School of Computing News — Subscribe to this feed

The following is a list current news items within the school.

Applicants' Day (3rd & 6th March)
RGU's School of Computing will be hosting a Applicants Day on Wednesday 3rd and Saturday 6th March at its St Andrews Street Building. This is your chance to come along and find out more about the School and the courses you have applied for, sample the environment you will be studying in and talk to current students about student life.

We think you will be impressed. The School of Computing offers a range of professional undergraduate computing degrees. Computing is the focus of study in all years of every course. This means that you concentrate on computing from the very start of your University studies, and have the time to develop a deep understanding of the subject, and to perfect advanced practical skills.

For more information click here.

Quick on the draw to network with students
RGU uses ‘snappy’ computer technology to connect with potential recruits.

An Aberdeen university is hoping to attract future students with the latest computer technology.

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

Microsoft to inspire Robert Gordon University students
The Microsoft Inspiration Tour, a national series of technology talks by the software giant, is to visit the School of Computing at Robert Gordon University this week, on Tuesday 2 February. The event is being run to inspire students to develop industry-ready skills both in and out of class that will be relevant for the next ten years. It will enhance their CVs by exposing them to some of Microsoft's newest development technologies currently being used in industry, including Silverlight and XNA. The Tour will take the format of a two-hour lecture presented by Microsoft expert Paulo Barone. He will be focusing on recent trends in web technology, from user interaction and rich internet applications to building scalable applications taking advantage of cloud computing. Professor Ian Allison, Head of the School of Computing said, "We believe it is vital to work with industry leaders like Microsoft. Collaborations of this kind play an important part in ensuring that our graduates will continue to enter the job market with the skills and knowledge that employers are looking for." Students will also take part in round one of the Imagine Cup, the world's leading student technology competition. Their challenge will be to apply their know-how and creativity to 'Imagine a world where technology helps solve the world’s toughest problems', as identified by the United Nations. Prizes for UK winners will include laptops as well as the latest software and peripherals. This year's competition will enhance students' career prospects by providing opportunities for them to meet leading employers in the technology arena, from software companies through to creative agencies and game companies. Any college or university student who is in education full or part-time can take part in the competition although this event is being run for the University's School of Computing students only.

IT leaders come together in Aberdeen
Robert Gordon University’s School of Computing, in association with ScotlandIS, the trade body for the information and communications technologies industry, has formed an IT Leaders’ Forum for the North-east of Scotland. Leaders across the region are invited to participate in this group.

Co sponsored by HEAD, the IT resourcing group, and law firm McGrigors, the aim of the Forum is to grow and support a network of IT leaders. The Forum will allow members to share ideas and deal with issues together, as well as receiving expert input from leaders in the field at tailored networking events. The first event organised by the IT Leaders’ Forum is to take place at Robert Gordon University’s St Andrew Street Building in Aberdeen city centre on Thursday 14 January from 5.30pm.

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.”

Christmas Lecture (Festive Feast of Multimedia)
Christmas Lecture - Friday 11th December (Festive Feast of Multimedia)

Further details can be found here

ECIR2010 publication success
A new paper "Colouring the Dimensions of Relevance", by Ulises Cerviño Beresi and Yunhyong Kim, has recently been accepted for publication as a poster paper by the 32nd European Conference in Information Retrieval (ECIR'2010).

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

Computing student works to improve performance of popular search engine
A student hoping to graduate with a Masters from Robert Gordon University's School of Computing next month has found a way to improve the performance of one of the world’s leading search engines.

Using the spare cycles of the computers at the University, Maryam Kontagora from Abuja, Nigeria, ran a myriad of concurrent MapReduce jobs to simulate hundreds of users searching and sorting on Google at the same time, ultimately improving the results of these searches.

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."

New course to address skills shortage

With IT managers at the forefront of business change – addressing strategic challenges at a time when we are trying to scramble our way out of the recession – it has become even more important for organisations to have skilled personnel ready to step into senior IT roles.

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

School of Computing Open Days
The School of Computing are holding two Open Days on Wednesday 7th October and Saturday 7th November.
For more information please click here.

University Open Day to include ‘Xtra’ special workshop for parents
Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, is to open its doors to prospective students this Saturday (7 November) with some rather interesting ideas on how to keep parents and friends amused while students take part in a variety of workshops and fact finding exercises.
The University's School of Computing will be inviting parents and friends into an 'X Factor' style video booth to make their own podcasts which will then be broadcast using the facility’s podcast server. They will be asked about themselves and what they think of the University, guided in using iMovie to produce some high quality footage.
Named the top new university in the UK by The Times Good University Guide 2010, the University has already held one Open Day this year, attracting around 2000 visitors, and decided to open its doors for a second time to allow as many prospective students as possible to see what’s on offer. This will be the first time that a Robert Gordon University Open Day has taken place on a Saturday and is designed to fit in with the busy lifestyles that so many of us follow.
With more than 1000 expected visitors, the ever-popular event will be held from 11am till 2pm at both the Garthdee and city centre campuses, with the School of Computing workshop taking place at the St Andrew Street Building in the city centre.
Each of the three Faculties – Health and Social Care, Design and Technology and Aberdeen Business School - will host their own range of dynamic events throughout the day. These will include: hands-on activities with the FF1600 racing car in the School of Engineering; a tour of the scene-of-crime lab and demonstrations of fingerprints, DNA profile and handwriting analysis from the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences; a critical care scenario with a computerised patient in the School of Nursing; multimedia demonstrations at the Scott Sutherland School; portfolio examples and guidance at Gray's School of Art, and a wide range of talks specific to individual Schools and courses.
Representatives from the different support departments at the University will also be on hand to discuss any questions about how to apply, the costs of going to university, where to stay and adapting to student life. There will also be tours of the student accommodation at Woolmanhill, as well as RGU: SPORT, the University’s £10 million sports centre.
Kate Blake, University Marketing Manager said, "Having invested significantly in our new buildings at Garthdee and updated the facilities at our city centre campus, we know that once people visit Robert Gordon University, they will see the benefits of studying in such a fantastic environment.
"The 'Podcasting for Parents' workshop should be particularly interesting, taking place in a newly refurbished suite at St Andrew Street, and illustrates our commitment to ensuring both prospective students and their guests enjoy their time at Robert Gordon University."
Free buses will run between the city centre and Garthdee campuses every fifteen minutes. For further details, call 01224 262204 or visit the Open Day website at: www.rgu.ac.uk/openday.

Microsoft Inspirational Tour 2009 - Tuesday 3rd November
Paulo Barone (Microsoft Academic Evangelist) will be coming to RGU on Tuesday 3rd November. There will be a 2 hour presentation/demonstration in A23.

This was very popular event last year, details that I have at present are: This year the tour will take the format of a two hour lecture focused on recent trends in Web technology from user interaction and Rich Internet Applications to building scalable applications taking advantage of cloud computing. If relevant at your institution we can also cover games technology and specifically the XNA platform. 

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.

University-supported project sees school pupil 'painting by numbers'
Dedicated Alford Academy pupil Janie Sinclair (18) from Millbank, has spent her summer break completing a six-week project at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen.

Funded by the Nuffield Foundation, a charitable trust that has supported innovative research and development in education for over 50 years, Janie, who has just begun her final year at school, has been looking into the possibilities of computer generated art.

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."

MSc IT Management Advert

School Prize Giving Photos
Please click here to see the School Prize Giving gallery and slide show.

Andrew Leonard from Forres enjoys degree of success
Andrew Leonard (21) from Forres graduated with a degree in Computer Science from Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, on Friday 17 July.

Andrew is looking forward to his future having secured work with Thales in London and is really excited about the prospects this may bring. He completed a summer placement with the company and is delighted this has led to a full-time post.

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.”

Robert Gordon University lecturer ‘toasts’ his graduation success
Robert Gordon University Researcher Sandy Brownlee (26), originally from New Deer, will graduate from his institution at 2.30pm on Friday 17 July with a PhD from the School of Computing. He will conclude nine years of study at the University and has stepped down as Secretary of State for Toast with the Toast Appreciation Society!

For more information click here

Graduation success for Young Software Engineer of the Year Nominee
Alan Gardner (33), from Aberdeen, will graduate at 2.30pm on Friday 17 July with a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from Robert Gordon University, and was nominated as Young Software Engineer of the Year 2009.

For more information click here

Teaching Fellows Appointed
The following staff have been awarded the title of Teaching Fellow in this years round of applications:

Dr Garry Brindley
Mr Gordon Eccleston
Dr Roger McDermott

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

Professor and Reader appointed
I'm delighted to inform you that John McCall and Nirmalie Wiratunga have been sucessful in their applications for promotion to Professor and Reader respectively.
This acknowledges their significant contribution to our research successes.
Well done both!

Head of School elected to board of ScotlandIS
The Head of the School of Computing at Aberdeen's Robert Gordon University has been elected as a member of the Board of ScotlandIS, the trade body for the information and communication technology (ICT) industry.

Professor Ian Allison is one of a number of representatives drawn from industry and academia, who will work to raise the profile of the industry, lobby policy-makers on relevant issues and support members.

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

MSc IT Management
I’m delighted to announce that the validation panel were pleased to recommend approval of the new Masters course. They highlighted 4 areas of commendation:

The innovative non-traditional nature of the course
The innovative approach to the research project
The design of horizontal themes running through the course
The relevance of the course to people in organisations

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.

School Prizegiving - 26th June
This is a reminder that the School Prize Giving ceremony will take place at 2.15pm on Friday 26th June in Lecture Theatre C47 with refreshments afterwards in CTC reception

Times Online University Ranking
RGU have been placed as the UK’s Best Modern University. Again, our graduate employability is a real strength, with us being placed top in Scotland and fourth in the United Kingdom for graduate prospects just behind the London School of Economics, Imperial College and the University of Cambridge. A consistent message from all the league tables published this year is that we are placed amongst the top performing universities of our kind outperforming a number of traditional universities. This is a tremendous credit to the hard work and dedication of staff, both academic and support, and our students.
For the second year running the School of Computing is the best Modern University for Computer Science in the UK at 43rd/105.

Paper Success - Eyad Elyan
Eyad Elyan has had two papers accepted for Cyberworlds 2009 - "Automatic 3D Face Recognition Using Fourier Descriptors" and "Interactive Surface Design and Manipulation using PDE-Method through Autodesk Maya Plug-in".

NRP studentship applications
In the latest round of NRP studentship applications, the School has once again been highly successful and have won both the funded places available. So, congratulations to Dawei and Nirmalie, and John for bidding for funding for the following projects, with colleagues across the NRP. We are awaiting final confirmation but expect the formal announcement shortly.

Journal Publications - Horacio Gonzalez-Velez
Gonzalez-Velez H, Mier M, Julia-Sape M, Arvanitis TN, Garcia-Gomez JM, Robles M, et al. HealthAgents: Distributed Multi-Agent Brain Tumor Diagnosis and Prognosis. Applied Intelligence 2009 Jun;30(3):191-202. [http]

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]

Dragons Den
The University is hosting a prestigious Doug Richard, School for Startups interactive seminar for budding entrepreneurs on Monday 1 June. Entitled "The Six Rules for Startups", it will be delivered by ex-Dragon's Den Dragon Doug Richard, the UK-based Californian entrepreneur and specialist in technology transfer, commercialisation, and business incubation. Schools for Startup

Parents' Information Evenings
Parents play a key role in assisting their children as they take their first steps towards applying for university and it is for this reason that the Robert Gordon University would like to invite you to come along to one of our Parents’ Information Evenings. To register for this event please click here

April Newsletter
School Newsletter April 2009 - PDF

Research fellowship
Dr Horacio González-Vélez has been awarded the high-profile Crucible Fellowship by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA). Horacio has been awarded the fellowship for his interdisciplinary research on computational science. Computational science involves constructing mathematical models and numerical solution techniques and using computers to analyse and solve scientific and engineering problems. He has applied this to biomedical sciences, the study of health and the methods for diagnosing, analysing and treating disease. More Info

Student wins web design competition
The Economics Network, as part of an HE Academy initiative with additional sponsorship from the FAME projects, ran a competition for students to design the new Study Economics website at the beginning of 2009. Students were asked to provide two mock ups of the website in any suitable format. We received 29 submissions, in a mixture of images and html. We are happy to inform you that your student Kerr Marin Miller designed one of the five successful applications. His design provided an appealing and original idea for the student based website. We are now working with a web designer who is implementing the design ideas and you will be able to view these in the near future at www.studyeconomics.ac.uk

Part-time and Postgraduate Open Evening
Our next Open Evening will be held on 14 May 2009, at Aberdeen Business School. For more information and to register click here

Applicants Day
The School of Computing will be hosting Applicants' Days on Saturday the 14th of March and Wednesday the 18th of March at the St Andrew Street Building on our City Centre Campus. This is your chance to come along and find out more about the School and courses you have applied for, sample the environment you will be studying in and talk to current students about life at Robert Gordon University. Click here for mor information

Dare to be Digital
We have launched a new model for Dare 2009. Now anyone can submit a game idea, if your game idea is voted high up on the chart, there's a possibility that the idea can be turned into a prototype.

Since launched last Thursday, we have received almost 20 ideas already: http://www.daretobedigital.com/dreamers/.

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/

November Newsletter
School Newsletter November 2008 - PDF