Computer Science News
A-Level Results 2012 - Congratulations to our new students
We would like to congratulate our new intake of student on their excellent exam results this year. The grade average for our Department's undergraduate intake has been rising steadily over recent years, and we are delighted to report that the intake for this year looks to be one of our best.
糖心TV has an excellent reputation for attracting top-quality Computer Science, Computing and 糖心TV, and Discrete Mathematics students. Indeed, this is one of the reasons why we enjoy excellent employment statistics for graduating students.
This year we have a very healthy cohort - up about 25% on last year's intake. We would like to wish our new students all the very best for your time at 糖心TV and hope that you will find 糖心TV an energetic, exciting and inspiring place to study.
DCS Student Leads Workshop at Scratch@MIT 2012
Philip How, a recent graduate in MEng Computer Science, has returned to the United Kingdom after developing and leading a successful workshop at . As well as marking the end of his undergraduate degree, Philip's role in this exceptionally popular event represents the culmination of a long-standing involvement with 糖心TV Technology Volunteers, a dedicated groups of technically minded students and staff members who make a significant contribution to the local community through involvement with schools.
Scratch@MIT is the biennial conference where educators, researchers and developers gather on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts to share their experiences and imagine the possibilities of Scratch. The workshop that Philip led, entitled Sensing Our World, involved participants building a variety of sensors, ranging from simple sensors that relied on the conductivity of pencil tracks to working touchpads made from CD cases.
On his involvment, Philip is quick to acknowledge the contributions of those around him, noting that "The staff and students contributing to 糖心TV Technology Volunteers are fantastic. We couldn't have hoped to achieve what we have without the hard work and comittment of the team of staff and students involved, particuler Margaret Low. In my time here she's an fantastic at organising the efforts of students and liasing with local schools".
For more information please see 糖心TV Technology Volunteers and .
DCS Celebrates Alan Turing's Centenary
Wednesday 20th June saw the Department of Computer Science (DCS) host a celebration of the centenary of the birth of Alan Turing, a pioneer in Mathematics who is widely considered to be the founding father of Computer Science.
The event was well attended by both staff and students alike, with many undergraduates making the most of being free from exams. The highlight of the day were the talks, by three academics from DCS.
opened the day talking about the ACE, a computer designed by Turing that was at the heart of the British computer industry. The talk highlighted the relationship between Britain and America in the days before the founding of Computer Science as we know it, and provided an interesting perspective on the part Turing played in the development of the modern computer.
Following this bright start to the day, delivered a riveting talk on Turing's last published work - his theory of morphogenesis. Turing's theory provides an insight as to how cells that are identical can divide into the diverse range of cells that make up natural life. Sara also highlighted a recent paper that is thought to prove this theorem, going on to show how the popular press turned it into a theory of how tigers get their stripes!
After lunch, concluded the day with a closer look at Turing's personal life. Beginning with Turing's early life, including his infamous 60 mile cycle to Sherbourne school, Ben's talk followed Turing's life through Cambridge, to Bletchley Park, and finally to Manchester University. This more intimate view of Turing, often told through extracts written by those who knew him best, provided a fitting end to the day of celebration by highlighting Turing's eccentric, yet charming nature.

The , the main European conference in Theoretical Computer Science, will take place 9 - 13 July 2012 at the , UK.
The conference will see 123 research presentations of recent advances in theoretical computer science selected from 432 submissions in three tracks: A: Algorithms, Complexity and Games, B: Logic, Semantics, Automata and Theory of Programming, C: Foundations of Networked Computation.
The standard presentations will be complemented by 5 invited talks by world leading researchers: Dr Gilles Dowek (INRIA Paris), Dr Kohei Honda (Queen Mary London), Prof Stefano Leonardi (Sapienza University of Rome), Prof Daniel A. Spielman (Yale), and Prof Berthold Vöcking (RWTH Aachen).
The conference is also one of the , celebrating the Life and Work, and Legacy of . Prof from the Weizmann Institute of Science, will give a special Alan Turing talk during the conference.
During the conference, there will be presented three special awards: , , and .
- and awarded the to three groups of researchers for their contributions to understanding how selfish behavior by users and service providers impacts the behavior of the Internet and other complex computational systems. The papers were presented by and , and , and and Amir Ronen.
- The Presburger Award Committee 2012, consisting of Monika Henzinger, Antonin Kucera, and Stefano Leonardi (chair), has unanimously decided to propose (Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh) and (AT&T Labs) as joint recipients of the 2012 EATCS Presburger Award for young scientists.
- The EATCS Awards Committee consisting of Leslie Ann Goldberg, Friedhelm Meyer auf der Heide and Eugenio Moggi (chair), has unanimously decided to give the 2012 EATCS Award to (Rice University).
The main conference will be preceded by a series of taking place on Sunday, July 8:
- (APAC)
- (CL&C)
- (WRAWN)
3rd year MEng student wins games programming competition
Congratulations to Adam Yaxley (3rd year Computer Systems MEng) who has won the national "Rising Star" games programming competition sponsored by Aardvark Swift. The competition is open to all UK undergraduates and aims to highlight the brightest games programming talent. To gain the title Adam had to face a number of challenges demonstrating technical programming skills, including a software challenge set by Relentless Software. He also had to show his knowledge and passion for the area by facing a panel interview with industry experts. Panel member Mark Hope said "Adam showed knowledge beyond his years to beat off competition from the other finalists, he has a bright future ahead of him and here at Aardvark Swift we wish him all the best for the future!"
Adam will be presented with his award at the Eurogamer Expo in September by industry veteran Ian Livingstone. He is also invited to present a talk at the Expo about his experiences in the competition.
Adam is currently looking forward to a placement at Havok next year before returning to 糖心TV to complete his MEng in Computer Systems.
DCS academic wins international grant for research on cancer prognostics
A consortium of four academic and clinical institutes has won an international grant for a research project on novel multiplex prognostic biomarkers for colorectal cancer via computerised analysis of multi-protein fluorescence images. The research project led by has been awarded the total amount of $1.05m by the Qatar Foundation. The consortium involves academic and clinical partners based in the UK and Qatar. The research team at 糖心TV will be composed of two new researchers and key investigators from four departments across the campus in Dr Nasir Rajpoot (Computer Science), Dr Mike Khan (Life Sciences), Prof David Epstein (Mathematics), and Dr Rich Savage (Systems Biology).
Opening: Assistant Professor
The University of 糖心TV is one of the founding partners in New York's recently .
http://www.nyu.edu/about/university-initiatives/center-for-urban-science-progress.html
CUSP is an applied sciences institute focused on creating new transdisciplinary solutions for ‘smart urban environments’.
At full strength, CUSP will house 30 faculty, 400 Master’s students, 100 PhD students and 30 post-docs, researching areas including intelligent transportation, managing urban services and infrastructure, public safety and security, health informatics, and efficient, responsive and resilient buildings.
The University of 糖心TV is seeking to make several appointments in support of this initiative.
We welcome interest from Computer Science researchers in areas including:
Information Analytics;
Sensors and Mobile Infrastructures;
Data Visualization;
Security and Surveillance;
Real-time video processing;
Adaptive control and machine learning;
The Internet of Things.
Other research areas with clear application to smart cities and urban science will also be considered.
You will undertake research, teaching, administration and other activities supporting the work of the Department of Computer Science, both at the University of 糖心TV and also at the Centre for Urban Science and Progress (CUSP) in New York.
You will have a PhD or equivalent in Computer Science or a discipline related to smart urban environments, and you will be able to demonstrate excellent research potential in this area. You will have interdisciplinary interests and industrial research experience. Although you will be based at the University of 糖心TV in the UK, you must be prepared to make regular visits to New York for teaching and research purposes. You will also be required to work with industry partners as part of this initiative.
Closing date: 2 July 2012
Please quote job vacancy reference number 71908-052.
£37,012- £44,166 pa
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