Seminar by Leo Liberti on “Symmetry in Mathematical Programming”, 19th Nov, 11am

Leo Liberti, the director of the Optimisation and Sustainable Development Chair at Ecole Polytechnique, will be giving a seminar on Monday 19th November, 2012, at 11am-12, in Jack Cole 1.33a.

Symmetry in Mathematical Programming

Abstract: When solving Mathematical Programming (MP) problems (be they linear or nonlinear, continuous or mixed-integer) using Branch-and-Bound (BB), the presence of symmetries of the solution set results in BB taking longer than strictly needed, due to the symmetries induced on the BB tree. I shall illustrate a class of “symmetry breaking” methods based on reformulating the symmetric MPs so that some of the symmetric optima become infeasible. I shall show how to automatically detect MP formulation symmetries by reducing MP to graphs, and how to automatically generate reformulated MPs with (hopefully) fewer symmetric optima. Although computational tests show that reformulations may not always succeed in making BB terminate faster, they can be applied very efficiently – so they can be considered an efficient “pre-solving step” to running BB.

Event details

  • When: 19th November 2012 11:00 - 12:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Format: Seminar

The Paterson Prize

Interested in writing science fiction then read on. The Paterson Prize was set up by one of our former employees Dr Norman Paterson for students in computer science who liked to write science fiction stories.

Closing date for entries is 31st March 2013

SICSA DEMOfest 2012

The Scottish Informatics & Computer Science Alliance in association with ScotlandIS hosted their 5th annual DEMOfest, a technology showcase of Scottish Universities Informatics and Computer Science on the 6th November.

The school had three posters at the DEMOfest. Derek and Gordon were promoting their work on the SFC funded Horizon Project “Services to the Cloud”, Masih’s poster was “On The Propagation of Network State Knowledge In Structured Peer-to-Peer Networks”, which forms part of his PhD, and Chris was talking about the work he’s been doing with Alex Voss on “Analysing Social Media”.

In addition, for the first time, workshops were included as part of the DemoFest. Gordon organised the first of these on the topic of Cloud Computing. The lunchtime workshop was aimed at software developers who are considering moving their product to the cloud, and comprised three invited speakers and an open panel Q&A/discussion session.
It was attended by 37 people from industry and academia, and is the first in a series of dissemination workshops being organised as part of the Services to the Cloud project.

Graduation November 2012

The School of Computer Science will be holding a Graduation Reception in the Jack Cole Building on Friday 30th November starting at 12:00 for the Masters Class of 2011. Students are invited to attend after their graduation along with any guests attending the event. Current MSc Students are also invited to the reception, which will continue until 17:00, to meet with the graduates and discuss their experiences both during the course and since they have left.

Event details

  • When: 30th November 2012 09:30 - 15:30
  • Where: St Andrews

Best Student Paper Award for iSCAN

Congratulations to Per Ola and colleagues Ha Trinh, Annalu Waller, Keith Vertanen and Vicki L. Hanson. Their paper “iSCAN: a phoneme-based predictive communication aid for nonspeaking individuals” received the ACM SIGACCESS Best Student Paper Award at the 14th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS 2012) earlier this year.

The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship 2013 – Europe, the Middle East and Africa

As part of Google’s ongoing commitment to furthering Anita’s vision, we are pleased to announce the 2013 Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship: Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Doctor Anita Borg (1949 – 2003) devoted her life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling the barriers that keep minorities and women from entering the computing and technology fields.

Who Should Apply?

*Be a female student enrolled in a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD program in 2013/2014.

*Be enrolled at a University in Europe, the Middle East or Africa.

*Study Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics, or a closely related technical field.

*Maintain an excellent academic record.

The scholarship recipients will each receive a 7,000 EUR scholarship. All recipients will be invited to visit a Google office in Europe for a networking retreat.

For full details, please visit us at:

www.google.com/anitaborg/emea

Deadline to apply: February 1, 2013

2013 Google Europe Scholarship for Stuents with Disabilities

Access to knowledge is our passion. When it comes to higher education for promising scholars, we do not want anything to stand in the way. That is why we are pleased to announce the 2013 Google Europe Scholarship for Students with Disabilities.

Who Should Apply?

*Be a student enrolled in a Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD program in 2013/2014.

*Be enrolled at a University in Europe or Israel.

*Study Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Informatics, or a closely related technical field.

*Maintain an excellent academic record.

*Be a person with a disability.

The scholarship recipients will each receive a 7,000 EUR scholarship. All scholarship recipients will be invited to visit a Google office in Europe for an all-expenses-paid networking retreat.

Complete details at:

www.google.com/studentswithdisabilities-europe

Deadline to apply: February 1, 2013

 

Computer Gaming Industry careers: Aardvark Swift presentation – Get in the Game

Tuesday 27 November, 1400-1500, 1.33a Jack Cole building (Computer Science)

Aardvark Swift, recruitment agents for the gaming industry, will be talking about how to break into the sector. Get advice from those in the know on the key skills you will need, the common pitfalls, and how to maximise your chances. Ideal for programming enthusiasts of all disciplines, and for anyone interested in a gaming career. http://www.aswift.com/index.jsp#holder1-start

AS will also be giving details of how to enter their nationwide programming competition Search for a Star! SFAS is designed to highlight and reward the UK’s most promising video games developers. The winner will be announced at the Eurogamer 2013, with last years winner securing a job at Sony Evolution . This years competition is being sponsored by Microsoft http://www.aswift.com/searchforastar/

Event details

  • When: 27th November 2012 14:00 - 15:00
  • Where: Cole 1.33a
  • Format: Talk

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.