News from Head of
School
CS-Informatics Review
As you know, an ‘Implementation Group’ has been
meeting for some time to advise the University on how the conclusions of
the External Review of CS and Informatics should be carried forward.
A marathon final meeting of the Group took place last Friday, and the
report to the Deans of EPS and Humanities is now complete, bar a few final
edits. It would be inappropriate for me to discuss the detail at
this stage, but I am optimistic that the outcome will be a more
sustainable future for CS, with a resolution of the problems of overlap
with Informatics that we (and they) have experienced for the past two
years. Several options (with important features in common) are
presented in the report, together with pros and cons. I believe that
any of these would be acceptable to CS, though some would be more
desirable than others. The timetable agreed with the Deans involves
a firm decision as to which option will be adopted, significantly before
the end of May, followed by rapid implementation over the following few
months. I hope to be able to share more detail with you in the near
future.
Research Distribution
Now some not-so-good news. We have been in
discussion with the Faculty regarding our predicted deficit for the
current financial year. Unfortunately, we are not the only School
predicting a larger than planned deficit, and pressure has been placed on
all Schools to reduce their expenditure. There is very little slack
at this stage in the financial year, but most Schools have not yet made
their research incentive distribution, so this has been targeted as an
opportunity to reduce the net overspend for the Faculty. Schools,
like ours, which are seriously in deficit, have been ‘asked’ to suspend
the distribution totally for this year, and we have had to agree
(reluctantly). Having discussed this with the professors, it is
clear that the most worrying consequence is the potential effect on PhD
student conference attendance. Whilst it would be prudent to
concentrate resources on the leading conferences, it would be unfair to
students, and against the long-term interests of the School, for financial
constraints to limit the number of conference submissions or to prevent
students from presenting their own work. We are looking urgently at
ways of dealing with this problem but, in the mean time, please try to
protect your students; in cases where this is virtually impossible, please
let Carmel know the situation.
Research Grant Applications
At the professors meeting just before Easter, we
discussed ways of increasing School income. Research income is an
obvious target, so we pulled out some figures to allow us to assess,
realistically, the room for improvement. The results should, I
believe, give us all pause for thought. First, only around 50% of
our academic staff hold a grant of any description as PI. Even more
worrying, only 35% of staff submitted a grant proposal as PI within the
past year. The target in our School plan is for each research active
member of staff to be responsible for around two RAs (FTE’s if they are
shared). This is a rather modest target for anyone who wishes to be
research active, and achieving it would not place the School particularly
high in national league tables. It is clear that even this target
cannot be achieved on the back of such low application rates.
Although the figures might look superficially better if we included
involvement as CI, it is a reasonable expectation that everyone should
contribute by taking the lead for a proportion of the proposals in which
they are involved. Our 2006/7
School Plan sets the following short-term (process) targets: significant research funding
applications (as PI) from 90% of academic staff; proportion of staff
holding grants (as PI) 75%. It is not explicit in the current
version of the plan that this means as PI, but that was (necessarily) the
intention. It is clear that we need to take drastic action – this
involves ALL academic and senior research staff either as individuals or
as line-managers. I count myself as one of those who has taken their
eye off the ball in this respect.
CS
Event Organised by CEEBL
Thanks to everyone who attended the enquiry-based
learning event organised for the School last week by the Centre of
Excellence in EBL. I was disappointed that the over-run of the
Implementation Group meeting meant that I could not be there from the
beginning, but there was a very good turnout, and the consensus seemed to
be that the event was worthwhile, and that some parts of it were extremely
good. I suggest that providing Graham and Roger with more detailed
feedback would be useful since, by default, we are likely to ask CEEBL to
organise events for us again in the future.
Events this
Week
top
The Utility of Points as Primitives for Graphics
and Modeling New 26 Apr
06
Professor Markus Gross, ETH Zurich
1415 – 1515, Kilburn Lecture Theatre
1.5
More
Information
Globalisation, Knowledge and the New Economy
New
27 Apr 06
Prof Susan Robertson, University of Bristol
14.00-15.00, 1.10 Kilburn Building
More Information
Maximising Potential New
28 Apr 06
Sandra Smethurst, www.sandrasmethurst.com/
She has empowered the lives of individuals by
inspiring, motivating & challenging them to have total belief in
themselves, and has opened a £3m Health & Wellbeing Centre for
teenagers in N Manchester – the first of its kind in the
UK.
1000 –1400 Main Lecture Theatre, MMU Business School, Aytoun Building
Register to attend by
email to Lorraine Joseph
Virtual Environments and Interactive 3D
New
28 Apr 06
Prof. Bob Stone, University of
Birmingham
1400 – 1500, ESNW Access Grid, Room 1.10,
Kilburn
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
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ESNW Technical
meeting
2 May 06
You are invited to attend a technical meeting
organised by ESNW where we will discuss service-level agreement
(SLA) terms for a wide range of resource
types including AccessGrid, compute services and network services.
We would like a few volunteers to give 10-15 min presentations. If you are
interested contact Dean
Kuo. A wiki
has been set up for the topics that will be discussed at these
meetings
1400 – 1700, Room 1.10 Kilburn Building (ESNW AG
Room)
BCS/IEE Accreditation Visit
New
17-18 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. PLEASE NOTE there was a misunderstanding
over dates and this was originally advertised as taking place on the 18 –
19 May.
Research
Retreat
29-30 Jun 06
Palace Hotel, Buxton
Programme under
development, input welcomed (email
Ursula)
Future External
Events
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GoTag: Assigning Gene Ontology Labels to Medline
New
21 Apr 06
Professor Robert
Gaizauskas, Computer Science, University of Sheffield
1400 – 1500, C024 lecture theatre, MSS
Building
More
Information
Creating e-Learning Strategies in Schools
New
25 Apr 06
An opportunity to discuss e-Learning strategies
with colleagues from other Schools, and Faculty Learning Enhancement
Officers.
Pat
Bailey, AD for Teaching
& Learning: Introduction to e-learning in the Faculty
Callum Kidd, MACE: A distance learning MSc in
Project Management.
1200 – 1345, B4 Council Chamber, Sackville
Street
Email EPS-TSU to book (at least 2
days in advance for catering purposes).
eProtein Scientific Meeting and
Workshop
24-26 Apr 06
EMBL-EBI, 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.
More Information
and Registration
OPEN MEETING ON
eLEARNING
10 May 06
You are invited to an Open Meeting on eLearning on
Wednesday 10 May
2006, at which Professor Bob Munn, Vice-President for Teaching
and Learning, will make a brief presentation and respond to questions
about current initiatives to enhance e-learning. Full
details
Ask the
President
5 May 06
All staff are being invited to submit questions
for an interview with President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Alan Gilbert
which will be broadcast on the web next month (May). Questions can
be submitted in advance via e-mail to uninews@manchester.ac.uk (type
`President's Webcast' in the subject line), by internal mail using the
form published on page 3 of this month's edition of Staff Update or in
person to the Internal Communications Office, Beyer Building (staff may
remain anonymous if they wish). The deadline for submissions is 5
May.
Lunchtime Yoga
Classes
Tues & Thurs
Karon Mee
People have been practicing yoga for over 3, 000
years. The benefits of practice can be experienced on many levels,
physical and spiritual. A healthy spine, improvement to physical health
and body awareness in general is experienced through asana (postures),
while calmness of the mind and improved use of the respiratory system are
effects of meditation and breath awareness. Classes are
non-competitive and suitable for all levels. Do not eat at least an
hour prior to class. UMSA members £1.50; non-UMSA £2.00 per
class
1200 – 1300 Tuesdays, 1310 – 1400 Thursdays, Staff
House
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 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 the UK research and funding
environment.
More
Information
Wellcome Trust Equipment Grants
Apr/May 06
The Wellcome Trust consider applications for
multi-user items of equipment, including equipment required to create a
central resource for a number of disparate scientific programmes.
The maximum amount awarded is £1 million. It is expected that applications
will include a contribution from the university, or other source,
proportional to the total request. Applications for less than £10
000 will not normally be considered under this scheme. Small,
project-dedicated items of equipment can, however, form part of a project,
programme or fellowship application.
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.
IBM Eclipse Innovation Award program
2006
28 Apr 06
IBM is pleased to announce the 2006 IBM Eclipse
Innovation Award program, an international award competition designed to
encourage the use of open source and open standards-based tools for
academic curricula and research. Qualified faculty and researchers may
submit proposals for work with applications in teaching, research or
community building around Eclipse.
More
Information
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
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
honour 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
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
Meeting the Design Challenges of Nano-CMOS
Electronics
Funding Body: EPSRC
PI: Steve Furber
Award
Amount: £578,561
Self-timed Datapath Synthesis
(SEDATE)
Funding Body: EPSRC
PI: Doug Edwards
Award
Amount: £521,999
Statistical Learning with General Proximity
Measures
Funding Body: EPSRC
PI: Elzbieta Pekalska
Award Amount: £210,707
Staff
News
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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
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Academic Staff
None
Research Staff
None
Administrative Staff
None
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