Computer Science Newsletter July 2002
Academic Staff:
I am delighted to announce that Roger Hubbold has been appointed to a Chair in Virtual Environments with effect from 1st August 2002.As announced in the last newsletter, Enrico Franconi left the Department on Wednesday 10th July.
The Robotics lectureship has now been advertised. The Closing Date was 12th July 2002 and there were 6 applications. The Appointments Panel members from this Department - myself, John Gurd, David Bree Jon Shapiro and Richard Banach - are now starting the process of shortlisting.
After some seven years dedicated service (I believe I previously reported it as only five years - clearly time flies when you are enjoying yourself) Peter Capon has decided to stand down as Director of the Undergraduate School. Personnel Office will shortly be putting out an internal advert for a replacement.
The following staff will be taking sabbatical leave next year:
- Rizos Sakellariou: first semester 2002/3
- Ian Pratt-Hartmann; February to August 2003
- David Lester: Spring/Summer 2003
- Alasdair Rawsthorne will extend his secondment to Transitive Technologies for a further 12 months
Changes to Admin Roles:
The following changes to admin roles will take place from 1st September:
- Linda Brackenbury will join the Teaching Assessment Panel.
- Jim Miles and Doug Edwards will take over from Enrico Franconi as Assistant Directors of the MPhil/PhD programme.
- Peter Capon and Mike Cunningham will join the student visits team.
- Paul Nutter will leave the student visits team. He has taken on the role of Departmental Laser Safety Officer and will take over the role of Engineering Lab manager from Doug Edwards.
- Doug Edwards will take on the role of Director of the Masters of Enterprise course from Alex Walker.
Secretarial Staff:
I am sorry to announce that Debbie Kay left the Department on 5th July to take up a post in the Accommodation office. I am sure everyone would like to wish her success in her new job
I am also sorry to announce that Sonia Burch has decided to retire at the end of August 2002 in order to spend more time with her family. I am sure that every one would like to join me in wishing her a very happy retirement (and in feeling envious!) We will miss Sonia in the Undergraduate Office but I am pleased to say that Sophia Lewis-Martyr will be taking over the Undergraduate Admissions task.
I am very pleased to let you all know that Iain Hart has returned from his travels in Australia and taken up a temporary post in ACSO for three months.
Many of you will be aware that Lynn Howarth, the Departmental Secretary is ill and may be away for a while. I am sure that you will all want to join me in wishing her a very speedy recovery.
Research Staff:
I am pleased to welcome Clifford Addison who joined CNC as a part time (40%) Research Fellow on 10th June
And sorry to say goodbye to:
- Ahmed El-Mahdy, formerly a TA and now a Research Associate with the PAL group, who plans to leave the Department at the end of August to take up his post as a Lecturer in the University of Alexandria. We hope that Ahmed will keep in touch with the PAL group in the future and continue collaborating with the Department in research.
- Liam Mullan, Research Assistant with the MINT group, who left the Department with effect from 1st May 2002.
- And Donal Fellows, Research Associate with the FM group, who will be moving to MC with effect from 1st August to work on a project with John Brooke.
Research News
Congratulations to Ian Horrocks, who has been awarded an EPSRC visiting fellowship worth approx. £6k and to Norman Paton for his Welcome Trust studentship worth approx. £61k.
EU Framework 6 is likely to be launched in November 2002. We will be expecting the first calls for IST around this time. Research office will keep you informed of the progress of this.
We are well on target this year with the number of grant applications being submitted.
Departmental Industrial Liaison Seminar
A date for your 2003 diaries - there will be a Departmental Industrial Liaison Seminar on Wednesday 9th April 2003 from 4.00 p.m. onwards which will involve all research groups, the postgraduate and research schools, PEVE/departmental industrial liaison. It is intended that the new NANOcentre will be officially opened during the event, along with the unveiling of plaques commemorating Tom Kilburn and Freddie Williams. At 6.30 p.m. Robin Saxby will present a keynote speech and there will be a dinner at 8.00 p.m. for invited industrialists and other guests with an after-dinner speaker to be confirmed. The research office will be organising a poster presentation by all the Research Groups.
PG & UG News
Congratulations to all students who graduated on 2nd July; the reception afterwards was very well-received in the new surroundings (& avoided the threatening rainclouds!).
UG
The undergraduate final year prizes this year were shared between three students:
David Mackintosh won three prizes: the Williams/Kilburn medal for outstanding final year student, the ICL prize for top final year student and the Kilburn prize for outstanding examination Performance
Gisle Dankel won two: the Edwards prize for the outstanding final year engineering student and the David Antrich prize for the best fourth year industrial project
And Andrew Diack won the AT&T prize for the best third year undergraduate project.
The first and second year prizes and one for third year M Eng will be presented to the students during registration in September. We have a new Marconi prize this year which goes to one of our ECS students and there will be one for each year as the students progress.
Undergraduate overseas admissions for this year are going well with lots of students already confirmed. There will be the annual concerns about home student numbers with the drop in A-level maths take-up but, as usual, the team will be working hard to attract the best students.
PG
Postgraduate admissions for this year are extremely buoyant. The number of acceptances is much higher than last year, particularly for the Advanced Computer Science MSc and for MPhil/PhD.
"Merger News"
The University "consultation" process continues to move on and an Academic Discipline Working Group has been set up to consider.
The Working Group asked the Department to produce a submission covering how a possible merger would affect us. A 10 page submission (expected to be nominated for the Booker Prize!) was produced by the Department's merger Task Group. This document outlined our current strengths, possible advantages and problems associated with a merger and any location or physical issues which might arise. On 17th July the Departmental Board held a special meeting and supported the submission.
Also on 17th July, representatives of the Academic Discipline Working Group visited the Department to discuss the submission in more detail.