School of Computer Science
Dr Gordon Baxter appointed Scottish Chair of BCS Interaction Group
Dr Gordon Baxter has recently been appointed as the chair of the Scottish regional sub-group of the BCS Interaction Group. The BCS Interaction Group celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and is the longest established and largest national group in Europe devoted to human-computer interaction. The Interaction group is served by regionally based sub-groups with representatives from a broad range of academic and industrial centres of HCI interest. These sub-groups meet informally every few weeks to progress work, and all participants are committed to promoting the education and practice of HCI and to supporting HCI people in industry and academia.
Ildiko Pete wins People’s Choice Prize
Congratulations to Ildiko Pete who won the People’s Choice Prize for her presentation at the 2014 London Hopper Colloquium. Ildiko entered the Research Spotlight competition prior to the event, and was chosen as a finalist. The event was held at the BCS headquarters on 22 May 2014.
The Colloquium is an annual event for women in Computer Science, which provides an opportunity for participants to present their work, network with other researchers and gain insights into careers in industry.
Hot off the press: Foundations for Designing User Centered Systems
A new book, Foundations for Designing User-Centered Systems has just been published by Springer. Written by Frank Ritter (Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State), Gordon Baxter (Systems Engineering Group, Computer Science, University of St Andrews) and Elizabeth Churchill (Director of HCI at eBay Research Labs), Foundations for DUCS was developed for people studying and practising human factors/HCI and software engineering.
Foundations for DUCS encapsulates the extensive experience of its co-authors in designing, developing and conducting research into interactive systems in domains as diverse as aviation, consumer Internet, health care, eCommerce, industrial process control, and enterprise systems. The book covers the fundamental information that system designers need in order to understand their users’ capabilities and limitations, the tasks those users will perform, and the context in which they perform them. It also considers the practical implications of this information for system design. Applying the lessons from Foundations for DUCS will help readers to design interactive systems that are more usable, more useful, and more effective.
Springer launched Foundations for DUCS at the end of April 2014 in Toronto at CHI, the pre-eminent conference in Human-Computer Interaction.
Dr Baxter said:
“It was a real challenge to produce a practical resource that would be useful to students of human factors/HCI and software engineering, as well as appealing to both academics and practitioners. The testimonials we’ve received from leading lights in all areas of our target audience suggest that we’ve met that challenge, with Ian Sommerville (author of Software Engineering) recommending it ‘to all engineers’, highly respected Human Factors expert Peter Hancock saying that ‘Even if only a proportion of designers and users read this book we will be so much better off.’ and IBM Distinguished Fellow and Chief Architect, Richard Hopkins noting that the book ‘has given me access to a variety of new techniques and an extended vocabulary that I look forward to introducing my design teams to.’”
The book is currently available via SpringerLink: http://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2F978-1-4471-5134-0 and from book stores.
Senior Honours Poster and Demo Sessions
Our talented final year Computer Science students presented their projects last week. A demonstration and poster session allowed them to discuss the output from a semester of hard work with their peer group and staff.
We wish them every success as they approach graduation, and look forward to celebrating their successful CS journey, next Thursday at the SH BBQ.
Images courtesy of Conrad de Kerckhove.
CS1006 Backgammon AI
The annual CS1006 challenge took place this morning in the subhonours lab. Students had been designing AIs to play Backgammon, this year. The first year module was delivered by John Thomson. Previous years have focused on Hex, Othello and Connect 4.
Congratulations to David Mulkerrin, winner of the CS1006 competition, winning a £50 Amazon voucher.
Also congratulations to:
2nd- Neofytos Dimitriou and Nick Tikhonov
3rd- Callum Fare and Conor Barr
It’s always a fun session to end Semester 2, and a great opportunity to showcase the ingenuity and creativity of our first year students.
St Andrews Programming Competition 2014
The Subhonours Lab was in full swing yesterday afternoon, with staff and students enjoying the challenge of the 2014 St Andrews Programming Competition.
Participants and winners are pictured below along with some of the prizes and merchandise. Winners, prizes and teams to be announced once confirmed. We believe the Head of School, Steve Linton, did rather well.
The event, prizes and refreshments sponsored by:
Follow on Twitter @aetherstore
Dr. Per Ola Kristensson awarded RSE/Makdougall Brisbane Medal
In recognition of academic excellence for his outstanding research work and entrepreneurialism Dr. Per Ola Kristensson is amongst the most outstanding academic talent documented by The Royal Society in their Royal Prizewinners list for 2014, announced today. The Prize was founded in 1855 by Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, for particular distinction in the promotion of scientific research.
In 2013 Per Ola Kristensson was named as one of the people most likely to change the world by the prestigious MIT Technology Review’s list of Innovators under 35. Described as visionary he appears at number 11 in IMPACT 100.
IMPACT 100 PANEL VIEW:
People like Per Ola Kristensson are the shapers of the future where social interaction and new technology are concerned.
His research interconnects human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence and machine learning allowing intelligent interactive systems to be developed, that enable people to be more creative, expressive and satisfied in their daily lives. Dr. Kristensson also works in the areas of multi-display systems, eye-tracking systems, and crowdsourcing and human computation.
He is a Lecturer in the School of Computer Science, a member of the SACHI research group and is also a Member of the RSE Young Academy of Scotland.
Professor Aaron Quigley, Chair of HCI in the School of Computer Science responded:
We are all delighted at the rightful recognition of Per Ola and his world-leading achievements. Last year he was the only UK member of the TR35, the most prestigious annual list published by MIT Technology Review. And now the Royal Society of Edinburgh has recognised his research. Per Ola is an excellent colleague who brings real enthusiasm, insight and dedication to whatever he does. Be it supervising an honours student, teaching, leadership in SICSA or working with industry. His work in intelligent interactive systems is laying the ground work for how the world will interact with computation in the future.
St Andrews Programming Competition 2014
The St Andrews Programming Competition 2014 is a friendly programming contest organised by the School of Computer Science for students belonging to all levels, coming from any background with any amount of programming experience. Team up with up to 3 members per team, compete for 3 hours by solving a set of programming problems using your favourite programming language and win £200 worth of prizes.
Generally, programming competitions are aimed at the best programmers, this is a first-of-its-kind competition where students from all levels with any amount of programming experience stand a chance to win a prize. Another unique aspect of this competition is that it has also open to members of staff from the School of Computer Science, making this a fun experience and a bonding opportunity for staff and students.
Students can use this opportunity gain valuable exposure to solving quick algorithmic programming questions – of the style that may come up in job interviews, where candidates are required to solve problems on the fly while being observed. Such interview practices are common among many companies nowadays including Google.
For more details and registration visit: http://goo.gl/I78Hyf
Facebook: www.facebook.com/stapc14
Twitter: @stapc14
If you have any questions, please email Shyam on smr20@st-andrews.ac.uk
The event, prizes and refreshments will be sponsored by AetherStore.
Event details
- When: 7th April 2014 14:00 - 17:00
- Where: Cole 0.35 - Subhons Lab
PhD Admissions Session, Thursday 13 March 2pm
There will be a short session for students (either 4th year or Masters) interested in applying for a PhD in the School of Computer Science.
The deadline for the University’s funded 7th Century scholarships is March 31, so this is a good time to be thinking about it if you are interested and have not already applied.
The session will consist of a short talk and time for Q&A with John Thomson and Ian Gent, who handle PhD admissions in the School.
It will be in Jack Cole 1.33a, from 2pm to 2.30pm on Thursday 13 March 2014
Event details
- When: 13th March 2014 14:00 - 14:30
- Where: Cole 1.33a