Simon Thompson, Professor of Logic and Computation retired from the School of Computing on Monday 6 April after more than 36 years at the University of Kent, having joined in 1983 .

Simon has had a distinguished academic career with his research mainly focusing on functional programming, most recently in designing tools to help people to write and test programs more effectively. In particular, together with Huiqing Li, Reuben Rowe and many others, he has been working on building refactoring tools for functional programs in Erlang, Haskell, and, most recently, OCaml, supported by EU and EPSRC funding.

He has also published many books on functional programming including Erlang Programming, Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programmimg and Type Theory and Functional Programming.

Professor Richard Jones said ‘Simon has made an enormous contribution to the School and the University. He was an inspirational Head of School for many years and transformed the School in often very difficult times. The continuing success of the Kent IT Consultancy is a tribute to him. He has also been a fabulous mentor to so many staff in the School.’

Simon said ‘it has been a pleasure to work with generations of students, researchers and academics at Kent, and I look forward to seeing the School of Computing flourish in the years to come’.

We wish Simon well for his retirement.

Kent Hospitality has donated over 500 items to Dover Foodbank amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

With only one of its ten catering outlets currently open on the Canterbury campus, Kent Hospitality decided to donate their surplus stock to Dover Foodbank to ensure the supplies went to those in need.

The team donated items including canned drinks, crisps, flapjacks and toilet rolls –all of which were gratefully received by the food bank volunteers during this current shortage.

Food banks across the county are still relying on donations from their local community. If you want to find out how you can also support them in this time of need visit the Trussell Trust website.

Due to current circumstances we are updating our 2nd Digital Accessibility Conference and inviting you to attend virtually wherever you are.

Last year, two of the Kent Connects partner organisations, University of Kent & Kent County Council, hosted the first Kent Digital Accessibility Conference to inform Public Sector organisations about digital accessibility and inclusion and the impact of the regulations.

Join us for the next virtual version Kent Digital Accessibility conference in June – there will be 2 morning sessions and 2 afternoon sessions each day for three days;

When:

Tuesday 9 June

Wednesday 10 June

Thursday 11 June.

Times:

10.00 – 11.00

11.30 – 12.30

14.00 – 15.00

15.30 – 16.30

With three months left before the regulations deadline, we have even more expert speakers and workshops to help you prepare, including the UK government, big name suppliers, NHS experts and a European perspective showing how other countries are handling new regulations. We will also have a brand new reveal on the work we are doing towards Kent’s accessible student experience, and a host of engaging practical workshops to help attendees grow the specialist skills required to deliver accessible services.

Please register your interest in attending virtually – full details of speakers and a meeting link will be confirmed to booked attendees nearer the time.

Book your free place now on the Eventbrite website

Everyone is welcome, please do share with colleagues in your networks who might find this of interest.

For any queries, please email AccessibilityEvents@kent.ac.uk 

Easter may be over, but with many of us at home thinking of ways to entertain ourselves, what better way than to put our baking skills to the test?

Chocolate may be a traditional treat for Easter, but let’s face it, this delectable confectionery is great for any time of the year! So we’ve selected mouth-watering recipes for you to indulge in chocolate in 10 delicious ways…

1. Chocolate hazelnut ice cream cheesecake

Using only four ingredients this delectable dessert is easy and simple to make. Take a look at BBC Good Food for the recipe.

2. Double-layer custard and chocolate mousse

Creamy custard and dark chocolate provide a great combination for this recipe from Delicious Magazine.

3. Delia’s Chocolate bread and butter pudding

From a woman who knows a thing or two about desserts, this Delia Smith recipe is wonderful both hot and cold!

4. Chocolate and marshmallow mini egg traybake

This Easter-inspired treat from Delicious Magazine  is a great one for sharing – that’s if you want to!

5. Vegan chocolate truffles

Rich and luxurious, this dessert from Loving it Vegan is perfect for all occasions…

6. Easy chocolate chip cookies

A great one to try with kids, this easy recipe from Good to know can be baked in under 30 minutes…

7. Chocolate, pear and hazelnut frangipane tart

With fruit and nut complimenting the chocolate in this Food Magazine recipe, there’s triple the tastiness!

8. Chocolate fudge brownies

These classic, yet tasty treats are perfect for enjoying with a nice cup of tea! Recipe from Food and Wine.

9. Chocolate tiramisu

Made with layers of mascarpone, chocolate ganache and ladyfingers dipped in hot chocolate this Pretty Simple Sweet recipe is perfect for chocolate-lovers!

And finally, …

10. Crème egg brownie cake

This scrumptious dessert from Olive Magazine is perfect to try for an Easter treat…or any time of the year!

Feel inspired? Please share your top 10 ideas with us at stories@kent.ac.uk

The University is now offering guided mindfulness sessions online to staff and students to help get through this stressful time. Staff from Student Support and Wellbeing and the Student Learning Advisory Service are working in collaboration to provide 4 sessions of mindfulness practice a week.

This will go on throughout the Easter vacation until the end of summer term. Lorraine Millard (SSW) who is leading the sessions said, “I run regular mindfulness sessions at university, so when social distancing and working from home was imposed I wanted to find a way to continue to provide support to students and colleagues.” So far, the team have hosted 3 mindfulness sessions online; in total 23 students located in 6 different countries have logged-in.

The sessions are 40 minutes long and there is a focus on dealing with anxiety and strategies for remaining focused. This is particularly important for students and staff at the university who are isolated from each other, but are having to continue to study and work. Louise Frith commented that she and her colleagues in SLAS are finding that, “at a time of heightened personal and social stress, many students are understandably worried about their ability to focus and perform well in exams, dissertations and coursework.”

The sessions are live and run using Zoom. Anyone can join at any time by following the links:

For students:

Starting from Wednesday 01 April

• Mindfulness on Wednesdays 1.00-2.00
• Mindfulness on Wednesdays 17.00-18.00

Starting from Friday 17 April

• Mindfulness on Fridays 12.00-1.00

For staff

Starting from Thursday 02 April

• Mindfulness on Thursdays 1.00-2.00 

Dr Paul March-Russell, lecturer in the Department of Comparative Literature, has won the ‘Outstanding Reviewer Award’ from the online journal Humanities.

The ‘Humanities Editorial Board and Editorial Team’ give this award in recognition of the ‘the time and energy given by reviewers in checking manuscripts submitted to Humanities. It is due to their efforts that the high quality of the journal and quick turnaround are maintained.’

Paul says: “Peer reviewing is integral to the academic process. Without it, we can’t distinguish academic work, which we can rely on and trust, from other kinds of fake news. This is why I am honoured to be a peer reviewer and to receive this award.”