School of CS newsletter

The School of Computer Science has again had success at the making a Difference awards; congratulations to all of those involved with the two projects below:

Outstanding international engagement - Staff Highly Commended

Project Malawi 2018: Team of Project Malawi 2018

A team from the Computing at Schools Regional Centre and the School of Computer Science ran a pilot project to bring computing to pupils and teachers in schools in Malawi. In 2018, a new team visited the same area and implemented a number of lessons learnt from the pilot, including a more gender-balanced team and improved training and support for teachers to make the impact more sustainable.

Outstanding contribution to social innovation - Highly Commended

Energy Market Innovation with UrbanChain: Richard Banach & Somayeh Taheri

This project is a partnership with UrbanChain to develop an energy trading platform using blockchain and artificial intelligence technologies that can reduce energy bills for households by up to 50% and for SMEs by up to 40%.

Mixer Event: Mathematics & Machine Learning Invitation by Tingting Mu, Neil Walton, Gavin Brown, William Parnell

This “mixer event”, hosted by the Schools of Computer Science and Mathematics of the University of Manchester, is designed to provide an inspirational event for mathematicians and computer scientists to discuss, exchange ideas and establish potential collaborations on interesting and challenging mathematical problems addressing fundamental machine learning questions and current developments.

To maximise the creativity and impact of the event and generate fruitful discussions, each attendee is invited to share 1-2 of their research papers or bring posters of previously presented work (you can register the title of these works during your online event registration).

If you wish to attend this event (please do!), register by 18:00, on 3 June 2019, through https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mixer-event-mathematics-machine-learning-tickets-61098836264

Colleagues may have seen information regarding the University's new policy on export controls and compliance (most recently the email from Professor Schroder).

Export Control Legislation in the UK and across the world is designed to regulate the transfer of goods across borders and can include the transfer of knowledge, data and software as well as physical goods.It is essential that we ensure compliance to avoid breaking the law and the University has designed a training course (available as an online training module through Blackboard) and it is essential that all staff complete the course.

There are many factors that are likely to affect research projects particularly regarding data and equipment and the training module will point you towards the right places to seek help. There will be many areas of research in which we have current or planned work that will potentially require an export licence and some may need a higher grade of licence. The UK Government has an online tool to help with determining whether or not a licence for export will be needed and the type of licence needed.

If you are planning to work overseas or to purchase or ship equipment between countries on a research grant please contact the Research Support Team as soon as possible so that we can assist you.

Ainur Begalinova is running the Half Marathon at the Great Manchester Run on 19th May. Please support all her fantastic efforts by adding a donation to her JustGiving page. She is raising money for Project Malawi. Ainur and a number of UG students, staff, and school teachers are going to Malawi in May to teach Computer Science to teachers, high school, and primary school children. 

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/malawi-ab