Many thanks to all of you who attended/presented at the recent Engineering the Future Conference. It was great to see such a strong CS turnout at the event. I've heard very positive feedback from those who registered for the CS-led sessions.

Many congratulations to Angelo who has been awarded an ERC Advanced grant worth €2.5 million. Angelo's eTALK project on Embodied Thought for Abstract Language Knowledge will combine expertise in AI and psychology to focus on the fact that smart machines still only understand about third of the meaning of human language. To progress their ability to understand humans more fully, robots will be used as “tutors” to help children better understand numerical and abstract concepts.

I'd also like to congratulate Anirbit who has been awarded his first grant as PI by the Royal Society on Solving Partial Differential Equations By Deep-Learning.

Finally, it was good to see so many current CS colleagues make it into the Research.com ranking of the most cited scientists (measured by the CS discipline H-index) - so well done to Carole, Chris, Junichi, Uli, Sophia, Norman, and Bijan who all made it into the top 200 nationally. You can see the full rankings here: https://research.com/scientists-rankings/computer-science

Finally, I hope everyone manages to get a bit of downtime over the Easter break. It's been a long cold winter (especially in Kilburn)...

Best wishes

Andrew

(No) Heating in Kilburn: as I’m sure you’re aware, heating has been an increasing problem over the last weeks. We have now learnt that this is due to the main “boiler” possibly being broken, which would explain the almost universal lack of heating, including the radiators on the ground floor. This is being further investigated: heating will be totally turned off for inspection and possible repair on Thursday, March 30th. If you still had some central (vents or radiator) heating in your office in the last weeks, this will mean it will cool down and you may want to consider working from home or asking CSOps for an oil-filled radiator. I hope this will get fixed soon and will keep you posted.

Our Computer Science Department has successfully participated in the British Science Week, which took place from March 14th to 15^th, 2023, at The Manchester Museum. We have run demos to teach kids and adults about Artificial Intelligence (AI), focusing on Robotics and Computer Security, which represent two essential applications for AI techniques. In addition, the community learned how to build robotic applications and how robots interact with each other and humans. We also showed how to protect computer-based systems' security and data privacy using modern automated reasoning and verification techniques. Congratulations to the team representing our Computer Science Department in British Science Week!

PHS will be attending Kilburn & IT Buildings from Monday 20th March to undertake PAT Testing.  They will not turn off any equipment so will do a visual check of anything which is running.  There is no action required from staff, as the engineers have access to all areas.  Lab supervisors have been notified but if anyone has any queries then please let Ruth Maddocks know.

The testing engineers will be on site for approximately one month.

Staff and students in the School of Computer Science are cordially invited to take part in the Staff-student programming competition.

Date: Wednesday, 26th April, 2023
Time: 14:00--17:00
Location: LF31, Lower first floor, Kilburn Building.
Registration deadline: Wednesday, 24th April, 2023

The competition is open to staff and students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in Computer Science. Teams will consist of a whole number of persons between 1 and 3 inclusive. Staff teams must have at least one member of staff (including RAs, but excluding PhD students) and must otherwise consist entirely of staff (including RAs) and PhD students. Student teams must consist entirely of students (graduate or undergraduate). No person may be in more than one team.

Problems will be given out at the start of the competition. Teams will try to solve as many as they can.

Contestants may use any of the supported languages: C, C++, Java, and Python.  Each team may bring a laptop computer with the desired compiler(s) installed; alternatively, the labs machines can be used. It is allowed to bring any printed materials into the competition room; however the use of stored electronic files or of the internet to access any sites other than the competition site is forbidden.

Refreshments---free to contestants---will be provided in the course of the afternoon in the Lower First Floor area.

To participate, visit https://forms.gle/4q7fo3pKebiojT328 by the deadline for participation. Space is limited, and teams will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to a reasonable
balance of staff and students.

Ian Pratt-Hartmann (on behalf of the organizing team)

The Research Support Team are here to support researchers with costing research proposals, with the following people directly supporting research groups:

Chantel Murtagh 

• Systems and Software Security 
• Information Management 
• Formal Methods 

 

Natalia Stefanovic  (Sarah Chatwin covering)

• Natural Language Processing and Text Mining 

 

Sarah Watson 

• Nano Engineering and Spintronic Technologies 
• Machine Learning and Robotics 

 

Liz Hulme 

• Advanced Processor Technologies 
• Human Computer Systems 
• Autonomy and Verification 

Research Support Manager, Sarah Chatwin, can also be contacted.

Deadline: 04-May-23

https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/epsrc-wes-ambassadors-for-women-in-engineering/

EPSRC and the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) are partnering to support researchers with strong motivation to foster equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the engineering research and innovation landscape.

The initiative aims to promote understanding of gender issues and intersectionality in engineering, and support researchers who wish to become EDI ambassadors in their networks. The awardees are expected to work independently and as a cohort to set an agenda for their personal and collective goals as members of WES.

EPSRC will fund up to 15 WES memberships.

Deadline: tbc
https://www.ukri.org/opportunity/ukri-cross-research-council-responsive-mode-pilot-scheme/
Apply for funding for up to 2 years for interdisciplinary ideas that transcend, combine or significantly span disciplines. The full economic cost of your project can be £200k-£1.2M (funded at 80%). We expect to make around 36 awards so HEIs are expected to be mindful of this, so any internal sift will be communicated.
 

The MoD is offering a range of funded PhD research opportunities for 2023 and we are writing to you to provide information about our current call.

Specifically, Dstl’s Future Workforce and Training (FWT) program is looking to sponsor up to six PhDs within the Human and Social Sciences theme:

Humans in Systems (HiS) project – up to four PhDs in the following areas:

1. Safety – Modernising safety assurance for Generation After Next technologies and future HMI
2. Resilience – Supporting resilience within Generation After Next technologies operating within the Future Operating Environment
3. Gaming – Exploitation of HMI design conventions and crossover opportunities between commercial gaming and defence
4. Mixed Reality – Accelerating the exploitation of MR within future HMI development

Future Workforce (FW) project – up to two PhDs in the following areas:

 

1. People Analytics – Understanding key people analytics delivery issues including ethics and data integration
2. Adaptability – Understanding opportunities for Defence to employ people in an adaptable and agile way

 

This represents a significant opportunity to gain MoD research funding and participate in PhD research focused within the defence domain. 

The PhD Call may be accessed here: https://rcloud.dstl.gov.uk/ using the account registered to R-Cloud. For the University of Manchester the email address of the registered account is credit.control@manchester.ac.uk

 

Closing date for proposals: Monday 17^th April 2023 (extended)

 

Briefing event. A Microsoft Teams briefing will be held on Wednesday 5^th April at 3.30pm. Attendance at the briefing is not mandatory for those wishing to submit proposals, but will be a chance to speak with Dstl’s project and commercial teams to answer any questions you may have. An invite to the briefing containing a Teams link and telephone dial in option will be sent separately. If you have not received the invite and would like to join please respond to this email. (Note R-Cloud rules do not permit questions to be answered via this email address or phone number – please direct any queries via the R-Cloud contact page. To ensure fairness any information given during the briefing will be provided to all university R-Cloud points of contact by email after the event.)

 

Translation Manchester Bursary

Scholarships covering the attendance fee (including conference dinner) are open for application internal ECRs (e.g., postdoctoral researchers, technicians, and clinical research fellows) who don’t have grant support. This funding is allocated on a first come first serve basis, subject to suitable justification. Please get in touch as soon as possible by emailing translation@manchester.ac.uk.

Please include your name, role, affiliation, and a justification of why attending this summer school will be beneficial for your research and career (max 300 words).

Best wishes

translation@manchester.ac.uk

The next DSE Awareness session will take place on Thursday the 27^th of April at 10:00am, link below.

 

Click here to join the meeting

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) - Lunch and Learn Workshop

Join us to find out more about Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and understand why you should be using it.

A Life Cycle Assessment is the act of measuring the environmental impact of a product or service throughout its life cycle, from the resources used to create the product or service, across its use by the user, to it's final end of life destination. An LCA measures the environmental impacts of each distinct part involved in creating and using products and services, such as energy used in production, fuel used in transport, and end-of-life ecological costs. This helps us compare between products, materials, and methods used, providing useful information by which to make decisions that could help the environment.

This event will explore the advantages of LCA's and how it can provide you with a clearer picture of your environmental impact and help you make more informed decisions to improve your organisation's sustainability going forward.

The session will begin with an introduction into LCA's with Dr Alejandro Gallego Schmid, Senior Lecturer in Circular Economy and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, followed by three concurrent breakout rooms (topics listed in agenda) which attendees will select during the booking process. At 1pm the breakout rooms will close and we welcome guests to stay for networking with a complimentary lunch.

Preferred breakout rooms are reserved on a first come first serve basis so please book your place now to avoid disappointment.

If you have any questions regarding the event please contact lauren.mullan@manchester.ac.uk

Date and Time | Thu, 25 May 2023 11:30 - 14:00 Venue | Engineering Building A - Room 3A.012 Booth St E Manchester M13 Event booking site | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/life-cycle-assessment-lca-lunch-and-learn-workshop-tickets-591271066677

Agenda

11:45 - Arrival and networking with tea and coffee

12:00 - Welcome and introduction with Dr Alejandro Gallego Schmid, Senior Lecturer in Circular Economy and Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment | Sustainable Futures Resourceful futures Challenge Lead

12:05 - What is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)?

12:20 - Q&A Session

12:30 - Breakout rooms in the following groups (you can select your preferred room at the booking stage):

• Waste treatment perspectives. Session Lead: Nicolas Enrique Labra Cataldo, PhD researcher in Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
• Material and Product-centred perspectives. Session Lead: Dr Raphael Tarpani, Research Associate at The University of Manchester
• Biomass and Wastes. Session Lead: Dr Andrew Welfle, Senior Research Fellow in the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research

13:00 - Lunch and networking

14:00 - Event close