School of CS newsletter

Robert Stevens has been appointed Head of School with effect from 25th July 2016. I congratulate him on his appointment and wish him well.

Dr Giles Reger joined the School as a lecturer in Formal Methods on 1st February 2016.

Ian Stutt retired on 29th January 2016 after over 40 years working fro the University. A collection for Ian raised £320 which he has donated to the Stockport branch of the Multiple Sclerosis Society. I wish Ian all the best in his retirement, which begins with a tour of Vietnam and Cambodia.

Our very own Mel and Ruth met Lemn Sissay today while he was out selling the Big Issue to raise awareness of the homeless issue in Manchester.

European consortium becomes the trailblazer in the development of the most challenging architectures in next-generation computing.

The next generation of supercomputers must be capable of a billion, billion calculations per second.  These are referred to as Exascale computers and with this ability to undertake such volume of calculations, they will transform our understanding of the world through advanced simulation and problem solving.

A step towards the Exascale vision is being made by a European Consortium, funded by the Horizon2020 initiative of the EU and entitled ExaNeSt, which is building its first straw man prototype this year, 2016. 

The Consortium consists of twelve partners, each of which have expertise in a core technology needed for innovation to reach Exascale.

A broad range of expertise in the design of communication infrastructure is being supplied by the University of Manchester.  Javier Navaridas, Lecturer at the University of Manchester said: “Computing systems of the magnitude confronted by ExaNeSt feature highly challenging communication demands which cannot be complied with using current off-the-self technologies, therefore we will use our core expertise to produce an efficient, high performance communication infrastructure.”

http://www.exanest.eu

​SiSnet, the network of National Contact Points for Science with and for Society in Horizon 2020, has published a document entitled "RRI Opportunities in Horizon 2020". The document lists current funding opportunities with relevance to Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) in the different parts of the 2016-2017 Work Programme.

This e-book is meant to be a guideline of the different funding opportunities with relevance to Science with and for Society stakeholders in the different parts of the Work Programme 2016- 2017. Thus it identifies topics with one or more SwafS dimension to guide SWAFS’ stakeholders through the different H2020 Work Programmes. The analysis covers six SWAFS dimensions: Engagement, Ethics, Open Access, Gender, Science Education and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI).

http://www.sisnetwork.eu/media/sisnet/D.5.3-SwafS-opportunities-in-Horizon-2020-WP2016-2017.pdf

New Starter

Rebecca Ballinger has recently joined the Recruitment & External Affairs team as UG Admissions Assistant, covering Alyson Owens’ maternity leave. Amongst other things, Rebecca will be dealing with UG enquiries, helping with our Applicant Visit Days, and will be the main point of contact for our Student Ambassadors. If you are involved with UG recruitment or admissions, please pop into the office to say hello at some point.

Date: 3rd February 2016

Title: The Hunt for a Red Spider: Conjunctive Query Determinacy Is Undecidable

Speaker: Professor Jerzy Marcinkowski. University of Wroclaw

Time & Location: 14:00, Kilburn L.T. 1.4

Host: Ian Pratt-Hartmann

 

Abstract

 

A good research question is one that you can explain to your neighbour, who is a retired city bus driver. And the question we are going to talk about -- call it "conjunctive query determinacy problem"

-- is good, in this sense.

 

Our scenario is as follows. There is a database D, which we do not see. This can be for efficiency reasons or security reasons. We however see a view V over D: V is what D answers when some set of queries is asked to D. And we have another query Q to D. Can we evaluate Q only seeing V, but not D? Of course sometimes we can and sometimes we cannot. But is there an algorithm deciding whether we can? Despite many attempts to answer it, this had been an open question for over 30 years. In 2015 we (me, together with my student Tomasz Gogacz) gave a negative answer to this question.

 

The talk will not be very technical and no special background is needed to follow it. During first 30 minutes we will concentrate on the history of the problem  and show some simple examples. Last 15 minutes will be devoted to one particular idea of our proof (which itself is rather complicated) -- we will explain what a Red Spider is and what it is good for.

 

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

The Newton Fund’s aim is to develop science and innovation partnerships that promote the economic development and welfare of collaborating countries.

Current calls are for collaborations with Brazil, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Malaysia China, India and Turkey. If you have existing links with researchers in these countries, you have a high chance of being successful.

 http://www.newtonfund.ac.uk/funding/funding-opportunities/

The Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation’s purpose is to support closer links between Britain and Japan. It does this by awarding scholarships for young British graduates to undertake a programme of language study, homestay and work placement in Japan; by providing grants to support collaboration between British and Japanese groups and individuals; and by organising a year-round series of seminars, exhibitions and other events at the Foundation’s headquarters in central London.

Calls for applications in 2016:

• Daiwa Adrian Prizes 2016 up to £10,000 for UK-Japan scientific collaboration in the field   of pure science (including maths) and applied science. Deadline: 10 June 2016   http://www.dajf.org.uk/grants-awards-prizes/daiwa-adrian-prizes .
• Daiwa Foundation Small Grants of £2,000-£7,000 are available to promote and support UK-Japan interaction. They can cover all fields of activity, including educational and grassroots exchanges, research travel, the organisation of conferences, exhibitions, and other projects and events that fulfil this broad objective. New initiatives are especially encouraged. Annual Deadlines: 31 March, 30 September.
• Daiwa Foundation Awards of £7,000-£15,000 are available for collaborations between British and Japanese partners, preferably an institutional relationship. They can cover projects in academic, professional, arts, cultural and educational fields. Annual Deadlines: 31 March, 30 September.

Further information: www.dajf.org.uk

            

Christoforos Moutafis is an author of a paper in Nature nanotechnology.  http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2015.313.html

The work has also been featured as News at IOP's Nanotechweb.http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/63836

"Additive interfacial chiral interaction in multilayers for stabilization of small individual skyrmions at room temperature"

C. Moreau-Luchaire, C. Moutafis, N. Reyren, J. Sampaio, C. A. F. Vaz, N. Van Horne, K. Bouzehouane, K. Garcia, C. Deranlot, P. Warnicke, P. Wohlhüter, J.-M. George, M. Weigand, J. Raabe, V. Cros & A. Fert

Nature Nanotechnology (2016) doi:10.1038/nnano.2015.313