Considering interventions based on student attendance and progress tracking

Group: CS Education reading group
Speaker: Eric Yao, Quintin Cutts, Mireilla Bikanga Ada
Date: 22 October, 2018
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Computing Science historically around the world has had poor student continuation and progression rates.  CS at Glasgow experiences this problem too, with a small number of students.  Eric Yao in Physics has introduced interventions in other courses that have led to significant improvements in outcomes, and will talk about his experiences; Mireilla and Quintin are attempting this for the first time with CS students, and will outline our activities so far.  We have collected a signficant data-set over the first five weeks of term, using in-class clicker data, Moodle logs, and lab attendance and performance - around 10 data points per week.  Collection is easy.  The purpose of this session is, through discussion, to determine what are likely to be the most effective ways to improve the students' outcomes based on the dataset.

Population structure and evolution: a survey of the graph Moran process

Group: Formal Analysis, Theory and Algorithms (FATA)
Speaker: John Lapinskas, University of Oxford
Date: 23 October, 2018
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 423 Seminar Room

When a new mutation is introduced into a population of organisms, it will either die out completely (extinction) or become prevalent (genetic fixation). The driving force behind evolution is that a mutation which confers a small advantage is quite likely to fixate, even in a very large population, whereas a mutation which confers a small disadvantage is exponentially unlikely to fixate. In 2004, Lieberman, Hauert and Nowak proposed the graph Moran process to examine the effects of population structure. Individuals are modelled as vertices on a graph, and only adjacent individuals can interact with each other. In this talk, I will survey a number a recent advances in our understanding of the model, including an almost-tight upper bound on expected absorption time and an answer to the question: can graph structure suppress evolution almost entirely, so that beneficial, neutral or harmful mutations all fixate with roughly the same probability? (Spoiler: It depends!)

The talk is intended to be as accessible as possible for people in different fields - it will assume only elementary graph theory and discrete probability, and no biology whatsoever.

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 26 October, 2018
Time: 11:00 - 11:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

Considering interventions based on student attendance and progress tracking

Group: CS Education reading group
Speaker: Eric Yao, Quintin Cutts, Mireilla Bikanga Ada
Date: 22 October, 2018
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Computing Science historically around the world has had poor student continuation and progression rates.  CS at Glasgow experiences this problem too, with a small number of students.  Eric Yao in Physics has introduced interventions in other courses that have led to significant improvements in outcomes, and will talk about his experiences; Mireilla and Quintin are attempting this for the first time with CS students, and will outline our activities so far.  We have collected a signficant data-set over the first five weeks of term, using in-class clicker data, Moodle logs, and lab attendance and performance - around 10 data points per week.  Collection is easy.  The purpose of this session is, through discussion, to determine what are likely to be the most effective ways to improve the students' outcomes based on the dataset.

Population structure and evolution: a survey of the graph Moran process

Group: Formal Analysis, Theory and Algorithms (FATA)
Speaker: John Lapinskas, University of Oxford
Date: 23 October, 2018
Time: 13:00 - 14:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 423 Seminar Room

When a new mutation is introduced into a population of organisms, it will either die out completely (extinction) or become prevalent (genetic fixation). The driving force behind evolution is that a mutation which confers a small advantage is quite likely to fixate, even in a very large population, whereas a mutation which confers a small disadvantage is exponentially unlikely to fixate. In 2004, Lieberman, Hauert and Nowak proposed the graph Moran process to examine the effects of population structure. Individuals are modelled as vertices on a graph, and only adjacent individuals can interact with each other. In this talk, I will survey a number a recent advances in our understanding of the model, including an almost-tight upper bound on expected absorption time and an answer to the question: can graph structure suppress evolution almost entirely, so that beneficial, neutral or harmful mutations all fixate with roughly the same probability? (Spoiler: It depends!)

The talk is intended to be as accessible as possible for people in different fields - it will assume only elementary graph theory and discrete probability, and no biology whatsoever.

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 26 October, 2018
Time: 11:00 - 11:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

SICSA Education All-Hands Event

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 30 October, 2018
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location: The University of St Andrews, Jack Cole Building, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom

The SICSA Education All-Hands event will be held on the 30th October at the University of St Andrews. This event is in a new format for this year and is open to all academic staff and PhD students at Scottish universities who are interested in education and scholarship. The aim of the event is to meet others with shared interests in Scotland and to share our experiences and ideas on teaching and scholarship. We recommend that staff in new academic positions, or who are new to Scotland, attend the event. You can book to attend the event by registering at https://goo.gl/forms/UiyTm6SNTOQxJW8H3. ******* CALL FOR WORKSHOPS ******* As part of the schedule there is time allocated for workshops. These workshops, or interactive sessions, should be one hour in duration and can cover any topic relevant to SICSA Education, e.g. how to assess large classes, how to deal with mixed ability classes, Graduate Apprenticeships, transitions, learning analytics, flipped classroom tools, innovative assessment methods, curriculum development, etc. It would be good if these workshops gave attendees an opportunity to pick up some practical hints and tips that they can take home and try out for themselves. If you wish to propose a workshop session, please contact the SICSA Education Director (Dr Rachel Menzies) at r.menzies@dundee.ac.uk, providing the following information: Workshop title 200 word description (including what participants can expect from the session) Proposed schedule for the workshop Proposed outcomes of the workshop Any specific room and / or IT requirements

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 06 November, 2018
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

DemoFest: Bringing Research to Life

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 06 November, 2018
Time: 16:00 - 19:00
Location: Our Dynamic Earth, 112-116 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, Scotland, EH8 8AS, United Kingdom

DemoFest 2018 will take place on 6th November (4-7pm) at Our Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh. DemoFest provides a perfect opportunity for your organisation to experience, first-hand, the cutting-edge research taking place in Scottish universities. Our exhibitors will talk about their research, tell you why it’s important to your organisation, and demonstrate their technology working in real-time. The event also provides a space for you to discuss future collaborations, business opportunities, internships, employment opportunities and much more. The 2018 event will feature: Keynote talk from Ali Shah, Head of Emerging Technology & Strategic Direction at the BBC Keynote talk from Jamie Graves, CEO ZoneFox Exhibition hall with 50 technology demonstrations from 14 Scottish Universities Event Partner Exhibitions DemoFest 2018 will focus on the following key areas: Artificial Intelligence Big Data Cyber-Security Networking & The Cloud Robotics and Autonomous Systems Understanding Complex Systems User-Experience DemoFest is organised by SICSA in partnership with ScotlandIS. Opportunities for Sponsors

SoCS Seminar Series Talk

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze, UCL
Date: 09 November, 2018
Time: 15:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

AI Research Theme Sponsored Event; Rethinking, Reworking and Revolutionising the Turing Test

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 15 November, 2018
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location: The Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh, G.07, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

The SICSA Artificial Intelligence Research Theme is pleased to be sponsoring the Rethinking, Rewording and Revolutionising The Turing Test event which take place on 15 & 16 November at the Informatics Forum, Edinburgh Registration is open The aim of the conference is to facilitate dialogue between researchers in philosophy of mind, cognitive science and informatics by providing a venue to present their research on an area of common interest. Members of under-represented groups are particularly encouraged to participate. The conference focuses on the role that the Turing Test has played, and above all can still play, in artificial intelligence research. Ever since it was proposed in 1950, the Turing Test has been a major focus of philosophers and computer scientists alike. Focus on creating AI that can pass the Turing Test has been matched by debate about the adequacy of the Turing Test as a useful measure. Today, the Turing Test is more relevant than ever, as big data and machine learning approaches have made natural-language processing AIs both much more sophisticated and much more prevalent in everyday experience than ever. The conference will address questions such as what modern technological advances can tell us about the Turing Test, what the test can actually measure, and which properties and abilities could be identified with well-designed variations of the Turing Test. Example topics include, but are not limited to: Objections to the Turing Test; How difficult is the Turing Test?; Variations of the Turing Test; The Turing Test and consciopusness The future of the Turing Test Invited Keynotes: Diane Proudfoot, University of Canterbury Paul Schweizer, University of Edinburgh Huma Shah, Coventry University Susan Sterrett, Wichita State University More information on the event can be found on the TuringTest2018 Web-page: https://turingtest2018.wordpress.com/ The organisers of this event are Nick Novelli and Nicola Damassino

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 17 November, 2018
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 28 November, 2018
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

Performance Tuning with Structured Bayesian Optimisation and Reinforcement Learning

Group: Information, Data, Events Analytics at Scale (IDEAS)
Speaker: Dr Eiko Yoneki , University of Cambridge
Date: 30 November, 2018
Time: 13:45 - 15:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Managing efficient configurations is a central challenge for computer systems. I will introduce two recent projects to tune systems using Machine Learning: 1) Structured Bayesian Optimisation (SBO) to optimise systems in complex and high-dimensional parameter space, and 2) our framework for Reinforcement Learning (RL) to bring performance improvements to dynamically evolving tasks such as scheduling or resource management. Our work aims at filling a gap between current research and practical deployments, and it provides a software stack for RL in systems research.

Human-Computer Interaction All Hands + CHI PC Pre-Event

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 06 December, 2018
Time: 09:00 - 16:30
Location: The University of St Andrews, Jack Cole Building, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom

This year's SICSA HCI All-hands Meeting will be special. As you know, ACM CHI 2019 is in Glasgow, and the Programme Committee meeting, although remote, still means that the programme sub-committee chairs are coming to Scotland for their Programme Committee meeting. In preparation, on December 6th, the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) will hold an all-hands event to which many of the Subcommittee Chairs for the ACM CHI 2019 meeting will be invited. This is a great opportunity for HCI researchers in Scotland to showcase our world-leading work to the international community, and for us to learn and interact with some of the leading HCI researchers from all corners of the world. The schedule has not yet been finalised, but we are planning a slow start at around 9:00am and having finished by 4:30 pm. If you are a student, we would like to encourage you to present a poster or a small demo. Please select the Researcher + Poster/Demo ticket if you want to present a poster, and send us an e-mail with the size and orientation of your poster or the requirements of your demo to mans@st-andrews.ac.uk Attendance is free but you must register! Why not just sign up now? This is a once-in-a-career opportunity! We are looking forward to seeing you all in St Andrews! The event is being organised by Dr Miguel Nacenta, former SICSA HCI Theme Co-Lead, and a co-founder of the St Andrews Human-Computer Interaction group (SACHI)

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 09 December, 2018
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

Pushing image sensors and algorithms to the quantum limit

Group: Inference, Dynamics and Interaction (IDI)
Speaker: Bruno Sanguinetti, Dotphoton
Date: 11 December, 2018
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Quantum inspired image compression.

Group: Inference, Dynamics and Interaction (IDI)
Speaker: Bruno Sanguinetti, Dotphoton
Date: 11 December, 2018
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 20 December, 2018
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 31 December, 2018
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 11 January, 2019
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 22 January, 2019
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

RA Coffee Break

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: you
Date: 02 February, 2019
Time: 10:00 - 10:30
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, Common Room

Every Thursday 11am RAs and post-docs meet for coffee in the common room. This is a good opportunity to meet new people if you recently joined the school, informally discuss issues with the School's RA representatives, or just hang out and enjoy a coffee and some biscuits.

ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR)

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 10 March, 2019
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location: The University of Strathclyde, Richmond Street, University of Strathclyde, United Kingdom

SICSA is pleased to be sponsoring the ACM SIGIR Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval (CHIIR) which is taking place in Glasgow from 10 - 14 March 2019 Online information influences every aspect of our lives: work, leisure and learning. As information systems become more embedded in our day-to-day experiences, it becomes increasingly important to understand how people interact with information and the consequences of those interactions. Access to information is critical to preserving democracy. Beyond designing effective and engaging information retrieval systems and interfaces, understanding how users access and use information is crucial to designing fair and ethical systems. ACM CHIIR 2019 invites submissions focused on user-centered approaches to design and evaluation of systems for information access, retrieval, and use. This includes studies of interactive retrieval systems, novel interfaces and interaction paradigms, new evaluation methods, and related areas. Alongside focused studies on specific information retrieval systems and situations, we also welcome longitudinal, real-life, and ethnographic research of contextually embedded search tasks. Topics covered include but are not limited to: Information seeking, including task-based and exploratory studies Search interfaces, including those for specialized tasks, populations and domains User-Centered Design approaches to humans interacting with information and systems Interaction techniques for information retrieval and discovery Online information seeking, including log analysis of search and browsing Modeling and simulation of information interaction Information use, including measures of use as well as broader sense-making Field and case studies relevant to understanding prerequisites for information searching, design and access User-centered evaluation methods and measures, including measures of user experience and performance, experiment and search task design, eye-tracking and physiological approaches, data analysis methods, and usability Human interaction and experience with mobile searching and services Context-aware and personalized search, including design, contextual features and analysis of information interaction Information visualization and visual analytics, including search result presentation Collaborative information seeking and social search, including social utility and network analysis for information interaction Conversational search and other types of stateful and multi-turn interactions between users and search applications Full details of the CHIIR 2019 can be found on the web-site: http://sigir.org/chiir2019/index.html