From: Chris Taylor [chris.taylor@manchester.ac.uk]
Sent: 02 June 2008 14:52
To: newsletter@cs.man.ac.uk
Subject: CS_Newsletter_2008-06-02.doc
For pdf and html versions of this newsletter click the 'Newsletter Archive' link below

 

 

MANCHESTER

           1824

School of Computer Science

Weekly Newsletter

2 June 2008

Contents

News from HoS

This Week

School Events

External Events

Funding Opps

Prize & Award Opps

Research Awards

Staff News

Vacancies

 

Links

News Submissions

Newsletter Archive

School Strategy

School Intranet

School Seminars

ESNW Seminars

NaCTeM Seminars

 

News from Head of School

Digital60 & Industrial Forum

We now have a very full programme of events for Digital60 Day20th June.   The web page provides full details and allows registration for the Industrial Forum, which includes a Research Exhibition, Medal Ceremony honouring surviving pioneers of the ‘Baby’ design team, the inaugural Kilburn Lecture, and a Buffet Reception.  These events are open to all, but please register if you wish to attend any or all of them.  Finally, a few reminders for those of you involved in the Research Exhibition.

·        If you provided material for a poster, please check the proofs which you should receive this week; final copy must be with the printers early next week.

·        If you wish to run a demo during the exhibition session, let Alex know your requirements asap – including: electrical supply point(s), wired network connection (wireless access should be possible), table, etc.

·        Make arrangements to man your exhibit from 1630 – 1800.  There will be champagne and nibbles to keep you going!

·        If you provided Alex with a list of guests, invitations have now been sent out; you may want to check that they have been received and encourage your invitees to register.

Graduation Ceremonies

This is a further call for staff to sign up to join the platform party for the graduation ceremonies in July.  I am sure you are all aware how much our graduands and their parents appreciate staff making the effort to help celebrate this special event, and encourage all academic staff to consider making the time to get involved. you don’t need to have any special connection with the cohort of graduating students, all are welcome.  I’d particularly like to encourage ex-SOI staff to consider signing up for both the ceremonies at which their former students will be graduating.  The CS ceremony (including some former Informatics students) is at 1430, Thursday 17th July, with a reception in the School pencilled in for 1200 (to be confirmed asap).  The MBS ceremony (including some former Informatics students) is at 1230, Friday 18th July, followed by a reception (details to follow).  Each ceremony is likely to last about an hour.  If you are able to help, please contact Kath Mullins as soon as possible and ideally by no later than 17th June.  For free hire of academic dress, you will need to provide your highest degree title, the University where it was obtained and, for PhDs, the awarding Faculty.  You will also need to provide your height and hat size.

School PhD Studentships

Following further discussion with the Dean, the School is now in a position to advertise funded PGR studentships.  Hopefully, this will allow us to hang on to strong candidates who are already ‘on our books’ and attract additional students to start this September. The exact details are still being finalised (and will appear in the newsletter next week), but now would be a good time to use your contacts to encourage good students to apply.

Exam Board Diary Dates

Please make a note of the following dates for your diaries (Informatics entries relate to legacy Informatics UG programmes).

Informatics Mitigating Circumstances Committee: 1000, 11 June, MBS East
Informatics Internal Examiners Board (3rd yr only): 1400, 13 June, MBS East
Informatics External Examiners Board: 1000, 17 June, Atlas 1&2
Informatics Internal Examiners Board (1st & 2nd yrs): 1000, 25 June, MBS East

UG Mitigating Circumstances Committee: 1000, 11 June, Atlas 2
UG Internal Examiners Boards: 1000 (3rd yr), 1400 (2nd yr), 1500 (1st yr),13 June, IT 407
UG External Examiners Board: 1400, 17 June, IT407
UG Joint Maths & CS Internal Examiners Board(3rd yr): 19 June (time/location tba)
UG Joint Maths & CS Examiners Board (2nd &1st yr): 1400, 25 June, (location tba).

PGT Mitigating Circumstances Committee: 20 June (time/location tba)
PGT & MEng Internal Examiners Board: 1400, 23 June, Atlas 1&2
PGT & MEng External Examiners Board: 1400, 25 June, Atlas 1&2

 

Events this Week                                                              top

Bayesian Inference for Systems Biology Models New                         3 June 08

Andrew Golightly, Newcastle University

1400, Room 2.15, Kilburn

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                                                       top

School BBQ                                                                                                        4 Jul 08

With 2008 being the 60th anniversary of the programmable computer we have special reason to celebrate this year at the School BBQ.  Details to follow.

Research Away Days                                                                                7 & 8 Jul 08

The event will take place at The Palace Hotel, Buxton and will run from approximately 9.30am on 7th to 5pm on 8th July, with a reception, dinner and accommodation provided on the first evening.

UG & PG Graduation Ceremony                                                                  17 Jul 08

The graduation ceremony for undergraduate and postgraduate students will take place on Thursday 17th July at 2.30pm. A light lunch and drinks will be served from 1215 and prize-giving will be at 1300.  Any members of staff who have been involved in teaching the former Informatics programmes are also invited to attend the MBS ceremony and reception which will take place on 18th July.  Their ceremony is at 1230pm followed by a drinks reception from 1400-1530.  Please contact Katherine Lloyd for further details.

Visit from Professor Nancy Rothwell                                                         24 Jul 08

Please make a note of this date in your diary.  The Deputy President will be visiting the School, and would welcome the opportunity to discuss with staff, in an open meeting, the University’s progress towards achieving its 2015 goals.

1315-1400, IT 407

School Board Dates

Wednesday 2nd July 2008 (Resources Report and Dean attending)

All meetings take place 1530-1700 in IT 407.

 

Future External Events                                                     top

Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics                                       9-11 Jun 08

Presented by the UK Chapter of the Eurographics Association (EGUK)

The 26th Conference organised by the UK chapter of the Eurographics Association will be the sixth Theory and Practice of Computer Graphics 2008 Conference (TP.CG.08). All accepted papers will be published by Eurographics and held on the Digital Library, and will be available at the conference.

Venue: Alan Turing Building

More Information

Pathways – Career Options for PhDs and Research Staff        13 & 16 Jun 08

Following the success of last year's inaugural University of Manchester PhD careers event, we are once again collaborating this year across the University to run a two day event to support all PhDs and research staff in their career choices.  The event will provide access both to recruitment experts and to individuals who have moved on from University research posts in the past 10 years.  There will also be workshops providing practical advice on finding and winning the right job (academic and non-academic). Details and online registration are now available, and places are limited. 

Research to Enterprise Summit                                                                 17 Jun 08

Research to Enterprise is an exciting event, organised by MSEC (Manchester Science Enterprise Centre) and funded by EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council), designed to raise the profile of enterprise at the University of Manchester. Research to Enterprise will be an opportunity for researchers in all faculties, whether at postgraduate, postdoctoral or staff level to be inspired to become more enterprising in whatever their career holds for them in the future be it academia, industry or in starting their own business.  Alasdair Rawsthorne is one of the guest speakers.  To book, please contact Claire Gill.

Arts meets Science, Science meets Art                       10 Jun, 15 Jul, 23 Sep 08

A series of free Roberts funded summer seminars for postgraduate research students.  These seminars have been organised by the Graduate Education Team and Jodrell bank and are open to research students from the University of Manchester. The series of seminars will explore collaborations across the Arts, Humanities and Sciences. Students are also invited to provide posters about their own cross-disciplinary work.

More information

Manchester Parallel Programming Summer School Cancelled  11-22 Aug 08

Run by RCS, this annual summer school aims to teach you all you need to know to start writing your own parallel code in MPI or OpenMP. If you are new to scientific programming (Fortran or C) you can attend the Fortran course prior to the summer school.

More Information & registration

BCS International Academic Research Conference                      22-24 Sep 08

Visions of Computer Science - Preliminary Call for Papers and Participation

The British Computer Society is launching its first International Academic Conference. Full paper submissions are being solicited in all areas of research covering the broad field of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE). The conference will be organized in sessions and mini-tracks, each devoted to a theme or area, and will include a small number of invited presentations.  The topics included are deliberately broad to reflect the rich texture and intellectual vigor of CSE.  Venue: Imperial College London

More Information

 

Funding Opportunities                                                      top

Industrial Secondment Scheme                                                                        Open

The Industrial Secondment Scheme provides an invaluable opportunity for engineering teaching staff in Higher Education institutions 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 organization which gains a temporary but highly qualified member of staff, and to the university which has the opportunity of strengthening its links with industry.

More Information

UoM Knowledge Transfer Challenge                                                               Open

The KT Challenge offers small grants for concept studies and feasibility studies. If you are interested in developing ideas in collaboration with an industrial partner – developing new technology, or applying existing technology in an industrial setting – please contact Constantinos Astreos.

EPSRC Encouraging Postdoctoral Mobility Between Disciplines           Open

EPSRC would like to encourage the transfer of outputs of research between different research disciplines as well as aiding the career development of EPSRC funded PDRAs. In the first instance an extra year of support will be offered. Transfers between the engineering and physical science disciplines and the life sciences are encouraged.  There are no closing dates for proposals.

More Information

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

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                                         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.

 

None currently open

 

Research Awards                                                              top

None this week

 

Staff News                                                                          top

Awards and Promotions

None this week

Academic Arrivals

None this week

Academic Departures

None this week

Research Arrivals

None this week

Research Departures

None this week

Administrative Arrivals

Gavin Donald - Undergraduate assistant - SSO

Claire Dickinson - Finance Office assistant - Finance office

Administrative Departures

None this week

Sabbatical Leave

Alasdair Rawsthorne: 80% secondment to Transitive Technologies
Oct 07 – Sep 08.

 

Steve Pettifer: Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre

Academic year 2007/2008

 

Robert Stevens: Web Intelligence Technologies Lab, Natural Language processing Group, Department of CS, University of Sheffield.

Semester two 2007/08

Plus short-term visits to: The text-mining group at the European bioinformatics Group & The bio-Technology Group at the Technical University of Dresden

 

Renate Schmidt: NICTA, Australian National University, Canberra

February – Mid-Sep 2008

 

Vacancies                                                                           top

Academic Staff

None

Research & Technical Staff

None

Management & Professional Staff

None

Administrative Staff

None