Daniel C Doolan

A conference paper I wrote a while back about how undergraduate teaching experience modules in physics can affect intentions to become teachers has just been published here for anyone interested.... https://lnkd.in/edFMFdnb

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Tomorrow I am in London for a workshop with the British Computing Society BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT Academy Board to discuss the future of education and AI. Software engineering is the latest example of an industry being rapidly and dramatically disrupted by GenAI. From the early days (ie, 2023!) of the well-documented GenAI disruption to Stack Overflow, the industry pivoted quickly to embrace coding copilots. From Overflow AI to devin ai to Cursor to Replit, what it means to work in this field has changed at lightning speed. In July 2024, Capgemini published a report claiming that 55% of software engineers were more satisfied at work as a result of working with AI. But Uplevel (https://lnkd.in/eaREBd7Z) reported that AI copilots introduce 41% more bugs into that code. This means that those formerly writing code are now editing and correcting it. Meanwhile, it is increasingly difficult for new grads to find work, as AI is now doing the work of interns and junior workers. On 21 September, Forbes published a piece asking if software engineers were becoming obsolete (https://lnkd.in/e7vb4B58) and 3 days ago, Business Insider reported that because of AI coding assistants, there were no more junior developer jobs (https://lnkd.in/eTEn-EU9). In short, software engineering is last year’s film industry. Working with AI is changing jobs and it is happening before our eyes in real time. It is therefore one to watch for those keen to anticipate disruptions in their own field. Yesterday, Lex Fridman hosted a 2.5 hour (!!) episode of his podcast (https://lnkd.in/eJgqcMDt) on the future of programming with the Cursor team (well worth a listen but if you’re short on time might also maybe a good candidate for a #NotebookLM mini-podcast on the epic version!). So what do we now need to be teaching people entering or upskilling for this field? Again, back in July Forbes predicted it meant they would need more human than technical skills (https://lnkd.in/eMWkafJ8), a fascinating shift and likely a challenge for technical educators unaccustomed to teaching such skills. If you are working in this field and/or training those who do, I’d love your thoughts on what this means for the future of work and education.

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And for those of you wanting to know what we at the Leicester Centre for Phage Research have been up to in our first year here is a wee summary: https://lnkd.in/eZRDX6NM

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Digital Seminar for UK Lecturers: How can we use AI to make marking effortless?

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The Guardian has highlighted a worrying trend on the uptake of GCSE Computer Science amongst females in this article: https://lnkd.in/euTdP8gh With a couple of quotes standing out: “...the introduction of the new syllabus has had the unintended consequence of driving female entries down, according to new research by King’s College London.” Also: “...In 2015 43% of candidates for ICT GCSE were female, compared with just 21% of those who took GCSE computer science in 2023….” Senior figures within the educational field of computing are urging curriculum reform, noting that many students perceive Computer Science as ‘difficult’ and that the overt focus on programming skills might be deterring girls from taking it up. Dr Peter Kemp also notes that we need to encourage girls to take up the subject and to allow them to develop the sort of digital skills that they will need in the future. What do we think about this? I taught the old ICT curriculum for many years, and yes it was very MS Office-heavy but it could also be very motivational and was a popular choice for girls. Have we gone too far down the road of programming just for the sake of it, making it the preserve of ‘geeky’ males? Are there any home schoolers who are attempting the GCSE in Computer Science who can vouch for it?!

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Get ready for the GCSE / A level Computer Science exams with our free exam prep resources.👇 ✅ 1000+ self-marking questions 📜 Curated revision practice tests ⬇️ Downloadable revision flashcards ⏰ Save time and get instant feedback on problem areas Read more in our exam-special development diary: rpf.io/adarevision #Alevel #GCSE #Teachers #Revision #Exams

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I am receiving an overwhelming number of emails, between 50-80 per day, regarding the PhD scholarship below. I am truly grateful for the interest in the topic however I feel bad being unable to respond to each one individually. If an applicant does not receive a reply from me within a week, it likely indicates a misalignment between the CV and the scholarship’s requirements, and thus I do not recommend spending good time on making a formal application. Common reasons for this misalignment include 1) insufficient research experience and 2) lack of the necessary background knowledge. I have also noticed a few identical CVs submitted under different names, which is confusing. If you do not receive a reply from me, please know that I appreciate your interest and welcome your application. However, this might not be the right time or the right role for you. Please continue your efforts, and our paths may cross again in the future.

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Congratulations to the 4 research groups at the University of Birmingham that have been shortlisted for HPCwire awards for best use of High Performance Computing using our supercomputer #BlueBEAR and Tier 2 HPC system #Baskerville! If you're not from the University of Birmingham, please vote for the high-impact research enabled by use of our compute systems via the link by Friday 4 October: https://lnkd.in/eR_W_unE Category 1 - Best Use of HPC in Life Sciences - Andrew Begg's research group used BlueBEAR to efficiently process sequencing data of plasma samples from children with cancer, accurately determining cancer type and its recurrence using a blood sample instead of an invasive biopsy   Category 3 - Best HPC Response to Societal Plight - William Bloss's research group used BlueBEAR to develop an advanced street-scale air quality model for the West Midlands Combined Authority, informing strategies to reduce ~2,300 annual premature deaths attributed to air pollution   Category 7 - Best Use of HPC in Industry - Kit Windows-Yule's research group used BlueBEAR to develop a machine learning tool to optimise industrial equipment design, potentially transforming the path of manufacturing to Net Zero   Category 8 - Best Use of High Performance Data Analytics & AI - Xilin Xia's research group developed a high-resolution, GPU-accelerated flood forecasting model using #Baskerville to improve localised flood warnings - see https://lnkd.in/ePkPqGm3

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“Carving Reality at its Digital Joints" This is the title of the keynote I delivered two days ago in the scope of Computing Conference in London - as I had previously mentioned here (https://lnkd.in/eYtAS3W5). If you are interested, please find the slides below. This was a talk that was much less technical than usual, focused on how social reality came to be more and more grounded in digital brute facts (in a Searlian sense) that are constructed in a collective and distributed manner. Moreover, a key take-away message of the talk was a plea for what I call Meaningful Computing, i.e., putting meaning (both in the sense of Semantics as in the sense of Purpose/Value) at the center of the engineering of the digital systems on which social reality is grounded. To refer to a sentence of Dijkstra (Computer Science is as much about Computers as Astronomy is about Telescopes), it is also a wishful message for these "astronomers" here to stop obsessing only with telescope design, efficiency and operations, and look at the stars :) I was very positively surprised by the international outlook of the conference (52 countries represented!), and had great conversations with many people from Africa, Asia, and South America. Learned a lot from these interactions. Thanks to the organization for the invitation and to Juraj Holub for the excellent mediation. Semantics, Cybersecurity, and Services (SCS)/Universiteit Twente #ontology #ontologies  #semanticinteroperability #socialreality #meaningfulComputing

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PhD offer to work on air- and structure-borne sound transmission at the Acoustics Research Unit at the University of Liverpool under the guidance of Professor Carl Hopkins

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👩‍💻 Girls in GCSE Computing: Bridging the Gender Gap 📊 The participation of girls in GCSE Computing is crucial for fostering diversity and innovation in the tech industry. This insightful blog discusses the current trends and challenges that girls face in pursuing computing subjects at school. It highlights the importance of encouraging female students to explore their interest in technology and the initiatives aimed at increasing their representation in STEM fields. Learn about effective strategies and resources that educators can use to inspire and support girls in computing, ultimately helping to create a more inclusive environment in tech education. Read more here:

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Computing curriculum leaving digital skills behind, research suggests. Research by the Subject Choice, Attainment and Representation in Computing Project has found that the technical focus of the computing curriculum is leaving many without other important digital skills

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And for those of you who prefer the highlights of the LearnSci case study in video form, here's me in the sunshine after delivering my talk at the Horizons in STEM conference. #InnovativeAssessment #ChemEd

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We all know pixels, but could you describe a voxel? Understand the difference between pixels and voxels, and why you should care in our latest blog. Hopefully, this post will be as useful to you, as it was to many of our students, Read article: https://buff.ly/3HMnELE #imageAnalysis #imageProcessing #computerVision #dataProcessing #3D

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I'll be at the University of Nottingham Faculty of Engineering on Monday 1st July giving a seminar on engineering education. ***** "What are they thinking?!" - Designing engineering education research studies to understand student learning: a case study from the lecture theatre to publication.   If you've ever wondered what goes through the mind of a student, let me share what they are thinking - in their own words! This session welcomes anyone who is interested in designing a research study based on their experiences in teaching and learning within third level engineering courses.   In this talk I'll be discussing the process of developing a teaching research study in a way that's accessible to engineers. I'll then present as a case study, the design and findings from my own observations from teaching that became a research paper. This is a qualitative research project where I asked students to explain their thought processes as they rearranged a previously unseen circuit diagram, and what implications that could have for how we teach the subject. Image: “Circuit Diagram” – R. Munroe, https://xkcd.com/730/

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My new report, "Mathematics in UK Higher Education: a Brief Overview" was published yesterday through the Campaign for Mathematical Sciences. Maths first-degree enrolments have seen a relative decline even while A-level numbers have been rising (Maths is now the most popular A-level). Enrolments are heavily concentrated in Russell Group universities and strikingly, almost all of the growth seen in Maths numbers has been among professional/managerial background students in RGUs.

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Really interesting to see this report on GCSE Computer Science that suggests "there is a compelling case that standards may not have been consistently maintained through the period from 2014 to 2019, with the standard being set slightly more severely during that period."

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