News from Head of School
All Change!
I am pleased to announce that we are now in a
position to finalise several changes in personnel that have been in the
offing for some time. First, congratulations (if that is the correct
term) to Norman Paton, who has
been appointed by the President as next Head of School. Norman will take
over from the 1st November, but I think most of you are aware
that I am already involving him in all major decisions. As you also
know, Carmel Dickinson is
moving on to become Programme Manager for Manchester Informatics, and
Ursula Hayes has been appointed
as acting Head of School Administration. We held interviews last
week and I am pleased to say that, in
Jacqui Grant, we believe we have found an excellent replacement for Ursula
in the role of Research Development Manager. A warm welcome to
Jacqui who starts in her new role today. Ursula will pick of the
reins as HoSA with immediate effect, though Carmel will continue to be based in the
building and is happy to provide valuable advice when called upon.
Clearly, both Ursula and Jacqui will take time to bed into their new
positions, and would appreciate your patience during this period of
transition. I will say more on another occasion about the fantastic
service Carmel has given the School over more
years than she would care to remember. I’m sure you all join with me
in wishing her the very best of luck in her new
appointment.
Digital60 & Industrial
Forum
Friday sees our Digital60 event and Industrial
Forum. The outline timetable for the day is as follows (more
information):
0900-1530: Schools’ Digital60
Day
1330-1630: Industrial Advisory Board
(preceded by lunch)
1700-1800: Research Exhibition,
Champagne Reception and Medal
Ceremony
1800-1915: Kilburn Lecture ‘The
Relentless March of the Microchip’
1915-onwards: Birthday Buffet in the Kilburn staff
Common Room
Please note that the Research Exhibition, Champagne Reception, Medal Ceremony, and Kilburn
Lecture will all be held in Crawford House. This
represents a change of location for all but the lecture. The
Champagne Reception and Birthday Buffet, before and after the Lecture, are
intended for staff and guests of the School, and everyone is encouraged to
attend. If you wish to do so, please make sure that you have registered
by midnight on Tuesday 17th June so we don’t run out of food or
wine!
University Open days – 20th and
21st June
The University Open Days will be held this summer
on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st June. As
usual, the School will be holding events throughout the two days, and
academic members of staff will be required to man the Computer Science
stand in the Schuster Building, and meet, greet and talk
to prospective students and their families. It is really important
that we ensure there is a ‘buzz’ about the place for these events.
Friday 20th June is also Digital60 Day, and we're expecting over 400
schoolchildren and their teachers to descend on the Kilburn and
SCAN Buildings from across the UK, for the Schools Computer
Animation Competition Show and Prize-Giving, a live video link-up with
MOSI, and an inspirational "Computer Science Magic Show". Volunteers are needed urgently to
help with both events, but especially
for the Open Day on the Saturday. If you are able to
assist – ideally for at least two hours between 1000 and 1600 – please
contact Sophia Lewis-Martyr or
James Warnes with your
availability.
Stress Survey Focus Groups
The University is currently running focus groups
for academic and research staff to discuss the recent University Stress
Survey. The sessions will be facilitated by Brainbox Research, the same
firm of consultants who conducted the survey for the University. This will
ensure confidentiality for participants. The information gathered will be
presented in a format that does not allow individuals to be identified.
Each session will last for a maximum of 90 minutes. There are spaces
left at various times on 30 June, 2 & 4 July. If anyone is
interested in attending one of the sessions, please contact Simon
Bonfield directly to indicate when you would be able to
attend.
Events this
Week
top
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.
Learning Associations that run Counter to Biases
in Learning 18 June 08
Professor Andrew Heckler, Department of Physics,
Ohio
State University
1530, Atlas1, Kilburn
Bike2Work
Day
18 Jun 08
If you are interested in cycling to work but
perhaps don't know of a good route, or are nervous about cycling alone in
traffic, you now have an opportunity to try it out. Wednesday
18th June is Bike2Work Day and cyclists from the ‘HEP'
institutions are organising a number of rides to work in the morning from
around Manchester, arriving at the new Bridgeford Street Bike Park at
around 8:30am.
More
Information
Digital60 & Industrial
Forum
20 June
0900-1530: Schools Digital 60
Day
1330-1630: Industrial Advisory Board (preceded by
lunch)
1700-1800: Exhibition, reception and medal
ceremony (Crawford House)
1800-1915: Kilburn Lecture (Crawford House) – ‘The
Relentless March of the Microchip’ by Professor Steve Furber
CBE
1915 onwards: Birthday Buffet, Staff Common
Room Kilburn 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
top
School
BBQ
4 Jul 08
We have special reason to celebrate this year at
the School BBQ because 2008 is the 60th anniversary of
the building of the world’s first programmable computer. Details to
follow.
1530 onwards
School Away
Days
7 & 8 Jul 08
The event will take place at The Palace Hotel,
Buxton and will run from approximately 0930 on 7th to 1700 on
8th July, with a reception, dinner and accommodation provided
on the first evening. The main focus will be on research, but we
will also spend time considering how we should respond to the
recommendations of the University Review of UG
Education.
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)
All meetings take place 1530-1700 in IT
407.
Future
External
Events
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Arts meets Science, Science meets
Art
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
Title: Overseas Visit in
Automated Model Building
Funding Body: EPSRC
PI: Renate Schmidt
Award Amount: £23852
Title: Arithmetic Circuits in Mathematical Logic
Funding Body: EPSRC
PI: Ian Pratt-Hartmann
Award Amount: £40055
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
Jacqui Grant – Acting Research Development
Manager
Administrative Departures
Carmel
Dickinson – Head of School Administation
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
Research
Associate
School of Cancer and Imaging Sciences
Closing
date: 27/06/2008. Ref MHS/80564.
Research
Fellow in Text Mining
School of Computer Science
Closing date:
15/07/2008.
Ref EPS/80023.
Management & Professional Staff
None
Administrative Staff
PGR
Admissions Officer
School of Computer Science
Closing date:
01/07/2008.
Ref EPS/80479. |