Department of CS newsletter

Each session will be led by a Head of School and attenders will also have the opportunity to ask questions.

The dates for these are as follows:

• 2nd November 2021: 1:00pm – 2:00pm Zoom link: - https://zoom.us/j/99949725325 

4 November 2021: 1:00pm – 2:00pm Zoom link: https://zoom.us/j/96992541161

Please note that the session content is the same for each slot, colleagues can attend either, they are not school specific. Robert.

It's important that if you have non-functioning network ports and/or dodgey Eduroam that you raise an issue and send the ticket number to Chris Page. Details below.

Chris Page gives the following advice. Information was circulated a while ago about the Eduroam update. This is now rather buried in the support portal with its lack of support for deep linking: https://manchester.saasiteu.com/Modules/SelfService/#knowledgeBase/view/42BD1EDE48C5415ABD8F377213C4261F is the article, which can be found by logging into the support portal and searching for wifiupgrade The recommended approach for users who are still experiencing Wifi issues is to open a ticket using the "General request of IT issue" in the IT Services ticket system. For people with dead ports, the recommended approach at the moment is to open a "General request or IT issue" ticket with "FAO: NOC 24/7" to report the dead port including as much detail as possible about the port in question, including room number and port number (the port number is a number like 24/8/2 printed on the ethernet port on the wall).

Once opened, send Chris Page the ticket number so that he can get it escalated. Don't use the "Network socket request" ticket, as that will go to a different team who may not understand the situation in Kilburn.

Chris says that it's looking likely that Kilburn will be "flood patched" to restore all or almost all ports in the building to normal working. Although if it turns out that new switches are needed it might be delayed to the end of the month as there are supply issues (and the damage from the burst water main required most of the spare switches IT already had)

As usual, many thanks to Chris and his team for dealing with this situation. Robert.

In June/2020, the Arm Centre of Excellence organised a workshop between Arm Research and the University of Manchester. Researchers from both institutions delivered seven technical talks about various research topics, including machine learning, high-performance computing, security, and automated reasoning. You can watch all technical presentations given in this workshop on the Arm YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJ5Jn0sxm08

Dear colleagues,

In line with hybrid working which has resulted in a limited number of CS Ops staff on campus, I would like to let you know that we have repurposed the print room (2.13) on the second floor to house undeliverable posts and parcels.

CSOps team will check the room regularly to for any post or parcels that have been unable to be delivered to offices. We have also arranged outgoing mails/parcels slots where they will be collected by porters by 14:00 on a daily basis. Therefore if you wish to send any post, please leave your item in the print room accordingly. For courier service, please contact CSOps for details on how to arrange this.

We have also arranged a stock of stationary, and will regularly monitor the stock levels, replenish them. Please do let CSOps know if there are any items you would like to see stocked.

The door code to the print room is C1570Y, please note this code is for staff use only due to the nature of post and parcels that will be in there. PGR students will need to email CSOps if they require any specific stationary.

Kind regards

Michelle Fox

https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/wellbeing/wellbeing-videos/

ATLAS talks

We are starting on December 8 and we have a full schedule from December to March.

I will also need more suggestions for speakers for the second part of the academic year. Please email me to suggest additional speakers, especially for topics not covered in the research areas below.

December 8 Massimo Poesio (Queen Mary) on NLP (Host Sophia)

January 12 Nick Hawes (Oxford) on robotics (Host Angelo)

February 2 Philippa Gardner (Imperial) on verification (Host Suzanne)

February 16 Mike Cook (Queen Mary) on games (Host Suzanne)

March 2 Antonio Barbalace (Edinburgh) on systems software (Host Pierre)

All suggestions to Angelo Cangelosi@Manchester.ac.uk

Chantel Murtagh is a new RSO for us in Computer Science. Welcome Chantel! Chantel comes to us from research finance in FBMH.

Chantel joins Natalia Stefanovic and Vanessa Menon as RSOs for Computer Science (although they also cover other departments in FSE too). There have been some new recruits in Research Services so the workload split has been re-organised as follows:

Chantel: Systems and Software Security; Information Management; Formal Methods (with Sarah picking up Carole and Andrei's work)
Natalia: NLP and TM; APT; Autonomy and Verification (with Sarah picking up Michael, Clare and Louise)
Vanessa: Human Computer Systems; NEST; ML and Robotics (with Sarah supporting Chris Taylor)

A reminder: Your 20/21 P&DR needs to be done by the end of October and uploaded to the system, if you haven’t already done this.  Can you also let the  CSops team CSOps@manchester.ac.uk or Hodpa HoDPA.cs@manchester.ac.uk know if you have had your P&DR, as we need to log it on the system.  Further details are here: https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/human-resources/current-staff/career-development/p&drs/

From the FSE Internationalisation Monthly Briefing – October 2021
International Research – Open Calls

• Horizon Europe – There are currently 406 calls open for submission and a further 330 calls are scheduled to open in the coming months – https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/opportunities/topic-search
• British Council Going Global Partnership calls – Opportunities to establish partnerships with institutions across a number of countries including India, China, Indonesia Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Turkey. Closing dates vary according the specific country/call but are between 25th October and 30th November – https://www.britishcouncil.org/education/hescience/going-global-partnerships/funding-calls-opportunities
• Indonesia-UK PACT – Low carbon transition in the urban transport sector. Each project is anticipated to be of value £100k-£1m and 12 month in duration. Submission deadline of 4th November - https://www.ukpact.co.uk/country-programme/indonesia
• EUREKA ITEA4 - call for organisations collaborating internationally on the R&D of software innovation and digital transformation projects, deadline for submission of project outlines 16th November 2021 https://www.eurekanetwork.org/open-calls/itea-4-software-innovation-2021
• EUREKA CELTIC-NEXT - CELTIC-NEXT stimulates and orchestrates international collaborative projects in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) domain, deadline for submission 22nd November 2021 https://www.eurekanetwork.org/open-calls/celtic-next-2021-autumn
• UK- US Research: ecology and evolution of infectious diseases 2021 – Collaboration must involve a US partner and can also include partners from China and Israel. BBSRC are particularly interested in plant health, coronaviruses, and other zoonotic pathogens. Total fund of £2.5m and application deadline of 24th November 2021 https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/uk-us-research-ecology-and-evolution-of-infectious-diseases-2021/
• BBSRC International Laboratories Partner Awards Call – open to current BBSRC grant holders and will provide grants of up to £50k to develop links with labs in Australia, Brazil, China, Europe, India, Japan New Zealand, Taiwan or the US. Deadline for submission is 11th November 2021. The link is for the Canada call but calls for other countries can be accessed from the same page – https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/partner-with-canadian-bioscience-laboratories/
• EPSRC Lead Agency Scheme – opportunity for UK researchers to work with overseas researchers in Ireland, Luxembourg, Brazil and the United States – ongoing call - https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/epsrc-working-with-overseas-scientists/
• FAPESP-SPRINT – For UoM and researchers from the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Deadline: 31st January, 2022. FAPESP will provide funding of up to the equivalent of £10k per proposal per year to the Sao Paulo partner, andUoM will provide up to £10k per proposal per year, for the duration of the grant to cover research-related mobility expenses https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/fse/faculty-support-services/research-business-services/internationalisation/funding-opportunities/joint-research-scheme/

International Research Partnerships

• The 2021 call for the Manchester-CUHK Research Fund is open from Monday 13th September. The call is open to all research areas and targets early career researchers. The deadline for applications is 25th October 2021 https://www.manchester.ac.uk/collaborate/worldwide/collaborations/manchester-cuhk-research-fund/
• Dual award PhD studentships with the University of Melbourne – a call for PhD project proposals is currently open with a deadline of 25th October 2021 – https://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/rbe/rdrd/awards/dual-awards/

International News and Events

• Japan Academic Network in Europe (JANET) Forum 2021 will take place as an online event 10th-12th November 2021- https://www.janet-info.jp/en/forum/the-janet-forum-2021-will-be-held-on-november-9-12/
• UKRI India – New report reveals real-world impact from UK-India research and innovation partnership - https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1022125/UKRI_India_impact_report.pdf
• Travel to India opening up: https://www.sarkaritel.com/india-withdraws-covid-restrictions-imposed-on-visiting-uk-nationals/

International Student Recruitment Events

• Preliminary and live link to international student recruitment events (many virtual) for 2021. If you are interested in contributing to one, please contact the International Office - Dominic.Jensen@manchester.ac.uk https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1x5uOCRhoCm4ihfH1l_V_kOie5EMr6TVKqrji0pp9oA0/edit?usp=sharing

FSE Internationalisation: Contacts
AD David Polya david.polya@manchester.ac.uk ; PA Leanne Lightfoot leanne.lightfoot@manchester.ac.uk; Regional/Country
Heads of Internationalisation: China: Xiao-Jun Zeng xiaojun.zeng@manchester.ac.uk ; India: David Polya; Middle East/Africa:
Majid Sedighi majid.sedighi@manchester.ac.uk; North America: Bill Sellers william.sellers@manchester.ac.uk; Latin America:
Gary Fuller gary.a.fuller@manchester.ac.uk;
International Research & Partnerships Development Manager: Alex Gaskill alexander.gaskill@manchester.ac.uk

Register interest deadline: before 3rd November 2021
DSTL deadline: 15th November

This research aims to support influence practitioners in developing an accurate picture of how a chosen target audience group use language in order to either mirror that style, or to deliberately distance themselves from it (depending on their aims and whether they wish to be seen as a part of that
group).
This work will build on previous research into understanding linguistic identities online and assuming linguistic identities online (Grant and MacLeod, 2020) and develop a guide or framework that can be of practical use in influence design planning.

Full information available from sarah.chatwin@manchester.ac.uk

During the week of 1 Nov to 5 Nov work will be taking place in Kilburn Building and IT Building to replace the existing Wi-Fi Access Points with upgraded systems. While the work is in progress, localised disruption may occur to wireless connectivity in these buildings. 

IT Services' Networks Modernisation Project have assured us that disruption will be minimised as much as possible, and that replacement and commissioning of individual access points should only take 15 to 20 minutes. If disruption must be avoided in any specific locations on given days or times, please contact christopher.page@manchester.ac.uk with the details of the time, day, and area. 

Queries may also be sent to it.modernisation@manchester.ac.uk

In the forthcoming weeks we will be launching our Christmas Appeal.

We are raising money and sending gifts to Wood Street Mission in Manchester. Some of you may remember that Melanie Price has been collecting donations for the charity for a number of years. We hope we will be able to collect donations made to Kilburn but there is an option available to make an online donation or even purchase toys/gifts over Amazon directly (wishlist).

Christmas - Wood Street Mission

We also hope to do a bake sale on 1st December. Again, more information to come! I have to do it...even though I know it is far too early but...HoHoHo!