School of CS newsletter

The Staff Survey 2017 will be open until 18th April.  So far almost 60% of staff have completed the survey and over £5000 has been raised for charity. This is an important route by which your views about the School, Faculty and University are made known so please do participate.

All staff will have been sent a link https://web.capitasurveys.co.uk/UniversityOfManchester2017/ and a password. If you haven’t received this email and it isn't in your spam/junk email, please contact Capita on 0800 587 3115.

A new mailing list has been set up for researchers in the department who are actively interested in deep learning.

The mailing list is cs-deep-learning@listserv.manchester.ac.uk, and it can be subscribed to at listserv.manchester.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=cs-deep-learning&A=1

It's an open-discussion mailing list (anyone on the list can post to it), to be used as a discussion group for sharing recent deep learning papers, troubleshooting deep network architectures or frameworks, arranging occasional seminars, etc.

Remember that proposals at any stage can be reviewed in the School through Gavin.Brown@manchester.ac.uk or Sarah.Chatwin@manchester.ac.uk, either for specialist or lay-review.

2017 Karen Spärck Jones Lecture
25th May 2017 at BCS Headquarters Southampton Street, London

Creating Robots That Care - Professor Maja Matarić (University of Southern California)

To honour the pioneering work of Karen Spärck Jones, the BCS holds a distinguished lecture in her name each year, celebrating a prominent female computing researcher. Dr Matarić is the Professor and Chan Soon-Shiong Chair of Computer science, Neuroscience & Pediatrics; Founding Director at the USC's Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center; and Director of the USC's Robotics Research Lab.

The event is open to all and free but you must book via the BCS website: https://events.bcs.org/book/2476/

The lecture is from 6pm-7.30pm and will be followed by a networking reception.

Abstract: How can human-robot interaction be improved by making robots more socially intelligent? This is the key question at the heart of socially assistive robotics (SAR): a new field of intelligent robotics that focuses on developing machines capable of assisting users through social rather than physical interaction, in order to encourage people to have the drive and motivation to do their own work, for improved health and wellness. Our research brings together engineering, health sciences, neuroscience, social, developmental, and cognitive sciences to create robots that can serve as coaches, motivators, and companions. This requires personalising human-robot interaction through appropriate speech, gesture, and body language; the embodiment is the most important even without physical work. Our successes include coaching stroke patients to perform rehabilitation activities, helping children with autism to learn social skills, encouraging teens at risk for type-2 diabetes to exercise, motivating first graders to make healthy food choices, and helping elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease to stay engaged.

This talk will describe those projects and the associated research into embodiment, modelling and steering of social dynamics, and long-term user adaptation for SAR, illustrated with many videos.

About the Lecturer: Dr. Maja Matarić is inspired by the vast potential for affordable human-centered technologies, especially socially assistive robotics, as means of improving human quality of life. Founder and director of the Interaction Lab<http://robotics.usc.edu/interaction/> at the University of Southern California, her research is aimed at endowing robots with the ability to help people, especially those with special needs. She is passionate about conveying the importance and promise of interdisciplinary engineering research and careers in STEM to all who should know more, including K-12 students and teachers, women and other underrepresented groups in engineering, the media, and policy makers.

Watch Maja in action https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NneIdd4WEUs

More information on the Karen Spärck Jones lecture http://academy.bcs.org/ksj

Staff Learning and Development are hosting a pilot half day course on Friday 12th May

Are you an Academic member of staff who has to chair meetings and wish to improve the efficiency and effectiveness? If so, the Meetings that Deliver Results course could be for you. Staff Learning and Development are hosting a pilot half day course on Friday, 12 May 9.30 – 12.30 titled ‘Meetings that Deliver Results’ aimed at experienced academics.

This workshop will help you extend and develop the skills and knowledge you have to facilitate and contribute to meetings confidently and effectively.  The content will cover:

• Exploring ways to handle unexpected situations, contentious issues and disruptions that can throw meetings off track.
• Discussing ways to deal with different levels of participation ranging from people dominating the meeting to non-participators.
• Reviewing the role of the Chair at a meeting and the skills required to do that successful.
• Ensuring actions result from the meeting.
• Calculating the true cost of meetings and assessing their value.
• Using a structured decision making approach to ensure that action results from meetings
• The skills of being an effective meeting participant.

If you wish to enrol visit: SLD Training Catalogue

Or email: sarah.teagle@manchester.ac.uk

Free tickets for Cyber Security Conference 2017 at Old Trafford Stadium on 17th May 2017 Salford University are offering complimentary places to the upcoming Cyber Security Conference 2017 which is titled Defending the Public from Cyber-Attacks taking place on 17th May 2017 at Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, which Dr Daniel Dresner, Information and Cyber Security Governance Lecturer, University of Manchester will be presenting at. The University Professional Development office are offering up to 25 complimentary tickets for staff and some students, all that is required is name, job title, email address and phone number for joining instructions and also because there is a fee for non-attendance as a deterrent to no shows. The new National Cyber Security Centre has been tasked with bringing the UK’s digital expertise together to rethink the way the country deals with online threats. Despite this progress, the National Audit Office has raised major concerns about the cost effectiveness of Government IT security and questioned the readiness of the public sector to resist a serious attack. Launching the new National Cyber Security Strategy in November 2016, Chancellor Philip Hammond pledged £1.9 billion of investment to deter attacks and strengthen the Government’s digital defences. The new National Cyber Security Centre has been tasked with bringing the UK’s digital expertise together to rethink the way the country deals with online threats. Despite this progress, the National Audit Office has raised major concerns about the cost effectiveness of Government IT security and questioned the readiness of the public sector to resist a serious attack. Key points addressed on the day will include: · Appreciate the extent of the threat that cybercrime poses to all public sector institutions. · Can the cyber-threat be equated with the physical threat of conflict? · What extent is the UK prepared for a cyber-attack from a foreign power? · The growing threat of cyber-crime and how it can affect all individuals, organisations and industries Public sector cyber security: why, what and how? · Identify the many opportunities created by the £1.9 billion in additional cyber-security funding as part of the National Cyber Security Strategy. · The impact of NHS England’s digital reforms · How well prepared is the UK against interference from international competitors? · Understand the risks associated with the public sector data sharing proposals outlined in Digital Economy Bill and how to mitigate against them. · How to foster essential collaboration between the public sector and private tech firms to improve security. · How to safely and effectively store sensitive public data, including NHS patient records, without compromising digital safety. Speakers inlcude: Ian Bryant, Branch Chief for Information and info-cyber Systems Protection Policy, Ministry of Defence Dr Ali Dehghantanha, Lecturer in Cyber Security and Forensics, University of Salford Vanessa Smith, Detective Chief Inspector, Cyber Security Lead, Regional Cyber Crime Unit – Yorkshire and Humber Dan Taylor, Head of Cyber Security, NHS Digital {invited} Professor Nick Jennings CB, FREng, Vice-Provost {Research} at Imperial College London {invited} Who would like to attend? Please send your name, job title or student, email address and phone number to: compsci-acso@listserve.manchester.ac.uk Deadline: 10th May 2017

Posted on behalf of Alvaro A A Fernandes (PGR Awards Chair)

The PGR Awards panel has met and has awarded an Outstanding PGR Thesis Award to two dissertations completed since 1 January 2016. They are:

COST-SENSITIVE BOOSTING: A UNIFIED APPROACH
by Nikolaos Nikolaou
supervised by Gavin Brown

and

EYE TRACKING SCANPATH TREND ANALYSIS ON WEB PAGES
by Sukru Eraslan
supervised by Simon Harper

The panel also recommended that both theses be submitted to the 2017 BCS Distinguished Dissertation Award.

On Nikolaos's dissertation, Prof. Fabio Roli, from the University of Cagliari, wrote: "This PhD dissertation crystallizes the 'big picture' of a vast scientific theme, it is a great example of 'umbrella' type of studies, where past and current literature are viewed in a new light, making way for cross-disciplinary research, and drawing upon the latest achievements of seemingly disparate areas.". Nikolaos also won last year's award for best PGR student paper.

On Sukru's dissertation, Prof. Luis Carriço, from the University of Lisbon, wrote that the thesis reports "a quite significant contribution in [its] specific area [...] and more generally in the computer science context". Sukru also won a best PGR student paper runner-up award last year.

Congratulations to the winners and their supervisors!

Deadline: Friday, 19th May 2017

http://www.jsps.org/scheme/overseas-challenge-program-for-young-researcher.html 

The scheme supports young Japanese researchers to work in universities and research institutes in the UK. Awards must be started between August 2017 to the end of March 2018, over a period of three months to one year.

To be eligible applicants need to be enrolled in a doctoral program at a Japanese university as of 1st April of the year of selection, be a citizen of Japan or have permanent residency status in Japan and have not already experienced a continuous stay of 90 days or more overseas.

This scheme is for scientists in the UK who are at an early stage in their career and want to purchase specialised equipment and consumables, or for academics to research the history of science: up to £15k for 1 year.

https://royalsociety.org/grants-schemes-awards/grants/research-grants/?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-03%20Scientists%20newsletter&ws=3

You must:

• hold a PhD or be of equivalent standing in your profession
• be within the first 5 years of the start date of your first permanent or limited-tenured academic position
• be holding a permanent position or a limited-tenure academic position at an eligible institution (or have been appointed to one of these positions)
• be a UK resident at the time of application