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TUCS Newsletter 31.10.2013

Content of the newsletter

TUCS activities

New courses

Announcements

Latest publications at TUCS

TUCS activities

TUCS Research Programme Activities

Fourth call for TUCS travel grants

The fourth and final call for the TUSC travel grants during 2013 is underway. The  deadline for applications is Friday 1st November and the applicants will be informed of decisions by Fri 8th November.

 

Applications should be submitted to (tucs@abo.fi) according to the guidelines at http://tucs.fi/education/information-students/travelling-instructions-phd-students/ before the deadline 1.11.2013, 16.00 pm.

 

Any applications arriving after the deadline will automatically be moved to next year.

PhD Movie Screening

TUCS welcomes everyone to join us for a FREE screening of the PHD Movie.

Time: Wednesday, 20.11.2013 at 18:00

Place: Auditorium Alpha, ICT-Building

The PHD movie is the independently-produced live-action adaptation of the online comic strip Piled Higher and Deeper. Filmed on location at the California Institute of Technology, the movie follows four graduate students and their struggles with teaching, love and getting their research to work.

http://www.phdmovie.com/

P.H.D. – Piled Higher and Deeper. Web comic published online at http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php

http://tucs.fi/news/article/phdmovie.php

The event in Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/523599557715943/

New courses

New course: Many-Core Programming

PhD Leonidas Tsiopoulos will be teaching a course on Many-Core Programming (course code 453600.0) in period 2. Manycore chips are processor chips where the number of cores is high (i.e. 8 or more), and there can be cores of different types. Since it can be seen that the number of cores on chips is going to increase substantially in the near future (we are already seeing commercial chips with 64 or more cores), it is important to understand how to program such chips.

The course starts Monday 28.10 at 16:15 in lecture room Cobol (B3040).

You can also find info about the course on Moodle,
https://moodle.abo.fi/course/view.php?id=815
You need an ÅA login for this.

Here is the official blurb for the course:
The foundations for programming many-core chips lies in parallel programming. Parallel computing has up-to now been mostly an issue in Scientific and High-Performance Computing. Parallel computing has been used to implement solutions for very large scientific problems and on very large clusters of computers. This landscape is changing in at least 2 ways:
1. Parallel computing is now available in desktop computers that come with 2-8 core processes, and many embedded processors are now many-core processors (e.g. OMAP 4 has dual core Cortex A9, and a TI DSP). Parallel computing is not anymore confined to the domain of very large and expensive clusters.
2. The exploitation of parallel computing capacity becomes more and more important in application areas like web-services, multi-media, gaming, etc. These application areas exhibit radically different parallelisation structures than traditional HPC application.

The purpose of this course is to give the student an overview of the tools used to develop these new kinds of applications on many-core processors. The course includes handson-exercises, and a project.

New course: Special course in Computer Science: Molecular Computing (5sp)

Period 2, 2013, starts November 4, ends December 18.
Mon. 10-12; Wed 15-17 at Cartbert, ICT-house, 3rd floor.

Description: During this course we will discuss a novel fast developing interdisciplinary area called Molecular computing and will consider both its theoretical and experimental aspects. In this area biological systems and living organisms are regarded from the Computer Science perspective, molecular-scale biological processes are considered as computations, manipulations with biologically derived materials are being designed (both in theory as well as in the lab) to perform computational functions.

Aim: This course presents the computer scientist's approach to study DNA manipulation in vitro (DNA computing) as well as in vivo (an example, gene assembly in ciliates). We review briefly the basics of DNA molecular structure and manipulation, the basic biology of ciliates and especially the gene assembly process. We then investigate several computational models to reason about DNA manipulation in terms of permutations, strings and graphs. We will study their computational properties, including: DNA splicing and insertion/deletion computational model, formal studies on self-assembly of nano-structures by DNA, gene assembly strategies in ciliates as permutation sorting and string rewriting, parallelism and concurrency, computing with ciliates, etc. We overview the field of Membrane Computing as a computational paradigm describing multi-compartmental membranar structure as well as distributed computations and information fluxes between different places within living systems.

Learning objectives: After this course, students will:

Content:


Prerequisites:


Lecturer: Vladimir Rogojin
Course web-page: http://combio.abo.fi/teaching/special

Inforte courses

Tampere 6–7/11/2013

PROCEDURAL CONTENT GENERATION IN GAMES

Speaker: Associate Professor Julian Togelius, IT University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Organizer: Teaching associate Timo Kellomäki, Tampere University of Technology

Registrations and more information: http://inforte.jyu.fi/events/pcg

 

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Tampere 26–27/11/2013

GAMIFICATION

Speaker: Juho Hamari, University of Tampere

Registrations and more information: http://inforte.jyu.fi/events/gamification

 

See detailed programs http://inforte.jyu.fi/

Courses on transferable skills at University of Turku

http://www.utu.fi/fi/Tutkimus/tutkijakoulu/courses/Sivut/home.aspx

Announcements

Self-defense Course for International Faculty Members at ÅA and UTU

Are you an international or Finnish employee or grantee working at the University of Turku or Åbo Akademi University?

University of Turku Researchers, Teachers and Lecturers (TURTLE) and Forskarföreningen vid Åbo Akademi (FfÅA) organize an academic self-defense session for international researchers and teachers at the universities. You have an excellent opportunity to get and share information on your rights and benefits as well as on how your interests are safeguarded locally. The session is in English. Afterwards, the evening  continues at Club Dynamo with refreshments and stand-up comedy by EduArt.

November 5, 2013 at 16.15-18

Tauno Nurmela auditorium

Main building, University of Turku

http://www3.utu.fi/kartta/indexen.html

No registration required, no fee. Coffee and savoury pastry will be served.

TURTLE and FfÅA are part of the The Finnish Union of University Researchers and Teachers, FUURT.

Do invite everyone who may be interested! (You need not be a member of FfÅA or TURTLE or international in any specific sense to participate.)

FfÅA: http://web.abo.fi/fackforeningar/forskfor/membership.php

TURTLE: http://www.tieteentekijat.utu.fi/en/

FUURT: http://www.tieteentekijoidenliitto.fi/frontpage

Questions? Contact Yrsa Neuman, FfÅA: yneuman@abo.fi

NWPT’13

25th Nordic Workshop on Programming Theory, NWPT '13 will be held on 20-22 November 2013 in Tallinn, Estonia. The NWPT series of annual workshops is a forum bringing together programming theorists from the Nordic and Baltic countries (but also elsewhere).

More information: http://cs.ioc.ee/nwpt13/

Innovation Jam by Google for student and start-ups

During this two hour workshop, you'll get your hands dirty and realize that you too have an inner designer! Whether you’re a CEO, team lead, user experience designer, entrepreneur, student or anything in between, you’ll walk away with tangible solutions to real challenges. You'll also learn valuable tools and techniques, as well as how to adopt a mindset that will help you to drive innovation in your organization.

Date and time: Tuesday 12 November at 9:00-11:30

Venue: Doctoral Training Center at EIT ICT Labs Helsinki Co-Location Centre, Open Innovation House (2nd floor), Otaniementie 19b, 02150 Espoo, Finland

Programme:

08:30-09:00 Coffee

09:00-11:30 Innovation Jam - facilitator Dr. Frederik Pferdt

11:30-12:30 Networking lunch

Who can attend?

EIT ICT Labs doctoral and master level students, startups at EIT ICT Labs, Aalto University doctoral students

Registration:

The training is free of charge. Registration: https://workspaces.ictlabs.eu/PROMISE/PRIVATE/FORMS/register_step1.aspx?guid=3fca2f13-00eb-4c65-80c5-6af7ccce611d 

The deadline for registration is 4 November 2013. Seats limited to 70.

More information from Katri Sarkio, EIT ICT Labs Doctoral School Coordinator

This Google event is organised in cooperation with EIT ICT Labs and Otaniemi.FI.

http://www.eitictlabs.eu/news-events/events/article/innovation-jam-by-google-for-eit-students-and-start-ups/#gridView 

Academy of Finland to fund ICT 2023 programme

The Board of the Academy of Finland has decided to allocate EUR 5 million to fund the first thematic call within the research, development and innovation programme ICT 2023. According to the Finnish Government’s 2014 budget proposal, at least EUR 10 million of the Academy of Finland’s allocation authority for 2014 will be used to implement the ICT 2023 programme.

According to Marja Makarow, the Academy’s Vice President for Research, the aim of the ten-year ICT 2023 programme is to bring together Finnish universities, research institutes and business companies. The programme is included in the proposals of the final report by the ICT 2015 working group that was led by Pekka Ala-Pietilä. The report presents a number of ways to boost Finland’s economy with the help of information and communications technology.

The theme for the first ICT 2023 call is research on information security. The call will have two stages. The first call stage will be launched on 19 November 2013 and the deadline is 18 December 2013. The maximum amount of funding available is EUR 5 million. The call text will be published in mid-October. The funding decisions are contingent on the Finnish Parliament’s decision to allocate the needed appropriations.

The Academy of Finland and Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, will coordinate the ICT 2023 programme together. Tekes will launch a parallel call for business companies.  

More information:

Academy of Finland Communications

Director of Communications Maj-Lis Tanner

tel. +358 295 335 114

maj-lis.tanner(at)aka.fi

http://www.aka.fi/en-GB/A/Academy-of-Finland/Media-services/Releases1/Academy-of-Finland-to-fund-ICT-2023-programme/

Call for applications: EIT ICT Labs Innovation & Entrepreneurship education for PhD students

http://doctoralschool.eitictlabs.eu

Deadline extended: Call open until 17 November 2013!

Enrich your doctoral degree with an Innovation and Entrepreneurship skills and mind-set!

After completing the program, participants  will be commercially aware research leaders who understand current and future challenges, as well as the opportunities that these present to industry. To achieve this goal, the program concept provides mobility and standardized I&E education that complements the ordinary doctoral studies.

HOW TO APPLY?

-A web application opened to collect the applications.  

-Required documents listed in the website.

Please visit: http://doctoralschool.eitictlabs.eu/application/

WHO CAN APPLY?

Doctoral students at EIT ICT Labs partner universities. Partner universities in Finland: Aalto University, University of Helsinki, Åbo Academy, University of Turku, University of Oulu.  Students from other universities, please contact doctoral school office: doctoralschool@eitictlabs.eu

MORE INFORMATION?

-Homepage: http://doctoralschool.eitictlabs.eu

-EIT ICT Labs Doctoral School Office: doctoralschool@eitictlabs.eu

-Local contacts: Aalto University: Katri.Sarkio@aalto.fi; University of Oulu: mika.ylianttila@cie.fi; University of Turku and Åbo Academy: Outi Tuohi <otuohi@abo.fi>; University of Helsinki: Pirjo Moen <pirjo.moen@cs.helsinki.fi>

Call for experts EACEA/2013/1

Call for expressions of interest N° EACEA/2013/01 for the establishment of a list of experts to assist the Education, Audiovisual and Culture executive Agency in the framework of the management of European Union programmes in the field of education, audiovisual, culture, youth, sport, EU aid volunteers, and citizenship or any other programmes delegated to the Agency.

The call for expressions of interest is open for the lifetime of the programmes managed by the Agency, i.e. until 31.12.2020. Experts can register at any time prior to the last three months of validity of the call.

Who can be an expert?

You have a chance of being selected as an expert if you:

What will the assignments involve?

The Agency may need external expertise in the following programme:

Experts' tasks may include:

More infromation: http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/about/call_experts/call_experts_2013_en.php

Boost Turku Startup Breakfast November

Date: Monday, November 4, 2013

Location: Startup Farm

Time: 8.30am-10.00am

November, the darkest and rainiest month of the year, we know you all love it :-P We'll do our part to make it a little bit more bearable by providing breakfast and company. It's a better way to start your month. Don't forget to sign up on facebook so we know how many we are catering to.

http://www.boostturku.com/events/startup-breakfast-november

https://www.facebook.com/events/172689026257965/

TEDxTurku speakers audition

TEDxTurku open speakers audition Mon 4.11.2013. Register by 1.11.https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/applytedxturku

AUDIENCE: come and listen to the auditions by joining the Facebook event. https://www.facebook.com/events/218567241652852/

What is TEDx?

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TED has created a program called TEDx. TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. Our event is called TEDxTurku, where x = independently organized TED event. At our TEDxTurku event, TEDTalks video and live speakers will combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events, including ours, are self-organized.

More information: www.tedxturku.com

2014 Technology Days

The 2014 Technology Days will be held in Espoo, Finland on 16 - 18 January 2014. Technology Days bring the natural sciences and technology within reach of the general public.

This time the theme will be Air, one of Aristotle's four elements. The event will consist of around 90 top-notch scientific lectures and technology related workshops and activities for the whole family.

More about the event (in Finnish): http://www.technologyacademy.fi/fi/events/tekniikan-paivat-2012/

TUCS GP travel reports

TUCS GP travel report:  SPLST'13 by Johannes Holvitie

Full name of the event: 13th Symposium on Programming Languages and Software Tools (SPLST)

Place and date: Szeged, Hungary, August 26-27, 2013

Type of event: Symposium

My article:

The scientific profile of the event: SPLST has a long history of being a joint effort between the universities of Finland, Estonia and Hungary. Presenter nationalities are however not limited to these three countries and the symposium is quite successful in gathering submission from all over Europe. The event is organized every two years and it provides researchers with a medium of quality in which to present and receive feedback on research that is in its early stages.

Opinion on the best paper and its topic: The very first presentation of the symposium "Monitoring Evolution of Code Complexity in Agile/Lean Software Development" captured my attention. In this, the authors committed a series of case studies to discover which automatically derivable metrics would best suite agile projects in indicating the most problematic components of the program. The results were quite surprising: two simple metrics was enough to have a high enough a recall to provide valuable dynamic feedback for the teams. Further, this was perceived as adequate for managing complexity in large industrial projects.

Number of participants: less than a hundred

Social events: There were a number of very well organized brakes throughout the two symposium days, which made associating with other attendees easy. In addition, on the night of the first day, there was a banquet in the main building of the University of Szeged. During this we got a chance to not only visit the historical building but to also have a closer look at the premises of the local Department of Information Technology.

Touristic impressions: Szeged has a number of very well preserved historical sites. While the number of residents is comparable to its friendship town of Turku, almost all of the sites are within a walking distance from the city square. Some that are definitely worth a visit were the St. Stephen Square Old Water Tower, overpass the Bridge of Sighs and war memorial the Heroes' Gate.

TUCS GP travel report: Machine Learning Summer School by Samuel Rönnqvist

Full name of the event: Machine Learning Summer School

Place and date: Tübingen, Germany, August 26 - September 6, 2013

Type of event: Summer School

My poster:

The scientific profile of the event: The machine learning summer school series presents topics central to modern machine learning, ranging from fundamentals to state-of-the-art practice. The speakers are experts from both academia (e.g. MPI, Oxford, Cambridge, ETH Zürich) and industry (e.g. MSR, Google, Amazon). This year's summer school in Tübingen was hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, the areas of expertise of which were well represented in the program as well. Substantial emphasis was given to Bayesian modeling as well as their application to industry problems

Number of participants: 100 external participants + 26 speakers + local participants

Social events: Various activities on campus, in town and hiking in nearby forest

Touristic impressions: Tübingen is a nice, traditional university town surrounded by hilly landscape. The medieval old town is enclosed by the river Neckar, a moat and a castle. You can go for punting trips on the river, hike in the surroundings, explore the many small local pubs and try out the local cuisine of Baden-Württemberg.

Academy of Finland Newsletter

http://www.aka.fi/en-GB/A/Academy-of-Finland/Media-services/Newsletter/Academy-of-Finland-Newsletter-October-2013/

Open jobs at University of Turku and Åbo Akademi University

Latest publications at TUCS

Edited special issues of journals (1):

Ph.D. thesis (1):

Technical reports (1):