News from Head of
School
Distinguished Lecture
The Irving Wladawsky-Berger event was a great
success with a large turnout for an interesting lecture. The dinner
and Thought Leadership Debate which followed also worked well and seemed
to be enjoyed by all involved. Irving was very positive about his visit
to the University, which should be helpful in further developing the
University’s strategic relationship with IBM. Congratulations to the
External Affairs team, and Mahalia in particular, for their leading role
in organising the event.
Enquiry Based Learning
Workshop
As you are all aware, the School is about to
embark on a significant change in its approach to teaching, encouraging
our students to be much more actively involved in their learning.
Following the recommendations of the G7 group these changes will start in
September 2006 with the new first year project, but will also involve
significant changes in the format of other course units. The aim is to
make teaching and learning more fulfilling for both staff and students
but, if the initiative is to be successful, we will need to learn new
skills. In order to help staff prepare for these changes we have
organised a half day workshop on 21
April, in conjunction with the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry
Based Learning. The workshop will provide an opportunity to
find out more about EBL, and its application in CS. It is important
that as many staff as possible attend, particularly those who are 1st
year tutors and all involved in 1st and 2nd year teaching. Please
register by emailing Kath
Mullins.
BCS/IEE Accreditation
The documentation for the forthcoming visit from
the BCS/IEE Accreditation Panel (18 – 19 May) has now been
finalised and dispatched. Thanks to Graham and all those who were involved
– particularly Jennie, who held the whole process together. Professional
accreditation is very important to the School and is one of the ways in
which we can demonstrate the quality of our teaching provision,
differentiating ourselves from many of our competitor
institutions.
Events this
Week
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myGrid Users Day New
28 Mar 06
This one-day training session will cover the
designing and running of workflow experiments using Taverna, the myGrid
workflow workbench. The tutorial will cover Taverna installation through
to the creation and running of complex bioinformatics analyses. Attendees
will be able to find, edit or create experiments as workflows and explore
results in a way that can change work practices.
More
Information and Registration
On
a problem of J Paris (Mathematical Logic)
New
28 Mar 06
Alla Sirokofski, Athens and Manchester
1000 – 1100, G32 Humanities
Bridgeford Building
More
Information
Protocols for Establishing Legally Binding
Contracts New
28 Mar 06
Stephen Pickles: GRAAP use case for reservation of multiple
resources
Shamima Paurobally: Negotiation protocols in
OntoGrid
Michael Parkin: Contract
Law
Viktor Yarmolenko: Service Level
Agreements
Dean Kuo/Mark Mckeown: Protocols for reserving multiple
resources
1400 – 1630, Atlas 2, Kilburn Building
More
Information
Hybrid Logics with Concrete Domains
New
29 Mar 06
Dr Carlos Areces. Langue et Dialogue,
France
1415 – 1515, Lecture Theatre 1.5, Kilburn Building
More
Information
Fuzzy Logic Free of Reals New
29 Mar 06
Libor Behounek, Prague and Manchester
1300 – 1400, G16, Newman Building.
More
Information
Using the Web to Support the Transition of
Students into HE New 30 Mar 06
Christine Keenan, Bournemouth
University
Claire Nedwell, Director of Foundation
Studies
1200 – 1400, Council Chamber, B4, Sackville
St Building (lunch
provided)
Book at least 2 days in advance by emailing eps-tsu@manchester.ac.uk
More
Information
Text Mining, Biological Homology Searches &
Data Analysis New 31 Mar 06
Professor Ray Larson, School of Information, University of California, Berkley
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.
Future School
Events
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President’s
Visit
27 Mar 06
An opportunity for the President to meet
informally with a cross-section of staff in their natural
habitat.
CEEBL - Half day workshop for CS staff
New
21 Apr 06
An opportunity for CS staff to learn about enquiry
based learning.
1230 – 1700 (Lunch will be
provided.)
Register by emailing Kath Mullins
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.
Research
Retreat
29-30 Jun 06
Programme under
development, input welcomed (email Ursula)
Palace
Hotel, Buxton
Future External
Events
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EPS FACULTY MEETING New
31 Mar 06
A meeting of the Faculty will be held between
2.00-3.30pm on
Thursday 6th April
2006 in Roscoe A, Roscoe Building, Brunswick
Street. All members of the Faculty are
invited to attend. The Vice-President and Dean will present the
Faculty Plan and there will be an opportunity to ask questions to a panel
consisting of the Vice-President and Dean, Associate Deans and Head of
Faculty Administration.
Lunchtime Yoga Classes – Karon Mee
New
Tues & Thurs
People have been practicing yoga for over 3, 000
years. The benefits of practice can be experienced on many levels,
physical and spiritual. A healthy spine, improvement to physical health
and body awareness in general is experienced through asana (postures),
while calmness of the mind and improved use of the respiratory system are
effects of meditation and breath awareness. My classes are
non-competitive and suitable for all levels. Do not eat at least an
hour prior to class. UMSA members: £1.50, non-UMSA £2.00 per
class
1200 – 1300 Tuesdays, 1310 – 1400 Thursdays, Staff
House
Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based
Learning
5 Apr 06
An update on CEEBL activities
including:
·
results and
plans of selected CEEBL funded projects;
·
Faculty
initiatives from CEEBL Academic co-ordinators;
·
opportunity
to talk to the CEEBL student interns;
·
EBL networks
and events – a National and International perspective;
·
looking
forward to 2006-07.
1300 – 1430, C24 Sackville
Street Building (Lunch
provided)
Limited to a maximum of 50 participants. More Information &
Registration
Grantsmanship Training
Sessions
6 & 7 Apr 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 we 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. Email louise.rogers@manchester.ac.uk
eProtein Scientific Meeting and
Workshop
24-26 Apr 06
The EMBL-EBI, together with Imperial College
London (IC) and University
College London (UCL), are delighted to
invite you to attend a one-day scientific meeting on Protein and Genome
Annotations on 24th April. The meeting will be held on the Wellcome
Trust Genome Campus at Hinxton and is funded by the UK Department of Trade
and Industry, BBSRC and the BioSapiens EU Project. The aim of the meeting
is to describe the current approaches, both technical and scientific,
which will allow contributions and access to annotations from many
different laboratories, based on GRID DAS technologies. The meeting
will be followed by a two-day practical workshop addressing the use and
implementation of the systems designed by the eProtein partners. All
of the systems and results of the project are freely available for the
academic community to access and use, or implement within your own
lab.
More Information
and Registration
Funding
Opportunities
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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 Research
Grants
4 Apr 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
JISC ITT: Information Governance
Gateway
6 Apr 06
The JISC invites tenders to design, implement,
host and maintain an online gateway containing resources of relevance to
both the public and practitioners regarding the HE sector’s compliance
with information governance legislation.
Initial funding of up to
£50,000 is available for stage 1 of the project for the detailed scoping
and pilot development of the JISC Information Governance Gateway,
inclusive of VAT, if applicable, and all travel and other expenses. The
successful bidder will be expected to commence work on the research and
design of the Gateway by no later than May 2006, to be completed no later
than by the end of September 2006.
More
Information
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit
Awards
27 Apr 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
Wellcome Trust Equipment Grants
Apr/May 06
The Wellcome Trust consider applications for
multi-user items of equipment, including equipment required to create a
central resource for a number of disparate scientific programmes.
The maximum amount awarded is £1 million. It is expected that applications
will include a contribution from the university, or other source,
proportional to the total request. Applications for less than £10
000 will not normally be considered under this scheme. Small,
project-dedicated items of equipment can, however, form part of a project,
programme or fellowship application.
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
RAEng Global Research
Awards
Open
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
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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 Apr 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
IBM Unstructured Information Management Awards
New
14 Apr 06
IBM is pleased to announce the 2006 Unstructured
Information Management Architecture (UIMA) Innovation Award program, an
international award competition designed to encourage the use of open
source and open standards-based tools for academic curricula and
research.
More
Information
Teaching Excellence
Awards
18 Apr 06
The University has recently instituted "Teaching
Excellence Awards", which focus on achievement in teaching (including
learning support) and involve a grant of £5,000 to recipients for the
further development of their teaching or their career. If you
believe you have a case to be considered for an award, please submit a
statement of not more than five sides of A4 detailing your eligibility
against the published
criteria. Each Head of School has been asked to put forward one
nomination only, so I will consult with the Heads of UG, PG and the
Teaching Assessment Panel to select the strongest case. Nominations need
to be with the Faculty by 28th April, so please get your
case to Lynn by 18th
April.
IBM Eclipse Innovation Award program 2006
New
28 Apr 06
IBM is pleased to announce the 2006 IBM Eclipse
Innovation Award program, an international award competition designed to
encourage the use of open source and open standards-based tools for
academic curricula and research. Qualified faculty and researchers may
submit proposals for work with applications in teaching, research or
community building around Eclipse.
More
Information
René Descartes
Prizes
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
The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal
1 Jul 06
The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal was established
by the Board of Directors in 1986 'for exceptional contributions to
information sciences, systems and technology.' The award is named in honor
of Dr. Richard W. Hamming, who has had a central role in the development
of computer and computing science, and whose many significant
contributions in the area of information science include his
error-correcting codes. Recipient selection is administered by the
IEEE Medals Council through the IEEE Awards Board. It may be
presented to an individual or group, up to three in number. The
award consists of a gold medal, bronze replica, certificate, and
honorarium.
More
Information
The IEEE John von Neumann
Medal
1 Jul 06
The IEEE John von Neumann Medal was established by
the Board of Directors in 1990 and may be presented annually 'for
outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.' The
achievements may be theoretical, technological, or entrepreneurial, and
need not have been made immediately prior to the date of the award.
Recipient selection is administered through the IEEE Medals Council of the
IEEE Awards Board. It may be presented to an individual or group, up
to two in number. The award consists of a gold medal, bronze
replica, certificate and honorarium.
More
Information
Research
Awards
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None this
week
Staff
News
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Awards and Promotions
None this week
Academic Arrivals
None this week
Academic Departures
None this week
Research Arrivals
None this week
Research Departures
Harald Reuss – FM
Karim Nasr - MSA
Administrative Arrivals
Lesley Turner has joined us on a temporary basis
in ACSO
Clare Swann has joined us on a temporary basis in
the Finance Office
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.
Vacancies
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Academic Staff New
Chair in Computer Engineering
More
Information
Chair in Computational Systems
Biology
More
Information
Teaching Fellowships in Computer
Science
More
Information
Career Development Fellowship
(details to follow)
Research Staff
None
Administrative Staff
None
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