News 2005
CMS blasts off (Dec 05)
 The rocket launch photo courtesy of ESA |
On December 1st the IMPRESS (Intermetallic Materials Processing in Relation to Earth and Space Solidification) project saw the first trials of an experimental payload, the Electromagnetic Levitator, onboard a European Space Agency (ESA) rocket launched from northern Sweden.
IMPRESS is a multi-million Euro materials science project co-funded by ESA and the European Commission.
The project aims to develop new intermetallic alloys for industrial applications and involves 150 European materials scientists including a team of 5 from CMS.
The CMS team, led by Prof. Koulis Pericleous, are the main modelling group in the project and are using their spectral code SPHINX to optimise the levitator design.
IMPRESS project -
ESA press release
Prize-winning CMS student lands job at CERN (Dec 05)
Computing Science student, Omer Khalid, who graduated as CMS 'student of the year' in July 2005 has started a full-time post at CERN, the European Centre for Nuclear Research based on the borders of Switzerland and France.
Omer did his industrial placement at CERN and impressed his supervisor there so much that they decided to employ him after he graduated.
During his placement year Omer helped to develop software for electronics used in the Large Hadron Collider; currently he is working on software for electronic devices that are used to calculate the trajectories of particles inside the detector.
CMS encourages all of its students to take a placement year in industry; apart from helping the focus of their final year, it can often give a head-start to their career.
CERN website
CMS researchers in major study of 9/11 survivors (Nov 05)
 The World Trade Centre photo courtesy of NOAA |
As part of a major investigation into the lessons from 9/11, CMS researchers have recently completed a study of the World Trade Centre evacuation and made recommendations for improving the safety of high rise buildings to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
The team, led by Prof Ed Galea, are all members of the Fire Safety Engineering Group and used their award-winning software, EXODUS, to model how people escaped the buildings, and to predict how skyscrapers could be made safer.
Their findings have been widely reported in the national and international media, including Science, the Observer, the BBC and Sky News.
Prof Galea and his team, in collaboration with Liverpool and Ulster Universities, is continuing research into the World Trade Centre evacuation with a £1.5 million research project funded by the UK EPSRC.
The project is the largest ever study of 9/11 crowd behaviour and involves interviewing up to 2000 survivors.
Observer article -
EXODUS software
CMS outreach in Bexley (Nov 05)
 Students visit the Cutty Sark |
CMS has recently been running a series of enrichment workshops for year 9 students from Bexley.
University maths students have been helping at these Saturday morning events, in which the participants have been learning about Fibonacci numbers, playing lots of mathematical games, and finding out about university life.
One workshop focused on the CMS research project on the Cutty Sark: the class visited the ship and played a mathematical game based on the story of the original Cutty Sark.
Each week about 25 Year 9s attended the Greenwich campus, where CMS is based, and everyone had lots of fun.
The workshops were part of the CMS outreach effort.
We can offer a variety of workshops in various computing and mathematical topics - if you would like a member of staff to visit your school or college, or if you would like to arrange a visit to campus, please contact us.
Success for Millenium Maths Project (Nov 05)
 Students at the ciphers workshop |
The Millennium Mathematics Project (MMP), based in Cambridge, has been awarded the Queen's Anniversary PRize of Higher Education.
MMP supports maths education in primary and secondary schools throughout the UK, particularly through enrichment activities beyond the school curriculum.
In July 2005 CMS collaborated with MMP in organising a two-day workshop on codes and ciphers for local sixth-formers, which included a demonstration of a World War II Enigma machine by Claire Ellis of MMP.
Our congratulations to Claire and her colleagues at MMP.
Millennium Mathematics Project
CMS Head helps to brief MPs (Nov 05)
 Dr Liz Bacon |
Dr Liz Bacon, head of the School of CMS, has been elected as Communications Officer to the all-party Parliamentary Information Technology Committee (PITCOM).
PITCOM, whose membership includes MPs, peers, senior civil servants and journalists, addresses the public policy issues generated by IT and Dr Bacon's responsibilities are to oversee PITCOM publications, including the PITCOM website and briefings for MPs.
Dr Bacon has also recently been elected to the Council of the British Computer Society (BCS).
The BCS is the industry body for Information Technology professionals, and a Chartered Engineering Institution for IT.
PITCOM -
BCS Council
League table success for CMS (Oct 05)
Once again, the subject area of Computing Science at the University of Greenwich has been ranked above all other London new (post 1992) universities in the latest league tables from the Times Good University Guide 2006.
The Guide lists 61 different subject areas and gives the Times' ranking for each university in each subject.
Times Good University Guide (latest edition)
CMS skills week prizewinners (Oct 05)
 The winning team |
Prizes have just been awarded to the winners of the first year skills week.
During this week, students form themselves into teams to run a small company as part of a business simulation game, producing appropriate documents, reports and presentations.
As well as getting a break from their more formal studies, the students gain skills in communication, project management, team working, problem solving and creative design, all vital for working in today's computer industry.
The winning team - from left to right, Tiphaine le Quere, Kellyanne Gardiner, John Barnes and Dale Coley, plus Alex Simpson and Nadia Alaskari (not pictured) - were all awarded book tokens.
Further details of skills week
CMS lecturer honoured (Oct 05)
 Chris with his trophy |
Dr Chris Woollard, a CMS lecturer whose teaching includes a course on contemporary art & film, has been awarded the "Denis Wratten Journal Award" of the British Kinematograph, Sound and Television Society.
The award is made annually to the author of the best article published in the Society's Journals in the preceding year, and Dr Woollard was presented with it at the annual awards dinner at Pinewood Studios.
The British Kinematograph, Sound and Television Society - The Moving Image Society - is an organisation of members which represents the interests of all those who are creatively and technologically involved in the business of providing moving images in any form and through any media.
Further details
CMS student wins enterprise award (Sep 05)
 Russell with his STEP award |
CMS student, Russell Hall, has won second prize in the London awards of the Shell Technology Enterprise Programme (STEP).
Russell, about to embark on his final year of BSc (Hons) Multimedia Technology, took part in the scheme over the summer and created a multimedia sales presentation for Arboga Darenth Ltd, a local company.
STEP is a UK-wide programme initiated by Shell, and now also supported by the Department for Education & Skills and the Department for Trade & Industry, which offers undergraduates project-based work within small to medium sized businesses.
SEGS spells good news for CMS international students (Aug 05)
The Science and Engineering Graduates Scheme (SEGS), run by the Department for Education & Skills (DfES), has recently been extended and should allow international students who graduate from many CMS under & postgraduate programmes to stay in the UK for one year following their graduation in order to pursue a career.
Specifically the scheme is aimed at non-EEA nationals who have graduated with a 2.2 or higher in certain subjects, including computing and mathematics, from UK higher or further education establishments, to remain in the UK for 12 months after their studies.
Currently students must graduate before 30th April 2007 to be eligible.
Interested students should look at the Home Office website and check the JACS code for their degree programme against the list of DfES approved courses.
(The JACS code can be found at the bottom of the page for each undergraduate or postgraduate programme; only the first two characters are relevant.)
CMS International Students
CMS researcher honoured (Aug 05)
Professor Keith Rennolls, a statistician working in CMS, has been awarded the IUFRO (International Union of Forest Research Organizations) Distinguished Service Award at the 2005 IUFRO World Congress, this year held in Brisbane, Australia.
The award was "in recognition of his substantial contributions to furthering the scientific, technical and organisational aims of IUFRO".
IUFRO is a non-profit, non-governmental international network of forest scientists; its objective is to promote international cooperation in forestry and forest products research.
Further details
CMS student wins entrepreneurship prize (Jul 05)
 Flying high photo courtesy of NASA |
CMS student Raihaan Mughal has won the 2005 Elevator Speech Award, a prize presented by Barclays Bank and set up by the Centre for Entrepreneurship to encourage students to develop entrepreneurial skills.
The idea is to make a short pitch about a business idea - short enough to be made when travelling in a lift with a potential investor.
Raihaan's entry was judged to be the best entry from a mix of applicants including students, alumni and members of the business community.
The speech was a pitch to set up a pilot training scheme and included the simulation software written by Raihaan as part of his final year project that can be used to train would-be pilots in radio language skills.
CMS students graduate (Jul 05)
 CMS graduation procession |
On Friday 22nd July 2005 several hundred students from CMS attended Graduation Ceremonies in the Painted Hall and Chapel of the Old Royal Naval College on the Maritime Greenwich Campus.
The University also took the opportunity to award Malorie Blackman an Honorary Doctorate of Letters.
Malorie is a former Computer Science student from CMS, now turned bestselling children's author.
More pictures -
Press Release -
Honorary Doctorate
CMS security expert on BBC News 24 (Jun 05)
 photo courtesy freeimages.co.uk |
Recent BBC news coverage of the London man who hacked the Pentagon's computer systems featured a live interview with Dr Diane Gan, a computer security expert in CMS.
Gary McKinnon is accused of hacking into 53 US military & NASA computers in 2001-2002 and is fighting extradiction.
In the interview Diane highlighted the vulnerability of modern networks to hacker attacks and the widespread availability of hacker tools.
She also discussed the teaching of "ethical hacking" at Greenwich.
BBC Article
CMS student redesigns tube map (May 05)
 Dan Flatters' tube map |
A frustrated rail-user has come up with a new computer-based way of viewing passenger information on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). The system generates a 3D virtual-reality map of the DLR showing geographically correct station positions and real-time train progress.
Dan Flatters, a Multimedia Technology student in CMS, designed the system as his final year degree project and it is on show at the Multimedia Degree Show, Inspire.
Find out more
Be INSPIREd for the FUTURE at the CMS Degree Shows (May 05)
 |
Inspire, the Multimedia Degree Show, and Futures, the Software Engineering Degree Show, showcase work created by students graduating from the University of Greenwich's BSc (Hons) Multimedia Technology and BEng (Hons) Software Engineering programmes.
The shows start on Thursday 19th May (6pm - 9pm) and are open Friday 20th May & Saturday 21st May from 12 to 4pm in King William Court.
Please take time to come and wander around the exhibits including creative websites, edutainment CD-Roms, digital video, 3D animation and computer games and try them out.
Inspire website
University names lecture theatre after maths pioneer (Apr 05)
 Burnside Lecture Theatre |
CMS, in association with the Greenwich Foundation for the Old Royal
Naval College, held an event to mark the naming of the Burnside
Lecture Theatre. William Burnside (1852-1927), was a pioneer in group
theory and was from 1885 to
1919 Professor of Mathematics at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich.
The naming ceremony took place in mid-April when the Burnside expert Peter Neumann gave a
talk about Burnside's life and work.
See more photos
CMS helps to save the Cutty Sark (Mar 05)
Mathematical model of the Cutty Sark
|
New computer models of the Cutty Sark are to be made by a team from CMS, which may help save the endangered Victorian tea clipper.
Major restoration work is due to begin soon, but there have been fears that it may not survive the process of renewal.
A team led by Professor Chris Bailey has devised a way of modelling and testing all aspects of the proposed restoration work before work begins.
Dr Stoyan Stoyanov and Professor Chris Bailey displayed their work to the public on the ship as part of National Science Week.
The theme of the display was "Stressed" and detailed to the public why "Stress and Strength" are so important for the conservation of the ship and how computational scientists at Greenwich are developing the technolgies for virtual conservation.
Read the full story -
Materials World Radio 4 Interview
-
BBC Article
CMS takes part in Grand Challenge Research (Mar 05)
Grand challenge partners meet under watchful gaze of the famous inventor James Watt
|
CMS computer scientists are to play a key role in a new £9m Grand
Challenge Research Project to investigate the micro/nano world.
EPSRC have just awarded a Grand Challenge grant to a consortium of
Universities, including Greenwich, to develop
processes, methodologies and design tools for constructing products at
the micro and nanoscale.
Building upon their expertise in this area, Professor Bailey and his team from CMS will play a key role in developing the design/analysis tools to be used in this project.
The consortium consists of 5 Universities, the National Physical Laboratory, and 28
leading UK companies.
CMS Students in BCS Programming Competition (Mar 05)
 The CMS Team, from left to right: Demane Rodney, Alex Webber, Nabeel Moghal and Lee Mathew |
Four students from the School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences travelled to Winchester in early March to participate in the regional heats of the BCS national programming competition.
The 21st annual programming competition was sponsored by Microsoft and IBM and organised by the British Computer Society, the chartered professional engineering institution responsible for information technology in the UK.
Find out more
CMS hosts Specialist Schools Trust (Mar 05)
 Queen Anne court by lantern light |
In early March CMS hosted a drinks reception for delegates of the annual Specialist Schools Trust Mathematics and Computing Conference being held in Docklands. Over 100 headteachers and subject leaders visited the Maritime Greenwich campus and a welcome address was given by Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor David Wills.
CMS team reaches semi-finals of Business Challenge (Feb 05)
CMS Students at the University Business Challenge
|
A team of second year Computer Science
students took part in the London semi-final of the
University Business Challenge.
They had already beaten about 80 other
teams to get to this stage and were now up against 3 teams
from UMIST, and teams from Sheffield Hallam, Westminster,
Bell College and Imperial College.
Read the full story
Older News
Visit the news archive 2004 for older CMS news stories.