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School of CS newsletter
Published: Tuesday, 26 September 2017Weekly newsletter for the School of CS
[ top ]News from Head of School
An extra School Board
Dirk Koch has called an Extraordinary School Board to discuss the FSE review of School Structure; 10:30-12:30, in the Atlas rooms.
Professor Martin Schröder, vice President and Dean of the FSE, will visit the School for further discussion on the review of School structures for the FSE. This will be held as an Extraordinary School Board. The meeting should not take the whole scheduled time. The meeting is scheduled during teaching times, but do come along if you can to ask questions. Otherwise, send questions to be asked to dirk.koch@manchester.ac.uk.
Robert.
Karen Corless
Noisey building work in the Kilburn Building
We currently have three building projects in the Kilburn Building and all can generate noise:
1. The windows work.
2. The courtyard work.
3. Ground floor refurbishment has entered Phase three - potentially very noisy as there is demolition work and removal of ducting happening.
Once finished, the KB will be a better place, but there will be disruption while it is all finished. Lecture timetables have been issued to building projects in the KB and the request made not to do noisey things near lecture theatres. That noise can come from three different projects makes stopping noise difficult. If there is unacceptable noise during, in particular, teaching activities, please email Michael Billington <michael.billington@manchester.ac.uk> and/or call Tony Mcdonald on 07917558862 - with the caveat that Tony may not pick up, be int the School etc etc.
All this work can be very trying and I thank you for your patience and tolerance.
Robert.
Work on the Kilburn Building Lobby to Second floor staircase
As described ages ago, the gaps in the balustrade on the staircase and landing from the LF area to the second floor in the lobby area of the Kilbirn Building have been causing safety concerns. After a lot of too and fro the balustrade is being replaced with some smart looking strengthen glass balustrades. This work will be again noisey, but the work will be done out of hours. In preparation for this work, Estates will be erecting a scaffold on the stairs outside the entrance to LF1. This is part of the balustrade replacement works, and is necessary to provide safe access up to the 2nd floor lobby balustrade area. The work will be carried out after hours on Wednesday 27th September and will remain in place for 3 days. The scaffold will extend approximately 600mm from the wall where the entrance to LF1 is located. The staircase will remain in use while the scaffold is in position. Protection/hoarding will be affixed to the scaffolding for the duration. Access into LF1 will be maintained for the duration.
Robert.
Network Outage
Last Wednesday and up until Friday morning the School of Computer Science experienced a severe network problem causing many services to go offline - including teaching laboratory PCs, lecture theatre PCs and the PCs of staff in the Student Support Office (amongst other issues). All of our students and staff were impacted to some extent. Please accept our apologies.
The outage was caused by a faulty network switch/firewall needed by one of our research groups. It has been taken off the network and will only go back when it can be done without disruption.
In the longer term, IT Services plan to segment the University network so that, for example, problems in a research domain do not impact teaching.Thanks to the TechSO and CSIT folk for tracking down and fixing the problem.
Robert.
[ top ]News and announcements
[ top ]Events
School Leadership Team meeting
There will be an SLT meeting this week – Wednesday 27 september 3-4:30 p.m. in KB 2.33. You can see the agenda at
https://xorg.manchester.ac.uk/sites/CS_Committees/SLT/Shared%20Documents/2017-09-27-agenda.pdf
and the minutes of the SLT meeting in May may be found at
https://xorg.manchester.ac.uk/sites/CS_Committees/SLT/Shared%20Documents/2017-05-03-minutes.pdf
If you wish something to be discussed at the SLT meeting do send me a message – robert.Stevens@Manchester.ac.uk
School Seminar 27 March
Where: LT1.4
When: 2pm
Title: Project Malawi: The School of Computer Science visits Africa.
In this seminar, we shall show some footage of our activities, members of the team will have the opportunity of talking of their experiences and we shall attempt to evaluate this sort of intervention in a very unequal world, with an opportunity to discuss the general issues involved. There is a report on the project at http://personalpages.manchester.ac.uk/staff/david.e.rydeheard/Malawi-report.pdf
Refreshments are available in the Staff Common Room after the seminar from 3pm. All welcome.
[ top ]Funding Opportunities
EPSRC Impact Acceleration Award
The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded The University of Manchester over £2.4 million to deliver an Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) that aims to increase and accelerate the impact of EPSRC research outputs from the university through a range of knowledge exchange activities under the following areas:
- Relationship Incubator Scheme (open call)
Fostering new relationships between industry and academic researchers, creating opportunities for collaboration and exchange of knowledge and skills
- Proof of Concept Scheme
Support for the very early stage of transforming research outputs into commercial opportunities
- Secondment Scheme
Flexible support for secondments between The University of Manchester and businesses and other organisations
Applications are only permitted for projects focused on the exploitation / application of knowledge or technology generated through EPSRC-funded research. Eligible collaborators are UK-based businesses (including UK sites of international businesses), UK charities, and UK public sector organisations such as the NHS.
If you have any queries regarding user organisation eligibility, please contact the Knowledge Exchange Team who provide active support for the development of EPSRC IAA submissions. Prior to submitting an application, academics are strongly advised to contact a member of the KE Team for support, and at least 1 month before the call closing date Wednesday, 18 October 2017.
The links to further information can be found via http://www.staffnet.manchester.ac.uk/news/display/?id=18799
Liz Caine
Social Responsibility funding competition call
The Social Responsibility Team in the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) is launching a funding competition to encourage all staff and students to engage with the University’s Social Responsibility agenda. We invite applications for funding of up to £3,000 to support Social Responsibility initiatives which can ‘make a difference’ within the University, in the local community and internationally.
This is an open call for submissions from all academic and PSS staff as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students in FSE. Applications on any area of Social Responsibility will be considered but we particularly encourage applications relating to:
· Widening Participation
· Research with Societal or Environmental Impact
· Social Responsibility in the Curriculum
Please see the attached document for more information about the funding competition and for the application form. To apply, please complete the application form and send it via email to Fran Guratsky, the Social Responsibility Project Manager for FSE. This information and form are also available on StaffNet.
The deadline to apply for this funding is Tuesday, 31st October 2017. The funding will be available to successful applicants between 20th November 2017-27th July 2018 and initiatives must be delivered during this time.
- Relationship Incubator Scheme (open call)
Karon Mee