Today the School of Computer Science Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee held an International Snack event. This event aimed to bring together our international staff and students for an informal gathering and share some snacks from around the globe.
We have 2 presentations next week focusing on Tangible interfaces by Laura Pruszko and Anna Carter.
Alex will discuss a critique of modern software engineering and outline how it systematically produces systems that have negative social consequences. To help counter this trend, he offers the notion of rights-driven development, which puts the concept of a right at the heart of software engineering practices. Alex’s first step to develop rights-driven practices is to introduce a language for rights in software engineering. He provides an overview of the elements such a language must contain and outlines some ideas for developing a domain-specific language that can be integrated with modern software engineering approaches.
Alex Voss, who’s an Honorary Lecturer here at the school and an external member of our group. Alex was also a Technology Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and an Associate in the Department of Philosophy at Harvard.
Alex holds a PhD in Informatics and works at the intersection of the social sciences and computer science. His current research aims to develop new representations, practices and tools for rights-respecting software engineering. He is also working on the role that theories of causation have in making sense of complex socio-technical systems.
His research interests include: causality in computing, specifically in big data and machine learning applications; human-centric co-realization of technologies; responsible innovation; computing and society; computer-based and computer-aided research methods.
More about Alex: https://research-portal.st-andrews.ac.uk/en/persons/alexander-voss
If you’re interested in attending any of the seminars in room 1.19, please email the SACHI seminar coordinator: aaa8@st-andrews.ac.uk so they can make appropriate arrangements for the seminar based on the number of attendees.
Congratulations to Jordina Frances de Mas for passing her viva subject to minor corrections!
Many thanks to Didier Galmiche for serving as the external examiner and Ruth Hoffman as the internal examiner.
£100m boost in AI research will propel transformative innovations – UKRI
We are delighted to participate in the National Edge AI Hub that is funded by UKRI. The Hub comprises 12 universities and numerous industry and public sector organisations. The vision of the Hub is to develop the underlying research to secure the edge of the network using Artifical Intelligence / Machine Learning (AI/ML).
The St Andrews team led by Dr Blesson Varghese will develop fundamental research on making AI/ML algorithms and models to work on extremely small devices in challenging environments for critical decision making.
Dr Varghese said, “We are delighted to be a part of this national initiative and contribute to the vision of making Edge AI a reality for times when it is most needed – mitigating cyber threats on our digital infrastructure”.
Dr Varghese directs the Edge Computing Hub at the University of St Andrews.
On 11th April, the School of Computer Science at St Andrews will host our Doors Open event. We will be thrilled to welcome any and all visitors from outwith the School, whether you are locally based, from elsewhere in the UK, or from overseas.
As a rapidly growing school, we are looking to build relationships with new partners and are keen to find out how we can help you, your companies, and/or organisations to solve problems and improve processes.
Our Doors Open Day will have over 60 individual exhibits and activities. Our presenters will be our staff and students, with representation from 1st year undergrad through to PhD students, academic and technical members of staff.
Please register here if you would like to attend to enable us to order sufficient food!
We look forward to welcoming Prof Neil Lawrence, Cambridge who will talk about ‘The Atomic Human: Understanding Ourselves in the Age of AI’.
A vital perspective is missing from the discussions we are having about Artificial Intelligence: what does it mean for our identity?
Our fascination with AI stems from the perceived uniqueness of human intelligence. We believe it is what differentiates us. Fears of AI not only concern how it invades our digital lives but also the implied threat of an intelligence that displaces us from our position at the centre of the world.
Atomism, proposed by Democritus, suggested it was impossible to continue dividing matter down into ever smaller components: eventually, we reach a point where a cut cannot be made (the Greek for uncuttable is ‘atom’). In the same way, by slicing away at the facets of human intelligence that can be replaced by machines, AI uncovers what is left: an indivisible core that is the essence of humanity.
By contrasting our own (evolved, locked-in, embodied) intelligence with the capabilities of machine intelligence through history, The
Atomic Human reveals the technical origins, capabilities, and limitations of AI systems, and how they should be wielded. Not just
by the experts, but by ordinary people. Either AI is a tool for us, or we become a tool of AI. Understanding this will enable us to choose
the future we want.
This talk is based on Neil’s forthcoming book to be published with Allen Lane in June 2024. Machine learning solutions, in particular
those based on deep learning methods, form an underpinning of the the current revolution in “artificial intelligence” that has dominated
popular press headlines and is having a significant influence on the wider tech agenda.
In this talk, I will give an overview of where we are now with machine learning solutions, and what challenges we face both in the
near and far future. These include practical application of existing algorithms in the face of the need to explain decision-making,
mechanisms for improving the quality and availability of data, dealing with large unstructured datasets.
Applications are sought from passionate, creative and outgoing students interested in using their skills and interests in tabletop gaming in application to research in computer science, Human Computer Interaction, and User Experience design. This exciting PhD project will see the worlds of TTRPG and computing coincide to produce meaningful interactions to support the design, development and deployment of technology, whether from the software level, or at the pipeline level in support of those who will become developers and designers.
Tabletop Role Playing Games (TTRPG) allow the player to immerse themselves in a world where anything can happen — within the rules. You can become someone new, fight demons, play out exciting and speculative storylines, all with the help of your party. This ability to place yourself in the life of another person (or ethereal being) resonates with principles of User Experience Design (UX) where usability experts strive to understand the impact their application or interface might have on a hypothetical audience. There is also the potential for this technique to be used in computer science education, to enable students to explore real world design and programming processes, and the ethical challenges that ensue with the creation of new software and hardware.
The difficulty in eliciting requirements from users, especially users with complex interaction needs, is well-established in literature (Ferreira et al., 2019; Heumader et al., 2018; Pacheco et al., 2018). The process is one that is primarily an ongoing act of interpretation in which user ‘wants’ are translated from interviews, observation, focus groups and such into actionable ‘needs’ that can then be addressed in further design and development. The literature thus makes a distinction between ‘gathering’ requirements – as in collecting together feedback – versus ‘eliciting’ requirements, which is a a more participatory form of ongoing interpretation. As noted by Pacheco et al. the process is highly contextual and its complexities are influenced by everything from the project, the organisation, the environment, and the prior-experiences and skill-sets of all involved parties. It is also dependent on the requirements elicitation techniques employed.
Continue reading
As part of their efforts to enhance privacy and trust on the Web, many applications need to be able to determine whether or not a relationship exists between different entities. For example, it is desirable for web browsers to be able to determine that two domain names are under the same administrative control, such that cookies and other data can be safely shared between them. While determining these relationships might be easy for humans, it is impossible to do so algorithmically.
This project will explore approaches to the defining and enforcing organisational boundaries on the Internet. These approaches will consider the technical challenges, balancing those with user behaviour and expectations, and regulatory considerations. This will include identifying use cases, evaluating and measuring existing and proposed approaches, and developing and implementing novel techniques. Where appropriate, this will involve engagement with standards development organisations, including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Continue reading
We would like to invite our graduating students and their guests to join us for a celebration in honour of their achievements. Please join us for a small reception with a glass of bubbly and some Fisher and Donaldson’s cakes.
The event will take place on Tuesday, November 28th, between 12 noon and 2 p.m. at the Jack Cole coffee area.
We look forward to commemorating this special occasion together.
