News from Head of
School
Another Maths Tower
Incident
I was horrified to hear on Friday that there was
yet another potentially lethal incident associated with the Maths Tower demolition work. Both
Hilary and I have made it clear to the University Safety Adviser that this
situation is completely unacceptable and have asked them, as a matter of
urgency, to put in place measures that will provide the safe environment
our staff and students have the right to expect. We have been
assured that an internal investigation is underway and that we will be
kept informed. I have notified the Dean of the incident. I hope the
University can convince us that they are able to resolve the problems with
the contractor and ensure our safety in the future. In the mean
time, please be as vigilant as you can when you are anywhere in the
vicinity of the Tower – Friday’s incident actually occurred on Oxford Road at
the end of Wilton St.
External Review of CS and
Informatics
The external review panel reported to the Deans of
EPS and Humanities on Thursday and I have now had sight of the report. It
is not yet clear whether the Deans will be willing for it to be made
public but I will certainly press for it to be made available to all staff
in the School. It may be that some comments relate too obviously to
individuals for this to be appropriate, in which case I will seek for a
suitably anonymised version to be put in the public domain. In the
meantime, I would like you all to know that the panel could hardly have
been more complimentary about Computer Science, saying they found “much to
praise and little to criticise”. It is clear that they were
impressed by all the CS staff and students they spoke to. I am
delighted, but not surprised, that this very experienced and distinguished
group of academics came to such a postitive conclusion. The report
recognises that there are problems of overlap between CS and Informatics,
analyses the situation in some detail, and makes recommendations for
action that could lead to two successful Schools, with distinct
research and teaching missions. No significant change is proposed
for Computer Science.
Interviews for Temporary
Lectureship
This week we will be interviewing for a temporary
lectureship to support Ian Horrocks during his tenure of an EPSRC Senior
Fellowship. The shortlisted candidates will be giving seminars this
Monday (see below) and the interviews will take place on
Tuesday.
Understanding Web Ontologies
New
Mon 14 Nov
Bijan Parsia, MIND Laboratory, University of
Maryland
1000-1100, Atlas 1, Kilburn Building
Failed Proofs of Non-Theorems
New
Mon 14 Nov
Louise Dennis, University of Nottingham
1300-1400, Atlas 1, Kilburn Building
Why Small Description Logics Deserve More
Love
Wed 16 Nov
Dr Sebastian Brandt. TU Dresden
1415-1515, Lecture Theatre 1.5, Kilburn Building
School seminars are held on Wednesday
afternoons. The 2005/6 series is underway, the
programme is available online.
Internal Meetings and
Events
top
Scientific Visualization Day and Clinic
–
AVS/Express
Tues 13 Nov
Manchester Visualization
Centre in collaboration with
the UK AVS+Uniras User Group (UAUUG) is holding a Scientific Visualization
day on Tuesday 13th December 2005. The theme of the day is
visualization in geological sciences with key talks from Oxford Visual
Geosciences Ltd, the British Geological Society, Virtalis and AVS Inc;
finishing with a generic visualization clinic.Although the theme is
geological sciences, AVS/Express (the key software of the event) can be
used in many disciplines, therefore the visualization techniques discussed
in the day will be useful to anybody wishing to do scientific
visualization. The meeting will be held in Manchester Computing, starting
at 10 am and finishing at 4 pm. Attendance is free, lunch will be
provided. To confirm attendance please email mary.mcderby@manchester.ac.uk.
BCS Roger Needham Lecture
New
7 Dec 05
Ian Horrocks will be receiving his BCS Roger
Needham award and presenting the eponymous lecture at the Royal Society,
London.
Manchester Turing
Lecture
25 Jan 06
More
Information
EPSRC Public Engagement
Workshops
8 Feb & 9 Mar 06
Introducing PE to ‘virgins’ and passing on best
practice. Space limited.
More information and
registration.
Funding
Opportunities
top
Research Councils Follow-on Fund
New
14 Dec 05
"Follow-on-funds" provide financial support
for projects with a clear commercial concept to accelerate their progress
towards commercialisation. EPSRC funding will be limited to a total of
£285k for UoM, with a maximum for individual projects of £110k under fEC.
There are no restrictions on applications to BBSRC, NERC and PPARC.
Applications will be coordinated by UMIP with Richard Price the primary EPS contact.
More
information
Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research
Fellowships 14 Dec 05
The Royal Society
Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowships were established through the
generosity of the Leverhulme Trust and seek to provide opportunities for
academic researchers to be relieved of all their teaching and
administrative duties. These appointments enable academic
researchers to concentrate on full-time research for up to one year.
Applicants must be of postdoctoral status or equivalent, hold a
permanent post in a UK University and be at a stage in their career when
they would particularly benefit from a period of full-time
research.
More Information
Toshiba Fellowship
Programme 2006
15 Dec 05
Toshiba, supported by the EPSRC (Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council) is offering outstanding European
scientists the opportunity to join one of its high-technology research
teams in Japan for up to two years.
The Toshiba Fellowship Programme is open to PhD level researchers of
EU nationality currently working in a UK academic institution. The
research areas vary broadly from year to year in the field of science and
engineering. The Programme offers the successful Fellow a generous package
including a fixed salary and travel to and from Japan.
More
Information
BBSRC Industry Interchange
Programme
16 Dec 05
The movement of people is considered one of the
best forms of knowledge
transfer and there is potentially great
benefit to the UK economy and
society from
supporting such opportunities. BBSRC is piloting the
Industry
Interchange Programme to support the short-term exchange, in
either
direction, of researchers between the science base and industry.
The
objective of the Programme is to support Interchanges that provide
strategic advantage to the UK science base and industry
arising from
reciprocal access to facilities, expertise and/or
knowledge, and an
increased understanding of scientific issues of
common concern.
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.
Roger Needham
Award
21 Dec 05
The Roger Needham Award, sponsored by Microsoft
Research, and established in memory of the late Roger Needham, is for a
distinguished research contribution in computer science by a UK based researcher within ten
years of their PhD. It consists of a £5000 prize together with an
opportunity to give a public lecture on their work.
More
information
IEEE Internet
Award
31 Jan 06
The IEEE Internet Award
was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in June of 1999. It is
presented annually for exceptional contributions to the advancement of
Internet technology for network architecture, mobility and/or end-use
applications. This award can be given to an individual or team of up to
three.
More
Information
The IEEE Koji Kobayashi
Award
31 Jan 06
The IEEE Koji Kobayashi
Computers and Communications Award was established by the IEEE Board of
Directors in 1986 for outstanding contributions to the integration of
computers and communications.
This award can be given to an
individual, multiple recipients, or a team.
More
Information
The IEEE Emanuel R Piore
Award
31 Jan 06
The IEEE Emanuel R. Piore award is presented
annually to an individual, or team of two individuals, for outstanding
contributions in the field of information processing, in relation to
computer science, deemed to have contributed significantly to the
advancement of science and to the betterment of society.
More
Information
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
Sarah Lowe – Postgraduate Admissions
Assistant
Administrative Departures
None
Sabbatical Leave
Andrei
Voronkov: Microsoft Research, Redmond USA
Aug 05 – Aug
06.
Ian
Horrocks: University of Bozen-Bolzano, Bell Labs, and Stanford University
Feb 06 – Sep
06.
Peter
Aczel: Nijmegen University, and Maths Institute at the
University
of Munich
Jan 06 –
Sep 06.
Alasdair
Rawsthorne: 80% secondment to
Transitive Technologies
Oct 05 – Sep 06.
Alvaro
Fernandes: IBM Almaden Research Centre
US
Jul – Dec 06.
Academic Staff
Interviews taking place for Temporary Lectureship
post on Tuesday 15th Nov. Seminars being given by
candidates on Monday 14the Nov. See Seminars section
above
Research Staff
None
Administrative Staff
None |