University of Tasmania, Australia

Posted Oct 4, 2013

Spend a day with Tasmania's leading talent in getting-stuff-done-on-the-web-quickly, learning the ways of rapid web development.

This programme is targeted to early-stage computing students (college or uni) with a strong interest in web development. Ideally, you'll have done some introductory programming in a silly language such as Java, C or PHP. You should know some HTML and CSS and what a Server and a Client are.

See http://suptas.nationbuilder.com/guided_introduction_to_modern_web_development for more information and to register.

Posted Oct 3, 2013

All CIS Windows and Macintosh accounts associated with students who do not have a current CIS enrolment have now been deactivated, along with any associated door swipe-card access for the Centenary Building. This is in line with providing computer and lab access to students actually studying within the School.

If your account has be deactivated and you need to retrieve files from CIS servers, please see the Help Desk

Posted Oct 1, 2013

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC) are wanting to employ 2 or 3 Computing & Info Systems students, preferably current 1st or 2nd year students, to assist with IT work during election periods.

See our Jobwatch page for more information

Posted Oct 1, 2013

The School has a number of surplus Dell Desktop computers for sale in Hobart. The machines have various specifications, ranging from:

• 2.8 GHz to 3.3 GHz CPUs;
• 1GB to 4GB of RAM;
• 40GB to 320 GB HD;
• DVD/CD-RW or DVD-RW drive;
• 17" Dell LCD;
• a mouse and keyboard, and the original operating system installation media (Windows XP to Windows 7 depending on the system).

Note that no operating system is currently installed (the hard-drives have been erased).

Prices vary from $40 to $250 for the systems based on their individual specifications.

Please note the following "sale rules":

• all items have been tested and are in working order, but it is up to the purchaser to be satisfied that they are suitable for their purposes
• there is no warranty of any kind
• you may request a demonstration that the machine you are about to purchase is in working order
• no bulk sales - individual sales to staff and students only
• no reservations - you must inspect in person, and pay to take away
• no transport between campuses
• all sales are final

Note that we cannot offer any support. Please visit the School's Help Desk in Hobart to inspect or purchase equipment.

Posted Oct 1, 2013

The Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology is very keen to introduce its high achieving students to the research activities undertaken in the Schools. The Faculty will be awarding scholarships at $3000 each to allow students to work in a research group for a period of 6 weeks during the 2013/2014 summer period.

Please see http://www.utas.edu.au/science-engineering-technology/quick-links/scholarship-varieties/deans-summer-research-scholarships for more information.

Posted Sep 30, 2013

This Friday (the 4th October) at 1:00pm there is an information session about the 2014 Honours and Masters programs. The session will be on in Room 473 in Hobart and V137 in Launceston. All 3rd year students who are likely to be eligible for Honours or Masters in 2014 should attend this session in order to ensure that no opportunities are missed just due to not knowing about them.

Online information about the Bachelor of ICT (Honours) can be found at: http://www.utas.edu.au/computing-information-systems/new-courses/bachelor-of-information-and-communication-technology-honours. It may be helpful before Friday to familiarise yourself with this information in order to come prepared with questions.

Posted Sep 30, 2013

Today's workshop (Monday 30th September) from 13:00 - 15:50 has been cancelled. Please refer to email for more information.

Posted Sep 30, 2013

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston this weekend, from 10pm Saturday October 5 ntil around noon Sunday October 6.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Sep 24, 2013

Congratulations to Ting Ting Cao, Duncan Berry and Kate Fernandes for winning the Hobart site and finishing 8th on the regional scoreboard on the day, as team "UTas A", in the South Pacific Regional round of the ACM ICPC.

See the newsroom for more info re the local on the day outcome and look via the main contest site for more info on the overall regional outcome, including the finalised results when they appear in due course.

Posted Sep 20, 2013

Do you want to be part of an intense but fun challenge that will run you off your feet? Sign up NOW for the OzCHI 24-hour design challenge.

Run over 24 hours from 10AM this Saturday to 10AM Sunday, your team needs to design *something* based on a brief you'll receive at the start of the challenge.

This could be a website or iPhone app, but previous UTAS teams have come up with a crazy array of solutions to various problems ranging from wearable video cameras hidden in hats, intelligent speakers smuggled into trees and LED lights stuck to garbage bins. How you answer the design brief is entirely up to you!

The competition is THIS WEEKEND. UTAS have been finalists the last few years running. Let's get together another couple of strong teams this year! Go to:
http://www.ozchi24.org

Typical team sizes are 3-5 people, but if you can't get a team together, email Matthew (mdorazio@utas.edu.au) and he'll try to fit you into one

Posted Sep 20, 2013

Today's lecture (Friday 13:00-14:50) has been cancelled due to illness.

Catch-up details will be sent at a later date

Posted Sep 18, 2013

This Saturday, September 21, the School will host the Tasmanian site of the ACM International Programming Contest (South Pacific Region) in Hobart.

Due to the nature of the programming contest, much of level 3 of the Centenary building will be off limits to anyone not involved in the contest from 10:00am until 7:00pm. Access to the female toilets on this level will not be affected.

The School's file servers in Hobart, and the computer labs on level 2 of the Centenary building will not be affected by the competition, and will remain available.

Posted Sep 16, 2013

Researchers from the School of Computing and Information Systems are seeking participants to help develop a trial treatment for spider phobia.

Specific phobias are intense and unreasonable fears of certain things like snakes, spiders or mice which interfere with people?s day to day living. Estimated to affect 12.5% of the adult population at some point in their lives, it is the most common anxiety disorder, and disproportionately affects women. When confronted by the object of their phobia, a person will experience extreme anxiety or panic.

If you, or someone you know, suffers from a persistent and unreasonable fear of spiders, are female, and aged between 17 and 35, please consider participation in the MorphFear trials. Participation will take no more than an hour (far less in most cases), and participants will be reimbursed $20 for participation.

To join in the study, please send a message to contact@morphfear.com expressing your interest, or visit www.morphfear.com for further information and contact details.

Posted Sep 14, 2013

The School of Computing and Information Systems has undertaken a significant revision of its degree offerings. A considerable degree and curricula development process based on the Australian Computer Society (ACS) recommended process was undertaken with information sought from stakeholders. A comprehensive study of what was available nationally and internationally was also undertaken, as well as a review of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) international curricula in all ICT related-fields and as well as a review of ACS curricula for accreditation. On the basis of all the information gathered, a new single undergraduate degree Bachelor of Information and Communication Technology (BICT) and a new single postgraduate degree Master of Information Technology and Systems (MITS) have been developed and will be offered from 2014. The existing degrees will continue for teach-out purposes only.

As a result of the curricula renewal from 2014 we will be offering a whole range of new units and most of our existing units will be discontinued. Information about the new degrees and units can be found at: http://www.utas.edu.au/computing-information-systems/new-courses

Information sessions will be held throughout semester 2 to provide information on the changes and the impact on existing students. If you are going to continue your enrolment into 2014 we recommend you attend one of the following information sessions:

• Launceston
• Monday 29th July 11am V137
  Information for students enrolling in Honours or postgraduate units in 2014
• Monday 29th July 12noon V137
  Information for students enrolling in undergraduate units in 2014
• Hobart
• Wednesday 31st July 1pm Centenary Lecture Theatre
  Information for students enrolling in Honours or postgraduate units in 2014
• Wednesday 31st July 2pm Centenary Lecture Theatre
  Information for students enrolling in undergraduate units in 2014
• Video Conference (Hbt/Ltn) - repeats of above sessions
• Tuesday 13th August 12noon V137/Cent473
  Information for students enrolling in undergraduate units in 2014
• Monday 16th September 12noon V137/Cent473
  Information for students enrolling in undergraduate units in 2014
• Tuesday 1st October 12noon V137/Cent473
  Information for students enrolling in Honours or postgraduate units in 2014

To address your immediate concerns: You will not be required to change your degree and there will be sufficient units available for you to complete your current degree and all the core content from existing units required for ACS membership will continue to be available.

Posted Sep 6, 2013

There will be no lectures in week 8, but tutorials are on as usual.

Posted Aug 30, 2013

CSIRO ICT Centre is offering summer vacation scholarships in their research labs.

An opportunity to gain valuable research experience, make contacts for the future and earn some money! This summer get a Vacation Scholarship at CSIRO Computational Informatics for an experience of a lifetime!
Information session: Monday 2nd September 3pm Hobart (Cent473), Launceston (V137)

The scholarships include:

• Placement for 12 weeks in a CSIRO research facility
• Valuable research experience in the area of your choice.
• A scholarship payment of $1462.77 per fortnight (before tax)
• Attendance at a conference to network and showcase your work.
• Training in presentation skills

Hobart-based projects are detailed here

More information about the scholarship program itself can be found here. Applications close September 8 2013

Posted Aug 27, 2013

Jeremy Breen, PhD candidate in the UTAS School of Computing and Information Systems and CSIRO, was recently awarded the Postgraduate tertiary student iAward for his thesis Autonomous analysis of marine sediment chemistry using an underwater robot.The award recognises the most outstanding project or research undertaken by a tertiary (postgraduate) student (or group of students) during Masters, Doctoral or Post-Doctoral programs. The iAwards acknowledge innovations in ICT and highlight the ways ICT is delivering innovation and can help drive productivity and economic growth.

Jeremy, 28, said it was great to get recognition for the research.

"The underwater robot was developed by CSIRO and my work was to equip it with an xray fluorescent spectrometer, which allows us to analyse the chemistry of marine sediments."

Jeremy worked with the CSIRO ICT Centre in the Intelligent Sensing and Systems Laboratory with supervisor Greg Timms. His UTAS supervisors are Professor Paulo de Souza (UTAS HITLab), Dr Robert Ollington (CIS).

"In particular we were interested in the contamination of heavy metals, which is a problem here in the Derwent River."
"I integrated the spectrometer system with the robot and then developed control software that allows the robot to land on the floor of the river and take a measurement. Then we had automated data analysis, which analyses the collected spectrum on-board the robot in real time," he said."You can place the robot into the environment and it will go and seek out the areas that have high levels of heavy metal contamination autononously."

Jeremy said the work has laid the ground for future research.

"Environmental agencies and councils etcetera are interested in knowing what the contamination is like in their areas because it can affect aquaculture and human health"."I see this sort of technology as a preliminary examination of what could be achieved; the exploration can be used to guide proper quantitative surveys," he said."The robot cannot tell you that you've got this many milligrams of lead or mercury, but it can identify the areas likely to have high levels of heavy metals, which can then be used to guide the full quantitative survey."

Jeremy said he has always had an interest in science.
"It has been a lifelong ambition to do something in the field - and of course any little kid dreams of dealing with robots when they grow up."

Jeremy will receive his doctorate in the December round of graduations at UTAS.
The SenseT project also found glory at the iAwards. Read the story here: http://www.media.utas.edu.au/general-news/all-news/the-world-is-their-award-winning-app

Posted Aug 26, 2013

Due to illness the following lectures and tutorials have been cancelled:

• Lecture Monday 13:00 - 14:50 Vishv Malhotra SocSci210 & LT2
• Tutorial Monday 15:00 - 15:50 Vishv Malhotra 272
• Tutorial Monday 16:00 - 16:50 Vishv Malhotra 272/

The lecturer will provide alternative schedule details later this week

Posted Aug 15, 2013

Researchers at the School of Computing and Information Systems are investigating various forms of player motivation in video games and need your help!

Play a few puzzle games and then fill out a short survey. The study will take no more than 20 minutes.

if you are interested in taking part in this study (and you are at least 18 years of age), please get in contact with us. We would love to hear from you.

The associated information sheet is available here

Feel free to direct any inquiries to: Adam.Zulkifly@utas.edu.au

Posted Aug 13, 2013

From 2014 the School of Computing and Information Systems will be offering a whole new set of undergraduate units and discontinuing most of the units we have on offer this year. There will be an information session about this on Tuesday (TODAY) in Hobart in Cent 473 and Launceston in V137 for students intending to enrol in undergraduate units in 2014.

Information about the new courses and units can be found at:http://www.utas.edu.au/computing-information-systems/new-courses

Posted Aug 12, 2013

If you forward your UTas email to an external email provider, there's a chance you will not receive important email from UTas.

This issue particularly affects email services provided by Microsoft (including hotmail, outlook.com, msn.com and live.com email addresses) and Apple (including mac.com, me.com and iCloud.com email addresses). These and many other email providers use a blacklisting service to block sites that are considered senders of spam, and unfortunately at times this can include UTas due to the volume of email we send.

Please reconsider carefully if you use email forwarding. It can take weeks for these services to lift any blacklisting they apply to UTas, and during this period you will not receive email that could be important in relation to your studies and your assessment.

Posted Aug 5, 2013

ITS are looking for a casual staffer for their Service Desk which may be of interest to any CIS students who will be continuing their studies into 2014.

Please see the jobwatch page for more information

Posted Aug 1, 2013

The Friday August 2nd lecture from 10:00am-12:00noon will be on as scheduled. It will take place in Engineering 201 via remote video conferencing.

The Friday August 2nd lecture from 2:00pm-4:00pm is cancelled.

Posted Jul 30, 2013

Paris Buttfield-Addison and Jon Manning are the two founding members of Secret Lab, a local development company based in Hobart. They are also both PhD candidates in the School of Computing and Information Systems.

Recently at OSCON, Paris and Jon were interviewed by O'Reilly Media on their thoughts on Mobile Game Programming. See the interview here

Posted Jul 29, 2013

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston this weekend, from 10pm Saturday August 3 until around noon Sunday August 4.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Jul 26, 2013

This year's Tasmanian ICT Conference will be held at the Hotel Grand Chancellor on Monday 5 August.

The conference program is available here.

There are two sessions relevant to students:

• 10 - 12 noon
  National ICT Career's week
• 12 noon - 5 pm
  General Conference
  Students are more than welcome to attend this (for free) - register on the website:.
  http://www.tasict.com/events/registration/annual-conference-registration-concession

For more information, please see the TasICT website at http://www.tasict.com/tasict-annual-conference-and-agm

Posted Jul 19, 2013

The Tutorial Allocation System has now allocated students to tutorials where possible.
Please see the CIS Help Desk for modifications (changes to allocation or if you were not allocated at all).
(the system now only displays allocations, it does not allow you to make changes).

Posted Jul 17, 2013

The CIS CD for semester 2, 2013 is now available to students from the CIS Software Archive, both as a zip archive to copy onto your thumb drive or an ISO image to burn to CD/DVD. It contains software, such as the Java SDK and JCreator, that may be useful for some of your CIS subjects.

To navigate to these resources from a CIS lab computer:

• For PCs, click the Start icon, then All Programs, then CIS Resources. Then follow the links CIS Software Archive, The Archive, School of CIS, CIS Software CD 2013 Semester 2.
• For Macs, open the Shortcuts folder on the dock and choose CIS Software Archive, then follow the same links as for PCs above.

If you prefer to access the Software Archive from home you will need to be running VPN software before visiting http://software.cis.utas.edu.au from your web browser.

Posted Jul 15, 2013

The Tutorial Allocation System is now online. To gain access to the system see the "Steps to Perform" section further down in this News item.

The allocation process is handled by a web-based system in which each student selects preferred tutorial times from a list of available tutorials. After the closing date, the system will perform all allocations based on preferences and availability.

Note: To access the system, you will need to activate your CIS account - (continuing students from first semester also have to reactivate in order to access the tutorial system). You must have an current enrolment in CIS units to be able to activate your account - see the kiosk machine outside the School's Help Desk.

You will be able to access the Allocation System from any machine on the University network including VPN.

The closing time for the Tutorial Allocation System will be on Friday July 19, at 12:00 noon. If you have not saved your preferences by this time you will miss out on the initial allocation process and you will then need to visit the CIS Help Desk for manual allocation from the remaining tutorial spaces.

Steps To Perform

1. If you are off campus, you must have VPN software installed, configured and running in order to be able to connect to the tutorial system. You can get VPN from ITR here and please make sure that you follow the installation instructions from the same ITR site.

2. If you do not already have your account details, please activate your account on the Kiosk machine near the School's Help Desk. You will need to know your UTAS email password and have an active enrolment in one or more CIS units.

   You can also access the Kiosk system to (re)activate your account from home, but you will need to be using VPN as above. The Kiosk address it http://kiosk.cis.utas.edu.au

3. Access the Tutorial Allocation System by visiting http://www.cis.utas.edu.au:8080/cisportal/account/index.jsp using a Web Browser. If you are unable to gain access, seek help from the School Help Desk.

4. Set the preferences for all units that you are studying that require preferences.

5. Check back with the system on Friday July 19 in the afternoon to view your allocations. We expect the system to be back on-line by 1:00 pm

Posted Jul 4, 2013

Ionata are currently looking for an exceptional individual to fill the role of Casual/Part-time Front-End Web Developer in their Hobart office.

Please see our job watch page for more details.

Posted Jun 28, 2013

Due to maintenance work on UTas data centre infrastructure, there will be a University-wide ICT service disruption on Saturday July 6 from 7am until 7pm. The outage will affect almost all ICT services, including:

• UTAS Web sites
• File servers
• Email
• MyMedia
• Video conferencing
• Microsoft Lync
• VPN
• Wireless networking
• Webkiosk
• CAPS printing
• Raisers Edge
• CardAx
• UniGym Link
• Syllabus Plus
• UTAS KB

Services may appear to be available at times during the outage window, but accessibility is not guaranteed, and should not be relied upon.

Posted May 30, 2013

A local agency (StudioGreen Concepts) are seeking a part-time web developer. Please see our job watch page for more details.

Posted May 24, 2013

The School has a number of surplus Apple iMac (Intel) computers for sale in Hobart and Launceston. The machines have 2.0GHz Core-2 Duo CPUs, 2G of RAM, a 250G HD, a DVD-RW drive, 20" LCD, iSight camera, WiFi, mouse and keyboard, and the original media. All have a base install of MacOS X. The price is $250 per system.

Please note the following "sale rules":

• all items have been tested and are in working order, but it is up to the purchaser to be satisfied that they are suitable for their purposes
• there is no warranty of any kind
• you may request a demonstration that the machine you are about to purchase is in working order
• no bulk sales - individual sales to staff and students only
• limit of 1 per person per week
• no reservations - you must inspect in person, and pay to take away
• no transport between campuses
• all sales are final

Note that we cannot offer any support (such as how to upgrade to later versions of MacOS, or how to install Windows). Please visit the School's Help Desk in Hobart to inspect or purchase equipment.

Posted May 23, 2013

Cream of the Code?

Think you cut code like a boss? Then this competition is for you. The Codehire Cup is on a quest to find Australia's best professional and student programmers.

Unlike many of the hackathon competitions going around, we dare to be different. You'll be competing as individuals trying to solve specific problems as fast as possible to take home cash, prizes and glory!

The competition begins with the preliminary and semi-final rounds being held online. If you're one of the top competitors during these online rounds, you'll be offered a spot in our live finale at Fishburners in Sydney, and have the chance to share in over $10,000 in cash and prizes.

Registration is free so what have you got to lose!?

Key dates:

• June 7 - Online registration ends.
• June 8 - Online preliminary rounds begin.
• June 15 - Online semi-final rounds begin.
• July 13 - Live finale at Fishburners coworking space in Sydney.(finale can be done online if a contestant is unable to get there).

See http://www.codehire.com/cup for more information.

Posted May 17, 2013

TUCS is running an end-of-semester quiz night at the Uni Bar on Friday 24 May. Doors open at 5:30, and the quiz starts at 6:30.

Cost is $5 per person or $32 for a table of up to 8 people (pay on the night). Food available at at the bar. There will be quiz prizes and a lucky door prize. Please register at http://www.tucs.org.au/events/quiznight.

Come along - it's a fun night out!

Posted May 16, 2013

The inaugural Telstra M2M University Challenge gives today's university students a chance to prove they're the next leading generation of Aussie innovators in a ten week competition.

Penultimate year students are invited to form a multi-discipline team and develop an innovative and commercially viable machine-to-machine (M2M) solution for the chance to win great prizes.

More details can be found in this flyer [PDF, 45.6KB]

Applications are now open, but close on 30th May 2013.

Please note applicants should coordinate their applications with their local team - if there is enough interest UTAS may put forward a team, but a local coordinator is as yet, to be determined.To indicate your interest, email www@cis.utas.edu.au

Posted May 15, 2013

Gov Hack is a competition that encourages small teams of programmers and designers to create tools and visualisations that are based on freely available data sets.

When: June 1-2
Where: The Typewriter Factory, Level 3, 13-17 Castray Esplanade, Hobart

• Developer Kit: http://www.govhack.org/howto/
• Data Sets: http://www.govhack.org/data/
• Rules: http://www.govhack.org/competition-rules-code-of-conduct/

Further Resources:

• The Australian Web Site: http://www.govhack.org/
• The Tasmanian Landing Page: http://www.govhack.org/locations/tasmania/

Posted May 13, 2013

TradingPlaces is excited to introduce an advanced Quantitative Trading Competition offered exclusively to Honours and Masters students from the fields of Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science and Engineering.

This challenging new Competition will give students with an aptitude for analytics and programming the opportunity to apply their skills in a real-world application. Participants will be provided with an official data source which they are to analyse and construct a quantitative trading model, using advanced statistical techniques. Participants will then present their results in a final report, detailing their motivation for the model and referencing any resources used.

Official data will be available for download on Monday 20th May 2013 and participants can submit their final report at any time before Friday 28th June, by e- mailing a zip file containing their final report and their self-contained and compilable code (written strictly in Octave or Matlab) to quantcomp@tradingplaces.com.au. The winner will be the person who achieves the greatest out-of-sample profit during 2 years of sample data, and will also be judged on the statistical significance of individual returns, techniques used and profit volatility.

The top 3 submissions will be rewarded with a generous cash prize pool, offering:

• $2,000 for the Winner,
• $1,000 for second place,
• And $500 for third place!

Visit www.tradingplaces.com.au/quantcomp for more information and to register for the 2013 Competition.

This is your chance to showcase your statistical skills and possibly walk away with $2,000 for your efforts!

Posted May 10, 2013

Posted May 8, 2013

Are you a budding app designer?

Yeah, why?
Building on the success of our 2012 competition, we're proud to announce HISA's App Challenge 2013.

How is it different from 2012?
This year ANYONE with an IDEA for a mobile health app is invited to enter!

Amazing! What do I have to do?
Come up with the concept for an innovative e-health related app that facilitates healthcare or improves outcomes by empowering consumers to access or use health information.

Why should you apply?

Submissions to HISA's Health Apps Challenge 2013 involve a video presentation of the app concept, not development of an actual app.

If you have a great idea for an app, entering this challenge will provide national exposure for you and your idea, and give you feedback on your idea from leading e-health and health informatics experts from across Australia.

Winners will gain even more exposure and promotion by HISA and get to meet and network with Australia's health informatics community. Oh, and there will be cash prizes too! Why wouldn't you enter?!

Opportunity to sponsor

If you're interested in sponsoring this this competition please contact Amanda Barbone via email at amanda@hisa.org.au for more information.

How to get involved

Visit our website for full information about judging, submission and prizes: http://www.hisa.org.au/AppsChallenge2013

Dates

Wednesday 1 May - Submissions open
Monday 3 June - Submission deadline (9.00 AM EST)
Wednesday 5 June - Voting opens
Monday 24 June - Voting closes (5.00 PM EST)
Tuesday 25 June - Notification of shortlisted applicants
Wednesday 26 June - Shortlist announced, voting by judging panel opens
Wednesday 17 July - Winners announced at HIC Gala Dinner

Competition aims

HISA's Health Apps Challenge aims to:

• Create an annual national focus and forum for m-health and budding app developers
• Provides a catalyst for innovation and growth
• ncrease awareness of the role of apps in healthcare
• Encourage creative minds to apply their talents to healthcare challenges

Posted May 7, 2013

Anita Borg believed that technology affects all aspects of our economic, political, social and personal lives. A technology rebel with a cause, in her life she fought tirelessly to ensure that technology's impact would be a positive one. It was this vision that inspired Anita in 1997 to found the Institute for Women and Technology. Today this organization continues on her legacy and bears her name, The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (www.anitaborg.org).

The Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship: Asia-Pacific Scholarship for Women in Computing for 2013 is now open. The closing deadline will be May 31, 2013.

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to furthering Anita's vision, we are pleased to announce The Google Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship:Asia-Pacific (APAC). Through the scholarship, we aim to encourage women to excel in computing and technology, and become active role models and leaders.

Scholarships will be awarded based on the strength of candidates'academic performance, leadership experience and demonstrated passion for computer science. A group of female Bachelor's, Master's, and PhD students will be chosen from the applicant pool across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia and India. Each scholarship recipient will receive a scholarship amount specific to their local region in respect to tuition.

All scholarship recipients will be invited to visit a Google office in Sydney, Australia for a networking retreat. It will include workshops with a series of speakers, panels, breakout sessions and social activities, and will provide an opportunity to meet and share experiences.

Eligibility requirements
Applicants must:

• Be a female student enrolled in full-time undergraduate or postgraduate study for the 2013-2014 academic year.
• Be enrolled at a University in any of the following countries: Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand and India. Citizens, permanent residents, and international students are eligible to apply.
• Be studying Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
• Maintain an excellent academic record.

Please see http://www.google.com.au/anitaborg/apac/ for more information, and apply here: http://google.eresources.com/applications/login.asp.

Posted May 2, 2013

Robogals is offering a FREE Robotics workshop as a way of hopefully finding volunteers who are interested in Robotics and the promotion of SET to school aged children. Please read the following and contact Sam if you are interested in attending the free two hour workshop and hear about Robogals work.

Robogals is a student volunteering based organization that promotes Engineering and Technology to young students primarily through LEGO Robotics workshops with the long term goal of increasing female participation in Engineering and Technology courses at a Tertiary level. Robogals UTas is a Tasmanian wide chapter with volunteers from across the state.

We are able to bring robotics kits and laptops to your schools to run a robotics workshop. Our workshops are aimed for students ages 8 and up. A general workshop goes for 2 hours and includes a presentation on Engineering and Technology but we have also run very successful drop in sessions where students typically get a robot built and moving within 20 minutes.

We could also run a lunchtime/after school or a school holiday program if you were after something a little different. We also want to do a Road trip to King, Flinder's and Bruny Islands but we need assistance organizing them. Feel free to contact Samantha on slc2@utas.edu.au if you have any questions/ideas or if you would like to book a robotics workshop.

Venue: Geography building, Room 106, Sandy Bay

Contact Name
Samantha Connelly
Ph: 0408539483
Email: slc2@utas.edu.au

Don't forget that joining non for profit groups like Robogals looks great on your resume as it shows you care about your community and promoting your field of study to young people in your area!

Posted Apr 22, 2013

Posted Apr 15, 2013

Posted Apr 3, 2013

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 10pm Saturday April 6 until around noon Sunday April 6.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Mar 22, 2013

The Tasmanian Electoral Commission are seeking students to help with IT during election periods. Please see the job watch page for more details.

Posted Mar 20, 2013

Professor Christopher Lueg and his PhD student Paris Buttfield-Addison, recently returned from presenting three papers at the prestigious i-conference, this year held in Fort Worth, Texas.

The iconference is the annual conference of the information schools, a new breed of academic schools staffed by faculty ranging from librarians, to computer scientists and economists, who examine the role information plays in society.

Please see the full UTAS article here

Posted Mar 20, 2013

Would you wear a wacky hat to bookmark moments in real life? It sounds like science fiction, but for some of our students it's technology they developed in just 24 hours.

The annual OzCHI (Australian Computer Human Interaction) conference includes a 24-hour design challenge which requires participants to develop a solution to an HCI problem. In 2012 it was "focus on enhancing the ways people collaborate in every day environments" and more than 60 teams across 32 countries competed in the 24 hour period.

With the ultra-tight turn-around time, not all teams submit an idea, let alone a prototype, but the CIS team managed to do both. CIS postgraduate students Astrid Goss, Harry Rolf and Matt D'Orazio were part of the team that submitted a concept designed to help people "bookmark" life.

Their hard work paid off, with the team coming joint third with a team from Sydney University. The two top spots were taken out by teams from Scandinavia.

Read more...

Posted Mar 20, 2013

ITS are seeking a person to fill a 12 month, full-time, fixed-term position on the Service Desk. Recent CIS graduates may be interested. Please see our job watch page for more details.

Posted Mar 7, 2013

Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Date: Thursday, March 7, 2013 - 12:00-13:30

Seminar 1
Title: Going on Sojourn: A Journey of Information and Technology
Speaker: Harry Rolf, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Australia is reported to be the third most popular destination for international students of OECD member nations. These students travel from around the world to stay for a short time in Australian in pursuit of an international education. They provide a significant income stream to the Australian tertiary education sector, and an important economic, cultural and social benefit to the broader Australian community.

However a student's sojourn is never straightforward and they will be faced with many challenges, in a distant and often unfamiliar cultural environment. This experience magnifies even the most common student needs and issues. Causing significant stress that makes is difficult for a student to settle in and which can lead to them suffering from a condition known as culture shock.

Access to information while on sojourn, especially when issues and needs arise will help students to cope and ultimately will help them to adjust and settle in. Modern ICT are an important source of information for students that also meditate their information seeking behaviour and access to other information sources.

This research looks at the role of ICT in the information behaviour of international students. A better understanding can help the provision of support and support services to international students as well as providing insight into ICT in Human Information Behaviour. The presentation shall expand on this thesis, present the work conducted so far and discuss the current research and plan.

Seminar 2
Title: Social Media and Manipulation
Speaker: Jonathon Manning, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Social media is an increasingly important way in which people discover news. Because the content of social media sites depends on content submitted by users, and that that content is ranked by the same users, social media sites are exposed to ranking manipulation: efforts from users who seek to abuse the system in order to display content more prominently than it would otherwise deserve. This talk discusses current research in the area of social media sites and ranking manipulation, and a multiple-phase case study in Reddit, a popular social media site whose community has been increasingly discussing the possibility that their site may be being influenced in this manner. Current progress in this study is discussed, and next steps are outlined. Finally, the anticipated contributions made by this study are discussed.

Posted Mar 6, 2013

The Student Legal Service is holding an information evening regarding migration for international students studying at UTAS. The information evening will include information on how to comply with student visa requirements, navigation of the Department of Immigration & Citizenship website (www.immi.gov.au) and an overview of different visa options after graduation.

Ricky Bustos from Dobson Mitchell and Allport in Hobart will be the guest speaker. Mr Bustos is a registered migration agent at DMA and specialises in migration law. There are strict laws regarding student visas and its important to make sure you are abiding by the laws, this is why it is highly recommended you attend!

When: Monday, March 18th at 6.00pm (Week 4)
Where: Law Lecture Theatre 2 (Law Faculty building, simply go up the ramp outside the building)

Don't miss this great opportunity to hear from a migration lawyer about what you need to do to ensure you're complying with your student visa requirements. Refreshments will be provided after the session.

Click here for more information about the Student Legal Service

Posted Mar 5, 2013

Monday March 11th is a public holiday and so some classes have alternative arrangements in week 3. Please check your classes below.

Hobart

• KXT107 2pm lecture moved to Tuesday 9am in CLT
• KXT209 12pm tutorial moved to Tuesday 12noon in CENT278
• KXT209 1pm tutorial moved to Tuesday 1pm in CENT278
• KXG363 11am tutorial cancelled
• KXX001 10am lecture cancelled
• KXA461 10am tutorial do in your own time get key from help desk
• KXG163 all tutorials in week 3 cancelled
• KXI221 9am lecture cancelled
• KXI222 12pm lecture cancelled
• KXI222 1pm tutorial cancelled
• KXI753 10am workshop cancelled
• KXT101 1pm lecture cancelled
• KXT101 10am tutorial moved to Thursday 9am CENT275
• KXT101 11am tutorial moved to Thursday 3pm CENT275
• KXT101 12pm tutorial moved to Thursday 12noon CENT275
• KXT101 2pm tutorial moved to Friday 2pm CENT275
• KXT101 3pm tutorial moved to Friday 3pm CENT275
• KXT101 4pm tutorial moved to Friday 4pm CENT275
• KXT201 3pm lecture cancelled
• KXT201 1pm tutorial cancelled - please do self study, attend other tutorial or use consultation times when tutor will be in lab.
• KXT306 all tutorials in week 3 cancelled
• KXT471/KXX771 2pm workshop cancelled

Launceston

• KXT107 10am tutorial moved to Tuesday 9am in V195
• KXT107 11am tutorial moved to Tuesday 10am in V195
• KXX001 10am lecture cancelled
• KXE232 1pm practical cancelled
• KXI101 11am tutorial moved to Tuesday 11am V192
• KXT101 1pm lecture cancelled
• KXT101 4pm tutorial moved to Tuesday 3pm V195
• KXT306 all tutorials in week 3 cancelled
• KXT471/KXX771 2pm workshop cancelled
• KXX331/KXH645 no class activity on Monday week 3

Cradle Coast

• KXX001 10am lecture cancelled

Posted Mar 1, 2013

An official welcome to Launceston designed for all students from UTAS, AMC, Polytechnic and Year 11 and 12 (not just first years or internationals - the more the merrier) is to be held on Friday 1st March between 2pm and 4pm in the Brisbane St Mall. The 'Love Launceston' team have created an event on their facebook page and students are encouraged to RSVP; Love Launceston Facebook Event

We have a fun afternoon planned - the Mayor of Launceston will be in attendance, there will be free entertainment and a sausage sizzle. New to town students can also participate in guided tours of the city centre. By presenting their student ID card they can collect a welcome bag that is full of special offers and deals including a few free items just for students. All students that attend can go in the draw to win a double pass to the Breath of Life Music Festival.

There is a free bus service from Newnham (UTAS), stopping off at Inveresk and then the city leaving at 1.30pm. The bus will return to campus at 4pm.

Students do need to register for the bus by emailing hello@lovelaunceston.com.au

Posted Feb 26, 2013

Due to the regional holiday in Launceston in week 1 (Launceston Cup), the Hobart & Launceston KXT306 / KXA435 Wednesday 4pm Lecture has been Cancelled. If you are studying KXT306 / KXA435, please note your timetable for WEEK 1 ONLY.

Posted Feb 25, 2013

The Tutorial Allocation System is now online. Tutorial preferences must be specified before noon Friday (1st March), and allocations will be made based on preferences shortly after that.

Posted Feb 22, 2013

The University's Internet Service Provider (AARNET) will be conducting maintenance on its fibre optic network between 2:00am and 6:00am on Sunday. Internet services to and from the University during that time will be slow during the maintenance period.

Posted Feb 21, 2013

In April 2009 a UTas team went to Sweden to compete in the World Finals ofthe ACM ICPC, the world's premier university level programming competition. The team was invited to the World Finals on the basis of their performance in the previous year's annual South Pacific (Aus/NZ) Regional event. (The 100 teams in the 2009 World Finals were chosen from over 7000 teams who competed in regional events in almost 90 countries.) UTas is one of only two Aus/NZ universities to have finished in the top three in three out of the past five regional events. The competition involves teams of three students, with only one terminal per team, trying to solve as many programming problems as quickly as possible.

Some students have already been invited (on the basis of past performance, or results in relevant units) to be part of the School's group that is preparing for this year's Regional, and from which the teams entered at School expense will be chosen. Students who have not been invited, but are interested in joining the group, are being offered an opportunity to qualify to join. If you want to know more, look at the info page

Posted Feb 20, 2013

Title: Bimanual Gestural Navigation and Interaction in 3D Geovisualisations
Date: Thursday, February 21 2013, 12:00-12:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Simon Stannus, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

The last few years have seen the popularisation of applications that allow everyday users to navigate through and interact with geospatial information, which often consists of data spread across three dimensions as well as time.

At the same time, there has been rapid advancement in the capabilities of gesture and tracking systems. While some systems, such as the Wii Remote and Kinect were created with video games in mind, they have been shown to be useful for many other applications. Indeed, newer devices, such as the Leap Motion, are clearly aiming for more general use.

However, the use of such technology for interaction with geospatial data has not yet become mainstream and the work that has been done either fails to sufficiently mimic the way people interact with objects in the real world or doesn't take full advantage of the capabilities for 3D bimanual interaction.

This talk will briefly mention my previous work and proposed methods for spatio-temporal navigation and describe the experiment I am preparing to conduct and the software and hardware involved with it.

Posted Feb 15, 2013

Due to the regional holiday in Launceston in week 1 (Launceston Cup), the Launceston KXT107 Wednesday 3pm Lecture has been moved from Lecture Theatre 7 to Thursday 1pm in Lecture Theatre 1 (NH.BF24.L01.150). If you are studying KXT107, please note your timetable for WEEK 1 ONLY.

Posted Feb 14, 2013

All student accounts on CIS servers have been disabled in preparation for the new semester. If you qualify for an account in semester 1, you can reactivate your account at the School's print systems and kiosks, or visit the Help Desk for assistance.

Posted Feb 12, 2013

Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston

Seminar 1
Title: Encouraging Understanding of Natural Resources using Emergent Technology
Date: Thursday, February 14 2013 , 12:00-13:30
Speaker: Mark Brown, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Dissemination of local natural resource issues is an ongoing priority for Natural Resource Management (NRM) and Environmental Agencies. However, with an ever-increasing amount of information competing for our attention and time, getting messages across to people is increasingly difficult. We naturally believe ourselves to be experts at skimming emails and websites, but our natural human predispositions mean that we often misinterpret information, or simply skip significant aspects (Weinreich et al, 2008). Our research investigates the use of interaction technologies with tangible objects for promoting a better understanding of natural resource issues within spatial contexts. The first of three stages involves interviews conducted with local natural resource experts, from NRM, conservation, forestry, government, and industry, which aim to identify current natural resource issues and understand their associated key messages, as-well as perceptions on how well these messages are presently understood and perceptions of their impact. The results of this stage will provide a clear understanding of the boundaries of the desired learning goals, as well as extract the key elements required to understand the often complex and unexpected interactions within real-world natural resource contexts, rather than classroom scenarios. These components will be used in the second stage of the research, to be undertaken in 2013, which aims to associate these learning requirements to physical objects that control a large format, multi-touch, spatial-based simulation learning system. Objects such as models of buildings, trees, and animals allow users to physically play with information in order to view the effects of the real world natural resource interactions. It is anticipated that an understanding of natural resource issues will be achieved via interaction and manipulation of physical objects that represent and control the cause parameters of natural resource issues (Antle et al, 2011).

Seminar 2
Title: A Hands-On, Mobile Approach to Collaborative Exploration of Virtual Museum Artifacts
Date: Thursday, February 14 2013 , 12:00-13:30
Speaker: Steven Neale, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Dissemination of local natural resource issues is an ongoing priority for Natural Resource Management (NRM) and Environmental Agencies. However, with aIn an ideal world, physical museum artifacts could be touched, handled, examined and passed between interested viewers by hand. Unfortunately, this is not always possible ? artifacts may be too fragile to handle or pass around, or groups of people with mutual interests in objects may not be in the same location. This can be problematic when attempting to explain or make sense of the physical properties of artefacts.

To address these problems, this research proposes that direct manipulation of 3D content based on real-world interaction metaphors on a mobile device can help collaborators (both co and remotely located) to construct personal and mutual physical and spatial awareness of artifacts, while networked communication and collaboration allow for ideas and knowledge to be exchanged and shared by marking 'interest points' in 3D space.

Posted Jan 29, 2013

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 10pm Saturday February 2 until around noon Sunday February 3.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Jan 16, 2013

Status Awareness Systems has 2 junior programmer positions based in Ulverstone. See our job watch page for more details.

Posted Jan 2, 2013

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 9pm Saturday January 5 until around noon Sunday January 6.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Dec 17, 2012

The University will be closed for the Christmas / New Year break from 5:00pm Friday 21 December and will reopen 9:00am Wednesday 2 January. Buildings will be locked and all labs unavailable during this period.

Posted Dec 17, 2012

KXT102 Programming with Data Structures
Teaching Period: Thursday 10th January to Friday 25th of January. Attendance will be required each day from 10am-4pm. There will be a 3-hour lecture from 10am-1pm, followed by a tutorial from 3-4pm. The exam will be held sometime from 4th February to 8th February.

KXX231 ICT Project Management
[Updated to correct dates 17 Dec] Teaching Period: Monday February 4th to Friday February 15th. There will be a lecture Monday 10am 4th February for two hours that explains how the unit works. This lecture will be video conferenced to Launceston. The rest of the first week the students will be using online material; face-to-face workshops will be held in the second week. The exam will be on Wednesday 20th February at 1pm. More information about KXX231 can be found here

Posted Nov 26, 2012

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 9pm Saturday December 1 until around noon Sunday December 2.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Nov 20, 2012

A fixed term contract position is available for immediate start at the University Department of Rural Health (based in Launceston). Please see our job watch page for more details.

Click here to download Position Description (164KB PDF)

Posted Nov 19, 2012

ISW are offering two 2nd or 3rd year BComp students the opportunity to undertake a 12 weeks paid internship in one of Australia's leading IT workplaces. Please see this flyer [PDF, 46KB] for more information.

Posted Nov 5, 2012

On Friday night (Nov 2) a team of CIS students won the TASICT Best Community Application for ICT award for their TFS Fire Watch smartphone application. The app aims to support community access to fire awareness and safety information. Congratulations to the project team on their outstanding success.

The team members are: (pictured, left-to-right) Ricardo De Paoli-Iseppi, Adam Carvosso, Anthony Smith, Andrew Wells, Kara Van Den Broek and (not present) Dalton Allen, Sidharth Kaul, and Taojia Huang.

Posted Oct 31, 2012

Title: Inside Communications - Social Media and the Opportunities
Date: Thursday, November 15 2012 , 5:30pm for 6:00pm
Location: API Centre 69 Liverpool Street Hobart - Supper will be Provided
Speaker: Euan Semple

Abstract:

There has been a fundamental shift in the way we do business. Driven by online social networking tools such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, how we communicate with stakeholders and how we organise ourselves to produce those messages has changed forever.

Euan Semple, author of Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do will examine what these changes mean for people in business, how they represent a new wave of exciting opportunities for 21st century organisations and what lies in store for those working in IT and the role they will play in the future of work.

Event Prices:
ACS Members: $20.00
Non Members: $30.00

Registration:
register

Enquiries:
Ray Leonard, Ray.Leonard@acs.org.au
Ph: 0438399431

Posted Oct 31, 2012

TASDeals are seeking to employ a UTAS ICT student in their Hobart office. Please see the jobwatch page for more details.

Posted Oct 31, 2012

Title: Forecasting the lifecycle of social issues that are related to you
Date: Thursday, November 1 2012 , 12:00-12:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Soyeon Han, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Social data analytic service analyses the large amount of social data, such as users' communication activity. One of the popular social data analytic services is the trends service, which provides the most popular social issues on web. Trends services are provided by different internet-based services, such as search engines, microblogs, and Internet news. For example, Google displays the fastest rising search terms in an hourly basis. The trends services enable users to notice and further discuss the trending social issues. Most users are not aware of the latent ability of trends services but there is more to those services than identifying the social issues. As social issues may have a big impact on individuals or organizations, it can be necessary to forecast the future trends of social issues in many occasions. If it is possible, they can be prepared for the future impact of a social issue to them.

The research topic is forecasting the future trends of social issues that are related to individuals or organisations. Through this project, we have two research questions. The first question is how to identify the relevance of social issue to a target, such as individuals or organisations. At first, we will monitor social issues from Social Issue Analytic services, micro-blog, and Internet news. Then, we will obtain the well-structured document management system as a target domain that contains all activities and document regarding target objects. We will apply the Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF) to obtain the personalized relevance weight of the social issue to a target. The second question is how to predict the future trends of social issues. This study focuses on the formation and fading of social issues and the trend during this lifecycle. Throughout this study, we will develop the model to forecast the future trends and estimated lifetime of the issues.

Posted Oct 29, 2012

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 9pm Saturday November 3 until around noon Sunday November 4.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Oct 26, 2012

International Software and Design company 'Autech' currently have 2 positions available.
Please see our job watch page for more details.

Posted Oct 24, 2012

Title: A Report on the ACPHIS Workshop
Date: Friday, November 9 2012 (previously 25 October), 14:00-15:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Prof. Peter Marshall, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

The presentation will report on the issues raised at the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of School Workshop for 2012. The presentation will focus on the topic of information systems research in Australia.

Posted Oct 24, 2012

The AUC has announced its annual CreateWorld conference - a 3-day performance, presentation, and professional development event, specifically for academic and technical staff who work in the digital arts disciplines.

CreateWorld will be held at Griffith University's Brisbane South Bank campus, and will run from 5 -7 December, 2012.

The University of Tasmania has four subsidised places for CreateWorld attendance. Applications for these places must be made on the official application form and submitted to Tony Gray by the close of business on Friday 31st October, 2012.

See the AUC CreateWorld site for more information.

Posted Oct 19, 2012

Students who use Dropbox might be interested in an education promotion that they're currently running:

The Dropbox Great Space Race:

"Earn free Dropbox space for everyone at your school! Sign up (or sign in if you're already on Dropbox) to get an extra 3 GB for two years, plus the space your school earns!"

https://www.dropbox.com/spacerace

If you already use Dropbox, but you don't use your utas.edu.au email address as your primary username, that's OK! You can sign in using your normal credentials, then verify your UTAS email address to participate in the promotion. You should receive 6GB of additional (free) cloud storage immediately, with the potential to receive further bonuses if more people from UTAS register their email addresses.

Posted Oct 19, 2012

The Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology's Dean's Summer Research Scholarships are currently open for application.

Each Scholarship is valued at $3000 and students are required to complete 30 days of research within the Faculty.

The Dean's Summer Research Scholarships are available to UTAS undergraduate students within the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology who have obtained at least a credit average.
Applicants must be commencing their final year of their undergraduate degree in 2013, or expecting to graduate in 2012 from their undergraduate degree and are planning to enrol in Honours within the Faculty to be eligible.

The Dean's Summer Research Scholarships enables eligible students to gain valuable research experience, being supervised by a researcher from within the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Technology for 6 weeks during the 2012-2013 summer vacation.

For further details see the Scholarships section of the Faculty website http://www.utas.edu.au/set.

Applications close on Monday 29th October 2012

Applications should be developed and discussed with an academic supervisor. For applicants from CIS the submission deadline has been extended. Complete applications, signed by the student and supervisor, should be received by the Head of School (Prof Michael Fry) by close of business, Monday 29 October 2012.

The application form (to be forwarded to CIS Head of School) can be found here

Posted Oct 18, 2012

Nominations are now open for the Southern Cross Young Achiever Awards.
If you, or someone you know is achieving great results in Science And Technology, nominate for the Science and Technology Award.
Applications close Tuesday 27th November 2012.

An information flyer can be found here [PDF, 183KB]

For more information, see the YAA website: http://www.awardsaustralia.com/YAA_tas.php

Posted Oct 16, 2012

There is an information session on Thursday October 18 at 11:00am in the School's videoconference rooms (473 in Hobart and V137 in Launceston) for those interested in studying Honours in 2013.

Come along to find out why you should, who's eligible, the structure of Honours, and to ask general questions.

Posted Oct 16, 2012

Title: ICT supporting chronic disease self management: The experience of families.
Date: Thursday, October 18, 2012, 12:00-12:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Erin Roehrer, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

ICT use in chronic disease support has increased from a health consumer?s point of view. Evidence suggests that inclusion of information communication technologies (ICTs) in the management of chronic conditions may improve communication between individuals and raise self-awareness of their condition. Understanding the motivations and influencing factors that lead to the development of consumer eHealth projects is an important contextual requirement for the successful running and implementation of ICT projects.

The seminar will discuss the data analysis phase of this research into ICT supporting chronic disease self management. The study involves the creation of a rich case study encompassing multiple participant case studies. The case study is bounded by the Tasmania cystic fibrosis community. Currently there are 106 people in Tasmania living with CF, each balancing daily medication, treatment, and management regimens. The nature of complex management regimes has the potential to be supported through the use of ICT and web technologies. The research follows the conceptualisation, design and piloting an ICT self management support tool for the cystic fibrosis community of Tasmania. This qualitative research considers both the health practitioner and health consumer points of view. This research is being undertaken as part of an ongoing PhD candidature.

Posted Oct 15, 2012

If you are completing a major or degree in Computing or Information Systems at the end of this year, over summer, or in first semester 2013, we would like your photograph for the School Website (http://www.utas.edu.au/computing-information-systems/people/alumni). If you are enrolled in a PhD, We also would like to take your picture!

Hobart

Please come to front steps of the Centenary Building on Tuesday 16 October 2012 at the time indicated below and please bring your student card. If you can't make the photograph, please email your student ID to Andrea.Kingston@utas.edu.au and we'll ensure your name appears in the list.

• Computing major or Bachelor of Computing degree - 12 PM
• IS major or Bachelor of Information Systems degree - 12:10 PM
• Graduate Certificates/Diplomas - 12:20 PM
• Computing Honours - 12:25 PM
• IS Honours - 12:30 PM
• MIT or MComp degree - 12:35 PM
• MIS or MEB degree - 12:45 PM
• Phd - 12:55 PM
• Staff - 1 PM

Launceston

Please come to the courtyard of Building V on Tuesday 16 October 2012 at the time indicated below and please bring your student card. If you can't make the photograph, please email your student ID to Andrea.Kingston@utas.edu.au and we'll ensure your name appears in the list.

• Computing major or Bachelor of Computing degree - 12 PM
• IS major or Bachelor of Information Systems degree - 12:10 PM
• Phd - 12:15 PM
• Staff - 12:20 PM
• MIT or MComp degree - 12:30 PM
• MIS or MEB degree - 12:40 PM
• Graduate Diplomas - 12:45 PM
• Computing Honours - 12:50 PM
• IS Honours - 12:55 PM

Posted Oct 12, 2012

The annual KXG262 / KXT304 / KXA434 movie show will be held in the School videoconference rooms.

When: 10:00am Tuesday 16th October
Where: School Seminar rooms;

• Hobart - Centenary 473
• Launceston - V137

All staff and students are welcome to come along and see what this year's students have accomplished.

Posted Oct 12, 2012

DEDTA are seeking students (in particular, first year students) wishing to be considered for fixed-term and/or casual employment as ICT Assistants. The advertisement can be found here.
Associated forms can be found below (hosted locally)

• Application form [MS Word, 77kB]
• Statement of Duties [PDF, 230kB]
• Advice to Applicants [PDF, 2.4MB]

Posted Oct 10, 2012

The School has a number of surplus Apple iMac (Intel) computers for sale in Launceston. The machines have 2.0GHz Core-2 Duo CPUs, 2G of RAM, a 160G HD, a DVD-RW drive, 17" LCD, iSight camera, WiFi, mouse and keyboard, and the original media. All have a base install of MacOS X. The price is $200 per system.

Please note the following "sale rules":

• all items have been tested and are in working order, but it is up to the purchaser to be satisfied that they are suitable for their purposes
• there is no warranty of any kind
• you may request a demonstration that the machine you are about to purchase is in working order
• no bulk sales - individual sales to staff and students only
• limit of 1 per person
• no reservations - you must inspect in person, and pay to take away
• no transport between campuses
• all sales are final

Note that we cannot offer any support (such as how to upgrade to later versions of MacOS, or how to install Windows). Please visit the School's Help Desk in Launceston to inspect or purchase equipment.

Posted Oct 4, 2012

The School's ICT Project Demonstration Day and Expo in Hobart on Wednesday 3rd October is featured on the ABC's website here.

Well done to all students presenting their ICT projects on both campuses and thank you to the people who volunteered to demonstrate their research for the Expo!

Posted Oct 3, 2012

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 9pm Saturday October 6 until around noon Sunday October 7.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Oct 2, 2012

Title: Can ehealth address cost and inequity in healthcare delivery?
Date: Thursday, October 4, 2012, 12:00-12:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Chris Showell, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

eHealth systems have promoted as a way to revolutionise healthcare, and deliver real improvements, but so far there are no visible large scale benefits.

Examples of the use of computers in healthcare have show some promise, but the neither the technocentric approach nor the infocentric approach has really helped. Focus has now shifted to a patient-centric approach, with Australia introducing a personally controlled ehealth record for every Australian (at a cost of $467 million over two years), as a way to improve the health of individuals, and save money. However, before a patient can use an ehealth system, she must have three skills: textual literacy, technical literacy and health literacy, and almost 50% of Tasmanians aged 15-75 are functionally illiterate. This same group probably don?t have good technical literacy or health literacy either. This research will explore the relationship between social disadvantage and health service use, and test the association between high (and costly) healthcare needs and a low capacity to benefit from electronic healthcare systems.

Posted Sep 25, 2012

The School of Computing and Information Systems will open its doors to schools and the public to showcase the variety of student projects and products, staff research contributions, and allow people to explore and experience what we do.

The Expo will be held on both campuses:

• Launceston - 10am-1pm Monday 1st October 2012 - see here [PDF 638k] for flyer
• Hobart - 10am-2pm Wednesday 3rd October 2012 - see here [PDF 638k] for flyer

Posted Sep 18, 2012

Important Reminder
In order to use the computer labs after hours (i.e. between 6:00pm and 7:30am on weekdays, and anytime on the weekend), it is a requirement that each individual using the labs holds:

• their own after hours access card (prox-card), and agree to the terms and conditions of its use
• a current UTAS student ID card

Security staff have been asked to escort non-compliant students from the building.
Should you wish to obtain an After Hours Access Card (prox-card), please see the Help Desk.

Posted Sep 17, 2012

Congratulations to Andrew Haigh, Hoang Vinh Tran and Richard Johonson for winning the Hobart site and finishing 6th on the regional scoreboard on the day, as team "Where are our balloons?", in the South Pacific Regional round of the ACM ICPC.

See the newsroom for more info re the local on the day outcome and look via the main contest site for more info on the overall regional outcome, including the finalised results when they appear in due course.

Posted Sep 6, 2012

ABC news has featured a story about CIS Honours students Lindsay Wells, Sam Wardlaw, Seb Beswick and Richard Johnson and their games-related research.

Read the ABC article here

Posted Sep 6, 2012

On Saturday, September 15, the School will host the Tasmanian site of the ACM International Programming Contest (South Pacific Region) in Hobart.

Due to the nature of the programming contest, level 3 of the Centenary building will be off limits to anyone not involved in the contest from 10:00am until 7:00pm. Access to the female toilets on this level will not be affected.

The School's file servers in Hobart, and the computer labs on level 2 of the Centenary building will not be affected by the competition, and will remain available.

Posted Sep 4, 2012

A local Launceston business is looking for a competent web developer student to assist in the development of a new business website. See our job watch page for more details.

Posted Aug 28, 2012

Title: Mapping Provenance in Semantic Web
Date: Thursday, August 30, 2012, 12:00-12:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Sarawat Anam, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Semantic web is a web of data that facilitates the machines to understand the semantics or meaning of information on the World Wide Web. Semantic web does not only put data on the web but also links the data. The concept of Linked Data (LD) is rapidly emerging in publishing and sharing structured data over the semantic web using URIs and RDF. In Linked Open Data which is a version of Linked Data, the concept (i.e. vocabulary) from a source data is mapped to the target data in many application domains such as fisheries, agriculture etc. For mapping concepts among sources, Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) that is a standard vocabulary to express thesauri within RDF is used. As data comes from various sources, so it is necessary to capture the provenance (origin or history) of concept mapping in Linked Open Data to verify the trustworthiness, quality and relevance of data. In this research, four problems are considered to be solved in scientific domain. First of all, a novel approach of capturing provenance for concept mappings in linked open data will be created. The approach will have the capability of capturing provenance incrementally over time. Secondly, a technique will be devised for representing, storing and querying captured provenance in concept mappings for linked open data using SPARQL. Thirdly, trust from provenance in mappings for linked open Data will be calculated by TidalTrust method. Finally, the information of mapping provenance will be exploited for recommending further mapping process using link mining, association rule mining and Multiple Classification Ripple Down Rules.

Posted Aug 27, 2012

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 9pm Saturday September 1 until around noon Sunday September 2.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Aug 23, 2012

The School has a number of surplus Apple iMac (Intel) computers for sale in Hobart. The machines have 2.0GHz Core-2 Duo CPUs, 2G of RAM, a 160G HD, a DVD-RW drive, 17" LCD, iSight camera, WiFi, mouse and keyboard, and the original media. All have a base install of MacOS X. The price is $200 per system.

Please note the following "sale rules":

• all items have been tested and are in working order, but it is up to the purchaser to be satisfied that they are suitable for their purposes
• there is no warranty of any kind
• you may request a demonstration that the machine you are about to purchase is in working order
• no bulk sales - individual sales to staff and students only
• limit of 1 per person
• no reservations - you must inspect in person, and pay to take away
• no transport between campuses
• all sales are final

Note that we cannot offer any support (such as how to upgrade to later versions of MacOS, or how to install Windows). Please visit the School's Help Desk in Hobart to inspect or purchase equipment.

Posted Aug 22, 2012

The Apple University Consortium has announced its annual Developer conference for University staff and students who develop on Apple platforms.

/dev/world/2012 will be held at the Rydges Bell City in Melbourne from the 24th to 26th of September 2012 and will feature a number of presenters from the local and international developer community covering a wide range of subjects on both iOS and Macintosh development.

See the AUC DevWorld site for more information.

The University of Tasmania has four subsidised places for students and staff. Applications for these places must be made on the official application form and submitted to Tony Gray by the close of business on Friday 31st August, 2012.

Posted Aug 13, 2012

Volunteers are sought for RoboCup Junior - a competition to build and program small robots to compete in three events: dance, rescue and soccer. You could do your resume a favour and volunteer to set up equipment, marshall students, interview competitors, score or umpire games, or help us pack up afterwards.

Where: Arts Lecture Theatre and University Centre
When:4:00pm onwards Friday 31 August, and 8:30 - 4:00, on Saturday and Sunday 1-2 September, 2012 (or any part thereof)

Great fun, good job reference and all volunteers go into a draw to win an iPod! For more information Contact: Robert Elliott

Posted Aug 9, 2012

Title: Learning Anatomy with a Haptic Interface
Date: Thursday, August 16, 2012, 12:45-1:30
Location: Hytten Hall, Room 325, Hobart; Room A221c Launceston
Speaker: Soonja Yeom, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Students learn anatomy by memorising a great deal of information and contextualize this within the range of body functions. Visualising the relationships in three dimensions of various organs and their interdependent functions has been a major difficulty with traditional learning methods.

The system presented in this seminar is being developed to assist students through a 3D version of the anatomical details. This uses a force-feedback (haptic) interface which engages kinaesthetic senses and also provides a structured learning approach to the material. A next step is to include Augmented Reality with 3D models.

The Design Research approach has been used in this study. This research methodology uses iterations of system implementation with formative evaluation and cyclic enhancements. Summative evaluation of the final version of the system will be used to inform pedagogical theory.

The first two implementation iterations have been completed. Analysis of user survey feedback found a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) in ease of use between the first and second test.

Posted Aug 8, 2012

PyCon (for Python enthusiasts) is being held on August 18 and 19 at Wrest Point. To help kick off the event, come along to CodeWars! Code with teams of up to 4 contestants in any language, beat your opposition in live programming bouts on stage, and win some quite pleasant prizes! Think of it as cage fighting for programmers.

Come along either to participate, or to spectate. Entry is free if you're attending PyCon Australia, or $10 if you're not attending.

Click here for more information

Posted Aug 6, 2012

Congratulations to Seb Beswick for being one of the UTAS finalists in the 2012 Trailblazer competition. The UTAS finals are on the 14th of August with the Grand Final on the 4th of September 2012 at the University of Queensland. Seb's entry is titled evoSynth: An Adaptive Synthesiser for Musicians.

Other UTAS finalists can be found at the Trailblazer site here.

Posted Aug 2, 2012

If you subscribe to the CIS News and Notices RSS feed, please update the URL to http://www.utas.edu.au/computing-information-systems/news-and-notices-source/cis-rss/_nocache. This overcomes the caching behaviour of the UTAS content management system which prohibits the RSS feed from updating correctly.

If you have subscribed to the old CIS site RSS feed (http://www.cis.utas.edu.au/cisview/news.rss), please also update to the new feed URL above as the old feed will now no longer be updated.

Posted Aug 1, 2012

Tasmanian Life Long Learning (TL3) are seeking volunteers to lead interactive career walks on each UTas campus. Please see their flyer (PDF, 541KB) for more information.

Posted Aug 1, 2012

Nic Wittison is presenting a TUCS Tech Talk titled Heroes of the Defence of the League of MOBA Games at 2pm this Friday, August 3 in the Centenary Lecture Theatre.

Posted Aug 1, 2012

Autech are seeking expressions of interest for two developer position in Launceston. See our job watch page for more details.

Posted Jul 30, 2012

From Monday 30th July to Thursday 2nd August, researchers will be running an experiment in the HITLab HackSpace (Room NH.V161) to test the use of two iPads to examine and discuss virtual museum artefacts.

Each experiment lasts for around 30 minutes and requires 2 people. If you and a friend are interested in participating, or you would like to be paired up with another interested participant, please email Steve Neale or phone Steve on 0406 062 555

Posted Jul 30, 2012

Monthly backups will be carried out on a number of the School's systems in Hobart and Launceston from 9pm Saturday August 4 until around noon Sunday August 5.

This will affect the School's Unix hosts alacritas, lawson and leven. The "M:" drive on Windows lab machines will also be unavailable during this downtime.

Posted Jul 30, 2012

Registrations are still available for PyCon Australia 2012, to be held on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 August in Hobart.

PyCon Australia is the national conference for students, enthusiasts and professionals working with the Python programming language; it represents a unique opportunity for Python developers to meet fellow developers, and gain knowledge from experts and core Python developers from around Australia and the world.

To be guaranteed a conference t-shirt, registrations will need to be finalised by Wednesday 1 August.

Conference registration starts at $44 for full-time students; $198 for enthusiasts and $480 for professionals.

Click here for more information

Posted Jul 30, 2012

Title: Power Relations in IS Projects: Applying the Three Process Theory
Date: Thursday, August 2, 2012, 12:00-12:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Michelle Ye, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Despite significant research, and many books and research papers offering prolific advice on the issues involved, Information Systems (IS) project management remains a task with many challenges. Indeed, a large number of IS projects fail to meet their objectives, and some fail disastrously. The research into IS project management has identified many critical success factors along with corresponding reasons for failure. The factors identified as being implicated in IS project failure include a lack of top management commitment to the project, lack of corporate leadership (including a weak project champion), inadequate information requirements determination, communication issues, organisational politics, lack of user involvement and participation, and change management problems generally . The fact that organisational politics, participation and corporate leadership issues are among the reasons for failure indicates that power relations could be an important element in IS project management. Indeed, power has been explicitly mentioned as a factor of interest and influence regarding project success/failure. Given these indications of the potential importance of power relations to IS project management, a research project has been planned investigating this phenomenon.

This seminar will present the design of the planned research project. The research will use a moderately new and as yet untested theory of power from social psychology, namely Turner's Three Process Theory of Power as a theoretical lens. Prior to presenting Turner?s theory, the relevant literature on power relations in IS projects will be reviewed. This will be followed by an explanation of the Three Process Theory of Power. Then the potential advantages of using this theory will be outlined. The research method will be multiple case studies.

Posted Jul 25, 2012

Results for Semester 1 Supplementary and Deferred Ordinary Exams has been deferred.
The new date for result release is now Wednesday 1 August.
If you are awaiting results, please log on to the eStudent centre for up to date notices.

Posted Jul 24, 2012

The annual mid-year dinner for students in Computing and Information Systems and HITLab courses, and staff is on again;

• What ? Computing and Information Systems Mid Year Dinner
• Who - Launceston CIS Students and staff
• Where - Prickly Cactus, Cnr Paterson and George Streets
• When - Thursday 2 August 2012 at 6.30pm

Cost $32, but for students - $5 ACS sponsorship, - $5 CIS sponsorship, so $22 per student for a set 2 course menu (shared entree plus main)
Drinks and dessert or coffee are optional extras at your own cost
As usual we will have a trivia challenge with 'token' prizes

Please either email Julia Mollison or visit her at the front office to reserve your place at the dinner.

Payment in full required by Monday 30 July 2012 please

Posted Jul 24, 2012

Title: Cloud Computing in Australian Organisations: Acceptance and Evolution 2012-2013 - Phase I Empirical Research
Date: Thursday, July 26, 2012, 12:00-12:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Ahmad Aljabr, CIS, UTAS

Abstract:

Cloud computing has been a topic of enormous interest to all levels of management (technical and strategic) for several years. 2011 saw dramatic uptake of cloud computing in both public and private sector organisations - a trend which shows little sign of diminishing in 2012. For example: "According to Microsoft, Office 2013 is a cloud-based product with a physical, licensed-for-perpetuity option for those who aren't willing to sign up for a subscription service" (ExtremeTech, July 18 2012).

This PhD project focuses on understanding how Australian organisations are really responding to the advent of cloud computing. Yes, there are many, many surveys of CC "uptake" out there - but most of them simply ask "who" rather than "what" or "how". In this project, I am endeavouring to discover, by means of a longitudinal study of Australian corporate uptake of CC, whether there is a viable model of cloud computing - and, if so, whether Australian organisations are using that model effectively.

The project will involve two surveys, a little over a year apart, which will enable a genuine comparison of organisation CC use. The survey data will be enriched by interviews with a subset of survey participants, to tease out more detailed information which the surveys cannot provide. I have now sent out the first of the two surveys (I'm currently reminding those participants who have not responded to do so) and in this presentation I will be offering some very early findings from that first survey, as well as touching on an evaluation of the "other" CC surveys which have been undertaken in recent years, which I am currently writing up for a journal publication.

Posted Jul 19, 2012

Kingborough Council are seeking expressions of interest for a position in Hobart. See our job watch page for more details.

Posted Jul 16, 2012

Please note the central UTas timetable is currently not up to date. Please refer to the School's timetable for CIS units (here)

Posted Jul 16, 2012

In April 2009 a UTas team went to Sweden to compete in the World Finals of the ACM ICPC, the world's premier university level programming competition. The team was invited to the World Finals on the basis of their performance in the previous year's annual South Pacific (Aus/NZ) Regional event. (The 100 teams in the 2009 World Finals were chosen from over 7000 teams who competed in regional events in almost 90 countries.) UTas teams have finished 3rd in 3 of the past 4 South Pacific Regional events, making us the only university to finish in the top 3 in 3 of the past 4. The competition involves teams of three students, with only one terminal per team, trying to solve as many programming problems as quickly as possible.

Some students have already been invited (on the basis of past performance, or results in relevant units) to be part of the School's group that is preparing for this year's Regional contest, and from which the teams entered at School expense will be chosen. Students who have not been invited, but are interested in joining the group, are being offered an opportunity to qualify to join. If you want to know more, look at the info page.

Posted Jul 9, 2012

A reminder that Semester 2 commences Monday 16 July. Please check your timetable for lecture times in the first week.

Posted Jul 3, 2012

Savage Interactive is seeking expressions of interest for a position in Hobart. See our job watch page for more details.

Posted Jun 29, 2012

Title: The Role and Nature of social CRM in Australian Business
Date: Thursday, July 5, 2012, 12:00-13:50
Location: Centenary 473 Hobart, V137 Launceston
Speaker: Kritcha Yawised, CIS, UTAS

Abstract

The emergence of social networking has changed the way that people and business organisations interact via the Internet. That this has implications for business is clear to the managements of businesses, as executives observe the rapid adoption and use of social networking sites by their customers. On such sites, companies and their products are discussed along with prices, customer service, good and bad customer experiences with corporations and so on. As a result, businesses are beginning to incorporate and integrate the phenomenon of social networking into their customer relationship management strategies. New approaches integrating traditional CRM approaches with social networking are being developed. Such approaches are called social CRM.

While have been consultants reports and "White Papers" on the topic of social CRM, there has been no empirically based and rigorous academic research on this topic to date. Thus, investigatory and exploratory research is planned which will investigate the state and nature of social CRM in businesses in Australia. A mixed methods approach incorporating both survey and multiple case study methods will be used. The survey will provide a broad description of the social CRM phenomena in, while the multiple case studies will build a rich picture of the phenomenon in given organisations.