Department of CS newsletter

Promotions News

Many congratulations to the following who were promoted in this year's cycle: Louise Dennis (promoted to Reader, Teaching & Research Track), Konstantin Korovin (promoted to Reader, Teaching & Research Track), Christos Kotselidis (promoted to Reader, Teaching & Research Track), Markel Vigo (promoted to Reader, Teaching & Research Track), Tim Morris (promoted to Senior Lecturer, Teaching Track), Pierre Olivier (promoted to Senior Lecturer, Teaching & Research Track), and Oliver Rhodes (promoted to Senior Lecturer, Teaching & Research Track).

Our Summer Party

Please register for our summer shindig via the following link so we can plan numbers etc: https://forms.office.com/e/sBB5ZYXcS2

To ensure the 'book' button is green instead of grey when you are booking travel:

Go to this page:

https://my.keytravel.com/uk/

Click on ‘book online’, and log in.

Then scroll down all the information, down to, and tick the box:

1. (the traveller) understand that I am responsible for complying with the University Travel Policy, including undertaking an appropriate travel risk assessment and seeking pre-travel approval, prior to making travel arrangements. understand that this trip may not be covered by the University travel insurance if I have not acted in accordance with the University Travel Policy.

Then click on ‘continue’. Then you will get to the screen where you can search for a trip and the 'book' button should be green allowing you to book.

You are invited to our next Departmental Coffee Morning which will take place in the Common Room on 15th June, 11:15am. Please come along for tea, coffee, traybakes and fruit!

Mobile Apps and Sensors in Surveys Workshop Keynote: The Promise of Activity Space Approaches: Urban/Rural Comparisons and Implications for Research on Context 

Date & Time: Friday 23rd June 2023, 13:00-14.00
Format: In-person and online seminar
Venue: Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M16 9PL

The Mobile Apps and Sensors in Surveys (MASS) workshop together with the National Centre for Research Methods is very excited to host the keynote by Kathleen Cagney, Director of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. The Chicago Health and Activity Space in Real Time (CHART) study provides one example of the use of novel technology to address fundamental questions in urban sociology and the life course. This talk will discuss the CHART study, its applicability and extensions of this approach to rural contexts. This free event can be attended either in person at the University of Manchester or online. Find out more and register via Eventbrite.

CRADLE, the "Centre for Robotic Autonomy in Demanding and Long-lasting Environments" will commence in 2023. This is joint activity between Jacobs [www.jacobs.com] and the University of Manchester, with significant support from the EPSRC through their Prosperity Partnership mechanism (cofunded to a total value of £8.75 million).

CRADLE joins teams from Electrical and Electronic Engineering (Barry Lennox [Director], Keir Groves, Simon Watson) and Computer Science (Michael Fisher [Deputy Director], Angelo Cangelosi, Louise Dennis, Clare Dixon) with Jacobs' industrial experience in applied Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) to create a collaborative research centre that is internationally leading and sustainable in the long-term.

CRADLE is an important activity not only linking CS to EEE and to Jacobs but stimulating novel research in software engineering, autonomous systems, human-robot teamwork and systems assurance. CRADLE will also provide a route to impact for new academic developments within the Department.  

CRADLE aims to deliver novel and transformational RAS technology for demanding environments, such as space, nuclear, energy generation and urban infrastructure, allowing the benefits promised by this technology to be realised across wide sectors of UK industry.

More Information

Michael Fisher

Mingfei Sun won Best Paper Award at the 22nd International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems last week.  This was for the paper Trust Region Bounds for Decentralized PPO Under Non-stationarity, Mingfei Sun, Sam Devlin, Jacob Beck, Katja Hofmann and Shimon Whiteson.