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SFC visit - Prof Adrian Smith

Jon Oberlander, Muffy Calder, Saleem Bhatti,Colin Adams, John Murray

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sicsa* Agenda

1. Research Ambition

2. Graduate Training

3. Knowledge Transfer

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are needed to see this picture.

What’s going on?What’s going on?

How do we build and work with the systems of tomorrow?

– Distributed, pervasive, varied …• sometimes big and powerful, sometimes small and low power

How can we “right-scale” in the petabyte age?

– Securing, interfacing, modelling, engineering

How do we build and work with the systems of tomorrow?

– Distributed, pervasive, varied …• sometimes big and powerful, sometimes small and low power

How can we “right-scale” in the petabyte age?

– Securing, interfacing, modelling, engineering

4

sicsa* How?

• To help meet that challenge,we must sustain and enhanceScotland’s research excellencein Informatics and Computer Science.

• We must collaborate to compete

• To help meet that challenge,we must sustain and enhanceScotland’s research excellencein Informatics and Computer Science.

• We must collaborate to compete

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sicsa* SICSA scaleSICSA scale

StrathclydeStrathclyde EdinburghEdinburgh

GlasgowGlasgow

StirlingStirlingSt AndrewsSt Andrews

AbertayAbertay

DundeeDundee

Robert GordonRobert GordonAberdeenAberdeen

Heriot WattHeriot Watt

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Academic Research PhD

SICSA personnel

2001

2007

9% UK population20% RC grants71% 3*4* (vs 63% in UK)

9% UK population20% RC grants71% 3*4* (vs 63% in UK)

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sicsa* SICSA plans: existing base + £29M = world leading cluster

Governing BoardGoverning Board

AdvisoryCommittee

AdvisoryCommittee

ResearchCommittee

ResearchCommittee Graduate

Academy

GraduateAcademy

SecuringSecuring

•Practical networking

•Performance analysis

•Network security formalisms

•Web languages

InterfacingInterfacing ModellingModelling

•Computational group theory

•System and performance modelling

•Model checking

•Applications

EngineeringEngineering

•Socio-technical systems

•Agents and autonomics

•Complex interactions

•Speech and language

•HCI•Information retrieval

•Machine learning

+6 +11 +6 +7

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sicsa* Graduate Academy

Prize students 2008– Awarded: 15, at Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt,

Robert Gordon, Stirling, and St Andrews– Next competition: Opens 15 Dec

Summer schools 2009– Awarded sponsorship to:

• Pervasive adaptation, June 2009; organised by Napier• Home Care Systems, June 2009; organised by Stirling• Advances in Programming Languages: Concurrency, Distribution, and Multicore, August 2009; organised by Heriot-Watt

– Next deadline:• End Sept 2009 for summer schools 2010• (but spring schools 2010 also possible - earlier deadline)

Distinguished visitors 2009– Awarded: 4 - Janis Voigtlaender, Geoff Goodhill, Alex

Gruenstein, Aaron Seitz– Next deadline: End Feb 2009

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sicsa* Prize students 2009

1. Bai, Xi Edinburgh Dave Robertson2. Fan, Zhengjie Aberdeen Jeff Z Pan3. Fountain, Trevor Edinburgh Mirella Lapata4. Kelly, Tom Glasgow Ron Poet5. Keyhanipour, Amir Hosein Glasgow Iadh Ounis6. Khajeh-Hosseini, Ali St Andrews Ian

Sommerville7. Kammar, Ohad Edinburgh Gordon Plotkin8. Kotthoff, Lars St Andrews Ian Miguel9. Maternaghan, Claire Stirling Kenneth

J Turner10. Meedeniya, Dulani St Andrews Juliana Bowles11. Petrovic, Sasa Edinburgh Miles Osborne12. Qi, Lin Heriot-Watt Mike Chantler13. Tan, Niyue Edinburgh Miles Obsorne14. Wanderley Goes, Luis F. Edinburgh Marcelo Cintra15. Wu, Yanghui Robert GordonJohn McCall

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sicsa* ProspeKT and SICSA KT - Colin Adams

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sicsa* Building a world class Knowledge Transfer practice

embedded within Informatics

5 year Partnership with SE, £8.3M of investment–SE (£4.9M) + University of Edinburgh (£3.4M)

3 year ERDF award for £3.7m for Enterprise Creation–Informatics Ventures – National Program

Strong external representation on Supervisory Board–Crawford Beveridge, Polly Purvis, 1 Entrepreneur - industry–David Caughey, John Murray + 1 from co-investment fund– SE–Associated Global Scot Panel–Entrepreneurs in Residence program

Economic Impact via Industrial Cooperation–Large Globals–Local SME’s–Start-ups

3 major themes–Commercialisation–Entrepreneurship Culture–Outreach

ProspeKT

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sicsa* Open Innovation and Empowerment

Informatics-RBS-Microsoft Surface Challenge 1st Microsoft Surface in Scotland, 1st in a

university in the UK £10K prize fund, specific category for Students Most innovative use of a Surface in a Banking

Branch

Mobile Phone Apps Group Group aimed at promoting Mobile Phone Apps as

a business opportunity Part of the Tech Meet up – connecting community

work in Association with A***e and some other

vendors

Alumnus Mentoring by Entrepreneurs in Residence

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sicsa* Informatics Ventures

£3.7M funding from ERDF for Enterprise Creation for SICSA groupEntrepreneurship Education–Practitioner lead, series of workshops and seminars–Partner with the best – Stanford, MIT, Cambridge

• Silicon Valley Speaker CEO workshops• Ken Morse (MIT)• Doug Richards : School for Start Ups

Web Based Information sources(http://www.informatics-ventures.com/)–Entrepedia – Wiki for student business formation (http://www.entrepedia.org)–Pod.ium – Podcast Channel: connect start ups to funders –Tech Entrepreneur – online Course (http://www.techent.org/home.htm)

Building the Community–Tech Meet-Up and Mobile Phone Apps series (http://www.techmeetup.co.uk/)–VC Event Each Spring - Engage Invest Exploit - (Guy Kawasaki, 29-April-09)–SME Event each November – Lifting the Lid – research connections–Focus on Winners – how to produce companies of scale–12 hot prospects bursaries to MIT/Cambridge programs–Entrepreneurs in Residence Program

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sicsa* ProspeKT and SICSA KT - Colin Adams

Economic impact

For ProspeKT/Scottish Enterprise investment in Edinburgh alone …

By 2016, these combined investments are independently estimated to result in:– an annual contribution of £16M to the economy,

of which £10M will be additional– a cumulative contribution of £128M to the economy,

of which £64M will be additional

For combined investment in SICSA:– Double it?

Economic impact

For ProspeKT/Scottish Enterprise investment in Edinburgh alone …

By 2016, these combined investments are independently estimated to result in:– an annual contribution of £16M to the economy,

of which £10M will be additional– a cumulative contribution of £128M to the economy,

of which £64M will be additional

For combined investment in SICSA:– Double it?

14

sicsa* ConclusionConclusion

Knowledge transfer a central priority

SICSA is about people:– 4 themes for networking – 7 research fellows– 30 new academics– 60+ international visitors– 80 international students

Looking forward:– UK’s challenges require interdisciplinary responses

Questions?

Knowledge transfer a central priority

SICSA is about people:– 4 themes for networking – 7 research fellows– 30 new academics– 60+ international visitors– 80 international students

Looking forward:– UK’s challenges require interdisciplinary responses

Questions?