Tag Archives: Publish on Site Editor

Testing out a theory

10 Year Test of Time Award shows strength of research at Kent

Matteo Migliavacca and his co-authors have been awarded the 10 Years Test of Time Award by the 2019 ACM International Conference on Distribute and Event-based Systems for their 2009 paper Distributed complex event processing with query rewriting.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), is the leading international professional body for computer science and the Test of Time Award recognizes papers published 10 to 12 years in the past that are deemed to be an outstanding paper whose contents are still a vibrant and useful contribution today.

Matteo said ‘I am very honoured to have received this award. In the work we tackled the problem of optimising complex an event processing system by transforming user-submitted queries in more efficient forms and executing them in distributed fashion. The importance of the work has been recognised by the research community, and is still being cited after ten years from when it was originally published. This shows that optimisation and parallelisation are still key in large-scale data processing frameworks used to process big-data.’

Professor Richard Jones, Head of the School of Computing, commented ‘New research results in computer science are reported at international conferences, which often make awards for the best paper. Conferences reserve their most prestigious awards for research that has stood the test of time and had long-term influence. I am delighted that Matteo Migliavacca and his co-authors, Nicholas Poul Schultz-Møller and Peter R. Pietzuch, have been awarded the 10 Years Test of Time Award. The strength of computer science researchers at Kent is demonstrated by such awards.’

In 2017, Scott Owens and his co-authors also received the Award for the Most Influential Paper from the ACM International Conference on Functional Programming held 10 years before for their paper Ott: Effective Tool Support for the Working Semanticist

Congratulations to them both.

Nostalgia interview with Sarah Blackman

In the latest episode of the Nostalgia podcast series, Chris Deacy, Head of the Department of Religious Studies interviews Sarah Blackman (nee Harden) who graduated in Religious Studies at Kent in 2016.

Sarah tells us about her ambition to become a primary school teacher and what initially stopped her from realizing her dreams. She also recounts childhood memories, listening to Mark Goodier counting down the charts on a Sunday evening, what happened when S Club 7 beat Madonna to be number 1, why her RE supply teacher was such an inspiration, why writing essays at university entailed ‘blood, sweat and tears’, and her obsession with ‘Friends’ and ‘Toy Story’. Sarah then goes on to talk about how children today are more aware than ever of changes in the environment, and the way we tend to filter out more negative experiences.

Emeritus Professor John Fitzpatrick OBE to give annual Tucker Millward Guest Lecture at Kent

Emeritus Professor John Fitzpatrick OBE, former Director of Kent Law Clinic, will speak about ‘Democracy and the Law’ for this year’s annual Tucker Millward Guest Lecture at Kent.

The lecture on Thursday 14 November at 6.30pm in Grimond Lecture Theatre 1 is open to all. It is co-hosted by Kent Law Society and Kent Law School and will be preceded by refreshments, served in Grimond Foyer, from 6pm. Attendance is free, but attendees are asked to reserve their place online in advance (for catering purposes).

Professor Fitzpatrick has had a long and distinguished legal career. After obtaining a degree in English Language and Literature from Oxford University, he worked for 15 years in Community Law Centres in Brixton and Hammersmith (first as a caseworker and later as a solicitor), specialising in employment and immigration and asylum law. He served as a voluntary member on the Management Committee of the Hammersmith and Fulham Community Law Centre from 1992 until 2014, and from 2007 to 2009 was the Chair of the national Law Centres Federation.

He joined Kent Law School in 1991 as a Lecturer and has lectured mainly in the areas of human rights law and public law. An active trade unionist, he served as President of the Kent Branch of the University and Colleges Union for nearly a decade up to 2013.

Professor Fitzpatrick also served as a member of the University’s Council for two years until his retirement in 2018. He was Director of Kent Law Clinic from 1992 until 2018 during which time the Clinic won many prestigious prizes for its work, including the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2008. Professor Fitzpatrick was awarded an OBE in 2006 for ‘services to the administration of justice’.

Record numbers at Medway Festival of Learning and Teaching

The three Universities at Medway came together once again on 12 September to celebrate learning and teaching innovation and pedagogic research at the annual Medway Festival of Learning and Teaching. 127 staff and students from the Universities of Kent, Greenwich, Canterbury Christ Church University and colleagues from partner colleges met to reflect on this year’s theme: “Developing a culture of student engagement”.

The keynote speech was delivered by Professor Colin Bryson and Asia Scholefield, from Newcastle University, which focused on “Where are we and where are we going with student engagement?” A variety of workshops and presentations followed, which demonstrated the diversity of innovative practices undertaken by staff in partnership with their students, at the universities and colleges present.

Feedback about the Festival was on the whole very positive, with comments such as ‘a very well spent day’, ‘the keynote was very informative, also the breakout sessions’, ‘great way to make contact with colleagues from other institutions, with shared interests’. Despite the hot and packed breakout rooms, delegates enjoyed ‘hearing about colleagues’ projects and research’, ‘the good variety of topics’ and ‘student involvement.’

Some slides used during the conference will be published on the Festival website.

The call for papers for Medway Festival of Learning and Teaching 2020 will be out in early 2020 and we welcome any suggestions for a theme for next year.

The Medway Festival Organising Team (CCCU, University of Greenwich and University of Kent)

University of Kent Players auditions

The University of Kent Players are back with another radio play extravaganza! We will be taking a trip down the rabbit hole with Alice in Wonderland to be performed on 29 and 30 November 2019.

Auditions will be held on:

Tuesday 24 September 12.30-14.00 in CE329
Thursday 26 September 17.30-19.30pm in CE329 (arrive from 17.00 for a 17.30 start)

It would be great if you’re able to attend both audition dates, but this is not essential. The audition process itself is fairly informal, with a chance to meet everyone and ask questions before the audition begins. We will ease you into the audition with a couple of warm up exercises, before breaking into small groups to work on different sections of the script which will then be performed to the audition panel and the other auditionees.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch at players@kent.ac.uk

There are a number of acting and non-acting roles available – we need everyone from cast to tech to front of house.

The Players are a super friendly group with diverse levels of experience, so everyone is welcome!

And if you’re new to The Players, or generally feeling a little unsure, then we’d be glad to meet up over a coffee and help put you at ease.

Inaugural computing education conference hosted at Kent

The School of Computing hosted the first UK and Ireland computing education conference (UKICER) on 5 and 6 September. The intention is for this to become the first of a series of annual conferences to create a community of computing education research within the two countries.

Conference Chair Janet Carter said: ‘The atmosphere was relaxed and supportive with presenters talking on a range of themes including transitions to higher education, assessment, environments and context.’

The University also hosted the ACM-W Inspire 2019 workshop. The theme was “Rising Together” with exciting talks on supporting, mentoring and advocating women to achieve their full potential in both tech industry and academia.

Read more on the School of Computing webpages.

Ensuring our digital content is accessible to all

The University has joined forces with other public sector bodies to ensure Kent becomes a digitally inclusive county.

The Kent Digital Accessibility Working Group – made up of the University and its ‘Kent Connect’ partners including local authorities, police and fire – aims to meet rules outlined in the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations (2018).

Members of the group from across the University are already working on a training plan for all organisations involved, as well as adding to the team of experienced accessibility auditors across the county to ensure that all Kent websites are accessible to all.

The Kent Digital Accessibility Working Group are also taking steps to ensure the University’s own digital content is fully accessible. The aim is to improve access for all and this work compliments the Kent Inclusive Practices (KIPs) that the University has already endorsed.

In addition, the new web template – Site Editor – is designed to be highly accessible, and digital guidelines are being shared with schools and departments to help prepare content for those webpages. i.e a review current content and removal of obsolete information

The following principles can and should be applied to all digital material at Kent to help ensure a fully inclusive environment. They include:

Keep content simple
Keep it efficient
Make sure the text is accessible to other applications
Structure your text with style sheets/semantic tags
Ensure text can be personalised and reflows when magnified
Use short image descriptions known as alt-tags
Test it!

You can see the digital guidelines for more detailed support and information. The working group also have created a Digital Accessibility e-learning package in Moodle to give more detail about the regulations and how they will be rolled out across the University of Kent.

Will Wollen contributes to ‘Talk to Me’

Will Wollen, actor and Senior Lecturer in the Department of Drama and Theatre, has lent his voice to a series of talking sculptures to go on display in King’s Cross from this Friday.

The installation ‘Talk to Me’ has been designed by Steuart Padwick and will be displayed as part of the festival ‘designjunction‘, running from 19 to 22 September 2019 in the N1C area of London.

The installation consists of two monumental interactive sculptures of cuboid wooden figures. As people walk by, a proximity sensor is triggered, and the figures will begin to voice poignant and uplifting words. These conversations start to crack the ‘burden’, provoking conversations about mental health. ‘Talk to Me’ is a hopeful piece, reminding us that through communication with one another the weight so many of us carry, can be lessened.

Will joins actors and perfomers Niamh Cusack, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Tom Goodman-Hill, Joelle Taylor, Adam Kammerling and Chris Thorpe, in voicing the talking sculptures.

‘It’s been a pleasure to be involved in this important project,’ said Will. ‘Being available to talk and listen to our fellow human beings can be life-saving.’

The sculptures will be situated along King’s Boulevard in Kings Cross, London, until 22 September.

For more details, please see:
http://www.steuartpadwick.co.uk/talktome/

Film by alumna Nimasu Namsaren features at Pushkin House

Nimasu Namsaren, who graduated with a BA (Hons) in Film this summer, will feature in an ongoing series of events on ‘Exploring Identity in Student Filmmaking’, at Pushkin House in London on Friday 27 September 2019.

The series aims to explore questions around the concept of modern Russian identity and how it has evolved and manifests in young people. The first in the series will feature a presentation by Nimasu followed by a screening of her short film Mavzhuda.

Mavzhuda, which won the Best Film award at the Canterbury University Film Festival 2019 and was selected for the Lift-off First-time Filmmaker Sessions and the Zlaty Voci Student Film Festival, tells the story of the eponymous 12-year-old girl who immigrates to Russia from Uzbekistan with her family. Her new life in St Petersburg is challenging and in order to fit in she starts to forget her own culture and language and loses the connection with her grandmother. One day after school, Mavzhuda ignores her while walking together with other kids, and the pain that she inadvertently brings to the family helps her to find her own place in the hectic world around.

Pushkin House is a Registered Charity which aims to support and promote Russian culture in London and beyond, and provides a focus for Anglo-Russian cultural exchange, education and information about the Russian language, arts, literature and music. In pursuit of these aims, Pushkin House has developed a varied cultural programme on Russian literature, art, film, music, theatre and dance, as well as history, philosophy and politics. Events include lectures and talks, seminars, conferences, exhibitions, films, concerts and readings.

To attend the event, you need to become a member of Young Pushkin. Membership includes free entry to thought-provoking talks, £5 tickets to Music Salon concerts, a curated programme of completely free events and creative networking opportunities. You can sign up for membership here: www.pushkinhouse.org/young-pushkin

More information about the event is available here:
www.pushkinhouse.org/events/exploring-identity-in-student-filmmaking

Copyright card game session

Chris Morrison will be running another Copyright the Card Game session, in the Templeman Library, at 10am on Tuesday 17 September.

The game allows participants to understand the ways in which copyright law impacts on the day to day workings of an educational institution, looking at teaching, research and engagement. It is appropriate for all staff who work with copyright material (so pretty much anyone who uses a computer) and participants will learn about:

the things that copyright protects,
the activities that are restricted by copyright
when licences provide permission to use copyright content
when fair dealing exceptions apply to those activities.

Places can be booked via staff connect.