Newsletter
October 1998
Number 5


Contents

Appointments
Visitors
Departmental News:
Canterbury
Lincoln
Massey
Auckland
FRST Funding
Marsden Funding
Events
Masters Theses
PhD Theses

Appointments

Canterbury

Dr Donald Adjeroh
Lecturer
Computer graphics



Visitors

Otago IS

Prof David Swayne (July - September)
University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada
Environmental information and decision support systems

Prof Yuzuru Morita (July - September)
University of Saga, Japan
Neuro-fuzzy systems for control

Prof Elie Sanchez (August - September)
University of Marseilles, Marseilles, France
Neuro-fuzzy systems, genetic and DNA computing, bioinformatics

Lincoln

Richard Stallman, the founder of the GNU project, launched in 1984 to develop the free operating system GNU (an acronym for "GNU's, Not Unix"), gave a seminar at Lincoln University.

Waikato

Dr Stan Spzpakowicz (July '98 - June '99)
University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada
Natural language processing, text analysis, text summarisation, decision analysis and support


Departmental News

Canterbury

25th Anniversary: The department will celebrate its 25th anniversary (give or take a year) in November. Festivities coincide with the first subject conference of NZ CS departments for many years (see under Events, p. 3, for the conference programme) and the official opening of our new building (on November 11).

Wolfgang Kreutzer

Lincoln

Awards: Don Kulasiri, Applied Computing, Mathematics and Statistics Group, has been awarded a position as senior member in the Society for Computer Simulation. Senior membership is a recognition of professional and technical competence in the field.

Blair Cassidy's 1997 PhD thesis "Simulating the stress-strain properties of woollen yarns" has won the Silver Medal (first place) in an international competition sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Woolmen of London. He will be flying to London in November to receive the medal from the Lord Mayor of London at a 'white tie' dinner attended by some members of the royal family. Blair has won a Japanese fellowship and left to work in Japan in August for one to two years.

Keith Unsworth, Applied Computing, Mathematics and Statistics was awarded $1000 from Lincoln's new Fund for Excellence to support an international workshop on "Surface approximation and Visualisation" in February 1999.

Theresa McLennan was given a $500 grant from the Fund for Excellence for research into success in introductory programming classes. This is an on ongoing research project with Jim Young and Sue Clemes. Statistical modelling has so far shown that older students are doing better than younger ones and that females achieve just as well as males. Students enrolling with some experience in programming have not done any better than those with no previous computer contact.

Light Relief: At the beginning of July the staff of the former Centre for Computing and Biometrics held a wake to mark the passing of the old CCB and the restructuring into two new departments. The academic staff are now in the Applied Computing, Mathematics and Statistics Group of the Applied Management and Computing Division. (We are finding this quite a mouthful, especially towards the end of our monthly drinks sessions!). The services staff now form the major part of Computer and Educational Resources. The wake was attended by past and present staff members and a good time was had by all, as we reminisced about the good old days!

Elizabeth Post

Massey

IEEE Distinguished Visitor: Chris Jesshope has just been appointed as an IEEE distinguished Visitor for the Asia Pacific Region. What this means is that local chapters of the IEEE in this region can request a number of seminars that he is willing to give and the IEEE will pay expenses when arrangements have been made.

Chris Jesshope

Auckland

Opening: The Intelligent Active Vision group had a small opening ceremony for their new lab. The group, under the direction of Dr Jacky Baltes, is working on intelligent control of autonomous mobile robots in real time environments. They use RoboSoccer as a testbed.

Hypermedia Unit News: Two new research assistants are now working in the Hypermedia Unit. Benny Kannengiesser, from Freiburg Germany, is implementing a Mac viewer for Freiburg's Collaborative Authoring On the Fly system. The system will let us capture lectures while they are being given and edit voice and video before compressing the files and putting them into HyperWave for distribution. Our other new RA is Juergen Horwath, from Graz Austria. Juergen is working on setting up a virtual learning environment based on the GENTLE system that was developed in Graz. I assessed the system while in Graz and it is looking really good. We already have had expressions of interest in it from several other departments. Yes, we will demo it as soon as Juergen has adapted it to our requirements (and put some local content in!).

Leaving: We regret to report that Dr Christian Collberg will be leaving us in November to take up an Assistant Professorship at University of Arizona, USA.

Clark Thomborson


FRST Funding

The following university projects have been awarded FRST funding in Output 9 "Information, Communication Networks and Services" for 1998 - 2001:

Advancing information technologies through CASE
Daniela Mehandjiska-Stavreva
Massey Universitt $120,000

Optimisation with business and industrial applications
David Ryan, Auckland University $230,000

Mobile Telecommunications systems transmission engineering
Desmond Taylor, Canterbury University $293,000

Distributed information systems
Martin Purvis, Otago University $462,000

Spatial systems: modelling, analysis and management
Martin Purvis, Otago University $145,000

Connectionist-based intelligent information systems (CBIIS)
Nikola Kasabov, Otago University $360,000

Applications of broad-band communications
Weston Sandle, Otago University $180,000

Fielded applications of machine learning
Geoff Holmes, Waikato University $192,000

Collaborative information gathering
Mark Apperley, Waikato University $120,000

Modelling of broadband networks and applications
John Cleary, Waikato University $180,000

The Manufacturing and Information Advisory Committee, who decided on the grants, consisted of:

Chair:

Dr Ian Smith, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research & International), Otago University
Members:
Dr Roz Buick, Trimble New Zealand Ltd
Prof Paul Callaghan, Massey University
Mr Bevin Cornwall, Science & Technology Management Consultant
Mr Ron Guthrie, Guthrie Consultants Ltd
Dr Rex Humphrey, Tatua Cooperative Dairy Co
Mr Robert Loughnan, Loughnan Consulting Ltd
Dr Ian Miller, Carina Chemical Laboratories Ltd
Mr Kevin O'Donnell, HortResearch
Assoc Prof Graham Wright, Auckland University

Marsden Funding

The following computer science projects have been awarded Marsden funding by the Maths and Information Science Panel for 1998 - 2001:

A study of the performance of asynchronously scheduled RISC pipelines
Chris Jesshope, Massey University $210,000

Collaborative and multi-paradigm programming environments for children
Andy Cockburn, Wolfgang Kreutzer, Tim Bell
Canterbury University $135,000

The Maths and Information Science Panel consisted of:

Convenor:

Professor Rob Goldblatt, Victoria University
Panel:
Sir Ian Axford, Max Planck Institut fur Aeronomie
Professor John Butcher, University of Auckland
Professor Michael Hendy, Massey University
Professor JA (Nye) John, University of Waikato
Professor Alastair Scott, University of Auckland
Dr Geoff Wyvill, University of Otago

Marsden Research Studentship: Chris Jesshope has just been awarded a Marsden grant for research in advanced microprocessor architecture. He is looking for good graduate students to undertake this research. The research requires a knowledge of microprocessor architecture and of object oriented programming. It will involve the use of a framework to design an object-oriented, discrete-event simulator for a new microprocessor architecture. Detailed design work and optimisation of the ISA for the microprocessor and its implementation would follow.

For more information see: http://fims-www.massey.ac.nz/~crjessho/html/DRISC.html

A scholarship for three years at a rate to be negotiated is being offered. Chris is willing to merge two scholarships to get a good and enthusiastic student!


Events

Computer Science Subject Conference
Christchurch (Canterbury) 10-12 November '98

Tuesday, 10 November

Informal session on issues of interest

Wednesday, 11 November

Welcome/Opening 9:00am

UG Curriculum and Delivery 9:30am

Morning Tea 10:30am

Workload Management 11:00am

Lunch 12:00pm

Research Issues 1:00pm

First Programming Language 2:00pm
Afternoon Tea 3:00pm

Pre University Issues 3:30pm

Computer Science Association of NZ 4:00pm
Closing 4:30pm

Thursday, 12 November

Informal session on issues of interest

Image and Vision Computing '98
Tamaki Campus (Auckland) 16-18 November '98
See http://www.tcs.auckland.ac.nz/~ivcnz98/. The international programme committee selected four keynote speakers and twenty-eight papers for presentation, out of seventy-two submissions received from authors in sixteen countries.

SIRC 98-10th Annual Colloquium of the Spatial Information Research Centre
Dunedin (Otago IS) 16-19 November '98
Theme: Looking toward the next decade of spatial information research
The successes of the first decade could not have occurred, and will not continue, without the kind of interdisciplinary collaboration which is facilitated by SIRC colloquia. This colloquium, therefore, aims to reaffirm and encourage the interdisciplinary nature of SIRC and of spatial information research generally. The tradition of interdisciplinary interaction is set to continue into SIRC's second decade. Previous participants and contributors, as well as newcomers to the SIRC tradition-of all disciplines, from academia, government and industry-are invited to the University of Otago for SIRC 98. On behalf of the Organising Committee, SIRC, the University of Otago and sponsoring organisations, you are extended a warm invitation to attend and/or present your work at this colloquium, which celebrates 10 years of existence for the Spatial Information Research Centre.

For further information and to register your interest contact:

Dr Peter Firns
email: pfirns@infoscience.otago.ac.nz
or visit: http://divcom.otago.ac.nz:800/sirc/sirc98/

ACSW'99-Australasian Computer Science Week
Auckland 18-21 January '99
The last conferences this millennium of the Australasian Computer Science Association will be hosted by the Computer Science Department at the University of Auckland. This is only the second time that these conferences have been held in New Zealand.

ACSW'99 will incorporate the following conferences:

All conferences will have proceedings published by Springer. More details are available at:

http://www.tcs.auckland.ac.nz/~acsw99/
Organizing Chair: Professor Bob Doran, Computer Science Department
E-mail Address: bob@cs.auckland.ac.nz

Surface Approximation and Visualisation
Christchurch 15-18 February '99
The topic Surface Approximation and Visualisation will be interpreted broadly and they expect participants with interests covering the spectrum from Approximation Theory, through Numerical Analysis and Computer Aided Geometric Design, to those whose main interest is applications (e.g., data mining and geophysics). They plan to allocate lots of time without lectures for informal interactions, including a conference trip to Hanmer Springs thermal area. The organising committee can be contacted by e-mailing approx@math.auckland.ac.nz or via the conference homepage http://www.math.auckland.ac.nz/Conferences/NZATG-2-1999.


Masters Theses

Otago IS

1998

Waikato

1998

Auckland

1998

PhD Theses

Otago IS

1998

Lincoln

1998

Waikato

1998

Auckland

1998