School of Computing Science

Co-Production "The Real PPI": Launching The Researcher's Toolkit

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 15 January, 2026
Time: 11:00 - 12:00
Location: TBA

Hybrid event hosted at University of Aberdeen Register here: Co-Production Toolkit Launch Event – Expression of Interest Join Dr Michelle Sader (University of Aberdeen) for the launch of The Researcher’s Toolkit, a valuable resource for researchers across disciplines. Co-production is a collaborative approach to research, where people with both lived and learnt experience work together to conceptualise, conduct and disseminate research. Co-production not only benefits a variety of different communities, but is also increasingly sought after by academic funders and journals. As part of a previous workshop co-sponsored by the University, the Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform For Scientific Excellence (SINAPSE), the Eating Disorders and Autism Collaborative and Alzheimer’s Research UK, workshop attendees and organisers co-designed a 35-page resource toolkit focusing on co-production. This talk will provide an overview of research co-production and will focus on formally launching the toolkit, an open-source and free resource aiming to guide researchers looking to implement participatory research approaches in their own work. We will also discuss examples with which researchers across disciplines can implement co-production, as well as signposting our next steps and where the toolkit may be found. Time Event 11:00-11:05 Welcome and Housekeeping 11:05-11:30 Presenting the Toolkit 11:30-11:45 Worked Example: Using the Toolkit in Practice 11:45-12:00 Questions & Discussion 12:00 Next Steps & Closing

Measuring and understanding Distributed Denial of Service attacks

Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Daniel R. Thomas, University of Strathclyde
Date: 20 January, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

Bio:

Dr Daniel R. Thomas is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Strathclyde where he is Director of the NCSC certified Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). His research interests are in measuring security and cybercrime so that we can monitor improvement, evaluate interventions and inform regulators. This reveals which techniques work and provides the missing economic incentives to improve security and reduce cybercrime. He co-organises the Strathclyde International Perspectives on Cybercrime Summer School [link](https://www.strath.ac.uk/science/computerinformationsciences/strathcyber/cybercrimesummerschool) , which next runs 24th-28th August 2026.

Education Champions Meeting

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 21 January, 2026
Time: 16:00 - 17:00
Location: Online

Monthly meeting of SICSA Education Champions. Please contact the Education Director if you’re a CS academic based in Scotland and are interested in becoming an Education Champion for your institution.

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Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Tom Spink, University of St. Andrews
Date: 27 January, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

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Aberdeen GameJam 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 28 January, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 17:00
Location: Meston Building, University of Aberdeen, Meston Walk, Aberdeen, AB24 3UE

View full event details here. After the success of last year, University of Aberdeen’s School of Natural and Computing Sciences will be running Aberdeen GameJam 2026, this time in partnership with the History department! The event is open to students at University of Aberdeen and any other Scottish University. Each participant will receive an Aberdeen GameJam 2026 t-shirt and Amazon vouchers will be awarded to winners in each prize category. Additionally, ABVentures and Common Profyt Games have sponsored prizes, one for the Best Pitch, and one for a category yet to be announced! This year’s general theme is Games & History (so it might be a good idea to grab somebody who knows their history!) Participants will have a week to develop from scratch a game on a more specific theme that will be announced on Wednesday, 21 January 2026, followed by an in-person event starting at 9am on Wednesday, 28 January 2025 where teams will get feedback from judges. Teams will make a short presentation of their game starting at Noon and then judges will choose a winner for our prizes to be announced that afternoon.

Upwards Seminar: "IAA funding applications and projects"

Group: School of Computing Science
Speaker: Drs Javier Sanz-Cruzado Puig and Edmond Ho, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow
Date: 28 January, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 16:00
Location: Sir Alwyn Williams Building, 422 Seminar Room

Topic: IAA funding applications and projects

Speakers:

- Dr Javier Sanz-Cruzado Puig (SoCS, IDA, Postdoc)

- Dr Edmond Ho (SoCS, IDA, Senior Lecturer)

Location: In room SAWB 422 and on Zoom (https://uofglasgow.zoom.us/ j/82777296923?pwd=k5qqyTXrnqm2iF1MfUzY5tDpcs6a24.1).

What will this session be about?
 
It is up to the speakers to set the agenda for their Upwards talks, but the idea of this seminar instance is to hear lessons learned from applying for and driving Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) projects to make an impact with UofG research results, both from an academic and a postdoc researcher perspective: When does it make sense to apply for IAA funding? What is the funding useful for? What kind of impact are we talking about? How do you win the funding? How do successful IAA projects look? How can you sustain impact beyond an IAA project?

What is Upwards?
 
Upwards is the School of Computing Science’s research culture seminar, covering all facets of developing, conducting, and disseminating research and related topics (e.g. managing a research team, time management to do research, connections between research and teaching). It is open to everyone in the School, but a specific aim is to support ECR development and some sessions are aimed mainly at PGRs and/or PDRAs.

How are the seminars held?

Upwards seminars are held in person in the School to bring people together. In addition, the sessions are streamed on Zoom to allow to join remotely, if attending in person is not an option. To preserve the off-the- record atmosphere of the seminars, which allows speakers to speak more freely about their personal experiences, the seminars are not recorded and the slides are not shared. For the same reason, AI tools (such as those that automatically take meeting notes) will not be permitted. 

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Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Yuvraj Patel, University of Edinburgh
Date: 03 February, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

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Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Daniel Temkin, Esoteric Codes
Date: 10 February, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

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Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Tao Chen, University of Birmingham
Date: 19 February, 2026
Time: 14:00 - 15:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

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Group: Systems Seminars
Speaker: Youssef Moawad, University of Glasgow
Date: 03 March, 2026
Time: 12:00 - 13:00
Location: Room 422, Sir Alwyn Williams Building and Zoom

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HRI 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 16 March, 2026
Time: 00:00 - 00:00
Location: TBA

The ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) is the premier venue for innovations on human-robot interaction. Sponsored by the ACM special interest groups on computer-human interaction (SIGCHI) and artificial intelligence (SIGAI) as well as the IEEE robotics and automation society (RAS), HRI brings together researchers spanning robotics, human-computer interaction, human factors, artificial intelligence, engineering, and social and behavioral sciences. The theme of the 21st edition of HRI is HRI Empowering Society. Our field has the potential to bring about positive change in many areas of our societies such as healthcare, transport, remote working, agriculture and industry. However, this change cannot happen if we do not engage properly with the end users who will potentially utilize robots in their jobs and daily lives. For this reason, HRI 2026 will focus on: 1) how we can ethically integrate robots in everyday processes without creating disruptions or inequalities, carefully thinking at the future of work and services; 2) how we can make them accessible to the general public (in terms of design, technical literacy and cost) with the final aim to make robots more willingly adopted as technological helpers. More information is available on the HRI 2026 website

SICSA Writing Retreat 2026

Group: Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA)
Speaker: SICSA Event, SICSA
Date: 27 April, 2026
Time: 15:00 - 14:00
Location: Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE), G63 0JS

The 2026 SICSA Writing Retreat will bring together researchers from across Scotland for a two-day intensive writing event. The programme will consist of networking and skill sharing activities, in addition to individual and group writing blocks. Postdoctoral researchers from any SICSA institution are invited to apply to attend the writing retreat by completing the online form by 1 February 2026. Spaces are very limited and the SICSA Directorate will be judging applications based on clear and achievable writing plans, quality outputs and benefits to both individual researchers. Proposals that involve and benefit multiple SICSA institutions are particularly encouraged. Apply Date Start: 15:00 Monday 27 April 2026 Finish: 14:00 Wednesday 29 April 2026 Location Scottish Centre for Ecology and the Natural Environment (SCENE)