School of Computer Science

Computer Science hosts J.P. Morgan

Following on from a successful visit last year, J.P. Morgan returned to the School of Computer Science last week, to promote tech careers, internships and other student opportunities.

Staff from the company and CS students are pictured viewing project challenges and their solutions highlighted in their technology showcase whilst discussing future career openings and enjoying the complimentary pizza.

J.P. Morgan is a popular destination for our graduates demonstrated by four Alumni (Maria McParland, Nada Kartouch, Conner Somerville and Peter Cockroft) who were part of the team representing the company at the successful event.

Gala Malbasic: Young Software Engineer of the Year 2017

Congratulations to Gala Malbasic who won Young Software Engineer of the Year 2017. The awards organised by ScotlandIS were presented at the ScotSoft Awards Dinner yesterday evening. The Young Software Engineer of the Year awards are awarded to the best undergraduate software projects from students studying computer science and software engineering in Scotland.

Gala’s project, Leap Up: The Keyboard Renaissance, set out to to make keyboard interaction faster and less complicated and involved creating a hardware prototype, using software to ensure optimal sensor performance and implemented a large gesture set for use within the system prototype. The final year project was supervised by Professor Aaron Quigley.

Judged against the level of innovation planning & organisation, technical difficulty, commercial and/or social relevance, quality of engineering quality of presentation and level of knowledge & previous research, Judges considered Gala’s project to be exceptional.

As overall winner, Gala received a cheque for £2500 from Sopra Steria, and a trophy from ScotlandIS.

Watch Gala describing her project on YouTube.

Read more about the awards at FutureScot: Women sweep the board at Scottish software engineering awards

Photos courtesy of Aaron Quigley.

Computer Science Ball 2017

Postgraduate students, led by Paul Dobra, organised the first ever CS Ball in August. The celebration coincided with finishing summer dissertations and the annual poster and demo session. The school sponsored Smurfalicious Blue Ball proved very popular and sold out of tickets earlier in August. The theme was blue and the location was The old Manor Hotel, in Lundin Links. The evening comprised of champagne, dinner and a Ceilidh till midnight. Students are pictured enjoying the 3 course dinner and fully embracing the spirit of a Cèilidh. We look forward to seeing them at December Graduation.

Images courtesy of Paul Dobra, Ula Rustamova, Nick Tikhonov, and Xu Zhu.
– Main Organisers: Paul Dobra & Shyam Reyal
– Promotion (online): Yin Noe, Nouchali Reyal
– Promotion (offline): Gillian Baird, Fiona George, Midhat Un Nisa
– Material Design: Yin Noe
– Photography: Ula Rustamova and Nick Tikhonov
– Decorations: Fiona George, Midhat Un Nisa, Anke Shi, Masha Nedjalkova, Sihan Li
– Electronics / Multimedia / Drone: Xu Zhu
– Music for Disco: Blair Fyfe

https://www.facebook.com/csball.standrews/

Computer Science Orientation and Welcome 2017

After advising and induction events, staff and students are pictured enjoying a welcome reception and orientation activities, coordinated by Uta Hinrichs. The annual orientation gaming session proved as popular as ever and offered retro classic digital games and traditional board games. The gaming session was closely followed by a well attended welcome reception for the consumption of Twiglets and Irn Bru.

Inaugural Lecture: ‘Constraint Satisfaction and the Crystal Maze’ by Professor Ian Miguel

The School of Computer Science is delighted to announce the Inaugural Lecture of Professor Ian Miguel.

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Title: ‘Constraint Satisfaction and the Crystal Maze’

Abstract: In numerous contexts today we are faced with making decisions of increasing size and complexity, where many different considerations interlock in complex ways. Consider, for example, a staff rostering problem to assign staff to shifts while respecting required shift patterns and staffing levels, physical and staff resources, and staff working preferences. The decision-making process is often further complicated by the need also to optimise an objective, such as to maximise profit or to minimise waste. In this talk I will introduce the field of Constraint Programming, which offers a means of solving such problems automatically. Using an illustrative example from the annals of the Crystal Maze, a popular TV game show from the 1990s, I will explore the process of modelling and solving problems with constraints and discuss some of the most significant challenges in the field.

The lecture will be held at School III, St Salvator’s Quadrangle

and there will be a reception afterwards, in Lower College Hall.

 

Event details

  • When: 23rd September 2015 17:15 - 18:30
  • Where: St Andrews
  • Format: Lecture