Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. More details can be found here.
In addition to his knighthood and professorship, his many other achievements and appointments include being Chairman and Co-Founder of the UK Open Data Institute, being adviser to the UK government on Open Data, undertaking a number of reviews for the UK Government and being Principal of Jesus College, Oxford.
Dame Wendy Hall was appointed to the prestigious post of Regius Professor in Computer Science at the University of Southampton.
Regius professorships are posts which have royal patronage. The post was originally created in 2013 and is the only Regius Professorship in Computer Science in the country.
Dame Wendy said of her appointment: “I am pleased to accept this prestigious honour from the University and from Her Majesty The Queen. The Regius Professorship signifies an important honour for the University, the Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, and the discipline of Computer Science at Southampton. It also represents years of hard work by a world-leading team of people which I’m proud to continue to lead. I believe it’s a critical time in our history to contribute to our increased understanding of the power of the World Wide Web and the physical and social impact it makes on our daily lives.”
More details can be found here.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has appointed Professor Dame Wendy Hall and former IBM Chief Data Scientist Jerome Pesenti to lead a review of the UK Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector. The government has also allocated funding of £17.3m to UK universities for carrying out research into AI and robotics.
The review will look into the ways in which government and industry could collaborate in this area and how the sector could grow.
On her appointment Professor Dame Wendy Hall said:
“Our scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs are at the forefront of the development of artificial intelligence and I’m looking forward to exploring how industry and government can work together to support the technology in the UK.”
Professor Dame Wendy Hall was named in the list under the engineering and technology category.
Reasons for her being listed include her being a founding director of the Web Science Research Initiative, her presidency of the British Computer Society and being a pioneering researcher into multi-media technologies.
After more than six years as CEO of Seme4, Tim Organ announced at the recent Board that he was stepping down. Hugh Glaser has taken on the role of CEO.
Tim has led Seme4 through some stormy times, especially in the market, with recessions and austerity in the public sector, and leaves it in a healthy condition – in fact, Seme4 recorded its best year yet in the recent financial review. He will stay involved with Seme4 at a strategic level, and remain on the Board, but the day to day involvement will be much reduced.
In recognising Tim’s contribution to Seme4, Wendy Hall commented that “We are very grateful for everything Tim has done for Seme4 over the last few years. Over his time at the helm, Seme4 has grown significantly as a company and we couldn’t have done this without his tireless efforts on our behalf. Always a pleasure to work with, we look forward to his continued involvement in the future development of the company”.
Tim said “It has been a great pleasure and an honour to work with everyone at Seme4 these last six years. Making the case for Linked Data and our data integration technology has not been easy, but Seme4 has survived while others have not, making consistent profits every year. There is no doubt that our time will come, and Seme4 will go from strength to strength.”
Seme4 has launched the Horizon Scanning demonstrator – an innovative new piece of software for linking and visualising global data.
The demonstrator, commissioned by KISTI (the Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information), enables linking and visualisation of a range of data sources, including global threats, influenza outbreak locations and worldwide air travel passenger movements to/from the UK.
More details can be found here.
Seme4 has launched a new parking app in partnership with GEOmii and Ethos VO Ltd. The app provides information on availability of parking spaces using the best available data sources, such as live data from fixed sensors in parking spaces, crowd sourced data, data collected by local authorities or data collected from mobile phones.
The system uses a range of data analytics techniques to predict future parking space availability. It also collects data on parking space usage and driving patterns to improve prediction.
The system aims to reduce the amount of time drivers spend looking for a parking space, thereby reducing congestion and also greenhouse gas emissions. The data collected will also help with city planning, for example in deciding the number and location of parking spaces.
Further information can be found here and the app can be downloaded here.
A radio interview with Martin de Heaver from Ethos Smart discussing the app and a trial of the system in Brighton can be found here.
Professor Dame Wendy Hall is one of 12 women to receive an award to celebrate her “scientific achievements and ability to inspire others.”
The awards are part of an initiative launched by the UK Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre to encourage more women to pursue science as a profession, and in particular to aspire to senior leadership roles.
The awards are timed to coincide with Ada Lovelace Day, which is an international day to celebrate the achievements of women in science and encourage more females into scientific careers.
Professor Dame Wendy Hall was named in the Inspiring Fifty list of Most Inspirational Women in European Technology for 2016. The aim of Inspiring Fifty is to address the gender imbalance in technology. It arranges events and produces publications to motivate, inspire and educate women in the technology sector.
Janneke Niessen, co-initiator of Inspiring Fifty, said “Looking at the Inspiring Fifty of this year really makes me proud. These fifty women are the best of the best, with truly inspirational careers.”
Shari Yoder Doherty from Atomico, which is in partnership with Inspiring Fifty, said “What a fantastic group of inspirational women. It was a tough selection process as we had hundreds of impressive nominations, but these fifty stood out for their experience and achievements, particularly over the past year. One thing they all have in common is a very obvious passion for the tech industry, which makes them the perfect role models to inspire other women looking to build a career in the sector.”
Professor Dame Wendy Hall has begun a three month tenure in the prestigious post of Kluge Chair of Technology and Society at the Library of Congress in the United States of America.
Professor Hall will work on a research project entitled “Internet Histories and Futures.” She will also chair a public symposium on the ways in which institutions can archive the contents of the Web and co-host a two-day “hackathon.”
The USA Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts in its collections.