Catering and dietary options

Many Informatics folks, including me, enjoy occasional meals provided by the school, some in a meeting or social event, but perhaps more often as leftovers announced in the inf-people mailing list. Many of us are aware of some patterns, including catering suppliers, dietary options and serving time.

Some, including me, might have been wondering why some events only provide vegetarian options, likewise, why we see vegetarian options more often than others in the leftovers. I initially felt that non-vegetarians are neglected and thus raised the concern in a People & Culture committee meeting. Then some of the colleagues explained that the school adopts the default-vegetarian catering policy simply for sustainability and most of the events in the school offer multiple options to choose when booking!

I was happy to hear that, because food, in both ingredients and cooking methods, is part of the culture for many people and thus we should respect that of each other. At the same time I personally agree with defaulting to the most sustainable option, as food not explicitly chosen is more likely wasted. We can find the environmental impact of food ingredients in [1], and more about the university’s effort on sustainability in [2], which describes awards, projects, training and outcomes.

It should be noted that leftovers are only available after announcement in the inf-people mailing list, so let’s not take them before that. It is a little bit sad to see “Only for participants” signage in the forum ground floor lately, as it implies greedy informatics residents to the external guests.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_vegetarianism
[2] https://www.ed.ac.uk/sustainability

School Values, part 2

Three months ago we opened for discussion a draft of our School Values, a proposed list developed by a group of about 25 people. There have been many contributions and views, often very thoughtful. It’s great to see that a large part of our School community is involved and actively helps to ground our shared values!

Two main themes coming out of this discussion were that the previous list was not specific to Informatics, too generic. We have curated suggestions and have now adopted the following as our School values, which are more specific to our work and are easier to base decisions and actions on. This is the end result of careful contributions of around 100 people.

Civility
We treat everyone considerately, care for each other, and seek to influence society responsibly.

Collaboration
We share responsibilities across our community, work together to achieve our goals, and help each other effect positive change.

Curiosity
We seek diverse evidence and opinions, and welcome things that challenge our views as an opportunity to learn.

Integrity
We make decisions as rationally and transparently as we can.

Humility
We acknowledge that our understanding of the world and each other is always incomplete, and revise continually.

Many more aspects that we do value highly may not be highlighted enough, but we have to prioritise. As our common culture evolves naturally, so will the underlying Values. Therefore this record will be revised in years to come, but for now the School is adopting these as its core principles.

Our next goal is to ensure that actions and decisions, especially tricky ones, can be led back to these Values. At all levels of our organisation. So whenever you next wonder “How can I best help this colleague?”, “How should I collaborate with that company?”, “What shall I prioritise when training students?”, “How can I communicate about working with this new system?”, or “What direction is best for my research group to go in?”, you can remember we have shared values you can fall back on to guide you.


Diversity Event at AAMAS-23 Conference

In the last week of May, I attended the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems (AAMAS) 2023 conference in person. This was the first in person conference after the pandemic, and the location of the event was London, which was an easy destination to reach but also an expensive destination to stay.  AAMAS brings together researchers from all over the world.

AAMAS participants are attending the keynote given by Karl Tuyls.

The keynote from Karl Tuyls at AAMAS-23 (Photo credit: Sebastian Stein)

I would like to talk about a Diversity and Inclusion activity included in AAMAS 2023. A diversity lunch event has been organized to bring together participants of the conference. The goal was to share ideas for how to increase diversity at the conference and in our community. There was a panel consisting of Catholijn Jonker, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; Sarit Kraus, Bar-Ilan University, Israel and  Manuela Veloso, J.P. Morgan, USA. The panel was chaired by Maria Gini, University of Minnesota, USA. It was a bit disappointing that the panel was not diverse enough (e.g., four white women talking about their own careers). However, I really enjoyed all the stories shared by the speakers.  

Have a mentor to get career advice. Jonker emphasized the importance of having mentors in her life, since she was always part of a male-dominated research community. In her case, Maria Gini was her mentor, who was her role model. Jonker said she still continues getting advice from Maria. I believe this is a powerful message. It does not matter how senior you are in your career; it is always important to have mentors you can trust and talk to when you need advice.

Improve your time management skills. Kraus shared her story about how she became a successful academic while raising her kids. She had to establish a work-life balance; her life story showed that one does not necessarily need to give up on things. 

Avoid confronting colleagues in group settings. The stories shared by Manuela Veloso were really interesting because she is someone who has both academic and industry experience. When she was working as an academic, she said she was not listened to during meetings even if she was sharing a very interesting idea. However, when a male colleague of her was saying exactly the same thing, others in the meeting were supporting his idea. She said such things were upsetting her a lot, since she was the one putting so much effort to come up with an original idea. Her advice was not to confront such people in a group setting. Instead, having a one-to-one conversation with such colleagues would be more effective. I will definitely take this advice!

Be a voice not an echo. – Albert Einstein

Do care about people in your life. Veloso mentioned that she really cares about people and her relationships with them. Her advice, similar to Kraus’ advice, was about work-life balance. She said not to focus on achieving many things by working for long hours. Instead, her advice was to spend time with people such as colleagues, friends and family. She said people will forget about your achievements, but they will always remember how you treated others. I also liked this advice; it is important to invest time to build meaningful relationships.

Do you have power? Use it wisely! Veloso emphasized that people with power are the ones who could take positive actions, people are likely to listen to others on power. Since she is leading an AI group at J.P. Morgan at the moment, she said she was using her power to build a diverse gender-balanced team. I think this is a good message for the community as well. People with power can make changes more easily than others. When you hold such a position, you can support people around you and be their voice (and not undermine them!).   

I really hope that Diversity and Inclusion activities will become an essential part of conferences we attend. Such activities are excellent to create a safe space for everyone, participants can speak with each other and share their expertise. It is not always easy to speak up, but listening to other people’s stories can help us to realize that we are not alone. This can also give us the confidence to share our own stories.  

 

 


Decorating offices

People like to be surrounded by things they like. Having a workspace that you like makes you happier [1], more productive [2], and even behave more ethically [3]. Nobody wants to work in a soulless environment. Therefore the School of Informatics fully supports you personalising your office. You are welcome to hang posters or decorate the way that brings you most joy.

However, as we all share the building, there are some limits to customising. First, consider your colleagues. In particular, if you share an office, talk to your officemates before changing anything – see for example the PGR office etiquette charter.

  • Any material you display should be considered public, and therefore cannot contain offensive material. See for example the code of student conduct.
  • If you display something, it’s your responsibility. When it gets out of date it is up to you to update or remove it. Don’t let your plants become sad.
  • Our buildings are wonderfully open and transparent. You may prefer a higher degree of privacy, but do keep in mind lines of sight, and what others may prefer.

Second, for the health and safety of yourself and others:

  • Try not to block out light sources, and consider whether an item causes glare.
  • Clear up clutter, so you have enough space to move and ventilation works as it should.
  • Anything that gets plugged in needs to be PAT tested. Similarly, anything with a rechargeable battery needs to be monitored.
  • Minimise the fire hazard of papers, books, and posters.
  • Keep your feet on the ground. If you must reach, ask a taller person or use a step stool or ladder instead of climbing chairs or desks.

When in doubt, ask Facilities.

Third, corridors need to be kept open and free of combustible material. That means you can request whiteboards or pinboards outside your office – but do consider noise nuisance – again, ask Facilities. But that also means posters or other decorations should be in fire retardant cases.

We have an annual spring clean that helps us all keep our work spaces fresh. Enjoy yours!

References

[1] Borzykowski, “What’s so wrong with dressing up your desk?“, BBC, 2017.

[2] Hoskins, “Employees perform better when they can control their space“, Harvard Business Review, 2014.

[3] Hardin, Bauman, Mayer, “Show me the … family: how photos of meaningful relationships reduce unethical behavior at work“, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2020.