School of Computing Science

GIST Seminar: Deceptive by Design?

Group: Human Computer Interaction (GIST)
Speaker: Prof. Veronika Krauß, Ansbach University of Applied Sciences
Date: 03 April, 2025
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Location: SAWB 423, Sir Alwyn Williams Building

Abstract:

Technology has never been neutral—design goals, decisions, and context inevitably reflect our biases, intentions, and actions. The negative impacts of the systems we create are becoming more evident, often at the expense of stakeholder rights, property, and mental and physical well-being. My research explores deceptive design in emerging technologies, particularly XR and AI, with a focus on deceptive patterns, their prevalence, and future implications. wants.

Bio:

Veronika Krauß is a professor of media informatics, UI, and UX at Ansbach University of Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on responsible system design, particularly in emerging technologies, immersive media, manipulation, and deception. She earned her PhD at Siegen University (2021–2023), exploring practice-based XR system design in the industry. In 2024, she was a postdoc at TU Darmstadt, studying computer-generated deceptive designs. She is also affiliated with the Institute for Consumer Informatics (IVI) in Bonn.

GIST Seminar: Deceptive by Design?

Group: Human Computer Interaction (GIST)
Speaker: Prof. Veronika Krauß, Ansbach University of Applied Sciences
Date: 03 April, 2025
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Location: SAWB 423, Sir Alwyn Williams Building

Abstract:

Technology has never been neutral—design goals, decisions, and context inevitably reflect our biases, intentions, and actions. The negative impacts of the systems we create are becoming more evident, often at the expense of stakeholder rights, property, and mental and physical well-being. My research explores deceptive design in emerging technologies, particularly XR and AI, with a focus on deceptive patterns, their prevalence, and future implications. wants.

Bio:

Veronika Krauß is a professor of media informatics, UI, and UX at Ansbach University of Applied Sciences. Her research focuses on responsible system design, particularly in emerging technologies, immersive media, manipulation, and deception. She earned her PhD at Siegen University (2021–2023), exploring practice-based XR system design in the industry. In 2024, she was a postdoc at TU Darmstadt, studying computer-generated deceptive designs. She is also affiliated with the Institute for Consumer Informatics (IVI) in Bonn.

SICSA Pre-CHI Day 2025

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 10 April, 2025
Time: 10:00 - 15:30
Location: TBA

The ACM CHI 2025 conference is the premier publication venue in the field of HCI, and Scotland-based researchers are contributing extensively to the programme for the 2025 conference which will be held in Japan in late April. The Pre-CHI day is a chance for the Scottish HCI community to see some of the world-leading research going on across Scotland, and allow those not travelling to Japan to talk to authors first-hand and hear about their work. The event will be hybrid to allow for virtual attendance. Find out more and register.

April Education Seminar

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 10 April, 2025
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: TBA

We are delighted that Dr Ella Taylor-Smith will be speaking at our April Education Seminar. As information infrastructures increasingly shape decisions that affect us, especially through the undertow of artificial intelligence, it is essential that women and gender minorities are well-represented across computing and engineering. However, the gender imbalance in technology education seems to be self-perpetuating, leading to a deficit of women lecturers and students, and providing a gender imbalanced education environment, which further discourages women from technology degrees and careers. Through online surveys and focus groups of computing and engineering students of all genders, we explore the tension between students’ vision of “not just for men” subjects and careers, including their suggestions for re-categorisation, and their day-to-day experience of male-dominated courses. While keen to proselytise their career paths in ways they perceived to be attractive to women – such as being friendly and of benefit to society – many of our students experienced isolation, doubt, and sexist assumptions. Both in-person and online tickets are available. Register for the event

Theoretical Computer Science Education (TCSEd) in Scotland: Current Practices and Future Directions

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 14 April, 2025
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

This one-day workshop, TCSEd: Current Practices and Future Directions, aims to bring together theoretical computer science (TCS) educators from across Scottish universities to share their experiences, reflect on challenges, and discuss the future of TCS education. The workshop will feature short, contributed talks where participants will present their teaching experiences, highlighting specific challenges and innovations related to particular TCS topics or courses. This will provide a platform for educators to engage in practical discussions about how TCS is taught as well as how emerging technologies impact pedagogy. This event is designed to facilitate reflection on both the breadth and depth of TCS topics offered across institutions, from introductory courses to advanced topics such as computational complexity theory, quantum computing, algorithmic game theory, model checking, programming language theory and semantics, to name a few. A central theme of the workshop will be exploring how TCS can continue to serve as a foundational element of computer science education. A key aspect of this workshop is its connection to the SICSA research themes “Theory, Modelling and Computation” and “Scottish Programming Language Institute”, in which many TCS educators are also active researchers. By connecting this workshop with the research themes, we aim to foster a stronger link between the theoretical foundations taught in TCS courses and their practical applications in ensuring software robustness and reliability. Some TCS courses blend theoretical foundations with practical applications, often drawn from research, while others focus on purely foundational theory. For the latter, the challenge often lies in keeping students engaged and demonstrating relevance in light of emerging technologies like generative AI. Registration links will be available soon.

The British Colloquium for Theoretical Computer Science (BCTCS)

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 14 April, 2025
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

(BCTCS) is an annual event for UK-based researchers in theoretical computer science. A central aspect of BCTCS is the training of PhD students, providing an environment for students to gain experience in presenting their work, to broaden their outlook on the subject, and to benefit from contact with established researchers. The scope of the colloquium includes all aspects of theoretical computer science, including automata theory, algorithms, complexity theory, semantics, formal methods, concurrency, types, languages and logics. There will also be TCS Education Track Talks to highlight specific challenges or innovations related to theoretical computer science topics or courses. Find out more and register to attend

Reduce AI’s Carbon Footprint - Accelerating Deep Learning Models

Group: Computer Vision for Autonomous Systems (CVAS)
Speaker: Dr. Guosheng Hu, University of Bristol
Date: 25 April, 2025
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Location: SAWB 423, Sir Alwyn Williams Building

Abstract: AI-driven data centres, operating continuously and predominantly powered by fossil fuels, contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions (2.5-3.7%). The widespread use of large foundation models such as ChatGPT exacerbates this environmental impact. This talk explores strategies for mitigating AI's carbon footprint through model acceleration, aiming to significantly reduce computations while maintaining the accuracy of AI models. This session will spotlight various model acceleration techniques, including Neural Architecture Search, Knowledge Distillation, and others. Beyond academic advancements, the talk will also delve into successful industrial applications. Last, it will outline potential future research directions in the field of model acceleration.

Women in Data Science Edinburgh 2025: Empower, Learn and Connect

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 28 May, 2025
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom

Join us on 28th May 2025 at the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University for an inspiring and educational day as part of the Women in Data Science (WiDS) event. This independent event, aligns with the annual #WiDS conference held at #StanfordUniversity and over 200 locations worldwide, bringing together data scientists of all backgrounds to learn, grow, and connect. Event Highlights: Keynote talk by an expert in data visualisation Business Pitch workshop Panel Discussion: Career advice and pathways in data science, featuring experts from the field Poster Session: Showcase your work and innovations in data science. Prizes will be awarded to the top poster Fun Data Science Trivia Session: Test your knowledge with a chance to win exciting prizes! This is an excellent opportunity to network, get inspired, and learn – whether you are looking to change careers, advance in your current role, or just connect with like-minded professionals in data science. A more detailed agenda will be available by early April 2025. Join the LinkedIn group

SICSA PhD Conference 2025

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 25 June, 2025
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: Edinburgh Napier University

Join us for the SICSA PhD Conference 2025 at Edinburgh Napier University! We’re bringing you a jam packed 2 days of fantastic activities, speakers, training, workshops and a Conference Dinner and Awards Ceremony. Check our more details about the programme, accommodation and on our conference website. Register for your place today! We can’t wait to see you there :)

45th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 20 July, 2025
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: TBA

The annual IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS) is a premier international forum for researchers, developers and users to present, discuss and exchange the cutting edge ideas and latest findings on topics related to any aspects of Distributed Computing Systems. ICDCS 2025 is held in the vibrant and compact city of Glasgow, Scotland. Find out more information on the IEEE ICDS 2025 website.

24th UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 03 September, 2025
Time: 01:00 - 01:00
Location: Edinburgh Napier University

We invite papers on all aspects of Computational Intelligence to UKCI 2025 (The 24th UK Workshop on Computational Intelligence, first held at University of Edinburgh) which will be held in Edinburgh from the 3rd-5th September 2025 at Edinburgh Napier University We are particularly delighted to welcome this workshop back to Edinburgh – the 1st edition was held at the University of Edinburgh in 2001. UKCI 2025 welcomes original research papers (including significant work-in-progress) in the broad area of Computational Intelligence (CI). Indicative topics include but are not limited to: -Machine-Learning (including Deep Learning) -Evolutionary Computation -Fuzzy Systems -Data-Mining -Intelligent Robotics -Cognitive Computing -Explainable AI (XAI) -Trust and Ethics in AI systems -Applications Papers can cover theoretical approaches, new methods, empirical and/or benchmark studies, and applications, particularly to real-world problems. We accept long papers (12 pages) or short papers (6 pages). The latter are particularly suited to position papers or presenting early results/work in progress IMPORTANT DATES: Submission Deadline 31st May 2025 (non-extensible) Read our guidelines on paper submission. Accepted papers will be published by Springer in the Advances in Computational Intelligence Series (AISC)