What’s so great about compositionality? by Professor Stuart M Shieber, Harvard.

Abstract: Compositionality is the tenet that the meaning of an expression is determined by the meanings of its immediate parts along with their method of combination. The semantics of artificial languages (such as programming languages or logics) are uniformly given compositionally, so that the notion doesn’t even arise in that literature. Linguistic theories, on the … What’s so great about compositionality? by Professor Stuart M Shieber, Harvard.

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 … Senior Honours Poster and Demo Sessions

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. … CS1006 Backgammon AI

Computational Social Choice: an Overview by Edith Elkind, University of Oxford

ABSTRACT In this talk, we will provide a self-contained introduction to the field of computational social choice – an emerging research area that applies tools and techniques of computer science (most notably, algorithms, complexity and artificial intelligence) to problems that arise in voting theory, fair division, and other subfields of social choice theory. We will … Computational Social Choice: an Overview by Edith Elkind, University of Oxford

A slippery slope — the path to national health data linkage in Australia – John Bass

Abstract: Linkage of health-related data in Australia dates back to the late 1960’s with the first inspiration coming from the United Kingdom. Since then computers have developed at a barely believable rate, and technical considerations still exist but do not pose any serious problems. Progress has been slowed by the increasing need for better privacy and … A slippery slope — the path to national health data linkage in Australia – John Bass

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 … St Andrews Programming Competition 2014

The Chomsky-Schutzenberger Theorem for Quantitative Context-Free Languages by Heiko Vogler, University of Dresden

ABSTRACT: Weighted automata model quantitative aspects of systems like the consumption of resources during executions. Traditionally, the weights are assumed to form the algebraic structure of a semiring, but recently also other weight computations like average have been considered. Here, we investigate quantitative context-free languages over very general weight structures incorporating all semirings, average computations, … The Chomsky-Schutzenberger Theorem for Quantitative Context-Free Languages by Heiko Vogler, University of Dresden

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 … Dr. Per Ola Kristensson awarded RSE/Makdougall Brisbane Medal