SCM News Bulletin Vol 3 - Issue 3 - August 2011

Dr Nicholas Tothill


By Simeon Simoff

Dr Nicholas (Nick) Tothill has recently joined the School of Computing and Mathematics as a Lecturer in Computational Imaging, Visual Science and Computational Astrophysics. He brings to the School a colourful range of research expertise, spanning from astrophysics to mathematical modelling of viral infections, and of technical and life experience.  He joins us from UNSW, where he was Research Fellow in the School of Physics and in the Kirby Institute for infection and immunity in society (formerly known as the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research). His research projects have brought him to various locations around the globe, including (in alphabetical order) the been involved in research projects in a range of different locations including Antarctica (about a year at Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station as Station Science Leader), Germany (Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg), the UK and USA (the lists here are left for you to discover in a coffee with him; just worth mentioning is the Antarctica Service Medal he was awarded in the USA). Nick holds a PhD from the University of London [thesis "The Structure and Evolution of the Lagoon Nebula: Star Formation in the Sagittarius Arm"] and an MSc in Radio Astronomy from the University of Manchester [thesis "Polarimetry of 22 GHz Water Masers in W3(OH)."].

Nick has a strong research expertise in computational astrophysics, in particular in writing software for mining large datasets generated by the latest instruments over a range of wavelengths. Nick also brings expertise in optical/IR imaging and the computational analysis required to interpret it. Again, this is a small part of all the cool bits – for the big bytes have a conversation over a bite with him.

Although he started with us in the middle of the last week of July, Nick has jumped straight forward into the teaching ocean of the School.
Nick is located on the Penrith (Kingswood) Campus in room Y.3.61 (ext 2956; n.tothill@uws.edu.au), but you can catch up with him on the Parramatta campus where he teaches too.

A warm welcome to Nick with a wish for fun in the dynamic speedy UWS!

^ Back to top

International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) 2011


They have done it again!

Dongmo and The Smart Blokes, known to the outer worlds as the Jackaroo team, have won the Trading Agent Competition Market Design Game again. Citing from Dongmo's News: "In this year, Dengji did all the coding, which was a significant update on the existing code. Chun Gao did all the testing (days and nights in the last few weeks) and monitored the competitions (three days from 5pm-10pm each day, including Sunday). Many thanks and Congratulations! Thanks also Laurent for his support from Toulouse.”

The classic Trading-Agent Competition (TAC Classic) and the supply chain scenario (TAC SCM) were motivated by the desire to develop automated strategies for buyer and seller software agents in marketplaces.

In contrast, the CAT Competition is the exact reverse of this: The software trading agents are created by the organizers of the competition, and as an entrant you compete by defining rules for matching buyers and sellers and setting commission fees for providing this service.

CAT is not only the reverse of TAC, but also refers to CATallactics, the science of exchanges.

Here is an excerpt of the winning news from Dr Tim Miller, Lecturer in Software Engineering, University of Melbourne (CAT Gamemaster 2010-current):

"Congratulations to Jackaroo, who is the winning team of the 2011 TAC Market Design tournament.

The top three places go to:

  1. jackaroo: 642.852
  2. PoleCAT: 636.591
  3. Mertacor: 607.02

Congratulations to these three teams. They will be presented with their certificates in the exhibition room at IJCAI (room 112) at 17:30. If you are in Barcelona attending IJCAI, please take the time to head down to the proceedings.

This year produced another competitive tournament, with PoleCAT making a late dash and almost taking the crown.

The winners of the individual games were:

  • Game 1: jackaroo
  • Game 2: jackaroo
  • Game 3: PoleCAT"

^ Back to top

Congratulations to our ALTC Award Recipient


The Australian and Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) promotes excellence in higher education by recognising, rewarding and supporting outstanding teaching and learning practice.

Email from Simeon Simoff to the School:

During an action- and travel-packed July, some of you may have not had time to go through the UWS News site, but there is a note from 1 July 2011 about nine UWS recipients of ALTC Citation Awards [http://pubapps.uws.edu.au/news/index.php?act=view&story_id=3002].

This year our School is there again – this time Carmel did it in style.  Her ALTC Citation Award is presented "For sustained commitment in enhancing students’ mathematical abilities in providing a superior mathematical learning experience by developing and implementing inspirational learning resources."

The award ceremony took place on 16 August, at the Sydney Opera House, where 185 individuals and 25 teams from Australian universities were presented with citations.

A XXL size SCM bag of congratulations and champagne to Carmel!

Simeon
On behalf of SCM

^ Back to top

SCM Web Systems Development student participates in the Deloitte Sydney Technology Innovation Challenge


One of Anupama Ginige’s students in her Web Systems Development class, Tom Songtanin, recently participated in the Deloitte Sydney Technology Innovation

Ton

Challenge which took place in the Deloitte offices in Sydney on Tuesday 23 August 2011.

The Challenge offered students who have a passion for technology, a knack for problem solving and a talent for innovation a great opportunity to learn more about Deloitte's Technology service lines and the opportunities they have for summer vacation students and graduates.

Tom won a gift voucher for $250 to use towards the purchase of any RedBalloon product (RedBalloon is the leading online gift retailer in Australia and New Zealand). In Tom’s own words:

There were around 20 students mostly from UTS, UNSW and University of Sydney. I was the only one from UWS. Students were divided into two groups and worked in a group. There were some issues which were discussed, for example, what web technologies are going to be in 2020? The Deloitte team was observing each group while students were giving their ideas.

At the end, the Deloitte team gave an award to the student who they thought was the most innovative and I got the award. I am so proud of myself and to be a UWS student.

Congratulations Tom!

 

^ Back to top

Health Informatics South Africa (HISA) Conference August 2011

Prof Anthony Maeder recently attended the annual Health Informatics South Africa (HISA) conference in Johannesburg, 28-31 August 2011 as an invited keynote speaker. His presentation on the UWS "Smart Space" for eHealth research was well received as there is much interest in telehealth and mobile health solutions in Africa. The event was attended by 80 delegates from seven different African countries.

Anthony also arranged the delivery of a 1-day workshop on "Introduction to Health Informatics" based on the successful AHISS Summer School model with invited expert speakers to cover a broad curriculum to raise general knowledge and awareness of Health Informatics for personnel from the health sector. Speakers were drawn from academia and industry and included Prof Michael Legg from University of Wollongong. 

               HISA - Staff Image

This event was sponsored by the Medical Research Council of South Africa, coordinated by Rosemary Foster, Strategy leader. With over 30 persons attending, this first workshop was deemed a success and it is planned to run similar events in future years. The photo shows the workshop presenters including (centre front) Prof Michael Legg, Rosemary Foster, Prof Anthony Maeder.

 

Video games made by UWS students

The semester is almost over and some of you will finally have spare time to play video games. How about having a crack at some of the games made by my students in the "Games Theory & Design" unit?

View the games online through best UWS student games.

Just click on the poster to get to the detailed description and click the poster again to play the game. You will have to install Unity plugin and it's best to play with the sound on.

Anton Bogdanovych