School of CS newsletter

IT Services and the Library are developing a new institutional research data repository with the aim of helping you raise the profile and impact of your research.

The project is looking for volunteers from the research community to take part in a series of short workshops in December and January aimed at ensuring the proposed facility will meet your needs.  The commitment will be for 90 minutes of your time. 

This initiative should be highly beneficial to anyone who is not currently using a domain or subject data repository but wishes to ensure improved citation and future use of data outputs.  If you would like to get involved, please contact sarah.chatwin@manchester.ac.uk and I will pass your details on to the project team.

More information:

Increasingly, publishers of high impact journals and funders of research are asking that when you publish your results you increase the value of those results by making the data behind them available too.  Some funders provide their own repositories, or else encourage the use of third-party facilities, to retain your data after publication, enabling easy citation and controlled dissemination. 

However, we know that many researchers at our University, and their collaborators in other organisations, still need a secure, convenient, and easy to use facility; one that will make the publication of their work complete by ensuring the long-term availability of their research data.

We would like to listen to you and understand how we can help:

• Make your data outputs easily citable and available to your peers, providing metrics
• Fulfil requirements of funders and publishers
• Conserve your data outputs for future use and re-use
• Ensure an accessible, professional presentation of data joined up to research findings.

We have identified the following potential types of user of a university-based research data repository:

• A university researcher
  • Who needs to increase the impact and visibility of your research – by providing easily citable collections of data.
• A data consumer
  • Who needs easy discovery of and access to data deposits that may be relevant to your own research.
• A postgraduate researcher
  • Who needs to link your thesis to the data it uses in a seamless and accessible way.
• An external collaborator
  • Who produces, accesses or publishes shared data.
• An external reviewer
  • Who has permission to review a collection in the repository.

02 December 2015, 14:00, Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.4

Title: Ultrafast magnetization dynamics: how fast can we go?

Speaker: Prof Roy Chantrell, University of York

Host: Tom Thomson

Abstract

Traditionally, the direction of magnetization of a magnetic material is switched by the application of a reversing magnetic field. In the case of magnetic recording the field is generated inductively, leading to limitations on the magnitude of the field and speed at which it can be generated; the latter defining a limitation in the data transfer rate. I will review the measurements and theoretical understanding of the responses of magnetic thin films to field pulses as short as a few picoseconds duration and continue to describe the current work on ultrafast magnetization reversal using femtosecond laser pulses. This involves the development of an atomistic level model approach which gives excellent agreement with experiment and also led to the prediction that magnetization reversal can occur as a response to an ultrafast heat pulse in the absence of an externally applied field. This Thermally Induced Magnetisation Switching (TIMS) has switching times of around 1picosecond, giving potential increases in data rate of 2 ordersrr of magnitude greater than currently possible. The physics of the TIMS phenomenon and potential technological implications will be discussed.

http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/our-research/seminars/

Internal outline review deadline: 14 Dec 2015
University wide Q&A session: 08 Jan 12-2pm (room tbc)
Final ERC deadline: 02 Feb 2016

The 2016 call for ERC Consolidator Grants is now open. As for all previous ERC calls, the Vice President for Research and Innovation, Professor Luke Georghiou - along with selected others - will internally review outline proposals. An outline proposal should consist of:

• 2 page CV – as detailed in ERC Consolidator Grant template available via the submission system of the participant portal
• 2 page Track Record - as detailed in ERC Consolidator Grant template available via the submission system of the participant portal
• 1 page project summary
• cover note arranged by Sarah Chatwin detailing peer review

For applicants who are applying to this call and who submit their documents for central review there will then be a University wide Q&A session that will focus on the practicalities of the online submission process, the specific ERC requirements and frequently asked questions about ERC.  Current ERC consolidator award holders will be in attendance to present their hints and tips on the application process.

• Eligible Principal Investigator: The Principal Investigator shall have been awarded their first PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree) at least 7 and up to 12 years prior to 1 January 2016 - extensions to this eligibility period can be accepted in certain properly documented circumstances

If you plan on applying please contact sarah.chatwin@manchester.ac.uk asap.

Deadline: 16 Jan 2016

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the University of Manchester (UoM) Research Fund is an initiative of the respective Vice-Chancellors to enhance research collaboration between the two universities.

The purpose of the fund is to enable staff at both institutions to undertake short-term visits to each other to strengthen existing collaboration and/or to establish new collaboration in the following priority areas, Cancer, Neuroscience, Energy and Climate Change, Future Cities, Advanced Materials, and Poverty Relief. Other areas where there is mutual interest from researchers may also be considered. The overall aim of the scheme is to build collaborative research links with a view to subsequent joint proposals to external funding sources.Proposals may include, but are not limited to:

• symposium/ workshops
• staff exchanges
• giving research seminars/presentations
• formation or development of a collaborative network

The scheme does not cover salaries, equipment, scholarships, attendance at conferences or tuition fees. The total fund available under this call is £30k (max. £10k per bid). The lead applicant must be a full-time member of staff. Post-doctoral staff are eligible to apply on the condition that the end of their post-doctoral contract is after the end of the proposed project. CUHK award holders are required to remain in university service for not less than a year upon completion of the activities in the proposal.

For full information contact sarah.chatwin@manchester.ac.uk

Closing date: 01 Mar 2016

Biological Sciences at Syngenta would like to invite applications for Industrial Partnership Studentships (CASE) in the following areas of science:
Weed, insect and fungal resistance (including mathematical modelling)
 Metabolism, transport and uptake in fungi, plants,
nematodes and insects (including modelling and prediction)
Predictive toxicology and selectivity between pest and non-target organisms
 Chemical biology approaches to agricultural science
Systems and synthetic biology in agriculture
Assay development and target identification
Novel approaches to mode-of-action determination
Microscopy – micro-localisation of chemicals in plant, fungal and insect tissues
In-vitro assay to whole organism translation
Plant phenotyping and weed biology
Movement of chemicals in soil and uptake into roots
Genetics - translation into pests from models & marker identification
Protecting seeds from insect and fungal attack
Plants and abiotic stress
RNAi
Seed banking and seed germination stimulation
Studentships would be expected to begin on October 1st 2016.
Applications should be one page of A4 detailing the research programme and e-mailed to stuart.dunbar@syngenta.com.

Congratulations to:

• Rima Addas (supervised by Dr Ning Zhang) for: SUPPORT ACCESS TO DISTRIBUTED EPRS WITH THREE LEVELS OF IDENTITY PRIVACY PRESERVATION

In a previous version of the newsletter Patrick Koopman's PhD was incorrectly titled. Patrick's actual thesis was "Practical Uniform Interpolation for Expressive Description Logics".

Congratulations again!