Department of CS newsletter

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the world's largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology, has over 400,000 members. The IEEE Milestones program honours significant technical achievements in all areas associated with IEEE. To date the IEEE has 15 milestones in the UK and Republic of Ireland including Maxwell’s equations, Benjamin Franklin’s work in London, and code breaking at Bletchley Park during WWII.

The IEEE has announced two more milestones for computing inventions at Manchester University.

Manchester University "Baby" Computer and its Derivatives, 1948-1951

The IEEE citation that will be inscribed on the plaque for this award reads: “At this site on 21 June 1948 the “Baby” became the first computer to execute a program stored in addressable read-write electronic memory. “Baby” validated Williams-Kilburn Tube random-access memories, later widely used, and led to the 1949 Manchester Mark I which pioneered index registers. In February 1951, Ferranti Ltd's commercial derivative became the first electronic computer marketed as a standard product delivered to a customer.” The full proposal can be found here.

Fig. 1 Tom Kilburn (left) and F.C. Williams (right) the inventors of the Baby and Mark I computers, showing the monitor display with the input buttons and switches beneath.

Atlas Computer and the Invention of Virtual Memory 1957-1962

The IEEE citation that will be inscribed on the plaque for this award reads: “The Atlas computer was designed and built by a joint University of Manchester/Ferranti Ltd team in this building. Its most significant new feature was the invention of virtual memory, which allowed memories of different speeds and capacities to act as a single large fast memory separately available to multiple users. Virtual memory was refined over time to become a standard feature of general-purpose computers.” The full proposal can be found here.

Fig 2. Sebastian de Ferranti (left), Managing Director of Ferranti Ltd. and Tom Kilburn (right), the leader of the Manchester University team who invented Virtual memory and the Atlas Computer, standing by the engineer's control panel of the Manchester Atlas.

The lead author for the proposal for the Baby milestone was Prof Simon Lavington who was a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science at The University of Manchester until 1986 and is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Essex. The lead author for the proposal for the Atlas milestone was Roland Ibbett who was a Reader in Computer Science at The University of Manchester until 1985 and is now Emeritus Professor at the University of Edinburgh. Thanks are also due to Prof Roderick Muttram who helped with the writing and submission of both proposals and acted for the UK and RoI Section of the IEEE and to Brian Berg who acted as the Advocate to the IEEE History Committee for both proposals. Many thanks also to Jim Miles who led this from the Manchester side of this process. Robert.

6th July at 1pm.

These sessions are aimed at people who are working from home and will give some good tips on how to set up your workstation correctly.

If people are interested in joining the session they can register here:  https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwkduGurjgvGNaLalcXEwyuS2r2x7hvGomP

https://wiki.cs.manchester.ac.uk/staff/index.php/Wellbeing

Highlight of the week:

An afternoon of herbal knowledge and herbal tea making, specifically for Menopause with the Whitworth Art Gallery and Garden. 

Menopause Medicine: An introduction to Herbs for the menopause Tickets, Tue 13 Jul 2021 at 14:00 | Eventbrite

Information for colleagues/Management on how to make the workplace suitable for women in menopause can be found here;

How colleagues, managers and reward teams can support staff through the menopause (reba.global)

The event features a talk by Ingy Abdelhalim, one of our current undergraduate students, who will be presenting the system she built with a team of students employed by Imago, the University of Manchester Student Software Company. https://imago.cs.manchester.ac.uk/

The students collaborated with researchers in AMBS, in Singapore and in Oregon to build a lightweight COVID contact tracing system customised for use on the University of Manchester campus.

Details here: Workshop on Social Projects and Professional Support for Social Enterprises Tickets, Wed 30 Jun 2021 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

As the Summer is about to begin I'd like to thank all staff for supporting the Department's efforts in the Research School over the last tricky year. I'd also like to remind you that the PGR Team will be taking holidays, preparing for the new intake, and preparing for a return to Kilburn over the next few months and so service will be impacted.

You may not realise it, but committees don't meet over the summer, people are on holiday, and I've asked the PGR team to reduce their work tempo to avoid burnout and prepare them for September. In this case, you should expect a reduced work rate, which will have a knock-on effect. You should expect delays through July and August of a week at a minimum and often more than is, so please get any administrative issues dealt with in June!

And one more thing... Have a Great Summer!

With many of the Horizon Europe calls already open (or about to open) on the Funding and Tenders Portal, the UK Research Office (UKRO) has produced several new factsheets with information on what researchers need to know to be successful when applying for funding.  All members of staff at the University with a University email account can register for access on the UKRO website.
 
While Horizon Europe is mainly a continuation of Horizon 2020, there are some changes to the evaluation process and the way applications need to be written and the new eligibility criteria for consortia.  The new UKRO factsheets provide the most important information that applicants need to know when preparing their bids without the need to go through hundreds of pages of the programme's legal basis.  These factsheets complement the recently published factsheets on the individual Work Programme parts, which summarise the main upcoming funding opportunities in Horizon Europe.
 
The following new factsheets are now available:
 
•         Applying for funding – This factsheet gives pointers on what to consider when applying for Horizon Europe funding, including how to ensure that your proposal is relevant for the topic.
•         Building a consortium – This factsheet advises where to begin when creating a consortium, where to look for partners or find out about consortia that are forming and what to keep in mind when selecting partners. Finally, it provides some best practice for leading or working within a consortium.
•         Evaluation of proposals – This factsheet provides on overview of the evaluation criteria and the evaluation process in Horizon Europe, as well as some of the novelties compared with Horizon 2020. It also provides useful information on how to become and proposal evaluator in the new programme.
   
These and other useful factsheets can be found in the 'Horizon Europe Factsheets' section of the UKRO Portal.  More factsheets will be added, including one on the legal and financial basics in Horizon Europe, in the coming days.
 
Please note, UKRO produces factsheets, alongside a repertoire of other resources, which are made available on the UKRO Portal for the benefit of our subscribing institutions. We therefore kindly ask that these factsheets are not uploaded on any externally facing websites.
 
UKRO also maintains a page dedicated to all novelties in Horizon Europe on the UKRO Portal.  Applicants to the first calls for proposals should refer to this section for further advice on changes to the funding schemes.
 
 
Horizon Europe calls will be issued via the Participant Portal as for Horizon 2020, you will need to register as an individual PI to set up your proposal but the University’s Participant Identification Code (PIC) remains the same as for Horizon 2020 - you do not need to apply for a separate/new PIC when setting up a new proposal session - the University’s PIC is – 999903840.
 
 
If you have any questions about Horizon Europe please contact me Liz.Fay@manchester.ac.uk

The deadline for applications is 3pm, Thursday 15th July 2021. Full details of the call can be found in the attached call document. To ensure that proposal fits the remit for the call, please contact Dr Rachel Cowen to discuss your plans if you are considering a submission. Rachel.cowen@manchester.ac.uk

Deadline: 14-Sep-21

www.ukri.org/opportunity/enabling-an-equitable-digital-society

Apply for funding up to £1.25M to explore and develop human-centred digital technologies and services that enable an equitable society. Your team must include:

• researchers from at least two disciplines across the EPSRC, ESRC and AHRC portfolio
• at least one early-career researcher at lecturer level as principal or co-investigator
• at least one researcher co-investigator at postdoctoral level.
• Your project must be at least 50% within the remit of EPSRC.

EPSRC are seeking high-quality multidisciplinary, sociotechnical and co-created projects aimed at building activities in the equitable digital society priority area.

Projects should explore human-centered, transformational digital technologies and services to achieve an equitable digital society. Projects should not, however, solely explore digital equitability without generating novel technical outputs. Proposals addressing the breadth of the priority area are welcomed.

Deadline: 06-Oct-21
www.ukri.org/opportunity/quantum-technology-career-development-fellowships/

Apply for funding to develop your quantum technology career and work towards becoming an independent researcher. The fellowship lasts 3-5 years and is aimed at post-docs (PDRAs) in (any aspect of) quantum technology or those looking to return to research. You must have one of the following:

• a PhD
• at least four years’ experience in a relevant field.

A small number of fellowships will be sponsored by the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC). Applicants should be able to show how they will develop an independent career based on their own original research ideas and vision.

Information session: 14-Jul-21, 13:00-14:00 (registration required)
Deadline: 26-Aug-21

www.translation.manchester.ac.uk/funding/translation-manchester-funding-schemes/

Two internal funding schemes are coming up in July. These two schemes ‘Access to Expertise (A2E)’ (6-9 months duration, up to £25,k) and ‘Projects for Translation (P4T)’ (6-9 months,up to £55k) are awarded from the Wellcome Trust Institutional Partnership Award (TPA). The TPA provides funding which is devolved to the University and is managed by Translational Manchester within the FBMH Research Strategy and Innovation (RS&I) team. Nevertheless, academics from all faculties are able to apply, as soon as they are involved in healthcare research.

Both schemes, A2E and P4T, will launch on Monday 5th July. In the application brief we have provided a deadline of 5pm Monday July 26th for applicants to contact their Research Support Office (via your research support contact or sarah.chatwin@manchester.ac.uk). We also encourage applicants to approach their contracts team if their project will require a contract to be drawn up with an external/industry partner, which is likely to be once the funds are released in November.