Dr Fernando Otero has been appointed as the new Deputy Head of School (Medway), with immediate effect. Fernando has been a lecturer in the School for six years, and was promoted to Senior Lecturer this year. He gained his PhD at Kent and previously worked as a Research Associate so has long experience of the University and the School.

Head of School, Professor Richard Jones said, ‘Fernando impressed us greatly with his vision for the future of the School of Computing in Medway. He will join the School’s Core Management Team and I very much look forward  to working closely with him.’

Fernando is a member of the Data Science and Computational Intelligence Groups and his research interests include data mining and knowledge discovery, bio-inspired algorithms, the application of data mining algorithms in bioinformatics and financial forecasting, and big data.

Fernando has also recently secured funding for a Knowledge Transfer Partnership with London-based fintech start-up Youtility to enhance user experience using machine learning models. He also leads Computing’s outreach activities to schools and colleges.

Are you looking for funding for a new PhD student to work on a project? If their doctoral research will be focused on the challenges of economic development and well-being in developing countries, then please consider making an application to the staff-led PhD scholarships offered by the Global Challenges Doctoral Centre (GCDC).

Key points about the scheme:

• The GCDC offers eight doctoral scholarships per year and four are staff-led projects 

• Staff have the opportunity to propose projects by completing the application form and emailing it to kentgcdc@kent.ac.uk by Monday, 23 September 2019

• A panel will assess the applications and select four projects; the outcome will be announced at the beginning of October 2019

• The four projects will be advertised in October 2019 for September 2020 entry 

Please visit the GCDC website for more information, and you are welcome to contact the director of the centre, Dr Beth Breeze if you have any concerns or questions about eligibility.

The University of Kent’s Global Challenges Doctoral Centre (GCDC) is delighted to announce the appointment of a new director, Dr Beth Breeze (Centre for Philanthropy), and deputy director, Dr Frank Grundig (School of Politics and International Relations). Beth and Frank will work collaboratively to drive forward the Centre’s activities and initiatives over the next two years.

The GCDC is dedicated to research aligned to the development needs in and for ODA nations and aims to provide a virtual and physical “location” for the discussion of research aimed at identifying solutions to global challenges. The GCDC funds eight doctoral scholarships per year, coordinates an affiliate student scheme and organises specialised training and events throughout the academic year.

Beth says in her introductory blog post: “Whether or not you have been involved with GCDC to date, please feel free to get in touch (B.Breeze@Kent.ac.uk) if you have ideas about how best to build on this initiative and advance efforts to conduct research for the greater good.”

Beth’s blog post, entitled, “A New Direction for the GCDC: Memes, Meetings and Moving forward”, is available to read on the GCDC website here. 

The numbers of autistic people attending higher education institutions in the UK have steadily increased over the last decade and it is vital academic, teaching, and support staff have a good understanding of what is means to be autistic and how best to support their students during their time at University. This session aims to provide staff with a greater understanding of autism and the experiences of autistic students in higher education, with practical recommendations for providing the appropriate support. The session will be run by Dr Magali-Fleur Barnoux and Dr Damian Milton from the Tizard Centre (SSPSSR), with participatory input from existing Tizard Centre students. Additional sessions will also be provided in January 2020 and June 2020.

The session will take place on Wednesday 11 September 2019 at the Darwin Board Room from 09:30 to 12:30.

Please book your place ASAP through Staff Connect. 

Dr Daniel Soria has joined the University of Kent as a Lecturer in the School of Computing. Daniel will be a member of the Data Science Research Group and will be based at the Medway campus.

Daniel joins Kent from the University of Westminster in London, where he was a Senior Lecturer in Computer Science, member of the Health and Social Care Modelling Research Group and an associate member of the interdisciplinary Cancer Research Group. Previously, he worked for over ten years at the University of Nottingham, where he was part of the School of Computer Science and the Advanced Data Analysis Centre. He started there studying for his PhD as a Marie-Curie Fellow and progressed in his academic career to become an Assistant Professor.

Dr Soria’s research interests lay in the multi-disciplinary area of applied computer science for real-word applications, especially in biomedical domains. He has expertise in data mining and machine learning applications, from pattern identification to supervised learning. Dr Soria’s contributions to knowledge appeared to be of great interest in October 2013, when part of his work on breast cancer was the subject of extensive national media coverage (see, for example, BBC News, ITV,Sky News), and more recently during the Brexit referendum campaign, when a case study from his research was published as part of the Universities for Europe manifesto.

Daniel has published numerous articles in high quality international peer-reviewed journals such as Knowledge-Based Systems, Artificial Intelligence in Medicine, and IEEE Transactions in Medical Imaging. The multidisciplinary nature of his research allowed Daniel to also publish in prestigious medical journals like Cancer Research, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, British Journal of Cancer, and others. Daniel’s research has also appeared in international conference proceedings such as the IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence (WCCI), the International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications (ICMLA), and the IEEE International Conference on Fuzzy Systems (FUZZ-IEEE). He has been a member of the technical program committee for conferences such as the International Conference on Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology (ICBEB) and the IEEE International Conference on Smart Data (SmartData).

Daniel completed a PhD in Computer Science (specialising in supervised and unsupervised learning in biomedical domains) at the University of Nottingham, and holds an MSci in Applied Mathematics from the University of Milan, Italy.

Daniel said “I’m very excited to be joining the School of Computing at Kent, and adding to the very strong team of academics already focusing on data science. My research in this area will sit very well within the group as well as in the newly formed Kent and Medway Medical School. I can’t wait to start to collaborate with the talented people already working there”.

Lecturer in Philosophy Dr Graeme A. Forbes has supported theatre company Theatre Re by acting as philosophy consultant for their recent production of BIRTH, which has been named Best Theatre Show of the Edinburgh Fringe by Theatre Weekly. The publication described the show as “one of the most beautiful and accomplished pieces of theatre to be staged at the Fringe”.

BIRTH is the story of Sue, Katherine and Emily, three generations of women from the same family whose lives are part of an invisible web they help to weave. It traces their journey of self-discovery, acceptance and hope. In staging the production, the company explored the idea of secrets in families, unearthing the parallels between our own lives and the lives of our parents and grandparents, and engaged with women and families who have experienced pregnancy loss. The collaboration with Graeme allowed the cast to explore questions such as ‘what is being passed down from one generation to the next’ and ‘when does memory begin’?

‘Pregnancy loss is experienced by a great number of women. What the parents go through is rarely discussed and often considered taboo. It is part of the realm of the ‘unspoken’, or the ‘unvoiced’. It is buried.’ describes Theatre Re’s website.

‘It was a privilege to work with this exceptional creative team,’ said Graeme; ‘I’m incredibly glad I had the opportunity to work with them. It was immensely rewarding to see how our conversations — about the passage of time, and how even when we repeat a pattern each moment in our lives is specific to us — got woven into the show. I’m so pleased that all their hard work has been recognised, and I’m sure they will have a very successful tour.’

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Chris Deacy, Reader in Theology and Religious Studies, interviews Janet Neilson, a former teacher in Swansea, who talks about her educational background and the differences in career advice given in those days compared to today.

Janet talks about the days when married women were not allowed to teach; why she became a junior school teacher; her thoughts on the National Curriculum; not having a TV before 1962; singing in the Swansea Philharmonic Choir; having a grammar school education; studying Religious Studies as a mature and disabled student; being bullied on her first day at school; the taboo around calling teachers by their first names; why as a teacher she was ‘strict, firm and fair’; and her fascination with genealogies.

The next interview will be with our own Professor Jeremy Carrette, Professor of Philosophy, Religion and Culture and the University’s Dean for Europe.

Dr Alvise Sforza Tarabochia, Head of the Department of Modern Languages, was interviewed on the Italian regional TV channel Telequattro on Monday 26 August, as part of the ‘Trieste in Diretta’ programme.

Alvise spoke about his my new edited book, The Years of Alienation (Palgrave, 2019) as well as about modern languages, and living as a foreigner in pre-Brexit Britain.

In discussing alienation, the interviewer asked about the features of architecture favouring alienation. Alvise responded: “The wall, the wall is the architectural symbol of any alienation, any separation, any marginalisation.” This was in reference to a recent proposal by the governor of the Trieste region to build a wall between Italy and Slovenia to address perceived issues of migration from Slovenia into Italy.

A recording of the interview (in Italian) is available online. Alvise appears at approx. 33:45.