MANCHESTER

           1824

School of Computer Science

Weekly Newsletter

5 April 2010

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

EU Funding Opportunities Meeting

An FP7 information event that will be held in the School on the morning of 14th of June, run jointly with the Enterprise Europe Network (North West). The event will focus on "FP7 Best practice and future opportunities for ICT", and it is hoped will provide useful information and contacts that will help the school increase its engagement in EU Funded activities.  As such, please try to hold the date in your diary, and further details will follow in due course.  In the meantime, please approach Constantinos Astreos with any questions.

Dean Visiting School: Open Meeting

Colin Bailey will attend the school to talk to staff regarding the University's response to funding challenges on Tuesday, 27th April at 12.15 p.m. for about an hour, in IT407.

 

Events

BCTCS 2010                                                                                                 6-9 April 10

26th British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS)

University of Edinburgh

The purpose of the BCTCS is to provide a forum in which researchers in theoretical computer science can meet, present research findings, and discuss developments in the field. It also aims to provide an environment in which PhD students can gain experience in presenting their work, and benefit from contact with established researchers. The conference will consist of invited keynote presentations by distinguished researchers and a number of contributed talks.

Registration closes on 2 March 2010 or when numbers reach capacity.

Website

MATLAB and Simulink Seminar                                                               13 April 10

Full day from 09:30 Lecture Theatre B, Roscoe Building

This one day seminar is open to all postgraduate students and staff and will look at how MATLAB, one of the most important pieces of mathematical software available today, and Simulink, can enhance research and teaching within the University of Manchester.  The event will consider a range of application areas, highlighting many of the latest features and functionality.

Registration

NaCTeM seminar - Distributional Memory: a general framework for corpus-based semantics                                                                                          16 April 10

Alessandro Lenci (Department of Linguistics, University of Pisa)

12:00, MLG.001 (Lecture Theatre), MIB building

WiSET Industry Speed Networking, sponsored by Deutsche Bank 21 April 10

Speak to representatives from Deutsche Bank, IBM, Imagination Technologies and Teach First. Includes free buffet!

This is your chance! Meet representatives from four companies currently recruiting female graduates in Computer Science and related disciplines. At this fast paced informal networking event, each representative will speak to a group of students for 10 minutes, discuss relevant graduate schemes and answer your questions. The group sessions will be followed by a light buffet lunch, with time for some more networking. Sign up now!

To book your free place, please email wiset-eps@manchester.ac.uk

Distinguished lecture series: Parallelism and the Exascale Challenge        29 April 10

Prof Arthur Trew, director of the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre

2 slots from 10:00 to 13:00 and last slot at 16:00, PHYSICS (lecture theatre A), University of St Andrews.

Further information

Algorithmic Trading Conference                                                             11 June 10

09:30-15:00, University College London

UCL’s Financial Computing Centre, in association with Microsoft, is organising a conference to bring together university researchers and financial industry professionals to discuss future directions and job opportunities in Algorithmic Trading. This event will be of interest to PhD students, Post Docs and Masters students as well as industry professionals, and companies seeking to recruit PhDs to work in Algorithmic Trading. The Microsoft Banking Science Algorithmic Trading Prize of up to £10,000 will be launched.

Further information (pdf)

 

Funding Opportunities

Royal Society Research Grants                                                               30 April 10

This scheme provides ‘seed corn' funding for new projects initiated by research scientists at an early stage of their career (within the first 5 years). The objective of the scheme is to increase the availability of specialised equipment, consumable materials and services, and to support essential field research. The scheme also provides support for research in the history of science or to assist with publication of scholarly works in the history of science (subject category I), and we welcome any research proposal or publication in the area of Royal Society history. A parallel round is available for current Royal Society University Research Fellows and Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellows who are beginning the second year of their fellowship in October. 

Subjects covered: All disciplines in which the Society will elect researchers to the Fellowship of the Royal Society

Eligibility: Applicants must be resident in the UK.  They should have postdoctoral level or equivalent status at the time of the application and have a permanent or limited-tenure position in an eligible organisation. An applicant who is a postdoctorate paid by a grant for which someone else is the principal investigator is not eligible. Applicants must play a major part and take a leading role in the project and not make its fulfilment more than marginally dependent on the services of postgraduate/doctoral students.
Length of tenure: The grant is for a period of 12 months

Place of tenure: UK university or not-for-profit research organisation (except for Research Council Institutes).

Value:  For all subject categories (A to I), up to £15,000 (including VAT) is available for the purchase of specialised equipment, essential consumable materials and services.  Up to £5,000 (including VAT) is available for the publication of scholarly works in the history of science.

Website

Royal Society Mercer Prize                                                                           4 May 10

The new Royal Society Mercer Prize is intended to reward an individual who has an outstanding track record in engineering or the applied sciences and whose research has been commercially exploited for significant wealth generation or societal benefit in the United Kingdom

Eligibility:  The Mercer Prize is open to any post-doctoral researcher in academic organisations, research institutes or any other research and technology organisation, including SME commercial organisations.

Value:  The Mercer Prize consists of a silver gilt medal, a prize of £5000 and a research grant of up to £25,000.

How to apply: Nominations are invited from all research institutions and industry. Self-nominations are allowed. Please contact Philip Angell for further details and nomination forms.

Website

Royal Society Wolfson Laboratory Refurbishment Grant                  1 June 10

With the generous funding of the Wolfson Foundation, this scheme aims to improve the existing physical infrastructure in UK universities to promote high quality scientific research. Up to £2 million will be available for the 2010 round for the renovation and modernisation of university research laboratories. It is not for new buildings.

Subjects covered: The topic for the 2010 round is ‘reduction in carbon emissions’. 

Eligibility: Grants are only available for postdoctoral scientists with permanent posts in universities in the UK working in the area of covered by the subject, and the university must own or lease the research laboratory being refurbished. The laboratory must be used predominantly for research, which may include postgraduate research education. Each university can submit more than one application but only one application per department is allowed. 

Length of tenure: A maximum of two years.

Value of Grant: The upper limit for grants will be £400,000 over a maximum of two years, which covers refurbishment and infrastructure costs. Please note that there will be no funding for scientific equipment, VAT or any other fees.

Application information date: The round is split into two stages. The first stage invites applicants to submit preliminary applications. The selection committee will then select the applicants who will go through to the next stage, and it is hoped that the short list will be available at the end of July. The second stage will invite the shortlisted applicants to submit a full application via email by September 2010 and the final decision will be announced in December 2010.

Opening date: 1 April 2010
Closing date: 1 June 2010

Website

Royal Society International Joint Projects                                      Various dates

The Royal Society Joint Project programme is designed to enable international collaboration by providing a mobility grant for researchers and members of their research teams to cover travel, subsistence and research expenses. It also aims to provide seed money for research that will lead to further collaboration and greater funding in the future from larger funding bodies.

Subjects Covered:  All areas of the life and physical sciences, including engineering, but excluding clinical medicine.

Eligibility:  The Project Leaders must be from academia, of at least postdoctoral status or equivalent and hold a permanent or fixed-term contract in an eligible organisation which, if it is the latter, continues at least for the duration of the project. Collaborations should be based on a single project including two teams or individuals: one based in the UK and the other based outside the UK. A relationship between both parties should already be established prior to making an application and the collaboration should involve bilateral visits between the UK and the country with which the overseas collaborator is based.

Length of Tenure:  2 years

Value of Grant:  Up to £6000 a year for 2 years for travel and subsistence. Within the £6000 available each year, up to £1000 can be used for research expenses (excluding computer hardware).

Countries covered:  Currently Joint Projects are available to those in European and Former Soviet Union countries, China, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Ghana, Tanzania, South Africa and certain countries in Latin America. Please check appendix 2 of the scheme notes for eligible countries.

Cost-share arrangements:  Depending on which country your collaboration is with proposals can be submitted either as a ‘direct’ application (to the Royal Society only) or as a ‘parallel cost share’ application. The latter entails the UK team leader submitting a proposal to the Royal Society AND the Overseas team leader simultaneously submitting a proposal to a partner organisation (usually an Academies of Science abroad) with whom the Royal Society has cost share agreement, in which case the travel and subsistence costs are shared between the Royal Society and the overseas Partner. Please note that ‘direct’ applications are still accepted even if a cost share partner is available.  Please check appendix 2 of the scheme notes for cost share countries/partners. 

Opening and Closing dates:
2010/R2 (including France and India cost share): opens 31 May and closes 29 July
2010/R3 (including Ireland and India cost share): opens 28 September and closes 25 November

The 2010 Russia and China cost share deadlines are yet to be confirmed but it is anticipated that they will be sometime in September and October respectively.  Prospective applicants are advised to keep an eye on the website for the opening and closing dates for these rounds.
Please note that the deadlines for partner organisations may not coincide with Royal Society deadlines so it is advisable that your overseas collaborator checks with the relevant cost share partner in their country.

Website

Royal Society International Travel Grants                                      Various dates

The International Travel Grants scheme enables UK scientists to engage in collaborations with overseas scientists in order to explore opportunities for building lasting networks or  participate (excludes organising/selection committee and poster contributions) in overseas conferences, workshops and seminars which are of particular strategic importance in order to engage with scientists (available to UK scientists only).  The International Travel Grant Scheme is available for all countries outside of the UK.

Eligibility: Conference participation applications must have confirmation of their invitation or acceptance of oral paper presentation. Collaboration applications must have a letter of support from the host Head of Department. UK based scientist must hold a fixed or permanent contract at an eligible UK institution. Scientists must have completed their PhD or have extensive experience at an equivalent level. Only one application can be submitted per round.

Length of tenure:  Lasting up to 12 weeks (except in the case of UK applicants presenting at overseas conferences, workshops and seminars, in which case the maximum duration of award is 10 days).

Value:  A maximum of £4000 is available for activities. 

Opening and Closing dates:
2010/R2: opens 30 March 2010 and closes 30 May.
2010/R3: opens 30 July and closes 30 September

Website