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Department of CS newsletter
Published: Thursday, 16 February 2023Weekly newsletter for the Department of CS
Department Newsletter - Contents
[ top ]News from Head of Department
From Andrew Stewart
Engineering the Future Conference 2023
The conference will showcase the School of Engineering's research and teaching in engineering, materials and computer science. It will be hosted by the School of Engineering and the Department of Materials on 28 and 29 March 2023.
The conference gives you an opportunity to learn more about our recent and future research and our educational activities that are delivering the next generation of engineers.More details and registration here.
Congratulations to Christos Kotselidis, Juan Fumero, and the TornadoVM Team
It was great reading the recent Intel DevMesh Project Spotlight post highlighting the fantastic work of the TornadoVM Team - more details here.
Congratulations to Steve Furber!
Congratulations to Steve Furber who has been nominated for an honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from the University of Oxford.
[ top ]News and announcements
Would you be interested in reviewing some abstracts for the upcoming BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium?
The organisers of the BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium are seeking volunteers to review short (250 word) abstracts that have been submitted by UG and MSc woman and non-binary students. You can read more about the colloquium here:
https://bcswomenlovelace.bcs.org/
If you could spare a small amount of time to review some of the abstracts, please let Ruth know (ruth.maddocks@manchester.ac.uk)
Volunteers wanted for Baby computer demonstration team
The Science and Industry Museum, Manchester is looking for volunteers to join their Baby computer demonstration team and would welcome applications from students or staff in the department. The Baby, the world’s first electronic stored program computer, was invented and built in the University, running its first program in 1948, 75 years ago.
There is an advert for the post here, and more details here. The stated application deadline has now passed but they are still happy to accept applications or enquiries.
Building Access Requests
There is a Faculty wide project being implemented to standardise the process for building access - and requesting different access outside of core hours (0800-1800). There have been some delays in rolling out this project, so we are implementing a new simpler process for the department which will run until the FSE project goes live. Essentially everyone will be given core hours access and a request will have to be submitted for anything outside of these hours. The access is as follows:
- Building Opening Hours (0800-1600 weekdays)
- Extended (1800-2200 weekdays)
- Exceptional (2200-0800 weekdays, weekends & bank holidays/UoM closure days)
Taught (UG/PGT) and PGR students are handled separately by their TLSE administrators. So this process if just for staff. This is a change from 24 hour access being automatically enabled - going forward we require staff to complete Kilburn/IT Building Induction in Blackboard and complete the form below:
Department of Computer Science - Building Access Request Form
Once the Ops team receive requests, all the data & approvals will be checked and verified and then access will be granted.
[ top ]PGR News
PGR Handbook January Update
Welcome to the updated handbook!
Version: g3e1e389 (Update: 2) dated 09 Feb 2023.¶
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Mentors Drop in Sessions added (Mentors Kickstart Guide).
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Thesis Submission updated (Submission).
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GTA Pay Arrangements added (Graduate Teaching Assistantships (GTA)).
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Estates Reporting Form added (Quick Guide).
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Student Support updated to Faculty Doctoral Academy Support Updated (throughout).
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Part Time Progression updated (Part-Time Study).
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Removal of some COVID related information (COVID 19 Update).
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Faculty Details updated (People and Places).
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Head of Department updated (Student Support and Guidance).
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Working in Submission Pending updated (Visa Status During Submission Pending).
[ top ]Research News
DARE UK Projects to drive more coordinated secure use of sensitive data for research across UK
Please see here for more information: DARE UK Driver Projects.
TRE-FX: Delivering a federated network of TREs to enable safe data analytics, led by researchers at the University of Manchester
Dr Zahra Montazeri on the big screen
For International Day of Women and Girls in Science Zahra's research and experience was profiled with a very inspiring video. Learn about Zahra's research and her internships at Pixar and Disney!
UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) Survey on Open and Transparent Research Practices
Deadline: 31-Mar-23
The University is committed to supporting the development of open and transparent research practices as part of an Open and Responsible Research Environment in our research strategy and through our recently established Office for Open Research.
You may already be aware that the UK Reproducibility Network (UKRN) is running a national survey on open and transparent research practices, which is being led by The University of Manchester.
With that in mind, we would really value the input of our research community, across all disciplines and all career stages - from PhD candidates to professorial grades. We want to hear from everyone: those already practising open research, those who plan to and those who are opposed to this way of working or simply do not find it useful for their research.
Please could you complete a short survey (which will take around 15 minutes) to help us improve resources to support your research. Open research is becoming more common and a growing number of research funding bodies require evidence of such practices.
UKRI travel rules for costings on grants - reminder
From 2nd November 2022 Premium economy travel is not permitted. It should only be used in exceptional circumstances where there is a justifiable health and wellbeing reason. We will be required to provide evidence as to why we purchased something other than standard class travel during audit and therefore any requests to cost or approve premium or business class travel to a UKRI grant must be accompanied by appropriate evidence for this on the project record. Noting that details of personal health circumstances should not be disclosed.
Congratulations to Dr Kaled Alshmrany on his PhD success!
Kaled Alshmrany (supervised by Lucas Cordeiro) has recently passed his Ph.D. entitled, Efficient Hybrid Fuzzing for Detecting Vulnerabilities and Achieving High Coverage in Software.
Kaled started his PhD in September 2018 under my supervision, initially in the Formal Methods (FM) Research Group and later in the Systems and Software Security (S3) Research Group. In addition, Kaled has collaborated with various colleagues from these research groups throughout his PhD. Overall, Kaled has been the most outstanding PhD student I have ever supervised based on his achievements, as described below.
Kaled is always motivated to learn and solve new challenges in program analysis, program synthesis, software testing and security. During Kaled's PhD at Manchester, he developed, implemented, and evaluated novel software testing algorithms using logic-based automated reasoning, which has been state-of-the-art over the last three years. In particular, he developed the tool FuSeBMC, which received six international awards. Kaled won the gold medal in the international competition on Software Testing (Test-Comp 2021) in the category "Cover-Error". He also won three gold medals in the international competition on Software Testing (Test-Comp 2022), achieving first place in all categories.
Kaled also published five research papers in the most prestigious venues in formal methods, software engineering and security about his work. Last year, he also participated in the following initiatives:
· European joint conferences on the theory and practice of software and gave a speech on FuSeBMC in Munich, Germany, in 2022. (https://etaps.org/2022 )
· Global AI Summit – Riyadh 2022, Saudi Arabia (https://globalaisummit.org/en/Pages/About.aspx).
· ScienceX event at the Manchester Central Library (https://www.mub.eps.manchester.ac.uk/sciencex/).
· Participated as a speaker at Manchester Elite Research Conference 2022 (https://uksacb.org/20790-2/).
Kaled actively participated in the EPSRC SCorCH project as an associate researcher. He published various research papers with this team (https://scorch-project.github.io/about/). He also joined the Hemaya Association concerned with cyber security..
Kaled was placed on the honor board at the Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau in the UK for his achievements. Lastly, Kaled was chosen as the official spokesperson for the Saudi channel about cybersecurity-related topics. As a result, he participated in many television events (https://twitter.com/saudiatv/status/1477231230714327042?s=20&t=gctMPc8PZ1wWnoyMLEs6gA).
Kaled's future plans:
- Work as a faculty member at the Institute of Public Administration (IPA) in Saudi Arabia.
- Work on the IAA project as a postdoc at the University of Manchester.
- Open a company for our tool "FuSeBMC" that won 6 intentional medals in software testing.
[ top ]Research Funding Opportunities
EPSRC Strategic Equipment call - internal timeline and process
Internal deadline: 10-Mar-2023 (noon) Submission of potential draft Business Cases to Daniel Twiddy (with costs)
The EPSRC submission process for this call consists of two stages, with an initial submission of a two page “Expression of Interest” followed by a full application, if invited. This scheme is intended to fund individual or combined assets with a value over £400k; the request should fit with the host university strategy and enable research that predominantly falls within EPSRC's remit. The Faculty is, therefore, arranging several internal deadlines so as to review the draft 2 page outlines prior to Je-S submission.
If you are interested in submitting an EoI for this call, we would request that you please contact your RSM (Sarah Chatwin) as soon as possible so they are aware of it and can budget time accordingly.
The deadlines we would like to work to, are as follows:
3rd March 2023 Notify departmental RSM of impending submission
10th March 2023 (noon) Submission of potential draft Business Cases to Daniel Twiddy
24th March 2023 Notification of faculty review (candidates to be informed if they can go forward)
14th April 2023 Recommended EPSRC deadline for Je-S submission of faculty approved draft Business Cases
Please note that EoIs must now be fully costed for the internal submission.
An intention to submit should be submitted to RSM by Friday 3rd March and full EoIs on Friday 10thMarch to daniel.twiddy@manchester.ac.uk.Pre-announcement: EPSRC Prosperity Partnerships: early-stage collaborations (pilot)
Deadline: 09-May-23
https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/prosperity-partnerships-early-stage-collaborations-pilot/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
Apply for funding to support ambitious early-stage research business-academic collaborations on their way to becoming strategic partnerships.Proposals will:
- be business-led but co-created and co-delivered by the industrial and academic partners
- address research areas and challenges based on EPSRC’s strategic delivery plan
We encourage micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) involvement.
Industry contribution will be at least 50% of the total grant value.
EPSRC will fund 80% of the full economic cost of the project, which can be up to £750k for up to 3 years.
[ top ]Health and Safety
Kilburn Building - Fire Alarm Reminder
Just a quick reminder about the alarm set up in the Kilburn Building. Kilburn has a two stage alarm:
- First Stage - alarm sounding is intermittent - this means prepare to leave - but no requirement to evacuate
- Second Stage - alarm sounding is continuous - this means evacuate immediately via the nearest available fire exit
[ top ]Sustainability and Green Impact News