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.

Funded PhD Research Studentships

The School of Computer Science  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 8 funded studentships, including industrial sponsored studentships, available for students interested in working towards a PhD. The studentships offers costs of fees and an annual tax-free maintenance stipend of about £13,726 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 (http://www.cs.st-andrews.ac.uk/prospective-pg). The closing date for applications is April 30th 2014 and we will make decisions on studentship allocation by May 31st 2014. (Applicants who apply by March 31st 2014 may be given priority for funded places.) Informal enquiries can be directed to pg-admin-cs@st-andrews.ac.uk or to potential supervisors.

St Andrews Programming Competition 2014

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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.

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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

MSc in Human Computer Interaction

Students undertaking CS5042 User Centred Interaction Design are pictured prototyping their design ideas during creative thinking, and hands-on sessions in the Morrison Suite.

UCI
The module delivered by Miguel Nacenta is a compulsory element for students studying on our new MSc in Human Computer Interaction, a popular addition to our MSc Portfolio.

Images courtesy of Miguel Nacenta

Internet-of-Things (IoT) Technologies for Integrated Smart Cities Applications by Prof John Soldatos

Title: Internet-of-Things (IoT) Technologies for Integrated Smart Cities Applications

Abstract: The aim of this talk is to illustrate the use of Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies as building blocks of smart city applications. As a first step the talk will present the pertinence of IoT and smart cities and accordingly it will introduce a range of smart city challenges that could be remedied based on recent advances in IoT technologies. Specifically, we will present how IoT/cloud convergence and IoT semantic interoperability can be used to facilitate the integration of existing silo developments in smart city developments, while at the same time providing new opportunities for innovative applications. The talk will also include the presentation of three practical smart city applications that make use of IoT technologies, notably applications in the areas of smart security, live news and urban planning. These applications are developed in the scope of (on-going) FP7 projects PROACTIVE (FP7-285320), SMART (FP7-287583) and VITAL (FP7- 608682-VITAL) and deployment in European cities (Santander (Spain), Camden/London (UK), Istanbul (Turkey)).

Short bio:
John Soldatos is an Associate Professor at the Athens Information Technology, whose current research interests span the areas of internet-of-things, cloud computing and their (IoT/cloud) convergence in the scope of smart city applications. He holds a BSc. Degree (1996) and a PhD degree (2000) both from the National University of Athens, Greece, and since 1995 he has had very active involvement in more than fifteen (EC co-funded) research projects in the areas of broadband networks, pervasive/cloud computing, and the internet-of-things. He is also the initiator and co-founder of open source projects AspireRFID (http://wiki.aspire.ow2.org) and OpenIoT (https://github.com/OpenIotOrg/openiot). As a result of his research activities, he has published more than 140 papers in international journals and conferences. He has also been an Adjunct Professor at the Information Networking Institute of the Carnegie Mellon University (2007-2010) and a Honorary Research Fellow of the School of Computing of University of Glasgow (March 2014 – May 2015).

Event details

  • When: 2nd April 2014 13:00 - 14:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33b
  • Format: Seminar

Cigna: Technology enabling Health & Well being provision across the Globe

Cigna – a global health services company is dedicated to helping those we serve to improve their health and well being. Cigna provides globally connected healthcare services with access to a global network of clinical providers through leveraging the use of pioneering and innovative technology. Find out how you can get engaged and join the team driving innovation in Healthcare!

Maths Lecture Theatre B
Time: 14:00 to 15:00
Date: Tuesday 4th March

Event details

  • When: 4th March 2014 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Maths Theatre B
  • Series: School Seminar Series
  • Format: Seminar

Student Placements for Female Undergraduates

In September 2013 the Scottish Resource Centre for Women in SET, funded by Scottish Government, launched a ground breaking new initiative called Careerwise, with the aim of encouraging more women to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers through work placements aimed at female undergraduates in Scotland.
Twenty organisations have signed up to Careerwise between them offering 43 paid work placements, presenting a unique opportunity for women to gain valuable work experience in industries where they are significantly underrepresented.
Placements take place between June and August 2014 and are paid at a salary of at least £16K pro rata. Applications are welcome from women currently studying STEM subjects at any Scottish University. The closing date for all applications is 31st March 2014.

Organisations providing placements include Ace Winches, Technip, National Oilwell Varco, Atkins, Leiths, Nova Biotics, Nallatech, Cairndene, Selex ES, KP Technology, Insight Arcade, URS, Toshiba Medical Visualization Systems, Edinburgh Napier University, Heriot-Watt University, Royal Botanic Gardens, the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the University of Edinburgh.

They have 17 computer science opportunities available for female undergraduates.

Students can View the placements here and download the Interest Application Form

Any enquiries regarding the Careerwise initiative should be directed to careerwise@napier.ac.uk or 0131 455 2267.