MANCHESTER 1824	School of Computer Science
Weekly Newsletter	16 February 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 Duties Allocation: Preference Specification The duties allocation committee meets twice during March, the outcome of which will be a preliminary list of allocations for 2009/2010. In line with the new duties allocation process, all academic staff can state preferences in terms of the types of task to which they would like to increase or reduce their contribution (e.g. it is equally valid to seek to have a centre of gravity that contains mostly teaching or mostly administration/management). If you want to express a preference, please complete this form, which must be signed by your manager and returned to me by Friday 27^th February. An indication can be obtained as to how loaded staff are relative to others using the recently revised model from the overview report at: http://intranet.cs.man.ac.uk/ACSO/staffLoads/. If you identify errors in the data that is driving this report, please inform Ruth (ruth.maddocks@cs.man.ac.uk) by Friday 20^th February unless the problems relate to the amount of credit associated with specific tasks (for which see the Newsletter of 9^th February). Interpretation of some fields in the summary report is likely to be challenging without (and even perhaps with) reference to: Duties allocation model In essence, sorting by Adjust gives an indication as to which staff might expect to see their allocated responsibilities reduce (negative numbers) or increase (positive numbers), as it provides an indication as to the underlying load levels of each member of staff. Didsbury School Visit On the afternoon of Tuesday 10 February the School was delighted to welcome 60 schoolchildren from Broad Oak School in Didsbury, aged 8-9, who have been studying Manchester scientists as part of their school project. The event was organised by Tom Lean, who is involved in the Manchester Histories Festival, which takes place in March this year, in which the School is involved. The children looked at our PhotoBaby, and then had a talk from Toby Howard on the evolution of computers from The Baby to The Notebook, complete with a hands-on session looking at valves, transistors, integrated circuits and microprocessors. Thanks to all involved for making this event a success: Bob Holmes, Steve Rhodes, Mandi Banks, Ros Cooper, Dave Bowden, Eamon Griffin and the building attendants. Events From Substructural Logic to Systems Code 18 Feb 09 Prof Peter O’Hearn, University of London 14:15, Lecture theatre 1.4, Kilburn building Elearning event 18 Feb 09 1200-1300, Simon Building 4A All staff are invited - Academics, Learning Technologists, Administrators etc. if you're interested in eLearning, and in particular developments in eAssessment, then please put the date in your diary. AVS/Express Visualisation Day 19 Feb 09 Research Computing Services in collaboration with uAUug (UK AVS+Uniras User Group) is holding a half day session on what's new in AVS/Express Visualization. 12:00-16:00, 1.10 Kilburn Further details and agenda Symposium on humanoid robotics - the Robotcub project 19 Feb 09 A fee paying, one day Symposium and free evening lecture 9.00 - 5.00 pm (day event) 6.00 - 8.00 pm (evening event) Alan Turing Building Further information and registration NCESS seminar series 19 Feb 09 Attitudes to and Awareness of Open Development Ross Gardler, University of Oxford 1300-1400, Room G.35/36, Arthur Lewis Building New Funding and Award Opportunities top VisNET Showcase 2009 13 Mar 09 All those working in the area of visualization are invited to submit work for the vizNET Uses of Visualization Showcase. The goal is to disseminate good practice and provide stimulation to users and developers of visualization in all application domains. Applications are invited from all domains in the arts, sciences and humanities. Rules and entry here Research Awards top None this week