Department of CS newsletter

Vice Chancellors and ACE-CSE & CSR Directors from 27 universities met with Director GCHQ Anne Keast-Butler and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Chief Technical Officer Ollie Whitehouse at the gathering in GCHQ’s Cheltenham base recently. Our department was represented by Danny Dresner who collected our ACE-CSE award. Thanks Danny!

Happy Christmas/Festivus/Holidays

Finally, I would like to wish you all a very happy, relaxing, and peaceful break over the next couple of weeks. A huge thanks for all your amazing work across teaching, research, and in all your leadership and operational roles within the department and beyond in 2024. Onwards to 3751…

Andrew

Dear All

ITS can support you to stay compliant with export control guidelines and ensure a smooth and secure travel experience.

If you are planning to travel to a country with restrictions, ITS can provide a special Export Control laptop. Here are the key features and guidelines for these laptops:

• Access to the internet and email through web browsers 
• Use of core Microsoft Office products
• Does not allow access to the University network, including storage areas (Shared Areas, OneDrive, P:Drive)

Guidelines:

• Do not download any highly restricted information (including data subject to access control) from webmail or any other source on the laptop
• Do not store passwords on the laptop or keep written records of passwords with the laptop

There is a form in Connect for it, you just need to search for 'Export Control Laptop Service' to request one.

Threats Without Boundaries, led by Prof. Gaven Smith, Chair in Cyber Security. Wednesday, 15^th January 2025, from 14:00 to 15:00. Kilburn_TH 1.3

Cyber threats and online harms are an ever-present risk to our way of life. In an increasingly uncertain world, we all need to know how to create new and more resilient approaches to cyber security. There are profound implications for the whole community. This seminar will examine the lessons from contemporary incidents and propose some potential interventions for the wider cyber community: from developers to policy makers alike. Please reserve a spot on Eventbrite for catering purposes.

In Pursuit of the Meaning of Language: The Role of LLMs in NLP and NLG, led by Prof. Chenghua Lin, Chair in Cyber Security. Wednesday, 22^nd January 2025, from 14:00 to 15:00. Kilburn_TH 1.3

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as the GPT-x family, have taken the natural language processing (NLP) and generation (NLG) fields by storm, if not the whole world. In this talk, I will reflect on my journey in NLP and NLG research, showcasing how LLMs bridge critical gaps in these domains. Please reserve a spot on Eventbrite for catering purposes.

Towards Building Trustworthy Software and AI Systems, led by Prof. Lucas Cordeiro. Wednesday, 29th January 2025, from 13:00 – 14:00

Software and AI systems have become ubiquitous today, but their trustworthiness remains a pressing concern. In this lecture, Prof. Cordeiro will discuss their research group's 15-year work on automated verification, recent advancements, and practical applications in industry, such as firmware security, neural network verification, and blockchain communication protocols. Please reserve a spot on Eventbrite for catering purposes.

Deadline: 29-Apr-25

I am pleased to announce that, on behalf of the Office of the Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security, the Royal Academy of Engineering have just launched the topics for the 2025 UK Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Programme [raeng.org.uk].  

There are 27 topics in total this year available across a range of STEM disciplines, with a grant of up to £250k available to early career post-doctoral researchers over 2 years.  Circa 6 researchers will be selected from applications received.

• UK IC Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are aimed at early-career researchers. Applicants must have a PhD, which was awarded no more than five years before the submission deadline. Extenuating circumstances can be taken into consideration.
• PhD students are eligible to apply, but must have been awarded their PhD (or the PhD has been unconditionally approved) before 01 August 2025.

The Academy provides additional support to applicants from groups that are persistently underrepresented within UK engineering through the grant application process. Information around access mentoring: https://raeng.org.uk/access-mentoring [raeng.org.uk].

https://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/emeritus-fellowships

Deadline: 30-Jan-2025

For senior researchers who have retired or partially retired from an academic post to complete a research project and prepare the results for publication.

The primary intention of the scheme is to support the facilitation, integration or completion of the applicant’s own research output, rather than generally further support for his or her research group or research assistants.

Applications are invited for a minimum value of £3,000 and a maximum of £24,000. Fellowships are tenable for 3-24 months, and must commence between 1 August in the year the grant is awarded (expected May-25) and 1 July the following year.

FSE Research Services Sharepoint Site – access information and resources to navigate research application and award processes. You can find contact details for the RS team and lots of other useful information.