Series

Some Limits of Language: A Perspective from Formal Grammars and Languages by Prof Arvind Joshi, School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, USA

Limits of language can be studied from various perspectives such as morphology, syntax, and semantics, among others. At the syntactic level, one direction that has been pursued very actively is via the theory of formal languages, beginning with the so-called Chomsky hierarchy. In this hierarchy, the finite state languages (regular languages) and the context free languages (CFL) have been studied very extensively, leading to many important results relevant to syntax as well as parsing. At the same time, inadequacy of these two classes of grammars (languages) for capturing natural languages has been well documented by now.
A careful look at the pumping lemma for context free languages led to the discovery of the so-called tree adjoining grammars (TAG) and to the notion of mildly context sensitive languages (MCSL), which has served as a framework for showing equivalences among other systems (such as Combinatory Categorial Grammars, CCG and Head Grammars (HG), for example). This has led to a deeper understanding of the limits of language, more specifically, by trying to provide an answer to the question: how far do we need to be beyond CFL to achieve syntactic adequacy.
I will try to describe some of this recent work by a number of researchers in the past few years.

Aravind Joshi did his undergraduate work in India and his graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania in Electrical Engineering, while simultaneously attending some courses in Linguistics at the same University. Since 1961 he has been a faculty member in the Department of Computer and Information Science and the Department of Linguistics. At present, he is a Professor of Computer and Cognitive Science and a Member of the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science.
Besides working on some problems in the mathematics of language, at present, he is involved in a project on discourse annotation, jointly with Bonnie Webber (Edinburgh U.) and Rashmi Prasad (U. Wisconsin), for creating the Penn Discourse Treebank (PDTB).

Event details

  • When: 15th October 2013 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Purdie Theatre C
  • Series: School Seminar Series
  • Format: Seminar

St Andrews Students – Experience with Industrial Internships

Internships are fantastic opportunities to gain some practical experience as well as find out what is happening the real world of computer science! Come and hear some our UG students share their experiences of their 2013 summer internships.
Melissa Mozifian: Adobe
Waqas Arshad: AIG
Mariya Hristova: Google STEP
Sam Koch: Facebook

Event details

  • When: 1st October 2013 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Purdie Theatre C
  • Series: School Seminar Series
  • Format: Seminar

Scaling Skyscanner’s Flight Search & Making Mobile Applications at Skyscanner

Welcome to the first presentation in the School of Computer Science’s Seminar Series.

Please join us on for a seminar on Skyscanner’s technology this Tuesday (September 24) at 14:00 in Purdie Lecture Theatre C.

The two talks combined will take about 50 minutes with time for questions, and combine two topics presented by Skyscanner experts:

Grzegorz Janas- Project Manager Mobile Applications
Simon Thorogood- Senior Architect Development Engineering
Scott Krueger- Technical Manager Databases
Skyscanner: http://www.skyscanner.net/

Abstract:
Come and hear from Skyscanner Engineers on the Challenges behind engineering the world’s fastest growing Metasearch product and our journey towards being the “most trusted online travel company in the world” Skyscanner has 24 million unique monthly visitors and 25 million installed apps generating one-third of its traffic through mobile.

Everybody welcome.

Event details

  • When: 24th September 2013 14:00 - 15:30
  • Where: Purdie Theatre C
  • Series: School Seminar Series
  • Format: Seminar

Departmental Seminar – Andy Stanford-Clark

Title: Innovation Begins at Home

Abstract:
Prof Andy Stanford-Clark, Chief Technologist for Smarter Energy at IBM UK, will discuss the journey from Smart Metering to a future Smart Grid, incorporating the challenges of microgeneration, electric vehicles, intermittent generation, and demand-side management. Focusing specifically on energy saving in the home, Andy will talk about his own home automation system, and aspects of consumer behaviour change linked with that technology. The talk will also give details of a community energy-saving project, and the Isle of Wight EcoIsland project.

Bio:
Professor Andy Stanford-Clark is the Chief Technologist for IBM’s consulting business in Energy and Utilities for the UK and Ireland. He is an IBM Distinguished Engineer, and “Master Inventor” with more than 40 patents. Andy is based at IBM’s Hursley Park laboratories in the UK, and specialises in remote telemetry, energy monitoring and management, Smart Metering and Smart Grid technologies. He has a particular interest in home energy monitoring, home automation, demand-side management, and driving consumer behaviour change. Andy has a BSc in Computing and Mathematics, and a PhD in Computer Science. He is a visiting professor at the University of Newcastle and a Fellow of the British Computer Society.

Event details

  • When: 22nd April 2013 15:00 - 22nd April 2013 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium, Seminar

School Seminar: Neil Moore

Neil Moore obtained his PhD in Computer Science at St Andrews a couple of years ago, and is now working for Abobe.

He’ll be giving a technical talk, and describing internship opportunities at Adobe.

Title: Mutualism in software development

Abstract:
Computers are designed to be extensible at different levels: hardware can run different operating systems and operating systems are designed to expose functionality to allow third parties to write applications. It is easy to overlook extensibility at the level of application software: functionality can be added to or extracted from existing applications by third parties with no access to the source. For example: plugins, scripting environments, APIs, web services, etc.

I will talk about ways that this can benefit both the application publisher as well as third parties. I will also give practical information and examples of how this can be achieved based on my experience in working in this area for Adobe, who are heavily invested in extensibility in their products.

Event details

  • When: 1st April 2013 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Seminar

DLS: Formal Modelling and Analysis of Deployed Systems by Prof Muffy Calder

Title
Formal Modelling and Analysis of Deployed Systems

Professor Steve Linton and Dr Adam Barker with Professor Muffy Calder.

Professor Steve Linton and Dr Adam Barker with Professor Muffy Calder.

Abstract
Formal methods are traditionally used for specification and implementation in a waterfall model. In contrast, I am interested in formal models of concurrent, interactive systems that may/may not be in software, and   may already be deployed, i.e. they are systems to be observed.  Can formal models and reasoning expose how a system actually works?  Can formal models and reasoning suggest improvements based on how a system is actually used?

In these talks I will investigate these questions through case studies, from biochemical signalling pathways, to wireless home networks and (shock horror) mobile app games.

Biography
I have been at the Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow since January 1988. Until 2012 I was Dean of Research in the College of Science and Engineering and Senate Assessor on Court and before that I was Head of Department of Computing Science for four years, from 2003 to 2007. I currently work for the Scottish Government 60% of the time, as the Chief Scientific Adviser. Continue reading

Event details

  • When: 8th April 2013 10:30 - 16:30
  • Where: St Andrews
  • Series: Distinguished Lectures Series

School Seminar: Programs that Write Programs – Is that Interesting?- by Prof Ron Morrison, …with many ideas from…

This seminar is suitable for CS3053-RPIC

A talk by Prof Ron Morrison …with many ideas from:

Dharini Balasubramaniam, Graham Kirby, Kath Mickan – University of St Andrews, Brian Warboys, R. Mark Greenwood, Ian Robertson, Bob Snowdon – University of Manchester and technologies developed by some of the above and Alfred Brown, Al Dearle, Richard Connor, Quintin Cutts, David Munro and Stuart Norcross – University of St Andrews.

Continue reading

Event details

  • When: 25th February 2013 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium

School Seminar: HCI in Health Care by Jill Freyne -ICT Centre,CSIRO

 Abstract
Obesity, poor diet and lifestyle and the associated health care costs are set to cripple the governmental budgets of most Western countries over the coming decades. The facts of the equation are simple. Energy intake must exceed energy output for weight loss, and living within a healthy weight range has a host of benefits. Most communities understand and acknowledge the facts, but despite their understanding continue to live lifestyles that endanger them in the long term. In this talk Jill Freyne will walk us through two case studies for online and mobile dietary interventions and examine the power and weaknesses of the technology in the fight to engage and sustain individuals in lifestyle change.

Event details

  • When: 3rd May 2013 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium, Seminar

A new Interaction Paradigm for Distributed User Interfaces by Prof. Dr. Harald Reiterer, University of Konstanz

This seminar is suitable for CS3053-RPIC

Abstract:

Distributed User Interfaces (DUIs) are typically used in ‘Interactive spaces’ which are physical environments or rooms for collaborative work that are augmented with ubiquitous computing technology. Their purpose is to enable a computer-supported collaboration between multiple users that is based on a seamless use of different devices for natural ‘post-WIMP’ interaction, e.g., multi-touch walls, interactive tabletops, tablet PCs or digital pen & paper. However, to this day, there are still no well-established guidelines or toolkits for designing and implementing such distributed user interfaces (DUIs). Therefore the talk will introduce the Zoomable Object-Oriented Information Landscape (ZOIL), a novel design & interaction paradigm and software framework for post-WIMP DUIs in interactive spaces. Continue reading

Event details

  • When: 11th March 2013 15:00 - 16:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium, Seminar