The 7th Annual School charity book sale took place on Friday 20^th November and was very successful. We haven’t counted the final amount donated but estimate over £900 raised for Children in Need and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Outcome of Time Allocation Survey

Academic staff will be familiar with the Time Allocation Survey (TAS), whereby staff are asked to indicate how their time was spent during a single week. This information is used in a report to HEFCE that informs funding to the university, and thus has an important formal role. However, it is potentially also of some general interest, so here are the main headings and the results for Computer Science.

Category	Average Percentage
Teaching	33.4
Support for Teaching	3.7
Publicly Funded Research	26.8
Support for Publicly Funded Research	8.3
Supervision of Publicly Funded PGR Students	5.9
Non-Publicly Funded Research	3.7
Support for Non-publicly Funded PGR Students	2.5
Supervision of Non-publicly Funded PGR Students	2.5
Professional Management and Administration	7.6
Other	5.4

Following on from the speculation that Time Allocation Survey (TAS) results will show that teaching heavily subsidises research, here are some numbers for Computer Science based on the 09/10 budget:

(non-PGR) Teaching income = 42.9% of Core Income.

TAS effort on (non-PGR) teaching (including 50% of management) = 40.9%.

Although much more care would be required to come up with figures one might be inclined to vigorously defend, the above seem in rather closer harmony than might have been anticipated given how little attempt has been made to actually expend effort in line with income.

University Postgraduate Open day – Help needed 25 Nov 09

This is an excellent opportunity for prospective students to meet us and see the environment and facilities available should they decide to register for one of our postgraduate programmes in September 2010.

After an overview from Uli Sattler there will be two research demonstrations taking place within the School from a couple of our academics.

Volunteers needed...

We would also like to provide an opportunity for the visitors to chat to other members of the academic staff to answer any questions on the courses that they may have. If you are free between 3:00pm - 4:30pm on the 25th and able to provide a demo or make yourself available for questions, please contact Jez Lloyd.

Graduation ceremony 16 Dec 09

The CS graduation ceremony is being held on Wednesday 16 December at 14:30. If you have supervised an MSc dissertation for the 08/09 cohort or a PhD student who has been awarded their degree since July 09, you are very welcome to attend the ceremony as part of the platform party. Please can you let Susie Hildreth know by Friday 27 November if you wish to be involved and if so whether you would like a gown ordered for you.

There will be a pre-graduation reception in School for the Graduands from 12:00-14:00 in the Atlas Suite.

Events

Filtering and Smoothing in Gaussian Process Dynamic Systems 23 Nov 09

Marc Deisenroth, Universitat Karlsruhe (TH), Germany and University of Cambridge, U.K.

14:00, G33 Kilburn Building

Denis Noble Lecture on The Music of Life 25 Nov 09

The Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation (iSEI), the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy (CSEP), and the Manchester Centre for Integrative Systems Biology (MCISB) are delighted to announce the following public lecture by Professor Denis Noble, focusing on the philosophical aspects of his research:

On The Music of Life: A new paradigm for biology

The lecture is planned for the 25th of November, at 16:00, in the Lecture Theatre of the Manchester Interdisciplinary Biocentre (MIB - North Campus). All are welcome.

Denis Noble is Professor Emeritus and co-Director of Computational Physiology at Oxford University. He is one of the pioneers of Systems Biology and developed the first viable mathematical model of the working heart in 1960. His research focuses on using computer models of biological organs and organ systems to interpret function from the molecular level to the whole organism. Together with international collaborators, his team has used supercomputers to create the first virtual organ: the virtual heart. Noble is also a leading philosopher of biology, and his internationally acclaimed book The Music of Life: Biology beyond genes challenges the foundations of current biological sciences, questions the central dogma, its unidirectional view of information flow, and its imposition of a bottom-up methodology for research in the Life Sciences.

Commercial uses of functional programming: Domain-specific languages in investment banking 25 Nov 09

Dr Simon Frankau. Barclays Capital

14:00, Lecture Theatre 1.4, Kilburn Building

Seminar webpage

Academic Promotions Master class 25 Nov 09

This class is to help applicants make the most of their application for promotion. The session will provide insight and information about the promotions process, hints and tips about making an application and an opportunity to gain confidential feedback on CVs.

09:00-11:00, Room H6 Renold Building

Please register for the event by email.

ACM-BCS Visions of Computer Science Conference - Call for Papers 13-16 April 10

International Academic Research Conference Call for Papers:
ACM-BCS Visions of Computer Science, Edinburgh University

Website

Conference Registration (including Grand Challenges):

· Students £30

· ACM/BCS/BCS Academy £90

· Others £130

Submission Deadline: 18 December 2009

Author information and submission

Funding

University of Manchester EPSRC PhD Plus Fellowships 2009 11 Dec 09

PhD+ is a scheme to support the best PhD students for a few months of additional research after the submission of their PhD thesis. The aim of this funding is that projects can be completed and high profile publications prepared and submitted. It is a stepping stone for students between the end of their PhD and the beginning of post-doctoral or research fellowships.

Eligible candidates should either have submitted or be on the point of submitting their thesis. The PhD studies must have been funded by the EPSRC.

What: Up to 9 months additional funding from 1st January 2010

Requirements: Candidates must have been funded by the EPSRC during their PhD and expect to have submitted their thesis by 11th January 2010 (exceptionally, those submitting up to the 31st March 2010 may be considered).

Deadline: 11th December 2009

For more information and an application form email Adrian Jarvis.

European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigators Grant Call for Applications 24 Feb 10

Applicants for the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant are expected to be active researchers who have a track-record of significant research achievements in the last 10 years. Although there are no restrictions regarding age, nationality, or current place of residence, the Principal Investigators should be exceptional leaders in terms of originality and significance of their research contributions. Principal Investigators of Advanced Grant proposals will be expected to demonstrate a record of achievements appropriate to their field(s) of research. Potential Principal Investigators may include leading scientists in Europe and those of the European community overseas or non-Europeans wishing to establish themselves in Europe to pursue ground-breaking, high-risk research that opens new directions in their respective research fields or other domains.

ERC Advanced Grants allow exceptional established research leaders in any field of science, engineering and scholarship to pursue frontier research of their choice.

More information