18 Dec 2007

University of Abertay Dundee expertise helps train first generation of Turkish games designers

University of Abertay Dundee News Release Abertay expertise helps train first generation of Turkish games designers


Abertay University expertise is helping to train a new generation of computer games programmers in Turkey, thanks to a deal signed with the Izmir University of Economics (IUE).

The articulation agreement links a two-year masters degree at IUE with Abertay’s masters degrees in computer games technology and smart systems

Students on the linked programme will spend their first semester at IUE, then travel to Abertay for two semesters, one of which will include writing a dissertation.

After spending most of a year at Abertay, the students will return to Izmir to complete their IUE masters degrees.

The first group of 20 students to take part is expected to arrive at Abertay in January 2009, and the partners are planning to increase overall numbers on the linked courses to 50 within five years.

Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, Head of the School of Computing and Creative Technologies, said:  “We are delighted to have secured this new partnership with IUE.  It is part of a network of links we are building up around the world, and the IUE link joins similar successful links we already have with universities in China and Canada.

“We are all looking forward to welcoming the first students onto our courses, and I am sure they will find the Abertay experience a very valuable and significant component of their learning journeys.”

Mr Ekrem Demiritas, President of the Board of Trustees of Izmir University of Economics said: “This is a very significant agreement for UIE and I’d like to thank the University of Abertay Dundee, SQA and Dundee College together with Scottish Development International for all their hard work in getting this excellent education entity up and running.”

 
Hadi Fawzy, Senior Executive at Scottish Development International said; “This deal is an excellent illustration of the very healthy international demand there is for Scottish skills and knowledge. Scotland’s educational establishments are world leaders in many fields and being able to trade knowledge in this way is having an increasingly positive impact on the Scottish economy and the country’s international links and reputation.” 

For further information please contact Tracey McNeish on 01382 308935.


17 Dec 2007

University Of Dundee Running researchers present cheque for Diabetes campaign

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF DUNDEE

Dundee.

Running researchers present cheque for Diabetes campaign

A group of researchers and other staff from the College of Life
Sciences at the University of Dundee have raised over £1500 for the
Diabetes Research Campaign, which hopes to raise funds to support the
world-class research being carried out into the disease at Dundee.

The group of 15 â€" ranging from Professors to technical staff - all
took part in the Dundee Half Marathon earlier this year. They decided to
run in support of the University’s Diabetic Research Campaign, which
is raising funds to expand clinical research facilities in Angus, Perth
and Dundee.

“It was great to see the staff involved in the run and then to
realise we had raised such a nice amount of money,” said Professor
Dario Alessi, who took part in the run and is also Director of the
Dundee Diabetes Research Centre.

“Special mention must go to one of one of our technical staff, Maisie
Hawkins - she isn’t the fastest runner but she was ahead of all of us
in terms of raising money, which was by far the most important thing.

“Two years ago Maisie completed the Dundee half-marathon in 3 hours
20 minutes, last year in 3 hours 10 minutes, and this year we are all
supporting her and hoping to see her break the three-hour mark. Everyone
was stunned as Maisise finished in the amazing time of 2h 45 min!
Exercise is our greatest weapon in tackling diabetes. That doesn't mean
you have to be running half-marathons every week, but just taking some
regular exercise will have a real effect."

Michael Archibald, chair of the charity campaign, and Professor Andrew
Morris, one of Scotland’s leading clinicians on diabetes, will accept
the cheque for £1519 from Professor Alessi and some of the other runners
on Tuesday December 18th at 9.30 am in the Wellcome Trust Building.

The Diabetes Research Campaign was launched last year to raise
£3million to support research into diabetes at the University of
Dundee, including the establishment of state-of-the-art outpatient
clinical research facilities in Angus, Perth and Dundee, enabling
scientists and doctors to work together to undertake research from "the
cell to the community".

13 Dec 2007

University of Kent computing students help international airline solve scheduling problem


University of Kent computing students help international airline solve scheduling problem

 

More than 100 second-year students from the Computing Laboratory at the University of Kent are gaining valuable work experience by helping XL Airways solve a scheduling problem.

 

XL Airways, a leading and award winning UK charter airline based at Gatwick, operates a complex timetable to over 50 charter destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America from 11 airports in the UK. Consequently, it needs to ensure that it has enough pilots to meet its timetable requirements and that its timetabling operation runs as efficiently as possible, taking into account both human resources and legislation. For example, it needs to ensure that not only are its pilots in the right place at the right time but that the rules and regulations concerning flying hours are strictly adhered to.

 

Working in small teams, the University’s computing students are now constructing solutions to the scheduling problem using processes and methods for software design and development which they are learning in their module Software Engineering Practice. They also have the opportunity to continuously refine their understanding of the problem by interrogating XL Airways via an online forum.

 

The project ends in early January.

 

Professor Simon Thompson, Director and Head of the Computing Laboratory at the University of Kent, said: ‘It is difficult for any university department to provide realistic problems for their students as typical industrial problems are complicated and large-scale. However, it is precisely this sort of problem that XL Airways has to solve and we’re extremely grateful to them for passing this on to our students.’

 

Daniel Hiller, Group IT Business Architect for XL Airways, a graduate of the University of Kent and the originator of the project, said: ‘This is a really exciting opportunity for our industry to work with academia and the University of Kent’s undergraduate population, which I see developing into a long-term partnership. By gaining an insight into XL’s business we hope that students will gain an appreciation for the leisure industry that could develop into future employment opportunities. I hope in this way that we can both benefit from this innovative approach to problem solving.’

 

Tony Hunter, a computing student at the University of Kent, said: ‘The XL Airlines project is an excellent introduction to working in a software team on a real world product, with a real world customer. We are fortunate and grateful to have been given this opportunity.’

 


12 Dec 2007

University of Abertay Dundee workshop to learn about helping those who hear voices

Dundee workshop to learn about helping those who hear voices


Hearing voices in your head is much more common than many Scots think, and may be better dealt with by coping strategies than with medication, a workshop taking place in Dundee today and tomorrow will be told.

The University of Abertay Dundee and the Fife-based mental health consultancy Working to Recovery Ltd, co-directed by Ron Coleman and Karen Taylor who have an international reputation for their work in recovery and psychosis, are collaborating on a two-day workshop entitled “Talking to Voices” (12/13 December).

The workshop will introduce mental health workers to the relatively new technique of ‘voice dialogues’, which aims to help people who find their voices distressing to learn to live with and manage their voices rather than wasting time in an often fruitless quest for a ‘cure’.

Dutch research suggests that as many as one in 25 people hear voices or other ‘auditory hallucinations that have no physical origin in the outside world’. For some, the phenomenon is not linked to mental illness and can sometimes be a pleasant or reassuring experience.

However, for others the voices can be threatening or disturbing – creating anxiety, despair and fear. Often the voices carry some personal significance for the hearer, usually related to some intense emotional event in their past, such as sexual abuse in childhood. Voices can therefore have a great deal of power over the hearer.

Examples include victims of sexual abuse who hear the voice of their abuser or the voice of a screaming child that represents the abused’s inability to scream out their pain at the time they were abused.

Voice dialoguing focuses on helping voice-hearers to explore the history of their voices, and to identify the individuals their voices represent and the things that trigger them. Having done this, the voice hearer is encouraged to engage with their voices in a way in which they, not the voices, are in control. For some people, this can result in the voices going altogether. For others, the voices become less distressing and more manageable.

This week’s seminar will give mental health workers in Scotland a rare chance to hear international expert Dr Dirk Corstens, who works in the Hearing Voices Project of the University of Maastricht and is involved in treatment for voice-hearers. Dr Corstens developed the treatment programme, ‘Working with Voices’, and is an active researcher in this field.

The workshop also features Clinical Psychologist Rufus May from the Bradford Assertive Outreach Team. He has an interest in promoting self-help and recovery processes in psychosis. His ideas and thinking are influenced by in his own experiences of being a psychiatric patient when he was 18 years old.

Ron Coleman, Dirk Corstens and Rufus May will also be keynote speakers in a public “Hour of Power” seminar this evening (12 December), at Abertay University’s main building in Bell Street, Dundee, starting at 7pm.  Tickets are available on the door, priced £10 (£5 for students and the unwaged).

Professor Sue Cowan of Abertay’s Tayside Institute of Health Studies said: “For people who hear voices that are distressing, finding a way of dealing with them is empowering and can be an important part of their recovery process. ‘Recovery’ in this context does not mean ‘getting back to the state you were in before’. It is not about cure, but rather about recovering a satisfying, optimistic and contributing life, even within the continuing presence of mental illness. For each person, recovery is a unique and individual journey.”


11 Dec 2007

HIGHER BIOLOGY CHRISTMAS SYMPOSIUM


HIGHER BIOLOGY CHRISTMAS SYMPOSIUM

Photo opportunity - 10.30 pm, Tuesday December 11th                                 New Teaching Block (Old Hawkhill)  The College of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee is hosting students from local schools this week at a Christmas Lecture Symposium.  On Tuesday 11 December 2007 (in the Large Lecture Theatre in the New Teaching Block) and Wednesday 12 December 2007 (in the Tower Extension/D’Arcy Thompson Lecture Theatre, Tower Building, Nethergate) students from 16 schools in Angus, Perthshire, and Tayside will be attending a series of lectures especially designed for the Higher Biology Secondary School audience and delivered by top lecturers and scientists from the University of Dundee.  Dr James Elliott, Learning and Teaching Dean of the College, will give the Welcoming introduction. Dr Hilary-Kay Young will then deliver a presentation entitled ‘Superbugs’ – the science behind the headlines” which will explore the ingenious ways bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics.  In “Battle of the Sexes”, Dr Steve Hubbard will address the complex and unexpected ways in which the conflict between the sexes is resolved in nature. Finally in “Human identification - Who are you?”, Dr Patrick Randolph-Quinney (Tuesday) and Professor Sue Black (Wednesday) will consider the concept of human identification and look at some real forensic cases relating to identification and consider the importance of returning identity to the deceased.  SCHOOLS ATTENDING THE CHRISTMAS SYMPOSIUM:  Arbroath High School Forfar Academy Webster's High School Baldragon Academy Braeview Academy Craigie High School Grove Academy Harris Academy Lawside Academy Menzieshill High School St John's High School St Saviour's High School High School of Dundee Kinross High School Glenalmond College Strathallan School  University Of Dundee     

6 Dec 2007

HOT CHIP - Dundee Students Association


 

 

Dundee University Students’ Association

 

PRESS RELEASE

 

SEEK AND HIDE PRESENTS… HOT CHIP (dj set)

+ Residents Neil Smith and DIGIMAK

 

Seek and Hide brings Hot Chip to The Union on Sat 9th December.

 

HOT CHIP

Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke and Felix Martin are the men behind this electropop Casiotone-hop group. They formed in 2000 and self–released records until they were signed in 2003. They released their debut album, "Coming on Strong," later stating that they wanted it to sound like a home-made version of the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique."

In 2006 they released their second album, “The Warning” to great acclaim. The album was short-listed for The Mercury Prize. Two singles were released from the album and both “Over and Over” and “Boy from School” were well received.  In that same year Hot Chip were hired to provide music for the in-game stereo within the Sims.

Hot Chip make use of toy trumpets and kazoos to get their sound just right, but no laptops and no backing tracks.

Hot Chip's Alexis Taylor has provocatively boasted that he is "like Stevie Wonder, but can see things."

Recent festival appearances include Dour Festival, Glastonbury, Sónar, Benicassim, Electric Picnic, Bestival, Lovebox, the Reading and Leeds Festivals, the Summer Sundae festival and the Big Day Out and Splendor In The Grass (2007) in Australia. They released a DJ Kicks compilation in 2007, which included a new song called "My Piano", also released as a 12".

The band will release their third studio album, Made in the Dark, on February 4 2008. The first release out of it was "Shake a Fist" which was released as a limited one-sided 12" in September 2007, the first single will be "Ready For The Floor" in January 2008.

 

Seek and hide have previously brought Pendulum, Mylo and others to the Union

 


The party will take place in the student’s union in Mono kicking off at 10pm and lasting till 2.30am, with organizers expecting a sell-out.

 

Tickets are priced at £7

Available from the Dundee University Students’ Association

 

 

 

 

 

For more information, please contact:

David MacLeod

Vice-President Communications

Dundee University Students' Association

Airlie Place

Dundee

DD1 4HP

t -  (01382) 386003

f -  (01382) 386016

m - 07739964572

e -  vpc@dusa.co.uk

 

 

 David MacLeod       

 Vice President Communications

 email:  vpc@dusa.co.uk 

Dundee University Students Association

Airlie Place, Dundee, DD1 4HP

Phone: 01382 386003      Fax: 01382 386016 

 

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are private and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If  you are not the intended recipient, the e-mail and any files have been transmitted to you in error and any copying, distribution or other use of the information contained in them is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error, please advise us immediately .Nothing in this e-mail message amounts to a contractual or other legal commitment on the part of DUSA unless confirmed by a communication signed on behalf of DUSA by an authorised signatory. Please note that it is a disciplinary offence for any employee or representative of DUSA to download any offensive, lewd, racist, libidinous or immoral material

 

 

5 Dec 2007

University of Abertay Dundee Law Students Have Threir Eyes On The Prize

Law students at the University of tsz Dundee have an added incentive to hit the books this year. 

Not only will they learn lots and make progress towards gaining a good degree but the top two family law students will also be in line for a cash prize.

The two students who gain the highest marks for their family law module will each win £100 thanks to the Family Law Association (FLA).

Ken Swinton, division leader of law at Abertay, explained:  “At Abertay we work closely with the FLA to make sure our family law courses are as up to date and relevant as possible.

“The Association approached us earlier this year to offer a £200 prize fund to encourage and reward this year’s most academically successful family law students.

“This is great news for Abertay and particularly the LLB course as it shows that the legal profession are recognising the good work being done here.

“It’s been a great year for law at Abertay as we were the first of the ‘new’ law schools to receive accreditation from the Faculty of Advocates.  I’m very pleased to add the FLA prize to our list of achievements for 2007.”

Helen Hughes, Chair of the Family Law Association said:  “The FLA is delighted to support the law faculty at Abertay by awarding a family law prize and attending at the University to speak with the students.

“As an Association we seek to encourage and promote the teaching of family law at undergraduate level and beyond and hope that our involvement with all law faculties in Scotland will assist in developing the teaching of family law as a distinct branch of the law in its own right.”



3 Dec 2007

Lewisham College Millennium Volunteers awarded funding


 

Millennium Volunteers awarded funding

Lewisham College Millennium Volunteers in Lewisham and Greenwich has been awarded £297,800 funding by v, the youth volunteering charity, to get young people positively involved in their communities.

The project will get 630 young people aged 16-25 to engage in voluntary activities for the benefit of individuals and community organisations across the two boroughs.

Lewisham College Millennium Volunteers is one of 152 projects across the country who will be funded by v as part of vinvolved, a new national youth volunteering programme backed by £75 million funding, which aims to inspire half a million more young people to volunteer in England.

Project manager Jim Delaney says: “We are very excited to be part of the vinvolved programme. The funding will enable us to build on the work of our Millennium Volunteer project of the last seven years to the further benefit of local people.”

vinvolved has been designed by and for young people to make volunteering a compelling choice for all 16-25 year olds in England by tapping into their passions and concerns. The charity aims to change the image of volunteering and make it a ‘must-have’ part of young people’s lives.

Terry Ryall, v’s Chief Executive, says: “v is delighted to be able to fund this innovative and youth-led project, which will enable young people to get positively involved in Lewisham and Greenwich”.

“Young people are at the heart of this new programme which aims to put them at the centre of our communities. Instead of seeing them as a problem to be fixed, we are giving them the chance to become a positive force for change.”

  

The volunteering opportunities will be available from April 2008. For more information visit www.wearev.com or the young people’s portal www.vinspired.com