School of CS newsletter

The School is delighted to Welcome Prof Junichi Tsujii who is a newly appointed part-time professor in Natural Language Processing. Prof Tsujii is also director of the Artificial Intelligence Research Center at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan (AIST), and aims to build links between the University and AIST across a range of topics.

The results of the UCU ballot of members have been announced, it seems likely that there will be action. The University will be communicating with staff, probably later this week. UCU has a publicly available information page here.

Please be aware the HEFCE policy that papers need to be in an institutional repository within three months of acceptance came into action as of 1st April 2016.  

Authors can send their newly accepted manuscripts to the Library via the deposit form. The Library will then ensure that your paper meets the Open Access requirements to be eligible for the next REF by verifying the manuscript version, checking applicable journal and funder policies and setting embargo periods on publication.

The procedure for depositing newly accepted articles is very straightforward. Use the link below for more information and to access the form.

www.manchester.ac.uk/openaccess/gateway

Where: Kilburn L.T. 1.4

When: 14:00 - 15:00

Speaker:   Mr  Nick Edwards  ( Independent)

Host:   Daniel Dresner

Abstract

What is intelligence?

Why the intelligence input to threat/risk assessment process is so important.

We will look at how we use intelligence in everyday situations to evaluate risk and make informed decisions. We can also learn from examples of how Secret and Confidential intelligence has been shared in the past and from "intelligence failures". We will examine whether these experiences can help us in other undertakings e.g. large publicly funded projects, engineering and banking. Using our intelligence more effectively might we be able to make better decisions and thus lead to better outcomes in the future?

Biography

Nick Edwards worked in intelligence and security for nearly 50 years. Following service in RAF as a Signals Intelligence (Sigint) operator/analyst he joined GCHQ in 1968. A number of intelligence assignments followed including 3 years in Australia, 3 years as a Civilian Adviser to the Military in Cyprus and as a Senior Duty Officer at Cheltenham. In 1987 he joined Communications Electronics Security Group where he was Head of the "Threat" Section for nearly 4 years. His last post at CESG was as Director UK Industrial TEMPEST Scheme which involved close liaison with the UK Infosec industry. Since leaving CESG in 1996 he has worked for Cogent/Nortel, a dot com company, a US technology company, Hyder Consulting (an infrastructure design company), and as an independent consultant. From 2005 -2008 most of his work involved giving security advice to large Joint Venture projects in the Middle East and advising CNI customers in UK. In the past he has served on the BCS Security Committee, the Information Assurance Advisory Council Management Committee and as Chair of the CMA Fraud and Security Special Interest Group. Nick remains an active member of the IAAC Academic Liaison Panel.)

Tea and biscuits will be served in the Staff tea room from 3pm for an informal chat with the speakers. Please bring your own mug if you have one.

Registration deadline: 16th May

Registration is now open for the next meeting of the UoM Data Science Club which will take place 2pm – 3.30pm on Thursday the 19^th May in the Kanaris Lecture theatre in Manchester Museum, Oxford Road. 

The meeting will feature a Big Data “show and tell” from colleagues at the University of Sheffield particularly focusing on their recent experiences of using Jupyter lab notebooks and Sagemath Cloud.  There will be several presentations from University of Manchester staff and researchers looking at the use of Jupyter here in Manchester, the announcement of the new Manchester big-data processing platform and much more.  For the full agenda please visit the event page.

To register for the event please visit - https://dscmay2016.eventbrite.co.uk  before 5pm Monday 16^th May.

Deadline for International Exchanges Standard Programme: 7th June 2016

The Royal Society International Exchanges scheme is intended to stimulate new collaborations between scientists in the UK and overseas.

The funding available is dependent upon the length of the visit. Applicants may request:

• up to of £3,000 for one-off travel lasting up to 3 months
• up to £6000 for multiple visits to be completed within 1 year (including a maximum of £1000 for research expenses)
• up to £12,000 for multiple visits to be completed within 2 years and cost share projects fixed at 2 years (including a maximum of £2000 for research expenses)

Further details can be found here.

Please contact researchsupportcsm@manchester.ac.uk if you wish to apply. 

The Linux-based UoM Condor High Throughput Computing Pool is close to hitting a milestone: 3000 years of CPU computational results produced. Our School is, traditionally,  one of the biggest users of this excellent resource for PGRs and staff.

Some of you may not know that Ian Cottam (School Technical Support Manager) was one of the four original instigators of Manchester's Condor Pool, in his previous role with UoM's IT Services. Ian can get you an account to use the Pool by return email (ian.cottam@manchester.ac.uk) and also advise members of the School on any issues in its use.

Details of the service are here: http://condor.eps.manchester.ac.uk and the IT Services owner from Research IT is chris.paul@manchester.ac.uk.