Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 Industrial Steering Group Meeting

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08

Industrial Steering Group Meeting


Agenda

10.00 Welcome and coffee

10.15 Introduction & Overview of Teaching & Research – Andrew Ireland

10.30 MEng Industrial Placement Scheme – Phil Trinder

10.45 A Snap Shot of New Teaching and Outreach Projects – Judy Robertson

11.05 Development & Alumni – Liz Dean

11.15 Plenary Discussions

12.00 Poster Session (EMB 2.44)

12.45 Lunch (EMB 1.01)


Undergraduate Programme BSc Computer Science

broad foundation, with strong emphasis on theory and practice

BSc Information Systems unique blend of computer science, management

and socio-technical systems

MEng Software Engineering advanced software engineer, with additional

management skills


Postgraduate Programme Artificial Intelligence Bioinformatics Creative Software Systems Distributed & Multimedia Information Systems Intelligent Systems Intelligent Web Technology Mobile & Handheld Applications Software Engineering Computer Systems Management Information Technology


Research Groups Biomedical Informatics Systems Engineering Database, Information & KBS Dependable Systems Group (DSG) Intelligent Systems ULTRA Vision, Interactive Systems & Graphical

Environments (VIS&GE)


Interaction with Industry Small scale student projects, e.g. Access

application for Edinburgh Competition festival Association

Spinouts, e.g. Totallytextures Ltd: capturing, managing, and visualising surface textures

Applied Research, e.g. Praxis High Integrity Systems Ltd, QinetiQ

Guest lectures MEng Industrial Placement Scheme


Prizes, Scholarships & Labs

Abelon - Best Poster Prize for Most Innovative Project Real Time Engineering - Best MEng Project Graham Technology - Best Student Prize Systems Consultants Prize – Best Student Final Year CS Cooper-Walker Engineering Prize – Outstanding Project Work CS Don Godfrey Prize – Best Student Final Year IS ICL Prize – Best Student First Year CS Atos Origin Prize – Third Year Group Project CS & IS Scott Logic Prize – Top Five Students Third Year CS MEng Software Engineering Undergraduate Leadership Scholarship

Agilent Computing Lab (EMB 2.50)


If you are interested in providing a mutually beneficial placement, or require further information, please contact: Dr Phil Trinder (0131 451 3435, [email protected], www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~trinder/)

Industrial Placements Needed!MEng in Software Engineering

The Placements: Challenging Software Engineering or ICT-related Work. Full-time and Paid (12-20 weeks from Mid May to Late October

2008). Opportunities to Dovetail with Final Year Dissertation Project. Lightweight University Assessment & Flexible Arrangements.

The Students: An elite international group of our very best software engineers. Previously interviewed and vetted by a panel of industrialists. Already completed an industrially applied group project. Completing the 4th year of a 5 year MEng degree in Summer `08.

“Our MEng placement students were so good we snapped them up when they graduated; and then went back for more!” – Tom Johnston, Programme Manager.

“Heriot-Watt provided us with access to high quality MEng students and we have been really pleased with the outcome and value for money provided …. It is definitely a resource we will use again” – Sue Balatoni, Helixion Ltd.


A snapshot of new projects in Computer Science

Teaching

Recruitment


Teaching Innovation Our graduates need to be: problem solvers, team workers,

innovative, creative, self critical, professional, agile and motivated

To match our new degree courses, we’re innovating in our teaching

We’re moving away towards more interactive classes and are experimenting with new teaching technology

We’re also redesigning some of our classrooms to match We want learning spaces where students feel comfortable,

inspired, interested, playful, adventurous, studious…


Windows onto Learning We want to celebrate and showcase learning by creating

“windows” round the department: Screen savers TVs in student and staff common rooms Mobiles

Windows show constantly changing snapshots of what students are working on

Students will be involved in writing software to drive the displays, and looking after content

These ideas need some investment – but also new ways of thinking about learning

http://judyrobertson.typepad.com/judy_robertson/technology_in_teaching/index.html


Schools outreach Universities worldwide are finding it hard to recruit

people to computing degrees Demographic trends are against us There is still a perception that “there are no jobs in

computing” Programming is squeezed out of Higher computing

The number of computing graduates has dropped by a third in the last four years, while demand for computing graduates has doubled (source: Computing Scotland).

So we’re doing a lot more schools outreach to get kids interested in computing


IT4U 2008: runaway success

Organised by Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh and Napier

250 3rd year secondary school pupils attended

Theme of “Computing Careers”

Support from local and global computing companies

This year Heriot-Watt are hosting it!


Plenary Discussion What kind of interaction model fits with your organization? What are the drivers associated with such interaction for your

organization? What are the hurdles, i.e. time, funding etc? How can we better facilitate student recruitment? Does the MEng Placement scheme appeal to you? Do you see gaps in your R&D which HW might be able to

help with? Would you like to share your expertise via a guest lecture, or

via some other forum?

Documents

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 Industrial Steering Group Meeting