School of CS newsletter

You’re all invited to come along to the next HoS/HoSA “coffee” morning. This will be 10am on 27th July in the Kilburn common. Last month we had a splendid showing of cakes made by staff, with money raised for charity. So, please do bring cakes along. Our charity this month will be Ripple Africa, who hosted the Computing at School Team during their recent outreach work for Project Malawi.

To prevent waste we’re not supplying hot beverages but tea bags, coffee and milk will be available for use with the hot water gadget in the kitchen (bring your own mug), or you can bring your own drinks.

Academics and PSS Staff are needed to help the delivery of the Student Lifecycle Project

The Student Lifecycle Project (SLP) is currently recruiting ‘user testers’ to support the delivery of the project. User testing is a critical part of ensuring the solution we are designing is meeting the needs of real users. This is where you come in – are you willing to volunteer as a user tester?

Testers are needed from all areas of the University. The intention is to, as much as possible, match colleagues areas of expertise to specific tests however we may require User Testers to participate in tests for all new systems being built. 

This activity will commence on Wednesday 26^th July and will run every Wednesday until Christmas. For academics the sessions will likely last between 1 – 2 hours and for PSS staff sessions are up to 3 hours. You can book onto just one session or a number of them.

If you are able to help us and can volunteer some of your time on a Wednesday afternoon, please email studentlifecycleproject@manchester.ac.uk . The sessions will take place at the SLP Office (down the road from Sackville Street Building, opposite Piccadilly train station) 1st floor, Bainbridge House, 86-90 London Road, Manchester M1 2PW. 

Expression of Interest survey deadline: 11 Aug 17:00

Meeting Dates:

• 20 Sep2017; Lancaster
• 29 Nov 2017; London
• 15 Jan 2018; Cardiff

The RCUK Digital Economy (DE) Theme is planning a series of Regional Meetings across the UK, to engage with a cross-section of the DE community. The aims of the Regional Meetings are to communicate EPSRC’s ongoing strategy, the current DE funding landscape, and opportunities for DE researchers (including standard mode applications, fellowships, and the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund), whilst gathering information and input regarding emergent topics of interest and current issues in the DE community. The agenda will include presentations from RCUK staff, Q&A, panel discussions, and facilitated breakout sessions.

The DE Theme often has tight deadlines so it would be ideal to have someone from the School attend. Remember - funding is available from the School to attend if you feedback knowledge.

As you'll already know, the School has recently agreed on a new PGR progression practice with the aim of transferring trust to Supervisory Teams (but responsibilities include quality and logistics).

Now just to clarify - you will arrange when and where to meet for the Research Progress Review, and you will choose the Independent Assessor. There are forms in eProg to let us know, and eProg will be emailing you so, keep an eye out!

For the end of year interview in the first year of PhD and second year of CDT, SSO will pseudo-random allocate you an End of Year Examiner, but this time you will arrange when and where to meet for the exam with all parties (there's an eProg form for that too)!

For the second and third (if required) year progression for PhD and third year of CDT then the supervisory team conducts the progression. Finally, all students at 42 months will be asked to meet with the Director of PGR.

Re iterating the process:
For PhD: The long report may not be required based on the outcome of the Research Progress Review (month 9). Only one Examiner will be present for the 1st year progression, and progression will be a collaborative decision between the team and the Examiner. The supervisory team will assess, justify, and record second-year progression.

For CDT: The first year rules are unchanged. The long report may not be required based on the outcome of the Research Progress Review (month 21). Only one Examiner will be present for the 2nd year progression, and progression will be a collaborative decision between the team and the Examiner.

In a little more detail...

1st to 2nd year
If you have a CDT student progressing from 1st to 2nd year - nothing changes, they submit a report and have to pass their exams.

If you have a PhD student progressing from 1st to 2nd year - the 9 month Research Progress Review happens similarly to now, however in this case the Assessor can choose 'satisfactory' and no long report is required for progression, or 'additional work' by default this is the long report but may also be any other reasonable work (critical review, technical report, paper, etc.).

At progression any additional work must be complete, an interview occurs with only one (pseudo-randomly assigned examiner). The supervisor(y team) personally arranges with the allocated examiner a time date location suitable to all, and the examination progresses in much the same way as the present.

2nd to 3rd year
If you have a CDT student progressing from 2nd to 3rd year - the 21 month Research Progress Review happens similarly to now, however in this case the Assessor can choose 'satisfactory' and no long report is required for progression, or 'additional work' by default this is the long report but may also be any other reasonable work (critical review, technical report, paper, etc).

At progression any additional work must be complete, an interview occurs with only one (pseudo-randomly assigned examiner). The supervisor(y team) personally arranges with the allocated examiner a time date location suitable to all, and the examination progresses in much the same way as the present.

If you have a PhD student progressing from 2nd to 3rd year - a short report is required as currently, but the examination is conducted by the supervisor(y team). The results recorded on eProg as now.

3rd to 4th year
If you have either a CDT or PhD student, they will submit a detailed plan for completion, and discuss this with the supervisory team (recorded via eProg). At the request of the Supervisor or the Director of PGR, the student will also have a 1 to 1 interview with the Director of PGR (or their nominated representative), also recorded via eProg.

At month 42 all students who have not yet completed a 'Notice to Submit' have a 1 to 1 interview with the Director of PGR also recorded via eProg.

There is some procedural detail which can be found at http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/pgr/handbook/

Deadline: 21 Sep 2017

http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/funding-opportunities/esrc-alan-turing-institute-joint-fellowship-scheme/

The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and The Alan Turing Institute are pleased to announce a Joint Fellowship Scheme aimed at driving forward the development and application of cutting-edge data science to study major societal challenges. This first joint call will focus on two key and interlinked issues - the complex challenges of:

• facing the development of cities
• in maintaining a healthy population

Proposals are welcome from mid-career and senior academics from an RCUK eligible research organisation (RO). Up to two studentships will be attached to each Fellowship and it is expected these will work in similar areas to that of the Fellow. The Fellow will act as the primary supervisor helping in particular to develop the quantitative and data science skills of the students.

Deadline: 16:00 hrs (BST) 31 Jul 2017

https://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/calls/risemakingconnections/

EPSRC has recently launched a call for public affairs and media training. The training is available for any currently-supported EPSRC researchers.

The goal of the call is to raise the profile of EPSRC-supported scientists and engineers across the career spectrum, and across EPSRC's whole remit, so that they are recognised and valued by business, government and the public as the current and future leaders of engineering and science.

Applicants must be available on 3rd and 4th October 2017.

Jack's presentation can be viewed through:

http://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/dae/item-detail.cfm?item_id=102719&newsletter_id=129&utm_source=dae_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Digital%20Excellence%20&%20Science&utm_content=High%20Performance%20Computing%20seminar%20with%20Jack%20Dongarra&utm_term=HPC&lang=en