COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES
NEWSLETTER
Edition no. 7: OCTOBER 2010
Welcome to the new academic year, and to the first Newsletter of the 2010/2011
Session. In this edition, there are items from Quality Assurance and Enhancement,
Learning and Teaching, news from Schools and an update on staff changes. There is
also a list of College events, so please make a note of them in your diary. More
information about a range of events and activities, as well as minutes and other
information from College Committees, is available on the College Intranet at
www.bham.ac.uk/epsintranet
Learning and Teaching
Head of School Awards for Excellence in Teaching or Supporting Student
Learning 2010
Congratulations to the following members of staff who have received the Head of
School Awards:
Nick Blundell (Computer Science)
Natalie Rowley (Chemistry)
Andrew Quinn (Civil Engineering)
Martin Russell (EECE)
Jonathan Bennett (Mathematics)
Barry Weston (Physics)
Andrew Quinn has also been awarded the Head of College Prize for Excellence in
Teaching or Supporting Student Learning 2010. The award was made for Andrew's
engagement in module development which enthuses students to become active
participants in the learning process.
College Educational Enhancement Fellow
Dr Natalie Rowley has recently been appointed as the EPS College
Educational Enhancement Fellow (CEEF). She is a Lecturer and
Head of Enhancement and Innovation in the School of Chemistry.
She was awarded a Birmingham University Teaching Fellowship to
investigate the use of blended learning to enhance the teaching,
learning and assessment of Stereochemistry and Spectroscopy
(2006). In addition, she was awarded the Head of School Prize for
Excellence in Teaching for 2010. Natalie became a Fellow of the Higher Education
Academy in 2007. She is also engaged in a number of initiatives which aim to
produce more effective but also enhanced feedback to undergraduate students.
Education Enhancement Funds available
The University's newly-created Centre for Learning and Academic Development
(CLAD) has funds available to support educational enhancement projects in Schools
and Colleges in 2010/11. The deadline for submitting bids to CLAD is 30 November
2010.
Proposals for projects should fit into three broad types:
1
thematic and cross-disciplinary, which will build upon one or more of the themes
designated by the Advisory Board as meriting investigation for the forthcoming
year;
2 “blue-sky” investigations into any other aspect of learning and teaching; and
3
small scale initiatives and developments which can support “day-to-day”
enhancement activity.
Funding will broadly reflect the anticipated scale of such projects, with the largest
allocations going to the thematic projects. A number of proposed projects are likely
to build upon previous project work (such as Learner Independence Projects) and be
developed in co-operation with the newly-appointed College Educational
Enhancement Fellows. Most importantly, all projects must demonstrate clearly how
they align with the University’s Learning and Teaching Strategy.
All projects must be endorsed by both the School and College. There will be no fixed
award or ceiling for ‘big’ projects, but it is envisaged that that bids for large thematic
projects will be in the order of c.£20,000 - £30,000 per year, though smaller thematic
bids will be welcomed. For the “day-to-day” enhancement projects, which will go
through a speedier application process, there is a funding ceiling of £1,000. “Blue
sky” initiatives will fall between these indicative poles.
The selected themes for 2010/11 are: Assessment & Feedback; PGT experience;
Curriculum Design and Development.
Full guidelines and the bid documentation templates are on the web at:
http://www.hr.bham.ac.uk/development/landt/CLADprojects.shtml. If you have any
queries or wish to discuss a proposal, please contact Chris Twine, Corony Edwards or
Rachel Wood in CLAD (c.r.twine@bham.ac.uk tel 43469 / c.j.edwards@bham.ac.uk
tel 47316 / r.wood@bham.ac.uk tel 42252).
Programmes and Modules
The work of the College Programme and Module Approval Group has progressed a
large amount of business during the summer months. To be specific: 62 module
modifications; 63 new modules; 8 module withdrawals; 42 programme changes and 8
new programmes! A number of new developments are underway in the College’s
catalogue of programmes. Those currently under consideration are: A new
undergraduate programme in Nuclear Engineering; MSc in Mathematics, Operational
Research, Statistics and Econometrics (MORSE); PhD with Integrated Studies in
Hydrogen Fuel Cells and their applications; EngD in Efficient Fossil Energy
Technologies.
Student Support and Development Sub Committee – Chair, Professor R C Jones
This subcommittee of College Learning and Teaching was set up in late November
2009 with representatives from all the Schools in the College and meets four times a
year. It has exchanged ideas and good practice on the Welcome (Freshers’) week and
on Induction which has helped Schools to review their practices in these areas. Each
school has now produced a document on Student Support and Development. The
subcommittee will be leading on the Skills Agenda for the College, given the need
for each school to have carried out a skills audit by December 2010.
The subcommittee is also addressing Careers and Employability and has worked with
Sophie Miller (CES) to produce a working document on collaboration between the
CES and the College. As a result CES ran a small scale College wide programme on
Employability for students in non graduating years in the post exam period 2010. This
will be repeated on a larger scale this year. A number of schools then held end of
year social events for those about to leave, with a careers adviser at each and careers
interviews for students who were still seeking employment. It is hoped to extend this
initiative in 2010/11.
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Quality Assurance and Enhancement
A new document is now available which provides guidance to Schools and Colleges
on the University Regulations, Codes of Practice and core quality assurance
processes. Entitled "The Regulatory Framework", this guidance has been designed to
complement
staff
handbooks.
It
can
be
found
at
http://www.as.bham.ac.uk/legislation/docs/UoB_Regulatory_Framework.pdf.
Over the summer, Schools carried out the new Annual Module and Programme
review for the first time. More information can be found on the Academic Quality
Unit’s website at http://www.as.bham.ac.uk/aqu/annualreview/index.shtml.
Several changes to the University Regulations and Codes of Practice have come into
effect on 1 August 2010. Schools have already been informed of the changes, which
can also be found at http://www.as.bham.ac.uk/legislation/Guidance/201011_legislation_change_memo.pdf
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Alumni Relations
The College is delighted to announce that a new Alumni Relations Manager has been
appointed. Jo Kite took up her position on 4 October, and is based in the College Hub
on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
She can be reached at
J.R.Kite@bham.ac.uk extension 58536.
DARO ‘Table for Ten’ (previously called Dinner with 10 strangers) aims to bridge
the gap between students, alumni and staff through an informal dinner. This will be
the third occasion that this event has been run and as on previous occasions EPS has
agreed to take a table. The dinner will take place on the evening of 30 November
2010 in Staff House. The theme of the evening is ‘graduate employability’ and the
EPS table will include 3 students, 3 alumni and 3 staff, plus the Alumni Relations
Manager, Jo Kite. The College therefore need to identify and invite people to take
part in the Table for Ten dinner in the next couple of weeks. DARO is publicising
the event to students and encouraging them to participate. However if there are any
students who you believe would benefit from/add value to such an event please could
you ask them to contact Jo on J.R.Kite@bham.ac.uk ext 58536
DARO has included information about the event in its recent alumni communications.
However if there are any particular industries, sectors or individuals that you would
like Jo to approach please let her know.
Finally, Jo will be speaking to staff who have employability as part of their remit to
ascertain interest in participation in the Dinner. If you would like to participate or to
find out more information please let her know. There will also be a drinks reception
prior to the dinner which you will be very welcome to attend.
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News from Schools
School of Chemistry
CASE 2011
Dr John Fossey of the School of Chemistry cofounded the CAtalysis
and Sensing for our Environment CASE network, a fledgling cooperation
between the Universities of Birmingham, Bath and East China University
of Science and Technology (ECUST), and hopes to establish long term
productive institutional exchanges between Shanghai and Birmingham.
The CASE network encompasses a broad research remit with a view that
through working together as the CASE team, important and worthwhile developments
in these areas can be made. The second CASE symposium in 2009 at ECUST saw the
announcement of ECUST’s CASE Lab as a multisite virtual centre. A memorandum
of understanding between ECUST and Birmingham will be signed in December 2010
setting the stage for facile international exchange and cooperation from 2011. The
third CASE symposium is planned for July 2011 in Birmingham. It is hoped that
Birmingham’s CASE symposium next year will serve to heighten awareness of the
network at Birmingham and encourage participation from researchers across campus.
Right now the School of Chemistry is actively seeking to coordinate larger supradisciplinary funding applications exploiting the CASE cooperative network and
encourages interested researchers to contact John Fossey directly
(J.S.Fossey@bham.ac.uk)
New Christian Doppler Laboratory Module for Magnetoelectric Multiferroics
A new collaborative research agreement has been celebrated between the School of
Chemistry, the Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Materials at Graz University
of Technology (TUGraz) and TDK EPC (Austria), the largest European producer of
electronic passive components. Under the auspices of this agreement, a new
international module attached to the Christian Doppler Laboratory (CDL) for
Advanced Ferroic Oxides, was established at Birmingham.
The CDL for Advanced Ferroic Oxides was created in January 2008 by Prof. K.
Reichmann from TUGraz and Prof. J. Fleig from Vienna University of Technology, in
cooperation with TDK EPC, Deutschlandsberg. The main goals of this research
alliance are the generation of basic knowledge and its transfer into real applications.
In May 2010, the School of Chemistry joined this research alliance through the
creation of an International Research Module devoted to Magnetoelectric
Multiferroics. This new module headed by Dr. Antonio Feteira, a Senior Science City
Research Fellow, is devoted to the synthesis and characterisation of advanced
multifunctional materials with potential application in communication equipment,
sensing technologies, data storage etc. The opening ceremony of the International
Module in Birmingham took place on 18 May, with the participation of Dr. Christian
Hoffmann, TDK’s Vice-president for R&D and Prof. P. Thomas, Director of the
Science City Research Alliance, among other participants from Science City and
UoB. Hopefully, this new cooperation will reinforce the West Midlands region as a
leading centre of expertise in research and technology.
School of Computer Science
Graduate 100 success for Computer Science graduate
Computer Science graduate, Petr Klus, was selected as one of the best 100 students in
the UK. Selected by the panel of Graduate 100 from over 13,000 graduates nationwide, Petr was invited to a star-studded event which celebrates graduate excellence
and achievement throughout Great Britain. Graduate 100 is one of the largest
initiatives of its kind. Developed in conjunction with Britain's leading employers,
universities and key industry figures, it aims to identify graduates who are tipped to
be the next generation of future leaders. Dividing entrants into ten subject categories,
assessment is made on the basis of technical knowledge, academic and non-academic
achievements, creativity, contribution to the university, and personal qualities. At the
end of this process 13,000 applications are reduced to a list of 100 with a mere ten
graduates in each category. Petr, who recently graduated with First Class Honours in
Computer Science, was selected as one of the top ten IT and Computing graduates.
CERCIA (Centre of Excellence for Research in Computational Intelligence and
Applications)
CERCIA, is starting several new research projects. It is keen to explore potential
collaborations within the College either on these or future new projects. Contact Xin
Yao at X.Yao@cs.bham.ac.uk
(1) "NICaiA: Nature Inspired Computation and its Applications", a 4 year exchange
programme of early and experienced researchers in the field of computational
intelligence across 3 universities in the EU and 4 universities in China. This
programme is funded by the Marie Curie International Research Staff Exchange
Scheme. See: http://www.cercia.ac.uk/projects/research/NICaiA/.
(2) "EPiCS: Engineering Proprioception in Computing Systems", a 4 year project
aimed at laying the foundation for engineering in the novel class of proprioceptive
computing systems - systems that collect and maintain information about their state
and progress, which enables self-awareness by reasoning about their behaviour, and
self-expression by effectively and autonomously adapting their behaviour to changing
conditions. The Birmingham team will lead the work package on "Concepts and
Foundations for Self-awareness and Self-expression". The Centre is particularly
interested in hearing from colleagues who have expertise in cognitive science and
psychology.
(3) "iSense: Making Sense of Nonsense", a 3-year project starting in January 2011 to
develop intelligent methods for analyzing and interpreting complex sensory data such
that system faults are detected, isolated and identified as soon as possible, and
accommodated for in future decisions or actuator actions. The Birmingham team is
leading the work package on "Adaptation and Learning". They are particularly keen
to collaborate with problem owners who have real world data that they are willing to
share for research purposes.
(4) 4-year EPSRC project starting early next year on "Evolutionary Approximation
Algorithms for Optimization: Algorithm Design and Complexity Analysis". The team
would welcome collaborators who have expertise in analysing stochastic processes
and combinatorial optimisation.
Appointment of Professor of Reconfigurable Computing
The School has appointed Dr Satnam Singh as a part-time Professor of
Reconfigurable Computing. Professor Singh is a world-leading researcher into the
development of programming techniques for unconventional hardware architectures
such as field-programmable gate arrays, graphical processing units or cloud
computing. His work is motivated by applications to high-performance, low-energy
computing and, generally speaking, with computational structures that meet the need
of future software systems. Professor Singh remains a Senior Researcher at Microsoft
Research, Cambridge, but his appointment will enable him to be officially involved
into teaching and research activities. The School is excited at the prospect of taking
advantage of his substantial commercial and industrial experience as well as his
record of involvement in the development of leading-edge technologies.
School of Physics and Astronomy - Professor Martin Freer
The Rutherford Medal is awarded for "distinguished research in nuclear
physics or nuclear technology" biannually by the Institute of Physics.
Previous notable winners include Niels Bohr (1958), Peter Higgs (1984),
Rudolf Peierl (Birmingham, 1952), Marcus Oliphant (Birmingham,
1946), John Dowell (Birmingham, 1988). This year it was awarded to Professor
Martin Freer for his work on understanding on the structure of the atomic nucleus, in
particular revealing that within certain nuclei there exist molecular type structures
whereby neutrons are covalently exchanged between alpha-particles, just as electrons
are exchanged in atomic molecules. The full citation may be found at
http://www.iop.org/about/awards/subject/rutherford/medallists/page_43966.html.
The medal was presented by Dame Jocelyn Bell, president of the Institute of Physics,
on 30 September at a dinner at the Landmark Hotel, London, attended by his
colleagues, the Head of Physics and Astronomy and the Head of College.
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To Boldly Go Exhibition and Sounds of Space Weekend
The College participated in a number of events as
part of Performances Birmingham’s Sounds of
Space weekend, which took place from 7th – 9th
October. A team from the College, led by
Schools Liaison Officer Irina Hoffman, organised
outreach activities for the Sounds of Space family
fun day on 9th October at Symphony Hall. The
College also sponsored a number of events,
including the European premiere of Houston
Symphony Orchestra’s performance of The Planets, which was accompanied by a
display of NASA images. Highlights from the weekend included the College’s To
Boldly Go exhibition, showcasing the University’s contribution to space science and
research. This outdoor street exhibition runs alongside Birmingham Town Hall until
Sunday 24th October. The 16 panels show a number of areas of the University’s work,
including the work of the BISON (Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network) group in
listening to the interior of the sun, and the contribution that the University is making
to the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) project. A number of members of
College staff contributed images and ideas for the project, which was launched with a
drinks reception at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
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College appoints new Apprentices
For the first time in many years the College has appointed two trainee technicians
who are undertaking formal apprenticeships. The new recruits, Becky Charles and
Jack Garrod, started in late July in the School of Mechanical Engineering. They have
already made a really positive impression on staff and been warmly welcomed into
the school. Both Becky and Jack began their apprenticeships before arriving at UoB
and are registered at local colleges to continue their studies on a day release basis.
Carl Hingley, their mentor, will be working with Jayne Gilbert in POD to create a
training model that will hopefully also be useful to others if additional apprentices are
appointed in the future.
Becky said that she finds the job more challenging than anything she has ever done
before and all the staff have been very helpful and friendly. The range of disciplines
has made her more aware of the variety of work that is carried out within the School
of Mechanical Engineering. She has found it easy to relate to our students because
most are a similar age.
Jack finds his job very interesting especially the diversity of the work. He did not
realise that he would never do the same job twice; every day holds new challenges.
He is now starting to work with more Postgraduate and undergraduate students and
this has made him more aware of his own learning objectives.
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Welcome
Several new appointments have been made to roles working across the College:
Miss Brigid Jones
Miss Alexandra Broekema
Ms Jo Kite
Ms Bryoney Johnson
Energy Development Officer
Operations Manager Student Experience and
Employability (Schools of Chemistry and
Computer Science)
College Alumni Relations Manager
College Internal Communications Officer (starts
22 November)
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Dates for the Diary
Vice-Chancellor's briefing
Tuesday 26 October 12.30 pm, Great Hall
Finance Roadshow
Thursday 28 October 1.00 pm, Aston Webb WG3
Vice-Chancellor's Open Forum
Wednesday 3 November 12 noon, Great Hall
University Services Forum
Tuesday 30 November 11 am, Great Hall
College Assembly
Wednesday 8 December 1.00 pm, Haworth 101
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And finally…….
Don't forget that nominations are open until 31 October for the BUAFTAs. If there is
a member of support staff or a team that you think has made an outstanding
contribution over the least year, please nominate them on-line at http://wbuaftaonline.bham.ac.uk We have some fantastic support staff in EPS, so let's make sure
everyone else knows about them!