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Google

At 2pm today there will be a series of talks in Physics Lecture Theatre B by Google engineers and myself. Event details here: https://plus.google.com/events/cugartcmak5aabt8a91q6kfb0h8

“Ryan Shatford, a senior engineering manager from California who has been with Google since 2001 will talk about his experiences of Google as it grew from a silicon valley startup to a corporation with global reach.

Ben Birt, a St Andrews Computer Science graduate, will speak on his experience of transitioning from student life to working at Google and tell us a bit about the Google developed programming language Go.

James Smith, a PhD student in the School of Computer Science will talk about his internship with Google on their Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) team in Dublin.

Jen McColl, Google’s University liaison officer for St Andrews will participate in a live Google+ Hangout to answer any questions on careers at Google.”

All welcome! Please RSVP on the Google+ Event: https://plus.google.com/events/cugartcmak5aabt8a91q6kfb0h8

Lab PC upgrade

The School has started the tender process for replacement of our Lab PCs. The new PCs will have a similar form-factor to the current PCs but will have faster more power efficient CPUs, more memory, quieter cooling and twin HDDs for simpler dual boot configuration. We will be replacing the current displays with LED back-lit HD (1920×1080) screens and some of the PCs will have dual displays.

The current timetable will see the new PCs deployed in January.

Shuttle SH61R4 H61 PC base unit

Base unit for the new CS Lab PCs - Shuttle SH61R4 H61

The components specified in the tender are as follows:

  • Shuttle SH61R4 base-unit.
  • Intel Core i5, 3450S, 2.80GHZ, 65W CPU.
  • 8GB DDR3 1333MHz memory.
  • Dual 250GB HDD, 5400RPM, energy efficient.
  • 21” – 24”, 1920 x 1080, LED backlit, DVI, energy efficient display.

Four Geeks and an Entrepreneur

Al Dearle, Monty Widenius, Steve Linton, Ian Gent

Al Dearle, Monty Widenius, Steve Linton, Ian Gent (left to right), St Andrews, 15 October 2012

We were privileged today to hear three lectures from Monty Widenius, main author of the MySQL database system.   His main focus was on entrepreneurship and being an entrepreneur while giving away source code on an open source basis.

Three staff members from St Andrews are pictured with Monty before the first lecture, in St Salvator’s quad at the University of St Andrews.

Event details

  • When: 15th October 2012
  • Series: Distinguished Lectures Series

Virtual Worlds Research: NuiLib & Armadilo

Exciting update on two pieces of software from the Open Virtual Worlds research group.

The first is NuiLib
(available at NuiLib.org), a utility library for facilitating
development with NUI (Natural User Input) devices (such as the Microsoft
Kinect).

It puts an abstraction layer over the top of the NUI device to
hide the gory details of the original API and allows the developer to
focus on what they are trying to use the device for. It aims to ease
cross platform support, support for different devices, development and
experimentation with new NUI input parsing algorithms, integration of
new algirithms and code clarity.

The second is Armadillo.

This is a Virtual World client modified to support Kinect input. Users
can perform gestures to move their avatar through the world without having to interact with the computer itself. Helpful in museum or school installation
projects.

A video of Armadillo in action is available on the Open Virtual Worlds’ facebook timeline.
Kinect integration in Armadillo was achieved solely using NuiLib.

NuiLib has been featured on Microsoft’s Channel9 Coding for Fun blog
and by the DevelopKinect
community.

Talks are underway to include Armadillo in an
educational pilot program across 38 schools in Ireland and as part of a
Virtual World performance art project.

Both projects were developed by John McCaffery. You can find him in Room 0.09 (Jack Cole Building).

If you are starting on a Kinect project and want
to look at NuiLib or would like to superman your way through the Open
Virtual Worlds group’s reconstruction
of St Andrews Cathedral send him an email or pop in for a chat.

Forthcoming talk by SICSA Distinguished Visitor

Room 1.33a at 2:00 pm on Friday 7th September 2012

  • Introduction to Grammatical Formalisms for Natural Language Parsing
  • Giorgio Satta, Department of Information Engineering, University of Padua, Italy

Abstract:
In the field of natural language parsing, the syntax of natural languages is

modeled by means of formal grammars and automata. Sometimes these formalisms

are borrowed from the field of formal language theory and are adapted to the
task at hand, as in the case of context-free grammars and their lexicalized
versions, where each individual rule is specialized for one or more lexical
items. Sometimes these formalisms are newly developed, as in the case of
dependency grammars and tree adjoining grammars. In this talk, I will
briefly overview several of these models, discussing their mathematical
properties and their use in parsing of natural language.

Event details

  • When: 7th September 2012 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Format: Seminar, Talk

ICFP 2012 Programming Contest

Kevin Hammond and Edwin Brady are co-chairing the ACM ICFP 2012 programming contest which runs from July 13th to July 16th 2012.

Put together a team and compete to have YOUR favourite language named “the programming language of choice for discriminating hackers”.

Functional programming experience is not necessary (any language can be used).  Pizza and sleep deprivation may be.

http://icfpcontest2012.wordpress.com/

Funded Research Studentships

The School of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews has funding for students to undertake PhD research in any of the general research areas in the school:

http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/research

We are looking for highly motivated research students with an interest in these exciting research areas. Our only requirements are that the proposed research would be good, we have staff to supervise it, and that you would be good at doing it. We have up to 5 funded studentships available for students interested in working towards a PhD. The studentships offer costs of fees and an annual tax-free maintenance stipend of about £13,590 per year for 3.5 years. Exceptionally well qualified and able students may be awarded an enhanced stipend of an additional £2,000 per year. Students should normally have or expect at least an upper-2nd class Honours degree or Masters degree in Computer Science or a related discipline.

For further information on how to apply, see our postgraduate web pages. The closing date for applications is July 20th 2012 and we will make decisions on studentship allocation by September 1st 2012. (Applications after July 20th may be considered, at our discretion.) Informal enquiries can be directed to pg-admin-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk or to potential supervisors.

Seminar, An Overview of the AspeKT Project – Turning Academic Excellence into Gold by Colin Adams

An Overview of the AspeKT Project – Turning Academic Excellence into Gold


Abstract


The talk will give an overview of the major elements of the AspeKT project a 3 year program funded by Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Funding Council dedicated to improving the flow of ideas between the research excellence and talent pool produced by SICSA, and local industry. It will go through the major elements of the program designed to stimulate industrial innovation and a great flow of start-ups from that research base.


Bio


Dr Colin Adams is the Director of Commercialisation at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh and the Director of the AspekT program – the knowledge transfer program for the SICSA research pool. Colin started as an academic in the 1970’s before moving to Digital Equipment Corporation where he managed the development of VAX/VMS operating system before running the office automation business and the All-In-1 product line. He then moved into Electronic Design Automation and silicon, founding European Silicon Structures , US Silicon Structures and EuCAD. He sold EuCAD to Cadence Design Systems and managed various Cadence businesses and finally running the TALITY Management Buy Out. After a brief attempt at retiring he returned to the School of Informatics at University of Edinburgh to run the ProspeKT program focusing on generating start-ups out of the talent pool there.
He also chairs 2 local start-ups: ATEEDA and Coriolis Media and is a non Exec Director for ScotlandIS. HE has a BSc in Computer Science and Mathematics and a PhD in Computer Science, both from the University of Edinburgh

Event details

  • When: 23rd April 2012 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Phys Theatre C
  • Series: CS Colloquia Series
  • Format: Colloquium