This review is from Elona Shatri, a fourth-year PhD student at QMUL and a part of the Centre for Digital Music.
“The Algorithmic Leader: How to Be Smart When Machines Are Smarter Than You” by Mike Walsh provides an insightful and practical guide for those leading teams in the rapidly changing field of AI, as well as all industries that are transformed and impacted by AI. The book offers a thorough overview of how AI is changing different industries and proposes strategies for leaders to leverage this technology for growth and innovation. Specifically, the book draws attention to the importance of equity and inclusion in AI, and how they promote diversity and avoid bias in decision-making. The book is written in engaging and accessible language, and complex concepts are made easy to understand for readers with no background in AI.
What I liked about this book is the way it challenges traditional hierarchies and structures that can hinder innovation, and instead emphasizes a more collaborative and adaptive approach that embraces the potential of AI to augment human intelligence.
On International Women’s Day, our team members Elona Shatri and Richard Clegg organised a Wikipedia editing event to create or enhance articles about inspiring women, particularly those in the STEM fields. Although Wikipedia is a widely used source of information, it has been criticized for its significant gender bias, with fewer articles about women and a greater tendency to delete those that do exist as “non-notable.” This gender gap in content and editors was highlighted when Dr. Donna Strickland’s Wikipedia article was deleted for being “non-notable” just before she won the Nobel Prize in Physics.
The editing evening was held on March 8th, with a team of seven individuals working together to improve existing articles and create new ones. In keeping with the theme of the event, the team listened to a carefully curated playlist of music composed by women, which was available on Spotify. Through this event, we aimed to make a contribution to the representation of women on Wikipedia and promote greater gender balance in its content.
February is traditionally designated to celebrate the LGBT+ History Month, and as part of this initiative, many colleagues at EECS and across the University paid tribute and celebrated the LGBT+ community and their allies.
You can read about the EE & CS linked achievements at: https://cs4fn.blog/lgbtq-computer-science-greats/. Including the (love and law) story of Edie Schlain Windsor the IBM senior systems programmer who led the landmark Supreme Court Case (United States v Windsor) that led to the legalisation of same-sex marriage in the US.
Paul Curzon gave a talk at the London CAS conference for teachers on the 25th February. The theme of the conference was Love Computing, and so Paul’s workshop explored the work of (gay) Christopher Strachey’s and his love letter writing program (you can read more here: https://cs4fn.blog/christopher-strachey/)
And if you haven’t seen it yet, you can still head to the cinemas to watch Blue Jean, which is a frank, powerful and emotionally resonant portrait of lives, both public and personal, in the not-too-distant past. In 1988, Margaret Thatcher’s government was about to implement Section 28 laws designed to ban anything that appears to “promote the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.” The story follows a PE teacher Jean who is careful not to advertise her queerness at the school where she works, but when a new pupil joins her class, her double life becomes to unravel.
My name is Ines, I am 17 and currently in Year 13.
I study politics, computer science, and mathematics, and my favourite varies each week. In politics, I enjoy studying and learning about political ideas and concepts, especially feminism! I also really like the feeling of success when I solve a complicated mathematical problem right, or when my program runs for the first time.
Almost everyone in my computing class does maths, but nobody in my year does computing and politics. Only two other students do politics and maths. Mixing humanities and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is not incredibly uncommon, but I still get confused looks whenever I tell someone my subject choices.
In my primary school there was a computing extracurricular activity, that I did from 6 years old until I finished school. From then, I just kept choosing it, for my Year 9 early options, to GCSE, to A level, and now as a university course! I never had any specific inspirations, I just knew that I really enjoyed programming, and I was not going to let myself be driven out of it.
I recently finished the coursework required for my Computing A level. I created a booking system for a hotel. It was pretty hard, but I managed to learn, through many YouTube videos and hours on stack overflow, many different skills that I could not have even fathomed a year ago.
I chose to apply to a university in the the UK because I like the way the courses are structured. I really like the fact that it is possible to choose from niche modules in later years, but the foundation is set out first. I also really enjoy the London atmosphere and would love to be a student here.
It is accepted that computer science is the future, for better or worse. Cash is being replaced with cards, cashiers with self-checkouts, and so on. There is not a single area of life that has not been impacted by technology, and that will not continue to be.
I enjoy coding but have not really settled on a specific area. In university, I would like to focus on AI and learn more about it. I would like to do a masters, but I am not sure of the program yet. Hopefully, I will have the chance to this abroad, to experience a different university life. Having a specific goal really helps me stay motivated. Right now, it is reaching my predicted grades so I can get into my top university choice.
I attended a couple of the Girls in Tech courses run by Queen Mary. In one, we were taught about HTML and C#, and the other one was a discussion between different women in Tech industries found them interesting and they made me feel scared of the computer science environment.
Outside school, I take guitar lessons and really enjoy listening to various kinds of music. I also tutor maths and bake a lot.
My Computer Science class is 17 boys and 2 girls, which can be very overwhelming at times. Sometimes it can feel like we are ‘other’ in a class where the teacher enables dubious conversations on women. However, I really do like Computing and that love, and my stubbornness outweighs the negative feelings. If not you who, and if not when?
This review is from Ashley Laurent Noel-Hirst a first year PhD student at QMUL, part of Centre for Digital Music.
If you have ever wondered why facial recognition software routinely fails black women; ’security’ AI systems increase risk of violence to intersectionally marginalised people; or how defaults in online forms skew university admissions, then you should read this book. If you have never wondered about such things, then you should definitely read this book.
Combining academic rigour with anecdotal grounding and approachable writing, Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock outlines how seemingly harmless design decisions can reflect and reproduce dynamics of power in a tech-centric world. They posit that ‘everyone participates in design’, and provide frameworks for multi-axis analysis of (dis/dys)affordances in contemporary technology. To those who are paid to design, Costanza-Chock invites a re-evaluation of practice.
Thought-provoking, challenging, and inspiring all at once. A necessary read for anyone interested in technology and society.’
When I was a child (I was born just 10 years after World War 2 ended) there was no word we used for the genocides that Nazi Germany committed. To a large extent, these things weren’t spoken of. My best friend Paul’s mother Lorli (they lived down the road) “came to England as a child”. It was years later that the Kindertransport came into public discourse and I realised that “Auntie” Lorli was one of these children. It turned out that Paul’s father Harry also escaped Germany just in time. Neither of them saw their parents again. Apparently, I discovered just last year, Harry saw some action in France, helping the resistance, but that’s another story. (My own ancestors came from Russia/Poland around 1900, fleeing from an earlier brand of anti-Jewish persecution.)
Nowadays, we have Holocaust Memorial Day, which every year is on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. But HMD isn’t just for Jews – nor is it all Jews have, of which more later. HMD commemorates all the peoples who just weren’t ‘right’ for the Nazi version of the world: Roma, Sinti, LGBT+ and others were all persecuted, impoverished, enslaved and murdered. And it’s vital to remember that HMD is also there to commemorate the genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. This is because the Nazis weren’t the first to commit genocide and aren’t the last.
Jews also have our own day to remember. We call it Yom Ha’Shoah (Yom is Day, Shoah is Holocaust). It’s held in Spring on 27th of the month of Nisan, which by the Jewish calendar is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Both this and HMD are special, solemn events and I hope you don’t mind that we keep one for ourselves, while fully and completely supporting the world’s memorial on 27 January.
It’s worth remembering that anti-semitism is getting stronger. It doesn’t go away, it ebbs and flows just like any other human disease. There are those who deny the Holocaust happened and others who say it is vastly exaggerated. And on our campuses, anti-semitism is on the rise: there’s been a 22% increase in anti-semitic acts in the last two years, up to 150 across 30 universities. That’s reported incidents, and includes physical assaults as well as acts perpetrated by academics!
I am proudly a supporter of the Anne Frank Trust, which doesn’t teach only about the Holocaust. It goes into schools and helps young people aged 9-15, to understand all forms of prejudice, to learn how to challenge it, and to change lives for the better. Perhaps you might like to make a donation.
Initially I didn’t know what I was going to do. It sounded exciting to be known as the director of wellbeing but I had not figured out what the Director of wellbeing can do for EECS. The role was focused on the wellbeing of students and staff.. I am a firm believer that we need supportive and non-judgemental space in the classroom. Two years ago, when I started as director of wellbeing, I did not know what the job should be. All I did know was that I now had a formal platform for my counselling training and to support students not just within my modules but outside as well. How I was going to do that felt overwhelming as EECS has huge student numbers. Working as a lecturer but felt I could do more than just supporting students in the classroom. I wanted to do more about pastoral care. Steve created the role as he firmly believed that wellbeing should have its place at EECS and at QMUL and as he predicted, today we have the new NSS questionnaire with wellbeing questions!
Tell me about that wishlist
Firstly I wanted to create a culture with wellbeing in focus. I want staff and students at QMUL to feel safe to talk about wellbeing and mental health without being judged. The culture should make it OK to say that you are struggling. I really feel that this change is happening now. When I’m struggling (and I do) I voice it.
Secondly I wanted buy-in on this with complete support from the head of school and from senior management. The National Student Survey was a useful lever to emphasise that this is actually important to our success.
Thirdly, I wanted to create mental health champions. Some students are in a better place after getting support and some want to help others. This idea of peer-assisted-support can be really valuable.
What did you do before you worked at QMUL?
I came from Sri Lanka to Liverpool where I did an undergraduate degree in economics in the 90s. I found the university was a really supportive place with lecturers being genuinely supportive. I went on to an MBa in Cardiff and an MSc and PhD at Kingston. However, I struggled with my own mental health, stress and my wellbeing. It affected my studies during my PhD. I was encouraged by your supervisors to get support which helped a lot. A lot of staff at QMUL don’t know that my qualifications are in business and management, not in engineering or sciences. I used to feel self-conscious and had a bit of imposter syndrome. I still do have moments when I need to challenge myself to work through my lack of confidence. But when I’m with my students teaching or supporting them in wellbeing that’s when I feel I’m in my element. This is part of why I wanted to continue my professional training as a counsellor.
Tell me about your counsellor training
I started five years ago. I want to have a better understanding of mental health and wellbeing, to understand myself better and to understand how to help people. I did foundation courses with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) as a modality based, person-centred counsellor. I’m currently in my final year of a diploma that will enable me to practise as a counsellor. As part of my training I work in a secondary school as a counsellor and also do adult counselling related to trauma, bereavement and stress.
Who are your services for?
I provide help for undergraduates, PhD and Masters students. My office provides a safe place for them to talk about their struggles. Academics and advisors are typically not trained in mental health interventions and they aren’t all comfortable with that.
What advice would you give to a staff member when a student has mental health problems?
They should clarify boundaries and work within their limits. Ask yourself, “Are you comfortable to do this?” If not the sign post this to the student and don’t feel pressured to provide support you are not comfortable with. Advise the student about routes which they can get help: Mahesha as wellbeing director can provide help and advice. QMUL has an advice and counselling service (but this is very oversubscribed) and I can provide help in the interim. I am able to provide biweekly (every two weeks) meeting sessions for students who want to talk to me. Any student who emails me asking for a wellbeing meeting I try and meet them during the same week for a 1-1 meeting
Tell me about the “Student Voice” boxes (small purple boxes) around campus? What do you get from these?
Students leave anonymous messages in the purple boxes around ITL. On Fridays Steve and I do a live zoom call where we open the box and discuss the contents. It’s still very new. We get all kinds of messages: “I’m struggling and don’t know what to do” I give the student advice about where they can get help and who they can reach out to. “I’m being bullied” I help them find places they can reach out to. QMUL has a confidential and anonymous reporting mechanism for this.
While it is early days, I have a very positive feeling about this. I would like to add that its great that students see our live reactions especially to see how the head of school is making time every week on a Friday to go through their boxes is very powerful. What we are in fact saying to them every week is “you are not a number in the crowd, if you want your HoS to hear what you have to say and see how he addresses it then here is the opportunity”.
This is a new initiative our team thought would help boost the reading of books with an EDI angle. We plan to bring new recommendations monthly to this blog, so please feel free to send your recommendations and a paragraph on the book to e.shatri@qmul.ac.uk.
We start with the very first recommendation by Luca Marinelli, a third-year PhD student at EECS.
Intersectionality (Key concepts 2nd edition), by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, 2020
Intersectionality (Key concepts 2nd edition), by Patricia Hill Collins and Sirma Bilge, Cambridge, UK, Polity Press, 2020
After being coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw in the late 1980s, the term “Intersectionality” has been much discussed over, to the point where it recently entered mainstream media and became a buzzword. Hill Collins and Bilge help us clear things up a bit. For them, intersectionality investigates how intersecting power relations influence social relations across diverse societies and individual experiences in everyday life. As an analytic tool, intersectionality views categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, class, nation, ability, ethnicity, and age – among others – as interrelated and mutually shaping one another (ibid, p. 2). Intersectionality is then both a critical method of enquiry and a praxis, through which we understand power relations of race, gender and class, for example, not as discrete and mutually exclusive, but as building on each other and working together.
Rather than focusing on academic discourse, the book offers us several case studies and helps us understand how intersectionality was transformed as it travelled to Europe from the USA. They achieve academic rigour remaining all the way through extremely accessible to students, as theory and praxis always go hand in hand. In this much-needed introduction, Hill Collins and Bilge warn us against watering down intersectionality to corporate diversity talks, thereby losing sight of what is important, namely, social equality and justice.
Virtual participants at the Grace Hopper Celebration Open Source day
On September 16th, Naomi Arnold from the Networks Group in EECS attended the Grace Hopper Celebration’s Open Source Day. This is a virtual all-day hackathon celebrating women who work in open source software. Open source software still has huge under representation of women with, by some estimates, less than 10% of open source contributors being women.
Naomi represented the Raphtory project. a collaboration with QMUL, the Alan Turing Institute and Pometry. Raphtory was showcased in the Open Source Day alongside some well known projects like Matplotlib, Open Street Map and Node.js. The objective of the event was to celebrate women in computer science and help first-time contributors get into open source with a variety of workshops to get involved with. Naomi said: “It was great to have some users testing the Raphtory software and get some feedback about the user experience with getting started, and we got some issues resolved and cool features implemented that we’d struggle to find time to do just within the core team.”
I’m a 3rd year PhD student in the Artificial Intelligence and Music (AIM) program at the EECS school. My research centres around automatic music transcription using a variety of methods and approaches. I enjoy the work – I’ve not been particularly successful so far in terms of publications but I feel like I am making some progress.
Many people feel like they have to choose between doing their research or having a family, Is it possible to be a full time PhD student and raise a family?
It is very difficult – my financial situation is relatively comfortable (see below) and my wife isn’t currently at work which allows her time to focus on our two children. Even with these considerable advantages, it can be hard to be available to my family and be fully present for my research at the same time. I certainly struggle to work with the intensity that some of my high-performing peers seem able to achieve.
The other aspect I find difficult is the idea of a future within academia. I’m 36 and settled in my current location which means that academic jobs within travelling distance of my house are very limited. I’ve basically abandoned the idea of continuing my research after the PhD program ends because I don’t see it as being compatible with providing for my family. This is a personal choice though – I wouldn’t expect everyone to feel the same way.
The past three years with Covid have been difficult for most, how did it change the dynamic of research for you being at home with your family?
I had been working remotely for 7 years prior to starting the PhD so in that sense it wasn’t a big change. I do feel like my cohort is more isolated in terms of their research interests. The cross-pollination of ideas that you get from attending lectures together, eating lunch together etc. seems to be reduced as a result of covid for us. Being at home with my family can be challenging at times in terms of focus and finding uninterrupted spells of time to think but I feel like I just have to make the best of it.
How difficult is to financially support your family while on a PhD stipend?
My financial situation is unusual – I don’t have a mortgage. I’m also able to supplement my funding through savings that I made from a career prior to starting the PhD although we try to keep these for capital expenses instead of day-to-day living. Even so, it has been challenging and we’ve had to make cutbacks on non-essential items. I understood this going into the PhD though and I’m anticipating that it will be worth it on returning to work afterwards.
Teo Dannemann
Tell us about your work at QMUL?
I am a Media and Arts Technology PhD student since 2019, funded by Chilean Research Council. My research interest lies in collective music performance and to elucidate the synergies (or emergent properties) that come up from this. A specific main question in his research is: how human music interaction differs from human-computer interaction?
Many people feel like they have to choose between doing their research or having a family, Is it possible to be a full time PhD student and raise a family?
Not in current conditions. There’s a lot you have to give away on both sides, you end up sacrificing time on your PhD because you have to do extra work for maintaining the child costs (especially nursery, around £1200 monthly for a full-time nursery).
The past three years with Covid have been difficult for most, how did it change the dynamic of research for you being at home with your family?
Living in London, it was quite difficult, as we had to live in a one-bedroom flat the three of us, with the newborn crying around couldn’t focus to do work very often. Then we decided to move outside of London where we could afford a bigger place and it was much better, but then the commuting time and costs appeared…
How difficult is to financially support your family while on a PhD stipend?
Don’t want to sound exaggerated, because in our case we are lucky that we could get help from family during difficult times, but otherwise it gets dangerously difficult to be a parent with a PhD stipend.
What kind of financial help have you looked either from QM or other parts?
QM basically has the hardship fund, which I applied for and didn’t get. Then I looked for government help and the main help is called Tax Free Childcare, for which I am not eligible as your income (i.e. the stipend) has to be taxable in the UK. Therefore, externally (overseas) funded students are at a particular disadvantage for applying this kind of funding.
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