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Informatics School Overview

Informatics School Overview. Key Facts. UK Research Assessment Exercise: 69% more world leading research than nearest competitor 44% more world leading + internationally excellent 10% of all UK world leading research Staff and students : 90 Academic staff

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Informatics School Overview

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  1. Informatics School Overview

  2. Key Facts • UK Research Assessment Exercise: • 69% more world leading research than nearest competitor • 44% more world leading + internationally excellent • 10% of all UK world leading research • Staff and students: • 90 Academic staff • 150 Postdoc researchers • 280 PhD students • 215 Masters level students • 450 Undergraduates (approx. 200 in 1st year) • Teaching awards in 2010: • Voted Best School in EUSA poll of over 3000 students) • Top in Guardian League table for teaching excellence • Research spend ≈ £10M • Non-research spend ≈ £9M

  3. Foundations for a new science • The science of information – how natural and artificial systems process, store and communicate information • A fundamental science underpinning all areas of life - Academic, Industrial and Social. • Encompasses sub-disciplines such as Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science This broad view of informatics is necessary because: Big technological problems are multi-disciplinary Big societal problems demand integrative science

  4. Formation of the School Departments School Computer Science ICSA Computer systems LFCS LFCS Theory of computation ANC Brain and learning Cognitive Science Research ICCS HCRC Language and cognition HCRC IPAB Robotics and vision Artificial Intelligence CISA AIAI Knowledge and agents AIAI ITO Admin Grad. School

  5. Institute Statistics

  6. Interdisciplinary Centres Linguistics Centre for Speech Technology Research Medicine Digital Curation Centre Centre for Neuroscience Research Law Informatics Centre for Systems Biology at Edinburgh Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre Biology Physics National e-Science Centre Institute for System Level Integration Centre for Numerical Algorithms and Intelligent Software Engineering Maths

  7. Teaching 1 year MSc 4th year modules Honours thesis 3rd year modules 4 year Honours UG Informatics 2 Maths 2 Additional Informatics 1 Maths 1 Additional • Strategic issues: • Continuing to raise quality (admitted and graduated) • Engagement with other disciplines in teaching • Change in demands on course structure • Change in expectations of those being educated • Developing the “computational thinking” ethos

  8. Academic Management Top-level management is via a board of directors: • Directors of research oversee our major research initiatives. • Director of computing provides academic oversight of computing support. • Director of staff recruitment & development oversees our HR activities. • Director of graduate school oversees our graduate school activities. • Director of commercialisation coordinates our commercial activities. • Director of teaching develops teaching strategy and oversees the ITO academic team • Director of knowledge management coordinates information management Head of School Directors Research Computing HR Grad School Commercialisation Teaching KM & Outreach Deputy Teaching Senior DoS Curriculum/QA PG selectors Directors of studies Course organisers UG selectors

  9. Portfolio teams Administrative/Computing Management • Top-level management responsible for support groups divided by function. • Front-offices service provided by: • Research front-offices providing day-to-day support on floors of the Forum. • IGS office for PG research students • ITO office for taught course students • Back-office research, finance and HR services brought together. • Portfolio teams within research grouping maintain familiarity with subgroups of researchers (e.g. institutes). • Graduate School and ITO brought together. • Commercialisation and outreach support combined. Head of School Head of Computing Chief Administrator Computing support School office HR Deputy Chief Administrator (research) Deputy Chief Administrator (teaching) Commercialisation and Outreach Research and finance Institute front-offices Head of ITO IGS ITO Commercialisation and outreach

  10. Top-Level Committee Structure Each academic director has a counterpart in the support organisation. This is the top-level interface between academic and support groups. A top-level support director runs the administration of each of the main School committees. Planning & Resources Head of School Chief Administrator Academic/Commercial Directors Commercialisation KM Computing Research HR Grad School Teaching Administrative/Computing Directors Commercialisation & Outreach Computing Deputy Chief Administrator (reasearch) Deputy Chief Administrator (teaching) Computing committee Institute committees Grad School committee Teaching committee Board of Studies Outreach committee

  11. Staff Perspective Research portfolio team research project support financial aspects of research IGS School office research student admin research student recruitment issues for Head of School issues for Chief Administrator Member of staff ITO HR development support work permits etc. course admin issues DoS support commercial contracts public engagement computing issues computing advice Commercialisation and outreach day-to-day support accommodation Computing Institute front-office

  12. Recruitment and Promotion • Recruitment Process: • The School maintains a list of strategic areas for recruitment. Currently these are: cognitive science; computer networks; computer vision; data intensive research; large scale knowledge systems; operating systems; software engineering • Strategic areas are aligned to the opportunity when funding becomes available • All academic posts are advertised in open competition • Promotion and career development: • Annual appraisal for all staff • For academic staff, an issue is progression to Professor • For research staff, an issue is competing for academic posts • Startup company route is becoming much more common

  13. Workload • Typical workload: • 1.5 lecture courses (30 lectures) per year • 2 tutorial groups (20 tutorials) per year • 3 PhD students in steady state (1 new student per year) • 3 MSc student projects • 1 Honours UG project • 1 significant research grant • Allocating duties: • Aim for typical workload for everyone • Adjust individual components depending on specific case • Effort not quantified but allocation to duties is public • Wide variation in specific cases

  14. Broader Initiatives, Now Mature • Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance: • A Scottish research pooling initiative • Involves Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews as core with (almost) all Scottish universities as partners • Funded 10 new academic staff in Informatics • Funds 20 PhD students across SICSA (competition) • ProspeKT and Informatics Ventures: • Funds entrepreneurial training and events • Funds Business Development executives who work with institutes • Brings in advisors and mentors from MIT/Stanford, etc.

  15. Examples of New Initiatives • Pump priming activities: • iDEAlab • College workshops • Strategic activities: • FET-Flagships • CS Doctoral Training Centre • Outreach activities: • Design-Informatics • e-Research

  16. Funding Climate

  17. Change in UK Funding Landscape Increase in government research funding to UK computing research departments over previous 10 years (values in £M) • Sharp decrease in UK research council funding expected post-2010. Effects at EPSRC probably will be: • Reduction in “responsive mode” research funding • Focus on thematic research • Clawback of some existing funding UK government approach to funding is likely to become “absorptive” and for clear economic gain. Strong possibility that cap on teaching fees charged for UK undergraduates may be raised/abolished.

  18. Sources of Research Funding

  19. Application Volume v Success Rate

  20. Staff Profile

  21. Academic Strategy Help UK funders to support theory Defend the core Support theory integrators inside School Develop shared strategies with funders Target timely areas Develop shared themes with other Schools Influence large UK/EU systems challenges Encourage more “systems” Encourage systems designers in School Develop Design-Informatics Centre Produce T-shaped students Extend existing entrepeneurial initiative Engage more strongly with social challenges Increase social engagement Make our teaching more outward facing

  22. Structural/Administrative Issues • Make research administration run more effectively by consolidating Informatics Research Organisation. • Strengthen our policy of recruiting and retaining only the most talented staff in strategic areas (especially in emerging areas) by planning strategic appointments to a 3-year horizon, focusing on “new blood” junior appointments. • Develop support for long term career development of research funded staff, through better mentoring and review. • Ensure that institutes remain lightweight administratively, and find ways to make the institute structure more fluid without breaking the social groupings.

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