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School of CS newsletter
Published: Monday, 08 June 2015Weekly newsletter for the School of CS
[ top ]News from Head of School
Andrei Voronkov to receive Herbrand Award for Distinguished Contributions to Automated Reasoning
Andrei Voronkov is this year's winner of the Herbrand Award. The award will be presented to him at the 25th International Conference on Automated Deduction held in Berlin in August 2015. The award is in recognition of his numerous theoretical and practical contributions to automated deduction, and the development of the award-winning Vampire theorem prover. Congratulations to Andrei!
http://www.cadeinc.org/HerbrandAward.html
Jim Miles
Staff survey results
The results of the staff survey have been released. Capita, who ran the survey, have put together the report below, which outlines the key findings:
For the complete set of University-level results of the Staff Survey 2015, visit:
7,177 people, which equates to 70% of eligible staff, took part in the survey which ran between 9 March and 20 April 2015.
Robot scientist visits London
Ross King’s Robot Scientist will be visiting London to take part in an exhibition of Artificial Intelligence at the Science Museum in the last week in August.
The Hive
In May the central and EPS communication teams launched the Hive, an online platform sponsored by Will Spinks for staff to share their ideas. Staff are asked questions and asked to post ideas and then vote on those ideas. The best ideas are then chosen shortlisted and discussed by the Faculty senior leadership. The Hive can be found at: https://manchester.ideascale.com
Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund – deadline June 26th
The Wellcome Trust are very interested in funding cross-disciplinary public engagement work – if you would like to have a go at demonstrating the value of your science to the public you will need a collaborator in FLS or FMHS. More details in this pdf and at this webpage.
[ top ]News and announcements
EPSRC new data management policy from 1 May 2015
Important information for EPSRC-Funded ResearchersThe EPSRC is changing its funding requirements with regard to the management of and access to EPSRC-funded research data. From 1 May 2015, the University and its researchers must adhere to a set of expectations.
If your research is funded by the EPSRC, we've summarised the key points to help you prepare for the new policy. Read our guidance to find out what you need to do to meet the requirements:1. Be aware of RCUK principles and EPSRC expectations
2. Provide a data statement in published research papers
3. Make data as freely and openly available as possible
4. Create a data management plan (DMP)
5. Facilitate sharing of non-digital research data
6. Publish metadata to enable discovery and re-use of your data
7. Specify reason and conditions for accessing restricted data in the published metadata
8. Securely preserve data for a minimum of 10 years
9. Claim eligible costs associated with research data management
The University has been planning for this and further information can be found by contacting our Research Data Management team.Sarah Chatwin
[ top ]Events
Seminar: Jailbreaking Xilinx FPGAs: working outside the vendor toolchain
08 June 2015 14:00, lecture theatre 1.5, Kilburn building.
Dr Eddie Hung, Imperial College London.
ABSTRACT:
Field-Programmable Gate Arrays are incredibly flexible devices -- capable of implementing any digital functionality -- yet circuits only be mapped to these devices using the vendor's own toolchain. Typically, this toolchain is closed-source and restrictive in how it can be used, preventing many researchers from thinking "outside the box". This talk will present some of the things I've worked on that bypass the vendor tools using the Xilinx Design Language (XDL) -- spanning from how to use network-flow algorithms to do optimal FPGA routing for debug, to an complete open-source toolflow that can create working bitstreams for Xilinx devices. No prior knowledge of FPGAs will be assumed; all are welcome!
BIO:
Eddie is currently a post-doctoral researcher at Imperial College London, where he is working on interesting new tools to leverage FPGA technology for improving circuit reliability and performance. Prior to this, he gained his PhD from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada in 2013 on methods to improve FPGA debug, and his MEng from the University of Bristol in 2008. His research has been recognised with awards at the FPT conference in 2013, and at the FPL conference in 2014. Along the way, he's also spent time with Tabula, Tektronix EIG, ARM, Panasonic PSDCE, and Motorola.
Bryony C Quick
Big Data Value Association (BDVA) Summit
Event:17-19 June 2015 (Madrid)
The Big Data Value Association (BDVA) is organizing its first Summit with the aim of informing attendees about the BDVA activities, presenting the main expected funding opportunities in the field of Big Data and to set-up dialogues to discuss opportunities and challenges offered by Big Data among the European Big Data Community.
The Summit is expected to foster the networking and cooperation on research, development and business innovation around Big Data. The agenda is available through http://www.bdva.eu/?q=summit
[ top ]Funding Opportunities
Coming-up: Resilience of the UK Food System in a Global Context
Event: 20 July 2015 London (more information to follow)The first of two programme calls will be launched in September 2015. Up to £7M of funding will be available through this first call to support approximately 4-6 high quality interdisciplinary research proposals. Each proposal must integrate biological, environmental and social sciences and can be led by any of these disciplines. a major food security challengeA community building event will be held in London to give researchers an opportunity to learn more about the call, meet colleagues from other disciplines and initiate partnerships in advance of the call launch in September.The programme will integrate biological, environmental and social sciences to support interdisciplinary projects addressing one or more of the following key themes (these are all interlinked and proposals that address aspects of more than one theme are strongly encouraged):- Enhancing productivity, resilience and sustainability of agricultural landscapes
At the core of this theme is understanding the relationship and trade-offs between resilience, sustainability & production, to deliver agricultural systems balancing the provision of food with other ecosystem services. This will help address the challenge of feeding a growing population sustainably; ensuring improved environmental, social and economic outcomes.
- Increasing resilience of international supply chains
This theme is focused on understanding the economic, environmental, biological and social factors affecting the food supply chain, and the interplay between these, to increase resilience of the food system at a local-to-global level.
- Influencing food choice for health, sustainability and resilience at the individual and household level
Central to this theme is understanding the drivers behind food choices and how these impact on the wider food system and production, in order to identify interventions that result in in provision of nutritious and sustainable food in more resilient and equitable ways.
RAEng Opportunities
The scheme provides a unique opportunity to early and mid-career academics to gain industrial experience by working on a collaborative research project with industry for up to 12 months. The secondments are expected to result in significant improvements to awardee’s teaching activities. The award contributes to the basic salary cost of the applicant paid pro-rata against the amount of time to be spent at the industry host. Applications must be received by 4pm on Monday 15 June 2015. For enquiries, please email research@raeng.org.uk
These awards provide £8,000 to fund Masters level qualifications, to encourage and facilitate the professional development and technical upskilling of UK-based engineers. The Panasonic Trust is keen to support the study of new and emerging technologies, particularly those related to: environmental technology; energy; sustainable development; natural resources; materials; and the built environment. Applications must be received by 4pm on Monday 15 June 2015. For enquiries and further information please contact Lucy Wheeler
The Academy provides funding to support the appointment of senior industrial engineers as Visiting Professors at UK universities. This industry-into-academia initiative aims to utilise the experience of the Visiting Professors to enhance undergraduate and/or postgraduate learning as well as the employability and skills of UK engineering graduates. Applications must be received by 4pm on Tuesday 16 June 2015. For enquiries, please contact Jacqueline Clay
Newton Research Collaboration Programme **good chance of success for applications which meet Academy standards**
Up to £24,000 available for researcher exchanges between the UK and Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Turkey or Vietnam. Exchanges can last from three months up to a year and are funded at a flat rate of £2,000 per month of exchange, up to £24,000. All applications must be received by 4pm on Thursday 18 June 2015. For more information please contact International@raeng.org.uk
Distinguished Visiting Fellowships
£6,000 to host an international academic expert at an UK university engineering department. Visits can last up to one month and Visiting Fellows can be from any overseas academic centre of excellence. This is great opportunity for researchers or a research community to learn from overseas expertise. Applications must be received by 4pm on Thursday 25 June 2015. For more information please contact International@raeng.org.uk
This competition aims to help an aspiring technology entrepreneur in the UK aged 16-25 to start a business based on their engineering innovation. The winner will receive the JC Gammon Award – a £15,000 prize and a year of bespoke support from the Enterprise Hub including training and mentoring. Applications must be received by 4pm on Monday 6 July 2015. For enquiries please contact Catherine Lawrence
Research Chairs and Senior Research Fellowships
Industrial co-funded scheme to support Professorial and Reader level appointments for five years at UK universities. With the aims of developing world leading research programmes as well as strengthening industry-academia links. Applications must be received by 4pm on Tuesday 1 September 2015. For enquiries and further information please contact Lucy Wheeler
Enterprise Fellowships provide funding and support to outstanding entrepreneurial engineering researchers, working at a UK university at postdoc level or above, to enable them to develop a spin-out business around their technological idea. Enterprise Fellows receive up to £35,000 for a year of salary support and an additional £25,000 for continued development of the innovation and associated spin-out company. Applications must be received by 5pm on Monday 7 September 2015. For enquiries please contact enterprise@raeng.org.uk
[ top ]Featured Research Outcomes
- Enhancing productivity, resilience and sustainability of agricultural landscapes
