Events

SICSA Supporting the Launch of the Edinburgh University School of Informatics Computer Science Education Group

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By Cristina Adriana Alexandru and Felipe Costa Sperb

14 November 2024

On the 4th of October 2023, a team of academics from the University of Edinburgh, led by Felipe Costa Sperb and Cristina Adriana Alexandru, launched the School of Informatics Computer Science Education (CSE) Group. This event, sponsored and endorsed by SICSA, aimed to enhance the visibility of the group, attract prospective members, initiate conversations on Computer Science Education topics, and create opportunities for networking.
The CSE Group has the mission to inspire and to bring together staff and students with an interest in Computer Science Education from the University of Edinburgh, as well as from other universities in the UK and beyond. The aims of the CSE group are:

  • To enhance knowledge and practice of Computer Science Education by keeping abreast of advancements in this field;
  • To guide teaching practice by sharing practical experience and research evidence from the Computer Science Education community;
  • To conduct research linking pedagogical theory and advancements with evidence-informed practice;
  • To engage and collaborate with other related groups in the University of Edinburgh, in the UK and more widely;
  • To disseminate research and findings from practice to impact Computer Science Education in the University of Edinburgh and beyond.

The launch event was organised as a mini-conference style. The agenda was as follows:

  • 10:45 AM – Opening note: Welcome and Introduction to the CSE Group, by Felipe Costa Sperb (University of Edinburgh)
  • 11:00 AM – Keynote presentation: Evaluating the Sense of Belonging of Undergraduate Computing Students in the UK and Ireland – An Invitation to Collaborate, by Catherine Mooney (University College Dublin), Brett Becker (University College Dublin), and Fiona Mcneill (University of Edinburgh)
  • 12:00 PM – CSE presentation: Providing Students Opportunities to Learn about Accessibility and Designing for Inclusion, by Aurora Constantin (University of Edinburgh)
  • 12:40 PM – Closing note: Membership of the CSE group, Closing Notes and Discussion, by Cristina Alexandru (University of Edinburgh)
  • 1:00 PM – Closing celebration: Networking Reception and Lunch

The organisers are thrilled to report that the launch event of the CSE group was a success. It yielded several noteworthy outcomes, each contributing to the advancement of the group’s mission and impact. The event registration page attracted substantial interest, resulting in a large number of registrations and attendance not only by peers affiliated to the University of Edinburgh, but also from other distinguished universities in the UK and Ireland, including University of Glasgow, University of Strathclyde, University of St Andrews, University College Dublin, and Technological University Dublin. This extensive network expansion has opened up exciting opportunities for research collaboration, dissemination and knowledge exchange, fortifying the CSE Group’s standing in the academic community. It also led to the doubling of the group’s membership (originally consisting of the organisers and a few colleagues from the School of Informatics), and the welcoming of the group’s first associate member intake coming from the University of Strathclyde, the University of Glasgow, and University College Dublin. This increase in membership highlights the appeal and relevance of the group’s initiatives and activities. The Keynote Session showcased successful research in Computer Science Education, providing valuable practical insights for peers embarking on research in this field. It also served as a call to action for evaluating student sense of belonging in higher education. Finally, the event had a significant impact on promoting awareness of the pivotal role that Computer Science plays in improving accessibility and inclusivity in education and the workplace.

The organisers are very grateful for SICSA’s considerable support and endorsement! Following the success of the launch event, the CSE group has been very active in planning an exciting future to keep advancing on its mission and aims. Key initiatives include the implementation of a regular schedule of Teaching Hours events (featuring talks from CSE group members and guest speakers on different Computer Science Education topics), members’ meetings (to provide members with a space to foster networking, knowledge exchange, and opportunities to get involved in advancing the group’s mission), and the formation of research sub-groups based on the different research interests of our members.

If you would like to learn more about the CSE group or become a member to join us in sharing knowledge and practice, inspiring and shaping the future of Computer Science Education, get in touch with us at: lcostas@ed.ac.uk

SICSA support to attend CHI 2023 has made me more excited and eager to be a part of this community

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by Noora Alsakar, University of Glasgow
18 May 2023

At the beginning, I would like to thank SICSA for covering my registration fees to attend CHI 2023. I am a second-year PhD student conducting research at the intersection of HCI and privacy in the field of eye tracking. It was my first time attending the conference, and I had an amazing experience and learned a lot.

CHI is the premier conference for human-computer interaction research, and it provided an incredible opportunity for me to meet and learn from experts in my field from all over the world. I attended a variety of talks and workshops and was amazed by the quality of the research being presented. I also had the chance to network with other researchers and make valuable connections.

In addition, attending the conference allowed me to see the enthusiasm that researchers have for their work. It was inspiring to become aware of the great opportunities provided for researchers by prominent companies in the technology market.

My experience at CHI 2023 has made me more excited and eager to be a part of this community. I am now more motivated to continue my research and to make a positive impact in my field. I am also more eager to publish my research at the upcoming CHI conference.

In conclusion, I am grateful to SICSA for supporting my attendance at CHI 2023. It was an amazing experience that enriched my knowledge, expanded my study field community, and inspired me with new ideas in my field.

Feedback from the SICSA Data Engineering Bootcamp

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By Dr Andrei Petrovski, SGA Director
11 April 2023

The SICSA Data Engineering Bootcamp was held on 20 January 2023 in the beautiful ARC Building, University of Glasgow

The main intent of the event was to raise awareness amongst members of the SICSA Graduate Academy of the goals, challenges, and tools used by the industry in designing, building and maintaining data products.

During the bootcamp three practical workshops were run by representatives from various sectors of industry – Engineering, FinTech and Public.   Experts from the industry explained and demonstrated how the modern data stack, data pipelining tools and different parts of the data engineering lifecycle work together.  The bootcamp programme started with the topics of data acquisition, collection and pre-processing presented by Steve Aitken from Intelligent Plant.  Then, the attendees were exposed to the process of creating value from data using real-life examples by colleagues from Corporate Data Services in Barclays Bank.  The final workshop on the day was presented by National Services Scotland, NHS focused on maintaining and enhancing the quality of data products.

During the bootcamp the SICSA PhD students who participated in the event had plenty of opportunities to speak to managers, engineers and researchers working in the Data Engineering field, who gave their advice on handling typical challenges, using specific tools and even provided interviewing tips for potential candidates interested in working for their companies and organisations.  The event received very positive feedback, including “Real-life examples, honest answers and openness’, “Loved the views of industrial experts”, “Very engaging!!” the overall theme of the feedback was a desire to have more events like this and include additional practical and interactive challenges and activities for the students.  SICSA, in collaboration with DataLab, are now considering what other events could be organised in the near future.  We will keep you posted!!

SICSA and ScotCHEM are coming together for a Speed Networking Fortnight

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SICSA and ScotChem are coordinating a fortnight of short remote one-to-one calls between researchers to stimulate inter-disciplinary exchanges of research ideas and agendas.  Working across disciplines is notoriously difficult in ordinary circumstances, but the restrictions caused by the current pandemic have even further curtailed opportunities for chance encounters at conferences, or meetings that lead to fruitful collaborations. To address this, the aim of the Speed Networking Fortnight is to put researchers in touch with each other across disciplines to foster understanding of existing disciplinary research challenges and provide opportunities.

To minimise the impact on time, each one-to-one meetup will last as long as just 15 minutes – no longer than it would take to queue to use the coffee machine. SICSA and ScotChem will coordinate the matching of participants from across disciplines and scheduling of meeting times, as well as a follow up to document any interesting outcomes. The initiative is open to any researcher (academic, postdoc, PhD student) from either pool.

To participate, just fill out the very short application form here:  https://form.jotform.com/203174064600343 .

If you have any questions or would like some more information please get in touch with Tim Storer (SICSA KE Director) and/or Alan Wiles (ScotCHEM Director of Operations)

SICSA Conference 2020

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We are delighted to announce that the SICSA Conference 2020 will take place, on-line on 1 October 2020 and will be under the theme SICSA and the Sustainable Society.

The conference this year will be co-located with ScotSoft, which is Scotland’s leading tech conference allowing our delegates to access elements of the event throughout the day.

For this year’s conference we have prepared a rich and varied schedule addressing the many challenges presented by the idea of a future Sustainable Society. We are delighted to have Dr Elizabeth F. Churchill (UX Director, Google) and Professor Sally A. Fincher (School of Computing Science, University of Kent) as our Keynote Speakers.

You will have the chance to hear about issues and challenges encountered in Computing Science Education, discussed at the Education Panel Session. Excellent exemplars of graduate research across SICSA will be presented from the shortlisted candidates for the SICSA PhD Award for Best Dissertation during at the PhD Lightning Talks session.

We have invited participation from our partner research pools across Scotland, allowing us to bring together a large community of people to discuss the Computing and interdisciplinary challenges ahead. The SICSA Research Themes will show case research that demonstrates cutting edge computing research and its potential to address the Sustainable Society Challenge.

We have inaugurated a new award for Best PhD Thesis in Scotland at the Conference this year and the winner will receive a prize of £2,000 generously sponsored by Amazon Development Scotland.

Given the current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic the Conference this year will be held online, allowing us to increase our audience and have invited speakers from far and wide. The Conference will be open to all members from across the SICSA institutions, industry partners and all SICSA key stakeholders

Visit the SICSA Conference 2020 website to find out more and register your interest to attend the event.

SICSA supports Code Your Future (CYF)

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by Gianluca Palombo
5 August 2019

CodeYourFuture are a charity who train refugees, asylum seekers and people from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to become professional software developers. We are already running classes in London, Manchester, Glasgow and Rome – with plans to extend to other cities in the near future. On the weekend of the 27th June, CodeYourFuture students, graduates, applicants, mentors and public guests gathered to celebrate and find out more about our work and, more generally, efforts to use tech as a force for positive social change in society: https://conference.codeyourfuture.io/

Friday 28 June
Over 100 students, volunteers, applicants, partners and guests assembled throughout our first day of the CodeYourFuture Conference 2019 in Glasgow. The venue was the wonderful Sir Charles Wilson building, where we guaranteed a memorable day of work courtesy of the University of Glasgow and the UofG Computing Science department.Thanks to our insightful panels and guest speaker presentations, CYF members and public guests were able to gain fantastic and unique insights into the crossover between tech, community development and social justice.

Highlights included inspiring lessons and testimonies delivered by speakers such as Mel McKendrick, CEO at Optomize Ltd and Assistant Professor in Psychology at Heriot-Watt University, and Pheona Matuvo, co-founder and director at community interest company Radiant and Brighter. Our own CYF graduates shared their incredible stories in their own panel, inspiring current and future students – whilst through gratefully-received tea and coffee breaks, networks were built as new friends were made in addition to a lot of overdue catching up between CYF cohorts from across the UK.

Friday was wound down with a relaxing evening at the home of one of our amazing Glasgow volunteers, Carme! We should give a special thanks to SICSA for covering expenses for the food and refreshments we are able to provide at this occasion and others throughout the Conference weekend for the benefit of our CYF members and guests.

Saturday 29 June
On Saturday, we carried on, as CYF students, graduates, mentors and organisers got to work on technical skills development and strategy planning! On Saturday, we found ourselves in a similarly inspiring conference environment as we were hosted by BBC Scotland in their amazingly impressive Pacific Quay headquarters.

Students on the day were able to learn and share different skills alongside their counterparts and predecessors as well as mentors from CYF cohorts in different cities. Highlights included insightful and valuable workshops by Michael Antczak, experienced software developer and tech meet-up organiser, and Alec McEchran, former Senior Software Engineer at YouTube and Google and now Principal Engineer at KPV LAB Edinburgh.

For mentors and organisers, the day consisted of creative group work and discussions, helping to agree on fundamental universal goals of CYF cohorts and thinking how we can help provide even greater access to life-changing social and professional development for disadvantaged groups in the UK and further afield.

Saturday ended with us gathering at West of Scotland Cricket Club in Glasgow for a final winding down and celebration following a high-octane yet fulfilling two days.

Overall, we were delighted with how the Conference went, and hope that our public guests, in particular, were able to gain extra insight into the valuable and unique work we do at CodeYourFuture. For the CYF community, we come away with renewed energy, inspiration and more coherent aims and strategies. We hope these things will aid us in continuing to channel tech, education and community empowerment in an effort to improve our societies.

We thank SICSA for supporting the conference along with The University of Glasgow, BBC Scotland, Financial Times and our microsponsors who donated online.

DemoFest 2019: Register now to exhibit your research

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SICSA DemoFest is the largest event of its kind in Scotland. Now in its twelfth year, it showcases the very best of Informatics and Computing Science research from all of Scotland’s Universities

The event will take place on Monday 4th November 2019 from 4.00pm in the stunning venue, Our Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh

You can now register now to apply to exhibit your research.  Exhibiting your research is free and entails completing a short (one page) questionnaire which you can access here:  https://edinburgh.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/sicsa-demofest-2019-presenting-your-research. 
Deadline for applications is 23rd June 2019, with outcomes communicated no later than 26th June.

Why Exhibit?
We expect over 200 delegates from business and the public sector, who will be keen to discover some of the cutting-edge research taking place currently in Computer Science and Informatics in Scotland.

The event provides a space for exhibitors to showcase their current research and discuss future academic and business collaborations, commercialisation opportunities, internships and placements, employment opportunities and much more.

Who can Exhibit?
We now welcome applications from researchers at all 14 SICSA Institutions. Exhibitors are encouraged from all stages of research, from 1st year PhD to Professorial level.

We particularly encourage applicants who are keen to build collaborative linkages with industry; to commercialise their research; and to build contacts with other researchers.

Your Space
All exhibitors will be provided with their own space in the exhibition hall featuring an individual pod for your research poster and space for any technology that you wish to demonstrate.

Please do get in touch (admin@sicsa.ac.uk) if you have any questions.

Join us for the SICSA PhD Conference 2019!

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by Dr Susmit Sarkar, SGA Director
09 April 2019

As the Graduate Academy Director, I take great pleasure in inviting the community to the SICSA PhD Conference 2019, to be held at the beautiful University of Stirling on 18th & 19th June.  The SICSA PhD Conference is our flagship event for our PhD students, being the highlight of the calendar. Every year it becomes ever more popular, and more polished, and this year is shaping up to be no different. We have a great slate of workshops, keynotes, and events to keep you busy. Of course, there is also plenty of time to mingle, network, and catch up with what is happening Scotland-wide in research.

The PhD Conference is targeted specifically to students in a PhD program at any of the SICSA institutions and is free to attend. It is very much your event, and I am happy to say it is primarily organised and run by students, in the shape of a very committed organising committee. It is both a showcase of the fantastic research going on around Scotland, and an opportunity to create and build new bridges, personal and professional. And you can exchange ideas on how to beat the PhD blues as well.

I wanted to also highlight two competitions associated with the conference; there will be a Poster Session with prizes for best posters. This will be a great opportunity to show off your research and practice presenting it. And second, supervisors need not feel left out, we are having a Supervisor of the Year competition, with results to be announced during the conference. The Supervisor of the Year competition will open shortly and all the details will be publicised via the SICSA Conference Web-site as well as the SICSA web-site.

Registration for the SICSA PhD Conference is now open so please register early (spots are free, but tend to fill up quickly).

Lots more information can be found on the conference web-site: https://www.sicsaconf.org/

I look forward to seeing you there, please do come along and say hello.

Why I changed my mind about A.I.  

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By Suzy Powell, PR and Communications Executive, Interface
13th September 2018 

The words “Artificial Intelligence” provoke a variety of responses in people, from suspicion to excitement. But one thing is certain, it is here to stay and will form a growing part of all our lives.  

Harnessing A.I. to make people’s lives better greatly excites some people and the possibilities seem endless. Its application in healthcare, education and finance are leading the charge, however there are opportunities in every sector. 

At Interface, we have connections into all 14 of the higher education computing schools and departments in Scotland via SICSA; matching academic expertise with businesses looking to harness A.I. in all its many forms, from drones to data-led machine learning. 

My colleague Louise Arnold, who supports businesses looking to partner with academics in Edinburgh and Lothian, recently worked with Welbot, a cross-platform, digital intervention and productivity platform, that helps employees stay physically and mentally well in the workplace by learning and adapting to the actions that they take. 

The wellness management software encourages stretching, screen breaks, mindfulness, hydration and nutrition, micro exercises and simple, rewarding brain training games and is designed and engineered for both individual and large-scale enterprise use. 

Now, I confess to being a late adopter of most things digital (I’m not rushing to buy a voice activated “home assistant”), however I do recognise the danger to health of sitting too much at home, at work, whilst socialising, and the benefits of keeping active physically and mentally. A device which can prompt me to stretch, take screen breaks and remind me to drink water would be welcomed. 

Welbot wanted to collaborate with a university to understand how they could extract knowledge and insights from data and machine learning, especially around autonomous, self-teaching systems that can analyse data and provide insights to human behaviour.  

Louise connected the company with the Department of Computing and Information Science at the University of Strathclyde, and with the backing of a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, developed a proof of concept prototype to incorporate the findings into the application roadmap. 

Louise’s experience of supporting businesses meant that she saw the opportunity to provide additional support to the company by partnering them with marketing and business students at both the University of Strathclyde and the University of Edinburgh. Welbot are also working with experts in behavioural sciences within the University of Strathclyde, University of Edinburgh and University of Aberdeen. 

Another project which Louise has been involved in, and which is music to my ears, is Inbest, a platform to help people learn and understand finances better.  

The company behind Inbest, Investment Solver, uses machine learning to alleviate a problem faced not only by UK citizens, but by consumers across the world in that it helps to measure, track and improve the financial well-being of UK consumers. The research project evaluated whether consumers: 

  • Have a sustainable spending pattern and manageable debt levels to maintain their existing lifestyle; 
  • Have enough rainy day funds to face unexpected events; and/or
  • Have adequate savings to ensure that they will be able to maintain their lifestyle at retirement. 

All three are financial subject areas which I definitely need help with! 

This collaborative project was funded by The Data Lab, one of Scotland’s Innovation Centres, and the academic partners were The University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Napier University.  

These are just two stories of innovation, collaboration and sharing knowledge between business and academia – there are many more examples here. 

And for further inspiration DemoFest: Bringing Research to Life brings together academics, businesses, researchers, public sector and government under one roof (Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh) on 6 November. 

It is the perfect opportunity to see what is available in our world-class universities with cutting-edge demos, talks and networking – and to catch up with Interface!  You can find out more at www.sicsa.ac.uk/demofest or register for free at Eventbrite

If you can’t make DemoFest and would like further information on how Interface could help you please contact us. 

A decade of SICSA PhD Conferences

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by Dr Jeremy Singer, SGA Director
17 July 2018

Last month, I attended the tenth SICSA PhD conference at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. This is the northern-most location for our annual conference so far, and I was impressed by the beautiful setting and ideal facilities at this modern university campus.

Paul Hagan from RGU opened the conference; in his speech he complimented SICSA as a ‘great model for Scotland-wide subject-specific collaboration.’ Since he was one of the architects of the SFC research pooling initiative, this is high praise indeed.

Many of the 150 student delegates brought a poster along with them, describing their research projects. As I wandered round the poster display, I encountered an amazing breadth of topics. Highlights include apps to help people with Autism, using comic strips to understand complex data, and simulating the structure of stars with parallel computing.

At an evening banquet in the Trinity Hall, we did a ‘back of the napkin challenge’ where everyone had to depict their research by scribbling on a paper napkin. There were plenty of intriguing drawings – check out #sicsanapkinchallenge on twitter for some examples.

Throughout the two days of the conference, there was a great selection of talks and workshops. Since they happened in parallel, I wasn’t able to attend everything. However, I particularly enjoyed Diane R. Pennington’s deeply personal and highly motivational workshop on student wellbeing and mental health. I appreciate that a significant proportion of PhD students experience mental health difficulties during their studies, and it’s good to see this is being addressed by institutions at last.

I also attended Michael Smyth’s cinematographically inspired presentation on how to complete your thesis. He gave us plenty of pragmatic tips on writing up, while introducing us to tenuously related films from the 1950s.

As I near the end of my term as director of the SICSA Graduate Academy, I reflect that the SICSA PhD conference encapsulates what makes SICSA so uniquely compelling. We have a vibrant, friendly community clustered around a diverse range of world-leading research teams.

Here’s to the next decade of adventure, discovery and collaboration at SICSA PhD conferences!