We are delighted to welcome Alison Pease to the group as a permanent new lecturer.

Alison’s research interests include investigating patterns of reasoning in mathematics and building computational representations of these findings, with the long term goal that human mathematicians regard machines as fellow mathematicians and worthy collaborators in their own right. In particular, she has investigated theories of social interaction between mathematicians, the role of counterexamples, metaphors, conceptual blending, analogical reasoning and representation in mathematics. She also has a long term interest in Computational Creativity and is particularly active on theoretical aspects, helping to develop a rigorous, computationally detailed and plausible account of how creation by software could occur.

She holds an MA in Mathematics and Philosophy, from the University of Aberdeen, and a MSc and PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Edinburgh. She has held research positions at the University of Edinburgh, Imperial College London and Queen Mary, University of London, and has lectured on Ludic Computing at Imperial College London. She has around 50 peer-reviewed publications, has delivered over 40 conference and invited talks, and has been instrumental in winning three grants, totaling nearly £3m (CP-FP-INFSO 611553, €2.89m: co-author, “Coinvent: Concept Creation Theory”, Oct 2013 – Sept, 2016; e-Science mini-theme proposal, £43,581.50: lead author, December 2010 – June, 2011; EP/F035594/1, £514,047: lead author, “A Cognitive Model of Axiom Formulation and Reformulation with Application to AI and software engineering”, May 2008 – April 2011).

She will be teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate courses on argumentation, as well as a postgraduate course on research methods.

We welcome to our team dr. hab. Katarzyna Budzynska, who starts as a new permanent member of ARG:dundee this month. She is appointed as a Dundee Fellow, a permanent position equivalent to lecturer with a reduced teaching load to allow focus on research.

Katarzyna works in the area of formal models of communicative processes of argumentation, dialogue and persuasion, and was a visitor in the group in 2010. She has an MA in economics (1998) from the Warsaw School of Economics (Dept. of Mathematical Economics), a PhD in logic (2002) from the Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski University in Warsaw (Dept. of Logic) and a habilitation in philosophy (2013) from the Polish National Academy of Sciences. Since 2008, she has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers, amongst which 12 appeared in journals such as Synthese (ERA: A*) and Fundamenta Informaticae (ERA: B). She has won the equivalent of over 120,000 GBP grant funding from the Polish Ministry and the Swiss Sciex Programme. Budzynska is head of the research group ZeBRaS (Research Group of Formal Applied Rhetoric). In 2008, she co-founded, and has since then, acted as coordinator of the nationwide ArgDiaP initiative, which has as its main goal coordination of the activities of the Polish School of Argumentation.

In the School of Computing, Katarzyna Budzynska is joining the Argumentation Research Group working in the interdisciplinary area between computer science and philosophy, and she will also champion new postgraduate teaching from the group. She will be working with us half time, dividing her time between Dundee and the Polish National Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship in argumentation for dispute mediation, funded by the Leverhulme Trust.

The studentship forms part of a project which aims to develop a theoretical foundation to underpin practical tools for argument-supported dispute mediation. The successful applicant will have the freedom to explore an area that is relevant to both the project and their own research interests including, but not limited to: philosophical and/or computational models of dialogue and argument; mediation theory and practice; computational linguistics. The studentship will be held in the Argumentation Research Group in the School of Computing at the University of Dundee.

At the most recent RAE, the School’s research was rated fourth in Scotland, with two thirds of its research rated world leading or internationally excellent (4* or 3*). Dundee has been ranked amongst the top places for scientists to work in the world (The Scientist), and has one of the lowest costs of living in the UK.

Stipendiary payments are at UK research council levels (£13,590 tax-free for academic year 2012/13). Applicants should typically have, or be expecting, a first or upper second class degree in an appropriate subject. Interest in, or exposure to, dispute mediation or philosophical or computational argumentation would be a distinct advantage.

Further details are available from the DrEAMS project page. Applicants should send a CV with a covering letter to Professor Chris Reed, School of Computing, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, or by email to c.a.reedATdundee.ac.uk, by the closing date, 30 June 2013.

We are delighted to today welcome Rolando Medellin as a new member of the ARG:dundee group. He joins us from the University of Liverpool and is going to be leading work on the EPSRC-funded project, Grumpy Old Debate, which is a new collaboration with the SiDE hub and the BBC.