I asked Andy Philippides of Sussex University (Research Fellow and liaison for MSc projects) to start feeding me some news from the Informatics dept. after my presentation there before Christmas.
Here’s his first post – they’re especially interested in chatting to anyone who has an MSc or undergrad project to submit. They’ll be along at the WiredSussex Jobs Fair on Thursday if you want to chat in person.
Over to Andy…
I’m Andy Philippides, a lecturer at Sussex Uni where I study insect navigation. Ian asked me to write a few lines from time to time about goings-on in Informatics that might be of interest to the wider technological world, to let you know a bit more of what we’re getting up to in our ivory towers.
One of the main happenings for me this month is to begin organising dissertation projects for the Master’s students. These are 4 month research-based projects which run over Summer and are the major piece of work for the students.
The topics vary widely – as wide as the range of MSc courses on offer – from robotics, E-commerce, databases to data mining, not to mention web-design and virtual environments. Topics are proposed by both faculty and students and the topic agreed between the student and their selected supervisor.
In the past, we have also had projects suggested by – and run in collaboration with – industrial partners. The level of industry engagement can vary from simply suggesting an interesting project area to having the student work on-site, and there’s often some level of financial incentive (which unsurprisingly helps to attract students).
The arrangement has been beneficial to both parties on a number of levels, resulting in job offers and even a highly successful spin-out (NaturalMotion). As the MSc project organiser, I’m therefore keen to foster any links I can, so if anyone is interested in offering a project – with any level of input – please get in touch.
Email me (andrewop AT sussex.ac.uk) or stop by for a chat at WiredSussex’s Job Fair on Thursday where I’ll be manning the Sussex stall from 4-6pm (look out for the robots).
Ian is a Chief Interim Data Scientist via his Mor Consulting. Sign-up for Data Science tutorials in London and to hear about his data science thoughts and jobs. He lives in London, is walked by his high energy Springer Spaniel and is a consumer of fine coffees.