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

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 Agenda Welcome and coffee Introduction & Overview of Teaching & Research – Andrew Ireland MEng Industrial Placement Scheme – Phil Trinder A Snap Shot of New Teaching and Outreach Projects – Judy Robertson Development & Alumni – Liz Dean Plenary Discussions Poster Session (EMB 2.44) Lunch (EMB 1.01)

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 Research Groups  Biomedical Informatics Systems Engineering  Database, Information & KBS  Dependable Systems Group (DSG)  Intelligent Systems  ULTRA  Vision, Interactive Systems & Graphical Environments (VIS&GE)

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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)

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 If you are interested in providing a mutually beneficial placement, or require further information, please contact: Dr Phil 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.

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 A snapshot of new projects in Computer Science Teaching Recruitment

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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…

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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 

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 IT4U 2008: runaway success  Organised by Heriot-Watt, Edinburgh and Napier  rd year secondary school pupils attended  Theme of “Computing Careers”  Support from local and global computing companies  This year Heriot-Watt are hosting it!

Industrial Steering Group 28/08/08 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?