology in
the UK.
More
Information
Prize and
Award
Opportunities
top
We have acknowledged the need to raise the profile
of the School both nationally and internationally. Nominating
individuals for awards, and working actively with others to ensure that
deserving individuals are nominated is one way of doing
that.
BCS Distinguished
Dissertations
10 April 06
The Conference of Professors and Heads of
Computing (CPHC), in conjunction with the British Computer Society (BCS),
annually selects for publication the best British PhD/DPhil dissertations
in computer science. The scheme aims to make more visible the
significant contribution made by Britain - in particular by
post-graduate students - to computer science.
More
Information
René
Descartes Prizes
2006
4 May 06
The European Commission is inviting proposals
under its framework 6 science and society programme for Rene Descartes
prizes. These are to recognise excellence in research and science
communication. Prizes for research will be at least 200000 euros each, and
projects must include legal entities from 2 different member or associated
states, and include at least one member state or associated candidate
country.
More
Information
None this week
Awards and Promotions
None this week
Academic Arrivals
None this week
Academic Departures
None this week
Research Arrivals
Stian Soiland – Software Engineer –
IMG
Tanya Gray – Research Associate –
HBIG
Kevin Lee – Research Associate –
IMG
Irena Spasic – Project Manager –
IMG
Research Departures
None this week
Administrative Arrivals
None this week
Administrative Departures
None this week
Sabbatical Leave
Andrei
Voronkov: Microsoft Research, Redmond USA Aug 05 – Aug
06.
Ian
Horrocks: University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bell Labs, and Stanford University Feb 06 – Sep
06.
Peter
Aczel: Nijmegen University, and Maths Institute at the
University
of Munich Jan 06 –
Sep 06.
Alasdair
Rawsthorne: 80% secondment to
Transitive Technologies Oct 05 – Sep 06.
Alvaro
Fernandes: IBM Almaden Research Centre
US Jul – Dec 06.
Academic Staff
None
Research Staff
None
Administrative Staff
None |