Welcome to new PhD students

We are delighted to introduce three female PhD students funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council.

Xue Guo (JC1.06)

“I am Xue Guo, a returning student from Beijing. My PhD research into Complex Networks is supervised by Prof. Simon Dobson. Last seven years, I hopped over five places: four undergraduate years in BUPT and UCSD, one master year in St Andrews, and two gap years – one in Phoenix TV as a technology journalist, and one in Skyscanner as a software engineer. A three-to-four-year research in one town seems quite a LONG journey for me, but I am sure it will NOT be a LONGLY one in this warm academic community of School of Computer Science. My current research interest is modelling real world phenomena using complex networks, esp. smart city design. Born in Beijing, a city with a population of over 20 million, I have experienced most urban problems that a metropolis can suffer from. I would like to design a research tool for the city designers to generate solutions to traffic congestion and give advice on city infrastructure distribution. I am looking forward to learning from you and exploring more applications of complex networks. In my free time, I enjoy fencing, snowboarding, calligraphy and music.”

Yanbei Chen (JC1.19)

“From 2011 to 2014, I was studying in Zhejiang University in China, with a speciality in Automation. In 2014, I started my master program in KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, with a major in System, Control and Robotics. In the summer of 2015, I enrolled in Tohoku University Engineering Summer Program in Japan. In the first half of 2016, I conducted my master thesis in the field of machine learning, deep learning and multimodal learning under the supervision of Dr. Atsuto Maki in Computer Vision and Active Perception Lab in KTH.Currently, with the scholarship from China Scholarship Council and University of St Andrews, I will start my PhD study under the supervision of Dr. Juan Ye. My research interests lie in the fields of activity recognition, machine learning, deep learning, and artificial intelligence. From now on, my research will focus on activity recognition based on sensor data from smartphone. In my leisure time, I enjoy music, travel, reading, and jogging.”

Sidi Zhan (JC1.11)

“Hi, I am Sidi Zhan! I completed my BEng in Computer Science at Beijing Foreign Studies University, focusing on recommending doctors to patients in online healthcare QA community. I am now working as a PhD student in Computer Science under the supervision of Dr. Tristan Henderson and Dr. Juan Ye. My proposed research is to enhance peers mutual help and promote their social support in online healthcare community by using recommender to match-make the patient users. My research project will include collecting and analyzing users’ profiles and records data, so policies on user privacy protection will also be examined. I enjoy studying and living in St Andrews, the beautiful coastal city, very much. I am so willing to combine my hobbies with the life here by experiencing local culture, like jogging along the East Sands, singing in a chorus and going Ceilidh dances.”

MacMillan Coffee Morning

The yearly World’s Biggest Coffee Morning for MacMillan cancer support is on Friday 30th September.

Staff and students are invited to donate cakes, biscuits or home produce for sale on Friday morning from 10.45am in the JCB coffee area. Everyone is invited to bake, cook or donate either national delicacies or just something you want to share. In previous years we have also had home made jam and home grown fruit and vegetables for sale. For some recipe ideas see http://coffee.macmillan.org.uk/ideas/baking-recipes/

Donations for a raffle are also welcome (to Ishbel or the School Office).

The MacMillan coffee morning raises money for nurses and counsellors to support cancer patients and their families. At home or hospice terminal and support care nursing costs £28 per hour and a counsellor costs £15 per hour.

Event details

When: 30th September 2016 10:45 - 16:30
Where: Cole Coffee Area

David Harris-Birtill: Converge Challenge Winner 2016

Congratulations to Dr David Harris-Birtill, who was announced the winner of the Converge Challenge KickStart award at a ceremony in Edinburgh yesterday. The converge challenge competition rewards an early-stage idea or a new product. David won a cash injection prize of £3,000 to kick-start Beyond Medics – Automated Remote Pulse Oximetry, a camera based system that remotely measures patients’ vital signs.

Google @ St Andrews – 28th September

Come along and learn about Google and some of the engineering challenges they are tackling. The event will include talks from our very own CS alumni and mock interview opportunities, which are a great way to get feedback on your interview technique, from real Google Engineers. Pizza and drinks provided.

Date and Time: Wednesday 28th September
Venue: Jack Cole room 1.33ab

Event sign up link: goo.gl/1EtfGj

Schedule:
Engineering at Google – 4 – 5.30pm – Presentations from four St Andrews CS alumni working at Google. Q&A session – An opportunity to chat with alumni presenters, and Google interns who are current studying at St Andrews.

Mock interview sessions – 7 – 9pm – Interested people should sign up using the link above.

Alex Voss: Great Scottish Swim for Macmillan

On August 27th, Alex Voss will be participating in the Great Scottish Swim 2016. Alex is swimming in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, a charity that supports people affected by cancer to ensure no one faces cancer alone.

Alex was part of the CS swim team who completed the challenge last year.

Visit his JustGiving page and reward his hard work and support a great charity.

PhD Viva Success: Vinodh Rajan Sampath

Congratulations to Vinodh Rajan Sampath, who successfully defended his thesis today. He is pictured below with supervisor Dr Mark-Jan Nederhof, research student Juan Mendoza Santana and internal examiner Dr Tom Kelsey. Dr Peter Stokes from King’s College London, acted as external examiner.

Deepview Project: Innovative GAZER Software

Congratulations to Dr Miguel Nacenta and Michael Mauderer on the success of Deepview and its subsequent application Gazer, an open source tool that provides functionality for showcasing light field images using gaze-contingent focus. The software, developed by SACHI, works in conjunction with eye tracking devices to allow photographers using light field cameras to discern images by automatically concentrating on objects using just their eyes.

Results from the project have been widely disseminated in the media and featured on a BBC click episode (20.56)

For more information and downloads visit the Gazer project section or github repository.

The project was funded through the European Union’s Marie Curie Program (CIG – 303780).

Could your car be used to spy on you?

In the not-so-distant future, cars won’t require a human driver anymore. They will drive autonomously, and you will be their passenger. However, these vehicles will also need to know your location, and, in some cases (e.g. for taxis and car rentals), your identity. Consequently, your movements might be tracked.

How do you feel about your car collecting such private data?

Tell us what you think! Please complete the online survey here.

The survey is completely anonymous. The record of your survey responses will not contain any identifying information about you, such as your name or e-mail address.

If there are any additional questions or comments, please email Tobias Meyer or Prof Saleem Bhatti.

Thank you very much for your help and support!

Computer Science: June Graduation Reception 2016

Congratulations to our Senior Honours Class of 2016, and our PhD students Dr Jan de Muijnck-Hughes, Dr Christopher Davies, Dr Jakub Dostal, Dr Marc Werfs, Dr Ditchaphong Phoomikiattisak, Dr Bruce Simpson and Dr Ward Jaradat who graduated yesterday. Students were invited to a reception in the school to celebrate their achievement with staff, friends and family.

Saad Attieh, one of our talented SH students was awarded this year’s Principal’s Medal, which recognises exceptional endeavour and achievement during a student’s time at St Andrews. Read more about the medal and his journey in the University News.

Our graduates move on to a wide variety of interesting and challenging employment and further study opportunities, and we wish them all well with their future careers.

Teaching Fellows in Computer Science

Applications are invited for 2 Teaching Fellowships in the School of Computer Science. In the first instance, at least, these are fixed-term positions of ten to twelve months with a start date of August 2016. We require Teaching Fellows to assist with the development and delivery of high quality, innovative teaching. Applicants should have at least a BSc in Computer Science, preferably a PhD, and previous lecturing and tutorial experience at undergraduate level. Preferably they should also be able to demonstrate ability to deliver a range of core Computer Science courses, in classroom, laboratory and small-group tutorial environments. Experience in project supervision at undergraduate and masters level would also be beneficial.

Candidates are welcome to make informal enquiries to the School’s Director of Teaching, Dr Graham Kirby, dot-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk.
For further information about the School of Computer Science, please see the further particulars.

The University of St Andrews is committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all, which is further demonstrated through its working on the Gender and Race Equality Charters and being awarded the Athena SWAN award for women in science, HR Excellence in Research Award and the LGBT Charter; http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/hr/edi/diversityawards/.

Information on how to apply.

Closing Date: 29 June 2016

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