Research Excellence Framework 2021

The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) welcomes the publication of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework results.  The THE world university rankings table for the UK has also been recalculated on the basis of the 2021 REF and is published today.  For SICSA institutions: 45% of research was world-leading (4*) and 43% internationally excellent … Read more

SICSA Education Learning & Teaching Scholars announced

10 May 2022 by Matthew Barr, SICSA Director of Education Congratulations to our newly-selected SICSA Education Learning & Teaching Scholars! We received a lot of applications, and, inevitably, we couldn’t accommodate everyone. However, we hope to be able to run the programme again next year, if funding allows. Our 16 Scholars will now embark on … Read more

SICSA Education Distinguished Speaker Seminar at The University of Glasgow: Dr Lauren Margulieux

6 May 2022 by Dr Mireilla Bikanga Ada, SICSA Education Champion and SICSA Education Distinguished Speaker Seminar organiser at UofG. The School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow held a SICSA Education Distinguished Speaker Seminar on 30th March 2022. The event was organised by the University’s SICSA Education Champion, Dr Mireilla Bikanga Ada. … Read more

SICSA PECE Award – Visit to MIT

23 March 2022 by Theodoros Stouraitis, University of Edinburgh I’m Theo, a research associate at the Statistical Machine Learning and Motor Control (SLMC) group at the University of Edinburgh and I am about to complete a three-month research visit at Interactive Robotics Group (IRG), at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, USA. During … Read more

25th Scottish Networking Event (SCONE)

23 March 2022 by Jeremy Singer, University of Glasgow The 25th Scottish Networking Event (SCONE) was held at the University of Glasgow on Friday 25th February 2022. This was the first in-person event for the SICSA Networking & Systems theme for two years. We convened a hybrid meeting, with around 15 people at Glasgow and … Read more

Capture The Flag (CTF): What to expect and how to get involved in an event

15 March 2022 by Christopher McDermott, Robert Gordon University On Tuesday 1st March, we ran our SICSA sponsored workshop during Cyber Scotland Week 2022. The purpose of the workshop was to increase student interest, and ultimately, participation in CTF events. Evidence has shown that introducing technical concepts to students with little or no technical background … Read more

SICSA and EIT Digital Boost Scottish European Student Exchange Programme

     SICSA and EIT Digital partner to deliver Scottish Funding Council Saltire Scheme Scotland & Brussels, March 2nd, 2022: The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) have partnered with EIT Digital to deliver on a £75k SFC investment in renewing and strengthening Scottish – European research collaborations. The “Saltire Emerging Researcher Scheme” is … Read more

2-1 for Edinburgh vs Glasgow in the SICSA Programming Challenges!

23 February 2022 by Hans-Wolfgang Loidl, Heriot-Watt University The most recent instance of the SICSA Programming Challenge finished with a clean sweep of the first three places by students from the University of Glasgow. This makes it 2-1 for Edinburgh vs Glasgow in this series of SICSA wide programming challenges. The series of SICSA Programming … Read more

SICSA Education: RISCS / SICSA sponsored workshop on Secure Development Practices education

17 February 2022 by Shamal Faily, Robert Gordon University On Wednesday, December 8th, we ran a half-day joint RISCS / SICSA sponsored workshop on Secure Development Practices education.  Practices for secure software development entail more than writing code. They encompass the broader design and engineering practices that produce usable and secure software.  We already know … Read more

SICSA PECE Funding

2 February 2022 by Gavin Abercrombie, Heriot Watt University In late October 2021, I packed my suitcase and left dark, damp, dreich Edinburgh for, well, dark, damp, dreich Milan. Okay, maybe the days are a little longer, but the climate in winter is pretty familiar to the vitamin D-starved Scotland-based postdoctoral researcher – oh, and … Read more