For more information click here.

Robert Gordon University has created quick-response cards to be distributed to maths, science and computing teachers across Scotland to pass on to pupils.

The cards look like a normal business card with a barcode displayed across the front. The code is a web link to RGU’s school of computing’s new I-create website. Pupils can access the site by taking a picture of the code with the camera on their mobile phones.

The phone needs to have special software in place to scan the code and access the site, which can be downloaded from the internet.

The website features information about computing courses at the university and pupils can also take part in an online chat session with lecturers and other potential students.

Ian Allison, head of the school of computing, said: "This interactive campaign, including the visual, snappy format of the new site, has been designed to draw out the exciting, technology-led aspects of the courses on offer at the School of Computing."

"Our aim is to surprise, attract and engage our mainly young audience by connecting with them on their level, using tools that mean something to them. "The school of computing offers a wealth of innovative courses that are crucially relevant to industry today and we hope that the campaign will encourage young people to find out more about their further study options and a wealth of career opportunities open to them."

The new site can also be accessed at www.rgu.ac.uk/icreate

David Mitchell, Senior Vice President of IT Research for leading market analysts, Ovum, is to deliver a presentation at the launch event, the Forum’s inaugural Technology Forecast. David has previously presented the Technology Forecasts in Edinburgh, but through this co-sponsorship ScotlandIS has been able to bring this annual event to Aberdeen too.

Professor Ian Allison, Head of the School of Computing at Robert Gordon University, who has played a key role in setting up the Forum, comments: “This is a really positive step forward for the IT specialists in the North-east and the University is delighted to be part of it. We launching a new course in IT Management in February, designed to fill a growing shortage of technical leadership skills across all sectors, and initiatives such as the Forum will reinforce this objective.”

ECIR2010's full paper acceptance rate is only 22%. Ulises' paper is one of the two additional full paper submissions accepted as posters.

The MSc student has just been informed that an article based on the findings she has put together for her Masters dissertation has been accepted at a top international conference. The IEEE International Conference on Complex, Intelligent and Software Intensive Systems (CISIS), to be held at Krakow, in February 2010 will give Maryam a forum in which to showcase her findings.

Her work describes how to improve benchmarks of the search engine's MapReduce environment on multiple virtual machines. According to the international reviewers for the CISIS conference, her article "is certainly interesting for the audience and a very good and solid work".

Introduced by Google in 2004, MapReduce is a programming environment to allow hundreds of computers to work together on gaining results for complicated searches. Thousands of MapReduce jobs are executed on Google's clusters every day, meaning that lots of the searches we run on our favourite restaurants and TV shows will be executed by using a MapReduce tool.

Maryam explained: "My ultimate career goal is to help advance knowledge in the field of parallel computing and how it may be used to improve the performance of large tasks, like searches that would normally take a long time to execute."

 Dr Horacio Gonzalez-Velez, a lecturer with the School of Computing who is Maryam's academic supervisor for her dissertation, said: "Maryam has always demonstrated an outstanding ability for computing. She is a very clever young woman with an ability to identify useful connections among concepts that other people miss. Her work is definitely a step in the right direction and will hopefully help us to gain further insights into the performance of parallel computers."

Professor Ian Allison, Head of the School of Computing added: "This project is an excellent example of how our applied research shapes our teaching. Students get to work with leading edge technologies and ideas. I'm delighted that Maryam will have a chance to discuss her work to an international audience."

A taster session for a new Masters course in IT Management developed by Robert Gordon University, which has been designed to fill a growing shortage of technical leadership skills across all sectors, will take place on Tuesday 17 November at the Marcliffe Hotel and Spa, Pitfodels, Aberdeen. The Business Breakfast event, taking place from 8am, will see Ron Mitchell, Chief Information Officer, BP North Sea, talk on the challenges facing IT leaders in the current climate.

Ron says, "I believe that the new course will enable people from technical backgrounds to bridge the gap between IT delivery and IT leadership, so that they can take a lead in providing services and solutions. The challenge for IT leaders is to truly understand their organisation and to ensure that they provide the solutions required to address real business needs."

With the need for skilled IT professionals already outstripping demand, market analysis has shown that this is going to continue to increase in the UK for at least another five years. In particular, there is a serious shortage of skilled IT managers, and there are very few courses available that offer the blend of industry-relevant material that these managers need.

The new postgraduate course, which will see a first cohort begin their studies in January, will be delivered by online distance learning supplemented with on-campus teaching days. A full-time version of the course is planned for September 2010.

Professor Ian Allison, Head of the University’s School of Computing, explains, "The key aim of the new course is to provide technical leadership skills, brought together in the same way that our highly-regarded Masters of Business Administration (MBA) programme supports business managers of the future. It is aimed at experienced IT professionals who are seeking to lead IT projects and services, and capitalise on the career opportunities the predicted surge in demand for IT skills will bring.

"We are really excited about the mix of subjects that this unique course will bring together, including IT strategy planning, project management, leadership skills and enterprise systems management. With teaching staff who are experienced IT leaders, the course has been designed in collaboration with industry. On-campus teaching days that have been built into the course will give students the chance to hear from guest speakers at the cutting-edge of IT leadership, as well as an excellent opportunity to network with fellow professionals."

For further details about both the event and the new course, contact Robert Gordon University’s School of Computing on 01224 262700, or email msc-enquiry@comp.rgu.ac.uk. Alternatively, visit: http://www.rgu.ac.uk/ITManagement

If you are intending to come then could you email Gordon Eccleston to let him get some idea of the numbers. There will of course be an opportunity to talk to/discus with Paulo any relevant Microsoft Technology after the presentation in c49.

Under the supervision of Professor John McCall of the University's School of Computing, Janie has come up with an interactive system that can produce fractal scribbles. Far from setting loose the Da Vinci of the computer world, Janie's system could be a useful compositional tool for abstract artists. Professor McCall explained: "Janie's system could be of benefit to the art world, supporting, rather than replacing the creative process. It has been a pleasure to work with someone so young who is so enthusiastic and I am really pleased with the end result."

The project has enabled Janie to combine her favourite subjects of art, maths and computing. The programme generates line drawings, inspired by mathematically-defined shapes called fractals, and guided by the creative preferences of the artist.

Further to the success of the project, Janie has been given the opportunity to present her work at a Nuffield celebration event in Edinburgh. She said: "It has been a great experience and I'm looking forward to presenting my work at the event. I have produced an acrylic painting which was inspired by one of the drawings produced by the system and I'm excited about the possible future development of the project."

He said: “I have loved studying at RGU. It has really helped to prepare me for the job market and I’m looking forward to the next chapter in my life.”

I'm sure you will join me in congratulating them all.

He has also been elected as a member of the local British Computer Society branch committee.

Professor Allison expressed his delight at both appointments, saying, "These are significant roles, which clearly reflect our position as the professional University." He added, "My experience helps me to bridge the academic and commercial worlds. I am passionate about ensuring education is both commercially relevant and intellectually challenging, and feel that it is vital to build stronger, long-term partnerships to ensure that our research and teaching are of value to companies and wider society. ScotlandIS is playing a significant role in facilitating this partnership and promoting its needs to Government."

Further information on ScotlandIS can be found at: www.scotlandis.com

Congratulations to everyone who contributed to the development. Thank you to those who were involved in the discussions today, and especially to John for pulling everything together. It was very clear that the panel were highly supportive and thought we had a potentially very strong course. For further information, please click here.

Thomson Impact Factor: 0.500 Ure J, Procter R, Lin Y, Hartswood M, Anderson, S, Lloyd S, Wardlaw J, Gonzalez-Velez H, Ho K. The Development of Data Infrastructures for eHealth: A Socio-Technical Perspective. Journal of the Association for Information Systems. 2009 May; 10(5):Article 3.[http]

The judges will be picking teams with a good combination of programmers and artists. When you apply, you will be asked to submit your past works as a reference.

Dare is BAFTA-linked and the winning teams will automatically form a nomination of a BAFTA award. This year individuals can submit their own idea too.

Key dates:

15 Jan - 15 Apr: Online game idea submission
2 Feb - 15 Mar: Applications from teams
3 Apr: Selection event in Edinburgh (date tbc)
15 Apr: Results announced
15 Apr - 8 Jun: Start preparation
8 Jun - 13 Aug: Dare to be Digital competition
14-17 Aug: Dare ProtoPlay and awards ceremony in Edinburgh

We are hoping to get 10-15 teams from across the UK.

All of them will join a central development hothouse hosted in Abertay University. Mentors will come from different games companies across the UK. So far, Disney, Realtime Worlds, Rare, Blitz, Ninja Theory, Cohort have confirmed their participation.

There is a promotional video for Dare 2009: http://www.daretobedigital.com/new-concept-video/