Travel grants for Women in Computing Conference in Arizona

June 19, 2014 pfry

As part of Google’s ongoing commitment to increase the number of women in engineering, they are offering travel grants to the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference in Phoenix, Arizona on 8-10 October 2014.

The theme for this year’s conference is “Everywhere. Everyone.” and will offer incredible opportunities for mentoring, networking, and career development.

Female university students and industry professionals excelling in Computer Science can apply for one of the five travel grant to attend the 2014 Grace Hopper conference.

Sponsorship includes:

conference registration
round trip flight to Phoenix, AZ (from Europe, Middle East or Africa)
reimbursement for ground transportation to and from the airport and the hotel
arranged hotel accommodations from 7-11 October
a fun event with your travel scholar recipients on one of the evenings of the conference.

Apply here by Tuesday 15 July 2014. The winners will be announced the week of 4 August 2014.This conference is open to female residents of countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa. Terms & Conditions.

If you have any questions please email europe-events@google.com

Inspiration, Students

Computing students win Goldsmiths Innovation Awards

June 18, 2014 pfry

InnovationAwardWinners — Winners (L-R) Pedro Kirk, Terence Broad and Dan Clarke

Three undergraduate Computing students were awarded Goldsmiths Innovation Awards worth £200 each at the department’s end-of-year show on 4 June 2014.

The three prizes, supplied by Goldsmiths Student Union, were awarded by a panel of industry judges featuring audio technology consultant Martin Roth, Justin Spooner (Unthinkable Consulting), Ashley Elsdon (Palm Sounds) and Student Union President Conrad Grant.

Best Product Stroke music project Pedro Kirk	This project investigates the role of music in stroke rehabilitation with a focus on trialling some traditional forms of physical intervention on new devices using a variety of haptic systems. “I’ve built three prototypes to trial these ideas and I’m using the preliminary feedback from 25 stroke survivors to assess their interest in music as a motivator for performing standard repetitive tasks.”
Best Creative Work Mediated perceptions Terence Broad	Two webcams are attached to the front of an Oculus Rift headset. By feeding the images onto the VR screen the user gets a replica of their normal vision, which can then be distorted and manipulated the ‘reality’. “I’ve been experimenting with using it as a synaesthesia simulator – using music to trigger visual effects like colour shifting, wobble, blurring and temporal layering. But you can also trigger perceptual distortions using head movement, changes in brightness, or the detection of motion and faces.”
Best Software Evolution Sim Dan Clarke	A simplified representation of evolution. Each lifeform has a unique DNA string composed of 242 numbers between 0-9. These values are reflected mainly through their appearance and movement. There is also an impact on behaviours such as flocking and desire to attack others.When the creatures mate, they exchange DNA and the two children produced are a mixture of their parents (with a chance of mutation). Through their ability to survive, the strongest life-forms should increase in numbers.

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Info about Goldsmiths Computing courses

News, Students, Women in Computing

Goldsmiths’ students win best pitch at sexual violence hackathon

June 18, 2014 pfry

Two Goldsmiths’ BSc Computer Science students have been awarded Best Team Pitch for their group project at the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict hackathon.

The hackathon was part of a global summit hosted by Angelina Jolie, the Special Envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Foreign Secretary William Hague that aimed to find practical ways to prevent sexual violence being used as a weapon of war. The hackathon took place at the ExCel centre, Docklands between June 10 and 13 with a top prize of £1500 funding to be put towards further developing the winning app.

Students Sophie Pearce and James Milton worked with a group of eight to create a demo for a digital storytelling app called Kahani that shows the impact of sexual violence on a community from a range of view points.

The app is named after the Hindi word for story and would show positive examples of how survivors, their families and community leaders have dealt with the trauma of sexual violence.

The team behind Kahani won the Best Team Pitch for their pitch to a panel of judges that included heads of major charities, a delegate from the FCO and agency workers with on the ground experience. The top prize Judge’s Choice Award was won by an app that used GPS to direct survivors to the nearest aid centre.

Milton said he was pleased to win best pitch, and found the whole experience worthwhile. He said: “The cause was amazing, the people were inspiring and the challenge of building an effective team in 72 hours was really enjoyable. It has enhanced my belief in the power of computing and social technology to help solve major issues.”

This article was first published on East London Lines by Hannah Ashton

Events, Inspiration, Students

Event: Meet the Diasynchronoscope

June 12, 2014 pfry

Join Goldsmiths geniuses Dr Carol MacGillivray and Bruno Mathez, who discuss and demonstrate their work with an experimental medium that creates an immersive experience of animation unmediated by screen or camera.

When: 6-8pm Thursday 3 July 2014
Where: Centre for Creative Collaboration, 14 Acton Street, London WC1X 9NG Map

Carol and Bruno – working collectively as TROPE – met at Goldsmiths in 2011. They invented the Diasynchronoscope, and have since produced a number of exploratory artworks by animating concrete objects through selective attention using projection mapping. They work from a studio based in South-East London.

Artist and researcher Carol MacGillivray comes from a background of animation and film editing and spent 20 years working across documentary‚ drama‚ music videos‚ and commercials. She taught film at the Royal College of Art and became a senior lecturer in animation at the University of West London. An increased interest in combining theoretical research and practice led Carol to undertake a PhD by practice in Arts and Computational Technology at Goldsmiths. Her PhD thesis Choreographing Time: Developing a system of Screen-less Animation researched the grammar of the Diasynchronoscope as a new medium.

Bruno Mathez is a French audiovisual artist, video producer, teacher and researcher based in London. His practice is dedicated to cross-medium experimentation with an emphasis on audiovisual techniques. Bruno has created visuals for music concerts‚ operas‚ dance and theatre shows, exhibited his installation Photophonics in the UK and toured internationally with interactive audiovisual group The Sancho Plan including a residency at the Ars Electronica Center. He’s teaching film-making for the Composing for Moving Images MA at City University London. He also undertook a MA in Computational Studio Arts in 2012 at Goldsmiths‚ university of London‚ where he explored the themes of visual music in space and interactive video sculptures.

Events

Conference: Conformity, Process and Deviation: Digital Arts as ‘Outsider’

June 10, 2014 pfry

chart Booking is now open for this year’s conference from CHArt: Computers and the History of Art.

Entitled Conformity, Process and Deviation: Digital Arts as ‘Outsider’, the one-day conference runs at Kings College London on Saturday 18 October 2014.

Topics under discussion may include:

subversive engagement with digital arts and culture
originality and experimentation v. standards, trends and hypes
disruptions of the commonplace or the mainstream
visual digital subcultures
submerged identities
visualising the underground
elite audiences v. multi-peer connectivity
working in partnership with or against diverse organisations
cross-disciplinary subversive interventions.

> Read more and book tickets
> About CHArt

Careers, Women in Computing

Paid internships for designers, copywriters, creatives and UX experts

June 1, 2014 pfry

Our friends at Lady Geek are looking for outstanding creative talent to help us re-design the communications for one of the world’s leading phone manufacturer to make them more appealing to women.

This is an opportunity for you to take part on an exciting and transformative project, within a busy thriving and creative team, allowing you to develop your skills /portfolio.

The project will take place in June/July 2014 but with the opportunity for further scope. Previous creatives who have worked for us have had their work featured on BBC News, Wired, The Independent, Apple Store and the Houses of Parliament.

Skills & experience

Your duties mainly include concept creation, development and execution.
Someone who can come up with ideas that go beyond a media channel.
Ideally, you’ll also have a good understanding of CS suites and be able to visualise ideas on paper.
You will need a portfolio packed with high quality work and excellent ideas.

They’d love to hear from you whether you are a student or a graduate. To apply please send your CV and portfolio sample that will be relevant for the project, together with a cover letter stating why you’d like to join them. Please email your application to Joana Pereira at joana@ladygeek.com.

Events, Students

Goldsmiths’ undergrad computing show 2014

May 30, 2014 pfry

On Wednesday 4 June, you are invited to the 2014 undergraduate show for Goldsmiths’ Department of Computing.

Students and staff will demonstrate the most creative, innovative and accomplished projects that were produced during the academic year 2013-14. Exhibits will include projections, devices, screens and performances demonstrating excellence in games, art, virtual reality, interactivity, music and video. Three projects will be awarded prizes for Best Creative Work, Best Product and Best Software.

All are welcome. The exhibition is open throughout the afternoon. In the evening we will host a gig and DJ set that demonstrates how Goldsmiths students are using technology to generate new kinds of performance.

Where: Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, London SE14 6TY
When: 3pm-11pm Wednesday 4 June 2014
Register for free tickets: alturl.com/7apun

Poster image created by 2nd year Creative Computing student Robin Hunter

Goldsmiths Department of Computing Blog