MANCHESTER 1824	School of Computer Science
Weekly Newsletter	19 January 2009
Contents News from HoS This Week School Events External Events Funding Opps Prize & Award Opps Research Awards Staff News Vacancies Links News Submissions Newsletter Archive School Strategy School Intranet School Seminars ESNW Seminars NaCTeM Seminars	News from Head of School Computer Services Computing Services within the school have been under significant pressure for a considerable time. With a view to developing a clear longer term strategy, and making informed decisions about resources, Tom Thomson is leading a review in this area. As part of this review he has met with a range of people, and he is keen to understand requirements from across the school, so please approach Tom directly if you have issues or ideas that you would like to have taken into account. In the shorter term, a number of changes are taking place following on from the untimely loss of our Computer Services Manager: Management: Mike Keeley is taking over responsibility for management of the team located within the school; I am grateful to Mike for taking on this additional responsibility. UNIX Support: For the next few months, UNIX support will be provided through the part time reassignment of Mark Whidby from the Faculty IT Services Team, and part time return of Paul Quare, who many will remember as a former member of our school IS team. Recruitment: Two 12 month positions will be advertised for Computing Officers. The idea is that these staff should be able both to provide computer services within the school and to help implement plans emerging from the strategic review mentioned above. The strategic review will make recommendations on longer terms staffing levels. In the meantime, in interacting with the computing services team, please take account of the fact that while these changes are taking place the team will often be low on numbers and contain various people adjusting to new roles. Duties Allocation The Duties Allocation process for academic staff will take place broadly during February and March. The following documents provide details on proposed changes in this area: Duties allocation model and process: description of proposal. Duties allocation model and process FAQ: discussion of various features of the proposal building on earlier consultations. There will be an opportunity to discuss this further at the School Board meeting on 4^th February. Events ESNW: Beyond the semantic web 21 Jan 09 Dr Barend Mons, Knewco R& D Labs 1300, Atlas 1, Kilburn building Further details New Funding and Award Opportunities top Research Awards top VERDAD : VERification-Driven Asynchronous Design Funding Body: EPSRC PI: Doug Edwards Award Amount: £463236