All posts by Rose

Women in Computing

HER in Hero: Justine Cassell, Rosalind Picard and Rana El Kaliouby

Nominated by: Marco Gillies

JustineCassell has really influenced my work over the years with her fantastic work on modelling human non-verbal behaviour, work that really integrates computational work with very human behaviour.

Rosalind Picard: also does that in a different way. Her work on “Affective Computing”, i.e. computing and the emotions, applies hard core engineering to the very human problem of emotion.

Finally, I’d like to mention one of Rosalind’s collaborators, Rana El Kaliouby, who did her PhD in the same lab as me and I had to honour once to present some of her fantastic work on emotion recognition at a conference.

Women in Computing

HER in Hero: Professor Dame Wendy Hall

Nominated by: Wendy McDonald

I’d like to nominate Professor Dame Wendy Hall – I only recently came across her and her work through listening to ‘The Life Scientific’. It was fantastic to hear her talk about her route to becoming such a prominent computer scientist having originally thought that computers had nothing much to offer her. Not only is she a hugely intelligent and successful scientist but she also sounds like an inspirational manager – leading the School of Electronics and Computer Science from 2002 to 2007, during which time the department lost much of its work and infrastructure in a severe fire.

I also had to nominate her as she shares my name and it’s not often that you come across another Wendy, especially in the STEM world.

 

 

Women in Computing

HER in Hero: Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley

Nominated by: Brock Craft, Computing Dept

I think Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley put the “HER” in Hero because she was one of the pioneers of supporting women in Computing. She founded a software company called Freelance Programmers in 1962 to help women obtain work opportunities. It was an ideal fit for women supporting children and directly challenged the pervasive attitude that women weren’t suited to highly technical roles. Like many of her predecessors, Dame Shirley adopted a male name to get her in the door, surprising some of her prospective clients as she walked into boardrooms. Her company won major government contracts, designed scheduling and shipping software, and determined the statistical analyses for the black box sensor array on Concorde.

 

Women in Computing

Putting the HER in Hero for Ada Lovelace Day

In association with Little Miss Geek’s, HER in Hero campaign Goldsmiths Women in Computing Network is holding the above event, an opportunity for women students to meet up and have a cup of tea together and an informal chat about their studies and their experience of Goldsmiths.

We are also asking all staff and students, whether men or women, to do one of the following to promote women as role models for both men and women in Computing and other STEM subjects:

1) Send us a photo of yourself and the name of a woman in Computing or another STEM subject. Tell us why you think she puts the HER in Hero. We will put your picture and your reasons on the blog and our VLE page. The role model you nominate can be anyone at all, from your high school teacher to Ada herself!

2) If you have Facebook or Twitter send a tweet or update your facebook status on Tuesday 15th. Write ‘Happy Ada Lovelace Day’ followed by the name of your role model. Take a screenshot and email us the screenshot so we can add it to the blog and the VLE.

You can send either of these things to r.hepworth[at]gold.ac.uk

Events, Students

Now Here 13: Computational Arts Degree Show

Nowhere 2013, a unique and compelling show by Masters students in Computational Studio Arts, Goldsmiths, Department of Computing, University of London.

Nowhere 2013 showcases a diverse range of work by twenty five international practitioners, who are shaping the use and understanding of applied technologies and their role in society alongside wider cultural practices. Nowhere 2013 is a highly captivating experience set in one of Goldsmiths’ newest exhibition spaces, a former church at the heart of the campus.

All the practitioners are engaged in wide-ranging research: from augmented reality to storytelling, from traditional arts and crafts to theories of perception, from the self to the technological ‘other’; the resulting works span from audio-visual composition to large scale installation, from live performances to photography to dynamic computational systems.

They variously describe themselves as fine artists, artist-programmers, sonic artists, musicians and performance artists. Others eschew these terms completely and instead seek their own definitions for practices that are always engaging and often challenging.

The exhibiting students have each developed their individual practices, merging existing specialties with innovative computational approaches whilst maintaining a critical eye on the wider social implications.

The Computational Studio Arts programme awards degrees at two levels, a one-year Masters (MA) and a two-year Master of Fine Art (MFA), both of which are represented in this show. Based in the Goldsmiths Digital Studios, the Computational Studio Arts programme exemplifies the strong interdisciplinary identity at the core of the Computing Department’s world-leading research.

 

Practitioners:

Fabio Lattanzi Antinori, Pradeep Balasubramanian, Damien Borowik, Joowon Chung, Jeffrey Ferguson, Andrea Fischer, William Goodin IV, Steph Horak, Haydn Jones, Parinot Kunakornwong, James Leahy, Kain Leo, Richard Lockett, Matthias Moos, Jonathan Munro, Samson Ng, A. Nuttall, Nelmarie du Preez, Ladan Razeghi, Stefan Ritter, Jonathan Shohet Gluzberg, Jen Sykes, Ronan Tuite, Catherine M. Weir, and Cedar Zhou.

 

Private View: 6pm to 9pm, 12th September

Performance times: 7pm and 9pm

 

Open to the Public: 13th to 16th September

Open daily: 10am to 7pm

Sunday 15th September: 10am to 4pm

Performance times: 2pm to 3pm & 6pm to 7pm (except Sunday)

Find out more, visit the Now Here 13 website

 

Inspiration, Staff profiles and activity

Dr Brock Craft on 3D Printing and his new book, Arduino Projects for Dummies!

A double post on our very own Dr Brock Craft today.

A short piece featuring Brock appeared in Monday’s City AM. The paper ran a piece debating which technology has the greatest potential to transform the world over the next 50 years.

Here’s Brock’s case for 3D Printing:

3D PRINTING
3D printing is the technology of the moment. It’s now left the high-tech research and development laboratories – where it’s been used for decades – and the consumer market is wide open.
And the market is growing. Just last month, industry leader Stratasys bought 3D printing firm Makerbot. Objects can be printed almost as easily as documents, and the price point for a basic 3D printer is coming down faster than it did for laser and ink-jet printers. You can download designs for thousands of models and print anything from toys, to tools, to replacement parts. The possibilities are endless.
Video games will soon incorporate 3D printing. And as with other content in books, music, and movies, there is also potential for licensing 3D models. In the not too distant future, we will be able to print an entire product from scratch (including its electronics), and deliver it immediately to the customer. When this is made possible, 3D printing will radically overhaul the way manufacturing markets operate.
Brock’s been v busy over the past year. Not only does he have a busy teaching load coaching our undergraduates and postgraduates in the wonders of Physical Computing, but he’s also been writing the newly published Arduino Projects for Dummies.
Well done Brock! Now, enjoy the summer and try to have a well-deserved rest before term starts!