CECS News
A round-up of mentions in the media, media announcements, news about staff and students, and stories in ANU Reporter and On Campus.More information: CECS Marketing
College Professor admitted to Academy
Professor Bob Williamson, from the Research School of Computer Science, has been admitted as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, one of 21 new fellows admitted, four of whom are from The ANU. Dean of the College, Professor John Hosking, congratulated Bob on this achievement noting that "election to the Academy is a great honour and reflects Bob's outstanding contribution to Computer Science, and machine learning in particular". Bob was cited by the Academy for "developing powerful new methods and theoretical arguments for analysing data".
Bob says that he is proud to become a member of the Academy. He noted that “I came to ANU in 1990 and was lucky enough to be mentored by Brian Anderson, who was President of the Academy for several years. It's by working with people like Brian at ANU that you learn how to do research at that top international level and understand what good science really is. I am very grateful for the support I've had from ANU and NICTA.”
The ANU News reports on Bob's admission, as well as the other ANU staff admitted: http://news.anu.edu.au/?p=14251
Prestigious publishing in CS
by Heather McEwen
Research staff and outstanding graduates in the Research School of Computer Science have recently been advised that their work (published in a paper, “Looking Back on the Language and Hardware Revolutions: Measured Power, Performance, and Scaling,”) has been selected for publication by the Communications of the ACM (CACM) Research Highlights. CACM is the flagship monthly journal of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in the USA. The paper reports on ANU, University of Texas, and the University of Washington’s investigations which are the first to systematically measure and analyze application power, performance, and energy on a wide variety of computer hardware.
According to Professor Steve Blackburn, one of the lead researchers on the team, the findings could help lower the energy costs of electronic devices ranging from small mobile devices and supercomputers to massive server farms.
Student thinks locally to act globally
ANU College of Engineering and Science student, Michael Mazengarb, who is studying a combined Engineering and Science degree, will apply his passion for preserving the environment at the world’s largest round of climate change negotiations.
Steady as she goes
By Heather McEwen
Professor John Hosking, the new Dean and Director of the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, had his first opportunity to address the College as a whole at the College Staff Forum on 31 January 2012.
He took the opportunity to thank Alistair Rendell, Interim Dean, on a personal and professional level for the difficult task of steering the College during what was a fairly lengthy captaincy, and the College joined him in a vote of thanks.
Professor Hosking remarked that he felt welcomed into a vibrant College with committed staff and students, thanking three graduate students for their outstanding contribution to outreach to develop a high school tool to demonstrate the role of IT in the environment. Torben Sko, James Sheridan and Ben Swift were presented with certificates and gifts to acknowledge their achievements.
The way forward: Smart modules and smart inverters
PhD candidate, Arnold McKinley, from the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems in the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, discusses how many of the modules and inverters currently available on the market lack the 'smarts' that would make solar systems more efficient, in the February 2012 edition of Solar Australia.
Read the article, The way forward: Smart modules and smart inverters
