News from Head of
School
AUT Action
Can I thank all those of you involved in the AUT
action for the reassurance I received, via John Latham, regarding your
wish to minimise the impact of the action on administrative and support
staff. I’m also pleased that, after careful consideration, you
decided that exam papers due to have been set before the start of the
action, but which missed the deadline, should still be set. This
means that we can avoid any immediate detrimental effect on
students. The decision that supervisors should go ahead with a
formative assessment of their students’ third year projects is similarly
helpful though, clearly, any summative assessment will have to await a
resolution of the action. The next few weeks will, no doubt, be
difficult for all concerned, but a shared wish to avoid harm to innocent
parties should stand us in good stead. Finally, can I remind you
that, if you wish to record that you supported the strike action last
week, you need to let Lynn know as soon as
possible.
Pay and Grading Update
You may, out of idle curiosity, be wondering what
is happening about the HERA pay and grading exercise. This has now
been dragging on for many, many months, and I appreciate how demoralising
it is proving for some of you. As I think you know, HR have been
working on job evaluation and benchmarking for over a year but, because
this is proving more complex and time-consuming than originally expected,
they have proposed an interim arrangement which will allow most staff to
be assigned to an appropriate point on the new 51 point pay spine.
Implementation of this has been awaiting agreement with the unions and
there has recently been some positive news though, unfortunately, not for
all groups of staff. AUT has reached an interim agreement with the
University, and we expect to receive letters detailing the outcome for all
academic and academic-related staff early this week. Amicus South,
which represents scientific and technical support staff who were
previously employed by VUM, is close to agreement, and letters are
expected in the very near future. Amicus North which represents
ex-UMIST staff is not so close to agreement, but that should not affect
our School. Negotiations with UNISON, which represents secretarial
and clerical staff, have broken down, and there is no immediate prospect
of progress. This is particularly distressing, but it is not obvious
that the School can do anything to improve the position. All we can
do is to thank you for your tolerance so far, and ask you to remain
patient. In the meantime, please accept my reassurance that no-one
in the School will find themselves worse-off as a result of the
exercise.
Teaching Excellence
Awards
The University has recently instituted "Teaching
Excellence Awards", which focus on achievement in teaching (including
learning support) and involve a grant of £5,000 to recipients for the
further development of their teaching or their career. If you
believe you have a case to be considered for an award, please submit a
statement of not more than five sides of A4 detailing your eligibility
against the published
criteria. Each Head of School has been asked to put forward one
nomination only, so I will consult with the Heads of UG, PG and the
Teaching Assessment Panel to select the strongest case. Nominations need
to be with the Faculty by 28th April, so please get your
case to Lynn by 18th April.
Health & Safety Inspection
Report
A report on the recent School Health & Safety
Inspection is now available here.
There will be a meeting of the Health and Safety Committee on Thursday
afternoon, so if you have any questions of comments please pass them on to
one of the members of the committee before then.
Please note that we have made
minor changes to the structure of the newsletter, with the aim of making
it easier to find the information you
need.
Events this
Week
top
School Board
Meeting
15 Mar 06
Postponed – new date will be confirmed in due
course
Meet the University's Suppliers
New
15 Mar 06
The Procurement Office would like to invite you to
a Suppliers' Exhibition on Wednesday 15 March 2006, at which 39 companies
with approved contracts with the University will be exhibiting their
products and services, in order to encourage contract uptake and improved
supplier-client relationships.
More
Information
Good Practice in Academic IP and Commercialisation
New
16 Mar 06
Seminar 2: Confidentiality
Issues, Agreements & Related Topics
Iran Kiani & Michelle Locke, Eversheds LLP,
Solicitors
0900 – 1200, Core Technology Facility,
46 Grafton
Street, Manchester
Register by email to Good.Practice.IP.Seminars@umip.com
stating staff/student, UoM (series is open to other universities), full
University postal address, dietary requirements (breakfast
included).
A
Neural Afternoon New
16 Mar 06
Organised by the Alan Turing Institute, University of
Manchester.
1320:
Welcome
Professor David Broomhead, School of
Mathematics
1330: Neuroimetic models for
abnormal eye movements
Professor John Leigh MD, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio
1430: Information and neural
systems
Dr Stefano Panzeri, Faculty of Life
Sciences
1600: Delay embedding using
interspike intervals
Dr J.P. Huke, School of Mathematics
Room M12, Maths and SS Building, Sackville
Street Campus
School Health and Safety Committee
New
16 Mar 06
Please direct any input to committee members. Recent
H&S Inspection Report.
1430 – 1530, Mercury
The ONDEX
Framework
17 Mar 06
Uniting Concept-based Data
Integration, Biological Homology Searches & Data
Analysis. Dr Jacob Koehler,
Rothamsted
Research
1400 – 1500, E7 lecture theatre, Renold 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
Enabling a Business Process
Revolution
21 Mar 06
Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM Vice President,
Technical Strategy and Innovation.
Distinguished lecture hosted by CS, MBS &
Informatics. Details &
Registration
President’s
Visit
27 Mar 06
An opportunity for the President to meet
informally with a cross-section of staff in their natural
habitat.
BCS/IEE Accreditation
Visit
18-19 May 06
Those who will definitely need to be involved
should already know and have these dates in their diaries, but could all
staff involved in teaching please note the dates and try to ensure they
will be available if required.
Research
Retreat
29 & 30 Jun 06
Programme under
development, input welcomed (email Ursula)
Palace
Hotel, Buxton
Future External
Events
top
North
West Grid
Workshop – Bioinformatics and the Grid
20 Mar 06
E-Science North West (ESNW) & NW Institute for
Bio-Health Informatics (NIBHI)
0930-1615, Atlas 1&2.
Registration: email name and organisation to castreos@manchester.ac.uk
More
Information
e-Infrastructure – Enabling the Research of the
Future New 20-21 Mar
06
Organised by the National e-Science Centre, MIMAS,
MC, ESNW, and NCeSS.
The event will explore the emerging opportunities,
with the aim of informing decision makers, researchers and system
managers, and building communities of e-infrastructure users. Participants
can choose to attend both days, or just one – though those intending to
attend day 2 only should have some existing familiarity with
e-infrastructure.
0900 – 1630 (both days), Manchester Computing,
Kilburn Building
Free, but registration essential More Information
& Registration
Genomes to Systems
Conference
22-24 Mar 06
An important conference concerning the latest
concepts and breakthroughs in genomics and systems
biology.
More Information
Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning
New
5 Apr 06
An update on CEEBL activities
including:
·
results and
plans of selected CEEBL funded projects;
·
Faculty
initiatives from CEEBL Academic co-ordinators;
·
opportunity
to talk to the CEEBL student interns;
·
EBL networks
and events – a National and International perspective;
·
looking
forward to 2006-07.
1300 – 1430, C24 Sackville
Street Building (Lunch
provided)
Limited to a maximum of 50 participants. More Information &
Registration
Grantsmanship Training
Sessions
6 & 7 Apr 06
Grantsmanship courses are organised by Faculty,
but run by EPSRC. The last set of these were attended by some of our staff
who found them very useful - especially the mock panel sessions. The
courses are also very popular, so if you would like to attend we suggest
you put your name forward asap to avoid disappointment. The courses
are aimed at new staff (young as well as recent appointments who are new
to the UK) and established members of
staff who have not had any recent interaction with the EPSRC, either as
applicants, grant holders or referees/panel-members. Email louise.rogers@manchester.ac.uk
eProtein Scientific Meeting and
Workshop
24-26 Apr 06
The EMBL-EBI, together with Imperial College
London (IC) and University
College London (UCL), are delighted to
invite you to attend a one-day scientific meeting on Protein and Genome
Annotations on 24th April. The meeting will be held on the Wellcome
Trust Genome Campus at Hinxton and is funded by the UK Department of Trade
and Industry, BBSRC and the BioSapiens EU Project. The aim of the meeting
is to describe the current approaches, both technical and scientific,
which will allow contributions and access to annotations from many
different laboratories, based on GRID DAS technologies. The meeting
will be followed by a two-day practical workshop addressing the use and
implementation of the systems designed by the eProtein partners. All
of the systems and results of the project are freely available for the
academic community to access and use, or implement within your own
lab.
More Information
and Registration
Funding
Opportunities
top
BBSRC International Scientific Interchange Scheme
(ISIS)
Open
BBSRC's International Scientific Interchange
Scheme (ISIS) provides support to help scientists make and establish new
contacts with their international counterparts. Funding is available to
BBSRC grantholders, and researchers working on BBSRC-supported projects at
BBSRC-sponsored Institutes for travel and subsistence for three main types
of visit. The scheme is open to bids at any time (at least 6 weeks before
travel) with payments being made in advance of any visits. Please note
BBSRC-supported students are not eligible to travel under ISIS support.
More
Information
Royal Society Research
Grants
4 Apr 06
The Research grants scheme
provides seed-corn funding for new projects of timeliness and promise
initiated by research scientists at an early stage of their career or by
established scientists wishing to change the direction of their
research. The objectives of the scheme are to increase the
availability of equipment and consumables for high quality
research.
More
Information
Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit
Awards
27 Apr 06
Jointly funded by the Wolfson Foundation and the
Office of Science and Technology, this scheme aims to give universities
additional support to attract key researchers, with great potential or
outstanding achievement, to this country or to retain those who might seek
to gain higher salaries elsewhere. The focus of the award is salary
enhancement. Research expenses are also considered for research costs not
suitable for Research Councils research grants applications and for
overseas applicants to support integration into theUK research and funding
environment.
More
Information
RAEng Industrial Secondment
Scheme
Open
The Industrial Secondment Scheme provides an
invaluable opportunity for university lecturers in engineering 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 organisation which
gains a temporary but highly qualified member of staff, and to the
university which has the opportunity of strengthening its links with
industry. The Scheme provides funding for the university to employ a
temporary replacement for the secondee. In this way it minimises the
effects on the normal flow of teaching, and makes it easier for
universities to release members of staff for secondment. The Scheme has
also been well received by industry, and many organisations have indicated
a willingness to offer places to engineering academics: where possible The
Royal Academy of Engineering helps in the 'matchmaking
process'.
More
Information
RAEng Global Research
Awards
Open
Global Research Awards provide an opportunity for
engineers currently engaged in research and development to undertake
projects in centres of excellence overseas. Projects should focus on
activities which could help stimulate wealth creation and improvements in
the quality of life, supporting the international development of research
networks and encouraging the uptake of globally competitive technology in
the UK.
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.
BCS Distinguished
Dissertations
10 Apr 06
The Conference of Professors and Heads of
Computing (CPHC), in conjunction with the British Computer Society (BCS),
annually selects for publication the best British PhD/DPhil dissertations
in computer science. The scheme aims to make more visible the
significant contribution made by Britain - in particular by
post-graduate students - to computer science.
More
Information
Teaching Excellence Awards New
18 Apr 06
The University has recently instituted "Teaching
Excellence Awards", which focus on achievement in teaching (including
learning support) and involve a grant of £5,000 to recipients for the
further development of their teaching or their career. If you
believe you have a case to be considered for an award, please submit a
statement of not more than five sides of A4 detailing your eligibility
against the published
criteria. Each Head of School has been asked to put forward one
nomination only, so I will consult with the Heads of UG, PG and the
Teaching Assessment Panel to select the strongest case. Nominations need
to be with the Faculty by 28th April, so please get your
case to Lynn by 18th
April.
René Descartes
Prizes
4 May 06
The European Commission is inviting proposals
under its framework 6 science and society programme for Rene Descartes
prizes. These are to recognise excellence in research and science
communication. Prizes for research will be at least 200000 euros each, and
projects must include legal entities from 2 different member or associated
states, and include at least one member state or associated candidate
country.
More
Information
The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal
New
1 Jul 06
The IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal was established
by the Board of Directors in 1986 'for exceptional contributions to
information sciences, systems and technology.' The award is named in honor
of Dr. Richard W. Hamming, who has had a central role in the development
of computer and computing science, and whose many significant
contributions in the area of information science include his
error-correcting codes. Recipient selection is administered by the
IEEE Medals Council through the IEEE Awards Board. It may be
presented to an individual or group, up to three in number. The
award consists of a gold medal, bronze replica, certificate, and
honorarium.
More
Information
The IEEE John von Neumann Medal
New
1 Jul 06
The IEEE John von Neumann Medal was established by
the Board of Directors in 1990 and may be presented annually 'for
outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.' The
achievements may be theoretical, technological, or entrepreneurial, and
need not have been made immediately prior to the date of the award.
Recipient selection is administered through the IEEE Medals Council of the
IEEE Awards Board. It may be presented to an individual or group, up
to two in number. The award consists of a gold medal, bronze
replica, certificate and honorarium.
More
Information
Research
Awards
top
None this week
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
None this week
Administrative Departures
None this week
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.
Vacancies
top
Academic Staff
Chair in Computer Engineering
http://www.man.ac.uk/news/vacancies/academic.html#eps075
Research Staff
None
Administrative Staff
None
|