Your weekly round-up of undergraduate life in The University of Manchester Department of Computer Science from Paul Nutter, Director of Undergraduate Studies.

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Week 9 • Monday 24 March 2025 • #24.24

Paul pic

Good morning UG. It’s Monday 24th March 2025 and it’s week 9 of semester 2. We are zooming through the semester! Just the usual reminder that if you are a graduating student then please remember to complete the NSS. Your feedback is important!

Have a good week. On with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

Following from the SVC Meeting on the 12th March, let us look at what was discussed.

The SVC noticeboard can be found next to the Tootill labs in on the Kilburn LF corridor. It still needs some artistic flair, but you can see a rep list, SVC minutes, and a physical suggestions box.
We want to remind people to be respectful of their peers and of staff in lectures. The lecture rooms are designed to deliver the speaker’s voice well and far. However, the reverse is also true - your whispers are not as quiet as you might think!
The University restricts out-of-hours pass times in academic buildings. Your general health and work-life balance will appreciate this arrangement too.
If you notice problems with the temperature, or material issues (such as an issue with table football) please use the reporting forms that you will find throughout the building.
There has been some confusion around attendance values shown in SEAtS when it comes to including optional sessions. You can toggle the Optional Classes Percentage: More (on Navigation bar) → Settings → Attendance → Attendance % includes optional classes.
Please ensure that we keep the Kilburn clean and tidy for all users. Please only eat food in the designated spaces and ensure that you leave the area clean and tidy.

Finally, Watch out for the student representatives doing shoutouts in your lectures!

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

The National Student Survey (NSS) is now open for all final year students who are graduating this year. The NSS is your chance to share your views on your student experience. The survey is completely anonymous and only takes around ten minutes. By completing it, you’ll help us enhance our provision by doing more of the things that you think we’re doing well and making the improvements that matter the most to you. Additionally, for each response submitted the University will make a £2 charitable donation. Last year over £12,000 was donated from survey completions. In addition, every student who takes part in the NSS 2025 can enter into a prize draw to win one of 20 prizes. To complete the survey, go to the NSS website  and click ‘complete the survey’. Alternatively, you can check your email inbox for a link – all final year students eligible to complete the NSS should have already received an email from Ipsos with a link to the survey. Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We’re very grateful for your feedback and this will help us plan improvements we can make as a School.

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: The PASS1 leadership and coordinator roles have been filled up for the next academic term! Thanks to everyone who signed up! We will have waffles again this week and PASS is running in your regular rooms per usual. We are giving out raffle tickets to PASS1 leaders and the winners will get big prizes like Lego and vouchers - so, keep up the good debrief attendance!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi everyone! We hope you found last week's session on the 3rd year project useful. This week, we'll be hosting a heart heroes session, where you can learn first-aid skills. If you haven't already, please sign up using the QR code below or this link. It'll be (as usual) in IT407 from 12pm on Thursday. We can't wait to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello everyone! We appreciate that you have a few bits of coursework on the go so this week we are allowing this session to act as group study - with snacks of course. As always, we are in Collab 1 on Friday from 15:00. Also don't forget to sign up to our special 'Night at the Museum at the Museum' happening on Friday evening; see details below.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM AT THE MUSEUM.

The Computer Science PASS schemes, with the generous support of the Department, are excited to announce an exclusive screening of the 2006 classic film 'Night at the Museum', at the Manchester Museum! Come and join on Friday (the 28th of March) evening for a fun, free social event, complete with popcorn for all! Signups using the form here are required due to the limited number of tickets available. Everyone who successfully gets a ticket will be emailed before the event. We hope to see you there!

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

As we approach a busy period in the semester when there are lots of deadlines and demands on your time, remember that we have a dedicated Student Support and Wellbeing team in the Department, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert. Ben and Maria are available to support you throughout your studies, whether you are affected by any issues impacting your learning, struggling with your work, considering interruption, DASS registered and feel that your condition is starting to affect you more than usual, or you just need somebody to speak to, then speak to them! You can contact Maria and Ben by email soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk, or you can drop into the student hub in Engineering Building A and ask to speak to someone, in confidence.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Counselling and Mental Health Service. The University Counselling and Mental Health Service is free to students and can offer help and support with a range of personal issues. Support is provided through a range of activities including;

Confidential one to one appointments
Workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools
Access to services, such as Qwell.

You can refer yourself to the counselling service by booking an appointment online. Remember you can always contact the School Wellbeing team, Maria and Ben, who are are always available to offer any help or advice at any time.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - REPORT AND SUPPORT.

The University’s Report and Support Service is available to all students. If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed any form of bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions, or you have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor through Report and Support. To report an incident and speak to an advisor, you can either fill out the online form or someone can do it on your behalf. The team will seek to understand your situation and aim to give you information, advice and support tailored to your individual circumstances. You can access this service here. Please be mindful that whilst you can send anonymous reports, the team is unable to contact you to offer support unless you provide your name and contact details.

SAFEZONE.

SafeZone is our mobile app designed to help keep you safe and give you extra peace of mind across campuses in the city. You can use SafeZone to:

'Check in' any time of day – to keep you safe on campus, such as if you’re studying or working late or alone on campus
Quickly and discreetly call for assistance – whenever you feel unsafe on campus
Get medical assistance quickly – whether it’s for first aid, an accident or in an emergency
Keep up to date – notifications sent directly to your phone if there is an incident on campus
Wellbeing assistance – get access to support 24/7 to help you care for your own wellbeing
IT help – contact our IT team for help

You can use SafeZone to call for help whenever you're located in Fallowfield, Victoria Park or any of the Manchester university campuses (UoM, Manchester Met and Satford). The app is free to download, easy to use, and operates across the Manchester campuses. You can find out more about SafeZone here.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

The Student Support Hubs provide you with help and guidance; whether you need visa support, career advice, wellbeing support or help with course information, the Student Hub team will be able to point you in the right direction. For CS students the Student Support Hub can be found on the 1st floor of the Nancy Rothwell Building (building 24 on the University interactive map). You can also contact a member of the Student Support Team via the email addresses below depending on the nature of your enquiry:

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

HAVING ISSUES.

WHAT DO I DO? There’s no doubt that at some point during your time in Manchester, you will probably experience an issue, whether this is related to your learning, or the environment in which you are working. Maybe you are having problems logging in, or a resource is not working in Blackboard for one of your course units, or you find the temperature in a lab is always high. How do you go about solving any issues? Who do you contact? Well, it all depends on the issue.

Learning: If you are having issues with your learning, for example, there is a resource in Blackboard that is not working, or a video has not been uploaded, or an assessment hasn’t been released, or you don’t understand the feedback you received on a piece of work, then you should always contact a member of staff teaching on the course unit to discuss the issue.
IT infrastructure: If you have problems with the computing infrastructure: Office 365, email, Blackboard, Duo, Wifi, printing, general PC problems, or log in issues, then you need to contact IT Services, either in-person via the help-desk (ground floor of Kilburn building), or through the support portal.
Environment: If you are having an issue with the environment, such as a room is too hot/cold, broken/unsafe furniture etc. then you should report this to the University Estates, who will then investigate. Information on how to do this can be found on notices in each room.
CS facilities: Problems with the facilities provided by the department, such as MySQL/Mongo DB issues, issues with GitLab/submitting via Git, problems with lab hardware (such as experimental boards), software resources such as SPOT, should be reported to the department by email. These issues should not be reported to IT services.

This begs the question of when you should make use of your academic reps to report issues. In all cases, you should only get academic reps involved when you fail to get a response, or no action was taken. In particular, when an issue is having an impact on a number of students. Remember, academic reps are there to raise issues that impact the student body as a whole and are not for raising queries for individual students.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

In the Department we have year tutors who are responsible for looking after the different cohorts in each year group. The Year Tutors are here to provide you with help and support if you need it, so feel free to contact your Year Tutor by email. Year Tutors also run a weekly open hour where you can pop along for a chat:

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, IT119.

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

Duncan Hull writes: In the final guest lecture for COMP101 this academic year, this week we have Dan Syder from the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) talking about the support and opportunities available to help you develop your entrepreneurial skills at University, see www.entrepreneurship.manchester.ac.uk. Come and join us in Lecture Theatre E of the Simon Building at 4pm on TODAY (Monday 24th March) at 4pm. All welcome.

LEARNING TIPS - DEGREE CLASSIFICATION.

At the end of your degree your efforts are measured by a certificate that shows what degree classification you have achieved. What does this mean and how is your classification arrived at? Your degree classification is determined by your overall degree average, or GPA. The way this mark is calculated depends on the degree programme you are on and differs slightly between those on an MEng programme and those on a 3-year (including wIE) degree programme; you can find more information in the UG Handbook. For now, let’s consider someone on a 3-year programme (including wIE). In this case the final GPA is calculated as 33% from the 2nd year mark and 67% from the 3rd year mark (the split is different for MEng). In each year, the overall mark is calculated as a credit-weighted average across the 120 credits of course units taken in that year. For example, the mark for a 20 credit course unit is worth twice that of a 10 credit course unit. Your classification depends on what your overall degree mark as follows:

1st: your overall degree average is 70% or greater
2.1 (upper second class): your degree average is in the range 60-69.9%
2.2 (lower second class): your degree average is in the range 50-59.9%
3rd: your degree average is in the range 40-49.9%
Unclassified: your degree average is less than 40%

You have a chance of being promoted to the higher class if your overall mark is in the boundary zone of a higher degree classification

1st boundary zone: 68 - 69.9%
2.1 boundary zone: 58 - 59.9%
2.2 boundary zone: 48 - 49.9%
3rd boundary zone: 38 - 39.9%

However, to be promoted to a higher class you need to have 80 credits at the higher classification in the final year. For example, Bob has an overall mark of 69.8%, which is calculated from an overall mark of 69.3% in the 3rd year and an overall mark of 70.8% in 2nd Year, but has marks for 72% in the project, and 76%, 70%, 69%, 67%, 67%, 66%, 65% and 64% in his 3rd year course units, each worth 10 credits. As Bob is in the boundary zone for a 1st class degree (69.3%) he needs 80 credits at 1st class level, i.e. 70% or above. However, as he only has 60 credits at first (72% in the project, which is 40 credits, plus 76% and 70% in two 10 credit course units) then Bob will be awarded a 2.1 degree. If we now consider Wendy, who has an overall mark of 69% (69.3% in 3rd year and 68.5% in 2nd year) and marks of 71% in the project, and 78%, 73%, 72%, 70%, 65%, 65%, 64% and 61% in her 3rd year course units, each worth 10 credits. In this case, as Wendy is in the boundary zone for a 1st (69%) and has 80 credits at 1st (71% in the project, plus 78%, 73%, 72%, 70%) then she will be awarded a 1st. It is important to realise that the examination board makes these decisions based on the University’s Undergraduate Degree Regulations. The regulations are formulaic on how degree classifications are awarded. We hope this makes the process of how we award degree classifications clearer and hope that you demonstrate your full potential.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Gradescope: Submission to Gradescope may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Gradescope to ensure your submission was correct.
Although the systems (Blackboard, Gitlab, Gradescope and SPOT) may show that you have submitted – they do not know what you submitted. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted the correct file(s).
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

All pieces of coursework in the Department will have a deadline by which it must be submitted. You can find out the deadline from the course unit material in Blackboard, via SPOT or the coursework deadlines chart. In some cases, you can request a short extension to allow you to complete your work if you find you are falling behind due to circumstances beyond your control. However, in some cases an extension is not possible. SPOT and the coursework deadlines chart indicate which assessments you can apply for an extension for. You must apply for an extension BEFORE the deadline - requests will not be accepted after the deadline. Further advice and a link to the form to request an extension can be found in the Illness and Absence folder in the CS UG Community space in Blackboard. If you wish to have an extension after the deadline then you must apply through the mitigating circumstances process. The application for an extension is considered by the wellbeing team. If an extension is authorised, you will receive an email with the extension details. In the next couple of days after, it will show on your SPOT page. If after 5 working days, an approved extension does not show on your SPOT page, please contact stewart.blakeway@manchester.ac.uk.

SAVE YOUR BLACKBOARD INFORMATION.

The University is making sure your data is safe when we move to Canvas from Blackboard in September 2025. Your learning materials will be migrated over to Canvas courses, ready for you to begin learning next year. Your assessment submissions and feedback from previous years will not be immediately available in Canvas and will be saved separately to an archive area. We strongly recommend you download all your past submissions and feedback before September 2025 so you have them easily available. After September 2025, if you want to access your prior assessments, you will need to request them via a Connect form through the Central Digital Learning team and it may take some time to process your request. By downloading this information from Blackboard now, you can save yourself unnecessary work and save time in the future.

MUDS AI.

MUDS AI is back with GirlsWhoML with another exciting Machine Learning workshop! This time, we’re diving into the world of Neural Networks, exploring how they power modern AI applications. Plus, we’re giving out FREE PIZZA to keep you fueled while you learn! Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 26th of March
Time: 15:00 - 17:00
Venue: Kilburn Building Theatre 1.1

What You’ll Learn:

Fundamentals of Neural Networks – Understand how neural networks are structured, including neurons, layers, and activation functions.
Designing & Training a Neural Network – Learn how neural networks classify data, perform representation learning, and optimize their performance using backpropagation.
Coding & Implementing a Neural Network – Gain hands-on experience coding a neural network and improving training efficiency with techniques like learning rate adjustment.

This beginner-friendly workshop is perfect for anyone looking to understand the fundamentals of deep learning and gain practical coding experience. Link to register. We can’t wait to see you there!

GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUP.

Looking for a paid opportunity to gain experience over the summer? Join us next Wednesday for an introduction by Duncan to Google's Summer of Code (GSoC) programme. Now in its 21st year, GSoC has supported 20,000+ developers from 116 countries, guided by 19,000+ mentors from 133 countries. It’s a paid opportunity that allows you to work on real-world projects, collaborate with experienced developers, and significantly boost your CV for future roles in tech. Whether you're new to open source or already have some experience, this seminar will give you everything you need to know about applying for GSoC 2025. Don’t miss out!

Workshop Date and Time: Wednesday 26th March, 15:00-16:00
Location: Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.5

AWS DEEPRACER EVENT.

AWS DeepRacer is the fastest way to get your team started with Machine Learning (ML). Using a virtual 3D racing simulator, you'll learn to train and optimise reinforcement learning (RL) models that can be deployed to 1/18th scale autonomous race cars. Through this unique combination of virtual training and real-world racing, teams compete to develop the fastest AI-powered race car, with prizes awarded to the top performers. Using the AWS console, you'll create custom reward functions and develop models that power your car around the race track, whilst learning valuable ML skills in an engaging, collaborative environment. Key info:

Date: May 7th 2025
Venue: Tobacco Docks, London
Time: 09.30am – 4.30pm

They are looking for teams of between 3-5 members and are particularly interested in teams consisting of final-year students. You can find more information here. If you are interested in being involved in a University team for the event, then please contact Alex Goffe to indicate your interest.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

Suzanne Embury writes: This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Tuesday, 11th March 2025, 1.00pm-2.00pm in Kilburn Collab 1 (note the change of venue). We'll be working on Loupe, a tool to analyse system call usage, implemented in Python and C and using GnuPlot. We'll be joined by the code base owner, Dr Pierre Olivier, an academic in the Department of Computer Science, and 3 software engineers from Booking.com will be joining as mentors. Existing and new members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, carry out exploratory testing, spruce up the code base and build a public record of contributions. Software engineers from the University's research software engineering team will provide support.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

On 10th April 2025, 14:00 - 16:00, Prof Jakob Demant will present the Digital Trust and Security Seminar. Join Prof Jakob Demant as he explores the rise of specialized platforms and online behaviors, driven primarily by young people using multiple platforms to separate their activities, with some parts intentionally hidden even in public spaces. This has led to the creation of distinct spaces for specific content sharing, potentially fostering new opportunities for hidden behaviors and criminal activities. Register here.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY,

CRIME, AND THE LAW CONFERENCE. The Digital Technology, Crime, and the Law Conference 2025 will take place on| 11 June at No.1 Circle Square, Manchester. Register today to explore how digital technology is transforming crime detection, investigation, and prevention - empowering both private entities and law enforcement to combat illicit activities. However, as technology evolves, so do the opportunities for bad actors, facilitating crimes such as cyberattacks and online fraud. Learn more from our seven fantastic panel discussions, keynote presentations, and featured talks from experts across the globe. Sign up here.

2025 BRAGG LECTURE.

The 2025 Bragg Lecture, the annual flagship event of the Schuster Colloquium, features Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell. This year’s lecture also coincides with the 80th anniversary of Jodrell Bank, making it an especially fitting occasion to celebrate her pioneering contributions to radio astronomy.

Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Time: 3:00 PM
Location: The Bragg Lecture Theatre, Schuster Building
Talk Title: The discovery of pulsars

Abstract: In this talk I will describe the discovery of pulsars and reflect on the circumstances that led to the discovery in that way at that time.

About the Speaker: Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell is one of the most distinguished figures in astrophysics. Following her groundbreaking discovery, she pursued a career spanning multiple branches of astronomy while also balancing research with raising a family. She is currently a Visiting Academic at the University of Oxford and has held prestigious leadership roles, including:

First female President of the Institute of Physics (UK & Ireland)
First female President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
President of the UK’s Royal Astronomical Society

A passionate advocate for women in STEM, she played a key role in establishing the Athena SWAN program. Among her many accolades, she received the $3M Breakthrough Prize in 2018 for her contributions to science. She is also a celebrated public speaker, science communicator, and co-editor of Dark Matter: Poems of Space. Don’t miss this year’s Bragg Lecture - an extraordinary opportunity to hear from one of the most influential astrophysicists of our time!

CALLING ALL WOMEN AND ALLIES IN STEM!

SheCanCode are offering UoM students the opportunity to join a vibrant and supportive community — a fantastic resource for STEM students eager to develop new skills and discover exciting career opportunities. With over 5,000 women and allies in tech already on board, 70+ corporate ambassador companies, and 70+ mentors, this is a great place to network, upskill, and find career opportunities. By signing up to their community, you can:

Find job opportunities, whether you're looking for summer internships, graduate programs, or bootcamp-to-placements, and land your dream role through our jobs board.
Access mentorship—either as mentors or mentees in our program.
Gain industry knowledge through exclusive content, coding courses, and workshops.

Expand your network via hackathons, social events, and awards ceremonies. Join the community today by signing up here!

WOMEN IN PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY PANEL.

As part of Jocelyn Bell Burnell’s visit, we are also hosting a special Women in Physics & Astronomy panel discussion:

Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025
Time: 1:00 PM
Location: JBB Lecture Hall, Schuster Building

Panel members: Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Prof. Philippa Browning, and Dr. Judith McGovern. This event is free and open to all. Voluntary registration is here: Register Now, or contact Laura Wolz (laura.wolz@manchester.ac.uk) for more information. We look forward to welcoming you to these special events celebrating physics, astronomy, and diversity in STEM!

GOOGLE DEEPMIND RESEARCH READY SUMMER INTERNSHIPS.

Paid summer internships working on AI-related research projects are available at The University of Manchester. Google DeepMind Research Ready is a pioneering new scheme aimed at providing undergraduate students and recent graduates from underserved and socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds with research experience in AI-related areas. We are looking to recruit twelve talented UK-based students from such groups to work on summer projects as part of The University of Manchester’s network of world-leading AI researchers. If you are in your penultimate or final year or have recently graduated in a related field, you could take part in a paid eight-week summer internship at The University of Manchester. As part of this scheme, you will work on an AI-related research project and join in with additional activities designed to prepare you for postgraduate study or a career using AI. The funding for this scheme provides a generous stipend as well as support with travel and accommodation costs. You will be based at our central Manchester campus and will work closely with our researchers and the rest of the cohort of 2025 summer interns.

Manchester has been named as one of 25 global destinations to be included in the Where to Go 2024 list by prestigious US travel publication AFAR, has been named in the New York Times’ 52 Places to Go list for 2024 and is the only UK city in National Geographic's influential ‘Best of the World’ list which annually sets out 25 of the must-see places to visit around the globe. Applications are open now. Visit our website for full details.

OPEN HARDWARE COMPETITION.

Registration is now open for the Adaptive Computing track of the 2025 AMD Open Hardware University Design Competition. The competition is open to undergraduate students, entering as individuals, or in teams of up to five.

KILBURN LF TIMELINE.

Uli Sattler writes: In our continued efforts to improve our learning/working environment and to reflect our department’s research history, we are planning to develop a timeline to be displayed along a wall in the LF area of the Kilburn Building. On this timeline, we would like to display the wide range of research contributions made by the members of our Department (or school) of Computer Science since its inception in 1964. So, we call on all CS staff and students to share with us a

visual/graphic/picture standing for a significant/exciting/interesting research contribution made by a member of the Department (or school) of Computer Science and
brief explanation of the research contribution and how it relates to the visual, together with references to the literature.

On the timeline, we plan to have, per contribution, one picture together with a brief explanation and links to further reading – as well as your name (unless you’d rather stay anonymous). The picture can be

from a publication from a member of the department or
designed by you or
sourced from our online photo archive, see https://history.cs.manchester.ac.uk/

A committee consisting of a range of staff from the Department and FSE will consider all submissions and select a suitable subset to be displayed in the timeline. We do not aim at any particular kind of contributions and would love to get a wide range of submissions that nicely reflect the wide range of research that is carried out in our department and the many, possibly quirky ways in which CS research can impact our lives. To submit your contribution, send an email to uli.sattler@manchester.ac.uk including the visual/graphic/picture and a draft of its explanation and how it relates to the visual. We will run a prize draw on all submissions and share .... with you!

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

We are pleased to have Prof. Neil Lawrence, University of Cambridge visiting us on Wednesday 26th March, when he will be presenting a seminar titled “Information Engines: Exploring Connections Between Intelligence and Thermodynamics”, 14:00 - 15:00 in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. Abstract: In this talk I’ll explore connections between thermodynamic systems and intelligent decision-making through the lens of free energy principles. We’ll review concepts from statistical mechanics - particularly the relationship between total energy, free energy, and entropy - might provide insights into the nature of intelligence and learning. By drawing parallels between physical systems and information processing, we’ll consider how measurement and observation can be viewed as processes that modify available energy. The discussion will touch on how model approximations and uncertainties might be understood through thermodynamic analogies, and explore the implications of treating intelligence as an energy-efficient state-change process. While these connections are speculative and preliminary, they may offer perspectives for discussing the fundamental nature of intelligence and learning systems. The talk will aim to stimulate discussion about these potential relationships rather than present definitive conclusions.

Bio: Neil Lawrence is the inaugural DeepMind Professor of Machine Learning at the University of Cambridge. He has been working on machine learning models for over 20 years. He recently returned to academia after three years as Director of Machine Learning at Amazon. His main interest is the interaction of machine learning with the physical world. This interest was triggered by deploying machine learning in the African context, where ‘end-to-end’ solutions are normally required. This has inspired new research directions at the interface of machine learning and systems research, this work is funded by a Senior AI Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute. Neil is also visiting Professor at the University of Sheffield and the co-host of Talking Machines.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 2nd April 2025, the departmental seminar will be presented by Dr. David Petrescu, 14:00 - 15:00, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is "Perceptually-Driven Optimisation in Virtual Reality". Abstract: As prices fall, Virtual Reality (VR) technology is experiencing renewed levels of consumer interest. Despite wider access, VR still requires levels of computational ability and bandwidth that often cannot be achieved with consumer-grade equipment. However, in the strive for extreme photorealism, we often overlook the perceptual limitations of the human visual system. Perceptually-driven rendering methods are used to guide the resources allocated to render virtual environments towards high-interest areas. Alternatively, this means that computational resources can be saved by not rendering non-salient stimuli at the same quality as perceptually important areas. One such implementation is represented by a technique called Foveated Rendering. Because the distribution of retinal photoreceptors associated with high acuity vision decreases away from the focal point, less detail is perceived in the periphery of the visual field. Approximating an acuity falloff function based on these biological models allows us to allocate less resources to render detail in the periphery. In this talk, we will have a look at some perceptual-rendering notions and then discuss some research that tackles how movement in Virtual Reality can be used to accelerate optimisation methods such as Foveated Rendering even further.

Bio: Dr. David Petrescu is a teaching-focused lecturer in the Department of Computer Science since 2024. He was awarded his PhD last year and the name of the thesis was "Optimising Virtual Environments Using Perceptually-Driven Rendering". His main research interest includes the use of VR in order to tackle mental health issues and cognitive disorders. He is also very happy to talk about gigs and food and open for collaborations across the department.

SHAPE THE FUTURE OF CANVAS.

Get a £25 voucher and shape the future of Canvas. As you know, from September, Blackboard Learn will be replaced with Canvas by Instructure. This transition aims to enhance the student experience, future-proof the digital learning environment, and address improvements students have requested through surveys and feedback. We’d love your input on the onboarding, training, and guidance that you and your peers will need to prepare for the move to Canvas. As a thank you for your time, you’ll receive a £25 Love2Shop voucher, and a buffet lunch will be provided. The in-person workshop will be held in the Lifelong Learning Suite on the 1st floor of the Booth Street East Building on Wednesday, 27 March, from 11:00am to 2:00pm. Limited number of spaces available, so sign up today!

ARE YOU CURIOUS ABOUT THE INNER WORKINGS OF IT SERVICES?

Come and have a chat and share your thoughts with our friendly team of IT experts on Tuesday 25th March between 10am and 4pm. Stop by and connect with us on the ground floor foyer in the Stopford Building. Experts from various areas within IT Services will be on hand to answer your questions, listen to your feedback, and discuss upcoming improvements. This includes networks, Wi-Fi, printing, hardware purchasing and deployment, remote access, guest access and Microsoft 365 Collaboration tools as some examples.

There will also be some focused slots as follows:

11am to 12noon – Meet the Director: Come and get your IT questions answered by Alex Goffe, Director of Campus Technology Services.
11am to 1pm – Cyber Security: Lee Moffatt (Head of Cyber Security Operations), Alex Ingram (Head of Information Security – Compliance and Operations), and Mary McDerby (Information Governance Officer – Compliance and Risk) will be on hand to take your questions in these critical areas for the University.
10am to 4pm – Connect Surgery: Discuss your experience using the Connect service for online IT support and any questions with Clive Carassale (Programme Delivery Lead), Jenny Scibilia (Platform Owner) and Mark O’Toole (Lead Developer).

No appointments are needed – simply drop by our stand and join the conversation. Your voice matters to us, and this is the perfect opportunity to shape the future of IT provision at our University. We look forward to seeing you there!

COOKING@MANCHESTER.

The Fake Away LAND | AIR | SEA. The Students’ Union, in collaboration with the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) and chef, author, and MasterChef winner, Simon Wood, would like to invite all UoM students to Cooking@Manchester. This will be the first of four free Cooking@Manchester events on campus. The sessions are 50 minutes long, and involve a live cooking demonstration by Simon Wood followed by a Q&A. All attendees will receive a take home digital pack on recipes, costing, and nutrition, and a seasoning sample relevant to the recipe. The sessions, organised by School of Natural Sciences Head of Education and culinary school graduate Prof Rob Appleby, have been designed by Simon and Rob to be accessible to all, with no prior cooking knowledge needed. All sessions are free to attend, and you must sign up in advance.

Details:

Mar 26, 2024
Start time: 3:30pm
Location: G.51, Chemistry Building
Price: free

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Get ready to challenge your mind and explore the world with this week’s trio of brain teasers! Whether you’re a sudoku whiz, a chess strategist, or a globe-trotting explorer, Puzzle Corner has something for everyone. Clear your schedule, grab a cup of coffee, and let the fun begin!

Sudoku Challenge - Killer dots of the Knight by Chip Sounder

Place the digits 1-6 in each row, column and 2x3 box without repetition. Cells separated by a knight's move (in chess) cannot contain the same digit. A clue outside the grid gives the sum of the digits on the indicated diagonal. Digits may repeat (if allowed by other rules). Digits in a dotted cage sum to the given total. Digits separated by a black dot have a 1:2 ratio. Digits separated by a white dot are consecutive.

Chess Puzzle - Isajevsky Vs. Hehir, 2025

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing "Flags of the World" but this week to make things more interesting, you only get 30s per round, so be quick!

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 8 • Monday 17 March 2025 • #24.23

Paul pic

Good morning UG! Welcome to Week 8, it's Monday 17th March 2025. If you want to nominate anyone who’s gone that extra mile for a Students’ Union Award, then the deadline is this Sunday (see below). Please consider celebrating anyone that you think has gone above and beyond to support you, this might be an academic rep, a member of staff (academic or PS) or someone else. If you are graduating this year then please don’t forget to complete the NSS; it doesn’t take long to do and we really appreciate your feedback (as always!). Finally, don't forget that we need your ideas for a historical timeline of computing achievements at Manchester for display on the lower first floor (see below).

Have a good week. On with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

On Wednesday 12th March, we held the 3rd Student Voice Committee of the year. Updates were shared about current issues affecting students, and good teaching practice and exam feedback was discussed. We also discussed items raised via the suggestions box. You may have noticed that Kilburn LF now has an SVC notice board and suggestions box, which acts as a physical counterpart to the BB UG community space. Here you can find a list of reps and minutes of previous meetings. Further updates from this meeting, as well as minutes, are to follow in future weeks. As always, you can give suggestions to the SVC via the suggestions box (either online or in person). The next meeting will be held on 30th April.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

The National Student Survey (NSS) is now open for all final year students who are graduating this year. The NSS is your chance to share your views on your student experience. The survey is completely anonymous and only takes around ten minutes. By completing it, you’ll help us enhance our provision by doing more of the things that you think we’re doing well and making the improvements that matter the most to you. Additionally, for each response submitted the University will make a £2 charitable donation. Last year over £12,000 was donated from survey completions. In addition, every student who takes part in the NSS 2025 can enter into a prize draw to win one of 20 prizes, from graduation day packages, to shopping vouchers. To complete the survey, go to the NSS website  and click ‘complete the survey’. Alternatively, you can check your email inbox for a link – all final year students eligible to complete the NSS should have already received an email from Ipsos with a link to the survey. Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We’re very grateful for your feedback and this will help us plan improvements we can make as a School.

HAVE YOUR SAY - IMPROVING THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING.

What challenges and opportunities lie ahead for students in the Faculty of Science and Engineering? How can the University enhance transparency and communication with students? Now’s your opportunity to hear directly from University leaders in a special open meeting podcast, Improving the Student Experience in Science and Engineering. Meet the panel:

Nahid Farzalizadeh – FSE Student Union Executive Officer (Host)
Professor Martin Schröder – Vice President and Dean
Professor Peter R Green – Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

They’ll be discussing key student concerns, faculty developments, and future plans – and we want your voice to be heard! Why take part?

Influence discussions on the student experience in Science and Engineering
Get direct responses from University leadership
Be part of shaping the future of your faculty

Submit your questions anonymously via Mentimeter and hear them addressed in the podcast.

What’s next? The discussion will be available on Spotify and YouTube for you to listen back at any time. We’ll also create a highlight reel for Instagram so key points reach as many students as possible. The deadline for submissions is TODAY. Don’t miss your chance to be part of the conversation—your input matters!

STUDENTS UNION AWARDS.

Each year the Students’ Union celebrates those who have gone above and beyond, from academic reps to academic staff, the awards offer you the opportunity to recognise anyone who has gone the extra mile and made a difference to you. Please consider nominating a fellow student, a member of academic staff, or a member of professional support (PS) staff who has helped you in some way and you feel deserves recognition. Nominations close Sunday 23rd March. You can find out more information here.

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: This is the final call to sign up for the PASS1 leader role for next academic year! We have only a few spots left. We will have waffles again this week! PASS is running in your regular rooms per usual.

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone. This week we'll continue talking about the 3rd year project. As always, we'll be in IT407 from 12pm to 1pm. SIgn-ups for the Heart Heroes session next week (27th March) are still open - please sign up using the QR Code. Hope to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello all and congratulations! Well done for successfully reaching the code freeze deadline, we hope your project has gone (relatively!) smoothly. In celebration, this Tuesday (the 18th of March), we are offering the first 20 people to sign up via our form, free drinks from Gong cha! It is first come first served so sign up quickly to avoid disappointment. Those who successfully sign up should meet us in Collab 1 before 12pm. The PASS session itself will be running on Friday in Collab 1 as normal from 15:00 so whether you want to reflect upon your project after the code freeze, get a head start on the report, or just want to chill, we hope to see you there!

PARTICIPANTS WANTED FOR VR 3RD YEAR PROJECT.

Jay Barnett (Y3, CS) writes: I am conducting a research study as part of a 3rd year Computer Science project that explores different ways people engage with museum exhibits, including traditional and virtual reality (VR) experiences. What Does Participation Involve?

Completing a short pre-experience questionnaire.
Viewing a museum-style exhibit recreated in a lab.
(For VR groups) Participating in a VR experience.
Completing a post-experience questionnaire.
The total time commitment is approximately 1-1.5 hours.

Who Can Participate? Requirements:

Aged 18 or older.
No significant sensitivity (including motion sickness and vertigo) to VR technology (for those assigned to VR groups).
Participants must have normal vision or vision corrected to normal.
No prior knowledge required.

How to Sign Up? If you would like to participate or receive more information, please email jay.barnett@student.manchester.ac.uk to request the Participant Information Sheet. Once you have reviewed it, you can confirm your participation, and I will provide further details on scheduling your session. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your support in advancing this research!

STAFF-STUDENT PROGRAMMING COMPETITION.

Ian Pratt-Hartmann writes: The 2025 Staff-Student Programming Competition was held in Collab 1 on Wednesday 12th March, from 14:00 to 16:00. The contest used the Kattis platform, and involved seven challenges, chosen by the local organizers at Manchester. Twelve teams submitted solutions.

Winners: ELeetCoders (student team): jamiew1942, Marc Mhawej
Runners-up: Off by None (student team): Cyrus Knopf, Cassar Thomas, myguysai

The winner received University of Manchester mugs and the runners-up University of Manchester shopping bags. There were just two staff teams registered this year. (There have been considerably fewer in the past.) They occupied positions 3 and 4 in the final standings. Final standings and problem descriptions (visible possibly only to those with Kattis credentials) can be found here. Following the presentation of prizes, the organizers presented slides on how to solve these problems. The local organizers were Ian Pratt-Hartmann, Arjun Yadav, Sarah Saad, Yi Xuan Phoon and Astha Shrestha. Special thanks go to the undergraduate members of the organizing team.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - QWELL.

Qwell offers a range of anonymous support options for students, including an online messaging service with qualified mental health professionals, providing safe and anonymous online mental health support whenever you need it. There are no waiting lists for support and no referral needed and access is available instantly 24/7. You can find out more here, and you can access the service at quell.io.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Confidential one to one appointments
Workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools
Access to external support services, such as Qwell.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - DASS.

The Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) is a specialist service supporting students with any condition that has a significant, adverse and long term effect on normal day to day activities. DASS helps students with a range of conditions which includes but is not limited to dyslexia and other learning difficulties, autism spectrum condition, mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression, mobility and sensory impairments, unseen disabilities like epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, chronic fatigue, IBS and Crohn's. DASS can help students access exams, study and specialist support but only if you register with them. You can make an appointment with DASS at any time. Make an appointment and register. For help and advice you can always talk to Maria or Ben in the School wellbeing team.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY - MIT CIRCS 101 - UNDERSTANDING MITIGATION OUTCOMES.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: When you apply for mitigation or an extension on an item of coursework or exam, you will receive an outcome telling you whether it has been accepted or not. Unless you have been given an extension you will not be given much more information on what mitigation will be applied. The reason is because mitigation outcomes are not ratified until the exam board at the end of the year, and so are subject to change. The Student Support and Wellbeing team make recommendations to the exam board, but the final decision is theirs. The wellbeing team and the exam board will always apply the best mitigation option available.

This week I will go through the most common outcomes to give you an idea of the kind of outcome you may receive. It is important to be aware some other options are available:

An extension. This will almost always be one week, however sometimes longer extensions are allowed. You will know if you get an extension because your outcome e-mail will include a new deadline.
Late penalty waive. If your work was submitted after the deadline, but prior to feedback being released, then the late penalty can be removed from your mark.
Omit. If the item was not submitted at the point you requested mitigation, or was submitted after the feedback date, then the item mark can be omitted from your final unit grade. There is a limit to how much of a single unit can be omitted and some work cannot be omitted at all.
Omit if affected. If your work was submitted on time, but the work was affected by your circumstances and thus out of line with your expected marks, the item mark may be omitted from your final unit grade. If the mark from your coursework is not out of line then the mark will be kept. There is a limit to how much of a single unit can be omitted.
Exclude. Like omit, but much less common. The exam board may choose to exclude large assessment pieces or even full units from your final degree classification. There is a limit to how much the exam board can use this.
Resit. The opportunity to take a new exam in the next assessment period. The exam board will decide if this is a first attempt or second attempt. Accepted mitigation allows uncapped resits at first attempt.
Resubmit. Not very common in Computer Science, but the exam board can request you submit a new (or the same) item of work in lieu of coursework affected by mitigation.

Remember, never wait for the outcome of your mitigation. The advice is always, if you are able to continue to work on your assessment then do so. Only submit your work once you are happy for it to be marked. Work submitted after the feedback date may not be marked.

If you find yourself in a situation where you have a backlog of work and are worried about the impact of catching up on your future assessments, then speak to your academic advisor or year tutor. If you have any questions about mitigation outcomes and the process around it, then please drop me an e-mail and I will be happy to assist.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, IT119.

PLACEMENT SUPPORT EXPERIENCES.

David Petrescu writes: If you have been on placement in the 2023-2024 Academic Year, we would like to invite you to a conversation about your experiences before, during, and after your placement year with David (Petrescu) and Duncan (Hull). We want to improve the support we give to future students on placements and it is very important to learn directly from you what went well and where you think we can improve. Our aim is to keep this chat informal. This will take place on:

Date: 25th March
Time: 1pm
Location: Altas Room, Kilburn First Floor

To make the session more enjoyable, we will be providing pastries and coffee. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and making this a productive and engaging discussion. If you have not already replied to an email directly from us or you are interested in attending, please RSVP by 14th March by emailing me to ensure we have enough refreshments for everyone.

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

Duncan Hull writes: You've probably already used CareerConnect to find internships but what other services does the University provide to help you kickstart your career? Join us on Monday 17th March, 4pm, Simon Building lecture theatre E for a guest lecture by Penney Gordon Lanes and Uzdah Jawaid who'll tell us about the wide range of support available from the careers service to help you in your first year and beyond. This is a guest lecture for COMP101, but all students are welcome.

SEMESTER 1 DATA DASHBOARDS.

The department runs moderation panels each semester to scrutinise course unit results and make recommendations for any adjustments to be made, such as the scaling up, or scaling down of course unit cohort marks. As part of this process a data dashboard is provided for each year group that provides data for each completed course unit (note no 20 credit, two semester course units are not considered at this stage in the year). The data includes student performance from previous years on that course unit, how students taking that course unit have performed on other course units in the same semester (as a cohort), and how student performance on the unit compared to performance last year (as a cohort). For this process to be open and transparent we make these data dashboards available for students to view. You can find them in the CS UG Community space in Blackboard in the “Course Unit Data & Exam Feedback” folder (see link in the left-hand menu) - see the 2024-2025 folder. The files are linked at the top of the page.

LEARNING TIPS - HOW TO SCHEDULE YOUR TIME?

As we are approaching the latter weeks of the semester, students are typically faced with multiple deadlines across several course units. There’s also the added pressure of the exam period starting immediately after Week 12 of teaching, leaving little time for revision. This asks questions about scheduling, and how you fit everything in and how to make best use of the time remaining, including the Easter break, which takes place between weeks 10 and 11 of teaching.

To allow you to focus on what’s remaining for you to do, it’s important you plan your time effectively. It’s important to read assignment briefs early, well before you intend to seriously start working on them, as this allows you to get an idea of the size of the task, as well as allowing your mind to subconsciously start processing what is being asked. Try to judge everything you have to do between now and the end of the semester. How many items of coursework (including the project) do you need to complete? How much material does this require you to digest? How many timetabled sessions do you need to attend? How long are those going to take you? What does that mean for how you should split your time between them? You can then refine this once the exam timetable has been published in case you have to delay looking at some of the material. It’s not unusual for students to decide that they are too busy to attend some teaching sessions to find time to focus on other activities, such as completing coursework. However, does that really help you save time? The session you have decided to miss may be that one session where advice on how to approach a piece of coursework is discussed, and attempting the item without this information may end up taking you longer in the end.

Should you schedule long study sessions on one topic, or shorter ones that allow you to revisit all the material for your course units more regularly? The answer here will be different for different students: Do you get easily bored? Does a change of context help you focus? Do you get really stuck into a problem and find it disorienting to have to move to another topic and come back later? You should work to your strengths and schedule yourself accordingly. However, it’s really important to realise that you will have to compromise and balance your efforts across pieces of coursework and across course units - it’s never a good strategy to only focus on the next deadline. Deadline congestion is not a reason to grant extensions - you have to manage your time to balance what is asked of you. If you do find you’ve got into a position where you can’t do justice to all the pieces of work asked of you, and there are no mitigating circumstances, then you should have a look at the weighting of each piece of work. How much are they worth as part of a course unit, or towards your final year, or degree average? Spend more time on items that are worth more, and for which producing a good solution will have the greater impact on your overall mark, unless there are some that can be quickly solved. Do not spend significant amounts of time chasing a few extra marks for a piece of work that will have little overall impact. For example, chasing an extra 20% on a piece of coursework that’s worth 10% of a course unit in the 3rd year will contribute approx. 1% to your overall degree mark. Contrast this to achieving an extra 20% on your project mark by focusing on writing a good report, which will add an extra approx. 4.5% to your overall degree mark.

How do you make effective use of the Easter break? Yes, Easter is a time to relax and take a breath, but it also gives you some time to catch up on work and, more importantly, make a start on revision. Easter is late this year, so there’s two weeks between the end of the Easter break and the exams starting. Why not make use of this time to make a start on your revision early rather than waiting until the exam period starts. This way, you will still have time to ask for help on a subject you may not understand.

Planning one’s work, monitoring a schedule and making adjustments are challenges to most people, but by making decisions knowingly, rather than letting things drift, you can take charge and make the best use of your time.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Gradescope: Submission to Gradescope may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Gradescope to ensure your submission was correct.
Although the systems (Blackboard, Gitlab, Gradescope and SPOT) may show that you have submitted – they do not know what you submitted. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted the correct file(s).
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

3D PRINTERS.

The Department has three 3D printers that are free for you to use. We have a five colour Prusa XL, and two Prusa MK4s you can use. The 3D printers can be found in the right hand corner of Tootill 0 as you walk in the main door. If you’d like to use one of the 3D printers, then please speak to Steve Rhodes (corner off Tootill 0) first.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

THE CS UG COMMUNITY SPACE.

The CS UG Community Space in Blackboard offers a wealth of information to support you as a student. This is where you can find the Undergraduate Handbook, which contains a lot of information related to your studies, through to information about how to change your degree programme, report an absence, or where to get help. There are also dedicated folders with information related to each year group. Content can be accessed from the menu to the left of the page.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: Library Training and Support for Semester 2. Check out our My Learning Essentials programme of workshops, online resources and drop-in sessions to support your academic skills and personal development. Specialist Library Support can help you with reference management and copyright questions.

SAVE YOUR BLACKBOARD INFORMATION.

The University will be switching from Blackboard to Canvas for the 2025/26 academic year. As a result of this, Blackboard will be switched off at some point at the start of the new academic year, and will no longer be accessible. Consequently, now is the time to save any information in Blackboard you want to keep, such as feedback, by downloading it now. The University is making sure your data is safe when we move to Canvas from Blackboard in September 2025. Your learning materials will be migrated over to Canvas courses, ready for you to begin learning next year. Your assessment submissions and feedback from previous years will not be immediately available in Canvas and will be saved separately to an archive area. We strongly recommend you download all your past submissions and feedback before September 2025 so you have them easily available. After September 2025, if you want to access your prior assessments, you will need to request them via a Connect form through the Central Digital Learning team and it may take some time to process your request. By downloading this information from Blackboard now, you can save yourself unnecessary work and save time in the future.

STUDENTHACK 2025 IS BACK!

!! UniCS is pleased to announce our first hackathon of 2025; participant applications are now open! Open to all UoM students of all backgrounds and disciplines. Never programmed before or even know what a hackathon is? Not a problem – a hackathon provides you with the opportunity to work together in a team and take part in challenges and win some awesome rewards and prizes. Not only will we have a variety of challenges for you to take part in, there’ll be some exciting workshops and activities held by our exciting list of sponsors (stay tuned to find out who they are…). You’ll have the chance to get your hands on some free merch and food (yes, FREE) alongside the opportunity to network with fellow attendees – you don’t wanna miss this. Make sure to follow our Instagram to keep up with the latest updates for the hackathon. Keep an eye out for volunteer applications opening soon. We look forward to seeing you there!

*UNICS GAMDEV EPISODE 4: DESIGNING LEVELS. We're continuing with our GameJam project series! This week we'll be looking at how to design levels for your game. We'll also look at some more specific elements you can include to encourage progression and growth from the player as the game goes on. Reminder that we are running a raffle throughout these sessions! The more sessions you attend, the better chance you have of winning the final prize at the GameJam opening ceremony! These sessions are running every Wednesday 3PM-4PM in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3, so if you have any interest in games or game development, don't miss out!

AWS DEEPRACER EVENT.

Date: May 7th 2025
Venue: Tobacco Docks, London
Time: 09.30am – 4.30pm

SPRING CAREERS FAIR.

The Spring Careers Fair will take place TODAY (Monday 17th March) from 11am to 4pm in The Academy. For internships, placements and graduate jobs in a range of sectors. Speak to over 45 recruiters, including Informed Solutions, Civil Service Fast Stream and more. For students of all years and degrees disciplines, this careers fair is an ideal opportunity for you to speak directly and in-person with local and national organisations from a range of business and industry sectors and find out more about their opportunities. Find out more here (career connect login required).

CYBERFIRST HACKATHON.

The CyberFirst Hackathon, an exclusive undergraduate experience designed and delivered by industry and intelligence experts, will take place on Wednesday to Thursday, 26th March (arrival 1pm) & 27th March (Departure: 6pm) at Lancaster University. There are three Challenges: Cyber | Data | Tech. The event is funded, covering an evening meal, breakfast, and lunch the following day. Accommodation is also funded and available on-site for those who need it.

This Hackathon will bring together coders, designers, and innovators to tackle real-world challenges and compete for prizes. Participants will have the opportunity to:

Take part in a range of challenges
Learn from tech leaders
Network with industry professionals
Develop impactful tech solutions

Students can fill in an expression of interest here.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

Suzanne Embury writes: This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Monday, 17 March 2025, 12.00pm-1.00pm in Room G8 (Hyflex Room), Booth Street East Building. We'll be working on NMRInversions, a tool to perform numerical inversions for NMR spectroscopy experiments, implemented in Julia, and we'll be joined by the code base owner, Aris Mavridis, a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Existing and new members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Knowledge of Julia is not required - we're all figuring it out together as we work on the code base. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, carry out exploratory testing, spruce up the code base and build a public record of contributions. Software engineers from the University's research software engineering team will provide support.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY,

MASTERS EXPO.

If you are interested in MSc study, then join us on campus on Wednesday, 19 March, 2-6pm for the Faculty of Science and Engineering Master’s Expo! Whether you’re looking to specialise, enhance your skills, or explore your options, this free event is the ideal opportunity to discover what’s next for you:

Meet experts: chat with our distinguished academics and uncover what makes our master’s courses unique.
Gain valuable insights: connect with current students and learn how they made the most of their Manchester experience.
Unlock your potential: explore how a master’s degree can advance your career, enhance your earning potential, and help you make an impact in your field.
Explore campus: take a student-led tour of campus, running every 30 minutes from the Whitworth Building archway between 2.30–5pm.

You can find out more info by scanning the QR code below, or follow this link. The link also contains a link to register for the event.

GOOGLE DEEPMIND RESEARCH READY SUMMER INTERNSHIPS.

VENTURE FURTHER AWARDS 2025.

Deadline today! The Venture Further Awards are run annually by The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC), which is the focal point for enterprise and entrepreneurship teaching, learning and startup support at The University of Manchester. The mission of MEC is entrepreneurship for all, with an aim to equip all our students, staff, and graduates with entrepreneurial mindsets, fostering skills such as innovation, adaptability, and problem-solving that are essential for all career paths. The Venture Further Awards is the UK’s leading university start-up competition with a £100,000 prize pot. It doesn’t matter what stage your business is at; we are looking for startups that are driven, ambitious, and show they are serious about making it work. We want to see innovative, impactful and scalable businesses with founders who have the skills to make it a success!

Do you have an innovative idea that solves a problem?
Is there a clear demand or need for this idea in the market?
Does your idea have the potential to make a significant impact?
Do you have a well-thought-out plan to bring this idea to life?
Do you have the passion and drive to make your idea a reality?

If the answer is yes, then start your application today! The application deadline is Midday, 17th March 2025. Follow the QR code below for more information.

VENTURE BUILDER.

Do you have an innovative idea but feel stuck on how to turn it into a real business? Or maybe you've taken the first steps but hit a roadblock, unsure of what’s next? Well, Venture Builder is here to help you pass this stage! This is your 12-week startup launchpad, taking you from concept to execution with hands-on guidance, expert mentorship, and commercial validation. What is Venture Builder? Venture Builder is a 12-week programme helping students turn business ideas into scalable startups. It offers up to £5,000 funding, expert mentorship, MVP support, and AI tools to accelerate growth. The programme is designed for founders - teams and individuals - who have an initial idea with basic market understanding and are ready to build! The application deadline is 23:59, 24th March 2025. Follow the QR code below for further information.

KILBURN LF TIMELINE.

visual/graphic/picture standing for a significant/exciting/interesting research contribution made by a member of the Department (or school) of Computer Science and
brief explanation of the research contribution and how it relates to the visual, together with references to the literature.

from a publication from a member of the department or
designed by you or
sourced from our online photo archive, see https://history.cs.manchester.ac.uk/

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

This week’s Departmental seminar will take place 14:00 - 15:00, Wednesday 19th March 2025, and will be presented by Dr. Marie Farrell, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is "Adventures in FRET, Specification and Verification". Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of our work using NASA’s Formal Requirement Elicitation Tool (FRET) to formalise requirements. I will discuss how we specified and verified requirements for case studies including autonomous robotic navigation, autonomous robotic grasping, a mechanical lung ventilator and an aircraft engine software controller. I will also describe our ongoing probabilistic and refactoring extensions to FRET, as well as requirement pattern catalogs that we have developed for robotic systems.

Bio: Dr. Marie Farrell joined the University of Manchester in October 2022 and holds a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship in "Strong Software Reliability for Autonomous Space Robotics". This fellowship is devising new ways of describing, analysing and assuring the autonomous behaviour of robotic space systems. She received her PhD in 2017 from Maynooth University (Ireland) for her work on a category-theoretic semantics, modularisation constructs and interoperability for the Event-B formal method. She held postdoctoral positions at the University of Liverpool and the University of Manchester (on the UKRI-funded FAIR-SPACE Hub), as well as at Maynooth University (on the EU-funded VALU3S project). Her research interests include formal methods, requirements engineering, category theory and its use in Computer Science, critical systems and assurance. She was secretary of the working group that developed the IEEE 7009 Standard on Fail-Safe Design for Autonomous Systems.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

ARE YOU CURIOUS ABOUT THE INNER WORKINGS OF IT SERVICES?

11am to 12noon – Meet the Director: Come and get your IT questions answered by Alex Goffe, Director of Campus Technology Services.
11am to 1pm – Cyber Security: Lee Moffatt (Head of Cyber Security Operations), Alex Ingram (Head of Information Security – Compliance and Operations), and Mary McDerby (Information Governance Officer – Compliance and Risk) will be on hand to take your questions in these critical areas for the University.
10am to 4pm – Connect Surgery: Discuss your experience using the Connect service for online IT support and any questions with Clive Carassale (Programme Delivery Lead), Jenny Scibilia (Platform Owner) and Mark O’Toole (Lead Developer).

FAST-TRACK TO MASTER’S STUDY.

Are you a final-year undergraduate student within the Faculty of Science and Engineering at The University of Manchester? Do you have aspirations to continue your studies at postgraduate level in September? The fast-track scheme is designed to provide high-achieving final-year undergraduate students with a streamlined application route to taught master’s courses within the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

If you are expected to achieve a 2:1 degree classification or higher, this scheme offers you the opportunity to apply for a conditional place on a taught master's course in the Faculty, subject to places being available. If you are interested to find out more, then scan the QR code below, or follow this link. Fast track is only open to UoM students in their final year.

ALUMNI LOYALTY DISCOUNT.

If you are currently in your final year of an undergraduate degree with us, you may be eligible for a discount on postgraduate study at Manchester. You could receive a discount of 10% on tuition fees if you choose to study on a taught postgraduate course here. If you are eligible, the Manchester Alumni Loyalty Discount will be applied when you start your studies. Find out more information, and if you're eligible by scanning the QR code below, or by following this link.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Cube Roots of Pi by Blobz

Normal sudoku rules apply. Box borders divide blue lines into segments with the same sum. Along a pink line, digits form a non-repeating consecutive sequence in any order. Each cage's sum is a perfect cube.

Chess Puzzle - Rustemov Vs. Khegay, 2025

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing "Flags of the World" but this week to make things more interesting, you only get 30s per round, so be quick!

Click here to play this week’s challenge

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 7 • Monday 10 March 2025 • #24.22

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 10th March 2025 and it’s week 7. As we are on the run up to the latter stages of semester 2 then there will be a lot of deadlines approaching. If you are struggling to meet any deadlines, or your studies are being impacted in some way, then it’s important you ask for help if you need it (see below).

If you are a 3rd year student, then the deadline to stop work on your project is this Friday (14th March). You should make sure you submit your work by the deadline - don't leave it until the last minute! If you don’t, then this will impact the achievements mark for your project.

We are planning on producing a timeline, to be displayed in the lower first floor, that displays the wide range of research contributions made by the members of our Department since its inception in 1964. We are asking you for contributions (see below). There are prizes involved!

Have a good week. On with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

Hello everyone! The SVC meeting which was originally scheduled for last week unfortunately had to be rearranged to this week. Please let us know about any issues you are having so these can be raised during the meeting! If you have any feedback for us, from facility issues and unresolved or cross-unit academic issues to giving positive shoutouts, there are many ways to get in touch and keep up to date:

Click the link to or scan the QR code for our online reporting form
Drop in our open office hour this Friday (the 14th of March) from 16:00 to 17:00 to speak face to face with one of your reps in Collab 1.
Stop by our SVC noticeboard in the Kilburn LF area and use our physical suggestion box.
As always, you can email a rep directly; our email addresses are on Blackboard, the noticeboard in the Kilburn LF area, and the Student’s Union website.
If you have feedback regarding a specific course unit, please feed this back to the course unit lead directly. If you are unhappy with their response, please bring this back to us!

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

6x Graduation Day Packages
1x iPad Air
1x £200 voucher (choice of: Uber, Deliveroo, LovetoShop)
2x £100 voucher
4x £50 voucher
6x £25 voucher

To complete the survey, go to the NSS website  and click ‘complete the survey’. Alternatively, you can check your email inbox for a link – all final year students eligible to complete the NSS should have already received an email from Ipsos with a link to the survey. Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We’re very grateful for your feedback and this will help us plan improvements we can make as a School.

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

The deadline to register is 4pm this Friday. The University Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) offers support to all students who have a condition which has an adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry-out normal day-to-day activities, including physical and mental issues. A DASS advisor is always happy to talk with you if you are unsure if you can register with them. You can find out more information about DASS and how to contact them here: who-do-we-support. The University has a deadline for putting exam support in place for each of the main exam periods, which is 4pm, Friday 14th March 2025 for semester 2. You will need to register and have met with an adviser to agree on your exam support by this deadline. For more details, see the exam support page. For advice, please speak to a member of the Student Support and Wellbeing Team.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - THE STUDENT UNION ADVICE CENTRE.

The Student Union offers advice and support with life at the University. They offer a wide range of services and support.

Academic Advice: Help you through any academic problems you might face during your time at Manchester, including appeals, complaints, mitigating circumstances, disciplinary issues and course/university transfers. Academic guidance and support is free, confidential, and completely independent from the University.
Financial Advice: Offer advice and support on a range of money matters, including Student Finance, access to funding, financial worries and hardship, banking issues and government benefits. If you’re struggling with debt, we can also support you to access specialist advice.
Student Life Advice: Help you take care of your health and wellbeing and support you when things may be difficult. Our advisors are here to help you with anything personal that is going on for you. We’ll provide a confidential space where you can talk to us about anything that’s on your mind. We can help you to access additional support through the University and relevant external support organisations.
Housing Advice: Offer help with any worries you might have whether you're living at home, in halls or a private house. We offer advice and guidance on a range of housing issues including signing a contract, deposits, council tax, issues with your landlord, disrepair, tenant disputes and ending your tenancy early.

You can find more information on their website, including a contact form if you want to make an inquiry.

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

Just a reminder that we have a dedicated Student Support and Wellbeing team in the Department, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, who are available to support you throughout your studies. If you are affected by any issues impacting your learning, struggling with your work, considering interruption, DASS registered and feel that your condition is starting to affect you more than usual, or you just need somebody to speak to, then you should speak to a member of the Student Support and Wellbeing team. You can contact Maria and Ben by email soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk, or you can drop into the student hub in Engineering Building A and ask to speak to someone, in confidence.

UNI MENTAL HEALTH DAY – CHILL OUT ZONE.

This Thursday (13th March) is Uni Mental Health Day. From 12pm – 3pm, there will be a chill out zone in the Atrium, University Place, with lots of different activities. The event is a collaborative event between the Wellbeing Team, Social Prescribers and the SU’s How’s You ambassadors, staff from each team will be available to chat to about their services. We will have different activities set up around the space, including:

Board games
Switch party games
Scavenger hunt (50x £4 Food on Campus vouchers to find)
Breath work and mindfulness sessions
Self-soothe bag building (a bag to keep with you for bad mental health days, engaging each of the senses)
Wellbeing walks (outside)
Private wellbeing chats with staff or fellow students from the SU’s ‘How’s You’ scheme

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, IT119.

PLACEMENT SUPPORT EXPERIENCES.

Date: 25th March
Time: 1pm
Location: Altas Room, Kilburn First Floor

THIRD YEAR PROJECT.

Terry Morley writes: The deadline to stop the development stage of your project is this Friday (14th March 2025)! You must submit a copy of what you have created (code base etc.) to Blackboard by 6pm. Please do not submit things like datasets that were not created by you, large neural network weight files, and virtual machines. We need to see work that you have done yourself. This might be things like source code files, notes, configuration files, and so on (depending on the type of project). Imagine that you would like to reproduce your work in the future - zip up what you would need to do that and submit it. You should be aware that a lot of students may be trying to submit code close to the deadline, which may slow down Blackboard. Do not leave it too late and end up being unable to submit by the deadline. Even though you may have started submitting before the deadline, it may complete AFTER the deadline! Late or non-submission of your work will impact the Achievements mark for the project, and minor bug fixes are the only changes to the code you may carry out after that date. You need to turn to working on the evaluation of your work, as well as producing your report and screencast, which are due for submission on Monday 28th April 2025 (the Monday immediately after the Easter break). We have seen an escalation in the use of generative AI tools (ChatGPT etc) in work submitted by students. University guidelines on the use of such tools can be found here. Please note that presenting work generated by such systems without suitable acknowledgement is plagiarism and you risk disciplinary action being taken. Be careful how you use such tools!

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

Duncan Hull writes: An Introduction to Cloud Computing with booking.com, Monday 10th March at 4pm. Join us on Monday in Simon Building Lecture Theatre E where two 2023 graduates, Matthew Kirby and Samir Zafar will be presenting “An Introduction to Cloud Computing”. The talk will focus on some of the benefits and challenges of cloud computing with specific reference to their experiences at Booking.com so far, and how this relates to your first year team project. This guest lecture is part of COMP101 but all students are welcome.

SEMESTER 1 DATA DASHBOARDS.

The Department runs moderation panels each semester to scrutinise course unit results and make recommendations for any adjustments to be made, such as the scaling up, or scaling down of course unit cohort marks. As part of this process a data dashboard is provided for each year group that provides data for each completed course unit (note no 20 credit, two semester course units are not considered at this stage in the year). The data includes student performance from previous years on that course unit, how students taking that course unit have performed on other course units in the same semester (as a cohort), and how student performance on the unit compared to performance last year (as a cohort). For this process to be open and transparent we make these data dashboards available for students to view. You can find them in the CS UG Community space in Blackboard in the “Course Unit Data & Exam Feedback” folder (see link in the left-hand menu) - see the 2024-2025 folder. The files are linked at the top of the page.

LEARNING TIPS - WHAT IS FEEDBACK?

Feedback is the process of providing and receiving advice, information, or criticism about your learning that helps you to understand the limitations in your understanding, or of what you have created with the aim of helping to improve your performance or learning. Most students assume that feedback cones in only one form, that is written direction on submitted work. However, this isn’t the case, as feedback can come in many forms.

When the lecturer is explaining an answer to a multiple choice quiz question in a lecture, and is explaining why one of the choices is correct and the others incorrect - this is feedback. When you are in an examples class and the GTAs, staff or even your fellow students, are explaining how a concept works, how to apply a technique, whether your current attempt is correct or not (for example in the COMP11120 examples class) then this is feedback. When you ask for help from a GTA in a lab and they provide advice on your code, or how to approach solving a problem, they are providing you with feedback on your work. You complete a formative quiz in BB and you receive a score and are told in the question feedback which answers are correct, which are incorrect and why, then this is feedback. In a lab, you have had your work marked by the GTA, face-to-face using a rubric to determine your final mark, then there are two forms of feedback happening here, verbal feedback during the marking process, and feedback via the rubric, which highlights how your work satisfies the marking criteria used to achieve your overall mark.

You can obtain feedback without engaging with others, by observing what you’ve done and recognising what you need to do to improve. I like the archer analogy in Lipnevich and Smith, where the archer learns to improve their shot by understanding themselves how to improve their accuracy. They take a shot and see that the arrow overshot the target bullseye. They reflect on what they did, make adjustments to the direction of the arrow, how far they draw back the bow etc and try again. This time they successfully hit the centre of the target. Here, the feedback mechanism is the flight of the arrow and where it landed on the target. By analysing this the archer has learnt how to improve their aim.

There are many other examples where you are exposed to feedback on your learning throughout your time in Manchester. Consequently, don’t think of feedback as something that someone writes down for you, think of all the times you interact with staff, GTAs and your fellow students where you are discussing your learning; in all cases you are receiving feedback on your learning.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

THE CS UG COMMUNITY SPACE.

The CS UG Community Space in Blackboard offers a wealth of information to support you as a student. This is where you can find the Undergraduate Handbook, which contains a lot of information related to your studies. The community space all includes much more, such as information about how to change your degree programme, report an absence, or where to get help. There are also dedicated folders with information related to each year group. Content can be accessed from the menu to the left of the page.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT IN CS.

IT Services provide support for centrally provided systems and software. If you have problems with Office 365, including email, Blackboard, Duo, Wifi, printing, or using your University of Manchester account to log into Windows or Linux you will need to contact the IT Services help desk either via the in-person desk on the ground floor of Kilburn building, the support portal, or by calling 0161 306 5544. FSE Technical Services provide support for the Department of Computer Science GitLab service, the Web Dashboard, MySQL and MongoDB services, and can help with issues related to software used as part of your courses and submitting work with git. This can include general git problems, issues with access to git projects, submissions not appearing in SPOT, and problems with software on the cluster machines. They can be contacted by emailing support@cs.manchester.ac.uk. Please note that in general FSE Technical Services can not provide technical support for installing software on personal devices.

UNICS GAMDEV EPISODE 3:

MAKING PROGRESS! We're continuing with our GameJam project series! Last time around we saw Adam update the game's world, including adding dynamic lighting, reflections and higher quality textures. This week we'll be looking more into the actual gameplay, and how you can make your game enjoyable for the players! Reminder that we are running a raffle throughout these sessions! The more sessions you attend, the better chance you have of winning the final prize at the GameJam opening ceremony! These sessions are running every Wednesday 3PM-4PM in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3, so if you have any interest in games or game development, don't miss out!

UNICS x ROBOSOC PCB WORKSHOP.

We're collaborating with Robosoc to bring you a unique workshop, where you'll make your own PCB board! All equipment will be provided, and no prior experience is required. Spaces are limited however, so please register your interest with the RSVP link. This session will be running in Uni Place Room 5.211, on Wednesday the 12th of March. Hope to see you there!

GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUP.

It's now Week 3 of our Data Structures and Algorithms series! This semester, we are running weekly workshops designed to boost your technical interview skills for a career in tech. We are covering fundamental concepts that are crucial not only for coding interviews but also for tackling complex challenges in the tech industry. The third session in the Data Structures and Algorithms series will be focused on Sliding Window. Still unsure about attending? If you attend every workshop in a theme, you will earn an official GDG Certificate to display on your LinkedIn! See you there!

Workshop Date and Time: Wednesday 12th March, 15:00-16:00
Location: Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.5

CYBERFIRST HACKATHON.

Take part in a range of challenges
Learn from tech leaders
Network with industry professionals
Develop impactful tech solutions

Students can fill in an expression of interest here.

MIMUC 2025.

Registration is now OPEN for the Manchester Interdisciplinary Mathematics Undergraduate Conference (MIMUC)! The 4th MIMUC undergraduate conference will be held on 19th and 20th March 2025, in the Alan Turing Building and the Nancy Rothwell Building. The conference is open to any taught student in any faculty with an interest in mathematics. Note: there is no expectation to attend for the full two days - you can pop in and out between classes to attend different talks. Key events at the conference include mathematical talks by students and guest speakers, an academic panel to discuss pathways in research, free pizza, and a lecture by leading public communicator of mathematics Dr Katie Steckles (see below). For further details, visit the conference website or contact us directly at mimuc.organisers@manchester.ac.uk. We are also seeking student volunteers to help run the conference in advance and on the day - email to express interest!

Student talks - win prizes! We invite students to give a talk on a mathematical topic of their choice - these talks are the primary focus of the conference. Your inspiration could be something you learned on a course, or to practice presenting your project work, or a topic of personal interest from outside of studies. For example, the top three prize-winning talks last year were: Introduction to the Lattice Boltzmann Method, Reinforcement Learning and Applications to Mobile Health, The Witches of Mathematics: Representing Female Mathematicians of History. If you are interested in giving a talk then register here. There will be prizes for the best student talks (1st place: £100, 2nd place: £75, 3rd place £50), and a prize for the best talk by a foundation year or first year student (£50).

MIMUC PUBLIC LECTURE.

We are excited to announce that MIMUC 2025 will feature a Public Lecture from Dr Katie Steckles on "Maths' Greatest Unsolved Puzzles." You may have seen Katie in one of her many TV appearances, online events, or at science festivals etc. She graduated from UoM in 2011 after completing a PhD with Dr James Montaldi. Her lecture is on Thursday 20th March at 17:00 in Nancy Rothwell Lecture Theatre B, with some refreshments from 16:15. Get your free ticket here.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: Carcanet Press 50th Anniversary Online Exhibition. Discover pivotal moments in Manchester publishing house Carcanet’s history, including poetry, correspondence and podcasts on our Manchester Digital Exhibitions platform.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

Suzanne Embury writes: This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Tuesday, 11th March 2025, 1.00pm-2.00pm in Kilburn Collab 1 (note the change of venue). We'll be working on Loupe, a tool to analyse system call usage, implemented in Python and C and using GnuPlot. We'll be joined by the code base owner, Dr Pierre Olivier, an academic in the Department of Computer Science. Existing and new members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, carry out exploratory testing, spruce up the code base and build a public record of contributions. Software engineers from the University's research software engineering team will provide support and we'll have a guest coding mentor from Booking.com.

OSS CLUB TECH TALK.

Field Programmable Gate Arrays and Open Source Software (and AI?), Kelvin Chung (PhD student), 11th March 2025, 1.00pm-1.30pm, IT407 and online. The OSS Club is excited to announce its first tech talk. Kelvin Chung, OSS Club Code Base Owner and PhD student, will present an introduction to some of the open source tools available for FPGA development.

Most software developers are familiar with Central Processing Units (CPU), but what about Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)? Unlike CPUs, which execute instructions sequentially, FPGAs enable a unique form of parallel computation by allowing developers to reconfigure the hardware. This talk introduces FPGAs from a software-centric perspective, highlighting their similarities to CPUs—particularly the need for a "compiler." While FPGA compilation has traditionally been locked behind proprietary tools, the past decade has seen a rise in open-source alternatives, breaking vendor restrictions and opening new possibilities for hardware development. As software and hardware continue to converge, including in areas like AI acceleration, understanding FPGAs is becoming more relevant than ever. Contact Suzanne Embury for the online meeting link/calendar invitation.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY,

Special panel: Quantum Computing
Panel 1: FinTech and Financial Crime
Panel 2: Theory and Practice of Cybersecurity
Panel 3: Cybersecurity in Critical Infrastructure
Panel 4: Supply Chain Management and Liability Regimes for Digital Technology
Panel 5: Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Digital Trust
Panel 6: International Governance Frameworks

MASTERS EXPO.

Meet experts: chat with our distinguished academics and uncover what makes our master’s courses unique.
Gain valuable insights: connect with current students and learn how they made the most of their Manchester experience.
Unlock your potential: explore how a master’s degree can advance your career, enhance your earning potential, and help you make an impact in your field.
Explore campus: take a student-led tour of campus, running every 30 minutes from the Whitworth Building archway between 2.30–5pm.

You can find out more info by scanning the QR code below, or follow this link. The link also contains a link to register for the event.

GOOGLE DEEPMIND RESEARCH READY SUMMER INTERNSHIPS.

PURPLEWAVE.

The Purplewave is The University of Manchester’s entry to the Great Manchester 10K Run, where students, staff, alumni, and friends come together to create a vibrant wave of purple wearing our t-shirts. It’s not about being the fastest or the strongest – it’s about having fun, staying active, and connecting with our community. This year’s event is on Sunday 18 May. We have some fantastic opportunities for you to get involved in:

Spring Dash 2025: Join us for a fun-filled 2.5k and 5k run this spring. It’s the perfect chance to make new friends and become part of our Purple Wave community. Sign up here.
Great Manchester Run 2025: Be part of the main event on Sunday, 18th May. Whether you’re a seasoned runner or just starting out, this 10K run is for everyone. Tickets are available for University of Manchester students and staff at a discounted rate of £20. Plus, you can make your run even more meaningful by fundraising for one of our chosen causes. Sign up here.

This year, you can choose to support groundbreaking cancer research or provide vital aid to students facing financial hardship. By meeting a modest fundraising target of £60, you can even secure free entry to the 10K event. It’s a fantastic way to give back and make a real difference in the lives of others. Running isn’t the only way to take part in the Purplewave this year, you can also sign up to volunteer on the day of to support with T-shirt distribution and promo stalls. If you volunteer with us, this will contribute towards your Stellify Award.

VENTURE FURTHER AWARDS 2025.

The Venture Further Awards are run annually by The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC). MEC focuses on enterprise and entrepreneurship teaching, learning and startup support at The University of Manchester. The mission of MEC is entrepreneurship for all, with an aim to equip all our students, staff, and graduates with entrepreneurial mindsets, fostering skills such as innovation, adaptability, and problem-solving that are essential for all career paths. The Venture Further Awards is the UK’s leading university start-up competition with a £100,000 prize pot. It doesn’t matter what stage your business is at; we are looking for startups that are driven, ambitious, and show they are serious about making it work. We want to see innovative, impactful and scalable businesses with founders who have the skills to make it a success!

Do you have an innovative idea that solves a problem?
Is there a clear demand or need for this idea in the market?
Does your idea have the potential to make a significant impact?
Do you have a well-thought-out plan to bring this idea to life?
Do you have the passion and drive to make your idea a reality?

If the answer is yes, then start your application today! The application deadline is Midday, 17th March 2025. Follow the QR code below for more information.

VENTURE BUILDER.

KILBURN LF TIMELINE.

visual/graphic/picture standing for a significant/exciting/interesting research contribution made by a member of the Department (or school) of Computer Science and
brief explanation of the research contribution and how it relates to the visual, together with references to the literature.

from a publication from a member of the department or
designed by you or
sourced from our online photo archive, see https://history.cs.manchester.ac.uk/

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 12th March 2025, the departmental seminar will be presented by Prof. Kurt Debattista, University of Warwick, 13:00 - 14:00, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is "Applied Perception in Visual Computing”. Abstract: Computer graphics, image processing and visual computing in general are deeply intertwined with human vision. This talk will present how applied perception principles can be used to enhance visual fidelity and efficiency. This will be demonstrated by examples from projects in computer graphics, high dynamic range imaging with applications in various domains. In particular a framework of how to identify the best parameters to adopt in virtual environments will be presented.

Bio: Kurt Debattista is a Professor and Director of Research Degrees at WMG, University of Warwick. He holds a PhD from the University of Bristol, an MSc in Computer Science, an MSc in Psychology and a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science. His research has focused on high-fidelity rendering, high-dynamic range imaging, machine learning, and applied perception. He has had grants funded with EPSRC, InnovateUK/TSB, Royal Society, HVM Catapult, NHS, EU, and internal funding. He was granted a Royal Society Industrial fellowship. He has been engaged with collaboration with industry in several projects including work with JLR, Arup and Lear amongst others.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 19th March 2025, the departmental seminar will be presented by Dr. Marie Farrell, 14:00 - 15:00, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is "Adventures in FRET, Specification and Verification". Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of our work using NASA’s Formal Requirement Elicitation Tool (FRET) to formalise requirements. I will discuss how we specified and verified requirements for case studies including autonomous robotic navigation, autonomous robotic grasping, a mechanical lung ventilator and an aircraft engine software controller. I will also describe our ongoing probabilistic and refactoring extensions to FRET, as well as requirement pattern catalogs that we have developed for robotic systems.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

FAST-TRACK TO MASTER’S STUDY.

ALUMNI LOYALTY DISCOUNT.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Parity Tic-Tac-Toe by Marty Sears

Normal sudoku rules apply. Entering correct digits may clear fog somewhere in the grid - no guessing is necessary. Digits separated by a white dot are consecutive. Digits separated by a black dot are in a 1:2 ratio (ie one is double the other). Todd and Steven are playing a game of Tic-Tac-Toe in a sudoku grid, where they attempt to 'claim' each 3x3 box. It's a very close game, with one player claiming four boxes and the other claiming five. However, the winner isn't necessarily the player to claim most boxes. To win the overall game, a player must claim at least one straight line of three 3x3 boxes (horizontally, vertically or diagonally), without their opponent managing to get a line of three boxes themselves. To determine who claims each 3x3 box, Todd and Steven play a mini game in each box. Todd places odd digits and Steven places even digits. A player claims a 3x3 box by getting at least one straight line of three digits of their parity (horizontally, vertically or diagonally) in that box, and without their opponent managing to get a line of three digits themselves. Every 3x3 box has a definitive winner, and there is also a definitive winner of the overall multi-box game. But who is it?!

Chess Puzzle - Hajialiyev Vs. Payyappat, 2025

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 6 • Monday 3 March 2025 • #24.21

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 3rd March 2025 and it’s week 6. March already and the halfway point in the semester!

The semester 1 results should be released at 11am on Tuesday. Fingers crossed you achieve the marks you are hoping for! If you want to chat to someone about your results, then help is available. Feel free to speak to your Academic Advisor (you should be meeting them over the next 2 weeks to discuss your results anyway), or your Year Tutor (see below). As we only have results for semester 1, the bigger picture of what your results mean will only become clearer after the semester 2 exams have taken place. We've provided some (brief) advice below about exam results and what they mean with respect to progression and graduation.

If you are a 2nd year student, there’s a Managing My Future event on Wednesday 5th March, 14:00 - 16:00, aimed at getting you ready for internship and placement applications - please consider attending (see below). Finally, the deadline for registering for the staff-student programming competition is this Wednesday (see below), so please consider registering if you haven’t already done so.

Have a good week, on with today’s news …
Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

The next Student Voice Committee meeting is this Wednesday (5th March), where we will be discussing Exams and Assessments, and GTA provision. We will also be discussing any issues raised via the suggestions boxes. You can find a list of reps as well as minutes of previous meetings on the Blackboard UG Community space and the SVC Noticeboard on Kilburn LF.

MEET AN ACADEMIC REP.

This academic rep of the week is Davide Pan (Y1 CS). Davide writes: Hi! I'm Davide Pan, a first-year Computer Science student here at the University of Manchester. I'm passionate about technology and problem-solving, with interests spanning from software development to artificial intelligence. I look forward to helping make our university experience even better for everyone!

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

Additionally, for each response submitted the University will make a £2 charitable donation, split equally between the following good causes:

Last year over £12,000 was donated from survey completions. In addition, every student who takes part in the NSS 2025 can enter into a prize draw to win one of 20 prizes:

6x Graduation Day Packages
1x iPad Air
1x £200 voucher (choice of: Uber, Deliveroo, LovetoShop)
2x £100 voucher
4x £50 voucher
6x £25 voucher

Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey. We’re very grateful for your feedback and this will help us plan improvements we can make as a School.

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: We plan to close off the form for the PASS1 leadership role this week. There may still be a few spots left by the time this message reaches you. If interested, please fill in the form. Please keep in mind that this is first come, first serve. Our PASS1 coordinator roles have been filled up - thank you to everyone who applied!

We plan on hosting a small (optional) Leetcode competition for all PASS1 groups to join in Collab. Please keep in touch with your PASS1 leaders for directions for the day. We are trying to get waffles as snacks this or next week, so ensure to attend such that you don't miss it when it comes! Your leaders will be available if you prefer a regular session for the day.

GAMING CAREERS WORKSHOP.

Amelia Javed (Y1, CSwIE) writes: Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of attending a careers workshop led by video game designer Charles Cecil, co-founder and CEO of Revolution Software.

Workshop highlights:

Charles’ journey: An engaging talk where he dived into his career path. Like any great adventure game, his journey had its challenges and unexpected plot twists but with persistence and creativity (no walkthroughs needed!), he carved out a legacy in the gaming industry. From navigating a highly competitive industry alongside advancements in technology, to the success of Broken Sword and Revolution Software, the talk was eye-opening and inspiring!
AI and Narrative Design: A group activity centered around the use of AI and exploring how it can 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘦 (see what I did there?) storytelling to create a more immersive gaming experience and keep players hooked.

Each group had to pitch their ideas to Charles and the room. It was great to hear everyone's takes on how we can harness the power of AI to complement and enhance writer’s/designer’s abilities and take our games to the next level.

AI can be a game-changer. Pun intended. However, we must be cautious. Does generating countless endings enhance the player's experience or does quality take precedence over quantity? How much non-playable character (NPC) dialogue is too much? Where do we draw the line? Should we prioritise player-driven narratives rather than procedural storytelling? And as Sam would like to add, AI alone cannot create a story that moves people, or makes them feel, but in the hands of a skilled writer, AI can really supercharge story-writing. Certainly food for thought...

Big shoutout to my teammates, Samuel Ujahchuku (Y1, CS) and Taha Naeem. Proud to say we were the winning team and I’m super happy to have received a Steam code for Broken Sword as well as an artbook and USB stick - perfect prizes for the gamer, collector and artist in me. Thank you to Charles! So, I have a question for you, dear reader … What is your favourite video game and why?

3RD YEAR PROJECT RESEARCH SURVEY.

This from Francesca Roberts (Y3, HCI): Are you able to imagine sounds? Take part in our research study exploring auditory imagery ability! What’s involved?

A short online questionnaire
An optional in-person session measuring pupil responses to real and imagined sounds

You are welcome to complete just the questionnaire if unavailable for the second part.

For sign up please follow this link, or contact me at Francesca.roberts@student.manchester.ac.uk. Your help is greatly appreciated!

CYBERGRID:

TACTICAL HACKING SHOWDOWN - BETA TESTERS WANTED. Robert Haynes (Y3, CSwIE) writes: Are you interested in strategy games, game development, or just enjoy trying out new tech? Here’s your chance to beta test an exciting new iOS game before its official release! CyberGrid: Tactical Hacking Showdown is a final-year project, designed as a fast-paced grid-based strategy game where two players compete as rival hackers, battling for control over a 6x6 cyberpunk-inspired grid. The game is built to challenge your strategic thinking, with mechanics inspired by Othello/Reversi, but with an added hacking and fortification twist.

Why join the beta?

Be among the first to play and experience the game before release
Help shape the final version by providing feedback on gameplay and usability
Gain insight into iOS game development, as the game has already passed Apple’s external TestFlight review, making it available for public testing

How to join? The beta is open to 250 testers on a first-come, first-served basis. If you're interested, you can sign up via TestFlight using this link. Your feedback will be invaluable in refining the final version of the game! I’d love to hear your thoughts if you give it a try.

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

The University Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) offers support to all students who have a condition which has an adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry-out normal day-to-day activities, including physical and mental issues. A DASS advisor is always happy to talk with you if you are unsure if you can register with them. You can find out more information about DASS and how to contact them here: who-do-we-support. The University has a deadline for putting exam support in place for each of the main exam periods, which is 4pm, Friday 14th March 2025 for semester 2. You will need to register and have met with an adviser to agree on your exam support by this deadline. For more details, see the exam support page. For advice, please speak to a member of the Student Support and Wellbeing Team.

REPORT AND SUPPORT.

The University’s Report and Support Service is available to students. If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed any form of bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor through Report and Support. To report an incident and speak to a caseworker, you can either fill out the online form or someone can do it on your behalf. The team will seek to understand your situation and aim to give you information, advice and support tailored to your individual circumstances. You can access this service here. Please be mindful that whilst you can send anonymous reports, the team is unable to contact you to offer support unless you provide your name and contact details.

WHO IS YOUR ACADEMIC ADVISOR?

An academic advisor is a member of academic staff you are assigned to who provides not only academic support, but pastoral support during your time in Manchester. Who is your academic advisor? Well, this depends what year you are in. If you are a 1st or 2nd year student, your academic advisor is your personal tutor - you can find out who your tutor is here. In the 3rd year, your academic advisor is your project supervisor, and in the 4th year it is Tim Morris. Don’t get your academic advisor confused with your Year Tutor, who generally has more experience in supporting students and signposting them to support services in the university (see below). If your academic advisor has concerns about your academic progression, or wellbeing, they may let the corresponding Year Tutor be aware of their concerns.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY - MIT CIRCS 101 - WRITING AN APPLICATION FOR MITIGATION.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: I wanted to discuss how to fill in the narrative section of your application form with as little as five sentences. Unfortunately for you, I'm not going to tell you what to write to get your application accepted, but I can tell you how to efficiently use your 1000 character limit to produce an application that gives the mitigation panel all they need to make a decision.

Your application needs to be clear and concise so it is easy to read while at the same time remembering that your application will be read by someone who does not do your course, so technical aspects should be clearly explained. Firstly, do not apply for mitigation or extensions too early. We need to be sure that the circumstances are going to impact your work. So for example, applying for an extension on an item due in three weeks because you are ill now, is likely to not be accepted. Next, if you want an extension make sure to select the correct option at the top of the form. If you want some other kind of outcome then select the other option. If you want a mixture of extensions and other mitigation outcomes then you will need to complete two forms.

So how do you write your application? Your application should be split into five parts:

What has happened? This should be a brief outline of the circumstances that have led to you applying for mitigation. We are not looking for a long backstory or the reason behind the issue occurring. For example, if you are ill, how or who you think you may have got ill from has no relevance to your application. All the detail we need will be included in the evidence you supply.
The period of time impacted. This is regularly left out of application. If we don't know the dates you have been affected then your application will be rejected.
How have the circumstances affected you? We are looking for a brief and clear understanding of how the circumstances directly impacted you to mean you could not do your work. We don't need the gory details but we do need to know how you have been significantly impacted. Without this your application may not be accepted.
How have the circumstances impacted your work? You need to be clear on how exactly this has impacted your assessment.
Tell us your preferred outcome. We cannot guarantee the outcome you want but there's no harm in asking, and it helps us make a decision.

Lastly, do not waste space including your name, course or student number; we already have those details. Do NOT use Google translate, it often picks the wrong words to use making the application hard to understand. Do NOT use Chat GPT, because nothing says "I'm lying, reject me!" like an application clearly written by an over enthusiastic chat bot. TLDR: A brief and clear application is what we want to see to help us give you the best outcome.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, IT119.

MEGALAB AVAILABILITY.

Today (Monday 3rd March) the megalab (1.8/1.10) will be closed for Computer Science students from 2:30pm until 5pm to allow for a session for EEE students to take place in the megalab. The machines in the megalab will need to cleared and the computers rebooted into Windows at 2:30pm, staff will come around to clear out the room just before this happens. If you are using the megalab, please ensure you save all your work and leave promptly, otherwise you may lose work.

THIRD YEAR PROJECT.

Terry Morley writes: The deadline to stop the development stage of your project is rapidly approaching. You must submit a copy of what you have created (code base etc) to Blackboard by 6pm Friday 14th March 2025. Please do not submit things like datasets that were not created by you, or large neural network weight files - these are not required. Late or non-submission of your work will impact the Achievements mark for the project, and minor bug fixes are the only changes to the code you may carry out after that date. You need to turn to working on the evaluation of your work, as well as producing your report and screencast, which are due for submission on Monday 28th April 2025 (the Monday immediately after the Easter break). We have seen an escalation in the use of generative AI tools (ChatGPT etc) in work submitted by students. University guidelines on the use of such tools can be found here. Please note that presenting work generated by such systems without suitable acknowledgement is plagiarism and you risk disciplinary action being taken. Be careful how you use such tools!

EXAM RESULTS.

We hope to publish the first semester exam results at 11am on Tuesday 4th March 2025. All marks are provisional at this stage until the end of year exam board is held in June. If you have any questions about your results you should speak to your academic advisor, who you should be meeting anyway over the next couple of weeks. You can also speak to a member of our Student Support and Wellbeing Team, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, in confidence, about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. You can contact Maria and Ben by email, or you can also drop into the student hub in the Nancy Rothwell Building (1st floor) and speak to someone face-to-face if you like.

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

Duncan Hull writes: Making your applications mobile with JLR.com guest lecture. Join us on Monday 3rd March at 4pm to discover more about making your applications mobile. We'll be joined by Akshit Nahata who'll be talking about building high-quality and bug-free applications to increase user engagement at JLR.com. Find out more about Akshit at linkedin.com/in/akshit-nahata. This is a guest lecture for COMP101, but all students are welcome. Simon building, Theatre E, Monday 3rd March at 4pm

LEARNING TIPS - EXAM RESULTS.

The exam results from semester 1 are released this week, and every year we get asked the same questions from students: “I’ve failed a course unit, does that mean I’ve failed my degree?”, “Does a pass mark of 40% apply to the coursework and exam components?”, “Do I need to resit the course unit?” etc. Hopefully, we will try and clear up some of the misunderstanding.

First, what is a pass mark? The pass mark for a course unit is an overall mark of 40%. There’s no requirement to pass individual assessment components, such as the exam or coursework at 40%, just to achieve an overall mark of 40% or greater. What if I fail a course unit? If you fail a course unit (i.e. get a mark under 40%) then the options available depend on what year you are in. In the 1st/2nd year we have what are referred to as compensated fails, this means that a course unit mark of 30 - 39.9% can be compensated to a pass, up to a maximum of 40 credits (you must pass the other 80 credits). Any course unit with an overall mark less than 30% you must resit. In the 3rd/4th year we have what is referred to as special compensation, which means that an overall mark less than 40% can be compensated to a pass, for a maximum of 40 credits without this impacting your degree classification (well, apart from the impact of the low marks); you must pass the other 80 credits. You can find out more in the University Guide for Taught Degree Regulations. Please note that the two introductory programming units COMP16321 and COMP16412 cannot be compensated and require a mark of 40 for students to progress to the 2nd year. If you are on a Computer Science and Mathematics (CM) programme then you also have to achieve a pass mark in MATH11121 and MATH11022 to progress the the 2nd year.

If you are on a single honours degree programme (that’s anything other than CM) then you are on a degree programme that is accredited by the BCS (you can find out more information about what this means in the undergraduate handbook) and the amount of credits that can be compensated changes (just to make things easier!). In this case, over the course of your studies you can only have 30 credits compensated. If, at any point in your degree, you have more than 30 credits compensated then you move on to an unaccredited degree programme. What’s an unaccredited degree programme? Well, it’s exactly the same as the accredited programme, same content, same assessments etc but it follows the University compensation rules. As a consequence of the additional rules imposed by accreditation, if you have a mark of 30 - 39.9% in a course unit, then we will recommended you resit it so that you minimise the amount of compensation credits you use up (particularly in the 1st and 2nd year). This means that one of the following will apply to each student in 1st and 2nd years:

You have achieved a mark of at least 40% for all units: You progress to the next year.
You have achieved a mark of 40% or more in a minimum of 80 credits, but you have achieved a mark in the range 30% - 39.9% in the remaining credits:
- If you are on an unaccredited degree, you progress.
- If you are on an accredited degree, we invite you to resit all units with a mark below 40%. You don't have to resit those units in order to progress, but if you have accumulated more than 30 credits of compensated fails (over Years 1 and 2), you are moved to an unaccredited version of your degree programme.
You have some marks below 30%: You have to resit the units in question in order to progress.

In the case of a student in the 3rd year and on an accredited degree programme (not a CM programme) then if you achieve less than 40% in more than 30 credits (or you already have compensation applied in previous years, which means you have more than 30 credits), then we will invite you to resit these course unit to stay on the accredited degree. If you fail to do so, but you still meet the University graduation rules, then you will graduate, but with an unaccredited degree. Please note that resits in the 3rd year are ONLY available as a means to gain credits to graduate with an accredited degree.

Of course we only have marks for Semester 1, and decisions regarding any resits will not be made until we have results for the whole year. When it comes to determining your overall degree average, and hence classification, your marks from 2nd/3rd years (and 4th year if you're on the MEng degree) contribute to your overall average mark. We will look at degree classifications another time.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: Library help with LinkedIn Learning. Don’t forget your free access to LinkedIn Learning! The Library has created Getting Started with LinkedIn Learning to help you find resources to complement your studies, enhance your digital capabilities and help you acquire new skills. Read more here.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

The Undergraduate Handbook is your one-stop resource for all information related to your studies. It contains information about your degree programmes, details on progression, how to change programmes or interrupt your studies, information on student support etc. The handbook also has information related to how to apply for mitigating circumstances if your learning has been affected by issues out of your control, such as an illness. You can always find the link to the handbook (as well as other useful links) at the top of each Monday Mail in the 'Essential Links' banner.

GITLAB DOWNTIME WARNING.

On Wednesday 5 March the Department of Computer Science GitLab system will be taken offline to perform essential maintenance and upgrades. Work on the system will start at 14:00 and may take until 18:00, although we will attempt to minimise the time that GitLab is unavailable. A notice banner is currently shown on GitLab pages as a reminder for this work, and it will be removed when the work on the server is completed and tests indicate GitLab is operating normally. While GitLab is offline you will be able to continue to work locally in any currently cloned git repositories, including adding commits. However, attempts to interact with the GitLab server (via `git push`, `git pull`, `git fetch` and so on) will fail.

UNICS GAMEDEV WORKSHOPS ARE BACK!

Our weekly GameDev workshops are back for Semester Two! This semester our focus is getting you GameJam ready. Our GameDev Lead Adam will be building a project in front of your eyes, taking you through his thought process, plan creation and execution.

As well as this, we are also running a raffle throughout these workshops! The more sessions you attend, the more entries you will get, with the final draw happening at the GameJam opening ceremony. These sessions are running every Wednesday 3PM-4PM in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3, so if you have any interest in games or game development, don't miss out!

MANAGING MY FUTURE EVENT.

On Wednesday March 5th, 2-4pm, the Careers Service will be running Managing My Future, a flagship event for all Year 2 Computer Science students, to get you ready for the internship and placement applications you may wish to make this year (and graduate applications in the future!). The Careers Service, with support from employers and alumni will guide you through two practical exercises. The first focuses on CVs and the second a typical (and hopefully fun) group task.

Through the session you will:

Increase confidence in understanding what a ‘good’ (and bad!) CV looks like
Increase your knowledge of the labour market by way of engaging with employers and alumni
Increase confidence in graduate attributes including communication, problem solving, collaboration and negotiation.

Location: Simon 3.40, 3.44A, 3.44B. You can find more information on CareerConnect.

DATA SCIENCE AND AI SOCIETY:

Are you ready to start your coding journey and take the first step into the world of Machine Learning? Join us for “Intro to Python”, the first workshop in the GirlsWhoML series, where you'll learn the fundamentals of coding in a fun and beginner-friendly environment! No prior experience needed! Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 5th of March
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 PM
Venue: Kilburn Building, Theatre 1.1

What to expect?

Python Basics & Logic – Understand variables, operators, and logical expressions to build a solid foundation.
Loops, Functions & More – Dive into key programming concepts like loops, functions, and libraries to enhance your skills.
Working with Data – Get introduced to data structures and slicing to prepare for real-world applications.
Hands-on Learning – Code along with us and start building your own projects!
This is a beginner-friendly workshop! Everyone is welcome, no matter your level of experience.

Register now by clicking on this link or by scanning the QR code in the banner! We can’t wait to see you there! – the MUDS AI Team.

STAFF-STUDENT PROGRAMMING COMPETITION.

Ian Pratt-Hartmann writes: Staff and students in the School of Computer Science are cordially invited to take part in the Staff-student programming competition, which will take place on Wednesday, 12th March, 2025, 14:00–16:00 (Results and explanation 16:00–17:00), Colabs 1+2, Kilburn Building Lower First Floor. The competition is open to staff and students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in Computer Science. Teams will consist of an integral number of persons between 1 and 3 inclusive, exactly one of whom will be designated the team captain. All teams are classified as either Staff or Student teams. Staff teams must have at least one member of staff (including RAs, but excluding PhD students) and must otherwise consist entirely of staff (including RAs) and PhD students. Student teams must consist entirely of students (graduate or undergraduate). No person may be in more than one team.

The Contest will be hosted on the Kattis system, and will feature a mix of problems of different difficulties. Newcomers to competitive programming are particularly welcome: you can get an idea of what the problems are like by logging on to Kattis and trying some. I suggest you cut your teeth on the "easy" (i.e. completely trivial) problems first: that will help you sort out reading input and writing output. Then you can try something more ambitious. To participate, complete this form by the deadline of 14:00 this Wednesday (5th March 2025). All team members must have a Kattis account by this deadline. You will receive an invitation to join the contest by 10th March, 2025, which you should accept as soon as possible (certainly before the contest begins). Problems will be visible at the start of the competition. Teams will try to solve as many as they can. Contestants may use any of the supported languages. One desktop machine (with ordinary University logins) will be available for each team. Space is limited, and teams will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to a reasonable balance of staff and students. If you have queries, you may contact me.

MIMUC 2025.

MIMUC PUBLIC LECTURE.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

Suzanne Embury writes: This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Monday, 3 March 2025, 12.00pm-1.00pm in Room G8 (Hyflex Room), Booth Street East Building. We'll be working on NMRInversions, a tool to perform numerical inversions for NMR spectroscopy experiments, implemented in Julia, and we'll be joined by the code base owner, Aris Mavridis, a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Existing and new members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Knowledge of Julia is not required - we're all figuring it out together as we work on the code base. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, carry out exploratory testing, spruce up the code base and build a public record of contributions. Software engineers from the University's research software engineering team will provide support.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

On 5th March 2025, 14:00 - 16:00, Dr Gunes Acar will present a seminar titled “Targeted and Troublesome: Tracking and Advertising on Children’s Websites”. Children’s websites are filled with trackers and inappropriate ads, exposing kids to privacy risks and disturbing content. Join us as we reveal the first large-scale analysis of these threats and discuss urgent actions needed to protect young users online. Sign up here.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

On 6th March 2025, 14:00 - 16:00, Prof Cristian Vaccari will present the Digital Trust and Security Seminar. Explore with Prof Cristian Vaccari how trusted sources like BBC News influence truth and disinformation on personal messaging. Discover the powerful role of source credibility in shaping beliefs and shares, and how it can become a double-edged sword. Register now.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

MASTERS EXPO.

Meet experts: chat with our distinguished academics and uncover what makes our master’s courses unique.
Gain valuable insights: connect with current students and learn how they made the most of their Manchester experience.
Unlock your potential: explore how a master’s degree can advance your career, enhance your earning potential, and help you make an impact in your field.
Explore campus: take a student-led tour of campus, running every 30 minutes from the Whitworth Building archway between 2.30–5pm.

You can find out more info by scanning the QR code below, or follow this link. The link also contains a link to register for the event.

BE A STUDENT AMBASSADOR.

Applications are now open for Student Ambassadors for the 2025/26 academic year. The role of Student Ambassador is essential in helping the Department attract new students, as you become the face of the Department for prospective students. The types of activities Student Ambassadors are involved in include:

Supporting virtual or on-campus events such as Open Days, Visit Days, or Offer Holder Days
Creating student-led content for social media
Take part in recruitment video projects
Becoming a mentor or Unibuddy

If you are interested in becoming a Student Ambassador then please complete this application form by the deadline of Wednesday 5th March. There are many benefits to being a Student Ambassador, not least it looks good on your CV. Quoting an existing Student Ambassador: “Being a student ambassador has been a rewarding experience, allowing me to support prospective students while improving my confidence and communication skills.” Omar Badawi (Y4, AI4).

GOOGLE DEEPMIND RESEARCH READY SUMMER INTERNSHIPS.

PURPLEWAVE.

Spring Dash 2025: Join us for a fun-filled 2.5k and 5k run this spring. It’s the perfect chance to make new friends and become part of our Purple Wave community. Sign up here.
Great Manchester Run 2025: Be part of the main event on Sunday, 18th May. Whether you’re a seasoned runner or just starting out, this 10K run is for everyone. Tickets are available for University of Manchester students and staff at a discounted rate of £20. Plus, you can make your run even more meaningful by fundraising for one of our chosen causes. Sign up here.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 5th March, the department seminar will be presented by Dr. Michele Caprio, 13:00 – 14:00, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is “Imprecise Probabilistic Machine Learning - Being Precise about Imprecision”. Abstract: In this talk, I will introduce myself to my new colleagues. After that, I will (briefly) talk about the history of Imprecise Probabilities (IPs) — my main research area — from their inception in Philosophy, to their later adoption in Statistics and other sciences. I'll make the case for why IPs are useful and indeed needed in (Probabilistic) Machine Learning methodology and theory. If time allows it, I will conclude with a recent result in Imprecise Probabilistic Machine Learning theory concerning the ergodic behaviour of Imprecise Markov Semigroups. Such a result allows us to study the long-term behaviour of smooth input transitions for Convolutional Autoencoders, in the presence of uncertainty and ambiguity.

Bio: Michele is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Machine Learning at The University of Manchester. He obtained his PhD in Statistics from Duke University and worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Computer and Information Science of the University of Pennsylvania. His general interest is probabilistic machine learning, and in particular the use of imprecise probabilistic techniques to investigate the theory and methodology of uncertainty quantification in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Recently, he won the IJAR Young Researcher and the IMS New Researcher Awards, and he was elected member of the London Mathematical Society.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 12th March 2024, the departmental seminar will be presented by Prof. Kurt Debattista, University of Warwick, 13:00 - 14:00, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is "Applied Perception in Visual Computing”. Abstract: Computer graphics, image processing and visual computing in general are deeply intertwined with human vision. This talk will present how applied perception principles can be used to enhance visual fidelity and efficiency. This will be demonstrated by examples from projects in computer graphics, high dynamic range imaging with applications in various domains. In particular a framework of how to identify the best parameters to adopt in virtual environments will be presented.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 19th March 2024, the departmental seminar will be presented by Dr. Marie Farrell, 13:00 - 14:00, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is "Adventures in FRET, Specification and Verification". Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of our work using NASA’s Formal Requirement Elicitation Tool (FRET) to formalise requirements. I will discuss how we specified and verified requirements for case studies including autonomous robotic navigation, autonomous robotic grasping, a mechanical lung ventilator and an aircraft engine software controller. I will also describe our ongoing probabilistic and refactoring extensions to FRET, as well as requirement pattern catalogs that we have developed for robotic systems.

COMMUTER STUDENT SPACE.

Do you commute to uni? Check out our Commuter Student Space. Commuting to campus just got easier! The University’s brand-new Commuter Student Space at Booth Street East Building is now open and ready to welcome you. The Commuter Student Space is a space created specifically for commuting students, it’s perfect for relaxing or catching up on work between lectures.

Comfortable lounge seating for unwinding
Study pods and quiet zones for focused work
Kitchen facilities for meal prep and refreshments
Lockers and drying room for convenience
Multi-faith prayer spaces for reflection
Shower facility to freshen up

Open Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, the Commuter Student Space provides the flexibility to fit your schedule. Whether you’re between lectures, need a space to refresh or recharge, the space is here for you. Visit us on the 4th floor of Booth Street East Building and make the most of this new facility! For directions, check the map on our website or follow the signs on campus.

FAST-TRACK TO MASTER’S STUDY.

ALUMNI LOYALTY DISCOUNT.

COOKING LESSON.

Something different this week. Do you fancy watching a live cooking demonstration from an award winning chef, well you can! You’re invited to Cooking@Manchester, with award-winning chef and author, Great Manchester’s Simon Wood on 5 March at 3.30pm. This event will teach you to master the art of batch cooking by making a basic ragu. Tickets are free but limited, so sign up now!

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Deviant Arrow by Aad van de Wetering:

Normal sudoku rules apply. Cells separated by a single knight's move (in chess) cannot contain the same digit. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow's circle.

Chess Puzzle - Andruet Vs. Spassky, 1988

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 5 • Monday 24 February 2025 • #24.20

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 24th February 2025 and it’s week 5. We are well into semester 2 now and the deadline for stopping coding on the 3rd year project is just under 3 weeks away (Friday 14th March). Crikey, where has the time gone!

The department is advertising for Student Ambassadors for 2025, so if you are interested in applying then please do so before the deadline of the 5th March 2025 (see below). The department is running its annual staff-student programming competition on Wednesday 12th March, so please consider putting a team together, particularly if you want to have a go at beating the staff teams in the competition! Finally, if you are graduating this year, then please do not forget to complete the NSS (more below). It doesn’t take long to complete and the sooner you do so the less chance you will be pestered to complete it.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

We’re almost halfway through the semester now! Hopefully you’ve all settled in okay and have some idea of what’s going well this time (as well as what isn’t)! Our next SVC meeting is next week on Wednesday 5th March. So please make sure to submit any feedback or suggestions you can think of! Is there anything that would help you to feel happier on your course? Are there any barriers to your learning that could be fixed? Let us know and we’ll do our best to improve your experience! You can provide feedback by clicking this link, scanning the QR code, or our new physical suggestions box (near LF31 in Kilburn)!

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

Last year over £12,000 was donated from survey completions. In addition, every student who takes part in the NSS 2025 can enter into a prize draw to win one of 20 prizes:

6x Graduation Day Packages
1x iPad Air
1x £200 voucher (choice of: Uber, Deliveroo, LovetoShop)
2x £100 voucher
4x £50 voucher
6x £25 voucher

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello! This is the final call to sign up to become a PASS1 leader for the next academic term. Or use this form if you would like to become a PASS1 coordinator. These roles can count up to your Stellify award, and will look great on your CV. It might also give you the opportunity to participate in the Advanced HEA program. Anyone can take these roles. If you would like to learn more, please contact us! PASS1 sessions are on as usual in your designated rooms. We hope to see you around!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hi everyone; we hope you're all alright! PASS3 sessions will be running as usual at 15:00 this Friday in Collab 1. We are working on getting some drinks for future PASS sessions as well as more events which are coming up. As always, if there's anything you want to cover in a session, please let us know!

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

EXAM RESULTS AND SUPPORT.

The department is hoping to release the semester 1 exam marks next week (w/c 3rd March). You will be given the opportunity to discuss your semester 1 performance with your academic advisor during weeks 6 and 7. You should use these meetings as an opportunity to discuss any concerns about your results, maybe asking for advice on your approach to revision etc. Whilst it’s too late to report any mitigating circumstances from semester 1, as the deadline has now passed, you can still speak to a member of our Student Support and Wellbeing Team, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, in confidence, about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. You can contact Maria and Ben by email, or you can also drop into the student hub in the Nancy Rothwell Building (1st floor) and speak to someone face-to-face if you like.

WHO IS YOUR ACADEMIC ADVISOR?

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - MINDFULNESS.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: Last Friday afternoon I tried out the Mindfulness Meditation session hosted by the counselling and mental health service. It runs every Friday at 1pm in the 1st floor wellbeing room in the Simon Building. The aim of the session is to learn the skill of being able to mindfully disengage from negative thoughts, and be able to recognise when we are becoming agitated and anxious. We can then stay in touch with the present moment without worrying about what has or might happen.

There were about 20 people in attendance but apparently there are usually fewer than that. The session was hosted by a member of the counselling team, she let us in and we all grabbed a beanbag each and got comfortable in a space on the floor before the session started. Top tip, grab two bags for extra comfort! The session lasted 50 minutes as we were guided through the process. I had my reservations about it all but wanted to give it a try. The Idea is to control your breathing and focus on different parts of your body and then if your mind wanders onto any worries, to acknowledge it, let it go, and return to your focus point.

I found the process somewhat abstract. There's only a certain amount of time I can spend thinking about my feet before my mind wanders, but apparently that's the point. It's not about my feet or my ears at all and all about being able to acknowledge that your mind is moving towards a concern you have and then letting it go to focus on the here and now. I must admit I had to pull myself back from the brink of sleep a couple of times.

I found the experience useful and one I want to do again. I would recommend giving the session a try if you find you spend lots of time concentrating on negative thoughts and anxieties. You can book onto this and other sessions organised by the counselling team here. Staff and Students can also access the Headspace app for free so you can meditate at a time and place that suits you.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - COST OF LIVING SUPPORT FUND.

The University is committed to supporting students facing unexpected financial difficulties through the Cost of Living Support Fund. Funded by generous donations from alumni and friends, this non-repayable support is designed to ensure that no student is left struggling. The Cost of Living Support Fund offers financial assistance to students who find themselves unexpectedly struggling with essential living expenses such as food, utility bills, or other financial challenges. Importantly, the fund is available year-round and aims to provide timely support to those in need. The fund cannot be used as a means to finance your studies. Be sure to explore other potential funding options via the University’s resources before applying.

What Can We Support? We can assist with essential living costs like rent, utility bills, food, and travel expenses related to your studies. However, we cannot provide funding for laptops, desktops, or tablets. The fund is meant to help those experiencing unforeseen circumstances, so it’s important that you start your studies with adequate funding for your tuition fees and living costs.
How to Apply? The application process typically takes around 30 minutes. You’ll need to submit supporting documents to help us assess your situation. Be sure to review the document checklist and have everything ready before starting the application.
You can download the application form here, and we recommend using your student ID to password-protect any documents you submit. Please note that the current assessment time is around three weeks after receiving all necessary documents.

If you’re facing financial hardship, don’t hesitate to apply and get the support you need to focus on your studies.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, LF Area.

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

Duncan Hull writes: In this week's COMP101 lecture we've got guests from the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) talking about what they offer first year students to help them develop their entrepreneurial skills and knowledge including:

Get Freelancing
Ready, Set, Pitch
Venture Further
Venture Out
Startup Weekend

In addition, Ian Pratt-Hartmann will be talking about the upcoming Staff-Student programming competition and how students can get involved. All welcome, not just first year students, Simon Building, Theatre E, 4-5pm Monday 24th Feb.

LEARNING TIPS - WHAT’S MARKING FOR?

You’ve devoted a lot of time and effort to completing an assignment and you submit it by the deadline. You are confident you’ve done well and you are waiting in anticipation to see what mark you will get for the work. What’s the purpose of marking? Well, marking serves two key purposes. First, it gives a measure of how the work you submitted meets the criteria used to evaluate it - this is summarised in the “mark” awarded. The second purpose, and the one you could argue is the most important, is the feedback we provide on your work. Why is feedback so important? Well, it explains how your work met the marking criteria and how it can be improved.

Students often believe that marking is performed by taking a “perfect” mark, i.e. 100%, and then looking for reasons to knock marks off. However, this isn’t the case. When marking, the marker will be looking at how your work satisfies a defined set of marking criteria. Each of these criteria will have descriptions of levels of achievement against them. So, the process of marking involves comparing your work against each of the criteria and judging how well it fits the levels of achievements, with marks awarded accordingly. Often, marking is performed against a rubric to help maintain consistency and fairness, in this case the rubric acts as a source of feedback and helps you to understand to what level your work has met the marking criteria. In some cases, automated approaches will be used to evaluate assessments, in which case the “marking” is consistent across all students, minimising any risk of bias in the marking process, or variation across markers.

Whilst work can be marked out of 100%, it’s important to recognise that it can be very difficult to achieve high marks. What we won’t do is provide a tick list of things you need to do/achieve to achieve full marks - as this will stifle your ability to think independently to evaluate your own work. Indeed, marking schemes are often designed in such a way to measure your ability to think out of the box, and think beyond the bounds of the course material and apply their knowledge in a higher way. Hence, only awarding top marks to those students who have performed exceptionally well. If an assessment results in everyone achieving 100% then it’s poorly designed, as it is unable to distinguish between different levels of ability. Whilst you may not have achieved 100% in a piece of work, this doesn’t mean you should be disappointed.

Our aim is to help you move towards fitting into a professional environment, and criteria for evaluating a piece of work in that context. Our marking criteria will therefore not merely look at whether you have carried out each task, or whether you have implemented each feature asked for, but how good your solution is. You can code a functional solution, but do you consider the “quality” of your code? By providing you with feedback, we help you to better understand how a piece of work may be evaluated. We encourage you to look at the teaching materials provided that give you ideas of what qualities are desirable in a solution. Personally, I don’t like using the term “marking” when it comes to assessing coursework, instead I think it’s much better to refer to it as a process of evaluation of your work, as the process is not just about creating a mark.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: Library Order a Book, Order a Chapter and Order an Article service. If you need resources that the Library doesn’t currently hold, let us help! You can order a book, chapter, article or streamed video via the Library website. The service is free, quick and easy to use.

LINKEDIN LEARNING.

LinkedIn Learning, which provides an extensive library of expert-led, on-line courses, is now available through the library. The online platform allows you to take eLearning courses to help your current studies or build skills for your future career. It has a huge library of online courses on topics like coding, design, business, and personal development and so much more. It is more than a basic learning portal. It devises a learning path tailored to your career goals and then organises courses in a sequence that builds your skills from foundational to advanced levels. Your learning path will be based on industry needs and job market demands. The goal is to help you grow and adapt for success in today’s evolving job market. You can find out more information, including how to access the resources here.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

USE OF AI IN YOUR STUDIES.

The University has released new guidelines to help you use and develop AI responsibly. These guidelines were created by the University AI Strategy Group. AI technology is now readily available for anyone to use so it’s important for us to consider how AI can enhance our teaching, learning, research, and processes while ensuring its responsible and ethical use. These guidelines aim to help both you and the University embrace AI effectively and safely. The guidelines focus on five core principles:

Transparency
Accountability
Competence
Responsibility
Respect

Applying these principles

Choosing the right AI tool: There are many AI tools available for students, but the University offers a licensed version of Microsoft Copilot that ensures data privacy. It’s important to use this tool to prevent any inappropriate disclosure of information.
Enhancing your learning experience: AI tools can significantly enhance your learning, inclusivity, and accessibility. However, remember to treat the outcomes from these tools like work from another person. Use it critically, make sure it’s licensed, cite it properly, and always acknowledge it. The guidelines cover various aspects such as course unit variation, plagiarism, proofreading, detecting malpractice, and providing access and choice.
Boosting your research: AI can be a powerful tool for research and innovation when used alongside our guiding principles. The guidelines address the use of AI in data handling, publication, reviewing, chatbots, and research conducted by students.

We’re keen to hear your views. If you have any questions or feedback, please get in touch via ai.review@manchester.ac.uk.

STAFF-STUDENT PROGRAMMING COMPETITION.

The competition is open to staff and students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in Computer Science. Teams will consist of an integral number of persons between 1 and 3 inclusive, exactly one of whom will be designated the team captain. All teams are classified as either Staff or Student teams. Staff teams must have at least one member of staff (including RAs, but excluding PhD students) and must otherwise consist entirely of staff (including RAs) and PhD students. Student teams must consist entirely of students (graduate or undergraduate). No person may be in more than one team.

To participate, complete this form by the deadline of 14:00, Wednesday 5th March 2025. All team members must have a Kattis account by this deadline. You will receive an invitation to join the contest by 10th March, 2025, which you should accept as soon as possible (certainly before the contest begins). Problems will be visible at the start of the competition. Teams will try to solve as many as they can. Contestants may use any of the supported languages. One desktop machine (with ordinary University logins) will be available for each team. Space is limited, and teams will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to a reasonable balance of staff and students. If you have queries, you may contact me.

GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUP.

Welcome to Week 2 of our Data Structures and Algorithms series! This semester, we're running weekly workshops designed to boost your technical interview skills for a career in tech. We are covering fundamental concepts that are crucial not only for coding interviews but also for tackling complex challenges in the tech industry. The second session in the Data Structures and Algorithms series will be focused on Arrays. Still unsure about attending? If you attend every workshop in a theme, you will earn an official GDG Certificate to display on your LinkedIn! See you there!

Workshop Date and Time: Wednesday 26th February, 15:00-16:00
Location: Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.5

MUDS ALGO-TRADING WORKSHOP 2:

ADVANCED ML & DEEP LEARNING IN TRADING! Hello Everyone. We’re back with the second session in our Machine Learning in Finance workshop series! This time, we’re diving deeper into Advanced Machine Learning & Deep Learning in Algorithmic Trading, exploring how cutting-edge techniques can enhance trading strategies. Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 26th of February
Time: 3:00 - 5:00pm
Venue: Kilburn Theatre 1.1

What You’ll Learn:

Implement momentum, mean reversion, and statistical arbitrage strategies
Use Random Forests, SVMs, and LSTMs to improve predictive accuracy
Apply CNNs for chart pattern recognition and Transformers (BERT) for sentiment analysis
Backtest strategies using Backtrader and evaluate performance with key metrics (Sharpe Ratio, Drawdown, Win Rate)
Hands-on coding and Python-based strategy optimization

Who Should Attend: This workshop is ideal for students with some Python experience who are interested in trading, financial modeling, and machine learning-driven strategies.

Don't miss this opportunity to explore how machine learning is shaping the future of trading! Register Here. See you there! The MUDS Committee

DARREN HUYTON SPORTS DAY.

This Friday, 28th February 2025, between 12:00 - 16:00, the School of Engineering Information, Advice and Guidance Team will be hosting “The Darren Huyton Sports Day” in collaboration with UoM Sport. Throughout the day, there will be opportunities to play football, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, pickleball, and badminton, as well as take part in old-school sports day activities such as the egg and spoon race and three-legged race! Whether you're an expert or have never played before, the day is all about having fun, keeping fit, and representing your Discipline! You’re welcome to join in for as much or as little as you’d like – or even just come along to watch! All activities will take place at the Sugden Sports Centre. The namesake of this Sports Day, Darren Huyton, worked for the University of Manchester for over 15 years before he sadly passed away suddenly in 2022. We are proud to continue hosting the Darren Huyton Sports Day in his honour. If you are interested in taking part then please sign up here. We look forward to seeing you there!

MIMUC 2025.

Registration is now OPEN for the Manchester Interdisciplinary Mathematics Undergraduate Conference (MIMUC)! The 4th MIMUC undergraduate conference will be held on 19th and 20th 20 March 2025, in the Alan Turing Building and the Nancy Rothwell Building. The conference is open to any taught student in any faculty with an interest in mathematics. Note: there is no expectation to attend for the full two days - you can pop in and out between classes to attend different talks. Key events at the conference include mathematical talks by students and guest speakers, an academic panel to discuss pathways in research, free pizza, and a lecture by leading public communicator of mathematics Dr Katie Steckles (see below). For further details, visit the conference website or contact us directly at mimuc.organisers@manchester.ac.uk. We are also seeking student volunteers to help run the conference in advance and on the day - email to express interest!

MIMUC PUBLIC LECTURE.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 26th February, the department seminar will be presented by Dr. Jason Hartford, 13:00 – 13:50, in Kilburn_TH 1.3. The title of the talk is “Predict the predictable, measure the rest: active learning for efficient biological experiments”. Abstract: Dr. Hartford will discuss how active learning can be used to build hybrid experimental systems that combine predictive modelling with targeted experimentation in large scale experimental settings with high dimensional action and outcome spaces. By learning when to trust model predictions and when to acquire new measurements, we reduce experimental cost while ensuring we collect data where it is most informative. He will illustrate this idea through two applications: efficiently screening compounds in drug discovery and detecting pairwise interactions between biological perturbations. In each setting, active learning guides us to sample the most uncertain or challenging experimental designs. This approach not only limits the overall number of experiments but also uncovers deeper insights into the underlying phenomena. The talk will focus on two recent papers, https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.19631 and https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.07594.

Bio: Dr. Jason Hartford is a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellow in Computer Science at the University of Manchester and holds a joint appointment as a Research Unit Lead and Staff Research Scientist at Valence Labs. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Yoshua Bengio at Université de Montréal / Mila, and before joining Mila, he completed his PhD at the University of British Columbia with Kevin Leyton-Brown. He works on developing techniques for causal inference from high dimensional / unstructured data and active learning.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, there will be a university-wide International women’s day celebration 2025. This celebration will be held at 1-3 pm on 4th March at Blended lecturer G.056 at Nancy Rothwell building. Refreshments will be provided. All staff and students of all genders are welcome! The event will be chaired by Women@Manchester Network Co-Chairs, Dr Lin Ma and Emma Shiels. Speakers and panel members include Professor Duncan Ivison (President and Vice-Chancellor), Professor Rachel Cowen (University Academic Lead for Equality Diversity and Inclusion: Gender and Sexual Orientation), Professor Jackie Carter (University EDI Academic Lead for Disability), Professor Dawn Edge (University Academic Lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion), Dr Reem Swidah (winner of the L'Oréal UNESCO Award for Women in Science), Aisha Akram (Student Union officer), and Molly Lacey (W@M representative). Book your tickets here. You can find more information on the women@manchester staff network, or join our teams space here. Future events include:

The next social and wellbeing session: Walk for Women, collaborated with Manchester City Council Annual Event, 12 noon, 8th March
The next women in leadership session: Global reflections on senior women in leadership, by Professor Olive Mugenda (Former Chair of Board, Kenyatta University) and Professor Colette Fagan (Vice-President for Research and Internationalisation, University of Manchester), 21st March.

BE A STUDENT AMBASSADOR.

Supporting virtual or on-campus events such as Open Days, Visit Days, or Offer Holder Days
Creating student-led content for social media
Take part in recruitment video projects
Becoming a mentor or Unibuddy

PURPLEWAVE.

Spring Dash 2025: Join us for a fun-filled 2.5k and 5k run this spring. It’s the perfect chance to make new friends and become part of our Purple Wave community. Sign up here.
Great Manchester Run 2025: Be part of the main event on Sunday, 18th May. Whether you’re a seasoned runner or just starting out, this 10K run is for everyone. Tickets are available for University of Manchester students and staff at a discounted rate of £20. Plus, you can make your run even more meaningful by fundraising for one of our chosen causes. Sign up here.

AMD OPEN HARDWARE DESIGN COMPETITION.

The AMD Open Hardware design competition is an annual design competition that gives students the opportunity to showcase their technical and creative skills with adaptive compute technology. Registration for the 2025 edition of the AMD Open Hardware University design competition is now open.

Global competition: New for 2025 - Open Hardware is now global! Participants from all around the world are welcome to participate.
Tracks: Adaptive Computing: Explore the power of FPGAs, Zynq, Zynq Ultrascale+, RFSoC and Versal and coming soon Accelerated Computing: Unleash the potential of AMD ROCm supported Ryzen AI, and Radeon/Instinct GPUs

Enter individually or in teams of up to five people. Register by 31 March 2025, submit your entry by 31 August 2025. Full details can be found on the competition website along with a video gallery of previous entries and winning projects.

SAY GOODBYE TO BLACKBOARD.

From September, the University will no longer be using Blackboard as our digital learning environment. Instead, the University will be moving to Canvas by Infrastructure. The change has been made as a result of student feedback, which has told us that Blackboard feels clunky and outdated. Canvas brings:

An intuitive, user-friendly platform designed with students at its core.
Great basic functionality and a smoother performance meaning you can focus on what matters.
To join a global community of Canvas users from world-class universities.
A digital learning environment where developments are continuously identified to improve and futureproof the platform.

COOKING LESSON.

Something different! Do you fancy watching a live cooking demonstration from an award winning chef, well you can! You’re invited to Cooking@Manchester, with award-winning chef and author, Great Manchester’s Simon Wood on 5th March at 3.30pm. This event will teach you to master the art of batch cooking by making a basic ragu. Tickets are free but limited, so sign up now!

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Whispers in the mist by pdyxs

Normal sudoku rules apply. The grid is covered in fog. Once the puzzle is completed, any unshaded cells will be revealed, and shaded cells will still be covered in fog. All shaded cells are orthogonally connected, all unshaded cells are orthogonally connected and no 2x2 region is entirely shaded or entirely unshaded. Entering a correct digit in an unshaded cell will clear the fog:* in that cell; * in seen cells - any unshaded cells that can be seen from that cell in an orthogonal direction (with shaded cells blocking vision); and * around corners - any unshaded cells that are orthogonally connected to a seen cell. Any two orthogonally connected unshaded cells must have a difference of at least 5. A white dot separates digits which are consecutive. White digits are given, but have not been entered into the grid.

Chess Puzzle - Blübaum Vs. Niemann, 2025

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 4 • Monday 17 February 2025 • #24.19

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 17th February 2025 and week 4 of semester 2. I hope everything is going well and the semester has now settled down! We are running a mid-semester survey this week, so please provide us with feedback on how things have been going so far this semester. We really do appreciate your feedback!

If you are interested in applying for one of the School of Engineering summer internships, then the deadline is this coming Sunday (see below). Please consider applying if you are a second year (or 3rd year MEng) student.
Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

If you have any feedback or suggestions, our next SVC meeting is on 5th March. We also have a brand-new physical suggestions box that you can find on the lower first floor of the Kilburn building, next to the SVC noticeboard (near LF31) where you can also find a list of your academic reps and minutes of meetings. If you have any concerns or suggestions, you can put them in the box. You can also fill out the suggestions form by clicking the link or scanning the QR code below. Please be sure to have a think, as your feedback will be discussed at our next meeting!

MID-SEMESTER SURVEYS.

The mid-semester survey is open from today until midnight Sunday 23rd February. Please take this opportunity to provide feedback on how things are going this semester so far. The University values feedback from students and we have already made changes following your feedback last semester. The survey has four simple questions for you to answer. Please note that the survey is open to all students apart from those who are graduating, who can provide feedback via NSS (see below).

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

Last year over £12,000 was donated from survey completions. In addition, every student who takes part in the NSS 2023 can enter into a prize draw to win one of 20 prizes:

6x Graduation Day Packages
1x iPad Air
1x £200 voucher (choice of: Uber, Deliveroo, LovetoShop)
2x £100 voucher
4x £50 voucher
6x £25 voucher

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello! We hope semester 2 is treating you well so far! Please scan the QR code or use this link to sign up to become a PASS1 leader for the next academic term. We have limited capacity for this role, so ensure to act fast :) You could become a PASS1 leader regardless of which year you are in. If you are interested in becoming a PASS1 coordinator, please get in touch with any one of us (PASS1 coordinators) and we will let you know of the next steps. The vacancies for this role are extremely limited, and we will give priority to students who are actively attending PASS. We hope to run a fun and useful event with a friendly competition and possibly pizza after the career fair last week. Please keep an eye out for this!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone, We hope you enjoyed our Careers Panel last week. This week, we'll be going over 3rd Year Projects, including selection and plenty of tips and tricks. As always, we'll be in IT407 from 12-1pm on Thursday. Hope to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hi all! Thanks to everyone who came with us to the Digital Skills Festival Talent Day careers fair last week. It was very well attended and seemed like a very nice event (even if Amazon wasn't there in the end) so we hope you found it useful - please let us know if you did (or didn't)! As usual, PASS3 will be happening in Collab 1 from 15:00 on Friday; hope to see you there.

UK CYBER LEADERS CHALLENGE SUCCESS.

Prof Danny Dresner writes: Imagine you're faced with cyber goings on that seriously threaten national security and have to brief government policy makers on what's going on and what action to take. That's what the three University of Manchester Teams had to do to take part in the ongoing UK Cyber Leaders' Challenge. The first part of the competition was a written entry to sift out 45 teams from over 60 applications. Our 3 teams (No Mans LAN, The Plumbers, and Pwncakes) made it through this stage and into the Northern Qualifier Round in Manchester (5 Feb. '25). Here, each team presented their analysis and recommendations to a panel from notable government and industry practitioners and policy makers who subjected each team to intense questioning and scored their performance accordingly. From each qualifying round (Northern, Southern, and online) 17 teams were selected to take part in the National Finals in London's BT Tower in March...and one of our 3 teams passed muster. Congratulations No Mans LAN! When they arrive in London they'll be giving a polished performance in the hope that they'll earn further intelligence reports about the developing scenario and eventually reach the final round where they'll have 10 minutes to review further developments and prepare their recommendations to the Prime Minister and the COBRA committee. Wish them well … The team members were:

The Plumbers: Alexandra Sarov, Varhee Verma (Y1, CSwIE), Grace Deis, and Jared Flaxman (top left)
No Mans LAN: Albert Harutyunyan (Yq, CM), Amelia Javed (Y1, CSwIE), Ng Ming Hui, and Harriet Bonney (top right)
Pwncakes: Mahmoud Mohammad Alhasan (Y1, CS), Emine-Aylin Demirdas (Y2, CS), Triparna Poddar (ACS), and Sudhanshu Rajesh Wani (bottom)

A huge thank you to coach and mentor Stuart Coulson who spent a day at our city-centre Digital Security Hub - DiSH - with the teams building up their confidence and encouraging them to be charitable when faced with Prof Danny Dresner's sense of humour.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Counselling and Mental Health Service. The University Counselling and Mental Health Service is free to students and can offer help and support with a range of personal issues. Support is provided through a range of activities including;

Confidential one to one appointments
Workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools
Access to services, such as Qwell and Headspace.

You can refer yourself to the counselling service by booking an appointment online. Remember you can always contact the School Wellbeing team, Maria and Ben, who are always available to offer any help or advice at any time.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Student Union Advice Centre. The Student Union offers advice and support with life at the University. They offer a wide range of services and support:

Academic Advice: Help you through any academic problems you might face during your time at Manchester, including appeals, complaints, mitigating circumstances, disciplinary issues and course/university transfers. Academic guidance and support is free, confidential, and completely independent from the University.
Financial Advice: Offer advice and support on a range of money matters, including Student Finance, access to funding, financial worries and hardship, banking issues and government benefits. If you’re struggling with debt, we can also support you to access specialist advice.
Student Life Advice: Help you take care of your health and wellbeing and support you when things may be difficult. Our advisors are here to help you with anything personal that is going on for you. We’ll provide a confidential space where you can talk to us about anything that’s on your mind. We can help you to access additional support through the University and relevant external support organisations.
Housing Advice: Offer help with any worries you might have whether you're living at home, in halls or a private house. We offer advice and guidance on a range of housing issues including signing a contract, deposits, council tax, issues with your landlord, disrepair, tenant disputes and ending your tenancy early.

You can find more information on their website, including a contact form if you want to make an inquiry.

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

DASS offers support to all students who have a condition which has an adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry-out normal day-to-day activities, including physical and mental issues. A DASS advisor is always happy to talk with you if you are unsure if you can register with them. You can find out more information about DASS and how to contact them here: who-do-we-support. The University has a deadline for putting exam support in place for each of the main exam periods, which is 4pm, Friday 14th March 2025 for semester 2. You will need to register and have met with an adviser to agree on your exam support by this deadline. For more details, see the exam support page.

LIBRARY SUPPORT.

The library continues to provide training and support throughout semester 2 with a new programme of workshops and drop-in sessions to support your academic and personal development. The workshops this semester cover a range of topics including academic writing, information evaluation and synthesis for literature reviews, critical analysis and presentation skills in addition to study strategies and specialist areas such as copyright, referencing, business data, advanced searching and systematic reviews. You can consult the library’s extensive online resources at any time, attend our regular library drop-in sessions and/or contact our 24 hour Library chat. Please see the My Learning Essentials page for more information.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - THE DEADLINE HEADACHE.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: As semester two gets into full swing there will be an uptick in the number of deadlines you are expected to meet. This can lead to a feeling of being overwhelmed as you bounce from deadline to deadline if you are not able to manage your time properly. I wanted, therefore, to set out some practical strategies on how you can go about managing your deadlines. In future articles I plan to dig deeper into some of these points, but for now here are my top tips.

Prioritise your tasks: Identifying the most urgent and important tasks. Google "The Eisenhower Matrix" for more information. Prioritise assignments with closer deadlines or those carrying more weight. Consider how much the individual component is worth to the unit and use your time appropriately.
Break it Down: Large tasks can be intimidating. Break them down into smaller, more manageable pieces. Need to write a report? Start with outlining, then focus on each section separately. Give yourself a reward for each part you complete.
Create a Schedule: Allocate specific time slots to different subjects or assignments. Establishing a routine keeps you consistent and focused and avoids procrastination.
Talk about it: Don't hesitate to reach out to your friends, family and fellow students, tutors, or us at the support and wellbeing team. Discussing your challenges and building a supportive network around you can really help. We can also point you in the directions of extra help and resources.
Remember to rest: Take short breaks during study sessions. Utilise these pauses for relaxation activities. Give your brain a chance to recharge, preventing burnout and improving overall focus. For more information Google "The Pomodoro Technique" (Yeah, it does mean tomato).
Embrace Self-care: Prioritise your well-being. Healthy, Happy students produce better work, FACT! Make sure you get a good amount of sleep, eat well, engage in extracurricular activities, and maintain good physical and mental health. Struggling to do this? Come and see us at the Student Support Hub.

Remember, you're not alone in this. Take a deep breath, break it down, and smash each challenge. Don't hesitate to reach out to me or one of your tutors if you need any advice or support.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, LF Area.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

GITLAB DOWNTIME WARNING.

Chris Page writes: On Wednesday 19 February the Department of Computer Science GitLab system will be taken offline to perform essential maintenance and upgrades. Work on the system will start at 14:00 and may take until 18:00, although we will attempt to minimise the time that GitLab is unavailable. A notice banner is currently shown on GitLab pages as a reminder for this work, and it will be removed when the work on the server is completed and tests indicate GitLab is operating normally. While GitLab is offline you will be able to continue to work locally in any currently cloned git repositories, including adding commits. However, attempts to interact with the GitLab server (via `git push`, `git pull`, `git fetch` and so on) will fail.

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

Duncan Hull writes: Our guest speaker for COMP101 next week is from Amazon Web Services. Come and hear from Computer Science graduate Ivo Iliev, BSc Computer Science 2023: All welcome, not just first year students, Simon Building, Theatre E, 4pm Monday 17th Feb. Find out more here.

LEARNING TIPS - SUBMITTING YOUR WORK PROPERLY.

In Computer Science a variety of systems are used to submit coursework, including Blackboard, Gitlab and Gradescope. In some cases, you may be required to submit to multiple locations, such as Blackboard AND Gradescope. It is your responsibility to read the submission instructions carefully, and make sure you follow them to the letter; don’t just assume the submission mechanism is the same across different course units.

It is always worth checking that you have submitted your work properly; if you don’t follow the rules precisely then your work cannot be marked. For example, students often realise at the point of marking that they didn’t submit their work to Blackboard properly, they then claim this is a fault with Blackboard, when this isn’t the case. Problems with Blackboard submissions are invariably due to students failing to ensure that the work had been submitted properly. Remember, it can take some time for work to be uploaded to Blackboard, so please be patient and wait for it to complete before closing the window.

If you fail to submit your work correctly and resubmit your work after the deadline the work will incur a late penalty in accordance with the assessment regulations. Late penalties will not be waived because you failed to check your submission the first time around. It is your responsibility to ensure that your work has been properly submitted. You can check your submission in a number of ways (see the next item). It is important to note that SPOT is updated at 12pm and 6pm everyday, so don’t assume that your submission to Blackboard will show up straight away; SPOT is only updated at these times. It’s also important to remember that for some course units, SPOT does not show submissions, this is particularly the case for external course units, who may employ different mechanisms for submitting work. In addition, SPOT is not aware of submissions made to Gradescope. Make it a habit to confirm that your work has been submitted properly every time!

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Gradescope: Submission to Gradescope may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Gradescope to ensure your submission was correct.
Although the systems (Blackboard, Gitlab, Gradescope and SPOT) may show that you have submitted – they do not know what you submitted. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted the correct file(s).
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: Making the Most of Academic Feedback. The Library has updated its Making the most of academic feedback resource, part of My Learning Essentials support. This online guide looks at different types of feedback, understanding and analysing feedback and how to act on it. Perfect for the post-exam and assessment period!

NANCY ROTHWELL BUILDING TEACHING CLUSTERS.

Teaching clusters in the Nancy Rothwell Building will now be available for non-timetabled study from 8am provided no teaching activity is scheduled in that cluster any earlier than 11am. In instances where timetabled activity is scheduled into clusters before 11am, these spaces will remain designated for timetabled activity only until the last timetabled session has concluded. The availability of clusters will continue to vary each day, so you are advised to check information displayed on the entrances to each cluster for up-to-date information. When accessing clusters in the morning, please take note of the time you will need to leave the cluster, as you will be asked to vacate the cluster 30 minutes ahead of this to avoid any disruption to teaching activity. In line with current arrangements, failure to vacate the cluster when asked may result in Campus Support & Security being called and disciplinary action taken. Details around access arrangements for timetabled teaching activity, alternative desktop PC access and cluster closing times are available via Student News.

DARREN HUYTON SPORTS DAY.

On Friday, 28th February 2025, 12:00 - 16:00, the School of Engineering Information, Advice and Guidance Team will be hosting “The Darren Huyton Sports Day” in collaboration with UoM Sport. Throughout the day, there will be opportunities to play football, volleyball, basketball, table tennis, pickleball, and badminton, as well as take part in old-school sports day activities such as the egg and spoon race and three-legged race! Whether you're an expert or have never played before, the day is all about having fun, keeping fit, and representing your Discipline! You’re welcome to join in for as much or as little as you’d like – or even just come along to watch! All activities will take place at the Sugden Sports Centre. The namesake of this Sports Day, Darren Huyton, worked for the University of Manchester for over 15 years before he sadly passed away suddenly in 2022. We are proud to continue hosting the Darren Huyton Sports Day in his honour. If you are interested in taking part then please sign up here. We look forward to seeing you there!

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

Suzanne Embury writes: This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Monday, 17 February 2025, 12.00pm-1.00pm in Kilburn Collab 1. We'll be working on NMRInversions, a tool to perform numerical inversions for NMR spectroscopy experiments, implemented in Julia. We'll be joined by the code base owner, Aris Mavridis, a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Existing and new members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Knowledge of Julia is not required - we're all figuring it out together as we work on the code base. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, carry out exploratory testing, spruce up the code base and build a public record of contributions. Software engineers from the University's research software engineering team will provide support.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

On 20th February 2025, 14:00 - 16:00, David Kennedy will present the Digital Trust and Security Seminar. The internet is now a fundamental aspect of life, but the way we connect and interact with the internet is changing. IPv6 represents the next generation of the internet – a change that will have a real impact on all of us and everything we do. IPv6 is designed to support the ever-growing digital domain and all the use cases within it for at least the next century. So, it is important that we ensure IPv6 is implemented in both a secure and scalable way. Register here to discuss the critical issues that IPv6 solves, the security benefits it provides and the potential risks it inadvertently creates. This is a high in-demand event with limited seats so we recommend you secure your ticket asap to avoid disappointment.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

this Wednesday (19th February) the department seminar will be presented by Dr. Stian Soiland-Reyes, 13:00 – 13:50, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is “Challenging Linked Data Practices for FAIR Research Objects and Computational Workflows”. Abstract: Scientists are encouraged by funders and open research practices to publish data and accompanying metadata following the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). However, achieving FAIR with Linked Data technologies can come with a steep learning curve for researchers not fluent in knowledge representation concepts, as well as facing technical intricacies in deployment on the Web. Scientific Workflow Management systems have evolved as powerful tools for accelerating computational analysis in life sciences and many other domains and can capture valuable provenance to support FAIR practices and sharing of computational methods. However, the diversity of available workflow systems and hardware sub-architectures (e.g. GPUs for machine learning) adds a challenge for the aims of Interoperability and Reproducibility. In this talk I will bring you along for a time travel journey, reflecting on my two decades of venturing into the emerging FAIR data landscape. I will show how we have built pragmatic approaches, Research Object Crate and Signposting, that utilise Web technologies for a "just enough" Linked Data implementation. Finally, I will reflect on "lessons learnt" and the future role of open research practices, such as for federated learning on sensitive health data.

Bio: Dr Stian Soiland-Reyes is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science. He is co-leader of the eScience Lab together with Professor Carole Goble; their research group is currently funded by over 15 research projects, in collaboration with partners across EU and the European Life Science network ELIXIR. Stian joined the department in 2006 as a Research Associate and worked as a software engineer developing computational workflow systems and reproducibility methods, contributing to standard development (W3C PROV, OAI-ORE, IEEE 2791) and building open community specifications (Common Workflow Language, RO-Crate, FAIR Digital Object). He is a strong advocate of open source and open research. In November 2023 he became a Senior Lecturer in FAIR, Open and Reproducible Digital Research. He has a BSc & MSc in Computer Science from NTNU in Norway, and a PhD from University of Amsterdam for his thesis "FAIR Research Objects and Computational Workflows – A Linked Data Approach".

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 26th February, the department seminar will be presented by Dr. Jason Hartford, 13:00 – 13:50, in Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3. The title of the talk is “Predict the predictable, measure the rest: active learning for efficient biological experiments”. Abstract: Dr. Hartford will discuss how active learning can be used to build hybrid experimental systems that combine predictive modelling with targeted experimentation in large scale experimental settings with high dimensional action and outcome spaces. By learning when to trust model predictions and when to acquire new measurements, we reduce experimental cost while ensuring we collect data where it is most informative. He will illustrate this idea through two applications: efficiently screening compounds in drug discovery and detecting pairwise interactions between biological perturbations. In each setting, active learning guides us to sample the most uncertain or challenging experimental designs. This approach not only limits the overall number of experiments but also uncovers deeper insights into the underlying phenomena. The talk will focus on two recent papers, https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.19631 and https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.07594.

SOE SUMMER INTERNSHIPS.

The deadline for applications is this Sunday (23rd February 2025) at 9am! This is an opportunity for you to gain paid experience of working within the School of Engineering during summer 2025. There are many different projects to choose from, each with different supervisors and very different project outlines that you can apply for. The scheme is open to registered Year 2 undergraduate students, as well as Year 3 undergraduate students on a 4-year programme, and both home and international students are welcome to apply.

You may only apply to a maximum of 3 internships, but you cannot apply if you have previously undertaken an internship through this scheme. You can apply for the positions on CareerConnect by simply clicking on the "Search” tab -> “Vacancies”. All applicants are expected to have completed the CV Pathway within CareerConnect before submitting an application. Make sure you read the project proposals before applying to check you are eligible to apply. Internships will be funded by the school for a max. of 180 hours of work at a rate of £12.86 an hour. The earliest interns can start work is Monday 9th June 2025 and work must finish no later than 21st September 2025; this can be agreed between the successful intern and project supervisor.

Applications will be reviewed following the closing date and shortlisted candidates will be contacted and invited to the next stage of the process, which will be a video interview that will be reviewed by the project supervisor. If you have any questions about the internship programme, please email: SOE.StudentExperience@manchester.ac.uk. Good luck!

PHD CAFE.

PhD Café is an informal networking session where current undergraduate students can speak with PhD researchers and admissions staff in the Faculty, to figure out whether pursuing a PhD is right for them. The goal is to offer a relaxed, friendly environment where students can ask any questions they have in a 1-1 setting and explore their options in postgraduate research at the University of Manchester. PhD Café is scheduled to be held this this Wednesday (19 February) from 1-3pm, in the Engineering Building B, Blended Lecture Theatre 2 (2B.020). Students will be provided with free tea, coffee, and pizza – this is a café after all! If you are interested in pursuing a career in research then please consider attending the event.

PURPLEWAVE 2025.

Spring Dash 2025: Join us for a fun-filled 2.5k and 5k run this spring. It’s the perfect chance to make new friends and become part of our Purple Wave community. Sign up here.
Great Manchester Run 2025: Be part of the main event on Sunday, 18th May. Whether you’re a seasoned runner or just starting out, this 10K run is for everyone. Tickets are available for University of Manchester students and staff at a discounted rate of £20. Plus, you can make your run even more meaningful by fundraising for one of our chosen causes. Sign up here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Triskaidekaphobia by Lisa Ugray

Normal sudoku rules apply. The grid is mostly covered in fog. Placing correct digits will progressively clear away the fog in the grid, at minimum under that cell and often in other parts of the grid as well. Pairs of adjacent digits (orthogonal AND diagonal) do not sum to 13. Adjacent digits along a red line have a difference of 1 or 3. Digits in a cage cannot repeat and sum to the total given.

Chess Puzzle - Sharma Vs. Budisavljevic, 2025

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 3 • Monday 10 February 2025 • #24.18

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 10th February (yes February!) 2025 and it’s week 3 of semester 2. I hope you have now settled into a routine and know when and where your teaching activities are taking place this semester.

This week is the last week for you to provide feedback on our plans for a new study space in the Kilburn Building, so please consider completing the form (see below); we’d really appreciate your thoughts. If you are a 2nd year student (or a 3rd year MEng student) then don’t forget that the school is advertising a large number of summer internships suitable for CS students (see below). The internships give you the opportunity to earn some money over the summer, as well as gain some experience that will look good on your CV.

Have a good week and a happy Valentine’s Day on Friday to all you lovers out there!

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

We have now stepped into the second semester. Amongst the concerns you may have, if you have anything to say to the Department of Computer Science itself, please fill out the suggestions box feedback form by clicking the link, or scanning the QR code below. You can come talk to Rep: Max Beck-Jones on Friday 16:00 ~ 17:00 in Collab 1. Is the room temperature regulated properly? Have you found some slippy hazards close to the building? Do you know where the social spaces are? These are some suggestions; write what comes to your mind.

MEET AN ACADEMIC REP.

This academic rep of the week is João Miao (Y1 CS). João writes: Hey everyone! I’m João Miao, a 1st Year Undergraduate student in Computer Science. I am a gym enthusiast, and aspiring bodybuilder with dreams of one day stepping onto the Olympia stage. Fitness is a huge part of my life—it’s where I find motivation, discipline, and resilience, and I bring that same energy to everything I do, including representing my classmates.

INFORM THE VISION FOR KILBURN’S NEW SELF-STUDY SPACE.

Chris Turnbull (Project Manager, CS Expansion) writes: As part of the ongoing project to redevelop and enhance spaces within Kilburn Building the project team needs Computer Science students’ input to develop a vision for your dedicated student self-study space. We have already had one focus group which gave us some excellent insights, now we need you to help expand upon them.

The self-study space is part of the wider redevelopment of the ground floor of the Kilburn Building which will transform the home of Computer Science. There will be a new 200 seat computer cluster which will have natural light over the current ground floor provision. This new space will also allow for more efficient timetabling and space for classes and electronic exams. The Research space is expanding upon our Robotics capabilities with a dedicated laboratory. This space will drive the innovation in small to medium robots, drones and swarms. The Human Participation Laboratory will give a range of specialist space for VR, eye tracking experiments and other technology requiring human intervention.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

Last year over £12,000 was donated from survey completions. In addition, every student who takes part in the NSS 2023 can enter into a prize draw to win one of 20 prizes:

6x Graduation Day Packages
1x iPad Air
1x £200 voucher (choice of: Uber, Deliveroo, LovetoShop)
2x £100 voucher
4x £50 voucher
6x £25 voucher

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello year 1s, we hope your semester is going well so far! Due to the cross-scheme PASS1 careers fair event, there will be no PASS and no debrief (for PASS leaders) this week. If you want free entry to the careers fair, please use the QR code provided (also here bit.ly/pass-trip). This is open to all students! For PASS1 next week, we hope to run a fun and useful event with a friendly competition and possibly pizza. This will be a great chance for you to socialise and practice some skills with your peers. So, make sure you don't miss this opportunity before the semester gets busy! Hope to see you in your designated PASS rooms (unless specified otherwise), more details will be provided soon.

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone, we hope you had fun at last week's session and had a chance to relax. This week, we will have a panel of graduates sharing their experience in different career paths they've embarked on, from current Master's and PHDs to industry professionals. As always, it'll be on Thursday, from 12-1pm in IT407. We are recruiting PASS2 leaders and coordinators for the upcoming year. Please express your interest by signing up at: https://forms.office.com/e/cgcpyAXieT. We can't wait to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hey everyone; we hope you're making good progress with all your projects! PASS3 sessions will now be taking place at 15:00 on Fridays in Collab 1 until the end of the year* (*except for one week where we will be in touch). Don't forget to join us for Manchester Digital's careers fair this Wednesday - see the separate event notice. Also keep an eye out for more events we have planned for the near future!

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

Issues, health related or otherwise, can impact your learning at any time, usually when you least expect it. Or, you may have ongoing issues that you did have under control but are now rearing their ugly head again and are starting to impact your learning. If your learning is impacted in any way, then it’s vitally important that you speak to someone and get the help and support you need. You can speak to your academic advisor (see below), your Year Tutor (see below), or you can speak to a member of our Student Support and Wellbeing Team, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, in confidence, about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. You can also drop into the student hub in the Nancy Rothwell Building (1st floor) and speak to someone face-to-face if you like. Maria and Ben are also the Disability Coordinators for CS, so you can speak to them if you have any ongoing physical or mental health problems, or conditions such as ASD or ADHD, that affect your studies, even if you are not already registered with the DASS Team at the University. If you are registered with DASS and there are problems with your DASS plan you can speak with them about this too. You can contact Maria and Ben at soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk.

WHO IS YOUR ACADEMIC ADVISOR?

An academic advisor is a member of academic staff you are assigned to who provides not only academic support, but pastoral support during your time in Manchester. Who is your academic advisor? Well, this depends what year you are in. If you are a 1st or 2nd year student, your academic advisor is your personal tutor - you can find out who your tutor is here. In the 3rd year, your academic advisor is your project supervisor, and in the 4th year it is Tim Morris. Don’t get your academic advisor confused with your Year Tutor, who generally has more experience in supporting students and signposting them to support services in the university (see below). If your academic advisor has concerns about your academic progression, or wellbeing, they may let the corresponding Year Tutor be aware of their concerns.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - MANCHESTER STUDENT HOMES:

Thinking about where you are going to live next academic year? Now’s about the time! Manchester Student Homes is a free, University-run housing service for students who can offer independent housing advice. They can help you search for the perfect student home and put you in contact with accredited landlords.

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, LF Area.

LEARNING TIPS - EVALUATING YOUR WORK.

On the road towards becoming a professional (yes, you will become one eventually!), you need to pick up skills that help you evaluate the quality of your work and the effectiveness of your contributions. Neither your future clients, nor your team members and managers will be happy if you treat your project as a tick list of requested features you simply tick off as you complete them. Users don't just want software that can do a job somehow, they want software that's intuitive to use, does the job smoothly and quickly without exhausting available resources, interfaces well with other systems and ultimately ‘works’.

When you work on your coursework you have the opportunity to think about what would make a submission a good one. You will usually be told which criteria are going to be used to mark your work, but you may not receive details of how various judgements are made when we assess your work. You should consider for yourself how those criteria may be measured, and you should also be aware of teaching material that covers some of those criteria, so that you can use them to help you with this task. You may even want to think about how to judge what is a ‘good solution’ before looking at anything supplied by the course unit team - it'll give you some useful insights, and improve your ability to evaluate desirable features of a solution. By the time you work on your third year project you'll be asked to perform an evaluation of what you have achieved, and acquiring this skill will also help you in the future, whether you pursue postgraduate work or join the profession. So, evaluation of your work is an important skill that you need to develop, not just for now, but the future too.

HAVING ISSUES.

WHAT DO I DO? What if you are having problems logging in, or a resource is not working in Blackboard for one of your course units, or you find the temperature in a lab is always high. How do you go about solving any issues? Who do you contact? Well, it all depends on the issue.

Learning: If you are having issues with your learning, for example, there is a resource in Blackboard that is not working, a video has not been uploaded, an assessment hasn’t been released, or you don’t understand the feedback you received on a piece of work, then you should always contact a member of staff teaching on the course unit to discuss the issue.
IT infrastructure: If you have problems with the computing infrastructure: Office 365, email, Blackboard, Duo, Wifi, printing, general PC problems, or log in issues, then you need to contact IT Services, either in-person via the help-desk (ground floor of Kilburn building), or through the support portal.
Environment: If you are having an issue with the environment, such as a room is too hot/cold, broken/unsafe furniture etc. then you should report this to the University Estates, who will then investigate. Information on how to do this can be found on notices in each room.
CS facilities: Problems with the facilities provided by the department, such as MySQL/Mongo DB issues, issues with GitLab/submitting via Git, problems with lab hardware (such as experimental boards), software resources such as SPOT, should be reported to the department by email. These issues should not be reported to IT services.

When you should make use of your academic reps to report issues? In all cases, you should only get academic reps involved when you fail to get a response, or no action was taken. In particular, when an issue is having an impact on a number of students. Remember, academic reps are there to raise issues that impact the student body as a whole and are not for raising queries for individual students.

SOCIAL AND WORKING SPACES IN KILBURN.

We are proud of our sense of community in the department, and we hope our students consider the Kilburn Building their home during their time in Manchester. We have several social and working areas exclusively for the use of CS students, including a variety of computer clusters: G23 on the ground floor, Tootill 0, Tootill 1, and LF31 on the lower first floor, and 1.8/1.10 on the first floor (please note that timetables activities also take place in these labs so they may not be available at all times) and collaborative workspaces: G41 on the ground floor, and Collab 1 and 2 on the lower first floor (again used for teaching). LF1.8 on lower first floor (glass fronted lab) offers a small number of computers and four group working areas solely for use by our students and is not used for any timetabled activities. In terms of social areas, you have the lower first floor, where there’s comfy seating, bean bags, high tables with power supplies and private working booths, plus group seating on the upper level behind lecture theatre 1.1. You can also make use of the Turing lounge on the first floor where there’s a pool table, table football table, and a table tennis table. Please make use of these facilities as they have been introduced for your benefit.

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

Don’t forget to continue to record your attendance at timetabled activities using SEAtS. You can find information on how to use SEAtS on the Student Support website. Staff will display a QR code and/or pin during each session, and you must record your attendance via the SEAtS app or webpage during the session. Why are we doing this? Attendance information will be used to help identify students who may be struggling academically or personally, so we’re able to quickly and effectively offer any support required. It will also be used as part of the visa check-in processes. Please note that teaching staff cannot change your attendance record, so please do not contact them to query your attendance. You should instead contact the SEAtS team through the link above.

3D PRINTERS.

The Department has three 3D printers that are free for you to use, whether to produce prints to support your project, or just something you are doing in your spare time. We have a five colour Prusa XL, and two Prusa MK4s you can use. The 3D printers can be found in the right hand corner of Tootill 0 as you walk in the main door. If you’d like to use one of the 3D printers, then please speak to Steve Rhodes (corner off Tootill 0) first.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: You can book a study space at the Library in the following locations:

Individual spaces at the Muriel Stott Building, Main Library.
Group study rooms at the Main Library and the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons.
Need to bring your child with you to study? Book Group Study Room 1 in the Main Library.
A quiet space to attend an online meeting or lecture? Book study room 14 in the Main Library.

Bookings can be made via ResourceBooker. All other spaces are on a first come, first served basis.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Gradescope: Submission to Gradescope may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Gradescope to ensure your submission was correct.
Although the systems (Blackboard, Gitlab, Gradescope and SPOT) may show that you have submitted – they do not know what you submitted. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted the correct file(s).
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

* GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUP. We're kicking off Semester 2 with an exciting workshop on Data Structures and Algorithms! This year, our workshops will be split into themes and the first session in the DSA series will focus on Arrays. Join us to strengthen your technical interview skills and deepen your understanding of key concepts. Still unsure about attending? If you attend every workshop in a theme, you will earn an official GDG Certificate to display on your LinkedIn!

Workshop Date and Time: Wednesday 12th February, 15:00-17:00
Location: Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.5

Alongside this, the Google Developer Group Mentorship Programme is back for semester two! After a successful run in Semester 1, we’re excited to offer another round of mentorships, giving you the chance to gain guidance from experienced peers and access exclusive internship application opportunities. In order to register, you will need to attend a livestream on Tuesday 11th February where additional details about the programme will be shared. The link to the livestream will be posted on our Discord closer to the date. See you there!

PASS TRIP TO 2025 TALENT DAY.

Join PASS1, PASS2, and PASS3+ in visiting the Digital Skills Festival 2025 Talent Day careers fair on Wednesday the 12th of February. Held by Manchester Digital, the Talent Day brings many local, national, and international employers and industry professionals together to attract students and graduates looking for internship or employment opportunities. In addition to industry exhibitors, there are workshops, CV clinics, and professional development opportunities available throughout the day. So, whether you’re looking for a grad role, a summer or full year placement, or just want to upskill, we hope you will join us in visiting the event! We will meet in the Kilburn LF area before leaving for the venue as a group at 1pm. If you wish to join us, it is essential to sign up by clicking this link or by scanning the QR code below. Note that it is not necessary to sign up for the event tickets separately as we have been given a bulk block of tickets (but you do need to submit our form!).

MANCHESTER DIGITAL’S TALENT DAY.

Manchester Digital's Talent Day careers fair takes place on Wednesday 12th February at New Century Hall, Manchester. Talent Day is the North's largest dedicated tech careers fair and returns bigger and better than ever before for 2025, giving you the opportunity to kickstart your career in digital and tech and meet some of the region's leading employers! This year, we’re taking over New Century Hall, a stunning venue in the heart of Manchester city centre, for a day packed with opportunities to connect with tech employers across the region, as well as professional development opportunities to give you the best start in your career. Each year over 2,000 graduates and job seekers attend to find out more about the latest tech and digital careers on offer at some of Greater Manchester’s most exciting and innovative tech companies. Some of the North West's leading tech employers and training providers will be exhibiting, including the likes of JLR, Auto Trader, Amazon, Natwest and many more. To view the complete list of exhibitors, please click here. If you are interested in attending then you can sign-up here.

EFFECTIVE ALTRUISM MANCHESTER AI SAFETY PROGRAMME.

Effective Altruism Manchester is excited to announce its AI Safety Programme for Semester 2, a fantastic opportunity to learn more about artificial intelligence, its consequences and potential dangers to society, and how we may address them. Deadline to sign up is February 14th!

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

This Wednesday (12th February 2025) the department seminar will be presented by Dr. Edoardo Manino, 14:00 – 15:00, in Lecture Theatre 1.3, Kilburn Building. The title of the talk is “AI Security: Language Models, Data Encryption, Software Verification”. Abstract: Neural networks are slowly getting integrated into safety-critical systems. Unfortunately, we still lack a full suite of algorithms and tools to guarantee their safety. In this talk, I will present a few open challenges in AI safety and security: consistent behaviour in language models, machine learning over encrypted data, model compression with error guarantees, bug-free floating-point software. Here, I will claim that formal methods are the key to address these challenges, as long as we can settle on an unambiguous specification.

Bio: Dr. Edoardo Manino is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in AI Security at The University of Manchester. He has a lifelong interest in AI algorithms, from symbolic AI to machine learning. He spent most of his research career at Russell Group institutions in the UK, funded by EPSRC and the Alan Turing Institute. His background is in Bayesian machine learning, a topic he was awarded a PhD from the University of Southampton in 2020. In the past years, he has been interested in all variations of provably safe machine learning, from pen and paper proofs on tractable models to automated testing and verification of deep neural networks and large language models. He has a strong record of cross-disciplinary publications, spanning human computation, software engineering, hardware design, signal processing, network science and game theory.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

On Wednesday 19th February, the department seminar will be presented by Dr. Stian Soiland-Reyes, 13:00 – 13:50, in Kilburn_TH 1.3. The title of the talk is “Challenging Linked Data Practices for FAIR Research Objects and Computational Workflows”. Abstract: Scientists are encouraged by funders and open research practices to publish data and accompanying metadata following the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). However, achieving FAIR with Linked Data technologies can come with a steep learning curve for researchers not fluent in knowledge representation concepts, as well as facing technical intricacies in deployment on the Web. Scientific Workflow Management systems have evolved as powerful tools for accelerating computational analysis in life sciences and many other domains and can capture valuable provenance to support FAIR practices and sharing of computational methods. However, the diversity of available workflow systems and hardware sub-architectures (e.g. GPUs for machine learning) adds a challenge for the aims of Interoperability and Reproducibility. In this talk I will bring you along for a time travel journey, reflecting on my two decades of venturing into the emerging FAIR data landscape. I will show how we have built pragmatic approaches, Research Object Crate and Signposting, that utilise Web technologies for a "just enough" Linked Data implementation. Finally, I will reflect on "lessons learnt" and the future role of open research practices, such as for federated learning on sensitive health data.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

SOE SUMMER INTERNSHIPS.

Applications are open for the 2025 School of Engineering Internship scheme; an opportunity for you to gain paid experience of working within the School of Engineering during summer 2025. There are many different projects to choose from, each with different supervisors and very different project outlines that you can apply for. The scheme is open to registered Year 2 undergraduate students, as well as Year 3 undergraduate students on a 4-year programme, and both home and international students are welcome to apply.

Internships will be funded by the school for a max. of 180 hours of work at a rate of £12.86 an hour. The earliest interns can start work is Monday 9th June 2025 and work must finish no later than 21st September 2025; this can be agreed between the successful intern and project supervisor.

PHD CAFE.

PhD Café is an informal networking session where current undergraduate students can speak with PhD researchers and admissions staff in the Faculty, to figure out whether pursuing a PhD is right for them. The goal is to offer a relaxed, friendly environment where students can ask any questions they have in a 1-1 setting and explore their options in postgraduate research at the University of Manchester. PhD Café is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, 19 February, from 1-3pm, in the Engineering Building B, Blended Lecture Theatre 2 (2B.020). Students will be provided with free tea, coffee, and pizza – this is a café after all! If you are interested in pursuing a career in research then please consider attending the event.

STUDENT VOLUNTEERING WEEK.

This week (10th to 14th February) is Student Volunteering Week. Now is the time to get involved in volunteering, which offers a lot of opportunities and not just giving back to the community. To get involved in volunteering, have a look at the University’s Volunteer Hub, which offers activities that help support the University community or local charities and not-for-profit organisations, or the Students’ Union: Student Action and Access All Areas. Remember, that as well as giving you a unique experience, volunteering helps to bolster your your employability, showcasing a commitment to social responsibility and community engagement: two traits which are incredibly desirable by employers.

Volunteering doesn’t just have to do good for the community, it is also recognised as a valuable part of your university experience, especially as the University views social responsibility as a core goal, and can help you obtain a University Stellify Award. There’s so much to be learnt and gained from volunteering – it’s well worth the time commitment, and this Student Volunteering week is a great chance to explore options and have a go. Take a look at the full schedule of events.

MAKERSPACE.

Located in the heart of Engineering Building A, the Makerspace is an environment like no other - a place which rips up the rule book on traditional disciplinary boundaries and provides the space and tools to create, manufacture, design and collaborate as part of an inclusive ecosystem of innovation. Since opening our doors in December 2022, we’ve welcomed hundreds of students and staff from across the University, hosting a variety of pop-up events and workshops and helping to transform a diverse range of individual student and society-led projects from ideas into reality. During this time, we’ve also collaborated with a number of high-profile partners, transforming the space into a hub for knowledge and skill share between our Makerspace community and experts across a variety of industries. The Makerspace has been used for:

Student society projects: Providing the space and tools for societies to deliver exciting projects and events.
Workshops: Delivered in partnership with industry experts such as Sony and Texas Instruments.
Hackathons: Supporting large scale coding events around robotics and sustainability.
Community outreach events: Engaging members of the public around environmental sustainability, social responsibility and responsible processes.

If you want to know more or discuss an idea for how the Makerspace can serve you, you can get in touch by email or complete this form. You can also find out more here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Weird Arrows by Michael Lefkowitz:

Normal sudoku rules apply. The sum of the digits in a white bulb equals the sum of the digits on each attached arrow.

Chess Puzzle - Nissinen Vs. Fedotov, 2025

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing "A Pinpointable World"

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 2 • Monday 3 February 2025 • #24.17

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 3rd March 2025 and it’s week 2 of semester 2. I hope you've recovered from celebrating the end of the semester 1 exams!

Friday is the deadline for selecting any optional course units, so please make sure you confirm your choices by then - you cannot make any changes after. Remember to keep an eye on your timetable over the next few weeks as any last minute changes are made.

This Friday (7th February) the SOE Internship Scheme opens, so if you are a 2nd year (or 3rd year on MEng) and would like to have a paid internship in the School over the summer, then have a look at the internships on offer and consider applying.

If you are graduating this year, then don’t forget to complete NSS - your feedback is important to us!

Have a good week, on with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

INFORM THE VISION FOR KILBURN’S NEW SELF-STUDY SPACE.

The Research space is expanding upon our Robotics capabilities with a dedicated laboratory. This space will drive the innovation in small to medium robots, drones and swarms. The Human Participation Laboratory will give a range of specialist space for VR, eye tracking experiments and other technology requiring human intervention.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

The National Student Survey (NSS) has launched, which offers final year students the opportunity to reflect on their time at Manchester and allows you to provide feedback on how, overall, you found your experience of studying at Manchester. All students eligible to complete NSS will receive an email from Ipsos Mori (an external company appointed by the UK Government to run NSS) with a link to complete the survey. There’s no need to wait, you can complete NSS directly via the NSS website. All feedback provided is anonymised, so this gives you the opportunity to provide honest feedback, so we can generate an overall picture of the student experience at Manchester as a whole and by degree programme. For each response submitted, our University will make a £2 donation to charity. In addition, all students who complete the survey are entered into a draw to win a range of prizes.

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi everyone, We hope you enjoyed your first week back in Uni and had a lovely holiday too. It was great to see you all on Thursday at our session on module selection! This week, we'll be doing a session on making the most of the opportunities available to you this year/semester and how to make it tons of fun. PASS2 will be in IT407 on Thursday from 12pm to 1pm and we can't wait to see you there!

Recruitment for PASS2 Leaders and Coordinators for next year has opened and we would love to have you join. Please use the QR code in the graphic or this link and feel free to speak to any of us about your interest. There will be a technology careers fair in town on the 12th of February - The Manchester Digital Skills Fair 2025. We'll be leaving from Kilburn at 1pm to head there. If you'd like to join, please sign up using the QR Code given in the slides.

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Thanks everyone for joining us to discuss the second semester course units – it was a great discussion! This week we’re going to be running a project check in session at 13:00-15:00 this Thursday in Kilburn Collab 1 so we hope to see you there! As always feel free to bring your CV if you’d like a second (or third) pair of eyes to look over it and if there’s anything else you want to discuss, do not hesitate to suggest.

NEW STUDENT SUPPORT AND SERVICES IN MYMANCHESTER.

The Student Support and Services menu is the newest feature available on My Manchester, our digital platform for Manchester students. The new feature provides all students with university-wide help and support, as well as tailored support and guidance relevant to their programme of study or research. Alongside this new digital release, it is important to note that the physical, in-person Student Support Hubs remain open as normal.

The Student Support and Services menu provides links to advice and guidance covering health and wellbeing, learning support and information, advice and guidance for all aspects of university life. From useful careers advice to information about student finance, campus facilities and student accommodation, this new feature contains a wealth of direct access options.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - COST OF LIVING SUPPORT FUND.

What Can We Support? We can assist with essential living costs like rent, utility bills, food, and travel expenses related to your studies. However, we cannot provide funding for laptops, desktops, or tablets. The fund is meant to help those experiencing unforeseen circumstances, so it’s important that you start your studies with adequate funding for your tuition fees and living costs.
How to Apply? The application process typically takes around 30 minutes. You’ll need to submit supporting documents to help us assess your situation. Be sure to review the document checklist and have everything ready before starting the application.
You can download the application form here, and we recommend using your student ID to password-protect any documents you submit. Please note that the current assessment time is around three weeks after receiving all necessary documents.

If you’re facing financial hardship, don’t hesitate to apply and get the support you need to focus on your studies. You can find more information about who can apply and how applications are assessed in this news item.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - THE STUDENTS UNION ADVICE CENTRE.

The Student Union offers advice and support with life at the University. They offer a wide range of services and support.

Academic Advice: Help you through any academic problems you might face during your time at Manchester, including appeals, complaints, mitigating circumstances, disciplinary issues and course/university transfers. Academic guidance and support is free, confidential, and completely independent from the University.
Financial Advice: Offer advice and support on a range of money matters, including Student Finance, access to funding, financial worries and hardship, banking issues and government benefits. If you’re struggling with debt, we can also support you to access specialist advice.
Student Life Advice: Help you take care of your health and wellbeing and support you when things may be difficult. Our advisors are here to help you with anything personal that is going on for you. We’ll provide a confidential space where you can talk to us about anything that’s on your mind. We can help you to access additional support through the University and relevant external support organisations.
Housing Advice: Offer help with any worries you might have whether you're living at home, in halls or a private house. We offer advice and guidance on a range of housing issues including signing a contract, deposits, council tax, issues with your landlord, disrepair, tenant disputes and ending your tenancy early.

You can find more information on their website, including a contact form if you want to make an inquiry.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, LF Area.

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

Duncan Hull writes: There’s nothing artificial about GCHQ’s intelligence, 3rd Feb at 4pm. Government Communications Headquarters (www.gchq.gov.uk) is the UK's intelligence, security and cyber agency, their mission is to help keep the country safe. Join us for our first COMP101 guest lecture of 2025 with Gaven Smith, former Director General for Technology and Chief Technology Officer at GCHQ on Monday 3rd Feb (today!) at 4pm in Simon Building Lecture Theatre E. Gaven is an internationally recognised engineering leader with more than 30 years of experience in UK National Security. In his 7 years as CTO at GCHQ, he was responsible for the research and development of a wide range of critical UK national security capabilities. He led and managed a large and highly-expert technical team based in the UK and overseas. He was accountable for a range of mission-critical investment programmes and for transforming data capabilities across the wider national security community. Prior to becoming CTO, Gaven held a number of technology leadership roles that invested in cutting-edge technology to support GCHQ’s rapidly changing mission. Gaven is now an academic, a technology advisor, a Non-Executive Director, and an active advocate for online safety. He is also a passionate champion for inclusion in engineering. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2022 and was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 2023. Find out more on Gaven’s LinkedIn page. All students welcome, not just those currently enrolled on COMP101

EXAM RESULTS.

We hope to publish the first year exam results (and this the semester 1 course unit marks) in the week commencing the 3rd March 2025. The delay is so that the marking can be completed and moderated as part of the Q&A processes we have in place. When marks are published these will be provisional until the end of year exam board is held in June.

COURSE UNIT CHOICES.

The deadline for selecting any optional course units on the University system is 14:00, this Friday (7th February) (4th year MEng student deadline has passed). You need to ensure that your course units total 120 credits by this date.  Please note that you will not be permitted to change any full year units such as language units in January as you have committed to the full year of study if you chose a full year optional unit. You will not be able to change your choices after the deadline. If you have any issues or need help, then please email soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk.

LEARNING TIPS - SUBMITTING YOUR OWN WORK.

Remember, it’s important that you submit your own work and that you avoid falling into the trap of committing academic malpractice. Computer Science is a very practical subject and, as such, it is natural to work with your friends in trying to solve a problem. In fact, when working in the real world you will invariably be part of a team, whether you are developing software or hardware. This is why a number of our course units offer you the opportunity to work as a member of a team - to give you some experience of pros and cons that come with working in a team environment and how to manage issues such as conflicts. However, when it comes to individual assessments, such as coursework, things are different. The assessments you submit reflect your learning and offer us a means of measuring your academic progress and how well you understand the learning material (and meet the learning objectives). To ensure that the work you submit is your own, we often look out for signs of similarities between different submissions from different students using a variety of techniques, including software tools such as Turnitin. We are looking for academic malpractice, where someone is looking to gain an unfair advantage by submitting work that is not (entirely) their own.

There are generally two forms of academic malpractice: plagiarism, which is the copying of someone else’s work as your own work, including output from AI tools such as ChatGPR, without acknowledgement; and collusion, which is working too closely with someone else to produce the same, or very similar, piece of work. In Computer Science, we find that collusion is the most common form of academic malpractice due to the way students often work (maybe too closely) together. To help identify such cases, we use powerful software tools to identify similarities in code, even when changes such as renaming variables, changing comments, or restructuring code have been made in an attempt to make the code look different.

If you are found guilty of academic malpractice then this can have a dramatic impact on your progress/marks. Penalties range from the zeroing of marks for the assessment where academic malpractice has been identified as taking place, zeroing of a course unit (but the credits are passed) through to failing and having to resit a course unit. In the past, we have had students being excluded from their studies as a result of engaging with academic malpractice. It’s natural for you to work with fellow students to understand problems and the taught material. However, make sure the work you submit is your own; it’s just not worth the risk. Everyone when joining the Department is required to complete a short module on academic malpractice in Blackboard, so that you are aware of what it is and what the consequences are if you (even inadvertently) engage in it. For more information on Academic Malpractice, see the University student guidance on plagiarism and other forms of academic malpractice. You can also view the full University Academic Malpractice Procedure.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT IN CS.

IT Services provide support for centrally provided systems and software. If you have problems with Office 365, including email, Blackboard, Duo, Wifi, printing, or using your University of Manchester account to log into Windows or Linux you will need to contact the IT Services helpdesk either via the in-person desk on the ground floor of Kilburn building, the support portal, or by calling 0161 306 5544. FSE Technical Services provide support for the Department of Computer Science GitLab service, the Web Dashboard, MySQL and MongoDB services, and can help with issues related to software used as part of your courses and submitting work with git. This can include general git problems, issues with access to git projects, submissions not appearing in SPOT, and problems with software on the cluster machines. They can be contacted by emailing support@cs.manchester.ac.uk. Please note that in general FSE Technical Services can not provide technical support for installing software on personal devices.

HARDWARE LIBRARY.

Don’t forget that we have a hardware library in the Department that contains a wide range of hardware components that are completely free to borrow. You can use these to support your 3rd year project, generally just to have a play with, or support a Hackathon. There are all sorts of items available, from Raspberry Pi components to drones, a wide range of microcontroller boards to gesture devices, basic electronic components to robots … even VR headsets. We also have computer items, such as keyboards, mice, and tablets - there’s a wide range of items available. To see what is available for you to borrow (for free!) have a look at the library catalogue. If you want to borrow an item then all you have to do is reserve it online. You will then be contacted by Steve Rhodes who will tell you when you can pick the item up from Tootill 0 on the lower first floor of Kilburn. Please note that items should not be taken away from Manchester and it is your responsibility to replace any damaged/lost items you borrow. You can also propose new items for the library, which we will consider. However, please note, we do have a limited budget to purchase new items, so we can’t fund all requests.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: Relax in our Library Living Room. Take a well-earned rest! This space has soft seating, board games and blankets. Library Living Room location - interactive map You can microwave your own food and prepare hot drinks using the facilities in the Library Lounge. The Library Living Room is available during Main Library opening hours.

PASS TRIP TO 2025 TALENT DAY.

MUDS AI WORKSHOP.

Hello Everyone, MUDS AI will now be presenting a series of workshops on Machine Learning in Finance, designed to introduce students to the world of algorithmic trading and data-driven financial strategies. From automated trading systems to quantitative modelling and risk analysis, this series will provide hands-on experience with real-world financial applications. We’re kicking off the semester with an exciting Algorithmic Trading & Machine Learning in Finance workshop! Whether you’re new to trading or already familiar with finance, this session will introduce you to the fundamentals of automated trading and how machine learning is transforming financial markets.

Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 5th of February 2025
Time: 3:00 - 5:00 PM
Venue: Kilburn Building, Theatre 1.1

What You’ll Learn:

What algorithmic trading is and why it dominates financial markets
The key workflow of an algo-trading system (Data Collection → Strategy Development → Backtesting → Execution)
How machine learning is used to predict stock movements
Hands-on coding: Fetch real stock data and build a simple price prediction model using Linear Regression

Who should attend? This workshop is beginner-friendly, perfect for anyone interested in finance, trading, or machine learning. No prior experience required—just bring your laptop! Don’t miss this opportunity to build your first algorithmic trading model and connect with like-minded enthusiasts! Sign up now!

MANCHESTER DIGITAL’S TALENT DAY.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

Suzanne Embury writes: The OSS Club [tinyurl.com/uom-oss-club] has started up again for semester 2 with a new set of code bases. This coming week, we're meeting on Monday, 3rd February 2025, 12.00pm-1.00pm in Kilburn Collab 1. We'll be working on NMRInversions, a tool to perform numerical inversions for NMR spectroscopy experiments, implemented in Julia. We'll be joined by the code base owner, Aris Mavridis, a PhD student in the Department of Chemical Engineering, who will be helping us set up a Julia development environment and to get to grips with reading (and later writing) Julia. Existing and new members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Knowledge of Julia is not required. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, carry out exploratory testing, spruce up the code base and build a public record of contributions. Software engineers from the University's research software engineering team will provide support (and we may be joined by engineers from Booking.com).

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

There will be a department seminar on Wednesday, 5th February 2025, 14:00 – 15:00, in Lecture Theatre 1.3, Kilburn Building. The speaker will be Dr. Michele Caprio and the title of the talk is “Imprecise Probabilistic Machine Learning - Being Precise about Imprecision”. Abstract: This talk is divided into two parts. I will first introduce the field of Imprecise Probabilistic Machine Learning, from its inception to modern-day research and open problems, including motivations and clarifying examples. In the second part, I will present Interval Deep Evidential Classifications (IDEC), a novel approach to address Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) in classification tasks. IDEC leverages an interval of evidential predictive distributions, allowing us to avoid overfitting to the training data and to systematically assess both epistemic and aleatoric uncertainties. When those surpass acceptable thresholds, IDEC has the capability to abstain from classification and flag an excess of epistemic or aleatoric uncertainty, as relevant. Conversely, within acceptable uncertainty bounds, IDEC provides a collection of labels with robust probabilistic guarantees. IDEC is trained using a loss function that draws from the theory of evidence. It overcomes the shortcomings of previous efforts and extends the current evidential deep learning literature. We also demonstrate empirically the competitive performance of IDEC in classification with abstention and out-of-distribution (OOD) evaluation settings, showcasing its effectiveness on benchmark datasets.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

There will be a department seminar on Wednesday, 12th February 2025, 14:00 – 15:00, in Lecture Theatre 1.3, Kilburn Building. The speaker will be Dr. Edoardo Manino and the title of the talk is “AI Security: Language Models, Data Encryption, Software Verification”. Abstract: Neural networks are slowly getting integrated into safety-critical systems. Unfortunately, we still lack a full suite of algorithms and tools to guarantee their safety. In this talk, I will present a few open challenges in AI safety and security: consistent behaviour in language models, machine learning over encrypted data, model compression with error guarantees, bug-free floating-point software. Here, I will claim that formal methods are the key to address these challenges, as long as we can settle on an unambiguous specification.

SOE SUMMER INTERNSHIPS.

Applications will open on Friday 7th February, for the 2025 School of Engineering Internship scheme; an opportunity for you to gain paid experience of working within the School of Engineering during summer 2025. There are many different projects to choose from, each with different supervisors and very different project outlines that you can apply for. The scheme is open to registered Year 2 undergraduate students, as well as Year 3 undergraduate students on a 4-year programme, and both home and international students are welcome to apply.

VOISE SOCIETY.

Interested in STEM outreach with local schools? Fancy using your skills to help local children? Or flexibly working towards your Stellify award? VOISE (Volunteering Outreach in Science and Engineering) is the university’s leading STEM outreach society - We’re looking for members to help “Inspire Tomorrow’s Innovators”. In 2024, here’s what we achieved:

Volunteered at 13 events, 8 on-campus and 5 off-campus.
277.5 Stellify volunteering hours collected in total!
609 students engaged from Years 5–10.

Follow our Instagram @uom_voise to find out more!

PHD CAFE.

PhD Café is an informal networking session where current undergraduate students can speak with PhD researchers and admissions staff in the Faculty, to figure out whether pursuing a PhD is right for them. The goal is to offer a relaxed, friendly environment where students can ask any questions they have in a 1-1 setting and explore their options in postgraduate research at the University of Manchester. PhD Café is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, 19 February, from 1-3pm, in the Engineering Building B, Blended Lecture Theatre 2 (2B.020). Students will be provided with free tea, coffee, and pizza – this is a café after all! If you are interested in pursuing a career in research then please consider attending the event.

BETTER WORLD GRANTS.

Kickstart your project with the 2025 Better World Grants. Applications for the 2025 Better World Grants are now open, inviting students to apply for targeted funding for projects focused around environmental sustainability, civic, public and outreach engagement or EDIA. Grants for individual and group initiatives for up to £1000 are available. Applications are open until Wednesday, 30 April 2025. Read more and apply here or contact the Social Responsibility Team to discuss your idea.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Secret Crossing by Groktilian

Normal sudoku rules apply. Box borders divide each blue line into segments with equal sums. Different lines may have different sums. Adjacent digits on a green 'whisper line' differ by at least 5.

Chess Puzzle - Bromann Vs. Pedersen, 2003

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 1 • Monday 27 January 2025 • #24.16

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 27th January 2025, and it's the start of semester 2! As it’s a new semester you will have a new teaching timetable starting this week, so make sure you keep an eye on it over the next few weeks as course unit enrolment settles down, and last minute changes are made. If you are a 3rd year student then don’t forget to attend the meeting today (Monday) with Gareth and Terry where they will talk about the remainder of the year, and in particular the project. The National Student Survey is now open for those students who are graduating in 2025, so if you are graduating this year then please complete it as your feedback is really important to us (see below). Finally, don’t forget that we are inviting you to provide your input on the design of a new study study space in the Kilburn building (see below).

Have a good week, on with today’s news …
Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SVC UPDATE.

Welcome back after holidays and exams; hopefully you’ve had at least some time to relax and recharge before we get into semester two! In the last week of semester one, we held the second Student Voice Committee meeting of the year. During this meeting, we raised and discussed various topics over two hours including: coursework extensions, marking, and feedback as well as Kilburn kitchen facilities and temperature issues. Regarding temperature issues in Kilburn, you may have noticed more environment reporting posters up. The QR codes should soon allow you to report any heating issues so they can be followed up. More details of the last meeting will be available on Blackboard (in the CS UG Community) when the minutes are uploaded.

If you have any feedback for us, from facility issues and unresolved or cross-unit academic issues to giving positive shoutouts, there are many ways to get in touch and keep up to date:

Click the link or scan the QR code (below) for our online reporting form.
Drop in our open office hour this Tuesday (the 28th of January) from 16:00 to 17:00 to speak face to face with one of our reps in Collab 1.
Stop by our SVC noticeboard in the Kilburn LF area
As always, you can email a rep directly; our email addresses are on Blackboard, the noticeboard in the Kilburn LF area, and the Student’s Union website.
If you have feedback regarding a specific course unit, please feed this back to the course unit lead directly. If you are unhappy with their response, please bring this back to us!

MEET AN ACADEMIC REP.

This academic rep of the week is Ilyasse Boudjemline (Y1, CSwIE). Ilyasse writes: Hi there, my name is Ilyasse! I'm a first year Computer Science student and I really look forward to hearing feedback from you about any part of your experience at UoM, and I will make sure your voice is heard so that your experience can be as smooth as possible! Don't hesitate to contact me by email, or you can search me up on LinkedIn (Ilyasse Boudjemline) to see more about me

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES - HAVE YOUR SAY.

If you have applied for mitigating circumstances since September 2023, then the University would really like to hear about your experience. Take part in our online survey and be in with the chance of winning one of four £50 Love to Shop vouchers . Take the survey here. The survey closes this Friday (31st January), so please provide us with feedback before this date.

INFORM THE VISION FOR KILBURN’S NEW SELF-STUDY SPACE.

Please follow the link and complete the survey. If you’d like to complete the survey but require it in an alternative format, please contact me by email. The survey is anonymous, and all thoughts and opinions are important to the project. Responses will be used to develop a vision for the self-study space. This vision will be used to develop designs for the space and inform further decision making. The self-study space is part of the wider redevelopment of the ground floor of the Kilburn Building which will transform the home of Computer Science. There will be a new 200 seat computer cluster which will have natural light over the current ground floor provision. This new space will also allow for more efficient timetabling and space for classes and electronic exams.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

The National Student Survey (NSS) launches this week, which offers final year students the opportunity to reflect on their time at Manchester and allows you to provide feedback on how, overall, you found your experience of studying at Manchester. All students eligible to complete NSS will receive an email from Ipsos Mori (an external company appointed by the UK Government to run NSS) with a link to complete the survey. There’s no need to wait, you can complete NSS directly via the NSS website.

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello everyone and welcome back! Hopefully you had a restful break and have celebrated the end of your exams. 2025 brings with it a new semester with new course units to choose from, so to make your choices easier, we’re going to give you the lowdown on our course unit experiences in the first PASS3+ session of the year. Come down to Collab 1 from 15:00 on Tuesday (28th of January) to join us in our discussions (and, as always, to indulge in snacks)!

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES DEADLINE.

4pm today (Monday 27th January 2025) is the deadline for submitting mitigating circumstances for semester 1, as well as the deadline by which any evidence to support your application MUST be submitted. We are unable to accept applications or evidence after today. You can submit mitigating circumstances by filling out this form. The UG handbook provides information on the mitigating circumstances process. If you are unsure about how to fill in the form, whether what you have experienced qualifies for mitigation, or if you are experiencing problems with obtaining evidence, please speak to a member of the Welfare Team or your Year Tutor.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Confidential one to one appointments
Workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools
Access to services, such as Health Assured and Qwell.

You can refer yourself to the counselling service by booking an appointment online. Remember you can always contact the School Wellbeing team, Maria and Ben, who are always available to offer any help or advice at any time.

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

With teaching resuming, we thought it would be worth reminding you that we will continue to record your attendance at timetabled activities using SEAtS in semester 2. You can find information on how to use SEAtS on the Student Support website. Staff will display a QR code and/or pin during each session, and you must record your attendance via the SEAtS app or webpage during the session. Why are we doing this? Attendance information will be used to help identify students who may be struggling academically or personally, so we’re able to quickly and effectively offer any support required. It will also be used as part of the visa check-in processes.

Please note that teaching staff cannot change your attendance record, so please do not contact them to query your attendance. You should instead contact the SEAtS team through the link above.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Monday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Thursday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 09:00 - 10:00, LF Area.

THIRD YEAR MEETING.

Just a reminder to all 3rd year students that Gareth and Terry will be holding a meeting for all 3rd year students today (Monday 27th January) at 4pm in Roscoe Theatre A (building 53 on the University interactive map). The meeting is important as it focuses on the project and the National Student Survey (NSS) as well as other things. Please make every effort to attend.

EXAM RESULTS.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

We are in the process of updating the coursework deadlines chart, which can be accessed here, to show the deadlines for the summative coursework elements of all COMP course units in Semester 2. The chart also lets you know for each assessment whether it is possible to apply for an extension. The updating process should be completed soon. Please note that deadlines may still change and that only SPOT indicates up-to-date information on deadlines, so please use SPOT to confirm deadlines.

GITLAB DOWNTIME WARNING.

Chris Page writes: On Wednesday 29 January the Department of Computer Science GitLab system will be taken offline to perform essential maintenance and upgrades. Work on the system will start at 14:00 and may take until 18:00, although we will attempt to minimise the time that GitLab is unavailable. A notice banner is currently shown on GitLab pages as a reminder for this work, and it will be removed when the work on the server is completed and tests indicate GitLab is operating normally. While GitLab is offline you will be able to continue to work locally in any currently cloned git repositories, including adding commits. However, attempts to interact with the GitLab server (via `git push`, `git pull`, `git fetch` and so on) will fail.

COURSE UNIT CHOICES.

The deadline for selecting any optional course units on the University system is approaching for semester 2. If you are a 4th year MEng student then the deadline is 14:00 this Friday (31st January), otherwise the deadline is 14:00, Friday 7th February. You need to ensure that your course units total 120 credits by this date (130 for 4th year students).  Please note that you will not be permitted to change any full year units such as language units in January as you have committed to the full year of study if you chose a full year optional unit. You will not be able to change your choices after the deadline. If you have any issues or need help, then please email soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk.

LEARNING TIPS - BACK TO LEARNING.

So, you’ve had some time off over the Christmas/New Year break and have completed your semester 1 exams … now it all starts again. Now is the time to reflect on last semester and how your learning went. Did you perform as well as you expected? Are you disappointed with the marks you achieved? Did you perform much better than you thought? Did you devote too much time, but showed little gain in marks? How can you improve the way you study? Are you using your time productively? Is there more you could do to improve how you learn? Did you struggle to complete your assignments on time? Did you leave them to the last minute? Why was this? What could you do to stop this from happening again? These are all the questions you should be asking yourself, and more! Now is the time to think about how you approach learning, how you manage your time and how you plan how you work. Maybe it would be worth having a discussion with your tutorial group to understand how others approach their learning. What do they do that's different? Is their approach more effective? Could you try the same?

Try new approaches to improve the way you learn. Consider producing a Gantt chart that outlines when you will be working on what over the semester. Make use of the deadlines Gantt chart the Department provides to manage your learning around these deadlines. Form study groups with your friends to work through the material, explaining your understanding to each other and tackling example questions - sometimes this can be more effective than trying to work on your own. You may think you are stupid for not understanding something but I can guarantee that if you don’t understand something, then someone else is in the same boat. I strongly believe that no question is a stupid question, so make use of the opportunities available to seek help, such as using course unit discussion forums. Debating issues with others is a powerful way of clarifying what it is that is confusing you. Have a look at the library’s My Learning Essentials webpage, where you can find resources to support your learning.

Make productive use of your time and be more effective in your approach to learning. Don’t forget that University is not just about learning, it’s about gaining new experiences, doing new things and meeting new people, so it’s important to take time off from studying to relax and explore what being at University has to offer.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Gradescope: Submission to Gradescope may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Gradescope to ensure your submission was correct.
Although the systems (Blackboard, Gitlab, Gradescope and SPOT) may show that you have submitted – they do not know what you submitted. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have submitted the correct file(s).
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT IN CS.

IT Services provide support for centrally provided systems and software. If you have problems with Office 365, including email, Blackboard, Duo, Wifi, printing, or using your University of Manchester account to log into Windows or Linux you will need to contact the IT Services helpdesk either via the in-person desk on the ground floor of Kilburn building, the support portal, or by calling 0161 306 5544. FSE Technical Services provide support for the Department of Computer Science GitLab service, the Web Dashboard, MySQL and MongoDB services, and can help with issues related to software used as part of your courses and submitting work with git. This can include general git problems, issues with access to git projects, submissions not appearing in SPOT, and problems with software on the cluster machines. They can be contacted by emailing support@cs.manchester.ac.uk. Please note that in general FSE Technical Services can not provide technical support for installing software on personal devices.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: Digital Society: UCIL online course run by the Library. Explore your place in today’s networked world through digital learning and collaboration and gain 10 credits! Starts: 27 January 2025, and registration is open until 10 February 2025. To find out more and sign up, visit the UCIL website.

MUDS AI WORKSHOP.

MUDS AI is excited to welcome you back for the second semester of the academic year! We hope your exams went well and you’re ready for an exciting start to 2025. If you've been keeping up with us on social media, you know that MUDS became MUDS AI - The Manchester University Data Science and AI Society!

This semester, we have an incredible lineup of events planned, including workshops in collaboration with GirlsWhoML and EntrepreneurFirst, a series of ML in Finance workshops, and other exciting initiatives. Stay tuned for the latest updates and announcements by following us on social media and checking out our Luma page. We can't wait to see you at our upcoming events! This week, join us for our first workshop this semester "Unsupervised Learning". Whether you're new to AI or an ML enthusiast, this practical session is ideal for perfecting your skills. Don’t miss it! Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 29th of January
Time: 3:00-5:00 pm
Location: Kilburn Building, Theatre 1.1

Here is what to expect:

Learn how K-means and SimCLR enable computer vision models to learn without labels.
Build an image classifier in PyTorch using self-supervised pre-training.
Ideal for anyone seeking to apply computer vision in diverse real-world scenarios.

Register now by clicking the link or scanning the QR code on the event banner. Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn for the latest updates, announcements, and event highlights!

MUDS AI AND ENTREPRENEUR FIRST WORKSHOP.

Join MUDS AI x Entrepreneur First for a workshop on how to approach finding co-founders, ideation process & early-company building. Over the last decade, the team at EF has helped many exceptional people find a co-founder, develop an idea and build their startup from scratch. Through this process, they have developed an in-depth and nuanced understanding of the ideation process. In this 2 hour workshop, they will share some of their knowledge and frameworks and guide you through multiple ideation sprints with fellow members of the Manchester University Data Science and AI Society. Please note that the spaces are limited, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Register here or by scanning the QR code in the event banner. Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 12th of February
Time: 4:00-6:00 pm
Location: Nancy Rothwell Building, Room 2A.012

About Entrepreneur First: Entrepreneur First invests in exceptional individuals to build startups from scratch. They bring together talented outliers to develop their most ambitious ideas and raise money from the world’s best investors. The startups cofounded on their programs are now worth over $10B, and include Tractable, Magic Pony Technology, Cleo, La Vie, Aztec, Sonantic, and many more. EF is backed by some of the world's leading founders and investors, including Stripe, LinkedIn, GoCardless, Monzo, Whatnot, Twitch, Demis Hassabis (Google Deepmind), Wordpress.

BCSWOMEN LOVELACE COLLOQUIUM.

The 2025 BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is an annual one day conference for women and non-binary students of Computing and related subjects, with categories for

First year and foundation year
Second year and industrial year
Final year UG
MSc / final year MEng

The conference will also feature great talks, employer stands, postgrad opportunities, social events and free food. Travel bursaries and accommodation available for finalists (if required).

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

On 29th January 2025, 13:00 - 18:00, Dr Ben Collier will present the Digital Trust and Security Seminar on “Revolutionizing Crime Prevention: Influence Policing in the UK”. In a world full of crises and after more than a decade of austerity, UK police forces are stepping up their game with a new strategy called influence policing. Using digital campaigns, it “nudges” behaviour and shapes the culture of particular groups, targeting people based on their internet activities. Due to its success, this method has now been incorporated into various areas of policing, including online child abuse, domestic violence, knife crime, and cybercrime. Find out more, including the ethical and theoretical implications of this innovative strategy, with Dr. Ben Collier, Lecturer in Digital Methods, the University of Edinburgh. Register here.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

Register here to discuss the critical issues that IPv6 solves, the security benefits it provides and the potential risks it inadvertently creates. This is a high in-demand event with limited seats so we recommend you secure your ticket asap to avoid disappointment.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

INAUGURAL CHAIR LECTURE.

There will be an Inaugural Chair Lecture on Wednesday, 29th January 2025, from 13:00 to 14:00 in Lecture theatre 1.3, Kilburn Building. The speaker is Prof. Lucas Cordeiro, Systems and Software Security Research Group, Department of Computer Science, and the title of the talk is “Towards Building Trustworthy Software and AI Systems”. Abstract: Software and AI systems have become ubiquitous today, but their trustworthiness remains a pressing concern. In 2022 alone, poor software quality cost US companies $2.41 trillion, while the accumulated software technical debt has grown to approximately $1.52 trillion. Automated formal reasoning methods can play a crucial role in ensuring the trustworthiness of these systems. In this inaugural chair lecture, I will discuss the work conducted by our research group over the past 15 years, which pushes the boundaries in automated verification to establish a foundation for building trustworthy software and AI systems. I will cover our recent advancements that explore search, learning, memory, and parallelization for program verification, synthesis, and testing. I will also present practical applications of these methods via various industrial collaborations, such as inspecting firmware security verification in modern processors, verifying and repairing neural network implementations, and ensuring the reliability of communication protocols, including consensus specifications in blockchain technology.

Bio: Lucas C. Cordeiro is a Full Professor of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, UK, where he leads the Systems and Software Security Research Group and serves as Business Engagement and Innovation Director. He is also the Director of the Arm Centre of Excellence at Manchester. His work focuses on software model checking, automated testing, program synthesis, software security, embedded and cyber-physical systems. He has co-authored more than 160 peer-reviewed publications in the most prestigious venues and received various international awards, including the Most Influential Paper at ASE'23, the Distinguished Paper Award at ICSE'11 and ASE'24, and 46 awards from the international competitions on software verification (SV-COMP) and testing (Test-Comp) 2012-2024. He has a proven track record of securing research funding from the government (British Council, CAPES, CNPq, EPSRC, Royal Society, UKRI) and industry (ARM, Intel, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung).

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING VOLUNTEERS OPPORTUNITY.

Andrea Schalk writes: If you're eligible you will have received an email about this scheme. This is a reminder that sign-up is open now until 8.00 on Monday 3rd February. We don't have a full list of units available, so please put down your list of Year 1 and Year 2 units in decreasing order of your interest. We also have a new UCIL unit that introduces students from outside the department to programming, and that one is definitely available. Please email me if you have any questions.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome to Puzzle Corner, a range of puzzles, challenges and brain teasers set by our resident puzzle master Gareth Henshall. Every week Gareth will set you the challenge of solving a range of puzzles. Get ready to challenge your mind and explore the world with this week’s trio of brain teasers! Whether you’re a sudoku whiz, a chess strategist, or a globe-trotting explorer, Puzzle Corner has something for everyone. Clear your schedule, grab a cup of coffee, and let the fun begin!

Sudoku Challenge - Fogg Index Strips by Blobz

Normal sudoku rules apply. Placing correct digits will clear the fog from surrounding cells. Digits in cages do not repeat, and sum to the small clue, if given. Pink strips (of at least 2 cells in length) are hidden in the fog. Digits in a vertical strip in column N indicate the column in which the digit N appears, in the corresponding row. Digits in a horizontal strip in row N indicate the row in which the digit N appears, in the corresponding column. For example, if r2c3 is in a horizontal strip, and contains a 7, then r7c3 contains a 2.

Chess Puzzle - Makarian Vs. Vachier-Lagrave, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Send your completed Sudoku and Chess answers to gareth.henshall@manchester.ac.uk with the subject title 'Puzzle Corner' by Friday. Don’t forget to check the GeoGuessr leaderboard to see where you stack up and see how close you got to the real location!

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Exams Week 2 • Monday 20 January 2025 • #24.15

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Good morning, it’s Monday 20th January 2025 and it’s the 2nd week of the semester 1 exam period! I hope your exams are going well … only one more week to go!

Teaching resumes on the 27th January with the start of semester 2, so your personal timetable will change to show learning activities for your semester 2 course units. If you have yet to finalise your course units, then it’s important you do so by the deadline (see below) as changes cannot be made after this date. The deadline to submit mitigating circumstances for semester 1 is Monday 27th January, so please make sure you submit any by then.

We would like to hear your thoughts on a new self-study space we are planning in the Kilburn building, so please complete the survey (see below).

Finally, please remember to check your exam timetable regularly, know when your exams are taking place and when. If you miss an exam, then it’s important you get in touch with the student hub straight away (see below).

Have a good week and don’t party too hard when you finally finish your exams!

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES - HAVE YOUR SAY.

INFORM THE VISION FOR KILBURN’S NEW SELF-STUDY SPACE.

SHARE YOUR VIEWS ON YOUR DIGITAL EXPERIENCE.

Tell us how we can improve your digital experience for the chance to win a £25 voucher. We’d love to hear your thoughts on your digital experience at uni. By completing this year’s Digital Experience Insights Survey, you’ll help us improve our digital services and contribute to the ongoing transformation of your learning experience. This is your last chance to take part and be entered into a prize draw for one of 20 Love2Shop vouchers worth £25. Complete the survey here. The survey data will inform the outputs of these projects to enhance your digital experience. Projects and available development opportunities include:

The University is preparing to move to Canvas from Blackboard Learn by September 2025 to bring you a modern and futureproof Central Learning Environment (CLE).
Digital Capability Student Reps are being supported to play an active role in promoting digital capabilities with student peers and enhancing digital capabilities in curriculum design and delivery.
The Digital Equity Charter sets out the University’s commitment to ensuring all students have equitable access to resources and opportunities including hardware, software and connectivity.
The Jisc Discovery tool helps you self-assess your confidence and experience of different digital skills and technologies.
LinkedIn Learning offers further development opportunities and provides recognition of digital and professional skills.

It takes around 10 minutes to complete and is open until 26 January 2025. Your feedback will help us build on the improvements already in development to the University’s digital landscape.

EXAM BREAKFASTS.

Don’t forget that free breakfasts are available during the exam period, each weekday, 8:30 - 10:00 am in the Nancy Rothwell Building event space on the ground floor. Pop on down for a pre-exam snack and to have a chat to the Information, Advice and Guidance, and Wellbeing teams. Please make sure to have your student ID on you.

EXAMS WELLBEING SUPPORT.

This from the Wellbeing Team: The exam period can be a challenging time, so if you find you are having issues that are impacting your studies or your wellbeing, then please make use of the Welfare Team, contact us by email if you need any help and support. There will always be a member of the wellbeing team available in the student hub (1st floor Nancy Rothwell Building) during normal working hours, so feel free to pop in to see someone in person if you would like a chat face-to-face. The Counselling and Mental Health Service run regular workshops all year round to help you get ready for exams, manage your current coursework or tasks and they also provide general wellbeing tips. You can find information on workshops you can attend, as well as useful information about workload management, both for exams and throughout the year.

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES DEADLINE.

Don’t forget that the deadline for submitting mitigating circumstances for semester 1 is 4pm, Monday 27th January 2025 (next Monday!). This is also the deadline by which any evidence to support your application MUST be submitted. We are unable to accept applications or evidence after this date. You can submit mitigating circumstances by filling out this form. The UG handbook provides information on the mitigating circumstances process. If you are unsure about how to fill in the form, whether what you have experienced qualifies for mitigation, or if you are experiencing problems with obtaining evidence, please speak to a member of the Welfare Team or your Year Tutor.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Manchester Student Homes & the Accommodation Office. Next September may feel a while off yet, but now is the time to start thinking about your accommodation for next academic year. Manchester Student Homes is a free, University-run housing service for students who can offer independent housing advice. They can help you search for the perfect student home and put you in contact with accredited landlords.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) is a specialist service supporting students with any condition that has a significant, adverse and long term effect on normal day to day activities. DASS helps students with a range of conditions which includes, but is not limited to, dyslexia and other learning difficulties, autism spectrum condition, mental health difficulties such as anxiety and depression, mobility and sensory impairments, as well as unseen disabilities like epilepsy, HIV, AIDS, chronic fatigue, IBS and Crohn's. DASS can help students access exams, study and specialist support but only if you register with them. You can make an appointment with DASS at any time. Make an appointment and register. For help and advice you can always talk to Maria or Ben in the School wellbeing team.

ON-CAMPUS STUDENT-LED HEALTH SCREENING CLINICS.

As part of the pharmacy UG curriculum, Year 3 pharmacy students will be running health screening clinics on campus. These clinics are free and open to all staff and students. The health screening check will involve measuring your blood pressure, height and weight. These measurements are then used to find out your heart age using an NHS evidence-based tool and your diabetes risk using the Diabetes UK ' Know Your Risk' tool (students will assess suitability for entering your data into these tools). The students will then go through these outcomes with you. Please read the participant information sheet before you attend for further information to understand what is involved. The health screening clinics will run:

Week 2 – Wednesday, 5 February 1.30-3.30pm
Week 5 – Wednesday, 26 February 1.30-3.30pm
Week 8 – Wednesday, 19 March 1.30-3.30pm
Week 9 – Wednesday, 26 March 1.30-3.30pm

There is no need to book – just pop over to G.66 Wellbeing Rooms, Simon Building. Please contact Harsha or Sarah (Co-leads for MPharm Prescribing Skills) if you have any questions.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

In the Department we have Year Tutors who are responsible for looking after the different cohorts in each year group. The Year Tutors are here to provide you with help and support if you need it, so feel free to contact your Year Tutor by email:

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall.
Year 4: Tim Morris.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi.
UG Director: Paul Nutter.

Year Tutors will not be operating open hours during the exam period, so If you need to contact your Year Tutor then please contact them by email.

THIRD YEAR MEETING.

Calling all 3rd year students! Gareth and Terry will be holding a meeting for all 3rd year students at 4pm on Monday 27th January in Roscoe Theatre A (building 53 on the University interactive map). The meeting is important as it focuses on the project and the National Student Survey (NSS) as well as other things. Please make every effort to attend.

CHECK YOUR EXAM TIMETABLE.

It’s important that you regularly check your exam timetable and that you know when and where your examinations are taking place. Make sure you know the start time and the duration of the exam. All examinations take place under invigilated conditions and on-campus (there may be one or two exceptions to this), so you must be in Manchester during the examination period. Your personal timetable should show you when your exams take place and, more importantly, where. Exams for course units often take place across multiple locations, so it’s vitally important you attend an exam in the location specified in your timetable; your friends may have their exam in a different location. If you miss an exam, for whatever reason, or you arrive late for an exam and are not allowed in, then please contact the student hub as soon as possible, or call in to the Student Hub in Nancy Rothwell Building.

COURSE UNIT CHOICES.

Course unit selection for semester 2 is now open. The deadline for choosing/changing course units on the University system is 14:00 (UK time) on Friday 7th February. You need to ensure that your course units total 120 credits by this date (130 for 4th year students).  Please note that you will not be permitted to change any full year units such as language units in January as you have committed to the full year of study if you chose a full year optional unit. You will not be able to change your choices after the deadline. If you have any issues or need help, then please email soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk.

BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS.

Want to do something different? What to broaden your skills and knowledge? Then who not consider doing something different and add something unique to your studies this semester? Whether you want to expand your knowledge beyond your degree or develop valuable skills for your future career, there’s a module for you!

UCIL enrolments are open for semester 2: Looking to try something new in 2025? The University College for Interdisciplinary Learning (UCIL) offers 20+ taught units for you to try, helping you explore new interests, develop valuable skills and meet students from across the university. Courses include:

Communicating with Confidence: Learn to effectively communicate with a wide range of audiences
On Creativity: Explore the big ideas behind creativity.
Leadership in Action: Understand what it means to be a leader in the 21st century.

You can explore UCIL’s full unit options here.

You can also enhance your career with entrepreneurship skills to boost your employability or explore starting your own business. The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) offers 30+ taught units in enterprise and entrepreneurship that are open to all students across the University. These are:

Available to all undergraduate and postgraduate students
Open to students with free elective units from any subject background
No prior experience or study in entrepreneurship required
Business concepts are explained in accessible, easy-to-understand language

Through these units, you’ll gain valuable experience to help secure your dream job or develop the skills to launch your own side hustle. Throughout the year, you’ll also have access to competitions, speaker events, workshops, and startup support programmes to complement your learning. All you need is an open mind and eagerness to learn! Discover MEC unit options.

BCSWOMEN LOVELACE COLLOQUIUM.

The 2025 BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is an annual one day conference for women and non-binary students of Computing and related subjects, with categories for

First year and foundation year
Second year and industrial year
Final year UG
MSc / final year MEng

The event started in 2008, and moves around the country and this year will take place on 16th April 2025 at Glasgow University. The call for Abstracts is now open and you can submit a 250 abstract at bcswomenlovelace.bcs.org by 3rd February 2025. Poster contests are open to all women and non-binary UG/PGT taught students of computing in the UK. The conference will also feature great talks, employer stands, postgrad opportunities, social events and free food. Travel bursaries and accommodation available for finalists (if required).

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

INAUGURAL CHAIR LECTURE.

There will be an Inaugural Chair Lecture on Wednesday, 22nd January 2025, from 14:00 to 15:00 in Lecture theatre 1.3, Kilburn Building. The speaker is Prof. Chenghua Lin, Natural Language Processing, Department of Computer Science, and the title of the talk is “In Pursuit of the Meaning of Language: The Role of Large Language Models (LLMs) in Natural Language Processing and Generation”. Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs), such as the GPT-x family, have taken the natural language processing (NLP) and generation (NLG) fields, if not the whole world, by storm. In this talk, I will reflect on my journey in NLP and NLG research, showcasing how LLMs bridge critical gaps in these domains. I will focus on a number of critical areas, including novel generation tasks (e.g., creative generation and lay summarisation), robust evaluation methods, data contamination, and inference efficiency. I will also present my work on extending LLMs to other modalities, such as music, and discuss the interplay between language and other modalities, including visual inputs, where I believe multimodal research paves the way for advancing a wide range of disciplines. Finally, I will conclude my talk by highlighting future directions and challenges, as well as the broader impacts of LLMs.

Bio: Chenghua Lin is Professor of Natural Language Processing in the Department of Computer Science, The University of Manchester. His research interests lie in the integration of machine learning and NLP for language generation and understanding, as well as representation learning and generation for music. He has received several prizes and awards for his research, including a CIKM Test-of-Time Award and an INLG Best Paper Runner-up Award. He is the Secretary of the ACL SIGGEN Board, a Member of the IEEE Speech and Language Processing Technical Committee, and a founding Advisor of the Multimodal Art Projection community.

UPCOMING INAUGURAL CHAIR LECTURE.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

UNDERGRADUATE TEACHING VOLUNTEERS OPPORTUNITY.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Gemma Smith writes: New Library database. Take a look at Global Issues Library (access through Library Search). A wide range of international collections including:

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Exams Week 1 • Monday 13 January 2025 • #24.14

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Good morning UG and welcome back! It is Monday 13th January 2025 and we are into the semester 1 exam period!

I hope you managed to take some time off to relax over the Christmas break and that you are all energised ready to get going again (or maybe not!). The semester 1 exam period started early this year, so I hope they’ve gone okay if you've already had some, if not, I hope that you are ready and prepared for when they start. The exam period continues for the next two weeks, finishing on Friday 24th January, with semester 2 teaching starting on Monday 27th January. Please familiarise yourself with your personal exam timetable and make sure you know the location of each exam prior to the exam taking place. Remember, exams can take place in multiple locations on campus, even for the same course unit, so please make sure you attend the location indicated on your exam timetable. If you have any issues on the day of an exam then please contact the student hub in Engineering Building A immediately.

Finally, thanks to everyone who completed a course unit survey, your feedback is welcomed and really important to us.

Have a good week and good luck in your exams!

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES - HAVE YOUR SAY.

If you have applied for mitigating circumstances since September 2023, the University would like to hear about your experience. Take part in our online survey and be in with the chance of winning one of four £50 Love to Shop vouchers . Take the survey here.

COURSE UNIT EVALUATION SURVEYS.

Thank you to everyone who completed a course unit evaluation survey for one of our course units. Course unit leaders will be asked to consider the feedback you have provided and make changes, where appropriate, to their teaching following any issues or comments raised. These surveys offer you an opportunity to use your voice to make changes to our teaching and, whilst any changes will not directly impact you, it will improve teaching for future cohorts just like it has been improved following feedback from prior cohorts. Andrea Schalk (Discipline Head of Education) and Paul Nutter (UG Programme Director).

KNEEBONE ACORN BURSARY SUCCESS.

Congratulations to Dominic Hill (CS, Year 2) who is the recipient of this year’s Kneebone Acorn Bursary award. The Kneebone Acorn Bursary is a commemorative award, sponsored by the Kneebone Family and arm, in memory of Kate Kneebone, a past student of the Department, who after graduating with a 1st class degree in Computer Science went on to work for arm for several years. Thank you to all those who took time to apply for the bursary. As usual, the quality of the applications was high, and we had a record number of applications this year. Dominic will receive a £1000 bursary, as well as the opportunity to discuss a placement at arm. Congratulations Dominic!

EXAM BREAKFASTS.

Weekly free breakfasts are available during the exam period, each weekday, 8:30 - 10:00 am in the Nancy Rothwell Building event space on the ground floor. Pop on down for a pre-exam snack and to have a chat to the Information, Advice and Guidance, and Wellbeing teams. Please make sure to have your student ID on you.

EXAMS WELLBEING SUPPORT.

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES DEADLINE.

The deadline for submitting mitigating circumstances for semester 1 is 4pm, Monday 27th January 2025. This is also the deadline by which any evidence to support your application MUST be submitted. We are unable to accept applications or evidence after this date. You can submit mitigating circumstances by filling out this form. The UG handbook provides information on the mitigating circumstances process. If you are unsure about how to fill in the form, whether what you have experienced qualifies for mitigation, or if you are experiencing problems with obtaining evidence, please speak to a member of the Welfare Team or your Year Tutor.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - JANUARY EXAMS - YOU CAN DO THIS!

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: Happy New year, and… Boom, exams! We hope you have had the opportunity to have a good rest over the winter break, and that you also made sure to get your revision done. It may have been a little while since I last did an exam but I've seen many hundreds of students through this period and I've seen every possible issue you can think of. With that in mind, here are my top tips for surviving the January Exams.

Plan your time and stay organised - Create a realistic timetable, allocating time to each topic. It's too easy to invest too much time on one unit at the expense of others. Here is a planner you can use.
Take regular breaks and get some sleep - You will take in more information from a few hours of well rested revision than you will from pulling an all-nighter. Get 7-8 hours sleep each night. Take a five minute break from the computer screen for each hour, or use the "Pomodoro method" of 20 minutes study followed by a five minute rest.
Stay Healthy! - Now is not the time to be living off a diet of Pizza and Caffeine tablets. I can tell you that from personal experience. Eating healthily, staying hydrated, and getting exercise will benefit your studies. Make cooking a meal, getting a drink of water, or going for a jog, part of the breaks in your schedule.
Read your timetable and find the exam room in advance - Every year several students will request mitigation as they could not find the exam room, they misread their timetable, or they listened to a friend rather than reading their timetable. Every single application gets rejected. Checking your timetable and going to find the room in advance could be the best thing you can do for your exam grade.
Don’t trust the buses - As above, every exam period people ask for mitigation because their bus/train/tram/lift/hovercraft was late, and every time the requests are rejected. Give yourself a large buffer to make sure you get to the exam on time.
Use Past papers - They really are a great way to practice.
Take some time to learn revision strategies with this online guide from My Learning Essentials. Take a look at this Assessment support web page form the library.
Two (or more) brains is better than one - Schedule group study sessions with your peers to gain different perspectives and fill knowledge gaps.
Ask - If you are not sure about something then ask your classmates or tutor for help in understanding a topic.
Get support - If you are struggling during this time then reach out for help. Find out more here or by visiting the Student Support Hub.

LIBRARY SUPPORT.

This from Gemma Smith: Revision help from the Library. Let us help you prepare and revise this January!

Workshops and online resources
Speak to one of our experts at a Library drop-in
Ask questions at the Main Library Stand
Listen out for announcements in Main Library and AGLC

You can find out more information here.

KEEPING SAFE ON CAMPUS.

Just a reminder that during the darker days in winter, it’s important that you keep safe at all times. Manchester, like any other large city, can have issues with crime, hence it’s important you keep safe when on campus and travelling to/from the campus. Keep in mind the following:

Stay alert: Keep your belongings safe and out of view when travelling to or from campus and whilst you’re on it. Avoid wearing noise cancelling headphones so you know what’s going on around you, and stick to well-lit roads and pavements as you travel around the city, avoiding underpasses where possible. Keep your phone out of sight!
Download SafeZone: Our mobile app SafeZone can be used to quickly connect you with Campus Support and Security team if you feel unsafe, need immediate help or require first aid or wellbeing assistance. The app is free to download, easy to use, and operates across the Manchester campuses. You can find out more about SafeZone here.
Report unacceptable behaviour: Manchester has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions. If you have witnessed any forms of this behaviour, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor. Find out more about Report + Support.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall.
Year 4: Tim Morris.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi.
UG Director: Paul Nutter.

Year Tutors will not be operating open hours during the exam period, so If you need to contact your Year Tutor then please contact them by email.

SEMESTER 1 EXAMS.

The semester 1 exams started last Thursday and will finish on Friday 24th January 2025. All examinations take place under invigilated conditions and on-campus (there may be one or two exceptions to this), so you must be in Manchester during the examination period. Your personal timetable should show you when your exams take place and, more importantly, where. Exams for course units often take place across multiple locations, so it’s vitally important you attend an exam in the location specified in your timetable; your friends may have their exam in a different location.

COURSE UNIT CHOICES.

Course unit selection for semester 2 is now open. The deadline for choosing/changing course units on the University system is 14:00 (UK time) on Friday 7th February 2025. You need to ensure that your course units total 120 credits by this date (130 for 4th year students).  Please note that you will not be permitted to change any full year units such as language units in January as you have committed to the full year of study if you chose a full year optional unit. You will not be able to change your choices after the deadline. If you have any issues or need help, then please email soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk.

NEED A PLACE TO WORK?

You are free to use any of our teaching rooms/labs when they are not being used for scheduled teaching or exams. If you are interested in knowing when a lab is not booked for a timetabled activity, then follow this link to open the University Timetable pages. To look for a room in Kilburn, select “Location”, then in the form that opens select “Kilburn Building” for the building, select the lab/room you would like to use under “Select Location”, the default view is this week, or you can select a particular week. Selecting “View Timetable” will show what activities are taking place in the selected room for the week. Please note that for the labs 1.8 and 1.10 look at the 1.8+1.10 timetable. You must be on campus to access the timetable. If a room is booked for teaching, then you should avoid using it. During the exam period some clusters on campus will be unavailable as they are being used for exams. In Kilburn,

LEARNING TIPS - THE DAY OF THE EXAM.

You’ve done all your preparation for the exam and you are (almost) confident you know all the material, then the day of the exam arrives. What do you do? Well, attend the exam of course, but what should you expect on the day? First, make sure you go to bed early the night before. It is important that you’ve had a good night's sleep before the exam, there’s nothing worse than sitting an exam feeling tired and this impacting your concentration. Whilst doing some revision the night before the exam is natural, resist the temptation to spend all night cramming for the exam - this is often counterproductive. It is usually beneficial to do something completely separate from revision before you go to bed: listen to music, play a game, watch a movie; do something to help you relax and get a good night's sleep. That way your brain will get a chance to switch off, and doesn't keep you awake trying to solve more sample problems.

On the morning of the exam make sure you get up early and enjoy a good breakfast. You don’t want to be going into the exam on an empty stomach, with it growling and letting you know how hungry you are throughout the exam. Avoid the temptation to cram just before the exam. It’s okay to have a brief look at some material you feel unfamiliar with, but avoid cramming a load of revision in that morning, as it won’t help. You should have already scoped out where the exam is taking place, so make sure you arrive plenty of time before the exam starts; at least 15 minutes before. Make sure you prepare your journey beforehand and are prepared for every eventuality. If you turn up late for an exam, you may not be allowed to enter. If you are allowed in, you certainly won't be given any additional time. If you miss an exam, it’s important you contact the Student Hub immediately.

You will be allowed to enter the exam room just before it starts. The only items you can take into the exam are a pen/pencil/ruler etc and a calculator (if allowed), you will be told where to leave anything else you bring with you, such as your bag. You will need your University ID, so make sure you bring it along with you! If it’s an online exam, you will also need to know your university username and password. Take your assigned seat. Whatever the format of the exam, paper-based or online, the exam invigilators will instruct you what you need to do. At the start of the exam, read the exam rubric (the instructions) so you are clear what is required for the exam, i.e. how many questions you should answer, how long the exam will last etc. Look through all the questions and identify any you feel confident answering and attempt these first. There’s no need to answer the questions in the order they are in the exam. Once you have answered the questions you are confident with, then attempt those that you find more difficult. Don’t spend too long answering a question - think about the number of marks available and the time for the exam. For example, if a question is only worth a few marks, then you shouldn’t be spending a long time answering it, you certainly shouldn't be producing an essay! Whether your exam is online or paper based, make sure your answers are readable. You don’t want to be losing marks because the marker cannot read and understand your answers. Underline your answers to make them clear to the marker.

If you finish answering the questions early, resist the temptation to leave early. Make use of any remaining time to check your answers and make sure you’ve completed everything required for the exam. At the end of the exam, if it's a paper-based exam, the invigilators will collect your papers and they will instruct you on when and how to leave. If it’s an online exam you will need to log out of the computer before you leave. After the exam, resist the temptation to discuss with your friends how you answered the questions - this only leads to anxiety if you find people have answered questions differently. Take some time to relax, have a brief nap, watch a film, or have a nice cup of tea. Do not jump straight into revising for your next exam.

Don’t forget that we’ve produced further advice and guidance in the UG Community Blackboard page. Please take the time to read this ahead of the exam period.

BCSWOMEN LOVELACE COLLOQUIUM.

The 2025 BCSWomen Lovelace Colloquium is an annual one day conference for women and non-binary students of Computing and related subjects, with categories for

First year and foundation year
Second year and industrial year
Final year UG
MSc / final year MEng

The conference will also feature great talks, employer stands, postgrad opportunities, social events and free food. Travel bursaries and accommodation available for finalists (if required).

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

INAUGURAL CHAIR LECTURE.

There will be an Inaugural Chair Lecture this Wednesday, 15th January 2025, from 14:00 to 15:00 in Lecture theatre 1.3, Kilburn Building. The speaker is Prof. Gaven Smith, Chair in Cyber Security, Department of Computer Science. The title of the talk is “Threats Without Boundaries”. Abstract: Cyber threats and online harms are an ever-present risk to our way of life. In an increasingly uncertain world, we all need to know how to create new and more resilient approaches to cyber security. There are profound implications for the whole community – in the way we build capability, in the way we collaborate, in our understanding of the risks, in the skills that we have, and the in the partnerships we develop. Every new cyber intrusion presents an opportunity to learn – yet knowledge sharing and safe spaces to share experience are still rare. This seminar and subsequent discussion - led by Professor Gaven Smith CB - will examine the lessons from contemporary incidents and propose some potential interventions for the wider cyber community: from developers to policy makers alike.

Bio: Gaven has held a Chair in Cyber Security at the University of Manchester since February 2023. He is an internationally recognised engineering leader with more than 30 years of experience in the UK National Security community. Until late 2023, he was the Director General for Technology and Chief Technology Officer at GCHQ. In his 7 years as CTO, he was responsible for the research into and development of a wide range of critical UK national security capabilities. Before that, Gaven held a range of technology leadership roles that invested in cutting-edge technology to support GCHQ’s rapidly changing mission. As well as his role at the university, Gaven is also a technology advisor, a Non-Executive Director, and an active advocate for online safety. He was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2022 and recognised in the 2023 New Year’s honours list for his work in National Security.

UPCOMING INAUGURAL CHAIR LECTURE.

UPCOMING DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE AWARDS.

Are you making a difference to society or the environment? Do you know someone who is? Why not enter the University’s annual Making a Difference Awards for social responsibility? The Making a Difference Awards celebrate the positive impact our students, staff, alumni, and external partners are having on the wellbeing of our communities and wider society. This is a chance to be recognised for your exceptional efforts in social responsibility, share best practices and inspire others. Our students have a chance to be recognised in several categories including equality, diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability and widening participation. All shortlisted entrants will be invited to a high-profile awards ceremony on 8 May 2025 to receive their Award and celebrate their commitment and dedication. This ceremony serves as a platform to raise awareness of your work and highlight your remarkable achievements. Take inspiration from previous winners, who found the recognition a powerful boost to continue tackling the issues they are passionate about, bringing increased attention and support to their projects. The deadline for submissions is this Wednesday, so be quick. You can enter via the social responsibility website. Individuals or teams can enter. Questions? please email socialresponsibility@manchester.ac.uk or telephone 0161-306-3044

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Week 12 • Monday 9 December 2024 • #24.13

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It is Monday 9th December 2024 and it’s the final week of teaching in semester 1. I hope that the semester has gone well and that you’ve enjoyed it. The semester 1 exam period starts on Thursday 9th January, so now is the time to start thinking about starting your revision if you haven’t already done so. However, it’s important that you take a well earned break over the Christmas vacation and spend some time relaxing, put your feet up, and see friends and family. When it comes to your exams, check your exam timetable and make sure you know when and where your exams are taking place.

The course unit evaluation surveys close on Friday, so please provide us with feedback on our teaching this semester. Remember, we use this information to improve our teaching and the student experience - this is your chance to share your views on what we do and your voice is really important to us. If you’ve completed the surveys for your course units already, then thank you very much!

I will be holding my last open hour of the semester on Thursday morning, 09:00 - 10:00, on the lower first floor of Kilburn, so please pop along to say hello, tell me how the semester has gone and grab a chocolate!

This will be the last Monday Mail until after the Christmas break, returning on Monday 13th January 2025. Let me take this opportunity to wish you the very best for the Christmas break and have a Happy New Year. I look forward to seeing you when you return in 2025.

Have a good week, on with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

Welcome to week 12! It’s the final week before the holidays, so it’s the best time to wrap up warm, enjoy a nice hot chocolate and leave some feedback on the department.

The term’s last SVC meeting is this Wednesday (11th December). Bring some festive cheer or an interesting discussion to the meeting by filling out the suggestions box feedback form!
Fill out the course specific unit surveys before midnight on Friday 13th December of Week 12.

If you have any problems - or want to make some members of staff feel a bit more festive - leave a few comments or well-wishes in the suggestions box. They’ll always be looked at and handled appropriately!

MEET AN ACADEMIC REP.

This academic rep of the week is Timothy Mak (Y2, CM). Timothy writes: Hi, my name's Timothy Mak. I am in my second year in Computer Science and Maths. I am a data storyteller. I gathered anonymous data from the discussion boards to persuade a maths lecturer to open a discussion forum for students. I want to broadcast your voices to the school, but I need your cooperation! Feel confident in introducing yourself and talking to me. P.S. English: OK, 中文（国語／粵語）：还可以, 日本語：大丈夫。Mature Student? Me too! Reach out: to timothy.mak-2@student.manchester.ac.uk, or linkedin.com/in/timothymak264/.

COURSE UNIT EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRES.

The surveys close on Friday (13th December). If you haven’t already provided feedback, then please consider doing so. We find feedback, particularly written comments, extremely useful to understand how you feel about our teaching, what works and what doesn’t. We do take note of your suggestions and make changes to our teaching as a result, as we are always looking for ways in which to improve what we do, but it can be difficult to judge what that should be. Your feedback helps us make those decisions. You will receive links to the surveys by email. Thank you for completing them.

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone, We hope you enjoyed the snack and chat pizza session last week; it was great to see you all! There will be no PASS2 this week, so you can take the time to relax or revise. See you next semester and wishing you all the best for exams and hoping you have a wonderful holiday!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hi everyone, well done for making it to the end of the first semester! We are celebrating with pizza followed by bowling this Tuesday (the 10th of December), all for free. Join us at the usual time (15:00) and place (Kilburn Collab 1) for pizza followed by a walk to Tenpin at the printworks for a free round of bowling to send off the year. Limited spaces are still available so please fill out the form by using this link or by scanning the QR code. Sign up ASAP to avoid disappointment!

1ST YEAR POSTER SESSION:

Stewart Blakeway writes: Last Monday we held the annual COMP10120 Poster Session in the foyer of the Nancy Rothwell Building. The session was great fun and attracted loads of interested visitors with good questions and suggestions. We also received very positive comments from colleagues expressing how impressed they were by your ideas and the qualities of the posters, so well done to everybody involved! We also had a public vote for the best posters in a three categories:

The Application with the Best Idea or Concept: X7 (tutor: Youcheng Sun): Meal Dealer - Making Meal Deals Simple (Ahmed Alenzi, Isaac Mason, Kostadin Karachorov, Danial Bakhtiari, Ugur Turgut, Jordan Liman, and Abdullah Qazi)
The most Visually Appealing and Imaginative Poster: X1 (tutor: Terry Morley): Planora - the Path to Perfect Productivity (Sidra Mazhar, Astha Shrestha, Yanlan Lei, Jiayi Liu, Ilbey Ahmetoglu, Mohamed Elnahhas, Tanuj Joysuree, and Mahmoud Mohammad Alhasan)
The most Carefully Thought Through Application and Plan: Y11 (tutor: Mary McGee Wood): SaveCyber - Learn the Fundamentals of Cyber Security (Merlin Warner-Huish, Ananya Talukdar, Baraa Al Shidi, Max Donnelly, William Sigee, Isaac Royle, and Mohammad Ahmad)

EXAMS WELLBEING SUPPORT.

This from the Wellbeing Team: As you are aware, the exams are approaching in January. This can be a challenging time for some of you, so please make use of the Welfare Team. Just contact us by email if you need any help and support. The Counselling and Mental Health Service run regular workshops all year round to help you get ready for exams, manage your current coursework or tasks and they also provide general wellbeing tips. You can find information on workshops you can attend, as well as useful information about workload management, both for exams and throughout the year.

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES DEADLINE.

The deadline for submitting mitigating circumstances for semester 1 is 4pm, Monday 27th January 2025. We are unable to accept applications after this date. You can submit mitigating circumstances by filling out this form. The UG handbook provides information on the mitigating circumstances process. If you are unsure about how to fill in the form, whether what you have experienced qualifies for mitigation, or if you are experiencing problems with obtaining evidence, please speak to a member of the Welfare Team or your Year Tutor.

STUDENT HUB OPENING HOURS OVER THE CHRISTMAS BREAK.

Email and phone support (+44 161 529 3691) will be available as usual Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm up to and including Friday, 20th December, after which our teams will break for Christmas, returning at 9am on Thursday, 2nd January 2025.

The Student Support Hub (Nancy Rothwell Building, First Floor, 1A.042) will be open and available for drop-ins and appointments up to and including Friday, 20th December. For the next few weeks the Student Support Hub will be open as follows:

Up to and including Friday, 13th December: Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm (except Wednesdays, which are 10am-5pm).
Note that the Hub is closed most of Wednesday, 11th December as it is the TLSE staff Christmas event that day. Students in urgent need will be able to attend the School of Natural Sciences Hub in Alan Turing Building instead.
Monday, 16th December – Friday, 20th December 2023, 10am to 4pm
Monday, 23rd December to Wednesday, 1st January 2025 – closed
Thursday, 2nd January to Wednesday, 8th January, 10am to 4pm
From Thursday, 9th January, opening times will revert back to normal, 9am – 5pm (except Wednesdays, which are 10am-5pm).

COST OF LIVING SUPPORT FUND.

What Can We Support? We can assist with essential living costs like rent, utility bills, food, and travel expenses related to your studies. However, we cannot provide funding for laptops, desktops, or tablets. The fund is meant to help those experiencing unforeseen circumstances, so it’s important that you start your studies with adequate funding for your tuition fees and living costs.
How to Apply? The application process typically takes around 30 minutes. You’ll need to submit supporting documents to help us assess your situation. Be sure to review the document checklist and have everything ready before starting the application.
You can download the application form here, and we recommend using your student ID to password-protect any documents you submit. Please note that the current assessment time is around three weeks after receiving all necessary documents.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Confidential one to one appointments
Workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools
Access to services, such as Health Assured and Qwell.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Student Union Advice Centre. The Student Union offers advice and support with life at the University. They offer a wide range of services and support.

Academic Advice: Help you through any academic problems you might face during your time at Manchester, including appeals, complaints, mitigating circumstances, disciplinary issues and course/university transfers. Academic guidance and support is free, confidential, and completely independent from the University.
Financial Advice: Offer advice and support on a range of money matters, including Student Finance, access to funding, financial worries and hardship, banking issues and government benefits. If you’re struggling with debt, we can also support you to access specialist advice.
Student Life Advice: Help you take care of your health and wellbeing and support you when things may be difficult. Our advisors are here to help you with anything personal that is going on for you. We’ll provide a confidential space where you can talk to us about anything that’s on your mind. We can help you to access additional support through the University and relevant external support organisations.
Housing Advice: Offer help with any worries you might have whether you're living at home, in halls or a private house. We offer advice and guidance on a range of housing issues including signing a contract, deposits, council tax, issues with your landlord, disrepair, tenant disputes and ending your tenancy early.

You can find more information on their website, including a contact form if you want to make an inquiry.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB CONTACT DETAILS.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

SUPPORT OVER THE CHRISTMAS BREAK.

Student support will remain available over the Christmas break and during the University closure period. Help will still be available via Mental Health Services, Safety Support, Wellbeing Services, Halls of Residence, IT Support, and other areas. See this page for further information. You can also find general information about support services on the University Student Support webpages. Remember you’re not alone and that we're here for you throughout the closure period, whenever you need it and whatever your concerns.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Thursday 09:00 - 10:00, Kilburn LF.

Year Tutors will not be operating open hours over the Christmas break, or during the exam period, so If you need to contact your Year Tutor then please contact them by email. However, please be aware that there may be a delay in responding ove the break.

SEMESTER 1 EXAMS.

The semester 1 exams take place over the period Thursday 9th to Friday 24th January 2025 (see the University’s key dates webpage). All examinations take place under invigilated conditions and on-campus (there may be one or two exceptions to this), so you must be in Manchester during the examination period. The timetabling of exams takes place centrally, the Department is not responsible for this. The exam timetable has now been published and can be found here. Please note that changes cannot be made to the timetable. The composite list provided shows all the locations for each exam, however, your personal timetable (when available) will tell you which location to attend. It's important you only attend the location specified in your personal timetable.

LIBRARY EXAM AND ASSESSMENT SUPPORT.

The Library is offering exam and assessment support for students including workshops, online resources and drop-in support, throughout the exam and assessment period. You can direct your students to the Library website for exam and assessment support such as:

Extending opening until 2am in the Main Library up to and during the exam period.
Additional study spaces in Prospect House (next to the IT building) - 2nd January to 17th January 2025 (9am to 8pm), Monday to Friday.
My Learning Essentials, providing workshops, drop-in support and online materials to support strategies and techniques for exam and assessment planning, preparation and wellbeing.
Workshops on preparing for your exams with expert guidance from the My Learning Essentials team and the Counselling and Mental Health Service.
Drop-in support to ask specific questions and for guidance.
Online resources to help you prepare for exams and assessments.
Further support via the Library Living Room, Library Help and Support, Specialist Library Support, Counselling and Mental Health Service and Student Support.

NEED A PLACE TO WORK?

You are free to use any of our teaching rooms/labs when they are not being used for scheduled teaching or exams. If you are interested in knowing when a lab is not booked for a timetabled activity, then follow this link to open the University Timetable pages. To look for a room in Kilburn, select “Location”, then in the form that opens select “Kilburn Building” for the building, select the lab/room you would like to use under “Select Location”, the default view is this week, or you can select a particular week. Selecting “View Timetable” will show what activities are taking place in the selected room for the week. Please note that for the labs 1.8 and 1.10 look at the 1.8+1.10 timetable. You must be on campus to access the timetable. If a room is booked for teaching, then you should avoid using it. During the exam period some computer clusters on campus will be unavailable as they are being used for exams. In Kilburn,

LEARNING TIPS - EXAMS - ON THE DAY.

The exam period is approaching, so how do you prepare yourself for the actual exams and what do you need to do on the day? Your personal timetable will inform you when and where your exams are taking place. It’s important to note that the exam for a particular course unit can take place across multiple locations on campus which means that you may be sitting the exam in a different location to your friends. What’s important is that you attend the location specified in your timetable - don’t go to any other location as you will not be allowed in! Once you know the location of your exams it’s important to scope them out beforehand, so you know where you need to be on the day.

You must arrive at the exam before the start of the exam, otherwise if you arrive late you may not be allowed into the exam, and, even if you are, you will not be given extra time. For that reason you should leave plenty of time to ensure you will get there approximately 15 minutes before the start of the exam. Plan your journey beforehand and be prepared for any eventuality.

When you are in the exam room then it’s important to listen to any instructions from the invigilators. If you need anything, then hold your hand up to get the attention of an invigilator. When the exam starts, get comfortable and first read the exam instructions (the rubric) carefully so you understand what you are required to do for the exam, how many questions need answering, where you write answers etc.; this is the same whether the exam is paper-based or online. Look through the questions and identify the ones you feel the most comfortable answering and answer these first. Leave the harder questions until last. Do not spend too long on a question - you can judge how long per question from the total number of marks available and the length of the exam. So, for example, if your exam is 2 hours long and you have 20 questions to answer, then this gives you 6 minutes per question. Some questions you will answer more quickly, some will take you much longer. It is easy to lose track of time, so please keep an eye on the clock!

For written exams (which for the most part occur for Year 3 units), make sure you write clearly. If your handwriting is difficult to read, then the marker may find it difficult to understand your answers, which may result in you inadvertently losing marks. The number of marks is often an indication of how much detail you should provide - if a question is worth 1 mark, then you shouldn’t be writing an essay to answer it. Take note of the rubric, it may ask you to use one answer booklet per question/section.

When you've finished answering all the questions, and if there’s time left, go back to the start and read through your answer to check you’ve answered the questions correctly. Make use of any remaining time - resist the temptation to leave early until you are really sure you have nothing left to add to your answers. Are your answers clear? Have you answered all the parts of a question? Reading the question and your answer a second time often helps you spot something you may have missed.

We’ve produced further advice and guidance in the UG Community Blackboard page. Please take the time to read this ahead of the exam period.

MANCHESTER AI CLUB.

Come to Kilburn Theatre 1.40 on Tuesday 10 December from 12-2pm, where Manchester AI Club will hold a workshop on building neural networks from scratch. This week we will also have a session of our reading group where we dive into fascinating AI research papers. More info on our Instagram, see you soon!

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

As the semester comes to an end, we'd like to thank everyone who attended club meetings and got stuck in with our target code bases. Several club members were able to make their first public open source contributions and earn some GitHub badges, with more pending contributions to come. We aren't running a formal club meeting on 10th December, but Suzanne will be working in the Byte Cafe area at the usual club meeting time (5-6pm) in case anyone is on campus and wants to do some final work on their issues and PRs.

Club meetings will start up again in week 1 of the second semester, with two brand new code bases to work on. We'll be trying a new on-boarding approach that gives more detailed guidance for people who are completely new to OSS with GitHub, and we have offers of mentorship from engineers in local companies to help out. Meeting dates/times will be published on our website in the new year. In the meantime, have a great break and good luck with any exams you may be taking in January. Suzanne Embury and Jan Machacek.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

WOMEN IN DATA EVENT.

Women in Data presents … Data Bites Talk, in conversation with Professor Jackie Carter. Interested in Big Data and how it can drive technological innovation? Heard a lot about Big Data but not sure what it is, what is actually being done with it and why it matters? If so, head to the Data Bites talks from leading specialists in the field. Discover some of the exciting things being done in Big Data and their practical applications for using it. The session will be of interest to students wanting to find out more about graduate roles in industry that require data skills. The session will also provide support on developing soft skills, influencing others and being heard as a data professional.

Jackie is Professor of Statistical Literacy and director of the University of Manchester’s Data Fellow programme will be in conversation with Simon Payne (Senior Data Analyst, from E.ON Next).

When? Wednesday 11 December, 2pm-4pm
Where? Location: IT407, IT Building (across the bridge from the 1st floor of Kilburn building)

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE AWARDS.

The deadline for entries is 15 January 2025. Candidates can self-nominate or be nominated by a third party. Individuals or teams can enter. If you do not have access to an online entry form, please email socialresponsibility@manchester.ac.uk.

UNIVERSITY CHRISTMAS CLOSURE.

The University will close on Friday, 20th December and will reopen on Tuesday, 2nd January 2025. During this period the Kilburn building will be closed, with no access. However, outside of these dates, it will be open as usual, 8am - 6pm, weekdays, with extended access from 6pm - 9pm for those with an extended working hours pass.

YOU ARE HERE EXHIBITION.

'You Are Here!' exhibition, Main Library. In this exhibition, you will find objects relating to some of the spaces and places that our students have inhabited over the past 200 years. See stories of innovation, struggle, connection, protest and belonging expressed by our University community. You are Here! runs from 30 October to February 2025, at Blue Ground in the Main Library. Free entry.

HOW DOES THE UNIVERSITY SPEND YOUR MONEY?

Ever wondered how your tuition fees and other payments are used by the University? Now’s your chance to get the answers directly from the people in charge. Join Carol Prokopyszyn, the University’s Chief Financial Officer, and Lexie Baynes, your Union Affairs Officer, for the open meeting: “Unpacking University Finances: A Guide to Where Your Money Goes.”, on Wednesday 11 December, 14:00 – 15:00, in The Hive, University Students’ Union. This session will provide a breakdown of how university finances work, where your money goes, and how financial decisions are made. You’ll also have the opportunity to ask questions and share your thoughts directly with the decision-makers. The session will be recorded for promotional purposes, so you’ll be part of an initiative to make student voices heard more broadly. Why attend?

Gain transparency into University finances
Connect directly with key University leaders
Contribute your perspective on how student money is used
Suggest ways you think the University could better spend their money

Save your place at the meeting by registering now!

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - BoogieigooW by Br1312te

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits on a grey palindrome line read the same forwards and backwards. The lines do not bend, diverge or cross each other. The grid is partially covered in fog. Placing correct digits will clear the fog. No guessing is required.

Chess Puzzle - Andreikin Vs. Nepomniachtchi, 1958

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing my custom map! You should recognise a few of these places.

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Luke Sanderson
Chess Guru: Jenson Cain
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Idris, 15,322pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 11 • Monday 2 December 2024 • #24.12

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It is Monday 2nd December 2024 and it’s week 11 of teaching. It’s December already and we are in the penultimate week of teaching before the Christmas break starts. Where has the semester gone?

The first year COMP101 poster session takes place today in the foyer of the Nancy Rothwell building, 14:00 - 16:00. If you are free then please pop along to see what projects the first year groups are proposing this year.

Don’t forget that the course unit surveys are running, we’d love to receive YOUR feedback on our teaching and how well the course units have gone this semester. Don’t forget to provide us with constructive comments so that we take action and improve the student experience.

Finally, good luck to all the 1st years with the group project presentations which are happening this week. I hope they go well!

Have a good week …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

Academic Reps Natalie Sparks (Y2, CSwIE), Timothy Mak (Y2, CM), Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), and Callum Bridges (Y2, CSwIE) write: As we move into week 11, ‘tis the time to give some feedback. Your voices matter. We want to listen.

Dip into Collab 1 on Tuesday 16:00 - 17:00 for a cozy winter talk with our student rep, Max Beck-Jones (see below), during our office hour. Come in and greet us!
Fill out the suggestions box feedback form by clicking the link, or scanning the QR code below. Get it in before the SVC meeting next Wednesday (11th December)!
Fill out the course specific unit surveys before midnight on Friday 13 December of Week 12.

To know what matters to you, we need the intel. To support you, we need to know what’s giving you a hard time. To take action, we need evidence to back up our causes.

Has a lot of your cohort faced the same concern in an assessment? Is there a broken facility in the building? Have you found a comfortable work space yet? These are some suggestions; write what comes to your mind.

Watch out for the student representatives doing shoutouts in your lectures.

MEET AN ACADEMIC REP.

This academic rep of the week is Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4). Max writes: Hey everyone! I’m Max, a fourth year MEng Computer Science student with a particular love of low-level computing, hardware, and cybersecurity. Some of you may know me from PASS, the talk I delivered as part of COMP1INTRO this year, or simply from seeing me around Kilburn. While I am the only fourth year rep, please feel free to speak to me about any issues (or anything going well!) no matter what year you’re in and I will do my best to help you. To further this, I will be running the first Student Voice Committee open office hour this Tuesday the 3rd of December from 16:00 to 17:00 in Kilburn Collab 1 – feel free to drop in to leave me with your thoughts. That being said, you can always speak to me if you see me around Kilburn or send me an email.

COURSE UNIT EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRES.

Every semester the University runs surveys where we ask students to provide feedback on the course units they have taken; this is your opportunity to provide feedback on our teaching. The surveys are open until 23:59, Friday 13th December (Friday of Week 12) and we ask you to complete surveys for each course unit you are taking, with all responses treated anonymously. We find feedback, particularly written comments, extremely useful to understand what you feel about our teaching, what works and what doesn’t. We do take note of your suggestions and make changes to our teaching as a result, as we are always looking for ways in which to improve what we do, but it can be difficult to judge what that should be. Your feedback helps us make those decisions. You will receive links to the surveys by email. Thank you for completing them.

CS STUDENT MEETING WITH PROF DUNCAN IVISON.

On Friday 22nd November, Professor Duncan Ivison – the University’s new President and Vice-Chancellor – met with a panel of Computer Science students to discuss how student experience could be improved at Manchester. The panel included student reps, members of the UniCS committee, undergraduate teaching volunteers, former employees of Imago, recent graduates, and PASS leaders. A wide variety of topics were discussed during the meeting – including student engagement with PASS, accessibility, problems that UniCS face with organising hackathons, some of Imago’s recent projects, and the undergraduate teaching volunteer programme. Duncan also discussed the Manchester 2035 strategy, which invites university staff and students to contribute their ideas for how the university can be improved in the next decade. If you would like to contribute your own ideas as part of this strategy, you can do so on the Manchester 2035 website.

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello! We are planning a first aid training with Heart Heroes on 11 December, 2-3:30pm. Please scan the QR code if you are certain to join (we have limited spaces). Rooms are UniPlace_4.205 and 4.206. We are hoping to see you in our PASS session this Wednesday 1-2pm in your allocated room. We have some fun activities for you again followed by a chat about any upcoming coursework or concerns you may have. Remember that these sessions are for you, so lead the session, tell your leaders what you want to talk about as the session plan is not set in stone, and enjoy! For any problems/queries please feel free to contact us!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone! It's finally the week you've all been waiting for! Lots and lots of Pizza! Come along to IT407 on Thursday from 12pm to 1pm to enjoy the food. Don't miss it!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello everyone! Due to a lab session taking place in Collab when we used to meet, our sessions will now take place at 15:00 in Kilburn Collab 1 on an ongoing basis. This week, we’re going to be keeping each other honest by seeing how we’re getting on with our 3rd year projects. Stuck on a tricky problem? Still knee deep in background reading? Gantt chart falling apart? Just want some company for an hour or two? We’re here to help you out. With snacks flowing free as always, we hope to see you there! As next week (Tuesday the 10th of December) is the final session of the semester, we are throwing a pizza and bowling celebration. Join us at the usual time (15:00) and place (Kilburn Collab 1) for complimentary pizza followed by a walk to Tenpin at the printworks for a free round of bowling to send off the year. Booking is essential so please fill out the form before Friday by following this link the QR code. Spaces are limited so don’t delay!

1ST YEAR COMP101 POSTER SESSION.

This from Stewart Blakeway: Our first years will be presenting their posters for the web apps that they are creating at the poster event, being held today (Monday 2nd December) from 14:00 – 16:00 in Nancy Rothwell Building. If you have some time on Monday between 14:00 – 16:00 please go along and look at the wonderful projects that the students are working on. All are welcome.

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

With the exams approaching, just a reminder that we have an excellent Student Support and Wellbeing team in the Department, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, who are available to support you throughout your studies. If you are affected by any issues impacting your learning, struggling with your work, considering interruption, DASS registered and feel that your condition is starting to affect you more than usual, or you just need somebody to speak to, then you should speak to a member of the Student Support and Wellbeing team. You can contact Maria and Ben by email soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk, or you can drop into the student hub in Engineering Building A and ask to speak to someone, in confidence.

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES DEADLINE.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

SUPPORT OVER THE CHRISTMAS BREAK.

Student support will remain available over the Christmas break and during the University closure period. Help will still be available via the usual services:

Mental Health Services
Safety Support
Wellbeing Services
Halls of Residence
IT Support
… and others

See this page for further information. You can also find general information about support services on the University Student Support webpages. Remember you’re not alone and that we're here for you throughout the closure period, whenever you need it and whatever your concerns.

NEVER OK.

Never OK is a collaborative campaign by The University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University, and the University of Salford. Together, we are committed to creating a culture where sexual harassment and gender-based violence are never tolerated. Never OK provides you with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to take action against sexual harassment. It encourages everyone to become active bystanders by challenging unacceptable behaviour when they see it. Empowering survivors of sexual harassment or violence to seek support and feel confident about reporting incidents. What can you do? At The University of Manchester, we’re asking everyone to:

Educate yourself about sexual harassment. Sexual harassment includes any form of unwanted sexual behaviour that causes someone to feel upset, scared, offended, or humiliated. This applies whether it occurs in person or online, regardless of the intent behind it.
Become an active bystander. Being an active bystander means recognizing inappropriate or threatening behavior and choosing to step in or support someone in need. Research shows that bystander intervention can effectively prevent sexual harassment and violence before they escalate.
Report incidents and seek support. We understand that many instances of sexual harassment go unreported for various reasons. If you’ve experienced sexual harassment, know that it is never your fault. Support and guidance are available to help you navigate what to do next.

You can find more information on the student news website.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

SEMESTER 1 EXAMS.

The semester 1 exams take place over the period Thursday 9th to Friday 24th January 2025 (see the University’s key dates webpage). All examinations take place under invigilated conditions and on-campus (there may be one or two exceptions to this), so you must be in Manchester during the examination period. The timetabling of exams takes place centrally, the Department is not responsible for this. It is hoped that the exam timetable will be published this week and should appear in your personal timetable next week. Please note that exams for different course units could be timetabled close together, possibly on the same day, and that changes cannot be made to the timetable once it is published. You may find that you are timetabled for an exam in a different location to your friend, or others on the course unit. It’s very important you attend the location stated in your exam timetable.

LIBRARY EXAM AND ASSESSMENT SUPPORT.

Extending opening until 2am in the Main Library up to and during the exam period.
Additional study spaces in Prospect House (next to the IT building) - 2nd January to 17th January 2025 (9am to 8pm), Monday to Friday.
My Learning Essentials, providing workshops, drop-in support and online materials to support strategies and techniques for exam and assessment planning, preparation and wellbeing.
Workshops on preparing for your exams with expert guidance from the My Learning Essentials team and the Counselling and Mental Health Service.
Drop-in support to ask specific questions and for guidance.
Online resources to help you prepare for exams and assessments.
Further support via the Library Living Room, Library Help and Support, Specialist Library Support, Counselling and Mental Health Service and Student Support.

LEARNING TIPS - HOW TO PREPARE FOR EXAMS.

You might think that you're a seasoned expert at preparing for exams, since most of you have had a lot of experience with that during your academic journey to University. However, there are still some things that might catch you out. If you're a 3rd year student, then it’s possible that you may be sitting a paper-based exam for the first time after many years of online exams. If you're a 2nd year student, you have to balance having to attend more exams than ever before. Finally, if you're a 1st year student, then your main experience with preparing for exams at University (unless you came via the foundation route) is by having access to a lot of sample papers/tests, thus learning how to answer particular kinds of questions rather than an exam paper that’s potentially broader in nature.

For some course units there may be limited information available, either because the course unit has only been running for a few years, or because there are restrictions in place when it comes to releasing auto-marked questions used in the past. However, using the resources that are available to you for the course unit, try and work out what it is that the exam questions are asking you to do. Don't draw conclusions based on a small sample set - bear in mind the risks of overfitting. Talk to students in higher years who have sat the exam for a particular course unit, for example via PASS, and find out what they think about the exam: How did they prepare? Is there anything they regretted about their approach to revision? Try to learn from their experiences when shaping your own approach to revising for the exams in January.

What we can’t do is advise you how best to revise for an exam, as everyone has a different approach that works for them. Some find reading the notes over and over works best, others prefer to produce their own notes, while others revise by attempting past exam questions and quizzes. Some of these approaches may work for you, others, maybe not. What you should do is evaluate how effective your approach to revision is once the results are released. If you find you didn’t perform as well as you expected too, then it may be worth revisiting your approach for revising when it comes to preparing for the semester 2 exams.

It is vitally important that you plan your revision effectively. Think about how much time you may need to prepare for the exam for each course unit. Which are the course units where you are pretty comfortable with the material? Which course units will need more effort to improve your understanding of the material? Maybe you already have a solid grasp of the material for a course unit, meaning you don’t have to be as extensive in your revision. Or if you find another course unit more difficult, you may want to devote more time to revising and preparing for the exam. What’s important is that you reflect on your revision needs and plan your revision time accordingly. When you think you're in decent shape, have a go at solving a past paper, but make sure you attempt it as you would the real thing, attempting it as a timed exercise under closed book (no notes!) conditions. You need to work out whether there are any areas where you need to put in more effort, and also whether you need to practise some techniques more in case you are struggling to answer the paper in the time available. Finally, it’s important to remember that to be in the best shape for your exams, you have to look after yourself as well, so build in some time to relax and take time away from revising. Take regular breaks, or go for walks to help refresh your mind, or spend some time doing something else for 10-20 mins. We will be talking more about the technicalities of taking an exam next week.

MANCHESTER AI CLUB.

Join Manchester AI Club on Tuesday 3rd December from 12-2 pm in Kilburn Theatre 1.4. We'll start working on a project to vertically balance pendulums with AI. This project is perfect for those looking to get hands-on experience with building an Artificial Neural Network from scratch – no prior experience is needed! Find out more on our Instagram:

GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUPS.

Thinking about applying for internships? Join GDG on the 5th of December at the Nancy Rothwell Lecture Theatre A at our "Pathways to Internships" Event designed to help you with your applications just in time for internship season. Hear directly from our panel of guest speakers representing companies such as Amazon, JP Morgan, Bank of America, Natwest, Barclays, Arm, Citi and more. They'll share their application journeys, insights into their roles and other insider advice as well as a Q&A and opportunity to network at the end! Join our Discord and follow us on Instagram to be the first to know about our upcoming events. We hope to see you there!

SEED CORN SHOWCASE 2023-24.

The Centre for Digital Trust and Security will be holding a Seed Corn Showcase on the 11th December 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. What to expect at the Showcase:

Dive into the learnings and successes of the five CDTS funded projects.
Discover the exciting advancements made by these innovative researchers.
Learn how you can get involved in shaping the future of digital trust research.
Connect and network over a drinks reception.

Join us for an afternoon of inspiration and exploration as we celebrate the future of digital trust! Act fast, tickets are selling quickly - Register today to secure your seat and avoid disappointment.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

JOIN US TON DISCUSS WHY LLM-ENHANCED PROGRAMMING ERROR MESSAGES ARE INEFFECTIVE.

Duncan Hull writes: Join us on Mon 2nd Dec 2pm (today!) to discuss why llm-enhanced programming error messages are ineffective. Large Language Models (LLMs) can help explain programming error messages and these explanations tend to improve as the models they are based on include more source code. However, it is unknown to what extent novice programmers are able to effectively utilise these automatically generated explanations to debug their programs, using tools like GitHub CoPilot and ChatGPT. Join us to discuss a paper on this by Eddie Antonio Santos. [1] Eddie's paper won best paper award at UKICER.com earlier this year. We'll be joined by the papers author, Eddie Antonio Santos who'll give a lightning talk to kick off our discussion. From the abstract: The sudden emergence of large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT has had a disruptive impact throughout the computing education community. LLMs have been shown to excel at producing correct code to CS1 and CS2 problems, and can even act as friendly assistants to students learning how to code. Recent work shows that LLMs demonstrate unequivocally superior results in being able to explain and resolve compiler error messages—for decades, one of the most frustrating parts of learning how to code. However, LLM-generated error message explanations have only been assessed by expert programmers in artificial conditions. This work sought to understand how novice programmers resolve programming error messages (PEMs) in a more realistic scenario. We ran a within-subjects study with 106 participants in which students were tasked to fix six buggy C programs. For each program, participants were randomly assigned to fix the problem using either a stock compiler error message, an expert-handwritten error message, or an error message explanation generated by GPT-4. Despite promising evidence on synthetic benchmarks, we found that GPT-4 generated error messages outperformed conventional compiler error messages in only 1 of the 6 tasks, measured by students’ time-to-fix each problem. Handwritten explanations still outperform LLM and conventional error messages, both on objective and subjective measures. The meeting will be on zoom, all welcome, details here.

[1] Eddie Antonio Santos and Brett A. Becker (2024) Not the Silver Bullet: LLM-enhanced Programming Error Messages are Ineffective in Practice, UKICER ’24: Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on United Kingdom & Ireland Computing Education Research DOI:10.1145/3689535.3689554

SCHUSTER COLLOQUIUM.

The next Schuster Colloquium will take place on Wednesday, December 4th, at 3 PM in the Bragg Lecture Theatre, Schuster Building. Our guest speaker will be Ekin Dogus Cubuk, a leading researcher from Google DeepMind, who will be discussing: "Scaling Up Simulations and Deep Learning for Materials Discovery". Abstract: Deep learning models are often evaluated on validation sets sampled from the same distribution as their training sets. In the natural sciences and engineering, however, models are evaluated for their ability to generalize beyond their "training set," either in applications of discovery or theoretical modeling. This dichotomy has caused confusion in deep learning, where methods like active learning and curriculum learning do not improve performance on independent and identically distributed (IID) academic datasets such as ImageNet, while being indispensable tools in real-life applications such as autonomous driving. With the increasing interest in using machine learning in the physical sciences, this dichotomy poses an obstacle to making meaningful progress. I will provide specific examples of this problem in the context of computational materials discovery, where graph neural networks that can predict the formation energy of inorganic crystals with unprecedented accuracy have been shown not to improve the efficiency of stable materials discovery at 0K. I will present our progress in addressing this challenge and discuss future work.

Ekin Dogus Cubuk from Google DeepMind leads their materials science and chemistry team. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University where he studied the physics of disordered solids and battery materials using density functional theory and machine learning. After a brief postdoc at the Materials Science Department of Stanford University, he joined Google Brain in 2017. Since then, he has been studying the scaling and out-of-domain generalization properties of large neural networks, and their applications to materials discovery for applications including clean energy and information processing.

PHD OPPORTUNITIES IN MANCHESTER.

We have some new PhD opportunities available in AI and machine learning at the University of Manchester

If you are graduating in 2025 and are considering research in the future, then it’s worthwhile considering applying.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE AWARDS.

Are you making a difference to society or the environment? Do you know someone who is? Why not enter the University’s annual Making a Difference Awards for social responsibility? The Making a Difference Awards celebrate the positive impact our students, staff, alumni, and external partners are having on the wellbeing of our communities and wider society. This is a chance to be recognised for your exceptional efforts in social responsibility, share best practices and inspire others. Our students have a chance to be recognised in several categories including equality, diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability and widening participation. All shortlisted entrants will be invited to a high-profile awards ceremony on 8 May 2025 to receive their Award and celebrate their commitment and dedication. This ceremony serves as a platform to raise awareness of your work and highlight your remarkable achievements. Take inspiration from previous winners, who found the recognition a powerful boost to continue tackling the issues they are passionate about, bringing increased attention and support to their projects. If you would like to find out more about entering the Making a Difference Awards you can attend our briefing session for entrants on 28 November, 12-1pm. Enter via the social responsibility website. The deadline for entries is 15 January 2025. Candidates can self-nominate or be nominated by a third party. Individuals or teams can enter. If you do not have access to an online entry form, please email socialresponsibility@manchester.ac.uk.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

Dr Jingyuan Sun will present a seminar titled “Exploring Neural and Computational Language Processes through Large Language Models” on Wednesday, 4th December, 13:00 – 13:50, in Kilburn LT 1.5 Please see below for Dr. Jingyuan Sun’s. Abstract: Dr. Sun’s talk explores the intersection of neurolinguistics and computational linguistics, emphasising how Large Language Models (LLMs) offer valuable insights into brain-based language processing. Neurolinguistics has made strides in mapping when and where the brain processes language, but the intricate mechanisms of semantic extraction and integration remain elusive. We discuss how LLMs—designed initially for tasks like next-word prediction—serve as effective models for probing these neural processes. Furthermore, we highlight how LLMs are instrumental in decoding neural activity, enabling the reconstruction of perceived language and supporting brain-computer interface advancements. This cross-disciplinary approach provides new perspectives on cognitive mechanisms and underscores the role of LLMs in advancing our understanding of the brain’s language processing systems.

Jingyuan is a Lecturer in the Department. Prior to this, he conducted postdoc research in KU Leuven. Before that, he worked as a Senior R&D engineer in Baidu, China. Prior to working, he got his masters and Ph.D. from Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he worked at the intersection of computational linguistics and neurolinguistics. He studies how brain activities can be decoded to reconstruct linguistic and visual perception, as well as how language and visual inputs are represented in the human brain. I collect and experiment with neuro-imaging data recorded by fMRI, EEG and MEG. I publish and review papers in top-tier AI conferences and journals.

UNIVERSITY CHRISTMAS CLOSURE.

The University will be closed from Friday, 20th December and will reopen on Tuesday, 2nd January 2025. During this period the Kilburn building will be closed, with no access. However, outside of these dates, it will be open as usual, 8am - 6pm, weekdays, with extended access from 6pm - 9pm for those with an extended working hours pass.

LINKEDIN LEARNING THROUGH THE LIBRARY.

Gemma Smith writes: LinkedIn Learning is now available to all students. The Library has created a resource to help you find resources and enhance your skills: Getting Started with LinkedIn Learning. We will also be running a Digital Skills Café to support students in using this and any other technology you use for your studies.

YOU ARE HERE EXHIBITION.

HELP THE UNIVERSITY IMPROVE FALLOWFIELD CAMPUS.

The University is partnering with Viridis to progress with our plans to provide modern and sustainable student accommodation at Fallowfield Campus, covering Owens Park, Oak House and Woolton Hall. This exciting redevelopment will deliver 3,300 high end student bed spaces, along with dedicated amenity space, and greenspace. We are keen to hear from students to shape the future of our Fallowfield Campus. Before we submit a planning application later this year, we are keen to hear feedback. How can I get involved? We are offering a range of channels for you to ensure your voice is heard:

Join us in-person: Visit our public drop-in events at Uttley House, Chancellors Way, Fallowfield, Manchester, M14 6NN at the following times, Wednesday 11th December 2024, 12-4pm, and Thursday 12th December 2024, 3-7pm
Join us online: public webinar on Thursday 5th December 2024, 6-7pm by contacting consultation@deloitte.co.uk. Visit our public consultation website and complete our online survey, which opens from Thursday 5th December 2024. Email consultation@deloitte.co.uk referencing ‘Fallowfield Consultation’ by Monday 9th January 2025.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Fog of Where by James Sinclair:

Normal sudoku rules apply. Some correctly-entered digits clear fog from certain cells, but those cells may be in other parts of the grid. Other digits, even when entered correctly, do not clear fog at all. When the puzzle is fully solved, all the fog will be cleared. Digits in a cage sum to the small clue in the cage's top left corner, and digits cannot repeat within a cage. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in the attached circle (and these digits can repeat if allowed by other rules). Arrows do not cross or overlap, and all arrow sums are single-digit. Digits in cells separated by an X sum to 10. Digits in cells with a shaded square must be even. Digits in cells separated by a white dot are consecutive. If digits are separated by a black dot, one is double the other.

Chess Puzzle - Kunin Vs. Oksengoit, 1958

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing the 'Flags of the World' map. Every spot has a recognisable national flag of the place where you are standing (without moving). Some of them are tricksy. Each country or nation is featured only once. Some are technically territories or protectorates of other countries (or semi-autonomous regions within a country), but they all have their own flag and unique national identity.

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: n/a
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Ruben, 16,236pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 10 • Monday 25 November 2024 • #24.11

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It is Monday 25th November 2024 and it’s week 10 of teaching. We are rapidly approaching the end of the semester, which is when the pressure starts to pile up due to final deadlines approaching, and you need to start thinking about the impending examination period in January (Thursday 9th to Friday 24th January 2025). If you are having any problems, whether this is academically or with regards to your health, then it is vitally important that you speak to someone so that we can offer help and support. You can seek support from your academic advisor, your year tutor, or a member of our wellbeing team (see below).

The course unit evaluation surveys are now running, which give you the opportunity to provide feedback on our teaching so that we can make changes to improve the student experience. Please consider completing a survey for each of your course units.

You will notice that Monday Mail now has a new section called “Student Voice”. Student voice is really important to us, so it’s here you will find out about ways you can make you voice heard, along with reports from the Student Voice Committee in their "SVC Newsletter".

If you are a 2nd year student, then we have extended the deadline for the Kneebone bursary until 6pm Friday 29th November. We have also increased the bursary awarded from £500 to £1000. So please consider applying (see below).

Have a good week. On with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

Academic Reps Natalie Sparks (Y2, CSwIE), Timothy Mak (Y2, CM) and Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4) write: This new section of the Monday Mail is where you can find out what’s going on with the Student Voice Committee (SVC), and what your student reps are getting up to. Here, you can find information about how you can give feedback, as well as the actions taken to improve your student experience. We will also introduce a student rep each week, so you can get to know us a bit better!

At our last meeting (6/11/2024), we discussed how we can make it easier for you to provide feedback. As a result, there will soon be a notice board in Kilburn LF, student rep “office hours”, and this newsletter. We also now have a suggestions box where you can send in any ideas or feedback you have! (see the QR code) This may change over the coming week, but any submissions you send will still be reviewed. You will be able to see the full minutes of the meeting in the student experience tab of the Blackboard CS UG Community.

That’s all from us for now! We do have another meeting on 11th December so please do be sure to give any feedback you have!

MEET AN ACADEMIC REP.

This academic rep of the week is Akshan Bansal (Y1, CSwIE). Akshan writes: Hi, I'm Akshan, a first-year Computer Science student. I like to play football and guitar and meet new people. If any of you have feedback on the course, please let me know whenever you see me or DM me!

COURSE UNIT EVALUATION QUESTIONNAIRES.

Every semester the University runs surveys where we ask students to provide feedback on the course units they have taken; this is your opportunity to provide feedback on our teaching. The surveys are open until 23:59, Friday 13th December and we ask you to complete surveys for each course unit you are taking, with all responses treated anonymously. We find feedback, particularly written comments, extremely useful to understand what you feel about our teaching, what works and what doesn’t. We do take note of your suggestions and make changes to our teaching as a result, as we are always looking for ways in which to improve what we do, but it can be difficult to judge what that should be. Your feedback helps us make those decisions. You will receive links to the surveys by email. Thank you for completing them.

STUDENT VOICE.

You can find out how to utilise your student voice and share your feedback about all aspects of your life in the Department/University, the teaching you receive, support etc, through the Student Voice and Academic Reps page in the CS UG Community area in Blackboard.Here you will find out who your academic reps are, methods and routes for feedback, and an issues tracker outlining what issues have been considered by the Student Voice Committee. Remember, we aren’t just interested in things that are not going well, we also want to hear about what is going right so that we can do more of it. Ultimately, we want to make sure you have the best student experience during your time here.

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello Year1s and PASS1 leaders! We are planning a first aid training with Heart Heroes on the 11th of December, 2-3:30pm. Please scan the QR code if you are certain to join (we have limited spaces). Room is TBA.

We are hoping to see you in our PASS session this Wednesday 1-2pm in your allocated room. We have some fun activities for you again followed by a chat about any upcoming courseworks or concerns you may have. Remember that these sessions are for you, so lead the session, tell your leaders what you want to talk about as the session plan is not set in stone, and enjoy! For any problems/queries please feel free to contact us!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi everyone! We hope you had fun last week and got a bit more clarity about placements. This week we've got the session you've all been waiting for - Surviving Exams 101, alongside our usual fun and games. Same place (IT407), same time (12-1pm Thursday). Can't wait to see you there!

UNICS CHRISTMAS DINNER.

Join us for a 3-course dinner at our annual Christmas Dinner at Revolution on 8th December, 2024 from 7pm onwards. Tickets can be bought here. Buy early to get a discounted rate of 16.99 pounds with our early bird tickets. General tickets will be worth 20 pounds. Hope to see you all there!

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

KEEPING SAFE ON CAMPUS.

As the days are getting darker earlier, then it’s important that you keep safe at all times. Manchester, like any other large city, can have issues with crime, hence it’s important you keep safe when on campus and travelling to/from the campus. Keep in mind the following:

Stay alert: Keep your belongings safe and out of view when travelling to or from campus and whilst you’re on it. Avoid wearing noise cancelling headphones so you know what’s going on around you, and stick to well-lit roads and pavements as you travel around the city, avoiding underpasses where possible. Keep your phone out of sight!
Download SafeZone: Our mobile app SafeZone can be used to quickly connect you with Campus Support and Security team if you feel unsafe, need immediate help or require first aid or wellbeing assistance. The app is free to download, easy to use, and operates across the Manchester campuses. You can find out more about SafeZone here.
Report unacceptable behaviour: Manchester has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions. If you have witnessed any forms of this behaviour, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor. Find out more about Report + Support.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - THE CURSE OF EXTENSIONS.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: Some of you may have one-week automatic extensions granted through DASS support plans. Others of you may at some point during your time at university, need to request an extension from the Student Support and Wellbeing team.

Extensions can be very useful to give yourself a little extra time needed to get your work done and submitted at the standard you expect from yourself, when unforeseen circumstances arise. But extensions are a double-edged sword. Especially if you get them in multiple pieces. Time after time I see students running into difficulties caused by them taking full advantage of their extension and submitting exactly a week after the original deadline. In Computer Science the assessments come thick and fast. The programme has one of the highest volumes of coursework at the university. Taking a week extra to complete one assignment will mean, if you don't manage your time well, you will simply have one week less for the next assignment.

If you get extensions through DASS or apply for them through the wellbeing team, then it is very important that you manage your time well and use only what time you need to submit. Keeping on top of your assignments will prevent a concertina effect that risks you ending up in a worse position than when you started. It's important to note that the impact on assessment caused by extensions to deadlines is not an acceptable reason to request more extensions or mitigating circumstances. We have already turned down several requests this semester where a previous deadline extension has impacted the amount of time available for a future assessment.

Don’t forget, extensions can only be requested prior to the deadline. You can find further details on the extensions and mitigating circumstances process in your student handbook, and the main university page here.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

SEMESTER 1 EXAMS.

The semester 1 exams take place over the period Thursday 9th to Friday 24th January 2025 (see the University’s key dates webpage). All examinations take place under invigilated conditions and on-campus (there may be one or two exceptions to this), so you must be in Manchester during the examination period. The timetabling of exams takes place centrally, the Department is not responsible for this. It is hoped that the exam timetable will be published in the week commencing the 2nd December and should appear in your personal timetable a week later. Please note that exams for different course units could be timetabled close together, possibly on the same day, and that changes cannot be made to the timetable once it is published. You may find that you are timetabled for an exam in a different location to your friend, or others on the course unit. It’s very important you attend the location stated in your exam timetable.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

The Undergraduate Handbook is your one-stop resource for all information related to your studies. It contains information about your degree programmes, details on progression, how to change degree programmes or interrupt your studies, information on student support etc. The handbook also has information related to how to apply for mitigating circumstances if your learning has been affected by issues out of your control, such as an illness. You can always find the link to the handbook (as well as other useful links) at the top of each Monday Mail in the 'Essential Links' banner.

LEARNING TIPS - COURSE UNIT SURVEYS.

In previous "learning tips" items we've discussed the importance of feedback, and how you need to make the most of it to improve your work. Now it’s our turn, as the course unit evaluation questionnaires have gone live. The course unit surveys offer you the opportunity to have your say (your student voice!) on how things have gone this semester with regards to all aspects of teaching. You will receive an email inviting you to evaluate your course units across a number of questions, some of these ask to respond to the question using a Likert scale (a response from strongly disagree to strongly agree) and some questions that ask for text comments.

Whilst the questions asking for a response from strongly disagree to strongly agree are helpful, what's most important are your comments, as these provide information that allows us to take action and make improvements to our units. Think about what you like about your units - could a unit adopt ideas that would be helpful to students? Is a unit doing something really well? Let staff know so that they retain the feature, and pass it on as good practice to colleagues. If there is something you dislike about a unit, be really precise, and try to distinguish the way something is taught from any dislike you may have of the material. “I didn't enjoy the coursework” doesn't tell staff how to improve the coursework. “I didn't enjoy the coursework because there were a number of repetitive tasks, for example, this aspect of Coursework 3 already appeared in Coursework 1” allows targeted changes to be made. When considering aspects of teaching such as feedback, consider the different types of feedback you have received, in different ways, from each course unit (see the Week 7 learning tip). If a particular approach worked well, then let us know why. If something worked but could do with improving, then please be clear how. For example, don’t just say “the feedback on exercise 1 was limited”, tell us why, such as “the feedback on exercise 1 was limited because I felt that after reading it I still wasn’t sure how my work only partially met the requirements”. The more details you provide in your comments, the more likely we are to identify changes that could be made. Think about what level of detail you’d like in the feedback on your work and offer us the same!

3D PRINTERS.

EXTENSIONS IN SPOT.

Stewart Blakeway, Discipline Assessment Lead, writes: If you have applied for, and been granted an extension for a piece of summative work it is important that this is reflected on your SPOT page. If an extension is granted you will see an ‘i’ symbol next to the submission information. If you hover the mouse pointer over the ‘i’ symbol, it will show the date of the extended deadline (see figure). If you have been granted an extension and it does not appear on your SPOT page within 3 days of receiving notification that an extension was granted it is important that you contact stewart.blakeway@manchester.ac.uk (otherwise normal late penalties will apply). Also note that work submitted after the extension deadline will be subject to normal late penalties of 10% each day (or part of) from the extended deadline.

HARDWARE LIBRARY.

Did you know we have a hardware library in the Department that contains a wide range of hardware components that are completely free to borrow? You can use these to support your 3rd year project, generally just to have a play with, or support a Hackathon. There are all sorts of items available, from Raspberry Pi components to drones, a wide range of microcontroller boards to gesture devices, basic electronic components to robots … even VR headsets. We also have computer items, such as keyboards, mice, and tablets - there’s a wide range of items available. To see what is available for you to borrow (for free!) have a look at the library catalogue. If you want to borrow an item then all you have to do is reserve it online. You will then be contacted by Steve Rhodes who will tell you when you can pick the item up from Tootill 0 on the lower first floor of Kilburn. Please note that items should not be taken away from Manchester and it is your responsibility to replace any damaged/lost items you borrow. You can also propose new items for the library, which we will consider. However, please note, we do have a limited budget to purchase new items, so we can’t fund all requests.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Gradescope: Submission to Gadescope may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Benchmark to ensure your submission was correct.
Whilst SPOT shows you something has been submitted, it does not know what, so cannot be used to verify you've submitted the correct required files. To check the files you have submitted use Blackboard or GitLab.
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

UNICS INDUSTRY Q&A PANEL.

Join us for an insightful Industry Q&A Panel with industry professionals from Google, Roku, Bet365, Serac Technologies and the Civil Service offering a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights into the tech industry offering a unique opportunity to gain valuable insights into the tech industry. Our panellists will share their professional journeys, discuss current industry trends, and provide practical advice on navigating the job market. Ask questions and engage in meaningful discussions about career paths, skills development, and the recruitment process. Snacks will be provided for all attendees. Please fill in this form. Virtual attendance option available, please see form!

Friday 29/11/24
12pm - 1pm
Coupland 3 Building, Lecture Theatre B

GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUPS.

Thinking about applying for internships? Join GDG at our "Pathways to Internships" Event designed to help you with your applications just in time for internship season. Hear directly from our panel of guest speakers representing companies such as Amazon, JP Morgan, Bank of America, NatWest, Barclays, Arm, Citi and more. They'll share their application journeys, insights into their roles and other insider advice as well as a Q&A and opportunity to network at the end! The timings and location will be posted on all our social media soon, so make sure to follow us and join the Discord. We hope to see you there!

DATA SCIENCE SOCIETY.

We hope you’re ready for the third MUDS workshop! This week, we’re diving into the fascinating world of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) and exploring how they have revolutionised Medical Image Analysis.

Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 27th of November
Time: 15:00 - 16:30
Venue: Simon_TH D

What You’ll Learn:

Understand how Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) work.
Build a Computer Vision pipeline using PyTorch.
Train a CNN to classify organs from CT scans.

Computer Vision tools are transforming the field of radiology, enabling faster, more accurate diagnoses. Whether you're passionate about healthcare, AI, or both, this workshop is the perfect opportunity to take your skills to the next level. Level: Intermediate. To get the most out of this session, we recommend reviewing the material from our "Intro to Deep Learning" workshop available at bit.ly/MUDS-IntroDL. Don’t miss this chance to enhance your knowledge and network with fellow enthusiasts! Register here! For questions, contact us on Instagram: @uomdss . See you on Wednesday!

MANCHESTER AI CLUB.

Manchester AI Club has started! Last Thursday we held our first reading group where we discussed and shared insights into a paper about ImageNet Classification with Deep CNN's. Future meetings will allow our members to find and share their own fascinating AI research papers, so stay tuned. We've included a survey for you to share your preferences. This week we will hold our first in-person project meeting, time and place will be on our socials. We'll start working on training our own AI model to vertically balance virtual pendulums, allowing our members to get practical experience with building AI. You can apply to lead a project using the link on our Instagram. We hope to see you soon.

SEED CORN SHOWCASE 2023-24.

The Centre for Digital Trust and Security will be holding a Seed Corn Showcase on the 11th December 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. What to expect at the Showcase:

Dive into the learnings and successes of the five CDTS funded projects.
Discover the exciting advancements made by these innovative researchers.
Learn how you can get involved in shaping the future of digital trust research.
Connect and network over a drinks reception.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

PHD OPPORTUNITIES IN MANCHESTER.

We have some new PhD opportunities available in AI and machine learning at the University of Manchester

If you are graduating in 2025 and are considering research in the future, then it’s worthwhile considering applying.

KATE KNEEBONE ACORN BURSARY.

The Kate Kneebone Acorn Bursary is an annual award funded by the Kneebone family and arm, which has been awarded since 2013 to commemorate the life of Kate Kneebone, a former student of the department. From this year we have increased the award to £1000 (from £500 award) in addition to the successful applicant the possibility of discussing an internship placement (which must have an Engineering bias) with ARM in Cambridge. All current Year 2 UG students in the Department are eligible to apply. See further details here. To apply, please complete this form by the deadline of 6pm (UK time) Friday 29th November 2024 (note extended deadline).

PARTICIPANTS NEEDED - PACTMAN.

This from Sarah Clinch: I’m currently looking for participants for an experiment about how current understanding of memory in Psychology applies to contemporary content such as that seen on the World Wide Web. In this experiment, we focus on the kinds of content seen on video sharing and video playback websites such as YouTube and Vimeo.

This research is conducted by the Department of Computer Science of the University of Manchester and will take place in the Kilburn Building of the Oxford Road Campus. The experiment takes approximately 50 minutes to complete and participants will be compensated for their time. If you’re interested or have any further questions, please contact me via email: sarah.clinch@manchester.ac.uk.

CYBER-SECURITY TALK.

This from Danny Dresner: Raj Samani will present a talk titled “How to Have A Career in Cyber-Security” on Thursday 28th November, 1pm - 2pm, Simon Lecture Theatre C. Raj Samani is a renowned cyber security expert. He's visiting Manchester and will be here to advise you on cyber security careers. He has an extensive background in cybersecurity, having previously worked with and assisted law enforcement on criminal cases, and served as a special advisor to the European Cybercrime Centre in The Hague. Drawing on his experience in cybersecurity strategy, risk management, and the impact of emerging technologies, Raj is an advocate for improving education on the subject while helping organisations enhance their security and protect themselves from threats. He is also an author and a much sought after keynote speaker on topics within cybersecurity. Please register via career connect. If anyone has any issues signing up to this event, please email careers.events@manchester.ac.uk.

UK CYBER LEADERS CHALLENGE.

Danny Dresner writes: Make your mark in intelligence by applying to join the University of Manchester Team for the UK UK Cyber Leaders Challenge. Critical thinking and communications skills essential; technical knowledge unnecessary and the selected team gets access to careers advice, cool prize opportunities, and the chance of an expenses-paid, 2-day trip to London, two days in the iconic BT Tower. The successful 4 (or 8 if we get enough qualified for 2 teams) will make a play for a place at the finals to be held in person at the BT Tower in London (19 - 20 March 2025) and the deadline for teams to register will run out sooner than you think (see the team selection deadline below). Our objective is to build a team as diverse as possible in terms of EDI, background and academic discipline (you must not be experienced working in cyber, politics or warfare or have held positions that would give you an advantage).

The competition is an ideal experience in decision making during the time of a cyber crisis. You'll meet cyber security experts and representatives from across government and industry. Networking opportunities are unsurpassed for future career opportunities. Current and previous partners have included BT, UK Civil Service, Sage, NATO, Beazley, Standard Chartered bank and the Global Cyber Alliance. You'll pit your wits against other teams as you all respond to a complex and escalating cyber-attack with national and international ramifications. Over two days, comprising three rounds, competing teams receive intelligence packs consisting of reports gathered from multiple sources. You'll work together to analyse the report, analyse the national and international implications of the content and they present your analysis and recommendations to a panel of judges from government and industry. Apply now by e-mailing Prof Danny Dresner no later than midnight 29 November '24 with answers to the following questions:

Introduce yourself and why you will be an asset to our University's team for the Cyber Leaders Challenge. (500 words)
How would you describe the relationship between Cyber and Politics in the UK? How do you feel this relationship has changed in recent years? (500 words)
In your opinion, how does the sharing of threat intelligence and knowledge between nation states both help and hinder the UK in reaching its goals laid out in the Cyber Security Strategy 2022? (500 words)

Let's make the world a safer place to live and work online! Looking forward to hearing from you..

IN SILICON TRIALS PODCASTS.

Prof. Alex Frangi's InSilicoUK Pro Innovation Regulations Network has a series of podcasts being released every week entitled, In Silico Trials, Real Impacts. InSilicoUK is a pro-innovation regulatory science and innovation network funded by InnovateUK, which aims to make the UK the best milieu for delivering medical innovations using in silico evidence and regulatory science. Take a listen!

KILBURN SOUTH ENTRANCE.

The refurbished south entrance to the Kilburn building (opposite University Place) is now open. You can use this entrance during normal working hours. Eventually, you should use this entrance during the extended working hours - we will let you know when you should start doing so.

INAUGURAL SEMINAR.

There will be an inaugural seminar from Alex van Someran titled “National Security challenges in Emerging Technology” on Wednesday, 27th November, 14:00 to 15:00, in Kilburn LT 1.3. Abstract: Computer Science continues to deliver ever-advancing capabilities in data analysis, and our adversaries can adopt these developments without reference to the ethics, governance, and legislation which we hold dear. Artificial Intelligence has moved forward significantly and captured much public attention in the past year, but continuing challenges around explainability bring in to question the suitability of this technology for many kinds of high-reliability application. Quantum Computing seems to be coming closer to a reality at scale, and this could radically alter the capacity of machines to solve previously intractable problems, including some critical problems in cryptography, which would have a significant impact on how data is protected at rest and in transit. This talk will explore some of these topical issues in the evolution of Computer Science in National Security.

Alex van Someren is currently Chief Scientific Adviser for National Security. He was previously a venture capital investor and entrepreneur, focusing on investing in early stage ‘deep technology’ startups. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology, an Honorary Professor of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, and a current member of the Royal Society’s Science, Industry and Translation Committee. Alex participated in the development of the BBC Microcomputer & Acorn Electron at Acorn Computer in the 1980s. He subsequently co-founded several technology companies, including ANT Software plc and nCipher plc which achieved listings on AIM and the London Stock Exchange, respectively.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

Jingyuan is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, the University of Manchester. Prior to this, he conducted postdoc research in KU Leuven. Before that, he worked as a Senior R&D engineer in Baidu, China. Prior to working, he got his masters and Ph.D. from Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he worked at the intersection of computational linguistics and neurolinguistics. He studies how brain activities can be decoded to reconstruct linguistic and visual perception, as well as how language and visual inputs are represented in the human brain. I collect and experiment with neuro-imaging data recorded by fMRI, EEG and MEG. I publish and review papers in top-tier AI conferences and journals.

LIBRARY NEWS.

This from Gemma Smith: New digital resources for FSE students. The Library has expanded its digital resources to better support your studies.

Expanded Springer eBooks Collection: We’ve added over 950 new eBooks to the Springer collection, covering a broad range of engineering, mathematical and computing topics! For focused, up-to-date content to support your coursework and research, explore these new resources quickly and easily through Library Search and find them highlighted in your Engineering and Maths Subject Guides.
New Resource: Engineering Case Studies Online: We’ve also introduced Engineering Case Studies Online, which provides over 130 hours of video and 70,000+ pages of materials focused on engineering failures and best practices in design. This is a useful resource for gaining real-world knowledge on what to avoid and how to improve your designs.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Sudoku Upper Right Heavy Killer by Richard Stolk

Normal sudoku rules apply. In any cell that contains a digit that is smaller than the digit in the diagonally adjacent upper right cell, the sum of those two digits is given, where a question mark can be replaced by any sum ranging from 3 to 17.

Chess Puzzle - Bengtsson Vs. Degerfeldt, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination? We are playing the 'Flags of the World' map. Every spot has a recognisable national flag of the place where you are standing (without moving). Some of them are tricksy. Each country or nation is featured only once. Some are technically territories or protectorates of other countries (or semi-autonomous regions within a country), but they all have their own flag and unique national identity.

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: n/a
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Igwenter03, 21,901pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 9 • Monday 18 November 2024 • #24.10

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 18th November 2024 and it’s week 9 of teaching. I hope everything is going well and that you are managing to keep up with deadlines and are submitting your work on time.

If you are a second year student, then you have until 6pm on Friday to submit your application for the Kneebone Acorn bursary (see below), so please consider applying.

Have a good week. On with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

* PASS1. The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello Year1s and PASS1 leaders! We are hoping to see you in our PASS session this Wednesday 1-2pm in your allocated room. We have some fun activities for you again followed by a chat about any upcoming courseworks or concerns you may have. Remember that these sessions are for you, so lead the session, tell your leaders what you want to talk about as the session plan is not set in stone, and enjoy! For any problems/queries please feel free to contact us!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone! We hope you enjoyed last week's session. This week, we'll be talking about placements, same place - IT407, same time - Thursday 12-1pm. We want to organise a pizza party for you in week 11. Please fill in this form by Wednesday the 20th to confirm you'll be there. Hope to see you there!

CS STUDENT MEETING WITH PROF DUNCAN IVISON.

Exciting news! Professor Duncan Ivison, the University’s new President & Vice-Chancellor, is coming to the Kilburn Building to meet with a small group of Computer Science students. We’re looking to assemble a small panel of students to attend this meeting and bring their ideas for reimagining the University, in line with the Manchester 2035 strategy. The meeting will be held on Friday 22nd November 2024 between 15:00 and 16:00, with a venue to be confirmed nearer the time. If you are available and have some ideas to share, please complete this short form. To ensure that there is enough time to discuss everyone’s ideas in detail, there will be a limit on the number of students on the panel. Unfortunately, that means that we will not be able to bring along everyone who wants to pitch their ideas. However, we will do our best to select a diverse panel that sufficiently reflects everyone’s backgrounds, experiences and ideas.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Student Union Advice Centre. The Student Union offers advice and support with life at the University. They offer a wide range of services and support.

Academic Advice: Help you through any academic problems you might face during your time at Manchester, including appeals, complaints, mitigating circumstances, disciplinary issues and course/university transfers. Academic guidance and support is free, confidential, and completely independent from the University.
Financial Advice: Offer advice and support on a range of money matters, including Student Finance, access to funding, financial worries and hardship, banking issues and government benefits. If you’re struggling with debt, we can also support you to access specialist advice.
Student Life Advice: Help you take care of your health and wellbeing and support you when things may be difficult. Our advisors are here to help you with anything personal that is going on for you. We’ll provide a confidential space where you can talk to us about anything that’s on your mind. We can help you to access additional support through the University and relevant external support organisations.
Housing Advice: Offer help with any worries you might have whether you're living at home, in halls or a private house. We offer advice and guidance on a range of housing issues including signing a contract, deposits, council tax, issues with your landlord, disrepair, tenant disputes and ending your tenancy early.

You can find more information on their website, including a contact form if you want to make an inquiry.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - BOOST YOUR STUDY SKILLS.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: University is a big step-up from school and college, and (spoiler alert!) things only get harder year on year. Your old techniques for taking notes, managing your time, and revising for exams may just no longer cut it. I didn't learn a revision technique that worked for me until the second year, and I don't think I ever really developed an effective note taking strategy (oh the nightmare of multiple lever-arch files).

My personal approach to revision was to read through a section of notes and then present them out loud to someone (ideally someone also doing the course). Though just saying them out loud to myself was effective. This technique helped me memorise the information and practice my wording for exam answers. Having someone doing my course doing the same back to me, helped be pick up on areas of knowledge and understanding I might have missed.

Those students that do have the best study skills will do best when it comes to high grades and low stress levels. Luckily for you I have a great resource for you to use. My Learning Essentials is the University's one stop shop for helping you gain the skills you need to make your studies go more smoothly and hopefully up your grades. There are workshops and online resources on topics such as Referencing, Academic writing, effective learning, avoiding plagiarism, and presentation skills.

Good study skills can easily make the difference between and 2.2 and a 2.1 degree. The My Leaning Essentials page also has resources to help you develop skills around mindfulness, resilience, and other ways to generally improve your mental health and wellbeing. Alongside that there is a bunch of useful podcasts for you to listen to including podcasts on Time Management, essay writing, successful revision, and group work.

Do yourself a favour this week and book on to just one workshop or work through just one online resource. See how it goes. Block out some time for personal development on My Learning Essentials once every week or two. I promise it will be worth your time!

TUITION FEE RISES:

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW. On 4th November, the government announced that tuition fees for undergraduate home students will increase by £285, from £9,250 to £9,535 per year. This is the first rise in over eight years, and it brings some important changes. The University’s tuition fees will rise in line with the cap increase from the next academic year. This will apply to both new and current home undergraduate students who will pay the increased fees from September 2025. To find out more information as to what this means, please see this University Student News item.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Thursday 09:00 - 10:00, IT119.

EXTENDED OPENING HOURS.

Normal working hours for the Kilburn building are 8am - 6pm, Monday to Friday. However, extended opening hours are available from 6pm - 9pm, Monday to Friday. Please note that access to the Kilburn Building is still not available outside these times or at weekends. If you would like to use the Kilburn building during the extended opening hours (6pm - 9pm) then you will need to complete the following modules in Blackboard:

COMP1RDMC: Respect & Dignity at Manchester
COMP1HS: Health and Safety
COMP1AMP: Academic Malpractice

Once you have completed these modules and taken the Extended Working Hours test, you can apply for a pass. If you do not have access to the modules listed above, then please contact soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk. Once access has been granted then you can use your University swipe card to enter the Kilburn building. Please note that currently access is through the main entrance opposite Crawford House. However, once the building works are completed, then access will be via the entrance opposite University place. During extended hours access is restricted to the lower first area of the Kilburn building. You will not be able to use labs or meeting spaces in any other locations in Kilburn. You may be required to show proof that you have extended hours when requested by a building attendant or security. You can find more information and full instructions in the Extended Working Hours folder in the CS UG Community Space in Blackboard.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

The Department has put together a coursework deadlines chart, which can be accessed here, The chart is populated with the deadlines for all COMP course units, for each year groupo, in semester 1. It aims to give you an overview of your deadlines and to help you plan your time, which will depend upon the course units you are taking. Please note that deadlines may still change and that only SPOT indicates up-to-date information on deadlines, so please use SPOT to confirm deadlines.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

The Undergraduate Handbook is your one-stop resource for all information related to your studies. It contains information about your degree programmes, details on progression, how to change degree programmes or interrupt your studies, information on student support etc. The handbook also has information related to how to apply for mitigating circumstances if your learning has been affected by issues out of your control, such as an illness. You can always find the link to the handbook (as well as other useful links) at the top of each Monday Mail in the 'Essential Links' banner.

LEARNING TIPS - WHAT’S MARKING FOR?

Students often believe that marking is performed by taking a “perfect” mark, i.e. 100%, and then looking for reasons to knock marks off. However, this isn’t necessarily the case. When marking, the marker will be looking at how your work satisfies a defined set of marking criteria. Each of these criteria will have descriptions of levels of achievement against them. So, the process of marking involves comparing your work against each of the criteria and judging how well it fits the levels of achievements, with marks awarded accordingly. Often, marking is performed against a rubric to help maintain consistency and fairness, in this case the rubric acts as a source of feedback and helps you to understand to what level your work has met the marking criteria. In some cases, automated approaches will be used to evaluate assessments, in which case the marking is consistent across all students, minimising any risk of bias in the marking process, or variation across markers.

Whilst work can be marked out of 100%, it’s important to recognise that it can be very difficult to achieve high marks. What we won’t do is provide a tick list of things you need to do/achieve to achieve full marks - this will stifle your ability to think independently when it comes to evaluating your own work. Indeed, marking schemes are often designed in such a way to measure your ability to think out of the box, and think beyond the bounds of the course material and apply your knowledge in a higher way. Hence, only awarding the top marks to those students who have performed exceptionally well. If an assessment results in everyone achieving 100% then it’s poorly designed, as it is unable to distinguish between different levels of ability. However, whilst you may not have achieved 100% in a piece of work, this doesn’t mean you should be disappointed.

EXTENSIONS IN SPOT.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Gradescope: Submission to Gadescope may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Benchmark to ensure your submission was correct.
Whilst SPOT shows you something has been submitted, it does not know what, so cannot be used to verify you've submitted the correct required files. To check the files you have submitted use Blackboard or GitLab.
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUP ON CAMPUS.

You've attended many workshops about getting an internship/ placement or applying to one, but what happens once you actually get the role? Join GDG at our Insight Into Industry Event to find out what working in technology is actually like, from a former Microsoft Technical Officer. We will cover our speaker's real-world experiences, lessons learned, practical advice he wished he had at the start of his career and more! Timing and location will be confirmed, so make sure to follow all our socials to stay tuned!

CHARITY GAMES NIGHT.

Maria Niculae (Y4, CS4wIE) writes: Join us for a night of board games and giving back! We are hosting a charitable games night, with all proceeds going to the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. Entry is just £ 3 at the door. Come play, connect, and make a difference!

Date and time: Monday, 18th November, 18:30 (TODAY)
Location: Kro Bar, 325 Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PG

MUDS WORKSHOP.

Join MUDS for our Next Workshop: Intro to Deep Learning - Sign Language Recognition with Neural Networks! Hello Everyone, The Data Science Society (MUDS) is excited to invite you to our next workshop of the academic year! Following the success of our Introduction to Machine Learning workshop, we’re diving deeper with Intro to Deep Learning with a focus on Sign Language Recognition with Neural Networks.

Event Details:

Date: Wednesday, 20th of November
Time: 3:00 - 4:30pm
Location: Kilburn Building, Theatre 1.1

What to Expect:

Build a Neural Network in PyTorch: Whether you're a complete beginner or have some experience, you’ll get hands-on guidance in building neural networks using PyTorch.
Real-World Applications: Explore how artificial neural networks (ANNs) can be applied in practical, impactful areas.
Deep Learning for Sign Language Recognition: Learn how deep learning technology is being leveraged for sign language recognition and gain insight into the power of AI in accessible communication.

This session is ideal for anyone eager to enhance their understanding of deep learning and its applications, and no prior experience is necessary! Also, this time around we will be having a book giveaway. The book Why Machines Learn By Anil Ananthaswamy is up for grabs! Register now by clicking here or scanning the QR code below. For questions, reach out to us on Instagram: @uomdss. We look forward to seeing you there!

START-UP WEEKEND.

This November, the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre are hosting a hackathon-style weekend, turning ideas into viable businesses! Participants will have the opportunity to share ideas, build teams, develop their products/services, and pitch for a portion of our £3000 funding pot!

Ready to transform your idea into a business?
Looking to network with other students, entrepreneurs & investors?
Pitch your idea to a panel of judges, for a chance to win funding from our £3000 funding pot!

Whether you’ve got the business know-how, creative design skills, project management skills or much more, join the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s very first Startup Weekend on Friday 22nd, Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th November. Interested? Register Now. This event is free for all University of Manchester students & recent graduates.

SEED CORN SHOWCASE 2023-24.

The Centre for Digital Trust and Security will be holding a Seed Corn Showcase on the 11th December 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. What to expect at the Showcase:

Dive into the learnings and successes of the five CDTS funded projects.
Discover the exciting advancements made by these innovative researchers.
Learn how you can get involved in shaping the future of digital trust research.
Connect and network over a drinks reception.

HACKAFUTURE EVENT.

AtkinsRéalis are organising a hackathon event over the 8th - 9th February 2025. Our #HackaFuture event fuses a dynamic and exciting hackathon with recruiting the next generation of changemakers. The best part - the winning team of five will be offered full-time jobs with AtkinsRéalis including a competitive salary and benefits package, plus a £3,000 joining bonus. If you are a forward-thinking technological enthusiast, hacker, maker, coder, engineer or problem solver who is bold, inventive, creative, and deeply passionate about the role technology and digitalization has to play in creating a better world – read on.

Over one weekend and in a central Manchester hotel, you’ll collaborate with your team (we’ll help you build one if necessary) to develop a digital solution to a challenge based on real issues facing our planet and its people. You’ll have access to cutting-edge technologies and experts in the field.

What do I need? Proven interest or skill in: Software engineering; Data science; AI/ML; UX / UI design; Business analysis; Agile, SCRUM, lean delivery; Cloud platforms, particularly Microsoft Azure; Game development using Unreal Engine, Unity; Robotic technology.
Why #HackaFuture? Immediate job offers with AtkinsRéalis for the winning team of five. No formal interviews – showcase your skills in action. Short application form focusing on your passions, experiences and achievements. Mentorship from digital leaders and support from our Global Technology Centre and technology partners.

Application deadline: 30th November 2024. Shortlisted candidates will be notified 20th December 2024. To find out more, scan the QR code or follow this link.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

KATE KNEEBONE ACORN BURSARY.

The Kate Kneebone Acorn Bursary is an annual award of £500 funded by the Kneebone family and arm, which has been awarded since 2013 to commemorate the life of Kate Kneebone, a former student of the department. In addition to the £500 award, the Bursary offers the successful applicant the possibility of discussing an internship placement (which must have an Engineering bias) with ARM in Cambridge. All current Year 2 UG students in the Department are eligible to apply. See further details here. To apply, please complete this form by the deadline of 6pm (UK time) Friday 22nd November 2024.

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK.

The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC) has an exciting line-up of events, whether you are new to entrepreneurship, looking to elevate your skills or fat-track your idea. There are events running from Monday 18th to Sunday 24th November where you can learn from entrepreneurs, industry experts and MEC alumni, or simply just network with other students from across the University. If you are interested then scan the QR code below.

PARTICIPANTS NEEDED - PACTMAN.

CYBER-SECURITY TALK.

VENTURE FURTHER AWARDS.

Interested in applying for the Venture Further Awards 2025? Come along to the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre for a brief presentation about the competition with some top tips from the organisers and plenty of time for Q&A.

Date: Tuesday 19th November
Time: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Location: The Enterprise Zone, 2nd Floor of AMBS (Also available online)

UK CYBER LEADERS CHALLENGE.

The successful 4 (or 8 if we get enough qualified for 2 teams) will make a play for a place at the finals to be held in person at the BT Tower in London (19 - 20 March 2025) and the deadline for teams to register will run out sooner than you think (see the team selection deadline below). Our objective is to build a team as diverse as possible in terms of EDI, background and academic discipline (you must not be experienced working in cyber, politics or warfare or have held positions that would give you an advantage).

You'll pit your wits against other teams as you all respond to a complex and escalating cyber-attack with national and international ramifications. Over two days, comprising three rounds, competing teams receive intelligence packs consisting of reports gathered from multiple sources. You'll work together to analyse the report, analyse the national and international implications of the content and they present your analysis and recommendations to a panel of judges from government and industry. Apply now by e-mailing Prof Danny Dresner no later than midnight 29 November '24 with answers to the following questions:

Introduce yourself and why you will be an asset to our University's team for the Cyber Leaders Challenge. (500 words)
How would you describe the relationship between Cyber and Politics in the UK? How do you feel this relationship has changed in recent years? (500 words)
In your opinion, how does the sharing of threat intelligence and knowledge between nation states both help and hinder the UK in reaching its goals laid out in the Cyber Security Strategy 2022? (500 words)

Let's make the world a safer place to live and work online! Looking forward to hearing from you....

THE BABY ON BBC SOUNDS.

The BBC World Service Witness History series has produced a short podcast covering “The invention of the ‘Baby’ computer”. You can find the podcast on BBC Sounds. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past, looking at events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. The podcast discusses the birth of the ‘Baby’ hearing from some of the people involved in developing and building the Baby who made it are now recognised as the pioneers of modern computing. The groundbreaking work at Manchester at that time paved the way for the Department of Computer Science as we know it today.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

Dr Mara Strungaru, will present a seminar titled “Advanced atomistic models of magnetic materials”, on Wednesday, 20th November, 14:00 – 15:00, in Kilburn LT 1.3. Abstract: Magnetic materials maintained huge interests for technological applications such as magnetic recording media (initially on magnetic tapes, now on nm-sized granular media). With the increased necessity to store more and more data, it is important to constantly improve/renew the current technologies or seek for other magnetic entities (such as domain walls, skyrmions) to act as a bit of information. Novel research fields in magnetism such as spin-electronics (spintronics), opto-magnetism, magnetism in 2D, neuromorphic and reservoir computing promise to bring more advanced technologies in our daily life, and the usage of magnetic nano-particles in bio-medicine to even cure some types of cancer. The laser-induced manipulation of spins also promises to revolutionise the magnetic storage technologies by using ultrafast processes with low dissipation. In this work we explore state-of-the art atomistic models of magnetic materials able to simulate billion atoms systems for technological applications and fundamental studies. We also explore some typical examples of 2D magnetic materials, such as CrI3 and CrCl3, our findings indicating that ultrafast laser pulses can be used to manipulate spin textures efficiently in atomically thin van der Waals layers, similarly to other conventional ferromagnets.

Mara obtained her PhD in computational magnetism in 2021 at University of York, then moved to a postdoctoral position at University of Edinburgh, working on 2D magnetism. Afterwards she returned to York as a research software engineer funded by the national supercomputer ARCHER2 via eCSE. She joined University of Manchester in July 2024 as a Lecturer in Novel Concepts/Technologies in Low Energy Computing. Besides 2D magnetism, her current research interests are in developing advanced models of magnetic materials for both fundamental studies and technological applications.

INAUGURAL SEMINAR.

LIBRARY NEWS.

This from Gemma Smith: Have your say about the Library for a chance to win £100 in Amazon vouchers! The Library’s online Student Sentiment Survey is live until Monday, 25 November 2024. Your feedback is important as it helps us improve our facilities and services.

STREAM THEATRE FOR FREE.

All university members can stream acclaimed performances from major UK theatre companies online at no cost! Explore all titles via Library search, including additional productions offered through the Royal Shakespeare Company’s RSC Live Collection and Shakespeare’s Globe On Screen. More details can be found on the Drama subject guide. No expensive tickets, travel costs, or audience distractions – just enjoy the show!

SCHUSTER COLLOQUIUM.

We are thrilled to invite you to a very special Schuster Colloquium marking a triple anniversary celebration: 20 Years of Graphene Research, 150 Years of Physics at Manchester, and 200 Years of The University of Manchester! This event, held in collaboration with the Henry Royce Institute 2D Research Area, promises to be a memorable occasion in honour of these milestones.

Tuesday, November 19th, 3 PM
Rutherford Lecture Theatre, Schuster Building
Also available on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/93377905959

Talk Title: “Materials for the future”. Speaker: Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, Langworthy Professor, The University of Manchester, Director of the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials, National University of Singapore. Abstract: Graphene and 2D materials, despite being relatively fresh materials, have already taken a firm place in research, development and applications. A number of exciting phenomena have been discovered in these crystals and they continue bringing exciting results on a regular basis. However, probably the most important characteristic about 2D materials is that they offer a possibility to form on-demand van der Waals heterostructures, where individual 2D crystals are stacked together, forming a novel, 3D structure, which composition (and thus, their properties) can be controlled with atomic precision. This have opened a new directions of research: materials on demand. The properties of the resulting heterostructure can be designed with very high precision. The space of parameters is so large that the use of machine learning methods becomes essential. So, what is next for materials science after the dream of “materials on demand” has been realised? One of the dreams are materials which have some characteristics of biological systems: those with self-healing capabilities, with memory functions, those which can evolve differently depending on external conditions. I will be discussing the methodologies to design such artificial living systems and the areas of their applications.

Join us to celebrate this unique occasion and explore the future of materials with the Nobel laureate and visionary in the field of materials physics. We look forward to seeing you there! Refreshments will be served in the Schuster Foyer from 4pm.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Wessel Strijkstra by Aron Lidé (Aspartagcus)

Fill each row, column and region with the digits 1-6. Each letter corresponds to a unique digit. A cell with one letter in contains the appropriate digit. Digits in a cage sum up to the double digit number represented by two letters inside that cage. Digits may repeat in cages. The digit in the grey square is even.

Chess Puzzle - Melaa Vs. Rosenthal, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: Matthew Kirk
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Jenson Cain, 16,097pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 8 • Monday 11 November 2024 • #24.09

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 11th November 2024 and it’s week 8 of teaching. It’s that time of the semester when pressures start to set in and you may find yourself struggling to keep up with everything and meeting deadlines for coursework. If any issues prevent you from submitting your work by a deadline (illness etc) then you should ask for an extension (if available) and complete the work and submit late, within the extension period. You may also want to consider submitting a mitigating circumstances application if you are still struggling to meet the extended deadline. If you are impacted then it’s important that you seek help and advice by speaking to either your Academic Advisor, your Year Tutor, or contact a member of the Department Wellbeing Team (see below). Students often leave it until the last minute, usually after the exams, to let us know they've been affected during the year, by which point it is too late to do anything to help. Contacting us immediately when something happens, offers you the best chance of receiving help and support when you need it.

If you are a 2nd year student, then please consider applying for the Kate Kneebone Acorn Bursary, an annual award in memory of a former student of the Department, Kate Kneebone (more details below).

Finally, don’t forget that the Department is hosting a Women in Kilburn event this Wednesday (see below).

Have a good week. On with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello Year1s and PASS1 leaders! We are hoping to see you in our PASS session this Wednesday 1-2pm in your allocated room. We have some fun activities for you again followed by a chat about any upcoming courseworks or concerns you may have. Remember that these sessions are for you, so lead the session, tell your leaders what you want to talk about as the session plan is not set in stone, and enjoy! For any problems/queries please feel free to contact us!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone! We hope you enjoyed last week's session. This week, we've got even more fun and excitement planned for you, but no spoilers yet. As always, PASS2 will be in IT407 on Thursday, from 12 to 1pm. We can't wait to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello all! This week we have a social planned- tomorrow (Tuesday 12th) at 12pm, in Collab 1. Each table will be given an unsolved cold case file, and we're hoping you can solve it. Plenty of snacks will be provided! We hope to see you there. We think this will be an excellent way to use a different part of your brain, and practice your soft skills before grad-job interviews. If you are planning on coming, please quickly fill this form here (so we know how many snacks to buy!).

STUDENT VOICE COMMITTEE.

This from Tom Carroll, chair of SVC: The Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) is now called the Student Voice Committee (SVC). This makes the purpose of the committee much clearer, which is to affect positive change from student views on their experience at University - to empower Student Voice.

On 7th November, we held the first SVC of this academic year. In this meeting, your representatives gave praise for good teaching practice in the Department. Also discussed were ways in which your representatives can help to close the feedback loop, that is, to make it clearer to you what is being done by the SVC, what positive changes have been made, and how your views and opinions have been taken on board. Many ideas were proposed, and these will now be worked on - so stay tuned for things to come. Minutes of this meeting will be made available on the Student Voice space of the UG BB Community.

Your opinion matters! There are several ways in which you can give your opinions or suggestions to the SVC:

Contact a rep directly (you can find a list of reps on the SVC page of the UG BB Community)
Leave an anonymous submission on the SVC Suggestions Box.

Please note: if you have an issue with a particular course unit, then in the first instance you should always contact the lecturer or course unit leader, who will endeavour to resolve you issue.

CS STUDENT MEETING WITH PROF DUNCAN IVISON.

GOOGLE DEVELOPER GROUPS.

Google Developer Student Clubs Manchester has disappeared… But Google Developer Groups (GDG) on Campus has appeared! Do not worry, this is a rebranding from the Google Developer Student Clubs and we still hope to give you the same service we always have in the years we have been on campus. Make sure to follow us on Instagram and join the Discord from the Linktree!

UNICS MERCH POLL.

Please fill in this form to let us know of your preferences of this year’s UniCS Merch!

UNICS SEMESTER FEEDBACK FORM.

Share your thoughts on this semester's events, workshops, and resources so we can keep improving and tailoring what we offer to best meet your needs.

UNICS SOCIAL MEDIA AND MEMBERSHIP LINK.

To stay connected with us and get regular updates on our events and opportunities, visit our social media channels and get our membership. Our Discord also acts like a community hub where we have channels for you to chat and ask questions relating to courses, career advice, tech, events and more. We regularly add new channels based on your feedback, so be sure to join and get involved!

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

Just a reminder that we have a dedicated Student Support and Wellbeing team in the Department, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, who are available to support you throughout your studies. If you are affected by any issues impacting your learning, struggling with your work, considering interruption, DASS registered and feel that your condition is starting to affect you more than usual, or you just need somebody to speak to, then you should speak to a member of the Student Support and Wellbeing team. You can contact Maria and Ben by email soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk, or you can drop into the student hub in the Nancy Rothwell Building and ask to speak to someone, in confidence.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - REPORT AND SUPPORT.

The University’s Report and Support Service is available to students. If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed any form of bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor through Report and Support. To report an incident and speak to a caseworker, you can either fill out the online form or someone can do it on your behalf. You, or the person reporting can make special requests for a certain type of advisor. The last page of the form will ask for details of who they should speak to about this report. The team will seek to understand your situation and aim to give you information, advice and support tailored to your individual circumstances. You can access this service here. Please be mindful that whilst you can send anonymous reports, the team are unable to contact you to offer support unless you provide your name and contact details.

ON-CAMPUS STUDENT-LED HEALTH SCREENING CLINICS.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

KEEPING SAFE ON CAMPUS.

Just like any large city, Manchester can have problems with crime. The University student support webpage offers a variety of resources that you can utilise to help keep safe. SafeZone is a mobile app that can also be used to quickly connect with the University Campus Support and Security team if you have an immediate concern, or require first aid or wellbeing assistance. The app is free to download, easy to use, and operates not just across our campus and accommodation areas, but also MMU and Salford campuses. Find out more about SafeZone here, along with additional Safety Apps that are available. There is also a Safe Taxi scheme, which is an exclusive partnership with Street Cars, to help get you home safely even if you can’t pay at that moment.

WHO IS YOUR ACADEMIC ADVISOR?

An academic advisor is a member of academic staff you are assigned to who provides not only academic support, but pastoral support during your time in Manchester. Who is your academic advisor? Well, this depends what year you are in. If you are a 1st or 2nd year student, your academic advisor is your personal tutor - you can find out who your tutor is here. In the 3rd year, your academic advisor is your project supervisor, and in the 4th year it is Tim Morris. Don’t get your academic advisor confused with your Year Tutor (see below), who generally have more experience in supporting students and signposting them to support services in the university. If your academic advisor has concerns about your academic progression, or wellbeing, they may let the corresponding Year Tutor aware of their concerns.

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

The deadline for exam support through DASS (Disability Advice Support Service) has been extended and is now 4pm this Friday (15th November). DASS offers support to all students who have a condition which has an adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry-out normal day-to-day activities. This includes Cognitive Developmental Delay, Physical Health and Mental Health issues. A DASS advisor is always happy to talk with you if you are unsure if you can register with them. You can find out more information about DASS and how to contact them here: who-do-we-support. The University has a deadline for putting exam support in place for each of the main exam periods. You’ll need to register and have met with an adviser to agree your exam support by the deadline. For more details, see the exam support page.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:30 - 13:30, Kilburn LF.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING MID-SEMESTER SURVEY.

Andrea Schalk writes: Thanks to all students who provided feedback via this survey. This has now been shared with the relevant unit lead, and the unit leads have been asked to respond to students taking the unit. It was good to see so much positive feedback.

EXTENDED OPENING HOURS.

COMP1RDMC: Respect & Dignity at Manchester
COMP1HS: Health and Safety
COMP1AMP: Academic Malpractice

Once you have completed these modules and taken the Extended Working Hours test, you can apply for a pass. If you do not have access to the modules listed above, then please contact t soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk. Once access has been granted then you can use your University swipe card to enter the Kilburn building. Please note that currently access is through the main entrance opposite Crawford House. However, once the building works are completed, then access will be via the entrance opposite University place. During extended hours access is restricted to the lower first area of the Kilburn building. You will not be able to use labs or meeting spaces in any other locations in Kilburn. You may be required to show proof that you have extended hours when requested by a building attendant or security. You can find more information and full instructions in the Extended Working Hours folder in the CS UG Community Space in Blackboard.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

The Undergraduate Handbook is your one-stop resource for all information related to your studies. It contains information about your degree programmes, details on progression, how to change degree programmes or interrupt your studies, information on student support etc. The handbook also has information related to how to apply for mitigating circumstances if your learning has been affected by issues out of your control, such as an illness. You can always find the link to the handbook (as well as other useful links) at the top of each Monday Mail in the 'Essential Links' banner.

LEARNING TIPS - EVALUATING YOUR WORK.

On the road towards becoming a professional, you will want to pick up skills that help you evaluate your work. Neither your future clients, nor your team members and managers will be happy if you treat the requested features for your project as a tick list. Users don't just want software that can do a job somehow, they want software that's intuitive to use, does the job smoothly and quickly without exhausting available resources, and interfaces well with other systems.

When you work on coursework you have the opportunity to think about what would make a submission a good one. You will usually be told which criteria are going to be used to mark your work, but you may not necessarily receive details of how various judgements are made and how marks are determined under each marking criteria. You should consider for yourself how those criteria may be measured, and you should also be aware of teaching material that covers some of those criteria, so that you can use them to help you with this task. You may even want to think about how to judge a `good solution' before looking at anything supplied by the course unit team - it'll give you some useful insights, and improve your ability to evaluate desirable features of a solution. Feedback from previous assessments, or past papers, should also help you judge what is required under each criteria. By the time you work on your third year project you'll be asked to perform an evaluation of what you have achieved, and acquiring this skill will also help you in the future, whether you pursue postgraduate work or join the profession.

UNICS GAMEDEV WORKSHOP.

Next week we’ll cover shader graph, unitys very own non-code shader writing system for creating visuals:

Wednesday 13/11/24
3pm - 4pm
Kilburn Theatre 1.1

UNICS CAREERS WORKSHOP.

Join us for an overview of the various types of interviews that you may be invited to and a more detailed discussion of the most common interviews. Finally, we will provide tips and preparation resources. This session also makes for great preparation for UniCS’ mock interview sessions in the coming weeks.

Friday 15/11/24
12pm - 1pm

UNICS INTRO TO PROGRAMMING WORKSHOP 2.

This week we will cover the following topics:

Operations on Strings and Booleans
Selection (if, elif, else)
Logical operators (and, or, not)
Comparison operators (=, ==)
Type casting
Reading documentation

Details of the workshop will be released soon so please keep an eye out on our socials. Inform your friends from non-CS backgrounds to join if they're interested in learning programming. If you are a first year CS student, these workshops will be highly beneficial for you too to get some extra coding practice with some hands-on help and to clear concepts taught in your course earlier better.

WOMEN IN KILBURN EVENT.

Hi there! Join us at our first-of-the-year networking event dedicated to empowering and raising the visibility of women, non-binary individuals, and underrepresented groups within Computer Science. Come grab a bite and network with academics, senior students,and fellow classmates within Computer Science.

When: Wednesday, 13th Nov (this Wednesday!), 2024
Time: 11AM- 12PM
Where: Turing Lounge, Kilburn Building, 1st floor, directly opposite the first-floor entrance, close to the disabled access lift.

Drinks and snacks will be provided! We really look forward to seeing you there.

START-UP WEEKEND.

Ready to transform your idea into a business?
Looking to network with other students, entrepreneurs & investors?
Pitch your idea to a panel of judges, for a chance to win funding from our £3000 funding pot!

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Tuesday, 12th November, 5.00pm-6.00pm, in Kilburn Collab 1 and the Byte Cafe area. We'll be working on the Polus system, a Python tool for filtering and selecting representative subsets of data for machine learning. The code base is owned by Bienfait Isamura, a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry. Polus is a key component of an ML pipeline for working with chemical and molecular structures that is currently being used in research. New members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, spruce up the code base and build a public record of contributions. Software engineers from the University's research software engineering team will provide support.

UK CYBER TEAM COMPETITION.

The UK Cyber Team competition launches on Wednesday 9 October 2024 and is open to 18–25-year-olds with an interest in cyber security. This brand-new national competition is free to enter and has been launched by DSIT in partnership with SANS. Participants will undertake three rounds of cyber security Capture the Flag challenges, with the top 200 going through to a live, in-person final. The top 30 will then win the chance to be part of the UK Cyber Team, receive training from industry, and represent the UK in international cyber competitions. Sign up here and try out the teaser challenges. Timeline:

Round 1: Saturday 30 November 2024 and Sunday 1 December 2024
Round 2: Friday 13 December 2024 to Friday 17 January 2025
Round 3 (Final): Friday 17 January and Saturday 18 January 2025

NOT JUST FOR BOYS!

We are excited to invite you to an inspiring and important event titled "Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science," featuring the pioneering physicist Professor Dame Athene Donald, who is just retiring as the Master of Churchill College, Cambridge. This event will take place on 14 November 2024 (this Thursday) at 7:00 p.m. at the Friends’ Meeting House, located just behind the Central Library in the middle of Manchester (Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS).

Professor Dame Athene Donald will discuss the critical need for more women in science and share insights from her book, "Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science." Despite the removal of formal barriers to women pursuing STEM subjects, there are still fewer women working in these areas as they move up the career ladder. This talk will explore the subtle and not-so-subtle reasons behind this dearth and highlight the importance of welcoming women into the scientific world for a stronger and more diverse society. Don't miss this opportunity to hear from a multi-award-winning female scientist who has made significant contributions to the field of physics and gender equality in science. For more details and to book your place, please visit the event page.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

Prof Rob Black will present a seminar titled “Weaponising Digital Trust to Better Defend Our Networks”, 18th November 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. Register today to explore the concepts of a proactive cyber defence strategy, through weaponising a cyber attacker’s trust and utilising deception techniques and taking tactics from other domains to create more challenging defences for our attackers to face so as to keep our networks safe. This lecture aims to be thought provoking, amusing and, most importantly it aims to be enlightening as to how best we can bring social sciences to the front line of our cyber fight! Register here.

SEED CORN SHOWCASE 2023-24.

The Centre for Digital Trust and Security will be holding a Seed Corn Showcase on the 11th December 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. What to expect at the Showcase:

Dive into the learnings and successes of the five CDTS funded projects.
Discover the exciting advancements made by these innovative researchers.
Learn how you can get involved in shaping the future of digital trust research.
Connect and network over a drinks reception.

HACKAFUTURE EVENT.

If you are a forward-thinking technological enthusiast, hacker, maker, coder, engineer or problem solver who is bold, inventive, creative, and deeply passionate about the role technology and digitalization has to play in creating a better world – read on.

What do I need? Proven interest or skill in: Software engineering; Data science; AI/ML; UX / UI design; Business analysis; Agile, SCRUM, lean delivery; Cloud platforms, particularly Microsoft Azure; Game development using Unreal Engine, Unity; Robotic technology.
Why #HackaFuture? Immediate job offers with AtkinsRéalis for the winning team of five. No formal interviews – showcase your skills in action. Short application form focusing on your passions, experiences and achievements. Mentorship from digital leaders and support from our Global Technology Centre and technology partners.

Application deadline: 30th November 2024. Shortlisted candidates will be notified 20th December 2024. To find out more, scan the QR code or follow this link.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

STUDENTS’ UNION OPEN MEETING WITH DUNCAN IVISON.

SIGN UP: Open Meeting with Duncan Ivison on 14 November. What does your VC think about student activism? Book your place at the next Ask Me Anything session on Thursday, 14 November to find out. Do you have a question about student activism at Manchester? Want to know what the University is doing to support your voice on campus? Now’s your chance to get answers by booking on to the next “Ask Me Anything” Open Meeting. Vice-Chancellor and President, Duncan Ivison, is back in the hot seat ready to answer your questions, and this time he will be joined by Ben Ward, Chief Executive Officer of University of Manchester Students’ Union, as well as an in-person audience – which you can be part of. Book your seat at the live Open Meeting. Hosted by your SU Exec Officers, Elliot Briffa (City and Community Officer), and Charlie Roberts (Activities and Culture Officer), the session will feature questions from the live in-person audience, as well as the most up-voted questions which have been submitted online via the Menti Meter. Submit your questions here. So make sure to book your seat at the session to ensure your voice is heard, and don’t miss out on this opportunity to have your questions answers.

KATE KNEEBONE ACORN BURSARY.

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK.

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH OPEN DAY.

The Faculty of Science and Engineering is hosting its postgraduate research Open Day on Wednesday, 13th November (this Wednesday) from 12pm to 4:30pm in the Nancy Rothwell Building. If you are thinking of undertaking research after you graduate then here’s five reasons you should attend the upcoming Open Day:

Discover research projects – Explore a variety of research opportunities available to you and find a project that matches your passion.
Learn about funding – The Open Day will provide detailed information on scholarships, grants, and other funding options, ensuring you’re equipped to fund your research journey.
Meet current researchers – Get the inside scoop from current postgraduate researchers about life in the research community at Manchester and how to make the most of your postgraduate experience.
Receive application advice – From application processes to entry requirements, expert advice will help you confidently navigate the admissions process.
Explore your research area – Speak to academics and researchers in your specific area of interest to get a glimpse of what your future as a researcher at Manchester could look like.

Say hello to your tomorrow as a postgraduate researcher and join our Open Day on Wednesday 13th November 2024. Register your place now.

PARTICIPANTS NEEDED - PACTMAN.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

Dr Natraj Raman, JPMorgan AI Research, London, will present a seminar titled “Multimodal Tabular Transactions” on Wednesday, 13th November from 14:00 – 15:00, in Kilburn LT 1.3. Abstract: Large Language Models (LLMs) have achieved remarkable success in understanding and reasoning over unstructured text data. Does this success suggest that structured formats, like tabular data, should also be converted into text for LLM application? This talk will delve into the advantages of adapting transformer-based models to the unique characteristics of tabular data, with a focus on financial transactions. It will also discuss scalable solutions to the practical challenges encountered in industrial settings for learning and interfacing with transaction data representations.

Natraj Raman is a research director at JPMorgan AI Research, London. With over 20 years of experience in the financial industry, he has worked as a research scientist at Thomson Reuters and S&P Global. He holds a PhD in Computer Vision, and his research interests include Document AI, Explainable AI and Representation Learning.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

In this work we explore state-of-the art atomistic models of magnetic materials able to simulate billion atoms systems for technological applications and fundamental studies. We also explore some typical examples of 2D magnetic materials, such as CrI3 and CrCl3, our findings indicating that ultrafast laser pulses can be used to manipulate spin textures efficiently in atomically thin van der Waals layers, similarly to other conventional ferromagnets.

SCHUSTER COLLOQUIUM.

Tuesday, November 19th, 3 PM
Rutherford Lecture Theatre, Schuster Building
Also available on Zoom: https://zoom.us/j/93377905959

Talk Title: “Materials for the future”. Speaker: Professor Sir Kostya Novoselov, Langworthy Professor, The University of Manchester, Director of the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials, National University of Singapore

Abstract: Graphene and 2D materials, despite being relatively fresh materials, have already taken a firm place in research, development and applications. A number of exciting phenomena have been discovered in these crystals and they continue bringing exciting results on a regular basis. However, probably the most important characteristic about 2D materials is that they offer a possibility to form on-demand van der Waals heterostructures, where individual 2D crystals are stacked together, forming a novel, 3D structure, which composition (and thus, their properties) can be controlled with atomic precision. This have opened a new directions of research: materials on demand. The properties of the resulting heterostructure can be designed with very high precision. The space of parameters is so large that the use of machine learning methods becomes essential. So, what is next for materials science after the dream of “materials on demand” has been realised? One of the dreams are materials which have some characteristics of biological systems: those with self-healing capabilities, with memory functions, those which can evolve differently depending on external conditions. I will be discussing the methodologies to design such artificial living systems and the areas of their applications.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Out of Order by Blackjackfitz

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits separated by a black dot are in a 1:2 ratio. Digits along a pink line form a consecutive set that MUST appear out of order. i.e. 4321 is not valid while 4312 is.

Chess Puzzle - Kafantaris Vs. Viachos, 2018

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: Luke Shepard
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Finn Leonard, 16,269pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 7 • Monday 4 November 2024 • #24.08

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 4th November 2024, welcome to week 7 of teaching. It’s hard to believe we are in November already! I hope you took some time off over reading week, enjoyed the spooky goings on, and that you are now ready for the remainder of the semester - it'll get busy from now on! Tuesday (5th November) is Guy Fawkes night (or Bonfire Night) in the UK; you may have heard lots of fireworks going off over the weekend! What’s it all about? You can find out more here.

Teaching activities resume as normal this week, so please make sure you check your personal timetable as some activities may take place at different times/locations. We are hitting that point in the semester where you may find deadlines start to bunch up. As such, it’s important to manage your time and do not leave coursework to the last minute. Don’t forget we have the deadlines chart (see below) so you can visualise the deadlines across the semester.

In this week’s learning tips item I focus on how to recognise feedback when you receive it, as it’s important to understand that feedback comes in many ways! Ben also provides some advice on applying for extensions and submitting mitigating circumstances in his welfare weekly item.

Have a good week and enjoy the fireworks. Lots of items in Monday Mail this week …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi everyone! We hope you enjoyed a great reading week and had some time to relax and have fun. PASS2 is back this week, with a session on how to tackle those pesky technical interviews, plus some fun and games! There will also be mock interviews. As always, it'll be on Thursday the 7th of November from 12-1pm in IT407. We can't wait to see you there!

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE.

This from Tom Carroll, chair of SSLC: Thank you to all the academic reps who have now completed their training. You can see a list of your academic reps on the UG Community on Blackboard. Our first SSLC meeting of the academic year is on Wednesday 7th November (this Wednesday). In this meeting, we will be discussing issues and positives that you have raised to your reps, on matters such as teaching, feedback, and student life. It is very important to us that the changes brought through the SSLC are visible and understood, therefore we will also be giving a special focus to student voice and closing the feedback loop.

Your ideas and views on these matters are very important, and will play an important part in how we move forwards. You can give your views in a number of ways:

Your reps will reach out to you, either in person or by other means.
You can approach a rep directly (their email is on the reps list).
You can add your views to our online suggestions box (all responses are anonymous)

FEEDBACK FOR ACADEMIC REPS.

Peyman Ramezanpour (Y1, CM) writes on behalf of the academic reps: Dear all, I hope you are well and that you are enjoying semester 1! As academic reps, we will soon be participating in our first SSLC meeting and we would love to hear from you. Please take 2 minutes to fill out this survey so that we can share your thoughts and feedback in our meeting. Remember that only with your support, we can make a change in our environment! Thank you all! If you have any questions then please email. (P.S. Responses are anonymous)

HACKCHESTER.

Hello everyone! We are happy to announce that we are rebooting Hackchester, the one and only cybersecurity society at the University of Manchester! We aim to raise awareness of today's security issues and focus on providing knowledge that is unavailable through any course modules. We have weekly sessions in Kilburn on Wednesdays on miscellaneous topics, from workshops based on jeopardy categories to “Capture the Flag” style competitions as well as live hacking exercises and engaging talks from industry specialists. To learn more and join us, check out our Link Tree. We are looking forward to seeing you!

UNICS MERCH POLL.

Please fill in this form to let us know of your preferences for this year’s UniCS Merch!

MANCHESTER AI CLUB.

If you're interested in getting hands on with AI and learning to build AI models, come join the Manchester AI Club! We are a technical society open to people of all ability levels. To help build your skills we will be holding regular workshops to help develop proficiency in working with and coding AI. Each term, our members will work on building projects that cover a variety of technologies including feedforward, recurrent and convolutional neural networks as well as deep learning. We will also be hosting reading groups and a podcast to discuss and learn about AI technology and developments in AI research. We hope to see you soon, here are our social links.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - QWELL.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - HEALTH ASSURED.

Health Assured is a 24 hour mental health helpline and wellbeing app which offers access to mental health support from trained counsellors and advisors who are ready to listen and provide help whenever you need it. It is anonymous, non-judgmental and available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can call the helpline for advice and support on a whole range of issues you might be facing, big or small. Things you could call for include mental and emotional health, managing relationships, feeling worried about yourself or someone else, dealing with stress and anxiety, money advice, and everything in between. You can find out more here.

ON-CAMPUS STUDENT-LED HEALTH SCREENING CLINICS.

Week 7 – Wednesday, 6 November 1.30-3.30pm
Week 8 – Wednesday, 13 November 1.30-3.30pm

Please contact Harsha or Sarah (Co-leads for MPharm Prescribing Skills) via email if you have any questions.

COST OF LIVING SUPPORT FUND.

The University is committed to supporting students facing unexpected financial difficulties through the Cost of Living Support Fund. Funded by generous donations from alumni and friends, this non-repayable support is designed to ensure that no student is left struggling. The Cost of Living Support Fund offers financial assistance to students who find themselves unexpectedly struggling with essential living expenses such as food, utility bills, or other financial challenges. Importantly, the fund is available year-round and aims to provide timely support to those in need. For new students starting in September 2024, please note that the fund cannot be used as a means to finance your studies. Be sure to explore other potential funding options via the University’s resources before applying.

What Can We Support? We can assist with essential living costs like rent, utility bills, food, and travel expenses related to your studies. However, we cannot provide funding for laptops, desktops, or tablets. The fund is meant to help those experiencing unforeseen circumstances, so it’s important that you start your studies with adequate funding for your tuition fees and living costs.
How to Apply? The application process typically takes around 30 minutes. You’ll need to submit supporting documents to help us assess your situation. Be sure to review the document checklist and have everything ready before starting the application.
You can download the application form here, and we recommend using your student ID to password-protect any documents you submit. Please note that the current assessment time is around three weeks after receiving all necessary documents.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - APPLYING FOR MITIGATION AND EXTENSIONS.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: I've noticed a number of applications for mitigation and extensions being filled in incorrectly or with unclear information, so I wanted to take this opportunity to give you some tips on using the form should you need to. When you visit the form you will need to start a new claim. Then right at the top you will need to select whether you want a one week extension, or to apply for mitigating circumstances. The form does not allow you to do both, so if you need that then you will need to fill in two applications.

1-week extensions - To request a one week extension you must apply prior to your deadline date. If the deadline date has passed then an extension is not possible. You should instead submit as soon as you can and apply for mitigating circumstances. Be aware of which of your assessments can have extensions as some cannot.

Mitigating circumstances - When applying for mitigation, the submission status of the assessment and the evidence you have to provide will have a big impact on the mitigation we can offer you, and if we can accept your application. The decision making process is complex and needs to consider assessment regulations, but here is a simplified idea to help you:

If you submit late and late submissions are allowed for the item, then we will most likely recommend the late penalty is waived.
If you submit on time but you feel the quality of your work was affected, we will ask the exam board to omit the mark from your unit grade if the mark is out of line.
If you do not submit at all we will ask for the exam board to omit the missing mark from your unit grade. Alternatively you may need to do a reassessment such as a resit exam.

If your application for mitigation is accepted then the outcome will likely be one of the above.

Extensions of longer than one week are rare, they need to be specifically requested and are usually only given on large assessments such as the final year project. If they are given it will be clear in your outcome e-mail. At busy times, extensions can take up to five days to process so if you apply too near the deadline you may not get a response until after the deadline has passed. Mitigation applications are processed differently and will often take longer to get you an outcome. If you have any questions about extensions or mitigation then please contact us on soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk or pop into the Student Support Hub.

WHO IS YOUR ACADEMIC ADVISOR?

An academic advisor is a member of academic staff you are assigned to who provides not only academic support, but pastoral support during your time in Manchester. Who is your academic advisor? Well, this depends what year you are in. If you are a 1st or 2nd year student, your academic advisor is your personal tutor - you can find out who your tutor is here. In the 3rd year, your academic advisor is your project supervisor, and in the 4th year it is Tim Morris. Don’t get your academic advisor confused with your Year Tutor (see below), who generally have more experience in supporting students and signposting them to support services in the university. If your academic advisor has concerns about your academic progression, or wellbeing, they may let the corresponding Year Tutor aware of their concerns.

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

The deadline for exam support through DASS (Disability Advice Support Service) is 4pm Tuesday (5th November). DASS offers support to all students who have a condition which has an adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry-out normal day-to-day activities. This includes Cognitive Developmental Delay, Physical Health and Mental Health issues. A DASS advisor is always happy to talk with you if you are unsure if you can register with them. You can find out more information about DASS and how to contact them here: who-do-we-support. The University has a deadline for putting exam support in place for each of the main exam periods. You’ll need to register and have met with an adviser to agree your exam support by the deadline. For more details, see the exam support page.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

Don't forget we have a coursework deadlines chart, which can be accessed here, to help you with planning your time around deadlines, The chart is populated with the deadlines for all COMP course units, for each year group, in semester 1. Please note that deadlines may still change and that only SPOT indicates up-to-date information on deadlines, so please use SPOT to confirm deadlines.

LEARNING TIPS - MAKING THE MOST OF FEEDBACK.

We all appreciate feedback on what we do, whether this is for the encouragement that we are doing something right, or because we want to perform better in the future. However, productive feedback becomes increasingly hard to come by, as you'll discover, as you progress further in your careers. Recognising when you are receiving feedback is really important, particularly if you want to make optimum use of it to improve what you do. Completing assessments is not just about the mark awarded, it’s also about the feedback you receive and understanding where your work fell short and how it can be improved. Whether an assessment counts towards the course unit mark (we call this summative) or not (formative), the feedback you receive is vitally important.

Given their prior experience in education, it's natural that students concentrate solely on any individual written feedback that is supplied on their work, but is this really the only feedback worth your attention? There are many occasions where you will receive feedback on your work where you might realise you are receiving feedback; it’s important you appreciate that this is happening.

Formative quizzes in Blackboard provide individual feedback on your understanding of the material. Do you take the time to understand which answers you got wrong, and why?
When asking for help from a GTA in a lab, do you realise they are providing you with feedback on your work simply by talking to you about your work? Do you take this advice on board? Does it help you to understand where you went wrong, what you may have misunderstood and how to improve things?
When seeking help by posting a question on a discussion forum, the reply you receive is feedback being provided by the member of staff who answered.
In some cases, general feedback is provided to a cohort highlighting where students did well, and where they didn't. Do you take the time to critically evaluate your work against the descriptions given?
When you solve past papers, do you look at the feedback in the answers provided to see whether you made common mistakes described there? Or maybe you were marked against a rubric which describes levels of achievements - do you just look at the score you got, or do you think about what you could have done to meet a descriptor with a higher score? After all, the rubric itself offers feedback on your work, and how it can be improved.
You may receive model answers for problems, do you work out where your own answers don't match those solutions, and whether that means your work has some shortcomings?

There are many ways in which you will receive feedback, and it’s not always written down for you on paper. It’s important you recognise this and make the most of the feedback you receive as this will help you develop the skills that will help you throughout your degree and in your future career.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

All pieces of coursework in the Department will have a deadline by which it must be submitted. You can find out the deadline from the course unit material in Blackboard, or via SPOT or the coursework deadlines chart. In some cases, you can request a short extension to allow you to complete your work if you find you are falling behind due to circumstances beyond your control. However, in some cases an extension is not possible. SPOT and the coursework deadlines chart indicate which assessments you can apply for an extension for. You must apply for an extension BEFORE the deadline - requests will not be accepted after the deadline. Further advice and a link to the form to request an extension can be found in the Illness and Absence folder in the CS UG Community space in Blackboard. If you wish to have an extension after the deadline then you must apply through the mitigating circumstances process.

WOMEN IN KILBURN EVENT.

When: Wednesday, 13th November, 2024
Time: 11AM- 12PM
Where: Turing Lounge, Kilburn Building, 1st floor, directly opposite the first-floor entrance, close to the disabled access lift.

Drinks and snacks will be provided! We really look forward to seeing you there.

UNICS GAMEDEV WORKSHOP.

We will be covering Projectiles. They are an excellent way to learn about object oriented programming concepts such as inheritance, polymorphism and encapsulation. We'll also look at the limitations of inheritance and introduce composition and interfaces as a solution to these issues.

Wednesday 06/11/24
3pm - 4pm
Simon Theatre E

UNICS INTRO TO PROGRAMMING WORKSHOP.

We will be starting our Intro to Programming workshop series from this week! It will be taught using Python and will focus on teaching you everything you need to know to start programming from scratch. Everyone who knows about programming will agree that you can’t really learn it unless you get hands-on experience and that is what we aim to do through our workshops. Hence, instead of just a boring session of lecture, we will complement each workshop with a selected set of practice questions related to the topic of the workshop and from time-to-time, work on small projects together which will help you sharpen your skills and become more confident of the concepts being taught. So, all in all, whether you are just looking to get started with programming or looking to clear up concepts from your CS courses, these workshops are for you! The first one will be held on Thursday 07/11/24. Details of time and venue will be shared on our socials soon so keep an eye out:)

UNICS CAREERS WORKSHOP.

Friday 08/11/24
12pm - 1pm
Kilburn Theatre 1.5

DATA SCIENCE SOCIETY.

The Data Science Society (MUDS) proudly presents its inaugural AI Spotlight event: "From Human to Machine Perception". This series offers a platform for university researchers, especially postgraduate students, to share their latest ideas and inspire others to explore the cutting edge of AI and related fields. This event will feature two separate presentations from computer vision researchers:

David Petrescu will introduce foundational concepts in computer graphics and perception, setting the stage for their use in computer vision research.
Hamila Mailee will offer insights into advancing face editing for character animation, where traditional techniques in visual computing fall short.

This event is ideal for students and researchers eager to explore computer vision and AI. The research topics will be presented in an accessible manner. If you’re a student seeking project ideas or simply curious about the latest advancements and challenges in computer vision, don’t miss this chance to gain insight and connect with peers - register here! Plus, there is going to be free pizza after the event!

AI AND BUSINESS SOCIETY.

Introducing the AI and Business Society’s first Hackathon of the year! This hackathon is sponsored by GotCHA labs - Fun and secure CAPTCHAs for web. The deadline for this competition is the **17th of November** and teams of any size and ability are welcome! There are two tracks to choose from and the use of AI is welcomed and encouraged! Feel free to incorporate AI tools as much or as little as you’d like. If inspired, please share uploads of your AI conversations to showcase the creative prompts you’ve used!

Track 1: CAPTCHA Game Creation: Prizes for Track 1: £300 for 1st place £150 for 2nd place £50 for 3rd place. Develop a website that features an engaging, short game utilising the GotCHA interface (available here). The game should be entirely mouse-driven to mirror the typical interaction style of a CAPTCHA. For additional documentation, refer to the GotCHA project on GitHub and view a related talk on YouTube.
Track 2: Farcaster Frame with Free Token Faucet on Polygon PoS. Prizes for Track 2: £300 for 1st place £150 for 2nd place £50 for 3rd place. Create a Farcaster frame that integrates a free token faucet on the Polygon PoS (Amoy) testnet, secured by a GotCHA CAPTCHA. This track involves implementing both the CAPTCHA and the interactive Farcaster frame. Frames offer a way to build in-feed web applications directly within the decentralised Farcaster social media feed, enhancing user interaction. Zero-code Farcaster Frames and Frame maker. For further guidance, refer to the Farcaster Frames documentation here.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

This week, the OSS Club [tinyurl.com/uom-oss-club] is meeting on Monday, 4th November, 1.00-2.00pm in the Makerspace in the Nancy Rothwell Building. We'll be picking up issues and PRs on the PiRover Simulator code base, a Python base simulator for small robots, owned by Dr Louise Dennis. New members are welcome at any time, and with any level of coding experience, provided you've completed the induction training for the Makerspace. (You need to be enrolled in the School of Engineering org on Blackboard to get access.) Come along and help find and fix bugs, add features and improve documentation and earn yourself some GitHub badges.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

Prof Rob Black will present a seminar titled “Weaponising Digital Trust to Better Defend Our Networks”, 18th November 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. Register today to explore the concepts of a proactive cyber defence strategy, through weaponising a cyber attacker’s trust and utilising deception techniques and taking tactics from other domains to create more challenging defences for our attackers to face so as to keep our networks safe. This lecture aims to be thought provoking, amusing and, most importantly it aims to be enlightening as to how best we can bring social sciences to the front line of our cyber fight! Register here.

UK CYBER TEAM COMPETITION.

The UK Cyber Team competition launched on Wednesday 9 October 2024 and is open to 18–25-year-olds with an interest in cyber security. This brand-new national competition is free to enter and has been launched by DSIT in partnership with SANS. Participants will undertake three rounds of cyber security Capture the Flag challenges, with the top 200 going through to a live, in-person final. The top 30 will then win the chance to be part of the UK Cyber Team, receive training from industry, and represent the UK in international cyber competitions. Sign up here and try out the teaser challenges. Timeline:

Round 1: Saturday 30 November 2024 and Sunday 1 December 2024
Round 2: Friday 13 December 2024 to Friday 17 January 2025
Round 3 (Final): Friday 17 January and Saturday 18 January 2025

SEED CORN SHOWCASE 2023-24.

The Centre for Digital Trust and Security will be holding a Seed Corn Showcase on the 11th December 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. What to expect at the Showcase:

Dive into the learnings and successes of the five CDTS funded projects.
Discover the exciting advancements made by these innovative researchers.
Learn how you can get involved in shaping the future of digital trust research.
Connect and network over a drinks reception.

NOT JUST FOR BOYS!

We are excited to invite you to an inspiring and important event titled "Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science," featuring the pioneering physicist Professor Dame Athene Donald, who is just retiring as the Master of Churchill College, Cambridge. This event will take place on 14 November 2024 at 7:00 p.m. at the Friends’ Meeting House, located just behind the Central Library in the middle of Manchester (Mount Street, Manchester M2 5NS).

MASOOD ENTREPRENEURSHIP CENTRE EVENT.

Ash Rust will present a talk “Your first steps when building a Startup” on Thursday, 7th November 2024, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM, followed by networking at BrewDog. The Enterprise Zone, 2nd floor, AMBS

Ash, an entrepreneur turned investor, is the Managing Partner of Sterling Road, a venture fund that invests in early-stage B2B companies. With experience advising Bullpen Capital and working at Trinity Ventures, Ash has mentored hundreds of startups through renowned accelerator programs like Y-Combinator, Techstars, Oxford, Stanford, UC Berkeley, and Alchemist. Ash has been pivotal in the development of https://www.metofico.com and invested in UoM startups. Please review: https://www.sterlingroad.com/apply Ash will share his insights on how to take the first steps in building a successful startup. Please register for the event here.

RESEARCH STUDY - ROBOT’S PERCEPTION OF HUMAN TRUST.

Joseph Bolarinwa writes: Hi, I am a Postdoctoral Research Associate (Robotics) in the department. You are invited to participate in a research study entitled “Robot perception of human trust: Investigating relevant nonverbal behaviours”. The aim of the research study is to investigate the nonverbal behaviours that a human may present to show that they have trust in a robot’s capabilities. In the study, you will be working together with a robot to solve maze tasks at the cognitive robotics laboratory in the Department. To complete the task, you will make decisions on paths to take to get to the exit of mazes. You will also be able to ask a robot for recommendations on paths to take. With your consent, we shall make video and audio recordings of your interaction with the robot as you complete the task. Analysis of the recordings will be carried out after the study to confirm or reject our research hypothesis.

The research does not pose professional or emotional risks and care will be taken to ensure that data captured during the study will be used solely for the purpose of the research. Information gathered from your interaction in the study, as well as your questionnaire responses will be anonymised. This means that you will not be identifiable from the published results. You will have the right to end your participation in the study at any time. This research has been cleared by the University of Manchester Research Ethics Board.

To participate, you need to be aged 18 or above and be of the typical adult population. This means that you would not have been diagnosed with conditions affecting physical, social, emotional, and cognitive functioning or development (i.e. autistic spectrum disorder, deaf and hard of hearing, colour-blindness, speech disorder or impairments). English is either your first language or you learnt it, and you can read, understand, and communicate with the English language.

If you would like to participate in this research study, or have any questions about the research, please contact me at joseph.bolarinwa@manchester.ac.uk.

ELI AND BRITT HARARI AWARD.

The Eli and Britt Harari Award is an annual award for startups using graphene or other 2D materials organised by the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre (MEC). The award is open to all students with a prize of £50,000 for the winning team. The closing date for applications is 12:00, 10th February. You can find out more ny scanning the QR code below or emailing harari@manchester.ac.uk.

MEC is the focal point for enterprise and entrepreneurship teaching, learning and startup support at The University of Manchester. They run several co-curricular activities, events and competitions, aimed at members of the University community including students. These initiatives provide valuable opportunities for all students to enhance their entrepreneurial skills, network with industry experts, and gain hands-on experience that complements their academic studies. Contact entrepreneurship@manchester.ac.uk for more information.

GLOBAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP WEEK.

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH OPEN DAY.

The Faculty of Science and Engineering is hosting its postgraduate research Open Day on Wednesday, 13th November from 12pm to 4:30pm in the Nancy Rothwell Building. If you are thinking of undertaking research after you graduate then here’s five reasons you should attend the upcoming Open Day:

Discover research projects – Explore a variety of research opportunities available to you and find a project that matches your passion.
Learn about funding – The Open Day will provide detailed information on scholarships, grants, and other funding options, ensuring you’re equipped to fund your research journey.
Meet current researchers – Get the inside scoop from current postgraduate researchers about life in the research community at Manchester and how to make the most of your postgraduate experience.
Receive application advice – From application processes to entry requirements, expert advice will help you confidently navigate the admissions process.
Explore your research area – Speak to academics and researchers in your specific area of interest to get a glimpse of what your future as a researcher at Manchester could look like.

Say hello to your tomorrow as a postgraduate researcher and join our Open Day on Wednesday 13th November 2024. Register your place now.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

Prof. Jialie Shen, University of London, will present a seminar titled “Multimodal Learning in Multimedia Recommender Systems: Challenges and Future Directions” on Wednesday 6th November, 14:00 - 15:00, in Kilburn LT1.3. Abstract: With the exponential growth of multimedia big data, multimodal learning, particularly deep learning across diverse data types, has become central to the development of cutting-edge multimedia recommender systems. These systems necessitate the integration of data from various modalities, such as text, images, and audio, to deliver accurate and personalised recommendations. As the complexity and scale of these systems increase, the demand for more sophisticated models, architectures, and data processing algorithms becomes ever more pressing. In this talk, I will explore the critical role of multimodal learning in shaping state-of-the-art recommendation systems. I will discuss the key challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving domain.

Jialie Shen is currently a professor in computer vision and machine learning (Chair) with the Department of Computer Science, City, University of London, UK. His research interests spread across subareas in artificial intelligence (AI) and data science, including statistical machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, and information retrieval. His research results have been published in more than 150 publications at prestigious journals and conferences.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Carved Out by Wypman

Normal sudoku rules apply. The pumpkin (orange line) is an entropic line on which each neighbouring group of three cells include one low (1,2,3), one middle (4,5,6) and one high (7,8,9) digit. The stem (green line) is a German whisper, where neighbouring digits have a difference of at least 5. The face is made up of of thermometers, on which the digits increase from the bulb end. Digits separated by an X sum to 10 and digits separated by a V sum to 5.

Chess Puzzle - Hrabusa Vs. Gregor, 2018

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing the 'Community World' map. A world map with 100k+ handpicked locations put together by over a hundred experienced players and map makers from the GeoGuessr community

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: No Winner this Week
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Cyrus, 25,000pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 6 (Reading Week) • Monday 28 October 2024 • #24.07

Paul pic

Good morning! It’s Monday 28th October 2024 and it’s week 6 - halfway through the semester! This week is reading week, which means there are no teaching activities scheduled for COMP course units. However, you may still have activities scheduled for any non-COMP course units you are taking, and may still have some coursework to complete. Please check your personal timetable if you are not sure. The University, and the Kilburn building, remain open as normal over reading week. Please make the most of this week to take a break and relax; the remainder of the semester is going to be busy so best to recharge your batteries now if you can.

It’s been great to see the Kilburn building, particularly the lower first area, so busy so far this semester. We hope you feel that Kilburn is your home!

Thursday is Halloween so have a spooktacular day! On with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Dear Year 1s, there is no PASS this week! We hope you enjoy your reading week and to see you on week 7!

COMPUTER SCIENCE FC.

Shivam Ray (Y3, AI) writes: The boys in white put up a fierce and commendable battle against Salford FC. One of the better performances by the team as team chemistry is getting better by the day!! Very gruesome match which saw Salford receive 2 red cards! Keep supporting the boys as you do.

WHAT IS MONDAY MAIL FOR?

Monday Mail is a newsletter for UG students in the Department of Computer Science that not only provides you with announcements and information we think you will find interesting (and hopefully useful), but also showcases the amazing things our students do. So, if you’ve been involved in anything that you think your peers will be interested in, from winning a hackathon to presenting your work at a meeting or conference, then just let me (Paul) know if you’d like to publicise it in Monday Mail. If there’s anything you’d like to see in Monday Mail beyond the usual items, then please just let me know.

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE.

This from Tom Carroll, chair of SSLC: Thank you to all the academic reps who have now completed their training. You can see a list of your academic reps on the UG Community on Blackboard.

Our first SSLC meeting of the academic year is on Wednesday 7th November (Week 7). In this meeting, we will be discussing issues and positives that you have raised to your reps, on matters such as teaching, feedback, and student life. It is very important to us that the changes brougt through the SSLC are visible and understood, therefore we will also be giving a special focus to student voice and closing the feedback loop.

Your ideas and views on these matters are very important, and will play an important part in how we move forwards. You can give your views in a number of ways:

Your reps will reach out to you, either in person or by other means.
You can approach a rep directly (their email is on the reps list).
You can add your views to our online suggestions box (all responses are anonymous)

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

KEEPING SAFE ON CAMPUS.

Stay alert: Keep your belongings safe and out of view when travelling to or from campus and whilst you’re on it. Avoid wearing noise cancelling headphones so you know what’s going on around you, and stick to well-lit roads and pavements as you travel around the city, avoiding underpasses where possible. Keep your phone out of sight!
Download SafeZone: Our mobile app SafeZone can be used to quickly connect you with Campus Support and Security team if you feel unsafe, need immediate help or require first aid or wellbeing assistance. The app is free to download, easy to use, and operates across the Manchester campuses. You can find out more about SafeZone here.
Report unacceptable behaviour: Manchester has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions. If you have witnessed any forms of this behaviour, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor. Find out more about Report + Support.

STUDENT IMMIGRATION TEAM DROP-INS.

The Student Immigration Team offers face-to-face student drop-in sessions from 11:00 - 13:00 Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Main Library (Ground Floor), Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PP. No Appointment necessary. If you have any questions related to visas then this is a good time to ask for help or advice.

ON-CAMPUS STUDENT-LED HEALTH SCREENING CLINICS.

Semester 1: 2024

Week 7 – Wednesday, 6 November 1.30-3.30pm
Week 8 – Wednesday, 13 November 1.30-3.30pm

Please contact Harsha or Sarah (Co-leads for MPharm Prescribing Skills) via email if you have any questions.

WELLBEING WORKSHOPS.

Feeling stressed or anxious? The Wellbeing Team are running a Mindfulness Meditation session to help you with improving your wellbeing on Friday, 1 November 2024, 13:00 – 13:45, Wellbeing Rooms, 1.63, First Floor, Large Group Room, Simon Building. Mindfulness-based practice helps us to see more clearly the patterns of our mind; and to learn how to recognise when our brain is agitated or mood is beginning to go down. It helps break the link between an overly busy brain ,negative mood and the negative thinking that might normally have escalated into feeling worse. We can develop the capacity to mindfully disengage from distressing mood, and negative thoughts: we can learn to stay in touch with the present moment, without having to ruminate about the past, or worry about the future. You can find information on upcoming workshops here.

PHISHING AWARENESS TRAINING.

Stay safe online: Complete our phishing awareness training. Phishing emails are designed to trick you into sharing personal information or visiting fake websites. While the University has strong email protection, fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their tactics – often posing as trusted contacts or asking you to verify your IT account details. Phishing can affect any email account, so it’s important to stay alert both at university and in your personal life. You can boost your awareness by completing our Phishing Awareness Training, provided by our cyber security partner Khipu. The course includes a short video, practical tips, and a quiz to test your knowledge. Even if you’ve done the training before, it’s worth a quick refresh. Staying informed helps protect you and the University from cyber threats. Key tip: JDLR – Just Doesn’t Look Right? If something feels off, report it! Report phishing emails to IT Services.

COST OF LIVING SUPPORT FUND.

The University is committed to supporting students facing unexpected financial difficulties through the Cost of Living Support Fund. Funded by generous donations from alumni and friends, this non-repayable support is designed to ensure that no student is left struggling. The Cost of Living Support Fund offers financial assistance to students who find themselves unexpectedly struggling with essential living expenses such as food, utility bills, or other financial challenges. Importantly, the fund is available year-round and aims to provide timely support to those in need. For new students starting in September 2024, please note that the fund cannot be used as a means to finance your studies. Be sure to explore other potential funding options via the University’s resources before applying

What Can We Support? We can assist with essential living costs like rent, utility bills, food, and travel expenses related to your studies. However, we cannot provide funding for laptops, desktops, or tablets. The fund is meant to help those experiencing unforeseen circumstances, so it’s important that you start your studies with adequate funding for your tuition fees and living costs.
How to Apply? The application process typically takes around 30 minutes. You’ll need to submit supporting documents to help us assess your situation. Be sure to review the document checklist and have everything ready before starting the application.
You can download the application form here, and we recommend using your student ID to password-protect any documents you submit. Please note that the current assessment time is around three weeks after receiving all necessary documents.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - MAKE TIME FOR YOU.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: When I'm chatting to a student who is struggling with their studies I always ask them the same kind of questions: "What do you do to have fun?"; "What are your hobbies?"; "What sport do you play?"; "What do you do to make you feel good?" The answer is almost always the same… Nothing.

When you have work to do, the idea of playing football, going to Pilates, or getting lost in the latest cinema release sounds counterproductive. But good work comes from people with a healthy body and a clear mind. Make time for yourself. It will help your physical and mental fitness and allow you to decompress in a way that will complement your studies. I'm not talking about wasting away hours playing computer games or drinking down the pub. I mean blocking out a set time, even if it's only 20 minutes.

Personally I use walking the dog to unwind after work; I use bouldering and jogging to clear my mind and focus only on the here and now; I play board games to socialise while still stimulating my brain; I look after my houseplants to find my zen; and I listen to shouty, punk, ska, and hardcore while doing the washing up to blow off steam while still being productive. What do you do to make time for you? If the answer is nothing, fix that now. It will be harder to fix when the work starts piling up.

This week, if you haven't already, sign up to one of the many societies at the Student's Union. Block out set time to do something for your physical and mental health and stick with it for the semester. It will show benefits in your work!

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

There is a deadline coming up for exam support through DASS (Disability Advice Support Service). DASS offers support to all students who have a condition which has an adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry-out normal day-to-day activities. This includes Cognitive Developmental Delay, Physical Health and Mental Health issues. A DASS advisor is always happy to talk with you if you are unsure if you can register with them. You can find out more information about DASS and how to contact them here: who-do-we-support. The University has a deadline for putting exam support in place for each of the main exam periods. The next deadline is 4pm Tuesday 5th November 2024, you’ll need to register and have met with an adviser to agree your exam support by then. For more details, see the exam support page.

LIBRARY SUBJECT GUIDES.

Gemma Smith writes: The Library Subject Guides have been redeveloped for the new academic year and are a great place for students to begin exploring relevant resources for your studies, including key books, journals, and databases. Here is the Library Subject Guide for Computer Science

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

In the Department we have year tutors who are responsible for looking after the different cohorts in each year group. The Year Tutors are here to provide you with help and support if you need it, so feel free to contact your Year Tutor by email. Please note that Year Tutors will not be running open hours during reading week:

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall.
Year 4: Tim Morris.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi.
UG Director: Paul Nutter.

HARDWARE LIBRARY.

Don’t forget that we have a hardware library in the Department that contains a wide range of hardware components that are completely free to borrow? You can use these to support your 3rd year project, generally just to have a play with, or support a Hackathon. There are all sorts of items available, from Raspberry Pi components to drones, a wide range of microcontroller boards to gesture devices, basic electronic components to robots … even VR headsets. We also have computer items, such as keyboards, mice, and tablets - there’s a wide range of items available. To see what is available for you to borrow (for free!) have a look at the library catalogue. If you want to borrow an item then all you have to do is reserve it online. You will then be contacted by Steve Rhodes who will tell you when you can pick the item up from Tootill 0 on the lower first floor of Kilburn. Please note that items should not be taken away from Manchester and it is your responsibility to replace any damaged/lost items you borrow. You can also propose new items for the library, which we will consider. However, please note, we do have a limited budget to purchase new items, so we can’t fund all requests.

3D PRINTERS.

LEARNING TIPS - SUBMITTING YOUR WORK PROPERLY.

In Computer Science, a variety of systems are used to submit coursework, including Blackboard, Gitlab and Gradescope. In some cases, you may be required to submit your work to multiple locations, such as Blackboard AND Gradescope. Whatever the submission mechanism, it is your responsibility to read the submission instructions carefully, and make sure you follow them to the letter; don’t just assume the submission mechanism is the same across different course units.

It is always worth checking that you have submitted your work properly; if you don’t follow the rules precisely then your work cannot be marked. For example, students often realise at the point of marking that they didn’t submit their work to Blackboard properly, they then claim this is a fault with Blackboard, when this isn’t the case. Problems with Blackboard submissions are invariably due to students failing to ensure that the work had been submitted properly, more often than not, as a result of not waiting until the submission has uploaded successfully before closing the window. Remember, it can take some time for work to be uploaded to Blackboard, so please be patient and wait for it to complete.

For git submissions, we use tags to identify the commit for marking. If your commit is not tagged correctly, it will not be marked, or if you tag the wrong commit you may not receive the mark you expect. When you tag your commit and push with tags, the submission will show in SPOT immediately. If you check SPOT and the submission does not show, check you have got the tag name correct (it is case sensitive and must match the tag name exactly). SPOT provides information about the tag name which is shown by hovering the mouse over the Tag label at the end of the assessment name. If you have made a mistake, remove the tag from GitLab and your local repository, and try again. If you are sure that the tag is correctly set, and it still does not show in SPOT, email support@cs.manchester.ac.uk and include the URL of your project in git and the name of the assignment you are trying to submit work for. Check out the useful Git and GitLab tips page for useful tips.

We will not apply mitigation, or remove any late penalty, for any late submissions due to you failing to follow the instructions for submitting your work. It is your responsibility to ensure that your work has been properly submitted. You can check your submission in a number of ways - see next item. It is important to note that SPOT is updated at 12pm and 6pm everyday, so don’t assume that your submission to Blackboard will show up straight away. It’s also important to remember that SPOT does not show submissions to Gradescope and external course units, who may employ different mechanisms for submitting work. Make it a habit to confirm that your work has been submitted properly every time!

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Benchmark: Submission to Benchmark may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Benchmark to ensure your submission was correct.
Whilst SPOT shows you something has been submitted, it does not know what, so cannot be used to verify you've submitted the correct required files. To check the files you have submitted use Blackboard or GitLab.
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

CHANGES TO THE WAY YOU LOG IN TO MICROSOFT 365 AND MY MANCHESTER.

Today IT Services made a change to the way students sign in to Microsoft 365 services such as Outlook email, Word, PowerPoint, OneDrive, Teams and more.

The web addresses and apps that students use to access the services will remain the same, however they may be asked to sign in again.
When signing in, the sign-in page will look different as it will use Microsoft’s own sign-in screen rather than the “Shibboleth” sign-in service.
During the one-hour disruption, students will not be able to sign in to Microsoft 365, however if they are already signed in before the work starts, they will not be impacted.
This does not change the way that members of staff sign in to Microsoft 365.

Anyone experiencing any issues after work has been completed should contact the IT Support Centre.

In addition, when logging into My Manchester login, you will now be prompted to use 2-factor authentication or Duo to gain access. This is an additional layer of security that prompts you to verify your identity using University systems. You will already be familiar with this additional layer of security when using applications including Microsoft 365 (for University email) and Blackboard and you will have set this up as part of the IT account activation process. For more information or support with Duo, please visit Duo for taught students (The University of Manchester) or contact the IT Support Centre.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

This week, the OSS Club [tinyurl.com/uom-oss-club] is meeting on Tuesday, 29th October, 5.00-6.00pm in Collab 1, Kilburn Building. We'll be picking up issues and PRs on the Polus code base, a component of a Python-based ML pipeline for working with chemical structures, owned by Bienfait Isamura. Come along and help find and fix bugs, add features and improve documentation while building. a public record of contributions and earning yourself some GitHub badges. We'll be supported by software engineers from the University's research software engineering team.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

UK CYBER TEAM COMPETITION.

Round 1: Saturday 30 November 2024 and Sunday 1 December 2024
Round 2: Friday 13 December 2024 to Friday 17 January 2025
Round 3 (Final): Friday 17 January and Saturday 18 January 2025

SEED CORN SHOWCASE 2023-24.

The Centre for Digital Trust and Security will be holding a Seed Corn Showcase on the 11th December 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. What to expect at the Showcase:

Dive into the learnings and successes of the five CDTS funded projects.
Discover the exciting advancements made by these innovative researchers.
Learn how you can get involved in shaping the future of digital trust research.
Connect and network over a drinks reception.

INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON FORMAL METHODS FOR AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS.

Marie Farrell writes: The International Workshop on Formal Methods for Autonomous Systems (FMAS) brings together researchers working on a range of techniques for the formal specification and verification of autonomous systems. The workshop enables researchers to present recent work in the area, discuss key difficulties, and stimulate collaboration between the robotics and formal methods communities. FMAS is happening in the University of Manchester from 11th -13th November 2024, co-located with the International Conference on Integrated Formal Methods. There is a fee for in-person attendance but joining virtually is free. Follow this link to find out more.

EDINBURGH UNDERGRADUATE OPERATIONAL RESEARCH CHALLENGE.

The School of Mathematics of the University of Edinburgh and Public Health Scotland invite you to participate in the Edinburgh Undergraduate Operational Research Challenge. The challenge is to design a solution for a practical problem using operational research. If you are interested in using numerate techniques to solve practical problems and enable decision-makers to execute better decisions and make a difference for society, then this challenge is for you! Operational Research (OR) is about using mathematics to help decision makers to find better solutions for complex real-world problems. For example, OR was used during the Covid-19 pandemic to accelerate the development of vaccines. OR is also used to find the best ways to decarbonise our energy supplies and to design optimal radiation therapy treatments for cancer. This challenge is about applying OR to a real-world, data-driven optimisation strategy for Public Health Scotland to determine the optimal allocation of patients to public hospitals. How to participate in the challenge:

Register as a team of one or two students.
Each participating student must be enrolled in the last two years of an undergraduate degree program at a UK university.

Prizes:

Each member of the winning team will receive a £400 prize and a paid follow up consultancy project with Public Health Scotland*.
Each member of the runner-up teams will receive a £300 prize.
Each member of the third place team will receive a £50 prize.

Registration closes at 23:59 on 8 November 2024. Click here for more information about the challenge, important dates and registration instructions.

SWIFT STUDENT CHALLENGE 2025.

Apple have announced the Swift Student Challenge 2025. The Challenge provides the next generation of student developers the opportunity to showcase their creativity and coding skills by building app playgrounds with Swift. They will select 350 Swift Student Challenge winners whose submissions demonstrate excellence in innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity. From this group, 50 Distinguished Winners whose work is truly exceptional will be identified and they will be invited to join them at Apple in Cupertino where they’ll gain invaluable insights from Apple experts and engineers, connect with their peers, and enjoy a host of unforgettable experiences. All Challenge winners will receive one year of membership in the Apple Developer Program, a special gift from Apple, and more. Applications will open in February 2025 for three weeks. Free Swift Coding Club resources have been developed so students can start clubs and work with peers who are passionate about app creation. Swift Coding Clubs use the new Develop in Swift Tutorials so students can learn the foundations of app development with Swift and beyond. You can find out more information here.

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

The next departmental seminar will take place on Wednesday 6th November, 14:00 - 15:00. In Kilburn LT1.3. The speaker will be Prof. Jialie Shen, University of London, who will talk about “Multimodal Learning in Multimedia Recommender Systems: Challenges and Future Directions”. Abstract: With the exponential growth of multimedia big data, multimodal learning, particularly deep learning across diverse data types, has become central to the development of cutting-edge multimedia recommender systems. These systems necessitate the integration of data from various modalities, such as text, images, and audio, to deliver accurate and personalised recommendations. As the complexity and scale of these systems increase, the demand for more sophisticated models, architectures, and data processing algorithms becomes ever more pressing. In this talk, I will explore the critical role of multimodal learning in shaping state-of-the-art recommendation systems. I will discuss the key challenges and opportunities in this rapidly evolving domain.

FURNITURE4REUSE SCHEME.

Are you looking to furnish your new place or add some extra pieces without spending too much? The University of Manchester’s Furniture4Reuse scheme has been helping students get quality furniture for free for over 2 years now. With items like desks, chairs, bookshelves, and more, the scheme collects pre-loved furniture from across campus, refurbishes it, and offers it to students for free! The Furniture4Reuse store is open on Wednesdays and Thursdays 12-3pm and is located in the Simon Building basement. Whether you’re moving in for the first time or just looking to add a few items, it’s a great way to furnish your space for less. To check out what’s available, head to the Furniture Store or find more details on the Furniture4Reuse page.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Rainbow Kropki 2 by LJC

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits in a cage may not repeat and sum to the given total/parity/inequality. No three contiguous cells in a row or a column can be all even or all odd. Digits separated by a coloured dot must have a difference between them indicated by the colour of the dot. All dots of the same colour (and letter) indicate the same difference and two different coloured dots may not represent the same difference.

Chess Puzzle - Kosteniuk Vs. Khademalsharieh, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing the 'Dumb Test' map, it's simpler than you think!

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: No Winner this Week
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Finn Leonard, 19,722pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 5 • Monday 21 October 2024 • #24.06

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Good morning! It’s Monday 21st October 2024, and it’s Week 5 of semester 1. Next week (Week 6) is reading week, which means there are no teaching activities scheduled for COMP course units. However, you may still have activities scheduled for some non-COMP course units you are taking, and may still have some coursework to complete. Reading week is a good time to catch up on your work (including your project if you are a 3rd year) as well as time for you to take a bit of a break and relax if you can - I know I’ll be taking a few days off! Well done to everyone who took part in UKIEPC on Saturday (see below) and let me express my thanks to the student volunteers who gave up their time to help make sure the event ran smoothly.

The clocks change on Sunday 27th October (at 02:00 am), going back by one hour (so 02:00 becomes 01:00) moving back to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). Make the best of the extra hour in bed on Sunday morning (as if you need an excuse!).

As usual I will be having my open office hour 12:00 - 13:00 somewhere on LF on Tuesday. Please say hello!

On with today’s news, enjoy your week …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone! It was great to see you all at last week's session about Coding Assessments, we hope you found it helpful. As always, this week's session will be on Thursday the 24th of October, in IT407 from 12 to 1pm. The session will be about Managing Coursework Deadlines and Mental Health, accompanied by plenty of fun games and activities. We can't wait to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hey everyone, Halloween (and reading week) is almost upon us! To get everyone in the spirit and to provide a nice break, we are running a pumpkin decorating session at the normal time (12pm) tomorrow (Tuesday, October 22nd) in Kilburn Collab 1. If you want to secure your place, please fill out this form before 5pm today (Monday, October 21st). In addition to pumpkin decorating, we will be continuing to grow our list of opportunities and application experiences (good and bad) so please have a think about what you could add before the session! Snacks, as always, will be provided. Finally, we would really appreciate it if you could fill out our survey which will help us develop this new PASS scheme for you.

DATA SCIENCE SOCIETY - MUDS.

Hello Everyone, The Data Science Society (MUDS) has just elected its new committee, and is back for its first event of the academic year! For those who just heard about us, we are the university society that engages with the emerging world of Data Science as we are active in teaching Data Science concepts through workshops, networking events with Data Science companies in Manchester and many more activities. Join us to be part of the fun as we host weekly events, and most importantly - we are open to all!

MUDS First Workshop: Introduction to Machine Learning (ML). MUDS is dedicated to fostering collaboration among students, researchers, and industry in Data Science and Machine Learning. Join us for an engaging workshop where you'll:

Explore key ML concepts like supervised and unsupervised learning
Learn the fundamentals of linear and logistic regression
Get hands-on with Python and NumPy for binary classification

Perfect for beginners, this session will provide a solid introduction to Machine Learning concepts and tools. You'll also have the chance to meet the MUDS committee, connect with fellow students passionate about data science, and enjoy snacks at the end of the workshop! We’re also hosting a giveaway, so don't miss out — register for the event through this link or by scanning the QR code! If you have any questions, you can contact us through our Instagram: @uomdss.

UK IRELAND PROGRAMMING COMPETITION.

Ian Pratt-Hartmann writes: On Saturday, 19th October, the UK Ireland Programming Competition (UKIEPC) took place, in which teams of three attempted a series of programming challenges over a five hour period. Teams from universities across the British Isles competed at a number of sites, one of which was Manchester.

Twenty-two teams from Manchester took part. Of these, the teams 1kg, we <3 algeria, GoodLuck, Byte Brew Crew, Manchester Bees and MVJ all solved three problems each. Based on the time to correct solutions, the top Manchester team was 1kg, coming only 74th in the overall rankings. There was thus rather more enthusiasm than success on display at our site. Nevertheless, it was good to see so many teams taking part, all but two of which solved at least two problems. Well done to all those who participated, and thanks to the student volunteers. The final standings can be found on the UKIEPC website. Huge thanks to the student volunteers who gave up their time to help make the event run smoothly.

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE.

This from Tom Carroll, chair of SSLC: If you are an Academic Rep, then you need to have completed your training by 25th October, otherwise it will not be possible to be an Academic Rep. Once the Academic Rep training is complete, the list of Academic Reps will be confirmed on the UG Community space, as well as through a Monday Mail announcement.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Student Union Advice Centre. The Student Union offers advice and support with life at the University. They offer a wide range of services and support.

Academic Advice: Help you through any academic problems you might face during your time at Manchester, including appeals, complaints, mitigating circumstances, disciplinary issues and course/university transfers. Academic guidance and support is free, confidential, and completely independent from the University.
Financial Advice: Offer advice and support on a range of money matters, including Student Finance, access to funding, financial worries and hardship, banking issues and government benefits. If you’re struggling with debt, we can also support you to access specialist advice.
Student Life Advice: Help you take care of your health and wellbeing and support you when things may be difficult. Our advisors are here to help you with anything personal that is going on for you. We’ll provide a confidential space where you can talk to us about anything that’s on your mind. We can help you to access additional support through the University and relevant external support organisations.
Housing Advice: Offer help with any worries you might have whether you're living at home, in halls or a private house. We offer advice and guidance on a range of housing issues including signing a contract, deposits, council tax, issues with your landlord, disrepair, tenant disputes and ending your tenancy early.

You can find more information on their website, including a contact form if you want to make an inquiry.

STUDENT IMMIGRATION TEAM DROP-INS.

DASS SUPPORT DEADLINE.

There is a deadline coming up for exam support through DASS (Disability Advice Support Service). DASS offers support to all students who have a condition which has an adverse and long-term effect on their ability to carry-out normal day-to-day activities. This includes Cognitive Developmental Delay, Physical Health and Mental Health issues. A DASS advisor is always happy to talk with you if you are unsure if you can register with them. You can find out more information about DASS and how to contact them here: who-do-we-support. The University has a deadline for putting exam support in place for each of the main exam periods. The next deadline is 4pm, Tuesday 5th November 2024, you’ll need to register and have met with an adviser to agree your exam support by then. For more details, see the exam support page.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

LIBRARY NEWS.

Library Support for your Studies. Training and support is available from the library all year round! My Learning Essentials offers support to the whole student community, regardless of your subject and at all stages of undergraduate and postgraduate study. We offer workshops, online resources and drop-in support to help you in your studies and research. You can gain new skills and develop the abilities you already have! Book onto a session and explore our full range of support on our website.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

EXTENDED OPENING HOURS.

COMP1RDMC: Respect & Dignity at Manchester
COMP1HS: Health and Safety
COMP1AMP: Academic Malpractice

Once access has been granted then you can use your University swipe card to enter the Kilburn building. Please note that currently access is through the main entrance opposite Crawford House. However, once the building works are completed, then access will be via the entrance opposite University place. During extended hours access is restricted to the lower first area of the Kilburn building. You will not be able to use labs or meeting spaces in any other locations in Kilburn. You may be required to show proof that you have extended hours when requested by a building attendant or security. You can find more information and full instructions in the Extended Working Hours folder in the CS UG Community Space in Blackboard.

LEARNING TIPS - ASSESSMENTS & EXPECTATIONS.

Soon you will start to receive marks and feedback on coursework you have completed. This means adjusting to the university scale of marking, which may be very different to what you’re used to previously at school or college. To be able to judge where you stand, you need to bear in mind that any mark above 70% is classed as a 1st class mark. When you graduate, your degree is classified into a limited number of classifications based on your overall degree mark, i.e.

70% or greater 1st class,
60-69% upper second class (2.1),
50-59% lower second class (2.2),
40-49% third class.

Offers for jobs and postgraduate degrees are typically conditional on achieving a particular classification, rather than a particular average.

What we find is that students focus too much on the marks they receive, often questioning why they did not achieve 100% after all the effort they put into completing the piece of work. The issue here is that students are often under the impression that working long hours on a piece of work automatically translates into high marks; this is not the case, as effort doesn’t necessarily translate into higher marks. Assessments are marked against a marking criteria that dictates what learning outcomes you have met by completing the work. For many pieces of work we set for you, they are structured in such a way that achieving a high mark is meant to be hard, as such we only expect a limited number of students to achieve such marks. Ideally, a good assessment should be designed to give an overall average mark across the cohort in the mid-60s. To achieve a higher mark, in particular a mark above 80%, will probably require a deep delve into the subject matter to produce something outstanding; it may require some element of self-learning, i.e. thinking beyond the material provided in the course unit. Ask yourself, do you really need to achieve 100% in everything? Is it worth working very long hours for what ultimately is going to be a small return, say a few percent extra for a piece of work? Considering how degrees are awarded, is 70% enough? What’s really important is the feedback you received … we will come back to that at a later date!

We recommend that you start making conscious decisions about your work: How much time is it worth spending on an individual piece of coursework? How will this affect your ability to keep up with your other course units? How much stress do your expectations put on you? Are you forcing yourself to give up other activities to spend all your energies on individual pieces of work where there’s little reward? Consider what a piece of work is worth overall, not just with respect to the course unit overall mark, but also your overall year mark. You may find that gaining a few extra percent on a single piece of work results in a negligible increase in your overall year mark (and hence degree mark). Is it worth it? Instead, we suggest you learn when to call it quits, and that you focus on making the most of the feedback you receive, so that you can learn how to work smarter. Remember, University is not just about work, it’s about making the most of the experience that comes with attending University - you shouldn't be spending all your time chasing all the marks available. Take a breather, balance your workload and manage your time sensibly.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Monday, 21st October, 1.00-2.00pm in the Makerspace in the Nancy Rothwell Building. We'll be picking up issues and PRs on the PiRover Simulator code base, a Python base simulator for small robots, owned by Dr Louise Dennis. New members are welcome at any time, and with any level of coding experience, provided you've completed the induction training for the Makerspace in Blackboard. (You need to be enrolled in the School of Engineering org on Blackboard to get access.) Come along and help find and fix bugs, add features and improve documentation and earn yourself some GitHub badges.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

UK CYBER TEAM COMPETITION.

Round 1: Saturday 30 November 2024 and Sunday 1 December 2024
Round 2: Friday 13 December 2024 to Friday 17 January 2025
Round 3 (Final): Friday 17 January and Saturday 18 January 2025

SEED CORN SHOWCASE 2023-24.

The Centre for Digital Trust and Security will be holding a Seed Corn Showcase on the 11th December 2024, 14:00 - 16:00, Christabel Pankhurst Building. What to expect at the Showcase:

Dive into the learnings and successes of the five CDTS funded projects.
Discover the exciting advancements made by these innovative researchers.
Learn how you can get involved in shaping the future of digital trust research.
Connect and network over a drinks reception.

PARTICIPANTS NEEDED.

This from Sarah Clinch: I’m currently looking for participants for an experiment about how current understanding of memory in Psychology applies to contemporary content such as that seen on the World Wide Web. In this experiment, we focus on the kinds of content seen on video sharing and video playback websites such as YouTube and Vimeo.

PHD CAFÉ.

PhD Café is an informal networking session where current undergraduate and postgraduate taught students can engage with PhD researchers in the Faculty. The goal is to offer a relaxed, friendly environment where students can ask our PGR ambassadors any questions they have and explore their options in postgraduate research at the University of Manchester. PhD Café is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, 30 October, from 12-2pm in the Nancy Rothwell Building, Room 3A.069 (Core 3, Floor 3). Students will be provided with free tea, coffee, and pizza – this is a café after all! The aim of the event is to:

Raise awareness of the research opportunities available at the University of Manchester.
Demystify the postgraduate research journey and provide peer-to-peer guidance.
Foster a sense of community among students across different academic levels.

If you would like more information and register for the event, then please follow this link.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Mexican Standoff by Mile Lemaić

Normal sudoku rules apply. Cells separated by a (chess) knight’s move cannot contain the same digit. The digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow’s circle. Along a thermometer, digits increase from the bulb end.

Chess Puzzle - Batsiashvili Vs. Sree, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing the 'Flags of the World' map: Every spot has a recognisable national flag of the place where you are standing. Some of them are tricksy. Each country or nation is featured only once. Some are technically territories or protectorates of other countries (or semi-autonomous regions within a country), but they all have their own flag and unique national identity.

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: Matthew Kirk
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Jenson Cain, 23,132pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 4 • Monday 14 October 2024 • #24.05

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Good morning! It’s Monday 14th October 2024, and it’s Week 4 of teaching. I hope everything is going well and that you have now settled into a routine. It’s that time of year when coughs and colds are prevalent among the student and staff population. If you are ill, then you should consider staying away to minimise the spread of infection. If any illness impacts your ability to complete work by the deadline then you should request an extension before the deadline (see below). If you're unfortunate enough to be too ill to meet an extended deadline, then you will have to complete a mitigating circumstances application and tell us about all the assessments that were affected - you will need evidence to support an application.

Congratulations to those who were successful in becoming elected as student representatives in the Department. Student representatives are an important part of the student body, they form the link between students and the department with the ultimate goal of improving the student experience.

If you have anything you would like to share in Monday Mail, such as advertising an event, promoting your success in a hackathon etc, or whatever you think the UG student body will find interesting, then please get in touch.

Remember, I have my open hour on Tuesday, 12:00-13:00 on LF, so please stop by and say hello.

On with today’s news, enjoy your week …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone! It was great to see you all at last week's session about Hirevue and the CV review session after, we hope you found it helpful. As always, this week's session will be on Thursday the 17th of October, in IT407 from 12 to 1pm. By popular vote, it'll be All About Interviews - Coding + Face to Face. We can't wait to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello everyone! Tomorrow (Tuesday, October 15th), we’ll be going through a list of job opportunities and applying to them together! We will also be going through some common interview questions and the best techniques to employ to secure an offer. Finally, you'll get the chance to interview other people and be interviewed so that you can practice your answers in a safe space. As usual, snacks will be available :). Can't wait to see you all! Also, we have created a survey for you guys to fill out so that we can improve the scheme!

HACKCHESTER.

Hello Everyone! Have an interest in hacking or just computers and technology in general? Come along to Hackchester to meet like minded people, learn hacks that will make your life easier and share hacks that you know with others! Hackchester meets every Wednesday at 17:00 to 18:00 at Kilburn in G41.

MAKERSPACE SOCIETY.

The Makerspace Society is excited to announce that applications are now open for several committee positions for the current academic year. This is a fantastic opportunity for you to gain hands-on experience, contribute to the society, and enhance your skills! Open Positions:

CAD Chief Engineer
Mechanical Chief Engineer
Website Manager
General Technician

We welcome applications from all departments and year groups.

Deadline to apply: Friday, 18th October.
Application form: Apply Here.
Role Descriptions: Committee Roles Description.

If you have a passion for engineering, design, web development, or technical work, we encourage you to apply! You can find out more about the Makerspace Society on our website.

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE.

This from Tom Carroll, chair of SSLC: After receiving the largest number of applications for Academic Representatives in the University, we have now completed the selection process. Thank you to all who applied, and congratulations to those who have been selected. Your academic reps consist of 26 Year 1 reps, 20 Year 2 reps, and 8 Year 3/4 reps. Reps are being contacted and are now undergoing training, so that they can best represent your views and opinions. The academic reps will now be members of the Student Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) which will meet twice a semester.

As the training is completed, the list of reps will be updated on the Blackboard UG Community Space (see the Academic Reps folder linked from the left hand menu), and you will also see a weekly feature that introduces you to a different rep each week. The first SSLC meeting will be taking place just after reading week, so if you have any points or issues (be they positive, or negative), or seen examples of good teaching that you wish to share with the SSLC, then please contact one of your reps.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - REPORT AND SUPPORT.

The University’s Report and Support Service is available to students. If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed any form of bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions, or you have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor through Report and Support. To report an incident and speak to a caseworker, you can either fill out the online form or someone can do it on your behalf. You, or the person reporting can make special requests for a certain type of advisor. The last page of the form will ask for details of who they should speak to about this report. The team will seek to understand your situation and aim to give you information, advice and support tailored to your individual circumstances. You can access this service here. Please be mindful that whilst you can send anonymous reports, the team is unable to contact you to offer support unless you provide your name and contact details.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - MAÑANA,

MAÑANA - AVOIDING PROCRASTINATION. This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: About 8pm last Sunday, along with the haunting sounds of the Antiques Roadshow theme tune (it still gives me "I've not done my homework" anxiety, decades after leaving school), came the realisation I'd done nothing with my day. I'd not done the laundry, or the washing up, or called the guy about booking driving lessons (again!), or done anything productive on my to-do list. This wasn't because I spent all day doing fun stuff I'd much rather do. It's because I'd watched a week's worth of Four in a Bed, listened to all the YouTube reviews on an amplifier I can’t afford anyway, and then spent so long scrolling through reels on Instagram that my eyes started to hurt.

We are all guilty of procrastination. When we start to let it get out of hand to the point it impacts our work, home life, and mental health, we have a problem. Symptoms of procrastination include:

Being distracted from work by non-work activities;
Leaving everything until the last second;
Worrying about work but not getting it done;
Spontaneously performing tasks that you wouldn't normally be enthusiastic about;
A sense of helplessness at feeling you have too much to do.

Procrastination and time management issues in general have a pivotal role to play in many people coming to see me. Students start with not managing their time well; From there they fall behind in their work. This gets them stressed and anxious which makes the situation worse. Feeling in control of your workload and remaining productive is a cornerstone of good marks and better mental health. As the great philosopher Arnold Schwarzenegger once said. "Do it. Do it now."

If your mental health is impacting your day-to-day life and/or your studies, or you think you may have ADHD then contact your GP. The University Counselling Service is also there to help. DASS can also provide support to those with ADHD. Where procrastination is an issue for you, time management strategies such as creating a weekly schedule and setting realistic goals can really help.

This great set of online resources put together by the My Learning Essentials team and the Counselling service are well worth doing instead of doom scrolling. Also, while you're on your way into Uni, listen to this Podcast on beating procrastination from the Skills team at the University of Derby (33 mins). Plus this one on overcoming procrastination from the Exam Study Expert podcast (20 mins) .

LIBRARY NEWS.

The Library has launched a new online resource: Academic Integrity for Students , part of the My Learning Essentials support. This interactive guide helps you understand academic integrity, offering advice on presenting your own ideas, avoiding academic malpractice, and using tools like Generative AI responsibly. Remember if you use Generative AI tools in your work you must cite them. If you are unsure how, click on the link to view this useful Library Generative AI tools referencing guide.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

GITLAB AND ACADEMIC MALPRACTICE.

It's important to adhere to academic integrity and ethical standards when using platforms like GitLab or any other tools for coursework. Sharing or distributing materials related to your assessments or assignments, such as your answers, can be considered a form of academic malpractice, and it can lead to serious consequences, including disciplinary action. To prevent the risk of inadvertently sharing files stored in git repositories (within the Department or on an external account) make sure you set those repositories immediately to Private. This will restrict access to only authorised individuals and will prevent other students from seeing your solutions and then being able to copy your work. Be assured that when we create git repositories for you that are required for your courses, we automatically set them to private for this very reason. Even if you didn’t mean to share your work, you could still be found guilty of academic malpractice.

COMPUTERS IN KILBURN.

Just a reminder that the computers in the Kilburn clusters/laboratories need to be left switched on after use so that any updates can be applied overnight. Please remember to just log out, and not shut down a computer, when you have used it. Don’t worry, the machines do go into standby mode to save the planet (to some degree!).

EXTENDED OPENING HOURS.

COMP1RDMC: Respect & Dignity at Manchester
COMP1HS: Health and Safety
COMP1AMP: Academic Malpractice

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

Remember that you are required to record your attendance at timetabled activities using SEAtS. You can find information on how to use SEAtS on the Student Support website. Staff will display a QR code and/or pin during each session, and you must record your attendance via the SEAtS app or webpage during the session. Please note that teaching staff cannot change your attendance record, so please do not contact them to query your attendance.

LEARNING TIPS - GIT AND GITLAB 2.

In the Department we make extensive use of Git and Gitlab for handling of files for coursework as well as for submitting work for marking. Building your skills and familiarity with Git will take stress out of coursework, impress potential employers, and possibly give you superpowers (although we're still waiting for proof of that last one). This series gives you some hints and tips to help master git, you can also find a growing list in GitLab. If you have any specific requests for how to do things, add an issue to the intro lab issue tracker and we'll look at making a tip for it!

Graphical git frontends have a very useful feature. While learning git via the command line is highly recommended, the graphical frontends do make it much easier to do "interactive staging". The Git book does cover this, but it's very fiddly to do. The idea is that if you have a lot of changes across your files, instead of making one big messy commit you can stage parts of individual files (or even individual lines) and commit just the selected changes so the commits are focused and coherent.
Remember that ‘git push’ and ‘git push –tags’ do different things. ‘git push’ pushes the changes on your active branch to GitLab, and updates the branch on GitLab in the process. ‘git push –tags’ will push your tags, and any commits needed for those tags, to GitLab but it will not update the active branch. Generally you will want to do a ‘git push’ to push your commits and update the remote, and then a ‘git push –tags’ to push the tag information.
Force push is disabled for coursework projects. The forks that are automatically made for you as part of coursework in the department are configured in a way that prevents the use of ‘git push –force’. This is a deliberate decision made by the department because a forced push can overwrite the history of your project, and in the process potentially remove commits associated with previously submitted work. If you ever find yourself in a situation where a forced push is really necessary you should contact your course unit leader.
Help, my head has fallen off! git has the concept of ‘HEAD’ - this is where you currently are, the currently checked out commit in the working directory. Normally HEAD will also be the tip of a branch, whether that's main or some other branch you might have created and be working on. However, if you ever checkout a specific commit or a tag, you'll end up in what git will alarmingly tell you is a 'detached HEAD state'. What this means is that HEAD no longer corresponds to the tip of a branch (it's detached from a branch). If all you want to do is look at the files at that tag or commit, you can do that and then put your head back on properly by going back to the tip of the branch you were on: ‘git switch’ - (if you made any changes, but don't want to keep them, you will need to use git switch –discard-changes -). However, if you want to make changes, you can do so, but you'll need to create a new branch for the changes with ‘git switch -c newbranchname’. Later on, you may want to merge the new branch back into ‘main’.
Commit messages are important. It's very easy to develop poor commit message practices, especially when you're the only person working on a project. However, getting into the habit of writing good commit messages will not only help and teammates when you work collaboratively with others, it'll help you future self if you have to look through your commit history. Being able to demonstrate good, well-written commit messages in public projects is also a useful thing when applying for jobs! The department wiki has some recommendations and links to resources, but at the most simple level, when writing your commit message, think to yourself "If applied, this commit will... " and finish that sentence in the commit message. Please don't just use "commit 1", "commit 2", or even "Haaaaaaaaands"
Delete a tag so you can tag something else. If you've tagged a commit in your repository, and you either tagged the wrong commit or want to change the commit a tag is associated with, you need to remove the tag first using ‘git tag -d ’, for example, to remove the tag labwork you would do ‘git tag -d labwork’. Note that, if you have already pushed the tag to GitLab, you will need to log into GitLab, go to the project in GitLab, click on Code > Tags from the left side menu, and delete the tag from the list using the "trash can" icon at the right side of the page for the tag you want to remove. Once you have done this, you can tag another commit, and push that to GitLab.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

UOM OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

This from Suzanne Embury: This week, the OSS Club is meeting on Tuesday, 15th October, 5.00pm-6.00pm, in Kilburn Collab 1 and the Byte Cafe area. We'll be working on the Polus system, a Python tool for filtering and selecting data developed within the Department of Chemistry. Polus is a key component of an ML pipeline for working with chemical and molecular structures that is currently being used in research. New members are welcome to join at any time, and with any level of coding experience. Come along and help find and fix bugs, improve documentation, and configure the CI pipeline with some code quality tools.

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES.

UK CYBER TEAM COMPETITION.

The UK Cyber Team competition launches on Wednesday 9th October 2024 and is open to 18–25-year-olds with an interest in cyber security. This brand-new national competition is free to enter and has been launched by DSIT in partnership with SANS. Participants will undertake three rounds of cyber security Capture the Flag challenges, with the top 200 going through to a live, in-person final. The top 30 will then win the chance to be part of the UK Cyber Team, receive training from industry, and represent the UK in international cyber competitions. Sign up here and try out the teaser challenges. Timeline:

Round 1: Saturday 30 November 2024 and Sunday 1 December 2024
Round 2: Friday 13 December 2024 to Friday 17 January 2025
Round 3 (Final): Friday 17 January and Saturday 18 January 2025

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

There will be a Department seminar on 16th October, 14:00 - 15:00 in Kilburn LT1.3, by Prof. Ehud Reite, University of Aberdeen. The title of the seminar is “Using Natural Language Generation (NLG) to Support Patients”. Abstract: It is essential that patients do a better job of looking after themselves, otherwise the healthcare system may collapse. I will describe several past and current projects at Aberdeen related to this topic, including encouraging healthier lifecycles, helping patients manage chronic illness at home, and explaining medical information to support decision making and reduce stress. I will discuss common challenges (such as patient diversity) and also the role of large language models such as GPT, which have huge potential to help patients, but also have many safety-related problems (such as hallucinations and other inappropriate responses) which need to be addressed.

Bio: Ehud Reiter is a Professor of Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen and was formerly Chief Scientist of Arria NLG (a spinout he co-founded). He has been working on Natural Language Generation for 35 years, and in recent years has focused on evaluation of language generation; he also has a longstanding interest in healthcare applications. He is one of the most cited and respected researchers in NLG, and his awards include an INLG Test of Time award for his work on data-to-text. He writes a widely read blog on NLG and evaluation (ehudreiter.com) and has written a book on NLG which will be published in November 2024.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Nobody's Perfect by Lithium-Ion.

Normal sudoku rules apply. Orthogonally adjacent cells do not contain consecutive digits. Digits in a cage do not repeat and sum to a perfect number. A perfect number is a number that equals the sum of its proper divisors, i.e. each divisor excluding the number itself. For example, 20 is not a perfect number since the sum of the proper divisors is 1+2+4+5+10=22, which is not 20.

Chess Puzzle - Yaremko Vs. Guerra, 2006

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing the 'Flags of the World' map: Every spot has a recognizable national flag of the place where you are standing. Some of them are tricksy. Each country or nation is featured only once. Some are technically territories or protectorates of other countries (or semi-autonomous regions within a country), but they all have their own flag and unique national identity.

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: Luke Shepherd
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Cyrus, 24,262pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 3 • Monday 7 October 2024 • #24.04

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Good morning! It’s Monday 7th October 2024, and it’s Week 3. You may find that it starts to get busier from now on with labs starting and assessments being due, so planning and managing your time is very important. Make use of our deadline chart (see below) to help you plan your time around deadlines, but also make sure you take time off to relax. When it comes to submitting work, you should always check that you have submitted it properly, especially if you are submitting via Blackboard, which at times can be slow, so wait for the upload to finish! The onus is on you to ensure you have submitted the correct item, in the correct place, and by the deadline - we can’t offer mitigation as a result! We’ve provided some advice (see below) on how you can check whether your work has been submitted.

I’ll be having my open hour on Tuesday 12-1pm, on the lower first floor again, so please say hello and tell me what you think about assessment and feedback in the Department.

If you are a 1st year student we would appreciate your feedback on how the intro boot-up labs went (see below) as we made significant changes to these this academic year.

Finally … just a reminder that you should not switch off the PCs in the Kilburn clusters, these should be left on so updates can be applied overnight. Just log out when you have finished using them.

On with today’s news, enjoy your week …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello Year1s and PASS1 leaders! We are hoping to see you in our PASS session this Wednesday 1-2pm in your allocated room. We have some fun activities for you again followed by a chat about any upcoming courseworks or concerns you may have. Remember that these sessions are for you, so lead the session, tell your leaders what you want to talk about as the session plan is not set in stone, and enjoy! For any problems/queries please feel free to contact us! We hope that later in the year we can upgrade your room allocations - please bear with us! Become a PASS1 Leader! We are in lack of leaders so please contact us if interested!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone! We hope you enjoyed our last session on CVs and Cover Letters. It was great to see you all and we can't wait to see you again. Our next session will be on handling pre-recorded interviews plus a bit of CV review at the end. Same place (IT407), same time (12pm to 1pm) on the 10th of October 2024.

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello everyone! Tomorrow (Tuesday, October 8th), we’ll be brainstorming and outlining the timelines for our third-year projects—a session you all voted for! We’ll have snacks to keep the creativity flowing, too. Creating a timeline is a crucial part of your project planning, so join us in Collab at 12 PM. We’re sure you’ll find this activity really helpful. See you there!

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE.

This from Tom Carroll, chair of SSLC: Many thanks to all who have applied to become an academic rep. We have had a huge amount of interest, and the number of Year 1 applications is the highest in the University. Special thanks go to Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), whose talk during Welcome Week has been given by many applicants as the inspiration for applying. We are now in the process of selecting your academic representatives, and an update will appear in a forthcoming Monday Mail.

STUDENT PUBLICATION SUCCESS.

Bozhidar Klouchek (2024, CSwIE) a graduate of the department has had a paper accepted for publication in the Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Natural Language and Speech Processing (ICNLSP 2024). The paper is based on work he did as part of his final year project under the supervision of Riza Batista-Navarro, and is titled “Bulgarian Grammar Error Correction with Data Augmentation and Machine Translation Techniques”. Bozhidar will present his work at the conference at The University of Trento, Italy, October 2024.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - HEALTH ASSURED.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

My Learning Essentials. My Learning Essentials is the Library’s award winning programme of skills support, including both online resources and face-to-face workshops which will aid you in your personal and professional development. The workshops offer a relaxed group environment where you can try out new strategies for yourself while learning from and with peers whilst the online resources help you develop skills and interests which are relevant to you, at times and using the methods that suit you best. My Learning Essentials is a great way to get the most out of your time at Manchester; helping you to make the best use of all of the specialist resources and support the University has to offer.

REGISTER FOR A GP.

It’s vital that you register with a GP (General Practitioner) - what we call local, or family doctors in the UK. GPs provide a range of non-emergency services by appointment – including examinations, medication prescriptions, vaccinations and referrals to other medical specialists. It is especially important if you want to provide evidence to support a mitigating circumstances application related to illness. The University GP Service is on-campus, located in Crawford House near south campus (shown on the Campus map here as Building 31). You can register as a patient using their online portal by filling in a quick form. If you want to register with a GP closer to where you live then use the NHS Find a GP website to find a list of practices near your address. This will direct you to the GPs’ websites to find out how to register as a patient. You can find further information on accessing healthcare on the University Student Support webpages.

LOST IN KILBURN.

Have you found yourself wandering aimlessly around Kilburn? Do you find that Kilburn is a maze and you get lost when wandering about? Have you struggled to find the office of a member of staff or the location of one of our teaching rooms? Well, help is at hand. We provide floor plans for all the floors in Kilburn and the IT buildings, which you can find here.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - MAKE ART.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: Over the past couple of months I've started drawing for the first time since I chose not to select Art for my GCSEs. I grabbed myself a couple of fine liners and a sketch book and started taking time to draw on a semi-regular basis. I draw whatever; my house, some fruit, something from a photograph, something from my memory, anything! And I'm loving it. It's doing wonders for my wellbeing. So much so that I wanted to share it with you. Over the next week why not give it a try? Grab a pencil and sheet of paper, sit somewhere and just draw what is in front of you.

You are thinking, "But I can't draw", well, arguably nor can I and this is the main reason why I want to tell you about it. For years I've avoided making art because I felt I wasn't good enough. But who cares!? I'm not suggesting you make art to put in a gallery or to sell, I'm suggesting you try making art for your own enjoyment and wellbeing. It's about reassessing why you do things. Do what you enjoy for you and nobody else. When you can put what makes you feel good first, and prioritise your own wellbeing over what others may think, or any pressures you may feel from others then you will find yourself in a better place

So here lies the moral of this article. Make sure you are doing things for the right reasons, and this includes your studies. Holding yourself to the standards and expectations of others is a surefire way to do damage to your wellbeing. And I know that for a fact because it's my job to pick up the pieces. Here are some suggestions for creating art for your wellbeing:

Photography - Explore the city or the countryside, find interesting things, animals, or people, and take photos of them.
Art Journaling - If you already journal or want to take it up, introduce little doodles of your day, food, activities and experiences to reflect on later.
Digital art - Most modern tablets are capable of being paired with a stylus to create fantastic art with a whole host of colours, brushes and styles at your fingertips.
Make Music - It's still art! Playing an instrument, no matter how badly, is a great was to unwind. I recommend the Ukulele, they are about £30 and really easy to learn the basics.
Art Classes - Want something more structured? Join an art class. In Manchester there are one off sessions, structured courses, and regular drop-in sessions.
Inktober - October is the famous #Inktober a challenge on Instagram, encouraging people to do regular drawings with pen during October.
Visit a gallery - Doing art yourself is really not your thing, or need inspiration? Visit your local art gallery and see what the pros do.

Have fun, get creative, go with the flow, and take care of yourself.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF25.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

COMP1INTRO BOOT-UP LABS SURVEY.

We hope you have managed to complete the Boot-Up labs and found them useful and enjoyable. We would like you to fill out this short survey (only 10 questions) about your experience with the Intro Labs. Your feedback is extremely valuable and will help us improve the materials in upcoming years. Good luck with your studies! - The Comp1Intro Team.

COMPUTERS IN KILBURN.

Just a reminder that the computers in the Kilburn clusters/laboratories need to be left switched on after use so that any updates can be applied overnight. Please remember to just log out when you have used it. Don’t worry, the machines do go into standby mode to save the planet (to some degree!). Please do not switch off the computers and, even worse, switch them off without logging out first!

NEED A PLACE TO WORK?

You are free to use any of our teaching rooms/labs when they are not being used for scheduled teaching. If you are interested in knowing when a lab is not booked for a timetabled activity, then follow this link to open the University Timetable pages (on campus only). To look for a room in Kilburn, select “Location”, then in the form that opens select “Kilburn Building” for the building, select the lab/room you would like to use under “Select Location”, the default view is this week, or you can select a particular week. Selecting “View Timetable” will show what activities are taking place in the selected room for the week. Please note that for the labs 1.8 and 1.10 look at the 1.8+1.10 timetable. You must be on campus to access the timetable. If a room is booked for teaching, then you should avoid using it.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Benchmark: Submission to Benchmark may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Benchmark to ensure your submission was correct.
Whilst SPOT shows you something has been submitted, it does not know what, so cannot be used to verify you've submitted the correct required files. To check the files you have submitted use Blackboard or GitLab.
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.

EXTENDED OPENING HOURS.

COMP1RDMC: Respect & Dignity at Manchester
COMP1HS: Health and Safety
COMP1AMP: Academic Malpractice

Once you have completed these modules and taken the Extended Working Hours test, you can apply for a pass following the instructions provided in Blackboard. If you do not have access to the modules listed above, then please contact soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk. Once access has been granted then you can use your University swipe card to enter the Kilburn building. Please note that currently access is through the main entrance opposite Crawford House. However, once the building works are completed, then access will be via the entrance opposite University place. During extended hours access is restricted to the lower first area of the Kilburn building. You will not be able to use labs or meeting spaces in any other locations in Kilburn. You may be required to show proof that you have extended hours when requested by a building attendant or security. You can find more information and full instructions in the Extended Working Hours folder in the CS UG Community Space in Blackboard.

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

Remember that you are required to record your attendance at timetabled activities using the SEAtS application. You can find information on how to use SEAtS on the Student Support website. Staff will display a QR code and/or pin during each session, and you must record your attendance via the SEAtS app or webpage during the session. Please note that teaching staff cannot change your attendance record, so please do not contact them to query your attendance.

LEARNING TIPS - GIT AND GITLAB.

In the Department we make extensive use of Git and Gitlab for handling of files for coursework as well as for submitting work for marking. What is Git? In a nutshell, Git is an industry-standard version control system that allows you to manage code and to allow teams of people to work on the same codebase. What is Gitlab? Well, it's a web-based Git project management and collaboration system. By exposing you to these tools we are embedding skills you will need in the real world when you graduate. Using these tools effectively can be a challenge, and you will often make mistakes; however, this is only natural, and a good way of learning. Students often make common mistakes so we are trying to prepare for this by providing some Git/Gitlab tips, which you can find in Gitlab. If you encounter a problem then check here first. We will populate this page with more hints and tips as we learn more about the common mistakes you make. Here are some of the tips available:

Working on more than one machine. If you're working on a project on a Kilburn lab machine and want to work on the same project on your own computer later, remember that you need to commit your changes and git push to send your changes to GitLab before logging off from the lab machine. Then, when you're working on your computer later, you can git pull to pull down the changes you made earlier. When you're done working on your own computer, remember to commit your changes and push them back to GitLab so you can pull them down elsewhere.
Work in the working directory! When you make a clone of a git project from GitLab, the clone it creates on your computer consists of a "working directory" that has all the files associated with the project in it, and a .git directory containing the git database. You're expected to work inside the working directory - don't copy the files out to somewhere else, edit them, and copy them back, just edit the files in the working directory! If you're worried about messing up your git project, the best thing to do is get familiar with git commands.
Commit often, push regularly. Get into the habit of making commits often. Be sure to commit your changes as you go along, and avoid committing code once just before you stop working for the day (or worse, just before you submit your work!) This helps you to keep a history of the work you've done, and see where (and why) you changed things. Push your work to GitLab regularly - don't leave everything to the last minute and put all your work into one huge commit - you might get away with that for simple exercises, but as your work gets more complicated. Having a proper commit history can really help Future You work out what Past You was doing!
The best way to learn git is through the command line. There are many different graphical frontends for git. However, while graphical frontends definitely have their use, they do add a layer of extra learning and abstraction that means you may not understand what is going on behind the buttons and dialogs. Getting familiar with the basic operation of git through the command line will help to give you a good grounding in what git is doing - once you have that, you'll understand better what the interfaces are doing, and be able to make better decisions about which features to use and when they are appropriate.

We will cover some more tips next week.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

GOOGLE DEVELOPER STUDENT CLUBS.

Sambhav Khare (Y4, CS4) writes: GDG Academy is back with it's Kick-off Session for Mentorship program! On 8th October 2024 with a virtual event from 6pm-8pm (most likely to start from 6:30pm). Unfortunately this semester too it will be online on a live stream from London. Link would be shared by GDG Academy Ambassador (@Sambbhav Khare) closer to the date. This program is in collaboration with GDSC chapters from UCL, Imperial, King’s College London, University of Bristol and University of Manchester. This semester we have 27 mentors from companies like: The Times, HSBC, Sky, Skyscanner, Okta, Booking.com, and many more … There is no rsvp for UoM students for the event. Some FAQs:

What is GDG - Academy? Extensive Mentoring through 1-1 weekly sessions, group sessions and workshops and more…
How to enrol for 1-1 Mentoring? Attend the Kickstart session and mark the attendance then the attendees will be shared an application form over email exclusively to apply.
Do we get any internships? Yes, students who get selected for GDG Academy 1-1 mentoring session get the opportunity to apply for exclusive summer internships open for those selected students only. ( Doesn't matter if you are a first year, open for all).
What topics are covered? AI, ML, Computing, Engineering, Entrepreneurship and more....
Has anyone secured an internship from Manchester? Yes, this year only in summer two students were selected to do a summer internship in The Times of News UK in London. One of them was from the University of Manchester.

*!!Applications to join the GDG Academy will open sometime after the kick-off event to the attendees !!*

USER STUDIES.

This from Markel Vigo: Do you want to get involved in user studies or recruit participants? There is a mailing list to send announcements about user studies and experiments run by students and academics of the Department of Computer Science. If you want to recruit participants for studies and experiments you can send your announcements to COMPSCI-USER-STUDIES. If you want to get involved as a participant, opportunities to do so will be published in COMPSCI-USER-STUDIES. Either way you have to register here. This is a moderated list so if you are recruiting participants we will make sure that the studies follow the guidelines for ethical approval as defined here and our department wiki.

UKIEPC PROGRAMMING CONTEST.

This from Ian Pratt-Hartmann: The UK and Ireland Programming Contest (UKIEPC) will take place this year on Saturday, October 19th, 2024, 11:00 - 16:00. UKIEPC is an annual event in which teams of three participants try to crack a series of programming challenges. This year, as usual, Manchester will be one of the participating sites. Note that participation at Manchester is available ONLY to teams consisting entirely of undergraduate or taught postgraduate students in the Department of Computer Science at Manchester (this, however, includes students on joint honours programmes such as Computing and Mathematics). The contest itself will take place in the labs on the Lower First Floor of the Kilburn Building. Refreshments will be provided in the common area on the Lower First Floor for participants. (Obviously, no food and drink will be permitted in the labs.) Details can be found on the UKIEPC website. You will need to register using the Competition website. (There is a "Take Part" button in the top right corner, which is surprisingly easy to miss.) Registration is now open: you may find that Manchester University is not yet listed as an available site: don't worry, it should appear in the list within a few days. Completing the form should be easy, but you are advised to assemble your team first and then sort out all the registrations. We will limit participation to the first twenty completely registered teams of three. The best teams from Manchester will be able to compete in the North West Europe Regional Programming Competition (NWERC), which will be held at the Delft University of Technology from 22nd to 24th November 2024. Realistically, we can expect to be able to enter two or three teams from Manchester. Note that we will enter a team to NWERC only if all of its members have competed in UKIEPC 2024. The detailed rules on eligibility are explained on the ICPC website. However, in practice, any UG or Master's student at Manchester is eligible. Have fun and good luck!

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Super Nova by Ahmadoku.

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow sum to the number in the attached circle. Digits joined by an X sum to 10.

Chess Puzzle - Kim Vs. Agmanov, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: Nobody this week
GeoGuessr World Traveler: RC Indochinese, 20,725pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 2 • Monday 30 September 2024 • #24.03

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 30th September 2024, and it’s Week 2 of the semester 1 teaching period. I hope everything has settled down and you are now familiar with your timetable and where teaching activities are taking place. Don't forget that you have until this Friday to choose any optional course units if you have any. If you are a 1st year student who has yet to complete the intro boot-up labs, then it's essential you do so, as you will need to set up Gitlab to be able to engage with the labs for your course units. To help you with managing your workload, we’ve put together our usual deadlines chart (see below) so you can see how your deadlines fall in relation to one another.

If you are an international student, then there’s a great piece in our Welfare Weekly item that may interest you, it’s written by Nadia Chau, an intern in the Student Support and Wellbeing team. Nadia tells us about her experience of settling into life and studies in Manchester after arriving from Hong Kong.

Once again, I’ll be holding my open hour on the LF floor on Tuesday, 12-1pm. The focus of this will be assessment and feedback, so if you’ve got any feedback you’d like to give me about your experience with assessment and feedback in the department, what we could do to improve it etc (or anything else) then please pop along and say hello.

Finally, there's a free screening of The Thinking Game this Wednesday (see below), so if you fancy seeing it please register to avoid disappointment! (see below)

Enjoy your week, on with today’s news, there’s lots this week …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Daniel Farr (Y3, CSwIE), Afnan Ediab (Y3, CS), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello Year 1s and PASS1 leaders! We hope your first week of studies went well! We are hoping to see you in our first PASS session this Wednesday 1-2pm in your allocated room. Your first session is planned to be relaxed, hopefully with some fun activities to get to know each other followed by a chat to see how things are going. Remember that these sessions are for you, so lead the session, tell your leaders what you want to talk about as the session plan is not set in stone, and enjoy! For any problems/queries please feel free to contact us! PASS1 leaders, please don't forget to join us for the debrief the hour later in Kilburn 2.19!

New PASS1 Coordinators: We have new coordinators in the team: Afnan Ediab (CS Y3) and Daniel Farr (CSwIE Y3)! Become a PASS1 Leader! We are in lack of leaders so please contact us or your leader if interested!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone! Thank you for the amazing turnout at the PASS2 session last week! It was wonderful to see you all and we hope you found it useful. This week we've got an in-depth session about CVs, Cover Letters and Internship Applications waiting for you. It will be in the same place as last week - IT407 from 12pm to 1pm on Thursday the 3rd October. Hope to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hi everyone! We had a great session last week- thank you everyone who came. It was fantastic to see so many familiar faces. We have made lots of plans for the next semester! Tomorrow (Tuesday 1st October) we will be having another session, focussing on after graduation. We are going to do some CV Peer Reviewing, start compiling a list of grad job applications (including who to avoid!) and look at post-grad degrees. Come join us in Kilburn Collab at 12pm tomorrow!

STUDENT PUBLICATION SUCCESS.

One of our former students Yin Hong Kung (graduated 2024, CS) has had work from his 3rd year project tilted “CantonMT: Cantonese to English Neural Machine Translation with Synthetic Back-translation Data” published in the Proceedings of the 25th Annual Conference of the European Association for Machine Translation (AMTA 2024), Sheffield, UK. Y. H. Kung, L. Han, R. Batista-Navarro, and G. Nenadic, “CANTONMT: Cantonese to English NMT Platform with Fine-Tuned Models using Real and Synthetic Back-Translation Data”. In this paper, Yin describes the Cantonese-to-English neural machine translation platform that he developed as part of his final-year project. You can read the paper here.

STUDENT PUBLICATION SUCCESS.

One of our former students Martin Marinov (graduated 2024, SEwIE) has had work he developed as part of an internship with Our Heritage, Our Stories project published in the Proceedings of the Deep Learning and Large Language Models for Knowledge Graphs Workshop (DL4KG) co-located with ACM KDD 2024, Barcelona, Spain. M. Marinov, Y. Benkhedda, E. Hannaford, M. Alexander, G. Nenadic and R. Batista-Navarro: “Relation Extraction for Constructing Knowledge Graphs: Enhancing the Searchability of Community-Generated Digital Content (CGDC) Collections”. This paper presents the zero-shot relation extraction models that Martin developed as part of Martin's internship. You can read the paper here.

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

Just a reminder that if you are affected by any issues that impact your studies, then it’s vitally important that you speak to someone and get the help and support you need. You can speak to your Year Tutor (see below), a member of our Student Support and Wellbeing Team, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, or drop into the student hub in the Nancy Rothwell Building (1st floor) and ask to speak to someone, in confidence, about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. Maria and Ben are also the Disability Coordinators for CS, so you can speak to them if you have any ongoing physical or mental health problems, or conditions such as ASD or ADHD, that affect your studies, even if you are not already registered with the DASS Team at the University. If you are registered with DASS and there are problems with your DASS plan you can speak with them about this too. You can contact Maria and Ben at soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - QWELL.

REGISTER FOR A GP.

LOST IN KILBURN.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY.

This Week, Student Support and Wellbeing Intern, and former International student here at the university Nadia Chau tells us of her experience settling into life and studies in a new country after arriving here from Hong Kong.

I remember two years ago, for the first time I stepped foot into The University of Manchester, I was both excited and nervous about starting my new life here. It was the first time for me to leave home and move to a completely new city. I flew for 13 hours, then found myself arriving in a city that looks similar but lonelier when compared to the one I was used to, and I found myself conversing with people in a language that was both familiar and strange to me.

As an international student, throughout the course of studying my master’s degree, I struggled quite a lot with language barrier and loneliness. In class, I was one of the two non-native English speakers in a class of twenty. During my first few months in Manchester, there were many times where I couldn’t catch up with what the lecturers were saying; and I would have to spend extra hours doing the readings just because I simply couldn’t read as fast as my classmates. When the wintertime arrived, I also started to feel quite lonely. I didn’t know many people in the UK, nor did I make a lot of friends in class. As the sky started to turn dark at four and Manchester started to get wet and grim, I started to feel blue as well.

Things got much better when I started to reach out to my instructors for help. I went to their office hours every week, and brought in questions that I had, as well as things I couldn’t understand in class or concepts I couldn’t contemplate when doing my reading. It was so helpful, and thanks to the professors’ help, I was able to finish my essays just fine. I also started to join events, inside and outside university, and met different people. For example, I began the hobby of skateboarding - something I never thought about doing when I was at home, and I met a group of friends there.

If I had to give one piece of advice to new students, as cliche as it sounds, it would be - you will need to step out of your comfort zone. Aside from reaching out to your professors to get academic support, if you want some welfare advice, you might also want to reach out to different school services. Some examples would be - the student union advising services, the student hubs and wellbeing support services, counselling and mental health services etc.

You might also want to consider joining events, so that you might get the chance to meet more people, become friends with some of them, and get emotional support from a couple of them. I would highly recommend joining societies or regular events, because it’s more likely for you to meet close friends there. If you are an international student, I would also recommend joining the events organised by the International Society. They organise weekend trips to different parts of the UK, and aside from that, they also offer language courses and other classes to students.

Also, practise your language skills at the Language Café, on the last Wednesday of each month from 12pm-2pm in the Lime Café in the Samuel Alexander Building.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF25.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

COMP1INTRO BOOT-UP LABS SURVEY.

KILBURN BUILDING LINUX CLUSTER LOGIN.

All PCs in the Kilburn Building computer clusters are "dual-boot" Ubuntu Linux (default) and Microsoft Windows. To switch from one operating system (OS) to the other, reboot the machine and upon restart a Computer Science welcome screen will appear where you can select the OS to load using the arrow keys on the keyboard. It is important to use your university username and NOT your email address to login to Linux. Your username is of the format of one lowercase letter, followed by five digits and ending in two lowercase letters, for example v12345ab.

GITLAB DOWNTIME.

This from Chris Page: Gitlab downtime: On Wednesday 2nd October - THIS WEDNESDAY - at 16:00 the Department of Computer Science GitLab system will be taken offline to perform essential maintenance and upgrades. Work on the system will start at 16:00 and is expected to finish by 18:00. This notice will be removed when the work on the server is completed and tests indicate GitLab is operating normally.

PERSONAL TEACHING TIMETABLES.

Your personal timetable should now be updated. However, please keep an eye on it as activities could change over the next week as the timetable is finalised. You can view your timetable on my.manchester.

EXTENDED OPENING HOURS.

COMP1RDMC: Respect & Dignity at Manchester
COMP1HS: Health and Safety
COMP1AMP: Academic Malpractice

Once access has been granted then you can use your University swipe card to enter the Kilburn building. Please note that currently access is through the main entrance opposite Crawford House. However, once the building works are completed, then access will be via the entrance opposite University place. During extended hours access is restricted to the lower first floor area of the Kilburn building. You will not be able to use labs or meeting spaces in any other locations in Kilburn. You may be required to show proof that you have extended hours when requested by a building attendant or security. You can find more information and full instructions in the Extended Working Hours folder in the CS UG Community Space in Blackboard.

CS UG COMMUNITY BLACKBOARD PAGE.

The CS UG Community Page in Blackboard is your one-stop source for all information related to your studies. Here you will find the Undergraduate Programme Handbook, specific information for each year group (such as who the year tutors are), advice for getting support, information from the student-staff liaison committee etc. There’s lots of information, so please make use of the resource.

UG PROGRAMME HANDBOOK.

The Undergraduate Programme Handbook is your one-stop resource for all information related to your studies. It contains information about your degree programmes, details on progression, how to change programmes or interrupt your studies, information on student support etc. The handbook also has information related to how to apply for mitigating circumstances if your learning has been affected by issues out of your control, such as an illness. The Undergraduate Programme Handbook can be found in the CS UG Community space in Blackboard.

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

LEARNING TIPS - SUBMITTING YOUR OWN WORK - AVOID AMP.

Computer Science is a very practical subject and, as such, it is natural to work with your friends when trying to solve a problem. In fact, when working in the real world you will invariably be part of a team, whether developing software or hardware. This is why a number of our course units offer you the opportunity to work as a member of a team, to give you some experience of pros and cons that come with working in a team environment. However, when it comes to individual assessments, such as coursework, this changes. What you submit for your assessments will reflect on your learning and are a key part of measuring your academic progress and how well you understand the learning material. To ensure that the work you submit is your own, we often look out for signs of similarities between different submissions from different students. We are looking for academic malpractice (AMP), where someone is looking to gain an unfair advantage by submitting work that is not (entirely) their own.

There are generally two forms of AMP: plagiarism, which is the copying of someone else’s work as your own work, including output from AI tools such as ChatGPR, without acknowledgement; and collusion, which is working too closely with someone else to produce the same, or very similar, piece of work. In Computer Science, we find that collusion is the most common form of AMP due to the way students often work together. To help identify such cases, we use powerful software tools to identify similarities in code, even when changes such as renaming variables, changing comments, or restructuring code have been made in an attempt to make the code look different.

If you are found guilty of AMP then this can have a dramatic impact on your progression/marks. Penalties range from the zeroing of marks for the assessment where AMP has been identified as taking place, zeroing of a course unit (but the credits are passed) through to failing and having to resit a course unit. In the past, we have had students being excluded from their studies as a result of engaging with AMP. It’s natural for you to work with fellow students to understand problems and the taught material. However, make sure the work you submit is your own; it’s just not worth the risk. Everyone when joining the Department is required to complete a short module on AMP in Blackboard, so that you are aware of what it is and what the consequences are if you (even inadvertently) engage in it. For more information on AMP, see the University student guidance on plagiarism and other forms of AMP, you can view the full AMP procedure here.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

The Department has put together a coursework deadlines chart, which can be accessed here, The chart is populated with the deadlines for all COMP course units, for each year group, in semester 1. It aims to give you an overview of your deadlines and to help you plan your time, which will depend upon the course units you are taking. Please note that deadlines may still change and that only SPOT indicates up-to-date information on deadlines, so please use SPOT to confirm deadlines.

COURSEWORK DEADLINE EXTENSION REQUESTS.

All pieces of coursework in the Department will have a deadline by which it must be submitted. You can find out the deadline from the course unit material in Blackboard, or via SPOT or the coursework deadlines chart. In some cases, you can request a short extension to allow you to complete your work if you find you are falling behind due to circumstances beyond your control, although in some cases an extension is not allowed. SPOT and the coursework deadlines chart indicate the assessments where an extension is possible. You must apply for an extension BEFORE the deadline - requests will not be accepted after the deadline. Further advice and a link to the form to request an extension can be found in the Illness and Absence folder in the CS UG Community space in Blackboard. If you wish to have an extension after the deadline then you must apply through the mitigating circumstances process.

COURSE UNIT SELECTION.

You have until 15:30 Friday 4th October 2023 (this Friday) to finalise your Semester 1 course unit choices. After that deadline your course selections freeze, and changes for Semester 1 will no longer be possible. Please ensure you are also enrolled on to your Semester 2 choices by this date (120 credits in total). Course unit selection will reopen in February for you to make changes to your Semester 2 course unit choices. Please note: 1st years have no choice in the 1st semester. If you are a 4th Year MEng student then the deadline has passed to select your course units.

STUDENT REGISTRATION.

The deadline for completing registration was 30th September 2024. However, if you still haven't been able to complete it, then the very latest is the 4th October 2024. To register go to My Manchester registration and login with your IT account details, go to the ‘Registration’ tab and follow the on-screen instructions. If you don't see the 'Registration' tab in My Manchester, go to 'Tools' in the top right-hand corner, select 'Student System' from the drop-down menu, click on 'Student Centre' and then 'Register'. You have ten sections to complete. At the end of each step, a green 'completed' tick will appear. To go back to a previous section, simply click on the step you want to return to; do not use the back button on your browser. If there is an element of registration that you haven't completed the deadline, then you will be withdrawn from the programme or forced to take a period of interruption. If you are having problems with registering then please contact soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk.

HARDWARE LIBRARY.

SCREENING OF THE THINKING GAME.

A special free screening of “The Thinking Game” will take place 3-5pm on Wednesday 2nd October (this Wednesday) in Lecture Theatre 1.1 in the Kilburn Building. The screening is open to all staff and students from the Department. If you are interested in attending then please complete this Eventbrite invite. Please use your university email address to register and please be quick as spaces are limited. See the trailer here.

Synopsis: The Thinking Game takes you on a fascinating journey into the heart of DeepMind, one of the world's leading AI labs, as it strives to unravel the mysteries of artificial general intelligence (AGI). Inside DeepMind's London headquarters, founder Demis Hassabis and his team are relentlessly pursuing the creation of AI that matches or surpasses human abilities on a wide range of tasks. Filmed over five years, the documentary puts viewers in the room for the pivotal moments of this quest, including the groundbreaking achievement of AlphaFold, a program that solved a 50-year grand challenge in biology. The Thinking Game captures the exhilaration of historic breakthroughs like AlphaFold, the crushing weight of disappointment during setbacks, and the unwavering pursuit of knowledge that defines Demis' commitment to scientific innovation. This film invites viewers to witness one of the most important scientific adventures of our time, exploring the potential of AGI to reshape our world.

GREATUNIHACK 2024 PARTICIPATION APPLICATIONS ARE OPEN NOW.

UniCS is happy to announce that participant applications are open for GUH '24!! If you don't know what a hackathon is or have never been to one, don't worry! It's all about working together over the course of 24 hours to turn awesome ideas into reality. Along the way, you get to participate in fun challenges, take home free goodies, and network with the best! Join our discord and follow our Instagram to keep up with important updates about the hackathon. Applications close on 8th October so make sure to apply before then. Volunteer applications will be released soon too. Best of luck!"

UNICS CAREER WORKSHOP SERIES - INDUSTRY SERIES.

This series is designed to guide you through every step of your career path, from exploring opportunities to preparing your CV, cover letters, and interview techniques with mock sessions. Here is a brief overview of the topics that will be covered:

Get application ready
CV and cover letter build-up and review
Mastering LinkedIn
Mock interview sessions
LeetCode sessions
Insights from previous interns
Drop-in sessions

Our first workshop, Get Application Ready, was successfully held last week. Our second workshop is a CV and Cover Letter Review Session which will be held this week (details to be shared soon). Make sure to attend these sessions if you are planning to apply for jobs this academic year or the next one. Keep an eye on our social media channels for regular updates on our events and opportunities.

UNICS GAME DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP SERIES.

This workshop series focuses on game development using Unity. You will learn how to build a game from scratch, with the only prerequisite being some experience with a programming language (Python, Java, C#, C, or C++). The workshops will be held every Wednesday from 2nd October to 11th December 2024, from 2pm - 3pm. Here is a schedule of the workshops:

Week 1: Getting started with Unity
Week 2: Materials and Collisions
Week 3: Inter-Script Communication & Variable Security
Week 4: UI and Game Loop
Week 5: Projectiles
Week 6: Shader Graph
Week 7: Shader Coding
Week 8: Enemies
Week 9: Enemy AI
Week 10: Polish

Certificates will be awarded upon completion! The first workshop will be held on Wednesday 2nd October 2024 from 2pm - 3pm in Kilburn Theatre 1.1. We look forward to seeing you at our workshops!

USER STUDIES.

UKIEPC PROGRAMMING CONTEST.

The best teams from Manchester will be able to compete in the North West Europe Regional Programming Competition (NWERC), which will be held at the Delft University of Technology from 22nd to 24th November 2024. Realistically, we can expect to be able to enter two or three teams from Manchester. Note that we will enter a team to NWERC only if all of its members have competed in UKIEPC 2024. The detailed rules on eligibility are explained on the ICPC website. However, in practice, any UG or Master's student at Manchester is eligible. Have fun and good luck!

DEPARTMENT SEMINAR.

A department seminar will take place on Wednesday 2nd October, 14:00 - 15:00, in IT407. Alessandro Abate, Professor of Verification and Control in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, will talk about “Logic meets Learning - Formal Synthesis with Neural Templates”. Abstract: I shall present recent work on CEGIS, a ``counterexample-guided inductive synthesis'' framework for sound synthesis tasks that are relevant for dynamical models, control problems, and software programs. The inductive synthesis framework comprises the interaction of two components, a learner and a verifier. The learner trains a neural template on finite samples. The verifier soundly validates the candidates trained by the learner, by means of calls to a SAT-modulo-theory solver. Whenever the candidate is not valid, SMT-generated counter examples are passed to the learner for further training. I shall elucidate the ins & outs of the CEGIS framework, and display its workings on a few problems: synthesis of Lyapunov functions, of barrier certificates, and of more intricate proof certificates; and hybridisation of nonlinear dynamics for safety verification.

Bio: Alessandro Abate is Professor of Verification and Control in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford. Earlier, he did research at Stanford University and at SRI International, and was an Assistant Professor at the Delft Center for Systems and Control, TU Delft. He received an MS/PhD from the University of Padova and UC Berkeley. His research interests are in the formal verification and control of stochastic hybrid systems, and in their applications in cyber-physical systems, particularly involving safety criticality and energy. He blends in techniques from machine learning and AI, such as Bayesian inference, reinforcement learning, and game theory.

ALGC REOPENS AFTER EXTENSIVE REFURBISHMENT.

The Alan Gilbert Learning Commons reopened on Monday, 16 September, following extensive repairs and upgrades aimed at enhancing the student study experience. Key improvements include:

A new Cosy Campus space at the entrance, featuring a kitchenette with four microwaves and a dedicated seating area.
New carpets throughout the building and a deep-clean of all furniture.
Upgraded hardware, including desktop PCs and audio-visual facilities in group study rooms.
Upgraded software applications on PCs and loanable laptops.
A dedicated Support Zone for students’ digital support enquiries and appointments.

Library staff are available to assist and support students.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Little Wonder by Michael Lefkowitz.

In each N-by-N grid, normal N-by-N sudoku rules apply. The indicated diagonals have the same sum. (Normal sudoku rules in a grid of size NxN: Place the digits 1 to N, once each, into every row, column and region.)

Chess Puzzle - Firouzja Vs. So, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

We are playing the 'I Saw the Sign 2.0' map: Locations with the name of the place visible in front of you at the starting point (e.g. on a sign, on a building, on an advertisement). Anywhere in the world - from tiny villages to large cities.

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: Matthew Kirk
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Idris, 18,651pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Week 1 • Monday 23 September 2024 • #24.02

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 23rd September 2024, and it’s the first week of teaching of the 2024/25 academic year. It was good to see so many students around the campus last week, and to see such a great turnout at the welcome talks. If you have just joined us, then I hope you have settled into life in Manchester, have managed to get out and explore the campus and the city, and meet some new friends. I’m sure it will soon feel like home.

Please make sure you are familiar with your teaching timetable and, more importantly, where teaching activities are scheduled, as these can take place at different locations across the campus. Check out the University’s interactive map if you are not sure where buildings are located. If you are a 1st year student please make sure you have completed the COMP1INTRO Boot-up labs as you will to have Gitlab up and running for your labs this semester!

Just a reminder that there’s still time to nominate yourself as an academic representative (all years) or put yourself as teaching volunteer (years 3 and 4 only).

I hold my office hour on Tuesday, 12-1pm, somewhere on the lower first floor of Kilburn. If you want to discuss anything, ask any questions, or just have a chat, then please look out for me.

Enjoy your week, on with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Gundeep Oberoi (OnIE, CSwIE), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello Year 1s and PASS1 Leaders! Firstly, thank you Year 1 students for joining our welcome lecture and scavenger hunt last week! We hope you enjoyed it! We wanted to remind you that our first PASS1 session starts from next week (week 2) and we will let you know of the details via the Monday Mail so that you can join us! Dear PASS1 leaders, please be reminded that we will have the mandatory Meet Your Team session this week on Wednesday 25th September at 2pm in Kilburn 2.19. We will send you a separate email regarding this as well.

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone, We hope you've enjoyed welcome week and started settling back into Uni life. To help with that, this year's first PASS2 session will cover Module Selection, Applying for Internships and Making the best of 2nd year. It will be in the IT Building - IT407 (take the bridge in Kilburn next to the mega lab) on Thursday the 26th from 12pm to 1pm. We'd love to see you there!

PASS3.

The PASS3 team (Max Beck-Jones (Y4, CS4), Sarah Saad (Y4, AI4), Luke Sanderson (Y4, AI4) and Rosie Halsall (Y3, CS)) write: Hello 3rd and 4th Years! We are a brand new scheme to support you all in your final year of study. We're planning on hosting social events, grad placement chats, and 3rd year project study sessions. Our first is this Tuesday (24th September) at 12-1pm in Kilburn 2.15. This week will be about how the scheme will run (any ideas are welcome!) and the 3rd Year Project. We also have the room booked until 2pm, so feel free to just drop by. There will be cookies.

STUDENT PUBLICATION SUCCESS.

One of our former students Guan Yu Soh (graduated 2023) has had work from his 3rd year project presented at EGSR 2024 (35th Eurographics Symposium on Rendering). Guan writes: I was very happy to present my work on the Neural Appearance Model for Cloth Rendering at the EGSR 2024 conference. The presence of many knowledgeable academics and experts provided me with constructive feedback and engaging discussions, motivating me to explore new avenues in research. I am deeply grateful to my supervisor, Dr. Zahra Montazeri, for her invaluable guidance throughout my research. I look forward to attending and presenting at future conferences, thanks to the confidence and experience I gained this time around! The Department provided some funding to support Guan’s attendance at the conference.

VOLUNTEERING OUTREACH IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING SOCIETY - VOISE.

Fancy using your skills to help the local community? Or gaining some volunteering hours towards your Stellify award? The Volunteering Outreach in Science and Engineering Society (VOISE) is the university’s leading outreach society for all things STEM related, and we are looking for plenty of new members to help us in our mission to “Inspire Tomorrow’s Innovators”. You can take part in as many (or as few) fun, interactive workshops across the year as you like, PLUS we have opportunities for you to develop your own outreach workshops to be run at local schools, if you fancy getting creative! Come along to our Taster Session on Wednesday 25th September in SU Room 2.2 from 12:30 - 1:30pm to find out more (there’s free pizza too!), and make sure to sign up on the SU Website and/or follow our Instagram @uom_voise. Can't wait to see you soon!

FINTECH SOCIETY.

Hello, everyone! We are the Fintech Society, a group of students eager to share more about the fintech industry. Given the recent popularisation of fintech in recent years, we would like to provide insights for those who would like to break into the industry for both technical and non-technical roles. If this sounds interesting to you, do check out our instagram page and discord group, as we will be hosting events in the near future. Remember to grab our membership from the student union’s website as well. We hope to see you soon!

TEACHING VOLUNTEER REPORT.

In 2024/25, recent graduate Minhea Popeanga (CSwIE) was a teaching volunteer in undergraduate labs last academic year. Minhea writes: Hi everyone! I’m a recent BSc Computer Science graduate, and I’d like to share my experience as a teaching assistant for the first-year course COMP11120. I chose to volunteer as a Teaching Volunteer as I genuinely enjoy teaching and helping others, and I am considering a career that might include teaching in the future. So it was a great opportunity to test my ability to explain concepts to people, but also a trial for me to see if I enjoy working with larger groups of students. Besides, it was fascinating to experience what it's like on the other side and understand some of the challenges you encounter as a lecturer or TA. Furthermore, being a Teaching Volunteer gives you the opportunity to apply for an Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy, which recognises your skills and efforts in supporting learning in higher education. This together with the teaching experience looks great on your CVs and will be appreciated both by companies and by other institutions in case you’d like to continue in academia. Overall, it is an experience that I definitely recommend to anyone who enjoyed a particular module and would like to contribute to it in a meaningful way. If you are a 3rd or 4th year student interested in being a teaching volunteer, then please see the item from Andrea Schalk.

2023-24 PRIZE WINNERS.

Each year the Department recognises outstanding achievement by awarding prizes to UG students who have excelled academically or made significant contributions to life in the Department. We celebrated their success at the welcome talk last week, but just to remind you, the following students received awards for last academic year:

Year 1 (now Year 2):
- Golden Anniversary Prize for excellence in year 1 studies: Dastan Syrgabayev (CS), Sanjay Rao (CS), Jamie Rowlinson-Patel (CM), Marc Mhawej (CMwIE), Antony Salta (CSwIE).
- Michael Jealous Prize for best Year 1 student: Dastan Syrgabayev (CS).
- Netcraft Prize for top 10 performing single honours students: Dastan Syrgabayev (CS), Sanjay Rao (CS), Antony Salta (CSwIE), Hin Yip (CS), Thomas Partridge (CS), Daniel Stainer (CS), Daniel Groves (CS), Joshua Hines (CSwIE), Jonathan Wilson (CSwIE), Haleema Limbada (CS).
Year 2 (now Year 3):
- Professor’s Prize for outstanding performance in year 2: Madhavan Citalamangalam Kumaran (CSwIE), Summer Himlin (CM), Jarren Loke (HCI).
Year 3 (now Graduated/Year 4):
- Williams/Kilburn Medal for outstanding student: Claudi Craciun (CMwIE).
- Kilburn Prize for outstanding final year examination performance: James Colley (CM).
- Edwards Prize for the student who performed with distinction throughout their degree in Computer Engineering: Joe Constable (CS).
- Professor’s prize for outstanding performance in year 3: Claudiu Craciun (CMwIE), Zoya Anwar (CS), Georgia Cawley (HCIwIE).
- Head of Department prize for outstanding contribution to life in the Department: Jakub Pabian (CS), Zoya Anwar (CS), Claudio Craciun (CMwIE), Minhea Popeanga (CSwIE), Eman Ahsan (CSwIE).
- Hilary Kahn award for best 3rd year undergraduate project: Wei Tang (AIwIE).
- BCS prize for best final year education project: Irina Ferent (CSwIE).
- University Outstanding Achievement award: Claudiu Craciun (CMwIE).

Huge congratulations to all, really well done and just rewards for all your efforts. Give yourself a big pat on the back!

COMPUTER SCIENCE FC.

Computer Science FC is back again for another fantastic season of 11-a-side football in the Campus League. Upcoming trials are your chance to display your skills so dust those boots and get ready!! Lots of socials to follow throughout the year. Join the groupchat for upcoming info about the season and trials. Up the CSFC!!!

STUDENT PUBLICATION SUCCESS.

Adrians Skapars (Graduated 2023, CS) has been successful in having work undertaken as part of an internship published along with members of Computer Science @ Manchester: Y. Benkhedda, A. Skapars, V. Schlegel, G. Nenadic, and R. Batista-Navarro, (2024) “Enriching the Metadata of Community-Generated Digital Content through Entity Linking: An Evaluative Comparison of State-of-the-Art Models”. In Proceedings of the 8th Joint SIGHUM Workshop on Computational Linguistics for Cultural Heritage, Social Sciences, Humanities and Literature (LaTeCH-CLfL) co-located with the 18th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL 2024), St. Julians, Malta. Based on Adrians' work as an intern for the Our Heritage, Our Stories project, this paper reports the results of evaluating various entity linking models applied to digital archive collections.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT - DASS.

WHAT IS AN ACADEMIC ADVISOR?

An academic advisor is a member of academic staff who not only provides academic support, but also pastoral support during your time in Manchester. Who is your academic advisor? Well, this depends what year you are in. If you are a 1st or 2nd year student, your academic advisor is your personal tutor - you can find out who your tutor is here. In the 3rd year, your academic advisor is your project supervisor, and in the 4th year it is Tim Morris. Don’t get your academic advisor confused with your Year Tutor (see below), who generally have more experience in supporting students and signposting them to support services in the university. Year Tutors also track student engagement (through attendance and coursework submission data), reaching out to students we have concerns about.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - FIND YOUR TRIBE - GETTING STARTED AT UNIVERSITY.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: Over the next few weeks, I will share with you some top tips for surviving University from my eight years working with students here at the Uni. Hopefully I can share some ideas and insight to help you stay healthy, motivated, and engaged with your studies.

A very common conversation I have with new students in the first week or two of the year is about them struggling to settle in. The chances that you have been put into halls with your future BFFs is probably low. But don’t be disheartened. Feeling overwhelmed, lonely and homesick are totally normal. It’s a huge change. My advice is to take steps to find people you can connect with now, before your workload starts to build.

Your first weeks of university may lead you to feel the only way to socialise is to go out drinking, and if you don't do that you will miss out. But there is so much more! Join a society through the Student's Union, sign up to a class, take up a sport or start a hobby. Joining a society, sports team or other activity allows you to get to know the people with the same interests, values, culture, or background as you. Building a network of friends is especially important if you are a long way from home. This will have a direct impact on your wellbeing and that in turn will have a direct benefit on your university work. Research has shown that students who participate in extracurricular activities are more motivated and tend to do better in their course.

If you haven’t done so already, this week take steps to join at least one society or club. Get out there and find your tribe! Check out the SU’s Tips here. Find more ideas for helping you find your tribe here.

KEEPING SAFE ON CAMPUS.

Manchester, like any other large city, can have issues with crime, hence it’s important you keep safe when on campus and travelling to/from the campus. Keep in mind the following:

Stay alert: Keep your belongings safe and out of view when travelling to or from campus and whilst you’re on it. Avoid wearing noise cancelling headphones so you know what’s going on around you, and stick to well-lit roads and pavements as you travel around the city, avoiding underpasses where possible. Keep your phone out of sight!
Download SafeZone: Our mobile app SafeZone can be used to quickly connect you with Campus Support and Security team if you feel unsafe, need immediate help or require first aid or wellbeing assistance. The app is free to download, easy to use, and operates across the Manchester campuses. You can find out more about SafeZone here.
Report unacceptable behaviour: Manchester has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions. If you have witnessed any forms of this behaviour, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor. Find out more about Report + Support.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

In the Department we have year tutors who are responsible for looking after the different cohorts in each year group. The Year Tutors are here to provide you with help and support if you need it, so feel free to contact your Year Tutor by email over the exam period. Year Tutors also run a weekly open hour (starting from Week 1 of teaching - next week) where you can pop along for a chat during the teaching period:

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: Tuesday 14:00 - 15:00, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull., Open hour: Wednesday 10:00 - 12:00, Kilburn LF25.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, Kilburn LF.

STUDENT REGISTRATION.

Remember that you need to register with the University before the 30th September 2024 (next Monday) and collect your student card.You can find more information on the University “Become a Student” webpage. Any fee queries should be submitted using the Student Services Enquiry Form.

PERSONAL TEACHING TIMETABLES.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

MANDATORY TRAINING.

If you are a new 1st year student joining us this academic year then there are three mandatory units that you must complete. You are automatically enrolled on these course units in Blackboard:

COMP1RDMC: Respect & Dignity at Manchester
COMP1HS: Health and Safety
COMP1AMP: Academic Malpractice

If you have any issues with completing these modules then please contact the Student Support Hub (see above). Failure to complete these training modules will result in restrictions being put in place, for example, results not being released.

COMP10120 WELCOME WEEK WORKSHOPS.

Last week, we ran the Welcome Week Workshops for 1st year students where they had to solve some challenging task (you may remember this from your first year): this year, each team built a chute for our Kilburn duck! This year’s students showed great ambition but it seems that big chutes are rather challenging and likely to break! They showed great team spirit and amazing engagement throughout. We are looking forward to seeing more from this new cohort!

COMP1INTRO BOOT-UP LABS.

David Petrescu writes: If you are a 1st year student and you haven’t completed the intro lab, then we will be running a catchup session on Wednesday 25 Sept at 15:00-17:00 in 1.8/1.10. Remember this is the last session you will get help from staff and GTAs. In the meantime, you can work on these yourself on every machine in the labs in the Kilburn building. Please make use of week 1 as you have no coursework and the catch-up session to complete the Intro lab, as it exposes you to Linux which is the operating system you will be using for the majority of your time in the Department and ensures your git and GitLab setup is working correctly. It is vital that you complete the main parts of Lesson 2 (you can skip the side-quests, but be sure to do look at them later!) and all of lesson 3, as this introduces you to Git and helps you to set up Git in your home file store, which you will need for several course units this year (and future years).

CS UG COMMUNITY BLACKBOARD PAGE.

UG PROGRAMME HANDBOOK.

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

From this week we will be monitoring attendance at timetables activities using SEAtS. You can find information on how to use SEAtS on the Student Support website, along with other information. Staff will display a QR code and/or pin during each session, and you must record your attendance via the SEAtS app or webpage during the session. Please note that teaching staff cannot change your attendance record, so please do not contact them to query your attendance.

LEARNING TIPS - UNIVERSITY TEACHING.

Learning Tips is a regular feature where we discuss various aspects of learning with a view to providing you with a few pointers on how to make the most of your learning while you are in the department. In the first item in this feature, we take a look at how learning at University probably differs a lot from what you may have been used to at school/college. University is very much about independent learning, we do much less hand-holding compared to what you may have been to in school/college. Teaching at University involves you having to learn concepts, knowledge and skills, and then put these into practise by solving problems (real-life in some cases). Lectures are very much different to classes in school/college, although you may be familiar with what happens in example classes. Lecturers use a variety of different styles of learning from more traditional approaches, such as chalk and talk (although chalk has mostly been replaced by projectors and powerpoint) whereby the lecturer will work through concepts at the front of the lecture hall, with some interaction with the audience. Then there’s more modern approaches, such as blended learning, where learning makes use of asynchronous (offline learning resources such as videos and quizzes) and synchronous activities (lectures, labs etc - timetabled activities), which has been shown to improve learning. In some cases, lecturers will experiment with their teaching, making use of the latest research to improve the effectiveness and impact of their teaching. We want you to move towards becoming a professional in your chosen discipline and taking more responsibility for your learning is part of that process. So, overall, what you will find is that you will experience a whole range of different learning styles at university. You may find that the way you worked in school is not the most productive one for university: the material is more specialised, and everybody on the programme had similar marks at school as you did. Be open minded, engage with the activities we have put together for you, and monitor how you are doing so that you can make adjustments to how you learn. You may also find it difficult to judge how productive some of our sessions actually are - we'll discuss that in a first year tutorial before too long. Finally, the department is always looking for ways to improve the teaching we offer and feedback from you is an important part of this, helping us to improve our teaching for future cohorts.

HOW DO I CHECK IF I’VE SUBMITTED MY WORK?

We often get asked by students how to check that they have submitted work successfully, and it’s quite easy to do.

Blackboard: if the submission method is using Blackboard, then you can check under the “My Grades” link on the left on each course unit Blackboard page (under “Submitted” or “Marked”). You can also check via SPOT, although SPOT is only updated at 12pm and 6pm daily, so any submission between those times will not be shown until the update takes place. SPOT includes the date and time when the last data was received from Blackboard on each page.
Git: if the submission method is using git, then you can check via SPOT. Submissions via git will show in SPOT immediately (but you do need to refresh the SPOT web page). You know if you have submitted correctly because the date and time will appear under the Submission column in the coursework table for that course.
Whilst SPOT shows you something has been submitted, it does not know what, so cannot be used to verify you've submitted the correct required files. To check the files you have submitted use Blackboard or GitLab.
Some course units have additional requirements, which are not documented in SPOT. Always make sure you carefully read the submission instructions for each piece of work.
Benchmark: Submission to Benchmark may not show in SPOT until the work has been marked. You should check Benchmark to ensure your submission was correct.

ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVE RECRUITMENT.

Want to change something about your course? Want to represent your peers? Recruitment is now open to become an Academic Representative (or rep) for the 2024-25 academic year! Academic Reps are student leaders who work with the Students’ Union and University of Manchester and gather feedback & work with staff and collaborate with other reps to make positive change in their programme.

Why get involved? You’ll develop skills in leadership, negotiation, and professionalism and build great relationships across your programme. In the past reps have been key in improving assessment deadlines, changing communication methods between staff & students and improving the way students are supported. You’ll receive training from the Students’ Union and from your programme, so you don’t need any prior experience – just an interest in helping improve student experience for yourself and your peers! Interested? To sign up, head to this form and input your details by Monday 30th September, 12 noon. After this we’ll get back in touch with the next steps!

TEACHING VOLUNTEER CALL.

Teaching Volunteering Opportunity. Are you interested in supporting other students' learning? If you are a student in Years 3 or 4, we have an opportunity for you to do so. After successful pilot schemes, we are inviting students to let us know if they would like to act as an Undergraduate Teaching Volunteer on a Year 1 or Year 2 course unit. We are not yet able to confirm for which units this opportunity exists, so please list all units you are potentially interested in when filling in the form by 08:00 am, Monday 30th September. You'll help for a maximum of 2-3 hours per week on average, so you can only act on one course unit, but we're happy for you to tell us about units you're interested in for both, Semester 1 and Semester 2. You will be in a practical session such as labs or examples classes together with the course unit staff and/or graduate teaching assistants, so you don't have to worry about not being able to answer all questions. We won't ask you to be involved in marking (nor do we want you to tell students exactly how to carry out assignments), but we do want you to help students understand anything that is puzzling them using your experience and knowledge of the material. Previous volunteers have found this activity satisfying, and it also looks good on your CV. Colleagues have said that their volunteers have performed really well and they are highly appreciated. Those interested in becoming an Associate Fellow of Advance HE (see the Advance-HE website for details), the UK's professional membership scheme promoting excellence in higher education. If you have further specific questions, please email Andrea Schalk. We have also asked for the activity to be recognised for Stellify and for HEAR.

UKIEPC PROGRAMMING CONTEST.

This from Ian Pratt-Hartmann: The UK and Ireland Programming Contest (UKIEPC) will take place this year on Saturday, October 19th, 2024, 11:00 - 16:00. UKIEPC is an annual event in which teams of three participants try to crack a series of programming challenges. This year, as usual, Manchester will be one of the participating sites. Note that participation at Manchester is be available ONLY to teams consisting entirely of undergraduate or taught postgraduate students in the Department of Computer Science at Manchester (this, however, includes students on joint honours programmes such as Computing and Mathematics). The contest itself will take place in the labs on the Lower First Floor of the Kilburn Building. Refreshments will be provided in the common area on the Lower First Floor for participants. (Obviously, no food and drink will be permitted in the labs.) Details can be found on the UKIEPC website. You will need to register using the Competition website. (There is a "Take Part" button in the top right corner, which is surprisingly easy to miss.) Registration is now open: you may find that Manchester University is not yet listed as an available site: don't worry, it should appear in the list within a few days. Completing the form should be easy, but you are advised to assemble your team first and then sort out all the registrations. We will limit participation to the first twenty completely registered teams of three.

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE CLUB.

Join our Open Source Software Club, Mon 23rd September 1pm, Nancy Rothwell Building. The Open Source Software Club is starting this month, bringing together talented student coders (like you!) from across the University with academics who are looking to build a community and user base for their open source research software. Membership is open to students with all levels of coding experience, allowing you to:

Grow your technical skills
Earn GitHub badges
Make public contributions
Get expert mentoring from experienced software engineers
Contribute to scientific research

Thee next meeting is on Monday 23rd September (*TODAY*), 1-2pm in the Makerspace, in the Nancy Rothwell (Engineering) Building. You'll need to complete some brief training to use the Makerpsace, find out more and register at bit.ly/oss-club-manchester.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Sudoku Challenge - Mystery Product by Oddlyeven.

Normal sudoku rules apply. The grid is partially covered in fog. Placing correct digits will clear the fog from surrounding cells. Digits along a line sum to the product of the digits in the squares at either end of the line (if it is the same square, multiply that digit by itself). Digits may repeat on a line if permitted by the other rules. Lines do not branch or cross, but they may share squares with other lines.

Chess Puzzle - Gavrilescu Vs. Gallasch, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination?

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Congratulations to last week’s Puzzle Masters:

Sudoku Champion: Weiming Xu
Chess Guru: Weiming Xu
GeoGuessr World Traveler: Cyrus, 14,570pts

Good luck and happy puzzling!

Welcome Week • Monday 16 September 2024 • #24.01

Paul pic

Welcome to Monday Mail, the newsletter for undergraduate students in the Department of Computer Science. Monday Mail is sent every Monday morning (hence the name) during teaching and exam periods. The goal of Monday Mail is to keep you up-to-date with what’s happening in the Department, to provide information we think you will find useful, and to publicise all the great things that you are involved with, such as a hackathon success, or to publicise a competition you are organising, anything really, as long as it's of interest to the rest of the UG cohort. If you have anything you’d like to share then please just get in touch.

If you are a new undergraduate student joining us then welcome to the Department of Computer Science, my name is Paul Nutter and I’m the Undergraduate Programme Director, which basically means I’m responsible for the day-to-day running of the undergraduate degree programmes in the Department. If you are a returning student, then welcome back! I hope you had a good summer and found some time to relax and recharge the batteries ready for another exciting academic year. If you see me around the Kilburn building then please stop me to say hello, I'd love to hear from you.

We would like you to think of the Kilburn Building as your home whilst you are studying in the Department. Make the most of the facilities available as well as the great sense of community (among students and staff) we have in the Department.

Enjoy Welcome Week, I'll hopefully see you around. On with today’s news …

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

PASS1.

The PASS1 team (Danyaal Ahmed (Y3, CS), David Sendula (OnIE, CS), Gundeep Oberoi (OnIE, CSwIE), and Merve Turan (Y3, CS)) write: Hello Year 1 students and welcome to Manchester! We are your PASS1 coordinators. PASS (Peer Assisted Study Sessions) are informal and engaging sessions for you to receive general support and guidance from your peers. PASS sessions are also great to hear about the experiences of former Year 1 students and to meet your fellow peers. There is a PASS1 Welcome and Scavenger Hunt planned for you this Wednesday (18th September) at 3pm in Crawford House TH1. You will get a chance to meet your fellow peers and get a better insight into what to expect in our weekly PASS sessions. Keep an eye on the mail for any other fun future events we might host for you! We really hope to see you there, and please don't hesitate to contact us via our university emails for any concerns or queries!

PASS2.

The PASS2 team (Kavin Gunasekara (Y3, CSwIE) and Vishal Kandasamy Sekar (Y3, CSwIE)) write: Hi Everyone, Welcome back to Uni! We hope you’ve had an entertaining and relaxing summer vacation! There’re loads of exciting events planned for you in PASS2 this year and it’ll kick off on Thursday the 26th (September), at 12pm in the IT Building - IT407. It’ll focus on setting you up for internship hunting this year and what the different modules are all about. Can’t wait to see you there!

WHAT IS MONDAY MAIL FOR?

Monday Mail is a newsletter for UG students in the Department of Computer Science that not only provides you with announcements and information we think you will find interesting (and hopefully useful), but also showcases the amazing things our students do. So, if you’ve been involved in anything that you think your peers will be interested in, from winning a hackathon to presenting your work at a meeting or conference, then just let me (Paul) know if you’d like to publicise it in Monday Mail. As an example, see the following item on student publication success. Also, if there’s anything you’d like to see in Monday Mail beyond the usual items, then please just let me know.

STUDENT PUBLICATION SUCCESS.

Alexandru Buburuzan (Year 3, AIwIE) has had his paper published in the Proceedings of the IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) Workshops. “Lift-Attend-Splat: Bird's-eye-view camera-lidar fusion using transformers” introduces a novel sensor fusion method for 3D object detection in autonomous driving that selects and fuses camera and lidar features using a simple attention mechanism, bypassing monocular depth estimation. As a co-author, his primary contribution centred around understanding why the Transformer is a better candidate for multimodal sensor fusion, making use of model interpretability and explainability techniques. This research constitutes part of Alexandru's placement as a Research Engineer Intern at FiveAI. If you'd like to talk to Alexandru about his placement, or what went into writing a paper, you can contact him by email. Well done on your publication success Alexandru!

AFHEA SUCCESS.

Andrea Schalk (Discipline Head of Education) writes: Student teaching qualification success. As a pilot project we offered the opportunity last year to third year undergraduate students to apply for Associate Fellowship of Advance HE (AFHEA). Advance HE is an organisation for professionals in higher education. Four third year undergraduate students applied for an associate fellowship, and all four were successful: Mihnea Popeanga (CSwIE), Claudiu Craciun (CMwIE), Sambbhav Khare (CS4) and Atif Patel (CSwIE). Well done!

If this is something you would like to pursue, you'll need to be involved in activities such as being a PASS Leader or Coordinator or a Teaching Volunteer since the application is based on creating case studies around personal experience with teaching or supporting learning. If your third year project has a connection with education you should also be able to use your experience with that. Tom Carroll and Andrea Schalk will again provide mentoring for those interested in pursuing this option, and we'll set this up around half way through Semester 2.

UNICS NEWS.

Welcome back everyone! We are UniCS, the Computer Science society at the University of Manchester. We’re excited to bring you a variety of socials, workshops, career advice, competitions, and much more! Here’s an overview of our events this week:

Board Games Night - Wednesday 4PM - 6PM. Location: Kilburn Collab (lower first floor). We will provide board games and snacks. Join us for a few hours of fun and introductions before university kicks off.
UniCS Pub Circle - Friday 6:30PM - 10:30PM. Location: 532 Student's Union Bar. Join us for our Fresher's pub crawl! We will be starting and ending at 532 in the Student's Union Building. The Non-Compulsory Theme for the Night: Circles & Squares - First years are encouraged to dress as Squares: stripes, plaid & chequered patterns, box-ey clothing, and anything that you personally deem square-like - Other years are encouraged to dress as Circles: spot patterns, round hats, round clothing, and anything that you personally deem circle-like.
Society Fresher's Fair Stall - Friday 10AM - 4PM. Location: Manchester Academy 1. A chance to meet the committee and ask us any questions before the year starts! We will also be hosting games and prizes so keep an eye out for our stall for a chance to win something epic...

Further details for our events can be found on our social media pages and for any questions please feel free to reach out to us! See our SU Page to register for a free membership and our contact information. Bring along your friends and housemates of all courses. Come have a great time with us!

SOCIAL AND WORKING SPACES IN KILBURN.

We’d like all our students to consider the Kilburn Building to be their home during their time in Manchester. As such, we have several social and working areas exclusively for the use of CS students. This includes a variety of computer clusters: G23 on the ground floor, Tootill 0, Tootill 1, and LF31 on the lower first floor, and 1.8/1.10 on the first floor (please note that timetables activities also take place in these labs so they may not be available at all times) and collaborative workspaces: G41 on the ground floor, and Collab 1 and 2 on the lower first floor (again used for teaching). LF1.8 on lower first (glass fronted lab) offers a small number of computers and four group working areas, and this is not used for any timetabled activities. In terms of social areas, you have the lower first floor, where there’s comfy seating, bean bags, high tables with power supplies and private working booths, plus group seating on the upper level behind lecture theatre 1.1. You can also make use of the Turing lounge on the first floor where there’s a pool table (new cues have been ordered), table football table, and a table tennis table. Please make use of these facilities as they have been introduced for your benefit.

STUDENT WELLBEING SUPPORT IN CS.

Issues can impact students at any time, usually when you least expect it. If you are affected by any issues, and if they start to impact your studies, then it’s vitally important that you speak to someone and get the help and support you need. You can also speak to the relevant year tutor, however, you can speak to a member of our Student Support and Wellbeing Team, Maria Sloan and Ben Herbert, or drop into the student hub in the Nancy Rothwell Building (1st floor) and ask to speak to someone, in confidence, about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. Maria and Ben are also the Disability Coordinators for CS, so you can speak to them if you have any ongoing physical or mental health problems, or conditions such as ASD or ADHD, that affect your studies, even if you are not already registered with the DASS Team at the University. If you are registered with DASS and there are problems with your DASS plan you can speak with them about this too. You can contact Maria and Ben at soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk: general queries; advice on University policies and services.
soe.programmes@manchester.ac.uk: student record queries; registration advice and guidance; timetable queries/clashes; ATAS/Visa advice; extension to study period; project topics, allocation and supervisors; change of programme; return to study; professional accreditation
soe.studentexperience@manchester.ac.uk: student societies support; SSLC/student rep support; employability; graduation; PASS; academic advising; communications; summer internship programme; surveys (course unit and NSS).
soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk: mitigating circumstances; interruptions; disability coordinator support; general wellbeing support (appointments and helping you access the support you need).
soe.attendance@manchester.ac.uk: attendance and engagement monitoring.
soe.courseunits@manchester.ac.uk: course unit selection.
soe.placements@manchester.ac.uk: placement support and coordination.
soe.assessment@manchester.ac.uk: publication of results, exam queries, assessment queries (including DASS), progression and award queries.
soe.appealsandconduct@manchester.ac.uk: academic appeals; malpractice and student complaints.

If you are unsure which email to use then use soe.hub@manchester.ac.uk for general queries.

WELFARE WEEKLY WITH BEN - WELCOME TO STUDENT SUPPORT AND WELLBEING.

This from Ben Herbert, Student Support and Wellbeing: Welcome to Welfare Weekly, a regular (probably not actually weekly) item in Monday Mail covering various topics and top tips to support your wellbeing while at University. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce the Student Support and Wellbeing team (SSW) at the School of Engineering. You can find us every weekday from 9am (10am on Wednesdays) to 5pm in the Student Support Hub on the first floor of the Nancy Rothwell Building, or by emailing us on soe.wellbeing@manchester.ac.uk.

The student support webpage provides links to detailed help and support in the University. The Support and Wellbeing team can assist you with any queries or concerns you may have about your wellbeing, personal, or study struggles. We can answer any questions you have relating to mitigation of assessments and point you in the right direction for getting help from DASS or the Counselling and Mental Health Service etc.

The Student Support Hub acts as your one stop shop to access information and support for personal as well as academic and (almost) all university related issues, so do stop by. For academic queries we also recommend speaking to your academic advisor or year tutor. Our hope is that you won't need to use the support and wellbeing team. For the majority, everything will go smoothly for you and you will leave with a degree you are happy with. But don't forget we are here if you need us.

Before I go, let me link you to some useful podcasts about settling into University life, hosted by University of Manchester students, for you to listen to on your down time.

UoM Students Maansi, Khadijat and host Georgia, discuss the things you need to think about before coming to university. How easy is it to make friends? What is the step-up like? What's it like coming from abroad?
Freshers week - arguably the most anticipated week of university life. In this episode, UoM students Jodie and Jacob bust some myths about what can be an exciting yet daunting week. They chat about clubbing, flat parties, freshers fairs and the first few days of university.

KEEPING SAFE ON CAMPUS.

Manchester, like any other large city, can have issues with crime, hence it’s important you keep safe when on campus and travelling to/from the campus. Keep in mind the following:

Stay alert: Keep your belongings safe and out of view when travelling to or from campus and whilst you’re on it. Avoid wearing noise cancelling headphones so you know what’s going on around you, and stick to well-lit roads and pavements as you travel around the city, avoiding underpasses where possible. Keep your phone out of sight!
Download SafeZone: Our mobile app SafeZone can be used to quickly connect you with Campus Support and Security team if you feel unsafe, need immediate help or require first aid or wellbeing assistance. The app is free to download, easy to use, and operates across the Manchester campuses. You can find out more about SafeZone here.
Report unacceptable behaviour: Manchester has a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment, discrimination, gender-based violence, hate or micro-aggressions. If you have witnessed any forms of this behaviour, or have a safeguarding concern, you can report it anonymously or get support from a trained advisor. Find out more about Report + Support.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

In the Department we have Year Tutors who are responsible for looking after the different cohorts in each year group. Please note that there is one Year Tutor for all those students, across all years on the Computer Science and Mathematics degree programmes (what we call CM). The Year Tutors are here to provide you with help and support if you need it, so feel free to contact your Year Tutor by email at any time. Year Tutors also run a weekly open hour (starting from Week 1 of teaching - next week) where you can pop along for a chat:

Year 1 (not CM): Terry Morley. Open hour: Monday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.7.
Year 2 (not CM): Aphrodite Galata. Open hour: TBC, Kilburn 2.101.
Industrial Experience Year: Duncan Hull. Open hour: TBC, Kilburn LF25.
Year 3 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Open hour: Tuesday 13:00 - 14:00, Kilburn 2.82.
Year 4: Tim Morris. Open hour: Tuesday 11:00 - 12:00, Kilburn 2.107.
CM (all years): Joe Razavi. Open hour: Monday 13:30 - 14:30, Kilburn 2.75.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. Open hour: Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, find me on the lower first floor of Kilburn.

CS UG COMMUNITY BLACKBOARD PAGE.

UG PROGRAMME HANDBOOK.

WELCOME WEEK ACTIVITIES.

There are a number of activities scheduled for Welcome Week. You can find out more in the CS UG Community Blackboard space in the corresponding year folder (Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4). There are welcome talks scheduled as follows:

Year 1: Monday 16th September, 3 - 5pm, Roscoe Building, Lecture Theatre A (building 53 on the interactive campus map), Thursday 19th September, 2 - 4pm, Roscoe Lecture Theatre A (building 53 on the interactive campus map).
Year 2: Monday 16th September 2 - 4pm, Simon Building, Lecture Theatre B (building 59 on the campus map)
Year 3: Monday 16th September, 12 - 2pm, Kilburn Building, Lecture Theatre 1.1, (building 39 on the campus map)
Year 4: Thursday 19th September, 10 - 12pm, Engineering Building B, Room B_2B.025 M&T (building 25 on the campus map)

First year students will be allocated a tutor (academic advisor) who you will get to meet in the “Meet Your Tutor” lunch on Wednesday 18th September from 12 - 2pm (you will be allocated a one hour slot) which will take place somewhere in the Kilburn/IT Buildings - your personal timetable will tell you where to go. There will be other activities scheduled throughout the week, for example 1st year Introduction Labs and COMP10120 Workshops, and some activities arranged specifically for students on the CM degree programme, so please check your personal timetable to find out which activities you are scheduled to attend.

NEW STUDENT ATTENDANCE SYSTEM - SEAtS.

The University has introduced a new student attendance system called SEAtS to help us actively support student engagement. Attendance information will be used to help identify students who may be struggling academically or personally, so we’re able to quickly and effectively offer any support you may need. It will be used to replace existing visa check-in processes. As a student, logging in to SEAtS for the first time is a straightforward process that involves a few simple steps. Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Download the SEAtS App: It's available on both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, so whether you're using an iPhone or an Android device, you can easily access it. Simply search for "SEAtS 2024" in your app store, download, and install the app. If you do not have access to a working smart phone, or do not want to install the app, there's also a web interface you'll be able to use.
Step 2: Log in using your University Email: You will only be able to log onto SEAtS once you have completed registration and signed up for your University IT account. Once the app is installed, open it and log in using your University email address and password. It's important to note that you must use your official University email for this initial login. This ensures that your account is correctly linked to your student profile and schedule.
Step 3: Logging your attendance: In lectures you should record your attendance using the QR code or pin provided by the lecturer - this will only work for the hour of the lecture. In some activities, such as small group teaching, attendance will be logged via an academic using a digital register.

COMPUTERS IN KILBURN.

Just a reminder that the computers in the teaching clusters in Kilburn need to be left switched on after use so that any software updates can be applied overnight. Please remember to just log out when you have finished using them, there’s no need to shut the computer down. Please do not just switch them off from the power button or socket! Don’t worry, the machines do go into standby mode to save the planet (to some degree!).

NEW LINUX HOME DIRECTORIES.

This from Chris Page: A significant change to student file storage has happened over the summer. From September 2024 onward, the primary Linux filestore for students has been changed to be their University of Manchester P: drive. This means that files you write to your home directory under Linux will also be visible when you log in under Windows, and vice versa. This move also includes expanding your P: drive storage to 10GB. Returning students can find their old Computer Science Linux home directory under /cshome/. When logging into the Linux desktop you will be shown a popup window that shows the location of your old Computer Science Linux home directory. Please note that none of the files in your Computer Science Linux home directory have been moved to your new P-drive based home directory. This means that any ssh keys you may have previously set up will no longer be in the location ssh expects. You can generate a new ssh key to use with GitLab as described on the Department wiki. Alternatively, you can copy the .ssh directory from your old Computer Science Linux home directory into your new P: drive based home directory, and then run the script fixsshperms from the command line to fix the permissions on the files.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT IN CS.

IT Services provide support for centrally provided systems: if you have problems with Office 365 including email, Blackboard, Duo, Wifi, printing, or using your University of Manchester account to log into Windows or Linux you will need to contact the IT Services helpdesk either via the in-person desk on the ground floor of Kilburn building, the support portal, or by calling 0161 306 5544. FSE Technical Services provide support for the Department of Computer Science GitLab service, the Web Dashboard, MySQL and MongoDB services, and can help with issues related to software used as part of your courses and submitting work with git. This can include general git problems, issues with access to git projects, submissions not appearing in SPOT, and problems with software on the cluster machines. They can be contacted by emailing support@cs.manchester.ac.uk. Please note that in general FSE Technical Services can not provide technical support for installing software on personal devices.

STUDENTS’ UNION FRESHERS FAIR.

The Students’ Union will hold their Freshers Fair on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th September in Manchester Academy (building 78). You can find directions here. The 2024 Freshers Fairs are your chance to make the most out of Freshers! There'll be loads of fun activities and freebies, and you can also find out about the best student deals you can take advantage of during your time in Manchester. From 10am – 10.30am, each fair will host a Quiet half hour. These periods are there so people with sensory or mobility needs can feel confident in their ability to attend the fair in a safe and comfortable way. You can find out more information from the Students’ Union website.

STUDENTS’ UNION SOCIETIES FAIR.

The Students’ Union Societies fairs will take place on 18th, 19th and 20th September in Manchester Academy (building 78). You can find directions here. Whether you want to start a new sport, meet new friends, pick up an old hobby, or just see what we have on offer - this is the perfect place to do it! We have over 100 societies, sport clubs, student volunteering projects, and commercial stalls waiting for you on the day. There'll be loads of fun activities and freebies, and you can also find out about the best student deals you can take advantage of during your time in Manchester. There will be different types of societies on each day of the fair:

Wednesday 18th: Recreation, Sport, Volunteering and Fundraising groups
Thursday 19th: Culture, Faith, Arts and Media groups
Friday 20th: Academic, Medical, Campaigning and Political groups.

If you'd like to speak to a specific group, you can check which day they will be on and where they will be located at the fair in our Stall Allocation. From 10am on each day, there will be a Quiet hour, where people with sensory or mobility needs can feel confident in their ability to attend the fair in a safe and comfortable way. You can find out more information from the Students’ Union website.

ACADEMIC REPRESENTATIVE RECRUITMENT.

TEACHING VOLUNTEER CALL.

UKIEPC PROGRAMMING CONTEST.

This from Ian Pratt-Hartmann: The UK and Ireland Programming Contest (UKIEPC) will take place this year on Saturday, October 19th, 2024, 11:00 - 16:00. UKIEPC is an annual event in which teams of three participants try to crack a series of programming challenges. This year, as usual, Manchester will be one of the participating sites. Note that participation at Manchester is be available ONLY to teams consisting entirely of undergraduate or taught postgraduate students in the Department of Computer Science at Manchester (this, however, includes students on joint honours programmes such as Computing and Mathematics). The contest itself will take place in the labs on the Lower First Floor of the Kilburn Building. Refreshments will be provided in the common area on the Lower First Floor for participants. (Obviously, no food and drink will be permitted in the labs.) Details can be found on the UKIEPC website. You will need to register using the Competition website. (There is a "Take Part" button in the top right corner, which is surprisingly easy to miss.) Registration is now open: you may find that Manchester University is not yet listed as an available site: don't worry, it should appear in the list within a few days. Completing the form should be easy, but you are advised to assemble your team first and then sort out all the registrations. We will limit participation to the first twenty completely registered teams of three.

GETTING A JOB AS AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT.

Are you new to the UK? Come along to this session where we will run through the things you need to know to secure employment in the UK.

Date: Monday 16th September, 1pm – 2pm. **TODAY**
Location: Online via Zoom or on Campus. The Atrium, University Place – Building 37 on Campus Map.

To register and for more information, visit CareerConnect.

KILBURN BUILDING WORKS.

The loading bay entrance to the Kilburn Building (opposite University Place) is currently being refurbished, so there is no currently no access to the Kilburn Building from this entrance. Access (including outside normal working hours) is via the main entrance opposite Crawford house (on the opposite side of the building).

LIBRARY SUPPORT FOR THE START OF YEAR.

The Library is here to support you throughout your time at University. We provide:

Resources: We offer access to a wide range of books, journals, and databases;
Training: We offer training workshops to help students build the personal and academic skills they need to succeed in their studies and research;
Study Spaces: we have eight Library sites, offering over 3000 study spaces;
Support: Our Library staff are always available to answer questions.

If you need introductory information to help use the Library, or if you want to find out about tours and events, please go to the Library’s Get Started webpage. You can also drop-in at any of our Library sites and chat to our friendly staff about how the Library can support your studies.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 12:00 (noon) every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome to Puzzle Corner, a range of puzzles, challenges and brain teasers set by our resident puzzle master Gareth Henshall. Every week Gareth will set you the challenge of solving a range of puzzles, so get ready to challenge your mind and explore the world with this week’s trio of brain teasers! Whether you’re a sudoku whiz, a chess strategist, or a globe-trotting explorer, Puzzle Corner has something for everyone. Clear your schedule, grab a cup of coffee, and let the fun begin!

Sudoku Challenge - ISD 9/9/2024 by Grant McLean.

Put your logical thinking to the test! Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits on a thermometer must increase from the bulb end. Digits in cages must not repeat and must sum to the value given. Orthogonally connected cells must not contain consecutive digits. Can you solve it?

Chess Puzzle - Cardoso Vs. Kulpruethanon, 2024

It’s time to sharpen your chess skills! Can you find the winning moves and secure victory on the board? Analyse the position carefully and claim checkmate!

GeoGuessr Round

This week, we’ve dropped you somewhere on Earth! Analyse the scenery, take in the landmarks, and piece together clues to figure out your exact location. Will you discover the hidden destination? We are playing the 'World' map: Embark on a journey that takes you all over the world. From the most desolate roads in Australia to the busy, bustling streets of New York City.

Click here to play this week’s challenge!

How to Submit

Winners’ Circle

Each week we will post the name of the 1st correct solution for the Sudoku & Chess puzzles and the person who tops the Geoguessr Leaderboard.

Good luck and happy puzzling!