|
|
|
1824 |
School
of Computer Science |
|
Weekly Newsletter |
30 Sep 2013 |
|
Contents |
News from the Head of SchoolSET success Laura Howarth-Kirke has won the 2013 BP Award for the Science,
Engineering & Technology Student of the Year, and Gavin Brown has won the
lecturer of the Year award. The Science Engineering and Technology (SET) awards are sponsored by
major industries, supported by all of the major UK professional institutions
and open to students from all over Europe. There are awards for the best
student in 15 different categories, the best Information & Communications
Technology Student being judged by the BCS. Laura won the Best ICT student
award, and then won the overall prize of Student of the Year. You can see the winners of each category here: http://www.setawards.org/set/newstpl.php?pid=236
There is a University newsletter article here: http://www.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/news/display/?id=10747
Laura’s final year project was using Machine Learning for Gesture
Recognition on the Microsoft Kinect. She developed a system which learnt and
recognized dynamic body gestures, capable of controlling devices like a TV.
The School awarded Laura the Kilburn medal and she won a University Outstanding
Academic Achievement Award. She is now on the BBC's prestigious Future Media
Graduate Scheme. PhD Students sponsored to attend Global Young Scientists Summit Two PhD students, Claudiu Mihăilă and Alan Stokes, have been selected to represent the University of Manchester at the Global Young Scientists Summit@one-north 2014 (GYSS@one-north 2014). The summit will take place from 19 to 24 January 2014 at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and will give participants a unique opportunity to interact with over 300 peers and over 17 eminent speakers, ranging from Nobel Laureates, Fields Medallists, Millennium Technology Award and Turing Award winners, and an IEEE Medal of Honor recipient. Alan and Claudiu have been sponsored by the Singapore Government and by the University’s Alumni Office. Student numbers Although we don’t yet have definitive numbers for this academic year (there may still be
a few international students to complete registration) it seems likely that
the School will have very nearly met its targets for student intake in all
areas. In particular Home (UK/EU) undergraduate numbers seem to be on target.
Last year we had a serious shortfall in UG Home intake, and many people in
the School have worked hard throughout the year to meet the target. Having said that, our target this year was deliberately set lower than
our historic recruitment level and so we have still not recovered to the numbers
that we used to recruit. Open days, visit days, interviewing, web pages and
all activities that raise the profile of he School externally remain very
important to us in securing the number of excellent students that we need,
and so... Open day on Saturday 5th October If there are any academic staff who are not
already helping out at the Open day on Saturday 5th October,
please contact Jez Lloyd to see if you can
help the School to recruit the best students. Security There have been a number of bicycles stolen from the IT Building.
Please remain aware that the Kilburn and IT Buildings are open access during
the daytime and that it is possible for anyone to get in. Please do not leave
offices unlocked when there is nobody in and do not leave valuables
unattended. AnnouncementsManchester
Computer Science ranked 8th in EU! The School has ranked highly in the 2013 QS World University Ranking for Computer Science and Information Systems. Manchester is ranked 6th in UK; 8th in Europe and 30th in the world out of 200 entries, an increase from 37th place last year (QS 2012). The QS World University Ranking is one of the top ranking systems for universities, it takes into account the opinions of other academics (peer review), student ratios, citations and internationalisation amongst other criteria. App success
in the BCS UK Industry Awards 2013 A medical app created by PhD student Chris Seaton has been listed as a finalist for the BCS UK Industry Awards 2013, Innovative Mobile App of the Year category (listed as St Helens & Knowsley Health Informatics Service). The Mersey Burns app is in good company, with other companies in the category including Virgin Media, Network Rail and other big national and international companies. Mersey Burns is the first regulated phone app in the UK has previously been recognised through the eHealth Insider Awards 2012 (Finalist and Highly Commended, Best Use of Mobile Technology in Healthcare) and the NHS North West Health Innovation Awards 2011 (Winner, Excellence in Innovation). New poster cabinets in the School We have new poster cabinets up on the 2nd floor of the Kilburn Building to display the School’s research. If you have a recent A1, portrait research poster for display please contact Sarah Chatwin for collection or drop them off at her office, 2.7. University
Historian and Heritage Officer Dr James Hopkins has been appointed as the University Historian and Heritage Officer. If there are any activities relating to the University’s history and heritage then please contact him on ext. 63075 or by email: james.hopkins@manchester.ac.uk. 2014 Manchester art exhibition Manchester Art Gallery are putting on an exhibition inspired by the Turing Test and 'Manchester’s rich history of engineering and computer science'. The Gallery is looking for ideas and involvement from the School. If you have any suggestions please contact the exhibition organiser, Claire Gannaway. EventsUniversity’s Foundation Day Lecture 16 Oct 13 Drinks Reception: 16:00, University Place Foundation Lecture: 16:30, University
Place The Lecture will end at 17:45. The President and Vice-Chancellor would
like to invite as many members of staff as possible from across the
University to attend this occasion. The 2013 Foundation Lecture will be
delivered by Professor Mario Molina, best known for his study on the effect
on Earth’s upper atmosphere of man-made compounds. The title of the
lecture is: “Climate Change: Science and Policy”. There are also a number of places
available to attend the Foundation Day Honorary Degree Ceremony which follows
the Lecture. Honorary Degree Ceremony: 18:15, Whitworth
Hall Honorary Degrees will be conferred upon :- Sir Bobby Charlton Professor Peter Higgs Professor Mario Molina Ms Frances O’Grady Unfortunately, there are a limited number
of tickets available so tickets have to be allocated on a first come, first
served basis. If you are interested in attending one or
both elements of the Foundation Day celebrations, please request a ticket by
emailing Lesley Sisson. Funding OpportunitiesResearch Support Office Please contact us through researchsupportcsm@manchester.ac.uk. There is information about support for grant writing and submission at
http://staffnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/reso/ and the EPS
blog The Word contains features News, Events and comment
relevant to Postgraduate Researchers, Research Staff and Supervisors or PIs. BBSRC scraps
final reports The BBSRC has taken the decision to discontinue issuing final reports on awards with an end date on or after 1 Oct 2013 unless explicitly requested. Investigators must still enter their results and outputs on the Research Outputs System (ROS). Final Expenditure
Statements remain a requirement and will continue to be issued to your
Research Organisation Finance Office at the end of the Grant. Note: this change does not apply to awards completing before 1 Oct 2013. Royal
Academy of Engineering Research Fellowships 2013 11 Oct 13 The
University can only put forward a limited number of applicants for the RAEng Engineering
Research Fellowship and all prospective applicants must go through the
Internal Review Process. IMPORTANT please contact Sarah Chatwin asap
if you are interested in applying, who can provide more details. Internal deadline: noon 11 Oct 2013 Royal
Academy of Engineering ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award 2014 21
Oct 13 For early career researchers and academics…The RAEng ERA Foundation Entrepreneurs Award recognises entrepreneurial researchers (individuals or a team), working in UK universities in the broad field of electrotechnology, who are at an early stage in their career. The winner will receive a personal prize of £10k together with a further £30k to invest in the development of the winning idea. In addition to the first prize, two cash prizes of £2k may be presented to the runners-up. If you have any questions please contact Sylvia Hampartumian at the Academy. Closing date: 21 Oct 2013 British
Council India Knowledge Economy Partnerships (KEP) 28 Oct 13 The Knowledge Economy Partnership Programme supports collaboration between UK and India academics by providing limited seed funding of £5-20K (for up to 1 yr) for project activities and exchange visits for the primary purpose of building capacity and to strengthen policy and practice of Higher Education in India and the UK. Research-only activities will not be supported.
Government departments, industries, accreditation agencies and other education bodies can come in as secondary partners if they bring in expertise, knowledge, skills and co- funding.
Proposals are invited in collaboration with an Indian partner, for submission to IHE.India@in.britishcouncil.org. Successful projects will be expected to start project activities in January 2014. Closing date: 28 Oct 2013 by 17:00 hours IST. JSPS London
Postdoctoral Fellowship for Foreign Researchers 5 Dec 13 Fellowships must start between 1 May 2014 and 31 March 2015.
Closing date: 5 Dec 2013 BBSRC
funding for Biotech/Healthcare SME Collaborations at UoM The University has been awarded £100K by the BBSRC
(‘Sparking Impact Award’) to support new
partnerships between researchers and small biotechnology and
biomedical sciences companies. For further details and to apply to take part, please contact Dr Zoher Kapacee or Dr Victoria Hand. Research Professional is a useful search engine for finding
other funding opportunities. Have we missed something? If you have some award news
that you would like us to know about please contact Sarah Chatwin. |
|
|
|
|