School of CS newsletter

I am pleased to tell you that Goran Nenadic has taken on the role of Faculty PGR Panel Chair. In this role Goran will oversee academic decisions and approvals needed for PGR students across the Faculty, and advise the Associate Dean for Graduate Education on procedures and policy issues, including the review of existing and approval of applications for new research degree programmes within the Faculty.

From Carron Shankland, Chair of BCS Women in Computing Research Group:

Why do many women not continue a career in Computing/ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) research? What are the barriers faced by some minority groups, such as black and ethnic minorities, in pursuing a Computing/ICT  research career? These are among the questions being considered in a study commissioned by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/newsevents/news/ictdiversityinclusionresearch/

The review is investigating what the barriers are, how they manifest themselves and what can be done to support underrepresented groups in ICT. This starts with an an inclusive online survey across the whole ICT research community https://www.research.net/r/diversityICT

The survey will be open until 28 February and takes around 15 minutes to complete.

Please promote in your departments. We need to hear from everyone to get a full picture of our research environment (postgrad students to professors, and not only representatives of minority groups). We’re also interested to hear the experiences of those who have left academia: so please forward to your networks.

All seven Research Councils have now harmonised around the use of the Researchfish system for the collection of outcomes information from grant holders. It is mandatory that PIs complete a Researchfish return as part of the standard terms and conditions of holding an award.

The RCUK submission period is taking place between 6th February 2017 and 16th March 2017.

UMIP Profit for Purpose Event: 2.30pm, 17 Feb 2017 (Simon Building Theatre B)

As part of the Science meets Commercialisation Seminar Series UMIP, the University Technology Transfer Office, has put together some excellent speakers to share their experience. This time we will be specifically focusing on how enterprises with a commitment to help society can succeed and could help us to inspire future generations. Registration required (food provided).

1. Dr Gill Green (Cofounder and CEO of STORM)

2. Dr Steven Boult (Cofounder and Director of the Salamander Group)

The session will finish with information on commercial opportunities on campus including the `UMIP Social Enterprise Ignition funding opportunity Round 2` for PhDs, Postdocs and staff.

Deadline: 13 April 2017

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Inbound Research Mobility Scheme to promote the development of academic and research partnerships between our two institutions is now open. Academics (in full-time employment) can undertake research visits at CUHK.

•         When: The period of visit to CUHK is from 1 August 2017 to 31 July 2018
•         Support: Hotel/on-campus accommodation provided for up to seven nights.

Launch event: 23 Feb 17, support to the submission assessment phase in Mar / Apr 17
Separate webinar event: 27 Feb 2017
Deadline: 5pm 21 Mar 2017

On 16 Sep 16, SofS announced plans to harness the talents of academic and industry experts by creating an innovation initiative to better address the challenges of the contemporary and future security landscape.  The first project will be a JFC-led, Navy proposal centred on ‘Understanding and Taking effective Decisions in the Information Age’.  In principle the competition focuses on 3 separate yet interconnected challenges:

a.           allow for rapid and automated integration of new sensors;

 b.           free up personnel through the application of innovative use of machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to maintain military advantage into the future; and

 c.           making more effective use of operator cognitive capacity, in particular by human-machine teaming.

Timings:

• The fast track competition will run in two phases: Phase 1 will run 22 May to 21 Sept 2017, Phase 2 will be run 24 Nov 2017 to 24 May 2018.

• The standard track competition will also run two phases: Phase 1 will be run 22 May 2017 to 15 Dec 2017, Phase 2 will be run 8 Mar 2018 to 8 Mar 2019.

Contact Sarah Chatwin for more information 

Contact sheets are available outside KB2.7 or via: http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/media/eps/eps-intranet/academic-services-t-and-l/research-/maths_cs_contactsheet_9Feb17.pdf

The start of H2020 project INSPEX: Integrated Smart Spatial Exploration System, which includes Richard Banach has been reported on in a variety of media including:

• EE Times

• Embedded Computing

• All the Internet of Things

• Robotic Magazine

  and many more....

Hardcopies can be found outside KB2.7 and soon to be available through our webpages. For more copies contact Sarah Chatwin.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is seeking to appoint between 9-12 Non-Executive Directors to become Members of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Board. UKRI, a new, independent, non-departmental public body, will bring together the functions of the seven Research Councils, Innovate UK, and the research and knowledge exchange functions of the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) (to be known as Research England).

The UKRI Board will play a critical role in establishing this new organisation, providing clear strategic direction and oversight, promoting the importance UK Science and Innovation and supporting the senior leadership team to embed new ways of working across the organisation.

BEIS are looking for candidates with experience in at least one of the following:

*                      experience of research into science, social sciences, technology, humanities, the arts and new ideas;
*                      experience in the development and exploitation of science, technology and new ideas;
*                      experience in industrial, commercial and financial matters relating to innovative business sectors, or in the science and technology sector.

Applicants with a range of experience from within the different nations of the UK and with international experience from within the public, private and charity sectors are all encouraged to apply.

Applications are welcome from all, especially from women, minority ethnic and disabled candidates who are under-represented at this level in public life.

For additional information on these posts, please see the jobs adverts located at this link: https://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/appointment/ukri-board-members/

The advert for these positions closes on 31st March.

The large TV in the lower first student open area is now fully working and accepting articles. Details of how to submit any news is here: https://wiki.cs.manchester.ac.uk/index.php/BigScreen. The expectation is that the articles are of interest to our undergraduates or visitors to the School, such as school children, applicants, etc.

A separate HDMI channel takes a feed from an Apple TV 4 box: this has YouTube and BBC iPlayer; and we can look at adding other applications (from Apple's TV App Store) on request.

Below is an update on two problems with connecting laptops, and particularly MacBooks, in lecture theatres. Thanks to Stuart Phillipson in IT for the details.

1. If VGA projection clips the edges of your screen. We have seen this behaviour in three lecture theatres,  Media Services have looked into this but it’s not obvious where the problem is. In the meantime if you open System Preferences > Displays and then pick the projector you can set it to Scaled > 720p. This has fixed the problem for all the users that have reported this as an issue.
2. HDMI still does not work with podcasting unfortunately as Apple have made some bad decisions regarding HDCP. We are currently testing a work around in the following theatres that lets Apple computers use HDMI with lecture capture, but it’s a slow process that involves installing more hardware: Renold C16; Renold C8; Renold C2; Kilburn 1.1; Simon A through E.

Did you know you get a discount on hot drinks from the Byte Cafe if you use your own mug?  The School is looking to reduce its impact on the environment so please help by using reusable cups in the Byte Cafe when you can:-)

School of Computer Science Green Team