If you missed Professor Dame Wendy Hall staring in an episode of âLife Scientificâ on BBC Radio 4 at 9.00am, not to worry because you can catch it again tonight at 9.30pm.
In the programme Wendy talks to professor and presenter, Jim Al Khalili, about how the web is still not quite what it should be and and about the new discipline she has helped to found, Web Science.
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
New students to the University of Southampton will be able to easily find their way around their new city thanks to a new system based on technology pioneered by Electronics and Computer Science (ECS).
The Live Bus Timetable system shows users the location of any landmark, food outlet, pub or bus stop across the city and tells them the buses to use.
All they need to do is type in the name of their required destination and, if they are using a computer the campus they are on (mobile phones use GPS to establish current location) and the service will show them the best way to get there.
The system has been developed by the Universityâs Open Data Service and the work has been spearheaded by Dr Ash Smith, a former ECS Research Fellow who now works for the Universityâs central IT service.
âThe new system has been created using the novel feature of combining information from two different open council datasets â the food hygiene ratings and bus timetable data â together with dbpedia.org, the open data equivalent of Wikipedia. This Live Bus Timetable system is a handy service, especially for freshers, to find the buses they need to catch to where they want to go. It is very simple to use and draws a map of their nearest stop in relation to their current position, as well as giving them a list of all the stops on their route,â? said Ash.
âBy combining these sources of open data we have used it in ways it wasnât initially intended, and have opened up the doors to using open data for a whole range of new applications,â? he added.
Ash completed his PhD at Southampton and is an honorary member of the Web and Internet Science Research Group, based in ECS.
To use the new system on a computer visit http://bus.southampton.ac.uk or on a mobile phone visit http://bus.southampton.ac.uk/mobile
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) has welcomed the first students onto its new Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) degree at the University of Southamptonâs Malaysia campus (USMC)
The new degree programme started this autumn at USMC, at EduCity@Iskandar Nusjaya, with an initial intake of 10 students.
The four year 2+2 MEng degree will see the students spend the first two years studying in Malaysia before transferring to Southampton, UK, for the final two years.
The programme, which has been approved by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency and accredited by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, combines ECS academicsâ long experience in teaching excellent electrical engineering and electronic engineering programmes.
The EEE programme at USMC is identical to that offered at the Southampton campus, including the duplication of the outstanding ECS undergraduate laboratory facilities in Malaysia. As well as core EEE staff based at USMC, many academic staff from Southampton will be visiting USMC over the coming year to teach on the course. The University of Southampton has pioneered many of the most important advances in electronics and microelectronics over the past 30 years and is ranked first in the UK for Electrical and Electronic Engineering by The Guardian University Guide 2014.
Professor Neil White, Head of ECS, said: âWe are delighted to welcome our first students onto this pioneering course. The new programme gives them the unique opportunity to study both electronics and electrical engineering in Malaysia and Southampton, where they will be able to investigate the whole range of EEE from nano-scale devices up to grid level high voltage engineering.â?â
The EEE degree joins Southamptonâs undergraduate MEng in Mechanical Engineering that enrolled its first students at USMC in 2012. The University is proud to offer these two flagship programmes through its Malaysia Campus.
Find out more about the Electrical and Electronic Engineering MEng degree
To find out more about our Malaysia Campus visit www.southampton.ac.uk/my
A University of Southampton alumna has been awarded a British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) scholarship in recognition of her talent.
Mawusime Blewuada graduated from Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) in 2005 with a degree in Computer Science with Image and Multimedia Systems.
She was one of just 10 UK students who were recently announced as winners of the BAFTA Scholarship Programme.
The Programme is part of BAFTAâs charitable activity to support talented people at all stages of their career in film, television and games. The scholarship winners were selected by a panel of industry professionals.
Mawusime will receive £7,500 towards further course fees, mentoring support from BAFTA members, and free access to BAFTA events around the UK. She will share her learning experiences on BAFTAâs online learning channel and take part in future BAFTA outreach to young people.
Mawusime said: âIt is a great honour to receive this scholarship and will allow me to complete my Masters degree in computer animation."
âMy course at Southampton was a great mix of computer theory and practice that gave me a good foundation in computer imagery and helped me begin my career working with computer graphics.
âThe University has an excellent reputation for computer science courses and provides its students with great support from the academic staff. The facilities are fantastic. We had 24-hour access to the computer labs and student versions of software to use at home. I would definitely encourage other students to study at Southampton.â?
Professor Neil White, Head of ECS, said: âWe are very proud of what Mawusime has achieved. She joins many of our other ECS alumni who have gone on to gain prestigious positions and accolades not just in the UK but around the world.â?
To find out more about Electronics and Computer Science courses at Southampton visit www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/undergraduate/find_a_course
ECS announces exclusive partnership with specialist technology recruitment consultancy, Connectus.
An innovative partnership is announced between Connectus, the specialist technology recruitment consultancy, and Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) at the University of Southampton, the UK's leading department integrating computer science, electrical and electronic engineering.
ECS and Connectus have a mutual interest in providing high-quality and skilled graduates for the UKâs leading technology companies, and for the long-term health of the industry, and the two organizations will now work together to provide an excellent environment of opportunity for ECS students as they prepare for their careers.
In addition to supporting ECS student societies, taking part in events and conferences, and helping promote ECS research, Connectus will also provide dedicated careers advice and insight through tailored programmes. This will help ensure that ECS students can gain an informed perspective of the industry they will be joining and help them better understand the career options open to them.
âECS already has an outstanding record for employability and its graduates have a strong reputation with the UKâs leading companies, but in a highly competitive market, ECS is keen to ensure that its graduates really stand outâ, said Professor Neil White, Head of Electronics and Computer Science.
âWe are delighted to have the support and partnership of Connectus in preparing our students to take future leadership roles in industry. Connectusâ specialist advice and knowledge will bring a new and purposeful edge to add to the technical excellence of our degree programmes, ensuring that our graduates are better aware of opportunities in the engineering and technology sector and better prepared to take advantage of them.â?
Stuart Feest, Managing Director of Connectus says: âConnectus are proud to be partnering with Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton. Our teams will be working closely with ECS bodies, such as the Cyber Security society - supporting the students whilst broadening our own consultants' knowledge and experience. We are an international technology recruitment consultancy so the decision to invest in supporting ECS was a simple one. For 65 years their work has inspired personal achievement and their research has not just led the way - it has truly changed the world of technologyâ.
Connectus, part of the Matchtech Group, is also a member of the Electronics and Computer Science Industrial Advisory Board and the company is part of the âLaureates Programmeâ affiliated to the ECS Careers Hub.
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
ECS Computer Science student Mike Howell is one of a small group of UK students spending a year in California as part of the Silicon Valley Internship Program (SVIP).
As the high-tech start-up capital of the world, Silicon Valley is an interconnected ecosystem of entrepreneurs, companies, universities and venture capital, with a pervasive attitude of âthe possibleâ that provides the underlying connective tissue that makes it all work.
The Programme provides a unique experience for UK software engineering students, enabling them to spend a year working with hot start-ups in Silicon Valley through a one-year internship. âThe aim is that through this experience, SVIP interns will bring a little of the Silicon Valley attitude back to the entrepreneurial community in the UKâ, says Mike.
The SVIP Interns are matched with Silicon Valley start-ups and work as an integral part of their engineering teams. During the year, the interns attend a variety of conferences and events, as well as regular half-day learning sessions on the entrepreneurial process.
âI have been based with Nimble Storage, a disruptive data storage company based in San Joseâ, says Mike. âAfter a year of rapid expansion Nimble is one of the more mature companies in the program. Hopefully I will soon see first-hand the IPO process as an insider. Nimble has around 500 employees, but most of the start-ups are a lot smaller - some even only have six employees including the three founders.
âThe culture for high tech is great,â he continues. âInterns have meet with Elon Musk, toured Facebook and Google HQ. There are few barriers between the interns, CEOâs, CTOâs and tech super-stars. I feel I can make real lasting networks and connections!â
Mike is also enjoying the Bay Area: âThis is one of the best play natural grounds I have ever been,â he says, âwith ocean to the west and big mountains to the east. There are water and snow sports, and we have already been surfing, sky diving and will be going skiing very soon. The bar and nightlife in San Francisco are also exceptional.â
Applications for the Silicon Valley Internship Program have just opened. More information is available at: Silicon Valley Internship Program (SVIP).
Apply here: http://www.siliconvalleyinternship.com/apply/.
The Programme is only available to EU students.
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
Professor Nigel Shadbolt, one of the worldâs leading experts in Web Science and the pioneering co-founder of the A Open Data Institute (ODI), received his knighthood for services to science and engineering, at his Investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace this week (30 October 2013).
Professor Shadbolt, Head of the Web and Internet Science Group at the University of Southampton and ODI Chairman, is one of the co-creators of the interdisciplinary field of Web Science. He is a Director of both the Web Science Trust and of the Web Foundation - both organisations with a common commitment to advance the worldâs understanding of the Web and to promote the Web's positive impact on society. Together with fellow Southampton Professor and inventor of the World Wide Web, Professor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Professor Shadbolt established the ODI in East Londonâs Tech City last December. The organisation is a catalyst for innovation, focused on unlocking supply and creating demand for open data to generate economic, environmental and social benefits.
This week, the ODI has announced rapid global expansion of its ambitions, with the launch of 13 international centres, known as ânodesâ, each of which will bring together companies, universities, and NGOs that support open data projects and communities. The nodes will be based in the US, Canada, France, Dubai, Italy, Russia, Sweden and Argentina, with two extra US nodes Chicago and North Carolina. Three further UK nodes are to open in Manchester, Leeds and Brighton.
In a career spanning some 30 years, Professor Shadbolt has over 400 publications to his credit in topics ranging from cognitive psychology to computational neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence to the Semantic Web. In 2009 the Prime Minister appointed Professors Shadbolt and Berners-Lee as Information Advisors to transform access to Public Sector Information. This work led to the highly acclaimed data.gov.uk site that now provides a portal to thousands of datasets.
Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Dean of the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering at the University of Southampton added: âThis honour is richly deserved and I know that all of his colleagues at the University of Southampton will celebrate his success. Nigel is at the forefront of some of the most important and historic developments of the way in which we use and interact with the web and a true world leader in the field of open data and its benefits to society.â?
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
A University of Southampton student has received national recognition from the British Computer Society (BCS) for his research into multi agent systems. This is the third student from the universityâs Agents, Interaction and Complexity (AIC) research group to win a Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC) award for his thesis, in conjunction with the BCS.
Long Tran-Thanh was selected as runner-up in the Distinguished Dissertation Award 2013 for his dissertation on Budget-limited multi-armed bandits. He also received an honourable mention in the 2012 Dissertation Award sponsored by the European Artificial Intelligence Association (ECCAI).
His thesis explores sequential decision-making and focuses on different multi-armed bandit models with constraints, such as budget limits or pulling restrictions. His research investigates how autonomous agents can make decisions within those models if the information is not known or is uncertain. He is the first to focus on observing the output of that decision-making and has developed efficient algorithms to help balance exploration and exploitation in order to maximise total payoff.
His findings are already attracting interest in real-world applications such as online keyword bidding, decentralised coordination of unmanned autonomous vehicles and crowdsourcing.
Long is the third student from the AIC group to be recognised by the awards. Dr Rajdeep Dash won the Distinguished Dissertation Award in 2007 for his research into computational mechanism design and in 2008 Senior Research Fellow Talal Rahwan also won the prize for his work developing new algorithms to enable greater co-operation between agents.
Professor Nick Jennings, Head of AIC, said: âWe are delighted that Long has been recognised for his excellent research. He is the third student from AIC to be recognised by the CPHC and BCS in this way â a fantastic achievement for one research group.â?
Long said: âI was surprised and pleased to receive this award. It recognises the hard work I have done over the past three years and I hope it will help me in my future career.â?
The annual CPHC/BCS award selects the best British PhD/DPhil dissertations in computer science. Following a rigorous review process involving over 60 technical experts, the judging panel selected four dissertations it regarded as exemplary, one of which was Longâs.
The judging panel said of Longâs dissertation: âThe panel thought it was particularly noteworthy that Longâs thesis both makes significant theoretical contributions, and provides solutions which can be beneficially employed in practice.â?
Long, who was born in Vietnam and grew up in Hungary came to Southampton in 2008 to study his PhD in Computer Science and is now a post doctoral research fellow at the University working on the ORCHID project that investigates how human and software agents can effectively work together to collect the best possible information from a disaster environment.
ââWhen I first came to Southampton I was very impressed by the enthusiasm of the academic staff and I thought I would get good support and motivation here and I was right. I have been here for five years and it has been the best time of my life,â?â said Long.
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
The University of Southampton is launching the new Web Science Institute today (11th November) to investigate how the World Wide Web is changing the world and the world is changing the Web.
The Web is the largest information system ever constructed and a social and technical phenomenon that has transformed the world and continues to do so in innovative and unexpected ways that will shape our future. We canât predict how the Web will change our society, but Southampton has taken a lead in developing new forms of economic, social, political, technological and cultural resources based on a deep understanding of the Web's technologies and social construction.
The Web Science Institute (WSI) will act as a focal point, co-ordinating and putting into practice education, research and enterprise initiatives on web-related developments at the University of Southampton. Its aim is to secure a sustainable future for multi-disciplinary research across the University that has Web Science at its core by:
⢠focusing on interdisciplinary collaborations and partnerships; ⢠demonstrating clear ambition, adaptability and innovation; ⢠leveraging the visionary leadership and outstanding staff and student expertise across the University; ⢠providing a platform for significant investment by Government and external partners; ⢠showcasing unique and creative education programmes that set new standards internationally.
The Institute will be directed by a multi-disciplinary team drawn from across the University and led by Web Science pioneers Professor Dame Wendy Hall and Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt.
Professor Dame Wendy Hall says: âThere is a âperfect stormâ brewing which combines open data, open education and open research, so this is a very exciting time to be launching the Web Science Institute.â?
Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt says: âThe open data movement is one example of how the web is evolving, empowering individuals and communities to achieve phenomenal ends. The Web Science Institute will help us to understand this evolution.â?
The other WSI Directors are Professor Leslie Carr from the Web Science DTC; Dr Graeme Earl from Humanities; Professor Susan Halford from Social and Human Sciences; and Dr Lisa Harris from Business and Law.
Web Science is the subject of the Universityâs first ever Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which starts today. The Web Science MOOC, developed by WSI members in partnership with the Centre for Innovation in Technologies and Education (CITE) and Future Learn, will examine the origins and evolution of the Web, and consider key questions of security, democracy, networks and economy from both computational and social science perspective.
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.
Ashley Robinson, final year student on the MEng programme, Electronic Engineering with Artificial Intelligence, has been named as one of four finalists in the competition for this yearâs Scholar of the Year, organized by the UK Electronic Skills Foundation.
The winner will be announced at the National Microelectronics Institute annual dinner in London on Thursday 21 November.
Ashley has held a UKESF Scholarship since 2012 and has undertaken two work placements with Cambridge Silicon Radio as part of the programme, working on Near Field Communication with the companyâs digital team.
He is positive about the opportunities created by the UKESF programme: âIt has been of great benefit in terms of consolidating professional skills in the work placements, and helping develop soft skills as well as technical skills in the summer schoolsâ, he said. âAlso it has been very good to meet engineers from different backgrounds.â
Ashley is currently working intensively on the final-year Group Design Project. His groupâs client, Captec, is a leading manufacturer of ruggedized computers, owned and managed by ECS alumnus and Visiting Professor Max Toti. The project aims to provide better monitoring inside the PCs through the incorporation of a UEFI custom application.
Ashley is the third ECS student to reach the final of the Scholar of the Year competition since it was instituted in 2012. In that year ECS student Adam Malpass was named winner, and in 2013 Samuel Hipkin was runner-up. âWe are very proud of our studentsâ achievements in UKESF,â said Professor Neil White, Head of ECS.
âThey have an excellent record in achieving Scholarships, but to have three students reach the finals of Scholar of the Year is outstanding recognition of their ability to transfer their skills from the classroom to the industrial context.â
The University cannot accept responsibility for external websites.