{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "content": "---\ntitle: \"Moving to the School of Cybernetics\"\ndescription: \"I'm leaving the ANU School of Computing for the new School of\n  Cybernetics---here's what that means for students, colleagues and\n  collaborators.\"\ntags:\n  - teaching\n  - research\n  - cybernetics\n---\n\nSome job news---I've just accepted a position in the new\n[School of Cybernetics](https://cybernetics.anu.edu.au/) in the ANU College of\nEngineering, Computing and Cybernetics. I'll finish out my teaching this\nsemester in the [School of Computing](https://cs.anu.edu.au) then I'll make the\nmove in July. For those not familiar with the ANU org-chart or acronymicon,\nthere are multiple _Schools_ in each _College_ (so I'm moving Schools but\nstaying within the same College).\n\nI'm really excited by the prospect of designing educational experiences\nin/around/through the\n[new Cybernetics](https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/touching-the-future/),\nand that's what my[^my] team in the School of Cybernetics will be doing (under\nour Director [Genevieve Bell](https://twitter.com/feraldata)). My work as an\ninterdisciplinary computer scientist/computer musician has always been\ncybernetics-adjacent, and I'm stoked to get a chance to lean in to this\ninterdisciplinarity as we reimagine what a School (within a College, within a\nuniversity) might look like.\n\n[^my]:\n    This is \"my\" in the \"team I'm part of\" sense, not the \"team I lead\" sense.\n    The new School of Cybernetics is going to be a wildly collaborative place,\n    and I'm just one part of a multi-talented whole.\n\nHowever, this decision is bittersweet; I love my current job, my colleagues and\n(especially) my students, and I'll be sad to see them less as I move to the\nSchool of Cybernetics. In fact, there are a few things I want to say about this\nmove, and this blog is as good a place to say them as any.\n\nTo **outside observers**, I want to be _super clear_ that I'm not leaving the\nSchool of Computing because it sucks, or because there's no opportunity to do\ncool stuff there---quite the opposite. I think the future of computing is bright\nat the ANU and I know there are multiple folks all across the campus working\nhard to create that future in the present. To that end, if you're an\nup-and-coming creative code researcher/practitioner/educator, then you should\napply for a\n[tenure-track position in the School of Computing](https://jobs.acm.org/jobs/computing-tenure-track-faculty-positions-canberra-australian-capital-territory-2601-122695751-d)---it'd\nbe great to have you join the team, and we'd have chances to work together I'm\nsure.\n\nTo my **School of Computing colleagues**, I really appreciate your collegiality,\nsupport and friendship over these past nine years (I started as a post-doc on 1\nJan '13). I'll still be around (the School of Cybernetics will sit in the Birch\nbuilding), and I'm keen to be a sounding board or collaborator. There are a few\npeople in particular who have trained and supported me to be the educator that I\nam today, and while I won't do the full \"I'd like to thank...\" Oscars acceptance\nspeech thing, I hope you know who you are, and how much I appreciate it.\n\nTo the **School of Computing admin team**, you're awesome. I'll miss hassling\nyou on Teams to buy weird gear for the Laptop Ensemble.\n\nTo my **current students**, I (and my new colleagues in the School of\nCybernetics) will make sure you don't get stuffed around. I'll keep supervising\nall my current students till your projects are complete, and you won't notice\nmuch difference---just that from July onwards we might have our meetings in a\ndifferent building. If you're in my new\n[ANU Extension Creative Computing](https://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/extn1019/)\ncourse, then there's good news as well---that course will keep going as planned.\nIn fact, it's a high priority activity for the whole College, and there will be\namazing doors that open up for you through participation in that course. If\nyou're a year 11 student in 2022, you can start thinking about applying to be\npart of next year's cohort---[drop me a line](mailto:ben.swift@anu.edu.au) if\nyou'd like some tips on how to prepare for that process.\n\nTo any **prospective/future students** (i.e. those who were hoping to take\n[one of my classes](/teaching/) in the future) the news is a bit more mixed.\nI'll still be involved with the\n[Laptop Ensemble](https://comp.anu.edu.au/courses/laptop-ensemble/), and the\ncurrent plan is that other courses I've designed & taught (e.g.\n[COMP2300](https://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/comp2300/),\n[COMP1720](https://cs.anu.edu.au/courses/comp1720/)) will still continue as\nnormal with\n[other (excellent!) lecturers](https://cs.anu.edu.au/code-creativity-culture/people/charles-martin/).\nFinally, while I was previously scheduled to take over **COMP4610 Computer\nGraphics** in S2 2021, this now won't happen. If that stuffs up your study\nplans, I'm really sorry.\n\nFinally, while I'm taking on new and exciting responsibilities in the School of\nCybernetics, I'll still be the same person with the same interests, strengths\nand weaknesses. So if we're excited about the same things now, chances are we'll\nstill be excited about the same things into the future---and I hope we have the\nopportunity to support one another to pursue those goals.\n",
  "createdAt": "2026-05-13T23:14:50.787Z",
  "description": "I'm leaving the ANU School of Computing for the new School of Cybernetics---here's what that means for students, colleagues and collaborators.",
  "path": "/blog/2021/05/11/moving-to-the-school-of-cybernetics",
  "publishedAt": "2021-05-11T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:tevykrhi4kibtsipzci76d76/site.standard.publication/self",
  "tags": [
    "teaching",
    "research",
    "cybernetics"
  ],
  "textContent": "I'm leaving the ANU School of Computing for the new School of Cybernetics---here's what that means for students, colleagues and collaborators.",
  "title": "Moving to the School of Cybernetics"
}