WWWho do you trust?

john_heenan_experiment

 

Who do you trust online?

Come and help us to work out how you decide to trust web sites!

You will need to complete a computer-based survey (in the Physics Library or in the School of Computer Science) in which you will rate how you perceive the trustworthiness of several websites.

Total participation time is less than 15 minutes.

At the end of the survey you can be entered into a prize draw for one of three Amazon or iTunes vouchers.

Volunteers have to be at least 18 years of age.

After the study, all volunteers will be sent a briefing on how they can improve their online security.

Please email John (jcbh@st-andrews.ac.uk) if you wish to take part or have any further questions.

Contact details:
Researcher: John Heenan
E-mail: jcbh@st-andrews.ac.uk

Supervisor: Professor Saleem Bhatti
E-mail: saleem@st-andrews.ac.uk

UTREC approval code: CS11909

 

Silvia Nepšinská: Google STEP Internship

Congratulations to first year student Silvia Nepšinská, who has successfully secured a STEP Internship with Google in Zurich. Her success after one semester in computer science is exceptional, given the highly sought after places and competitive process.

Silvia first heard about Google STEP internships from a friend and applied to get real-life programming experience with a company renowned for its creative and varied office environment. She explained her motivation for applying and shared some of her thoughts on the process.

“Thanks to friends who already had internships, and also to the academic skills project talks last semester, I knew what to expect, how the interviews will probably look like. I participated in an algorithmic competition during high school, so I was familiar with the type of questions they would ask, but I have never had a programming interview before, never had to talk while coding, so that was completely new to me. I was really glad when Shyam offered to do a mock interview for me so I could try it.

I had 2 interviews, the first went quite well, but I didn’t know what to think about the second, because the interviewer didn’t talk very much, especially when I got stuck at one point, she mostly waited for me to resolve everything, so I had no idea what she was thinking, which was little scary. But apparently it went well, and they called me just few days later to tell me that I passed the interviews.

But that still wasn’t the end, because in next stage, teams select the successful interview candidates for their projects. It is still possible to get through interviews and not get an internship, because no suitable team/project was found. Last week I received a call from a team in Zurich. We discussed the potential project I would be doing with them and I could ask them whatever I wanted about it, or about the Zurich office in general.

The academic skills project Internship talks were great, because they gave me the information about the process. Also, we had a talk by St Andrews alumni James Smith from Google, and afterwards I signed up for their notifications mailing list. A Google University Programs employee located me from the list, and she talked to me about specifics of STEP internship and future interviews. She was also in contact with my recruiter, so I felt like I had two recruiters, which was really nice.”

The School is keen to highlight student achievement and showcase the talent, originality and creativity fostered here in computer science. Thanks to Silvia for sharing her experience and in doing so, encouraging other students to seek out future internships. We have supported a number of student led, or internship focused events in the last year including the Academic Skills Project, Lost in Translation: Academia to Industry and This is a Google Talk.

Academic Skills Project: Securing Internships and Job Placements

Academic Skills Project: Securing Internships and Job Placements

Worldwide Cancer Research: Charity Bake Sale

In 10 weeks time Alex Bain will be running the London Marathon for worldwide cancer research. As part of the fundraising he is having a charity bake sale in the school common area in the Jack Cole building today.

bake-sale

He has raised in excess of £325 so far. Help reward his training and support his fundraising, whilst sampling some of the delicious baking alternatively you can make a donation on justgiving.

Welcome to new Staff and Students

We are delighted to introduce the latest members of staff and research students to the school.

Dr Bo Chen:

Dr. Chen is an Associate Professor in the School of Information and Software Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC, http://www.uestc.edu.cn). He is oriented by Dr. Adam Barker now as a BoVisiting Scholar till February, 2017. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science in 2008 from UESTC. His major research areas include: 1) Rough Set and Soft Computing 2) Data-intensive Computing Software Infrastructure 3) Data Science and Inter-disciplinary Applications. Dr. Chen has substantial industrial backgrounds. Before join UESTC, he served as software engineer and senior consultant for middleware vendors Tongtech and BEA. He PI and Co-PI-ed some Chinese national granted projects for service oriented software platform in modern service fulfilling and international e-trading. He serves as an expert panel member of China Ministry of Science and Technology, for China State Sci- Tech Support Program and Torch Program. He is also a deputy sectary and expert panel member of Innovation Technology Alliance for Electronic Trade Industry (http://www.etrades.cn), led by China Ministry of Commerce. For more information, please check out his UESTC faculty webpage http://www.is.uestc.edu.cn/teachers.do?id=1061.

Dr Roushanak Rahmat:

roshiRoushanak is a Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of St. Andrews working on WORKANDHOME project with Dr Adam Barker.

Her research interests include mobile app design, cloud computing, image/signal processing and medical image analysis.

 

 

Dawand Sulaiman:

Dawand I earned my master’s degree in Software Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at the University of St Andrews (Academic Year: 2011/12) and received a medal for the best dissertation in the programme. Prior to that, I gained my BSc degree in Applied Computing in Ming Chuan University in Taiwan. For the last three years, I was in my hometown and worked as an instructor in the University of Kurdistan Hêwler and taught several modules including: Problem Solving Techniques, Data Structures and Algorithms, Object Oriented Programming, and Web Technologies. Meanwhile, I developed and distributed more than 30 mobile apps for both iOS and Android platforms.

I have started my PhD under the supervision of Adam Barker in January 2016. I will be working alongside an interdisciplinary team of researchers from Computer Science and Geography in the WORKANDHOME project, which investigates how home-based businesses are shaping society and space.

Guilherme Carneiro:

My name is Guilherme Carneiro, I am from Brazil. I hold a BSc in Computer Science with a specialization in SoGuilhermeftware Engineering. I have some experience in industry where I spent few years working at IBM with production databases of American customers. In 2013, I returned to academia to receive training in research with a Master in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Paris-Sud University in France. Before coming to St. Andrews, I worked for 6 months as a Research intern at INRIA (the French National Institute for computer science and applied mathematics).

I am starting my PhD under the supervision of Prof. Aaron Quigley and Dr. Miguel Nacenta in SACHI. My research topic is focused on collaborative information visualization to facilitate group decision making in real-time. My PhD is currently funded by CNPq and the Brazilian government through the Science Without Borders program.

I love traveling and visiting new places. I like any sports in general. I also have training in self-defense with a black belt in kung-fu.

Yasir Alguwaifli:

YasirUntil now I have been working as a lecturer in computer science, mainly teaching web-related modules. Before joining the academic field, I was a student mainly working in web-related as full-stack developer but sometimes dipping my toes in other areas such as artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and formal-verification.

I have now started my PhD with Professor Kevin Hammond’s team. When I’m not spending my nights looking at code, I usually enjoy playing mmorpgs or watching gaming streams!