Lectureship at Exeter University, UK

[Sameer Singh]

 School of Engineering and Computer Science

 LECTURER IN COMPUTER SCIENCE VACANCY (ref number 6084)

 Further Particulars

 We are seeking an active, energetic researcher to
 contribute to one of the research areas in Computer
 Science: artificial intelligence, distributed and
 parallel systems, media computing, pattern recognition and
 neural computing.

 We would expect the successful candidate to contribute to
 the teaching programme at all levels and to develop modules
 in their own area of interest.

 This is a permanent position, available from the Summer
 Term 1999, or as soon as possible thereafter.

 The School

 The School of Engineering and Computer Science was formed
 on 1 August 1998 through the merger of the former
 Department of Computer Science and School of Engineering.
 For the purposes of student recruitment and quality
 assessment, the subject departments of Computer Science and
 Engineering retain an identity within the new School. For
 management and other purposes, the School is a fully
 integrated academic unit under the Head of School,
 Professor David Owens. School-level committees handle both
 research and teaching policy matters.

 The philosophy of the new School is to promote
 interdisciplinary work across the boundaries of engineering
 and computing and between the engineering      
 sub-disciplines. The approach has been in place within
 engineering since the formation (by merger of separate
 departments) of the former School of Engineering in 1988.
 The merger with the Department of Computer Science, founded
 in 1979, represents an exciting opportunity to extend this
 concept at all levels: undergraduate, postgraduate and
 staff. One of our objectives is to establish a degree
 programme that bridges the two disciplines: a     
 major/minor degree in Electronics with Computer Science. At
 present third year students in Computer Science regularly
 take options within Engineering. The School also runs full
 MSc, MPhil and PhD programmes.

 At present, Computer Science and Engineering are located in
 separate buildings on the main University campus, but plans
 are being developed to bring the whole School into single
 premises with the Harrison building (the current home of
 Engineering). The relocation will provide the School, by the
 summer of 2000, with new, extensive, purpose-built
 laboratory and computing facilities.

 Computer Science

 There are currently eleven academic staff in Computer
 Science. All academic staff are expected to contribute to
 research and teaching and to undertake appropriate
 administrative duties.

 A Computer Support Group of seven, including a hardware
 technician, maintains and upgrades the Department's
 computing facilities in conjunction with the University's
 IT Services. Members of the group are able also to provide
 support to specific research projects.


 In our major undergraduate laboratories we run Windows
 98/95 and Linux. In support of these clients, clusters of
 Silicon Graphics workstations act as servers connected by
 Samba, a public domain Internet implementation of a Windows
 NT service. The research laboratories generally use Unix,
 either PCs running Linux, Silicon Graphics running Irix or
 Sun workstations running SunOS or Solaris.

 In total, we run 16 Silicon Graphics workstations connected
 by an ATM network capable of high speed video transmission,
 11 Sun workstations, 50 Pentium PCs including 27 multimedia
 PCs running Windows 98/95 or Linux, 4 laser printers
 including a high quality colour laser printer. Supported
 applications include software for mathematical computing,
 3D animation and visualisation, parallel and distributed
 systems, image processing and neural networks.

 All our computers are connected to the Internet. We run our
 own web server including an internal Intranet. Research
 groups have their own specialist servers connected to the
 network. The University's IT Services provides
 undergraduate accounts and filespace and other specialist
 facilities.

 We maintain a World Wide Web entry with home page:
 http://www.dcs.exeter.ac.uk

 Details of the syllabus for the current taught modules may
 be found under the syllabus entry on the page:
 http://www.dcs.exeter.ac.uk/wyska

 Research

 Computer Science was graded 4A in the 1996 Research
 Assessment Exercise. While recognising the importance of
 fostering individual initiative in research, the school
 encourages the formation of groups which act as a stimulus
 to research, enable informed but informal critical
 discussion and provide a supportive environment for
 postgraduate study. We currently recognise three research
 groups in Computer Science:

 Pattern Recognition and Neural Computing
 (Director: Dr Sameer Singh)

 Pattern Analysis and Neural Networks represent technologies
 of the future at the cutting edge of computer science
 research. This group investigates research issues in a
 number of applied topics in computer science and
 engineering. Our interests extend to Pattern Recognition,
 Neural Networks, Image Processing, Medical Imaging, OCR,
 Financial Forecasting and Linguistic Computing. A large
 number of our projects are with external collaborators and
 are supported by both internal and external grants. The
 group is committed to excellence in research achieved
 through a range of interactions at national
 and international level. At present the research group has
 more than twelve full-time members. Full details about the
 group are available at the web site:
 http://www.dcs.ex.ac.uk/research/pann

 Distributed and Parallel Systems
 (Director: Dr Stephen Turner)

 Research within this group concentrates on programming
 systems formed by connecting a number of processors, where
 the connection could be as tight as the bus of a
 multiprocessor, or as loose as the Internet. Our work on
 parallel computing involves harnessing many processors to
 solve a single problem, with discrete event simulation
 being an area of particular interest. As well as running
 parallel programs, we are interested in predicting their
 performance on different machine configurations. Another
 area of interest is the successful exploitation of
 distributed database technology, where we research into its
 application in solving extant problems in complex
 information sharing domains. Finally, we are also
 interested in programming networked embedded computing
 devices using the idea of mobile code.

 Artificial Intelligence
 (Director: Dr Antony Galton)

 The work of this research group comprises three main
 strands:-

 Knowledge Representation, with particular application to
 qualitative spatial and temporal reasoning; Media
 Computing, including natural language engineering and
 information retrieval, GIS and visualisation, multimedia
 databases, and psychological aspects of multimedia;
 Future Computing Paradigms, such as evolutionary computing
 and genetic algorithms, and quantum computing

 In accordance with our research strategy, special purpose
 laboratories have been established with dedicated equipment
 within the first two of these sub-areas. We also maintain a
 Media Computing laboratory through which we explore a range
 of issues concerning the use of media in the way we    
 communicate and undertake creative endeavours.
 Visualisation in particular - data, program, knowledge -
 features in all research groupings.

 We pride ourselves on presenting a seamless view of
 computational paradigms and treat all such paradigms
 (symbolic as well as sub-symbolic, parallel
 as well as sequential, declarative as well as procedural,
 object-oriented as well as block-structured) as equally
 valid, according to the circumstances.

 With the formation of the new School, we aim to enhance
 joint research initiatives. Initially these might be on the
 basis of engineering applications providing a demonstrator
 for software technologies developed in computer science.
 Also the theoretical backing provided by research in
 computer science could aid developments in engineering.
 There will also be possibilities for technology led
 developments in media computing.

 It is the responsibility of the Director of each research
 group to produce an annual research plan based on the
 individual plans of the staff within the
 group. Such plans are the basis for recommendations on
 equipment purchase and access to travel funds and study
 leave.


 There are currently sixteen students on our MPhil/PhD
 programme. Since 1989 we have had a 100% submission record
 for all SERC/EPSRC funded PhD students. We run a thesis
 committee system whereby each student is encouraged in the
 development of their research but also has their progress
 monitored. We have an EPSRC-approved advanced, specialist
 MSc degree programme in New Generation Computing.

 Undergraduate Teaching

 We received a rating of excellent in 1994 HEFCE Teaching
 Quality Assessment, one of only 10 UK Universities so rated.
 Our submission to HEFCE stressed the importance of feeding
 research back into the teaching programmes and we apply
 this approach to all our degrees.

 Approximately 65 undergraduates are admitted each year. Our
 main programme is the Single Honours degree in Computer
 Science. In collaboration with the School of Psychology we
 offer an Interdisciplinary Single Honours programme in
 Cognitive Science. There are also in place arrangements for
 major/minor programmes with the School of Mathematical
 Sciences and a with European study programme. We have
 placed some of our modules within the University's
 modularity scheme thus allowing students from other
 disciplines to study computing.

 Teaching allocations are based on a formula that takes
 account of research supervisory commitments. Also, all
 junior staff are given time to undertake a
 structured independent-learning course (recognised by the
 Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA)) run by
 the Staff Development Unit.

 Other Information

 The starting salary will be up to £26,523 on the in the
 Lecturer A scale or Lecturer B scale (£16,655 - £29,048),
 dependent upon teaching research experience. There is a
 3-year probationary period.

 Full-time members of the academic staff may not undertake
 without consent of the University Council outside paid work,
 except external examining, literary work, public lecturing,
 and extra-mural teaching, occasional broadcasting and the
 giving of advice on an ad-hoc basis and on a relatively
 small scale.

 The successful applicant (if aged under 60) may join the
 Universities' Superannuation Scheme (USS), or maintain USS
 membership if applicable; 6.35% of gross salary is
 contributable by the individual, with the University
 contributing such sums as will be required to maintain the
 full benefits of the scheme.

 For permanent appointments, in the case of a person
 appointed from within the United Kingdom, all agreed
 removal expenses will normally be reimbursed. In the case
 of the appointment of a candidate from overseas, the full
 cost of removal expenses together with one adult economy
 fare from the candidate's place of residence will normally
 be reimbursed. In this context, it should be noted that the
 phrase "removal expenses" is interpreted by the
 University to mean the removal of household effects and
 excludes the cost of storage and the reimbursement of
 personal fares save the one adult economy fare payable to a
 person appointed overseas. Claims for reimbursement of
 removal expenses should be accompanied by three competitive
 tenders and the receipted account. Reimbursement will
 normally be on the basis of the lowest tender.

 Interviewees will be asked to complete a Medical
 Questionnaire.

 The University is committed to a comprehensive policy of
 equal opportunities in employment in which individuals are
 selected and treated solely on the basis of their relevant
 merits and abilities and are given equal opportunities
 within the University.

 In making this appointment the University reserves the
 right to consider persons other than those who have
 submitted applications by the closing date.

 To apply, candidates forward 7 copies (or, if posted
 overseas, 1 copy in a format suitable for photocopying) of
 your curriculum vitae, including particulars of your
 qualifications and experience, and a list of their
 publications, together with names and addresses of three
 referees a supporting letter of application which includes
 a statement indicating your intended areas of research, and
 summary of personal details sheet.

 Applications should reach the Personnel Division,
 University of Exeter, Northcote House, The Queen's Drive,
 Exeter, EX4 4QJ, Devon, UK, by 26 February 1999 . Please
 quote the reference number 6084 on your application and in
 all correspondence.

 Candidates should note that the University normally
 contacts referees for shortlisted candidates without
 further advice to applicants. When advising of
 referees, if they are resident overseas please ensure you
 supply fax numbers and/or email addresses enabling us to
 contact them (if necessary) without delay.

 In the interests of economy, the University does not notify
 candidates who have been unsuccessful with their
 application; consequently if you have not
 heard from us within six weeks of the closing date, please
 assume that you have not been successful on this occasion.

 For further information and an informal discussion please
 contact Dr Wendy Milne (w.milne at exeter.ac.uk), telephone
 01392 264061. Informal contact with the Directors of
 research is also welcomed.

 fps.6084