News from Head of
School
EPSRC Knowledge Transfer
Challenge
Congratulations to Alasdair Rawsthorne and
colleagues for their major involvement in the University’s winning entry
in the EPSRC’s first Knowledge Transfer Challenge. We knew at the
beginning of the month (see 6 Nov newsletter) that the Manchester bid had
been shortlisted. It was announced as the overall winner at a
ceremony in London last week, bringing an award of
£500k to the University. Over 50 Universities were invited to apply
by submitting details of an "outstanding knowledge transfer achievement"
in the engineering and physical sciences, together with a business plan
for eventual use of any funds awarded. Transitive, whose software is
installed on every Intel-based Apple Macintosh delivered, and whose
technology derives from research in the School of
Computer Science, was
cited as the University's exemplary KT achievement. The business
case for making innovative use of the funds was put together by EPS
Associate Dean for External Affairs, Alison Bowen. For further
information see the EPSRC press
release (complete with rather embarrassing summary of the technology
behind the Manchester
bid).
Academic Promotions –
Reminder
A reminder for anyone who missed it two weeks ago
– the annual academic promotions round is upon us, and any member of
academic staff who thinks they have a case should discuss it urgently with
their line manager, with a view to preparing a case for early in the New
Year.
School Plan
The School Leadership Team will be discussing the
latest version of the School plan this afternoon. It would be
extremely useful if we could receive, before that meeting, any further
comments on the draft circulated last week. Work is also progressing
on the financial plan for 2007/8, though uncertainties surrounding the
influx of staff and students from the School of Informatics are making this a
difficult exercise. One message is, however, clear – not enough of you are submitting grant
applications (this applies equally to existing and new staff).
Our success rate, at 55% by value, is the highest in the Faculty
(congratulations to all those involved), but significantly less than 50%
of research active staff actually submitted a grant application last
year. You will have seen from the draft plan that we need to aim for
something much closer to 100% if we are to meet our ambitious goals in
terms of research ‘power’ – or even remain financially viable.
Please ask yourself if this means you.
EA
Games Event – Reminder
As already advertised we are hosting an event on
Wednesday with EA Games. There will be students from across Greater
Manchester attending the event. The schedule is as follows:
1530 – 1600: Registration for local
schools
1600 – 1715: Lecture by Fred Gill,
Technical Director, EA Games: LT 1.1
1715 – 1830: Food, drinks, gaming and
demos
Space in the lecture theatre will be limited, but
we’re keen for as many staff as possible to attend (from 1715) to speak to
teachers and prospective students. If you have any questions regarding the
event or the disruption it may cause please contact Bernard Strutt
Bernard Strutt or
Michaela Ashton Michela
Ashton.
Degree Ceremony Processions
Many thanks to all those who have volunteered to
take part in the degree ceremony on the 14th December. We
will have a very good turnout, which is important if the event is not to
be devalued for our students and their parents. It also does us no harm
that the CS turnout currently looks set to be the best in the
Faculty.
Events this
Week
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SLT meeting New
27 Nov 06
Meeting of the School Leadership Team. Main
Business – UG report.
1415, Atlas 2
Modular model building for systems
biology New
28 Nov 06
Modular model building: novel
capabilities for systems biology
Prof. Jeremy Gunawardena, Dept Systems
Biology,Harvard Medical School
Part of the First UK-wide meeting of
BBSRC/EPSRC-funded Centres for Integrative Systems Biology, one of which
is the MCISB, located in Manchester. MCISB Website.
1600, Main Lecture Theatre, MIB
Workflow discovery New
29 Nov 06
Mr Antoon Goderis, IMG, School of Computer Science, University of
Manchester
1300, Atlas 1, Kilburn Building
More
Information
Text Mining with the Cafetiere Toolkit
New
29 Nov 06
Mr Bill Black, School of Computer Science, University of
Manchester
1415, Lecture Theatre 1.5, Kilburn Building
More
Information
EA Games
Event
29 Nov 06
The Technology Behind the
Computer Games Revolution
Fred Gill, Chief Technical Officer, EA Games NW
Development Studio
An event for year 11 and 12 secondary school
students to raise awareness of computer science and motivate them to take
an interest in the subject. Intended to be informative and
fun.
1600-1830, Lecture theatre 1.1 and the Lower First
area, Kilburn Building
Grantsmanship Workshop
29 Nov 06
One day course aimed at both new staff and more
established members of staff who have not had recent interactions with the
EPSRC either as applicants, grant holders or referee/panel members.
To register your interest please email Louise
Rogers
Supporting International Students Post Induction
New
30 Nov 06
EPS-TSD Lunchtime event. There will be two
interactive sessions, the first, where Chinese academics on the Teaching
Science and Engineering in English (TSEE) programme, will share their
experiences and expectations with the audience (in groups), and the
second, where you will work in groups on anonymised case studies.
Please book at least two days in advance (for catering purposes) by
emailing: EPS
TSU
1200-1400, George Begg C4
On
the Architecture and Form of Flexible Process Support
New 1 Dec 06
Dr Bob Snowdon, School of Computer Science, University of
Manchester
The talk concerns the architecture of business
process support systems, where
change is essential. A business supply
chain scenario is used to illustrate the
ideas. The scenario has been
implemented in ProcessWeb thus providing some
concrete examples of
some of the issues involved. If time permits it may be
possible to
demonstrate the implementation.
1200, Lecture Theatre 1.3, Kilburn Building.
Children in Need/Christies Book Sale
1 Dec 06
The 4th Annual (!) Computer Science Charity Book
sale will take place this year on Friday 1 December, with proceeds going
to Children In Need and Christies Hospital. This year has a new twist,
in that we are holding the event in conjunction with Manchester Computing.
Please bring donations to ACSO, Room 2.127.
Text Analytics & Drug Discovery -
NaCTeM
1 Dec 06
Dr Ian Dix, AstraZeneca
1300, MIB building, LG0.10
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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Postgraduate Open
Day
6 Dec 06
An all day event with centrally organised
activities in the morning and School presentations and demos in the
afternoon. Demos required.
President’s
Visit
28 Feb 07
The President and Vice-Chancellor will be visiting
the School. Please make a diary note – more details nearer the
time.
1400-1600
Future
External
Events
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Mathematical and Statistical Aspects of Molecular
Biology 29-30 Mar
07
With participants from mathematics, statistics,
computer science, bioinformatics, biology and related fields, the MASAMB
meetings provide an intimate setting for exchange of ideas in
methodological and applied research. Research students and scientists
newly entering the field of genomic research are particularly welcome. To
be considered for a talk or poster, authors should submit a one page
abstract describing their research. This abstract will be used to select
presentations and should provide an overview of the research objectives,
methods and results.
More
Information
Funding
Opportunities
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International Research Mobility
Scheme
30 Nov 06
Research opportunities from one week to six months
in the US,
China and mainland
Europe for staff and postgraduate
students.
More
Information
IBM-UoM Partners
Programme
30 Nov 06
Last year Kung-Kiu Lau became one of the first
“University
of Manchester-IBM
Partners”. Academic staff are now invited to
apply for the 2007/8 scheme. It is important to the School that we
grasp this opportunity to engage with the company, who have much to offer
all our activities.
More
Information
University CTA
Studentships
30 Nov 06
Part funding for PhD studentships, in
collaboration with industry or other qualifying organisations. 2007
deadlines: 24 Jan, 28 Mar, 30 May, 25 Jul, 26 Sep, 28 Nov. Decisions
are normally announced in less than three weeks.
More
information (or by contacting Simon
McKenna).
Royal Society Conference
Grants
1 Dec 06
The conference grants scheme supports UK based scientists to either
present their own paper/poster or chair a session at an overseas
conference, where conference participation is the main or sole purpose of
visit. The objectives of this scheme are to enable scientists to
disseminate research findings, establish collaborations and build
international reputations.
More
Information
Leverhulme Trust Research Leadership
Awards
1 Dec 06
To support researchers confronted with the task of
building a research team of sufficient scale to tackle an identified but
distinctive research objective. Each award will be at a level of up
to £800,000 in total for up to five years of work. The intent is that the
funds be used to provide each awardee with ten 'post-doctoral assistant
years' and ten 'research student years' for the grant period, though other
patterns would be permissible.
More
Information
EPSRC
‘Follow-on-Funds’
8 Dec 06
The deadline for the University’s internal
competition for EPSRC ‘Follow-on-Funds’ is 1600 Friday December 8th 2006.
Grantholders interested in applying for this funding should contact the CS
Research Office for further information and the two page application form
and send it to Richard Price.
Toshiba
Fellowhips
15 Dec 06
Toshiba in association with the EPSRC invites
applications from European scientists to join one of its high technology
research teams in Japan.
More
Information
DTI Technology Strategy -
Competitions for
Funding
08 Jan 07
The Autumn 2006 Competition for Funding was
launched in London last week and the Technology Priority Areas are as
follows: Network security; Moving towards the zero emission enterprise;
Emerging energy technologies; Bioscience and healthcare; Sensors and
imaging for medical, security and environmental applications; Plastic
electronics
More
Information
Royal Commission 1851 Industrial Fellowships 2007
New
25 Jan 07
The Commission now sees its Industrial Fellowships
as catalysts in the encouragement of innovation and creativity in British
industry. Although the Fellowships are awarded to individuals, their
parent Companies and associated Universities derive equal advantage from
the scheme. About eight Industrial Fellowships are offered each year
for selected graduates, working in British Industry, who have a good first
degree in engineering, science or medicine.
More
Information
UoM Simon Industrial and Professional
Fellowship
1 Jul 07
The regulations and faculty financial allocations
for the Simon Industrial and Professional Fellowship appointments during
the 2006/07 academic session are available here.
Any applications should be sent to Helen
Gleeson initially (not the Dean as stated).
Nominations must be received no later than 1 July 2007.
EPSRC ICT Platform
Grants
Open
EPSRC invites outline proposals for its
information and communication technology platform grants. Platform grants
aim to provide world-leading UK groups with continuity of
funding for strategic development, longer-term research and international
networking.
More
Information
Royal Academy of
Engineering Research
Chairs
Open
The Royal Academy of Engineering invites
applications for its research chairs.
Research Chairs are
full-time professorial appointments, in any engineering-related subject.
The academy particularly welcomes proposals of a multidisciplinary nature.
Funding is provided for 5 years.
More
Information
RAEng Industrial Secondment
Scheme
Open
An opportunity for university lecturers in
engineering to gain state-of-the-art industrial
experience.
More
Information
BBSRC International Scientific Interchange Scheme
(ISIS)
Open
To help scientists make and establish new contacts
with their international counterparts.
More
Information
RAEng Global Research
Awards
Open
Projects in centres of excellence overseas
focussing on stimulating wealth creation and improvements in the quality
of life.
More
Information
EPSRC Engineering
Visits
Open
Support for salary costs and travel subsistence
for scientists and engineers of acknowledged standing, either from within
the UK or abroad, to visit the
investigator's organisation.
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.
EPSRC Computer Science Writing Competition
2006/07
31 Jan 07
We want unpublished articles of up to 750 words
about research that’s part of any EPSRC-funded computer science
project. For this competition, computer science means the study of
methods for acquiring, storing, processing, communicating and reasoning
about information, and the role of interactivity in natural and artificial
systems through the implementation, organisation and use of computer
hardware, software and other resources.
More
Information
Royal Academy of
Engineering MacRobert
Award
31 Jan 07
The UK's premier award for
innovation in engineering. The Award, first presented in 1969, honours the
winning company with a gold medal and the team members with a prize of
£50,000. The presentation of the Award recognises the successful
development of innovative ideas in engineering. It seeks to demonstrate
the importance of engineering and the role of engineers and scientists in
contributing to national prosperity and international
prestige.
More
Information
ERCIM Cor Baayen
Award
15 April 07
The Cor Baayen Award is awarded each year to a
most promising young researcher in computer science and applied
mathematics. The award was created in 1995 to honour the first ERCIM
President. Nominations should be made by a staff member of the
university or research institute where the nominee is undertaking
research. Self nominations are not accepted.
More
Information
Research
Awards
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None this
week
Staff
News
top
Awards and Promotions
None this week
Academic Arrivals
None this week
Technical Arrivals
None this week
Academic Retirements
None this week
Research Arrivals
None this week
Research Departures
None this week
Administrative Arrivals
None this week
Administrative Departures
None this week
Sabbatical Leave
Alasdair
Rawsthorne: 80% secondment to
Transitive Technologies
Oct 06 – Sep 07.
Alvaro
Fernandes: IBM Almaden Research Centre
US
Jul 06 – Dec 06.
Milan Mihajlovic:
University of
Maryland, College Park
Jul 06 – Dec 06
Vacancies
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Academic Staff
None
Research & Technical Staff
None
Management & Professional Staff
None
Administrative Staff
None
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