Department of CS newsletter

Dear All (sent to acstaff, restaff and pssstaff email lists and also to PGR)

As you should have seen from Chris Hardacre’s email (attached here for those who didn’t receive it) you may now return to our buildings and use your offices. This goes for PDRAs and PGR students, too, and we have gathered relevant links to the guidance in our wiki at https://wiki.cs.manchester.ac.uk/staff/index.php/Return_to_campus .

Chris’ message mentions rooms being checked for use for activities such as tutorials and on campus meetings. Academic offices in Computer Science are being prioritised for these checks.

The Kilburn Building is open during working hours (8am to 6pm). The IT Building is on swipe access. Research activities can take place out of hours, but swipe cards are then needed for entrance and exit.

New starters will need a staff card. New members of staff go to HR Services, based in the Simon Building to get their staff card, see https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/maps/interactive-map/ for an interactive map. PGR students go to the Student Services Centre; you need to book a slot via emailing ssc@manchester.ac.uk .

People who have arrived since March 2020 can enable swipe access by contacting accesscontrol@manchester.ac.uk You can also use this email to check your swipe access status.

If you need a key to your office contact CSOps via email CSOps@manchester.ac.uk .

The induction process for new starters has been recently updated at faculty level, and we are currently following on with the departmental-level induction. It is described in our wiki at https://wiki.cs.manchester.ac.uk/staff/index.php/Induction

If you’ve arrived since March 2020 and haven’t done an induction, then work through these pages and contact your line manager/supervisor where necessary.

Robert

 

Dear colleague Further to the recent message from Nalin Thakkar, Chair of the Campus Management Group, I would like to take this opportunity to provide more details on how the Faculty is planning for the return of staff and students and make you aware of any issues that you may need to consider when planning your return.  Occupancy of spaces on campus  Following the government’s final lifting of restrictions in July, we are no longer required to operate within 2m social distancing guidelines. In order to determine how we can use our spaces (e.g. occupancy levels, duration of activity and mitigations required), we will be using the Cambridge Airborne tool which is being used widely across the higher education sector. The Cambridge Airborne tool uses a number of key indicators based upon ventilation within the space to establish the parameters for the activity. By working with this tool, we hope to be in a position to increase the number of staff and students using laboratories, academic offices, team offices and other spaces. The Faculty’s Health and Safety and Technical Services teams are currently being trained to use the tool. They will be in contact with relevant colleagues in Departments, Research Institutes and the Faculty Office once their training is complete to arrange for workspace, laboratories and teaching spaces to be audited. They will also liaise with the Departmental Teaching, Learning and Student Experience and timetabling colleagues when assessing occupancy levels for academic offices to determine whether these spaces may be used for academic advising or tutorials, or whether alternative rooms are required. For all spaces, we will continue to operate in a socially distanced capacity (if this is possible without impacting activity) until the assessment has been undertaken. We are aiming that from Monday 13 September, unless the assessment of the space determines significantly lower occupancy levels than pre-pandemic, we should not need to be operating rotas in our research spaces. We would also like to remind you that access to our research facilities has reverted to pre-pandemic levels providing our researchers with out of hours and extended opening times. The Directorate of Estates and Facilities is responsible for ensuring that all of the central teaching spaces have adequate ventilation.  As mentioned above, the Faculty will assess all other spaces. Teaching and self-isolation/quarantine If teaching cannot be delivered as planned either due to having to self-isolate or quarantine, this will be treated as sick leave and the usual arrangements will apply; the original session(s) will be rescheduled or a teaching replacement put in place covering activity during the period.  We are working on an FAQ providing more detailed information on the delivery of on-campus teaching. This will be circulated before Welcome week.  Travel  The process for travelling within the UK has reverted to that in place pre-pandemic. You are required to complete a generic risk assessment and should check any COVID-19 restrictions that might be in place where you intend to undertake business travel before making arrangements. The risk assessment can be obtained from your Deputy School Operations Manager, Head of Business Area or the Faculty Safety Team (fse.safety@manchester.ac.uk).  The process for international travel remains unchanged. Please read the travel FAQs for more information. Building access  Until 13 September, you will need your staff ID card to access buildings on campus. Your previous levels of access have automatically been reinstated. However, if you need to change your access please contact your local Technical Operations Manager. Faculty Office staff should contact your line manager.  Staying safe on campus   Although the government restrictions have now been lifted, we still have a duty of care to each other to minimise the risk of infection and transmission.  We would like to remind you of the following safety advice:  Continue to regularly use hand sanitiser and clean workstations/equipment using the materials provided. We strongly recommend that you continue to wear face-coverings whilst moving around indoors on campus (except in spaces where health and safety considerations determine otherwise). We are encouraging students to keep face coverings in place in teaching settings. Between 17 and 24 September staff and students will be able to take advantage of on campus walk up vaccination centres. We would urge staff to take twice weekly lateral flow tests. Testing kits will be available for collection from catering outlets across campus. However, you should not take a lateral flow test if you have tested positive within the last 90 days. Testing positive for COVID-19 If you have tested positive, you need to isolate for 10 days after which you can return to work. The exception is if you are still experiencing symptoms including a high temperature, runny nose, sore throat, sneezing, muscle or full body aches, headaches, being sick or feeling nauseous and diarrhoea. With these symptoms you may still be infectious and will need to remain isolated until they stop. If you are experiencing sickness and/or diarrhoea, you need to isolate for a further 48 hours. The process for reporting a positive test remains the same; please complete this formand inform your line manager.    General information about returning to work on campus is available on StaffNet. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding during the past 18 months.      Kind regards Chris --------------------------------------------------------------- Prof. C. Hardacre,  Vice Dean and Head of School of Natural Sciences The University of Manchester The Mill Sackville Street, Manchester M13 9PL Email: c.hardacre@manchester.ac.uk Telephone:  +44 (0)161 306 2672 www.ceas.manchester.ac.uk

Welcome to Tom Carroll who joined us as one of the fixed-term teaching focused staff on 1 August this year; Tom's biography is below

Robert.

I am Thomas (Tom) Carroll and have recently been appointed as a teaching focused academic within the department.

I was previously a teaching focused academic at the University of Liverpool; before that I worked as a GTA whilst completing my PhD, also at Liverpool.

I have experience with flipped classroom and blended learning delivery, going back to before the COVID pandemic, and I am passionate about both improving both the student and staff experience using these innovative methods.

Research-wise, my PhD explored the abstract modelling of GPU computation, as well as some string and bioinformatics problems. I would say that my interests are still centered around the GPU, with a particular interest in the abstract modelling of computation. I am also interested in parallel string algorithms and bioinformatics applications on the GPU.

Congratulations to Prof Juni'ichi Tsujii, who have received ACL Lifetime Achievement Award 2021!

Prof. Jun'ichi Tsujii has been awarded the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) Lifetime Achievement Award 2021 for a career spanning over 50 years. The award is a recognition for widely recognised, sustained and enduring contributions to the field of computational linguistics over a long period.

Wellbeing highlight

BeActive at the University

Free Zoom classes https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=26824

Return to Campus Support Workshops https://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=51119

If you are looking to recruit or extend staff as part of a funded research project please contact the Research Support Team.

Advertising posts:

We can help you complete PCM forms to advertise posts and organise extensions where possible. We will check funding is available with our Research Finance Colleagues, then liaise with HR Services on your behalf.

Recruiting staff:

We can help you complete the NAF forms and liaise with HR Services on your behalf so that contracts are sent out to your successful candidate/s.

Research Support Manager: sarah.chatwin@manchester.ac.uk

Research Support Officers: natalia.stefanovic@manchester.ac.uk; vanessa.menon@manchester.ac.uk; Tasmia.elahi@manchester.ac.uk; Lucy.valentine@manchester.ac.uk

Britain’s first chain of charity sports shops (Sports Traider) to open in Salford Salford Shopping Centre is set to welcome a new charity shop aimed at giving back to disadvantaged and disabled children in the community.