Here Comes Summer

Work continues in the new Comp Sci Garden. It’s not Blue Peter or Beechgrove status yet, but look out Chelsea 2014.

Carnegie-Cameron Taught Postgraduate Bursaries 2013

Congratulations to Alice Herbison who has been selected to receive a Carnegie-Cameron Taught Postgraduate Bursary. Alice has studied a number of undergraduate modules in the school and will begin her postgraduate studies in September on our new MSc in Human Computer Interaction. We look forward to seeing her in the department again soon.

The Carnegie Trust For The Universities Of Scotland, supports the bursaries, which were established by Andrew Carnegie in 1901.

Computing Reviews’ Notable Books and Articles 2012

ACM Computing Reviews has selected a recent survey paper written by Per Ola Kristensson and colleagues as one of the Notable Computing Books and Articles of 2012.

The list consists of nominations from Computing Reviews reviewers, Computing Reviews category editors, the editors in chief of journals covered by Computing Reviews, and others in the computing community.

The selected survey paper is entitled “Foundational Issues in Touch-Surface Stroke Gesture Design — An Integrative Review” and it was published by the journal Foundations and Trends in Human-Computer Interaction in 2012.

What Next for Senior Honours?

As the exam diet draws to a close for another year, our final year students are considering their next step after graduation. Stephen Haley will join PlanForCloud in August as a Software Engineer, working alongside Alistair Scott, another graduate from the school.

PlanForCloud, originally ShopForCloud, was established by Hassan and Ali Khajeh-Hosseini and acquired by RightScale in 2012. While studying for his PhD in Computer Science at St Andrews, Ali worked as a software engineering intern at RightScale. Their continued success means that they are actively recruiting, visit the PlanForCloud recruitment page for further information.

More next steps to follow…

Alumni Numbers Increase in New York City

We like to share success stories, especially when they relate to our Alumni. Congratulations to Greg Bigwood who recently joined AetherWorks LLC. as Senior Software Architect. AetherWorks LLC. is a Software Engineering, Research & Development lab in New York City.

Computer Science Graduates Robert MacInnis, Allan Boyd and Angus Macdonald launched software company AetherStore™ earlier last year. Visit their websites at www.AetherWorks.com and www.AetherStore.com to read more about their journey. We wish them continued success as they approach the anniversary of their launch.

Gesture-based Natural User Interfaces

Research into personalised gestures for user interfaces carried out by Miguel Nacenta, Per Ola Kristensson and two of our recent MSc students, Yemliha Kamber and Yizhou Qiang featured in the University News last week. You can read more about their research in the MIT Technology Review, and Fast Company’s Co.DESIGN. Their results question whether pre-programmed gestures need the personal touch to make them more effective.

KALQ Keyboard

Per Ola Kristensson and researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Informatics and Montana Tech have created a new keyboard that enables faster thumb-typing.Their research featured in the University News, Techcrunch, The Guardian, The Independent and in the BBC News. Read the articles and follow the ongoing discussion online.

HEA ‘Curriculum for Excellence Scholarship Scheme’

The HEA has recently funded 20 scholarships which are aimed at helping HEIs work with partner schools and consider the impact of CfE on future higher education content and delivery when school-leavers enter higher education from 2015/16. Lisa Dow has been awarded a scholarship to develop the use of virtual environments in Social Science and History education in local schools.