School of Computer Science

School Hosts StacsHack 2015

The School hosted a hugely successful StacsHack last month. We congratulate Stacs St Andrews Computing Society for organising and running a fantastic event. Hackathons allow students with a range of talents and aptitudes to form groups and create innovative projects in 24hrs. It’s clear from the many photos that great fun was had by all. View some of the winning projects at the challenge post submission gallery.

Thanks to Gala Malbasic, Nick Tikhonov, Ieva Vasiļjeva and Vika Anisimova for representing the School of Computer Science in such a positive way and for all their hard work and enthusiasm.

stacshack

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Sponsors: Palantir, J.P. Morgan, Braintree_Dev, Bloomberg and Thalmiclabs.

MLH Hardware Lab partners: Oculus VR, Pebble, Thalmic Labs, Sparkfun, Estimote, Leap Motion and Spark.

Images courtesy of Gala Malbasic and Major League Hacking.
More images from the event can be viewed on the StacsHack Facebook Page.

March 10th, seminar by Nick Taylor: Sustaining Civic Engagement in Communities

Speaker: Nick Taylor, University of Dundee
Date/Time: 2-3pm March 10, 2015
Location: CS1.33a, University of St Andrews

Abstract:
Engagement with local issues is typically very low, despite digital technologies opening up more channels for citizens to access information and get involved than ever before. This talk will present research around the use of simple physical interfaces in public spaces to lower barriers to participation and engage a wider audience in local issues. It will also explore the potential for moving beyond top-down interventions to support sustainable grassroots innovation, in which citizens can develop their own solutions to local issues.

Bio:
Nick Taylor is a Lecturer and Dundee Fellow in the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design at the University of Dundee. His research interests involve the use of novel technologies in social contexts, particularly in communities and public spaces. This has involved the exploration of technologies to support civic engagement in local democracy, public displays supporting community awareness and heritage, as well as methods of engaging communities in design.

This seminar is part of our ongoing series from researchers in HCI. See here for our current schedule.

Event details

  • When: 10th March 2015 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Format: Seminar

What’s happening to computer hardware, and what does it mean for systems software?

Mothy RoscoeThe first set of Computer Science Distinguished Lectures in 2015 will
be given by Prof Mothy Roscoe of ETH Zurich, 09:15–15:30 on Thursday 2nd April
in the Byre Theatre.

Computer systems are not what they used to be, and the days when a
machine could be described as a processor, some memory, and some I/O
devices are long gone. Modern machines, from Systems-on-a-Chip in
phones to rack-scale data appliances, are themselves complex networks
of heterogeneous processing elements, different kinds of memory, and
diverse communication links.
Continue reading

Event details

  • When: 2nd April 2015 09:15 - 15:30
  • Where: St Andrews
  • Series: Distinguished Lectures Series
  • Format: Distinguished lecture

Notable Woman in Computing Card Deck

Available on a coffee table (Jack Cole) near you: Notable Women in Computing playing card deck featuring 54 notable women in computer science. Play your favourite card game and learn more about the history and future of women in computer science. Read more about the KickStarter and Wiki Project.

WIC

Ae fond farewell: Anne and Joy

As we start a new semester, we take time to reflect on those leaving the department. Fare thee well Anne and Joy. The School hosted a retirement reception for them last week. We thank them for all their hard work over many years and their contribution to making the School such a great place to work and study. They are pictured below being presented with flowers and keepsakes.

reception

FatFonts and a World Population Map

Looking for an unusual Christmas gift? Look no further, the first ever FatFonts World Population Map is now available in the Axis Maps store. All proceeds from the maps will fund more research and help us provide exciting internships for students.

fatFontPoster-01

Created by Miguel Nacenta and Uta Hinrichs, the map shows how the population of the world is distributed. It uses a typographic visualization technique – FatFonts which allows you to read the exact number of people living in a particular area with a precision within 100,000 people. View the gallery of lytro pictures for further images.

FatFonts are also available to download and use, or for the more inspired, try creating your own.

Although a quirky idea, FatFonts seem to have a bunch of usages… for example, they are convenient when you want to provide a table of numbers that is also a graphical representation. This allows the viewer (or the reader) to very quickly capture the overall distribution, but also to go in and read the specific number, which they can then use to compare to other numbers (in the FatFonts table or in their heads).

FatFonts are great in maps, and that is why Uta and I set out to create a poster that would give a picture of one of the most pressing issues of our time: world population. Thanks to SICSA (and our wonderful helpers Carson, Jed, and Michael), we got the time, money and support to develop the idea. The result is a poster that represents the population of the world using FatFonts. – Miguel Nacenta

Read more about the World Map and FatFonts on Miguel’s blog, the SACHI blog and at FatFonts.

Laidlaw Undergraduate Internship Programme

Deadline Monday 9th February 2015 at 5pm

This week, the University is launching an exciting new internship programme, ‘The Laidlaw Undergraduate Internship Programme in Research and Leadership’, thanks to the generous support from The Lord Laidlaw of Rothiemay. This is the biggest UG internship programme of its kind in Scotland and is a unique opportunity for students to gain paid professional work experience, contribute to high level research in the University and benefit from an intensive leadership training course.
Further information is available at the following webpage:-
https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/students/involve/laidlaw/

Graduation December 2014

Congratulations to the Masters Class of 2014, and PhD students Dr Lakshitha De Silva and Dr Iain Parris who graduated today. The School also celebrated the installation of Professor Ian Miguel.
Students were invited to a reception in the school to celebrate their achievement with staff, friends and family.

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Winter graduation coincided with a weekend of St Andrew’s Day celebrations captured in full glory by MSc student Xu Zhu.

Historic Streets, Peir, Harbour and Old Course

Historic Streets, Pier, Harbour and Old Course

R&A, Christmas Lights and Cèilidh.

R&A, Christmas Lights and Cèilidh.

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