SICSA Graduate Academy

SICSA PhD Conference 2023 – Registration is now open!

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We are excited to take the SICSA PhD Conference back to Stirling this year!  The event will take place on 11th & 12th September at the University of Stirling

The Scottish Informatics & Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) Conference has been an annual event since SICSA began in 2008. It marks a time where PhD students and early-career researchers attending universities all around Scotland get together for a couple of days. During the event, attendees get to attend interesting workshops, talks, and social events and this year we are incorporating a Pitching Session competition. The event is open to all PhD students and early-career researchers in Computer Science and Informatics in Scotland. There are no registration fees and one night’s accommodation is provided for students who require to travel to the event free of charge as the event is fully funded by SICSA.

This year, the focus of the SICSA Conference will be on building research programmes to address interdisciplinary challenges. Increasingly, research focus and funding is led by societal challenges that are of international concern. Although computing science research will be fundamental to addressing these challenges, they will also need to collaborate across disciplines and a wide range of stakeholders. The aim of this conference is to expose research students to the opportunities of interdisciplinary research as well as skills and tools they will need to work effectively in this context. The conference will include keynotes from high-profile speakers on the challenge-led research landscape, as well as workshops on research programme road mapping and interdisciplinary collaboration. Students will have opportunities to practice these skills in small teams drawn from the diverse fields of our discipline, in order to develop their own collective research visions.

For more information on the Conference and how to register, please see https://sicsaconf.org/ 

“it was an unforgettable experience” Read how SICSA research scholarship funding helped support student’s attendance at the CIX23 Summer School

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by Songpei XU
12 July 2023

As a senior PhD student at the University of Glasgow, I was delighted to have the opportunity to participate in the Human-Computer Interaction related summer school CIX23 at the University of Michigan in the U.S. It was an unforgettable experience. During the course of my studies, I presented my work to HCI researchers from all over the world and learned about the research directions and fields of PhD students from other universities such as Harvard, Carnegie Mellon, University of Michigan, University of Chicago, etc. This gave me some positive impact.

In addition, the rich curriculum of the summer school not only gave me the opportunity to interact with famous professors and scholars in the field. I also learned new knowledge from their lectures and courses. These have given me new ideas and thoughts about my research.

During the summer school, I met some interesting people and we had deep discussions about our research, PhD studies, life, and future directions and future developments of AI. It was really exciting to be exposed to the ideas of people outside my social circle and with different education. I am sure we will also connect, learn from each other, and stay in touch with each other in our future research and studies.

I am very grateful for this opportunity and for the support I received from SICSA. The experience of attending the summer school not only expanded my knowledge, but also gave me new insights into the development of the industry and I have a new group of friends. This is the motivation for me to continue my research.

SICSA support to attend CHI 2023

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by Cristina Fiani
02 May 2023

As a first-year PhD student at the University of Glasgow, within the social AI CDT, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to attend for the first time one of the biggest international conferences of human-computer interactions-CHI 2023 in Hamburg-with around 4000 attendees. It was a truly enriching experience that I will never forget. I had the chance to present my CHI LBW poster about automated moderation to improve child safety in social Virtual Reality (VR) “Big Buddy: A Simulated Embodied Moderating System to Mitigate Children’s Reaction to Provocative Situations within Social Virtual Reality”, which was a fantastic opportunity to share my research, receive feedback, and engage with other professionals in the field.

The conference was full of inspiring talks and presentations by other researchers, covering a wide range of topics from social VR to AI to innovations in education and mental health. I gained new insights and perspectives that will be invaluable as I continue my research. In addition to this, I met many fascinating people and had some great discussions, which I believe will help me as I progress in my research.

I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity, and I would like to thank SICSA for supporting me. Attending conferences like these is crucial for the development of any researcher. The experience has not only expanded my knowledge but also provided me with a sense of community and inspiration. I am eager to continue my research and contribute to the 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!!

New Funding Call for PhD students to attend conferences

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With most national and international conferences currently being held on-line due to the pandemic, SICSA is taking the opportunity to open a new funding call which will allow PhD students, currently studying in a SICSA institution, to apply for the cost of the registration fees for a virtual conference.

If there is a specific Conference you are interested in attending and, it is in line with your research you can apply for funding for the registration fees.  There is no deadline for proposals to be submitted.

For more information and details of how to apply, please see the SICSA Funding Page

We are recruiting for the Director of the SICSA Graduate Academy

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We are pleased to announce that we are now recruiting for a new Director of the SICSA Graduate Academy.  Applications are welcome from any suitable member of academic staff working at a SICSA member institution.

The SICSA Graduate Academy (SGA) is an international graduate school in Informatics and Computer Science. All Informatics and Computer Science PhD students who are registered with a Scottish University are members of the Graduate Academy and can participate in SICSA activities without charge. The SGA is coordinated by the Graduate Academy Director, with support from the SICSA Executive.

Research pooling across Scotland is entering an exciting phase. Following the review of pooling, the SFC are considering a number of recommendations which present opportunities for someone interested this role. You can help shape the foundations for the future of SICSA as we develop into this new era of Scottish research pooling. Anyone interested in taking on this role should be willing to work with others in the directorate on developing a new direction for SICSA in light of a changing funding landscape.

If you would like to speak informally about the role, please contact the SICSA Director, Professor Stuart Anderson (S.Anderson@ed.ac.uk)

Director of the SICSA Graduate Academy Job Description
Director of the SICSA Graduate Academy Application Form

Please submit our application, along with a current (summarised) CV to Aileen.Orr@glasgow.ac.uk no later than 27th June 2021.

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 Funding Call Now Open

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We are pleased to announce that the Scottish Funding Council has awarded us further funding to continue the Scottish Informatics & Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) research pool until July 2021

We now have a new series of funding calls open with increased support across our research themes with the aim to extend and expand our links with other research pools (SUPA/SULSA/SINAPSE etc.) and with the Scottish Innovation Centres https://www.sicsa.ac.uk/funding/

To support students in SICSA, we have a new program of SICSA Research Scholars to undertake studies and/or research via Summer/Winter Schools attendance and/or research visits.

For staff, SICSA can support, Academic and Research Distinguished Visiting Fellows from Academia or Industry, Research Theme Event Sponsorship, Postdoctoral and Early Career Researcher Exchanges (PECE), our European Leaders Programme and Education Event Sponsorship.  Full information on the funding opportunities can be found at https://www.sicsa.ac.uk/funding/.

The next deadline is April 30th, and we welcome applications for Research Theme Events which connect between SICSA themes or connect SICSA to other research pools.

Submissions with commitments of matched funding from other research pools or innovation centres are strongly encouraged.  Some of these events might aim to explore grand challenges while other events might focus of emerging research.

Student attends the International Conference on Intelligent Robots with the help of SICSA

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by Èric Pairet, Heriot Watt University
25 November 2019

Last week, I attended the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) organised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ). IROS is one of the top conferences world-wide were scientists gather to present and discuss the state-of-the-art on robotics.

This year’s IROS edition was held in the majestic Venetian Macao, Macau, China. The conference consisted of a series of workshops, technical sessions and keynotes that lasted for a total of five days. I presented in one of the technical sessions my most recent research entitled “Learning Generalisable Coupling Terms for Obstacle Avoidance via Low-dimensional Coupling Terms”, which was received with great enthusiasm and admiration by the attendees. I received many interesting technical questions and got engaged in multiple discussions about my work which may help me to improve my future research. The conference received a total of 2,513 papers, a 44.8% from which were accepted for presentation.

Besides the learning experience in this type of events, the networking opportunities are incomparable. Overall, I would rate this experience as unique and would totally recommend it, especially for those interested on keeping on with state-of-the-art technologies and methods in robotics. Attending IROS conferences offers a unique opportunity, not only to new researchers but also to experienced academics to share ideas and get valuable feedback.

Thanks to SICSA I was able to attend and present my work in such a prestigious conference where I could share experiences as a researcher and get valuable advice on how to pursue my future career.

SICSA funds student to attend the European Summer School in Information Retrieval (ESSIR)

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by Vasileios Stamatis
29th July 2019

The European Summer School in Information Retrieval (ESSIR) is a summer school for Information Retrieval and has been taking place since 1990 and the last few years it has taken by every two years.  The ESSIR 2019 took place in Milan, Italy, in the University of Milan-Bicocca. Myself and many other students from all over the world attended this summer school. For attending this summer school I was funded by SICSA. I wouldn’t be able to attend if SICSA hadn’t funded me for this summer school.
The summer school organised by the Information Retrieval Laboratory (IR Lab) at the University of Milan Bicocca and the Information Management Systems (IMS) research group at the University of Padua. The main focus was Information Retrieval (IR) courses and related research topics.

The first day started with some interesting courses about Information Retrieval as interaction in general, what it is and some main concepts such us offline vs online vs user-study evaluation etc. Then we learned about approaches in research. It was great to learn how to succeed in the PhD journey, how to choose a research area and how to approach research in general. The last 2 courses were about evaluation, we learned how important evaluation for IR and Research is in general and we also learned tasks and existing work in the evaluation field.
The second day started with user oriented IR and its foundations. We learned all these different IR models and the most significant contributions to the field. Also, we learned about experiments and how to approach an experiment and what factors are important during an experiment. Finally, machine learning and its approaches to IR were discussed, learning to Rank and Neural nets were the hot topics; and future research directions on the field.

The following day in the morning, the courses were about scalability in IR in which we learned about indexes and the importance of scalability in efficiency in web search engines. Then we learned about social media and how they are used to gather data and convert data to real knowledge. In the afternoon the Future Directions in Information Access (FDIA) presentations took place. It was great to hear presentations from colleagues and learn about their work, and have discussions afterwards.
Thursday started with medical IR and then recommender systems and after that we had a discussion about the summer school in general….what we liked and did not like and what should be included in the next summer schools. Then we discussed about IR in general, core skills, background, and internships in order to succeed. In the afternoon we had the FDIA poster session and I had the opportunity to present a poster. It was very helpful discussing, explaining and exchanging ideas about our work with other students and researchers as well. It is extremely helpful to make new connections by discussing our work. I met many people and I also learned about future events that I wouldn’t know otherwise.

The last day there were two courses, one of which was about task based IR systems. We learned about modelling search behaviours, inferring intents, how to evaluate such systems etc. The last course was on Biases on search and recommender systems in which we discussed different forms of biases. #ESSIR2019 in the University of Milan–Bicocca was an exciting experience. I really enjoyed my time in the summer school. I met many students and we shared ideas and challenges about our work. Now, we have been equipped with new skills and experiences in order to continue our research journey. This wouldn’t have been possible without SICSA. Thank you SICSA for this!