I received this message from the departmental mailing list in the University of Liverpool. I thought my readers might be interested.
Note: this fellowship is only for the researchers based on UK.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Wiebe van der Hoek
Date: Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 4:55 AM
Subject: Fwd: UK-China Fellowships for Excellence 2009
To: CSC-PHDS@liverpool.ac.uk
From: Neil Kemp [mailto:neil.kemp@nkeducation.com]
Sent: 29 September 2009 18:17
To: Neil Kemp
Subject: UK-China Fellowships for Excellence 2009
Importance: High
I am assisting DIUS to identify appropriate post-doctoral fellows for their China Fellowships programme (see below). I would therefore appreciate your help by forwarding this notice to any of your colleagues who might be interested in applying.
Best wishes, Neil
UK-China Fellowships for Excellence: 2009 Round 2
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) are pleased to announce Round 2 of the 2009 Fellowships for Excellence Programme (this in addition to the previous Round which ended July 2009). Up to 20 post-doctoral scholarships are available to top researchers who are based in either an English university or research institution wishing to undertake research in China or Hong Kong from Autumn 2009.
The Fellowships for Excellence scheme forms a central part of the Sino-UK Partners in Education programme and, so far, has enabled 30 or so young and outstanding post doctoral researchers to study and conduct cutting edge research at a Chinese university or research institution for up to one year. The 2009 tranche of awards will provide funding for up to 15 new awards for post doctoral researchers to undertake research and create lasting research links with a Chinese research department. Applications are welcome from all disciplines although preference will be given to areas directly related to science and technology. We would welcome especially applications from Sports Science researchers in recognition of each country’s hosting of the Olympic Games in 2008 and 2012.
In addition, a further 5 awards will be made available in 2009 for UK based researchers wishing to undertake research in Hong Kong.
Completed application forms should be sent electronically to uk.china@jiu.gsi.gov.uk by 30 October 2009.
Further Information
Further information on and the application form for the Fellowships for Excellence programme can be found on the BIS website atwww.bis.gov.uk/international/china, or you can email: uk.china@jiu.gsi.gov.uk.
Overview:
- Introduction
- Responsibility-Driven Design
- Case Study with Design Components
- UML Diagrams
- Steps of Software Design
Slides:
Prof. Wendy MacCaul attended the lecture 7 and gave me some good advices on improving my teaching. The main idea is to encourage the active involvement of students in the class by asking questions. I believe that interactive teaching is a good style. There is even a small video of Wendy when she was talking. Do you want to see it?
We discussed:
- Abstraction and Information Hiding
- Levels of Abstraction
- Forms of Abstraction
- A Short History of Abstraction
Here are the slides:
Since the Google Docs Presentation could not be embedded into WordPress blogs, I created a Slideshare.net account today and uploaded the slides. It looks good.
It would be great if I could hock my Slideshare account with my Google account, so whenever there is any changes to the slide files in my Google Docs, the Slideshare will automatically republish it.
By the way, there is an example related to the GFW of China when I talked about the Proxy Design Pattern 
We discussed:
- Programming Paradigms
- Six principles of OOP
- Elements of OOP
The slides： Lecture 2: Thinking Object-Oriented (2)
Any comments?
Today, I gave my first lecture for Course CSCI 383 with some general introduction. Here is an overview:
- A bit History of Programming Languages
- What is Object-Oriented Programming (OOP)
- Why is OOP?
- Popularity of OOP
- Language and Computation
Here is the slide file created using google doc presentation:
- Thinking Object-Oriented (1) 2009/09/14
I am glad that some students liked it. There is certainly a lot to improve in making and delivering the lectures. It is my first time to teach this course. If you have any suggestions, let me know. You can leave comments here, or send me emails directly.
Here is a picture of the classroom (NH245) and some of the students:
I am teaching a course at StFX: CSCI-383 Object-Oriented Programming & Design. Tomorrow will be the first class.
Interestingly enough, today (September 10) is the Teachers’ Day in the People’s Republic of China. I did not know how does this day come until now (check wikipedia). But I did know the basic idea. In Chinese culture, teachers are highly-regarded. People are making analogies between teachers and candles: they are both “burning” themselves to “enlighten” others. I remember when I was a child, my parents taught me to respect and listen carefully to the teachers. When I was naughty, my parents might warn me that they would report to the teachers if I did not behave. In that sense, the teachers have more authorities than the parents. This might be a good thing, though there is at least one strong side effect: students rarely challenge or question their teachers. If you put a Chinese and an English student together in one class, you can note the differences. But of course, situations are always changing, so my observation might not hold for the new generation from China.
On September 6th, the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao attended classes in a junior high school, paying tribute to the teachers. At similar time, USA president Barack Obama gave a national speech to the American students. They both know the importance of investing more in the future generation. But easier said than done. Some figures show that the Chinese government is falling behind of world in supporting education: in 1985, it invested 2.3% GDP in education, and the world average is 5.2% (developed country average 5.5%, developing country 4.5%); not until 2004, this figure went to 4%, but was still below the world average in 1985. As a Chinese, I really hope that our government can live up to the promise they made to their people.
It is always easier to blame the government. So tomorrow, I will stop blaming, and start to explore what I can do in education. I am looking forward to that.
