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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Exams Week 3 • Monday 6 June 2022 • #21.31

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 6th June 2022 and we are in the last week of the semester 2 exams. I hope your exams are going well, not long now until they are all over and you can celebrate! The end of this week also marks the end of the 2021/22 academic year, which for me seems to have flown by. Congratulations on making it through the year and for all the hard work you’ve put in since September, well done!

If you are leaving us this year, then I’d like to wish you the very best with what comes next, whether you are pursuing further study or you are taking that first step onto the employment ladder. Hopefully we will see you at the graduation ceremony in July. If you are going on placement, then make the most of the opportunity, we look forward to seeing you back in September 2023. If you are returning in September, then have a good summer and make the most of the break.

Don't forget that voting for next year's student reps closes today, so please get voting! Monday Mail will return for Welcome Week in September. I hope this week goes well, on with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

HARM REDUCTION CAMPAIGN.

We’re giving one current University of Manchester student £200 of Ticketmaster vouchers to supercharge your summer at a festival of your choice!! To enter:

Read through the new harm reduction section of Student News. It’s full of useful tips for those that will be celebrating this summer.
Complete a 5-minute quiz on what you’ve read. The link is at the bottom of the articles.
We’ll contact the winner on Wednesday 8 June 2022 (this Wednesday).

The competition is part of our first harm reduction campaign which we have developed in consultation with current students and our Students’ Union. Read more about why we think this campaign is in the best interest of student safety on Student News.

YEAR TUTORS.

As we are now in the exam period, the year tutors will no longer be running open hours. However, they are still available to help and support you if you need it, so feel free to contact your year tutor by email:

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk
UG Director: Paul Nutter

The UG team would like to wish you a good summer, we look forward to seeing you again in September.

STUDENT REP VOTING.

Vote for your student reps for next academic year! The student reps represent the students on your course in meetings with staff where you talk about feedback from students – what's going well & what needs to be improved. Cast your vote for who you think should represent your course and year group in the next academic year! To vote, go here. Student Rep voting is open until Monday 6th June - that’s today!

RESULTS FOR PROGRESSING STUDENTS:

The Faculty Exam Board (FEB) for progressing students will be held on 8th July 2022. After the FEB, marks will be released from the 12th July 2022 (depending on the department). From this, you will be able to see if you are likely to have any resits.

RESULTS FOR GRADUATING STUDENTS:

The Faculty Exam Board (FEB) for graduating will be held on 1st July 2022. Results and awards for graduating students will be released from 5th July 2022 (depend on the Department). Upon release of your results you will be able to access a certified transcript online through the digitary service.

RESITS:

For 1st and 2nd year students, the resit period will run from 22nd August – 2nd September 2022. Your student record will note if you are required to take any resit assessments. You will already know if you have resits from semester 1 if you have a coursework mark less than 30%. For any semester 1 course units with marks in the compensation zone (30 - 39%), you will not know if you have to resit these until the final (including semester 2) results are released. You can find further information on the progression rules in the undergraduate handbook. The resit timetable will be published by 16th August 2022. Information regarding the resit process for individual course units will be published in the CS UG Community Blackboard page. Resit results will be communicated to students from 16th September 2022.

SUMMER GRADUATION.

The Computer Science July 2022 Graduation Ceremony will be held on Thursday 21st of July at 2pm. Registration for the ceremonies is open for those eligible to graduate. The graduation team will email you to let you know when the booking system in My Manchester is open. Keep an eye on their website for updates.

COMPUTER CLUSTERS DURING THE EXAM PERIOD.

Please be aware that the certain computer clusters will be locked and unavailable for students to use outside of exam use during the upcoming exams. Please make alternative arrangements if you wish to use campus computers during the exam period. FSE Computer Clusters that will be locked outside of exam use include:

Engineering Building Cluster 1
Engineering Building Cluster 2
Engineering Building Cluster 3
Engineering Building Cluster 4 & 5
Kilburn 1.8/1.10
Alan Turing G.105

Any FSE computer cluster not on the above list will remain available as normal.

3RD YEAR PROJECT SELECTIONS ROUND 2.

The second round of allocations is open and the deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 10 June 2022 (this Friday). You may enter the second round for the following reasons:

You didn’t make any choices in round 1
You weren’t allocated anything in round 1
You really don’t like the project you’ve been allocated in round 1 and want to try for another one (in this case email us and we’ll deallocate you)

The list of remaining projects can be found here.

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR EXAMS.

To help you prepare for your Semester 2 exams which run from Monday, 23 May to Friday, 10 June, we’ve compiled a list of useful information; it’s important that you read this before the exam period gets underway. We wish you the best of luck!

DIGITAL TRUST AND SECURITY SEMINAR SERIES:

Public Money, Monetary Privacy: Preserving Civil Liberties in the Era of Digital Currency. Speaker: Professor Rohan Grey (Williamette University) Date and Time: Wednesday 8th June 2022, 1600 - 17:00 (UK, BST). Online event. Professor Grey is the research director of the Digital Fiat Currency Institute, a consultant to the UN International Telecommunications Union’s Focus Group on Digital Currency, and a network manager with the FreedomBox Foundation, which develops privacy and freedom-respecting software for personal use. He is also the president of the Modern Money Network, a research fellow with the Global Institute of Sustainable Prosperity, a director of the National Jobs for All Network. To book your place, please visit the event page.

CENTRE FOR DIGITAL TRUST AND SOCIETY.

Anniversary Forum. Date: 6th July, 09:30 - 17:00, Manchester Hyatt Regency Hotel. The Centre for Digital Trust and Society was launched in 2021 to focus interdisciplinary research expertise at the University of Manchester on the barriers and enablers of trust in digital technologies. It has 6 research clusters including Workplace and Organisational Security, and Trusted Digital Systems. The Forum brings together interdisciplinary researchers and partners from the public sector, industry to shape the Centre's future of activity and research. Researchers with interests in trust, privacy and security issues in the digital space are welcome to join for an engaging day of talks, including panels on:

Digital inclusion and identity
Future data, future tech
Cybersecurity in the workplace

To book your place, please visit the event page.

KILBURN WINDOW DESIGN COMPETITION.

a pdf with a sketch of your design idea
a short (approx 400 words) description of your idea, its relationship to CS and to Manchester/the department, and an explanation of why this is a great idea.

Deadline for submissions is Monday, June 13th, 2022. A panel (incl design specialists and CS staff) will assess the ideas submitted. The winning idea will be turned into a professionally designed window design, implemented over the next academic year, with an explanation on the ground floor outside Kilburn Building. The window dimensions are as follows: left and right panels are 1220mm (w) x 2170mm (h) each; centre panel is 1330mm (w) x 2170mm (h).

Exams Week 2 • Monday 30 May 2022 • #21.30

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 30th May 2022 and we are into the second week of the semester 2 exam period. I hope your exams are going well. It’s the Jubilee bank holiday this week, so Thursday and Friday are national holidays (and hence no exams) to celebrate the Queen’s 70th year as monarch. Voting for your student representatives is now open (see below) so please make sure you vote!

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COUNSELLING AND MENTAL HEALTH SUMMER DROP-IN PROGRAMME.

The Counselling & Mental Health Service teams are organising a range of different workshops and drop-ins over the summer break (June to September). All sessions will take place in Room 1.63, Large Group Room / Wellbeing Rooms, Simon Building, Brunswick Street. See what workshops are available and sign up here.

YEAR TUTORS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk
UG Director: Paul Nutter

PASS2 RECRUITMENT.

This from Ingy Abdelhalim and Nadine Abdelhalim: Good morning, everyone! Hope your exams go well these upcoming weeks. As next year’s PASS2 coordinators we are very happy to announce that pass 2 recruitment for next year is now open (Deadline 10th June 2022) . For current year 2 students and those on currently on placement if you would be interested in being a part of the PASS 2 scheme next academic year (2022-2023) please apply through the link. What is PASS2: PASS2 is a mentorship scheme in which year 3 students give advice to and support year 2 students in weekly 30min-1hr sessions. Whether it’s by giving them course unit advice or helping them prepare for interviews or everything in between. As a member of the PASS2 team you would get first hand leadership experience working with a large and very diverse cohort. As part of the PASS2 team you would organise pass sessions such as: “common interview questions and how to prepare for them” or “how to find an internship or placement” or even “fun things to do in Manchester to take a break and rest in between deadlines”. You would be working as part of a diverse group of year 3 students, some who have been on placement some who haven’t, with a diverse range of interests. You would have the ability to help 2nd year students avoid mistakes you wish you knew or learn tricks that helped you through your second year, and it also counts towards your Stellify award. So, if this sounds like a role you would be interested in taking on please apply through the link, and if you have any questions as always don’t hesitate to contact us (Nadine and Ingy).

STUDY SPACES.

There are a number of study spaces around the campus that students can use during the exam period, more details can be found here. In particular, Prospects House, next to the IT Building, is now available as a study space, see here.

COMPUTER CLUSTERS DURING THE EXAM PERIOD.

Engineering Building Cluster 1
Engineering Building Cluster 2
Engineering Building Cluster 3
Engineering Building Cluster 4 & 5
Kilburn 1.8/1.10
Alan Turing G.105

Any FSE computer cluster not on the above list will remain available as normal.

MUDSS X PEAK 2022 DATATHON.

MUDSS recently ran their final datathon event of the year with Peak HQ - the MUDSS X Peak 2022 Datathon. Here's a look at what they got up to: "It was a fun and challenging day, filled with energy and excitement and we are pleased with the amount of positive feedback we have received . Congratulations to Team Veggies for winning the challenge and earning themselves MUDSS X Peak hoodies. We looking forward to hosting many more events with Peak, so keep your eyes peeled... "

STUDENT REP VOTING.

EXTENDED OPENING HOURS IN ENGINEERING BUILDING A.

"We enjoy working in the building and would like to stay longer." Now you can. The home of Engineering and Materials is now open 07:00 to 19:00, Monday to Friday. You'll be able to access the building until 22:00. That's 3 hours of exclusive, Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) student and staff only access every evening. You'll need your student card to swipe to get in at the Booth Street Entrance (next to Aquatics centre). We're opening from 08:00 to 22:00 and this is for FSE students and staff only. You need your swipe card to access at the weekend too. Any issues can be reported to security on 0161 306 9966.

PASS SUCCESS.

Congratulations to our PASS2 Coordinators and Leaders, the PASS 2 team won the Innovator of the Year award and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Year 3, SEwIE) won the award for Peer Support Outstanding Contribution. I’m sure you will all agree that PASS 2 has been a huge success this year, well done to all involved. Also, congratulations to Stacey Kendall who won the Excellent Support Staff award for her help in supporting PASS in Computer Science.

3RD YEAR PROJECT SELECTIONS ROUND 2.

The second round of allocations is open and the deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 10 June 2022. You may enter the second round for the following reasons:

You didn’t make any choices in round 1
You weren’t allocated anything in round 1
You really don’t like the project you’ve been allocated in round 1 and want to try for another one (in this case email us and we’ll deallocate you)

The list of remaining projects can be found here.

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR EXAMS.

KILBURN WINDOW DESIGN COMPETITION.

a pdf with a sketch of your design idea
a short (approx 400 words) description of your idea, its relationship to CS and to Manchester/the department, and an explanation of why this is a great idea.

LGBT+ TRAVEL FOCUS GROUPS.

In collaboration with The Proud Trust, The Faculty of Science and Engineering wants to hear from LGBTQ+ students who have had, or are going to have, personal experiences of any of the following:

National or international travel as part of their course/time at university, including placements in industry, summer internships, society trips, volunteering opportunities
Travel to conferences, for example, as part of academic research/a PhD

We are running a series of focus groups to find out more about how we could better support/accommodate our LGBTQ+ students when they travel as part of their studies. We want to make sure that every student feels safe and comfortable when they travel. The focus groups are an opportunity for students to share personal experiences, provide feedback and suggest changes they would like to see in provision for LGBTQ+ students when they travel. Refreshments will be provided, and you will also receive a £25.00 Love2Shop Voucher for your participation. Sign up here. If you have any questions about the focus groups, please contact charlotte-taylor-2@manchester.ac.uk.

Exams Week 1 • Monday 23 May 2022 • #21.29

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 23rd May 2022, and the semester 2 teaching period has now finished. This week is the first week of the exam period, which runs for the next three weeks. If you have any issues during the exam period, then you can contact SSO or your year tutor (see below). Remember that help is available if you need it. Best of luck in your exams, I hope they go well!

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Health Assured Helpline. 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. Find out more here.

SSO PHONE LINE.

The Student Support Office are having some issues with our new phone line (0161 549 1288) so you may not have been able to get through to us if you have been trying to call us. If your call is missed please ensure that you drop us an email or visit the Student Support Hub on the first floor of Engineering Building A so that we can help you with your query.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Student Union Advice Centre. The Students’ Union can offer advice and support with any wellbeing problems you’re facing in a safe and confidential space away from the University. What can they do?

Give free, impartial and confidential advice or simply offer a place to talk.
Provide free contraception and sexual health tests
Help you report a hate crime, and give you advice and support if you have been the victim of a hate crime.
Provide confidential advice and support if you have been a victim of sexual assault.
Help you understand University procedures around bullying, harassment and discrimination.

You can find more information on their website. Remember you can always contact the Student Support Office in Computer Science for any advice or help at any time.

YEAR TUTORS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk
UG Director: Paul Nutter

PASS2 RECRUITMENT.

UNICS NEWS.

Elections: The nominations are closed and voting is now open for the UniCS Committee Elections. It’s time for you to vote for your pick for next year’s committee members. Please help us to create this new team! Follow the links below to submit your choices.

Form Link: https://unicsmcr.com/elections
Manifestos: https://unicsmcr.com/manifestos

Voting closes on the 27th of May, so you will have until then to cast your vote. Good Luck with your exams!! Thank you for coming to the first ball after a long time!! Everyone looked amazing….We hope you enjoyed the evening. Here are a few remembrances of the evening.

NOMINATE YOURSELF TO BECOME A STUDENT REP.

Gather feedback – work with staff – make a positive change! As a student rep, you represent the students on your degree programme in meetings with staff where you talk about feedback from students – what's going well & what needs to be improved. From this feedback, you work with staff to develop a positive student experience. You can also work with our campaigns team to address bigger issues on your course through projects within the SU. To nominate yourself, go to the Students’ Union website where you will see the roles you’re eligible for. We use this system to make sure the reps are selected fairly. Depending on how many nominations are received, we may hold an election to allow you to decide who should be your rep or we may appoint all those students who nominated themselves. The deadline is 5PM 19th May.

EXAM BREAKFASTS ARE BACK!

To help you get through the exam period and reward you for your hard work, we're providing breakfast snacks and drinks on the ground floor of Engineering Building A every morning during the exam period. See you there!

CRACKCHESTER NEWS.

This from the Crackchester team: We firstly wanted to wish you all the best of luck for your upcoming exams! We know that you'll smash it! We've got a couple of things for you to get up to this week when you're taking a break from your revision ;)

2022 Elections: Voting for the next Crackchester Committee is now open! Be sure to cast your vote before the 29th May. The vote will close at 5pm sharp. This is your chance to help shape our society and it's committee so be sure to vote! Click this link below to find out more! If you have any questions regarding the elections feel free to ask on our discord! That's all from us this week, be sure to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with the latest Crackchester news!

SEMESTER TWO EXAMS:

Please don’t forget to check your exam timetable via My Manchester and make sure you know when and where your exams are taking place. If there are any issues then please contact SSO.

COMPUTER CLUSTERS DURING THE EXAM PERIOD.

Engineering Building Cluster 1
Engineering Building Cluster 2
Engineering Building Cluster 3
Engineering Building Cluster 4 & 5
Kilburn 1.8/1.10
Alan Turing G.105

Any FSE computer cluster not on the above list will remain available as normal.

ONLINE EXAMS AND 2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

Online exams taking place on campus in PC clusters will generally not require you to use Duo to log in to Blackboard for exams taking place between 23 May and 10 June 2022. Duo will still be required outside of these locations, and to access Microsoft 365 services including your University email. See here for more information.

3RD YEAR PROJECT SELECTIONS ROUND 2.

The second round of allocations is open and the deadline for applications is 5pm on Friday 10 June 2022. You may enter the second round for the following reasons:

You didn’t make any choices in round 1
You weren’t allocated anything in round 1
You really don’t like the project you’ve been allocated in round 1 and want to try for another one (in this case email us and we’ll deallocate you)

The list of remaining projects can be found here.

USEFUL INFORMATION FOR EXAMS.

KILBURN WINDOW DESIGN COMPETITION.

a pdf with a sketch of your design idea
a short (approx 400 words) description of your idea, its relationship to CS and to Manchester/the department, and an explanation of why this is a great idea.

JOULE LIBRARY CLOSURE.

As a consequence of the upcoming closure of the Sackville Street Building the Joule Library will close on Friday, 10 June at 5pm. In terms of books, access will only be restricted whilst our collections are on the move. Most items will relocate to the Main Library and there are no plans to dispose of any material at this stage. All books should be either on the open shelves or requestable via store by the start of the new academic year in September 2022. Items on loan from the Joule Library can be returned to the Main Library after the planned Joule closure date. Thank you for your patience as we work to minimise the amount of disruption and try to get the books you need to you as quickly as possible. Further information can be found via Student News.

Week 12 • Monday 16 May 2022 • #21.28

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 16th May 2022, it’s Week 12, and it’s the last week of teaching, The exams start next week, so please make sure you know when and where your exams are taking place. The past semester of teaching has flown by and it's hard to imagine that we are nearing the end of the academic year. If you have any outstanding coursework to complete then please make sure you do so before the end of the week (unless the deadline is later). I hope you all had fun at the May Ball last week, I look forward to seeing some photos!

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Togetherall. Togetherall is a 24/7 anonymous online mental health and wellbeing resource for students, staff and researchers. You can access the service by going to www.togetherall.com and signing up with your UoM email address. Whether you’re struggling to sleep, feeling low or finding it hard to cope, or just want to the chance to think more deeply about your wellbeing, Togetherall can help you to explore your feelings and think things through. You will have access to a 24/7 online community, monitored by trained clinicians. Togetherall is a safe space online to get things off your chest, have conversations, get creative and learn how to manage your mental health and wellbeing. It is totally anonymous and confidential, so no one will know you’re using it unless you tell them! Find out more here.

THE STUDENT HUB IS MOVING.

The student hub located in Engineering Building A (ground floor) now has a new home and is gearing up to welcome Faculty of Science and Engineering students. Staff will be on hand in the hubs to answer any queries and support needs you have, whether it’s about your studies or any personal issues. Just drop in to which ever hub is convenient for you:

The First Floor, Engineering Building A (MECD) – Now open! (9am to 5pm)
The Ground Floor Foyer, Alan Turing Building – Opens on Monday, 16 May 2022 (9am to 5pm)

We look forward to providing you with in-person support whilst we also develop our digital services to give you the best support possible during your studies!

EXAM SUPPORT.

We know that the exam season can be a very stressful time, and if you are feeling the pressure, please remember that there are lots of ways that you can access support. There are many events and activities that you can get involved with to take a break from your revision and de-stress. The exam website is your one-stop shop for all things exam related, whether that be for revision tips, how to view your exam timetable or how to access support for your wellbeing.

CALM YOUR BRAIN.

Throughout the exam season, calm your brain sessions delivered by the Counselling and Mental Health Service will be running between 9.15am-9.45am. If you find yourself struggling to stay calm, these sessions involve a guided relaxation and are a great way to help start your day with a sense of calm and acceptance, helping you to feel more able to tackle any challenges that come your way, whether that be a difficult exam or a day revising in the library. You can book onto these as well as many other workshops here.

MY LEARNING ESSENTIALS.

The library is here to support you during the assessment and exam period through their award winning My Learning Essentials programme. Throughout May and June, you can access a range of workshops and support resources that offer practical academic support. Whether you’re struggling with procrastination, exam stress or how to revise, there is something there for you! The library will also be running drop-in sessions where you can book to speak to someone from the My Learning Essentials or library team.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

The year tutors are here to support you if you need any help and advice, so feel free to contact your year tutor by email. They also run a weekly open hour where you can pop in (in-person or virtually) for a chat:

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (19th May) we’ll run the FINAL drop-in session so feel free to ask us anything! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there!

NOMINATE YOURSELF TO BECOME A STUDENT REP.

Gather feedback – work with staff – make a positive change! As a student rep, you represent the students on your course in meetings with staff where you talk about feedback from students – what's going well & what needs to be improved. From this feedback, you work with staff to develop a positive student experience. You can also work with our campaigns team to address bigger issues on your course through projects within the SU. To nominate yourself, go to manchesterstudentsunion.com/elections where you will see the roles you’re eligible for. We use this system to make sure the reps are selected fairly; and although there may be an election to decide the reps, we may simply take all students who nominate themselves. The deadline for nominations is 5pm 19th May.

UNICS NEWS.

Extended deadline! The Committee application has been extended one last time! If you're interested in nominating for a UniCS Committee, this is your last week and, ultimately last chance to nominate yourself! Be sure to submit your application to this form. NOW DUE FRIDAY 20TH MAY 2022.

CRACKCHESTER NEWS.

Hi everyone! We firstly wanted to wish you all the best of luck for your upcoming exams! We know that you'll smash it! We've got a couple of things for you to get up to this week when you're taking a break from your revision ;)

CRACKCHESTER ELECTIONS.

It's that time of the year folks! Nominations for next year's Crackchester committee is now open! If you want to be a bigger part of the Crackchester community this is your chance! Nominations will close on the 22nd May so be sure to submit before then. The vote will then be held from the 23rd to the 29th. Good luck! Click this link to find out more!

SEMESTER TWO EXAMS:

Please don’t forget to check your exam timetable via My Manchester and make sure you know when and where your exams are taking place. If there are any issues then please contact SSO.

COMPUTER CLUSTERS DURING THE EXAM PERIOD.

Please be aware that some computer clusters will be locked and unavailable for students during the exam period. Please make alternative arrangements if you wish to use campus computers at this time. FSE Computer Clusters that will be unavailable outside of exam use:

Engineering Building Cluster 1
Engineering Building Cluster 2
Engineering Building Cluster 3
Engineering Building Cluster 4 & 5
Kilburn 1.8/1.10 Megalab
Alan Turing G.105

Any FSE computer cluster not on the above list will remain available as normal.

ONLINE EXAMS AND 2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

GAMES EVENT.

It’s important to still try and find time to do the things that you enjoy during the revision and assessment period, and reward yourself by having fun when you’ve ticked something off that assessment to-do list! The Student Wellbeing Champions are running a games event on Monday (today) 16th May between 3pm-4pm to help you to de-stress, make new friends and take a breath before the exam period begins. You can book onto this here. If you’re interested in attending more events like this, be sure to regularly check out the Wellbeing Calendar.

ENHANCING THE SUPPORT FOR MALE STUDENTS.

Are you interested in advising the University on how they can improve access to services for students who are men and help to remove the stigma surrounding men’s mental health? If this is you, we would really like to hear from you. If you can, please sign up to one of the upcoming focus groups and you will receive a £10.00 voucher after attending as a thank you for your time and feedback. If you are unable to make any of the focus groups or if you would prefer not to attend, alternatively you can fill out the short survey linked instead. Thank you for your help!

ENHANCING SUPPORT FOR LGBT+ STUDENTS.

Are you interested in advising the University on how they can improve access to services for LGBTQ+ students and better support you as an LGBTQ+ student? If this is you, we would really like to hear from you. If you can, please sign up to one of the upcoming focus groups and you will receive a £10.00 voucher after attending as a thank you for your time and feedback. If you are unable to make any of the focus groups or if you would prefer not to attend, alternatively you can fill out the short survey. Thank you for your help!

SUSTAINABLE FUTURES SEMINAR SERIES.

The next Sustainable Futures Seminar Series will take place on 26th May 14:00 - 15:15 The first speaker is Dr Claudia Henninger and the talk is titled “Going in Circles – opportunities and drawbacks of going circular in the fashion industry” Presentation overview: This presentation provides a brief overview of the fashion industry, as well as outlines what current opportunities and drawbacks are of going circular. Going in circles is a reference to the multiple different business models that are available for organisations to engage in, but also to the multiple, re-emerging challenges that are being faced. The second speaker is Professor Holly Shiels and the title of the talk is “Polyaromatic hydrocarbon-based cardiotoxicity and how fish health following oil spills provide sentinel information for tackling human health with air pollution” Presentation Overview: Fundamental biological pathways tend to be conserved amongst vertebrates. Thus, ﬁsh exposed to petroleum-derived polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) mixtures in the aquatic environment have served as sentinels for the potential human health impacts of PAHs in air pollution. The seminar will reveal the conserved pathways inducing toxicity in hearts of these diverse vertebrates and show how working across traditional boundaries is vital for filling knowledge gaps and strengthening the foundation for combined air and water policy management. If you would like to attend the seminar then you can register here.

KILBURN WINDOW DESIGN COMPETITION.

Are you enthusiastic about Computer Science in Manchester? Are you creative and have an eye/brain for design? As you may have noticed, there is a large window from Kilburn’s first floor onto Oxford Road…and it isn’t pretty. We want to change this - with your help: we plan to use this window to showcase Computer Science in Manchester, via an engaging design to be placed on this window, from the inside. It should be in colour, may possibly be back-lit, could be a single design or exploit the window’s three panels. It can be about the history of Computer Science in Manchester or more recent achievements or developments of our staff and students. If you feel inspired and are a student or group of students in the Department of CS, please email Uli Sattler a pdf with a sketch of your design idea, plus a short (approx 400 words) description of your idea, its relationship to CS and to Manchester/the department, and an explanation of why this is a great idea. Deadline for submissions is Monday, June 13th, 2022. A panel (incl design specialists and CS staff) will assess the ideas submitted. The winning idea will be turned into a professionally designed window design, implemented over the next academic year, with an explanation on the ground floor outside Kilburn Building. The creator of the winning idea will get a 100GBP voucher. The window dimensions are as follows: left and right panel are 1220mm (w) x 2170mm (h) each; centre panel is 1330mm (w) x 2170mm (h).

PHD RESEARCH STUDY.

This from Hasinah Alzahrani: I am recruiting participants to take part in my PhD research. The goal of this research is to investigate the impact of posting pictures on Instagram on memory recall. Who do we need?

Participants who are 17 years or older.
Participants who have had an Instagram account for at least 6 months.

What will you do?

3 posts (pictures) from your Instagram account will be selected and used for this study after getting your permission.
You are going to be tested on your memory recall for each picture.
You will be answering some questions and fill out questionnaire forms.

If you are interested and need more information, please email me.

KILIMANJARO DIG DEEP CHALLENGE.

Kilimanjaro team leader(s) are needed. Gain international leadership experience. Accelerate access to clean water to thousands of people. Receive discounted travel on the adventure of a lifetime. Lead a Team to the Roof of Africa next summer! As a Volunteer Team Leader you will recruit and support a team of like minded adventurers in the lead up to, and during, this epic challenge. Together you will change the lives of thousands of people in Bomet County, Kenya by accelerating access to clean water and sanitation through your fundraising efforts. The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31st May. Click here to apply. This challenge is being run by Dig Deep, a charity founded by students in 2007 which last year was awarded the National Student Fundraising Association's "Charity of the Year" in recognition of our commitment to engaging and supporting the next generation of fundraisers. If you would like to take part in our Kilimanjaro challenge but not in a Team Leader capacity then you can find out more and register here or you can join our upcoming information webinar on 26th May.

VOLUNTEERING FOR WELLBEING.

There is strong evidence of a link between being creative, helping others, and improved mental health and wellbeing. Why not take a break from revision and attend one of the volunteering opportunities below!

Tuesday 17th May, 12noon - 2pm: Seed sowing at The Firs Botanical Grounds, Fallowfield. Come along to our Volunteering for Wellbeing workshop at The Firs Botanical Grounds, Fallowfield and enjoy some relaxing seed sowing and planting in lovely green surroundings.
Wednesday 18th May, 12noon - 2pm: Post Pals Craft-ernoon, University Place 2.218. Relax and chat to others over a cup of tea and cake and take part in a creative crafting session to benefit children who are signed up to charity Post Pals.
Thursday 19th May, 12noon - 2pm: Lunchbreak gardening and bug box making at St Peters House! Step away from your desk and join us for a spot of lunchtime gardening. We'll be sowing, planting, weeding and making bug houses in the little allotment behind St. Peter's House.

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE FRAMEWORK (REF) RESULTS.

Last week the government reported on their assessment of research quality in all UK universities - the “Research Excellence Framework”, occurring every 7 years. Overall, Manchester was ranked 5th in the UK for research “power”, a combined measure of scale and quality. For Computer Science in particular, 99% of our activities were classed as “world-leading”, or “internationally excellent”. This success in turn benefits our teaching, as many of our world-leading staff propose research-based 3rd year projects, and design their modules on topics close to their areas of expertise. You can find out more information here.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. Today we have the usual four puzzles: an easy Sudoku; a more challenging Sudoku; a different form of puzzle and a chess puzzle. We also have the latest challenge set by the Crackchester team. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Discombobulated by Kennet's Dad

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in the circle. Digits in a cage sum to the given total. A purple line contains a series of consecutive digits in any order. Identical digits cannot appear in the same position within any two 3x3 boxes.

Bonus Puzzle - Star Battle by puzzlemadness.co.uk

The aim of this particular Star Battle puzzle is to insert one star in to every row, column, and region. Stars can't be adjacent horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

Chess Puzzle - Wellington Vs. Seul, 2020

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Crackchester Puzzle

Here's our latest challenge! There's something amiss with this block of code, can you figure out what it is? As always if you're struggling you can always message our discord for some hints!

Answers to Last Week’s Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 11 • Monday 9 May 2022 • #21.27

Paul pic

Good morning UG, it’s Monday 9th May 2022 and we have reached Week 11, the penultimate week of teaching. The department is running a competition where we want you to suggest what we can display in the large window looking out onto Oxford Road from the 1st floor of the Kilburn building - there’s a prize for the winning suggestion (see below). Good luck to the third year students who have their Q&A sessions scheduled for this week and to the first years who have their project presentations. Well done to the winners of the staff-student programming competition, particularly for beating the staff so convincingly! If you are going to the May Ball, then have fun (don’t go celebrating too hard!).

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SSO PHONE NUMBER.

As a result of our office move, the Student Support Office phone number is changing. You can now contact us by phone on 0161 549 1288. We are of course still available through email, and in person at the Support Hub on the first floor in Engineering Building A (note the new location).

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Nightline. Greater Manchester Nightline is a confidential listening and information service run for students by students. They offer anonymous, non-judgemental and non-directive support for all callers, regardless of the situation. You can talk about anything you like. As well as the listening service, Nightline can also provide information, such as contact numbers for a wide range of places. Just give Nightline a ring and ask – it’s as easy as that! You can contact Nightline by phone or instant message. Find out more about and see contact information on their website.

BE HEALTHY WORKSHOP.

Did you know that your physical health can have an effect on your mental health? Do you find it difficult to change your unhealthy behaviours? We have two health psychologists coming in to the University to deliver a workshop to show you how you can do this! Details:

Date: Wednesday 11th May
Location: Uni Place 6.207
Time: 1-3pm
Eventbrite link

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES DEADLINE.

The deadline for reporting any mitigating circumstances that have impacted you in semester 2 (coursework or exams) is 16:00 on the 13th June 2022. This is a strict deadline and no applications will be considered after this deadline. You can find information on the mitigating circumstances process in the undergraduate handbook, or on the department intranet. If you are experiencing any problems then you can speak to your year tutor (contact details below), or you can speak to a member of the Computer Science welfare team.

LIBRARY SUPPORT.

The library is here to support you throughout the exam period by offering exam and assessment support. This includes resources on My Learning Essentials, drop-in support and online resources. You can find out more information here.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: PASS 1 is on as usual this week, Wednesday, same place same time. This is the last session we'll be having this year, but hopefully you've gotten lots out of the scheme. If you want to help out as a PASS leader next year, please fill out this form, we're always in need of plenty of leaders. If you're interested in being a coordinator, please get in touch with alexandru.suciu@student.manchester.ac.uk or mohammed.madi-3@student.manchester.ac.uk

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (12th May) we’ll run another drop-in session so feel free to ask us anything! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there!

STAFF-STUDENT PROGRAMMING COMPETITION.

This from Ian Pratt-Hartmann: The 2022 Staff-Student Programming Competition was held in Collabs 1 and 2 on Wednesday 4th May, from 14:00 to 17:00. Twenty-five teams submitted solutions. Final standings and problem descriptions are visible here.

Winner: Freque Show - Dragos Marin (Year 3, CS), Andrei Bostan (Year 3, CS), Ahmed Soliman (Year 2, CS)
2nd place: Robuman - Alexandru Stoica (Year 2, CSwIE), Ignes Simeonova (Year 2, CS), Andrej Velichkovski (Year 2, CS)
3rd place: team v2 - Gwydion Smit (Year 2, CS4), Mateusz Krajewski (Year 2, CS4wIE), Germaine George (Year 2, CS)

The staff were annihilated. Congratulations to the winners, and thanks to all those who competed. Special thanks go to the student helpers: Jovan Petreski (Year 3, CS4), Yonggang Wang (Year 3, AI), Asma Alshebli (Year 1, AI), Arun John (Year 1, CS4), Lanre Borishade (Year 3, CS), Reshma Prabhakar (Year 1, CS4).

VENTURE FURTHER AWARDS.

Congratulations to Jiaoo Yu (3rd year, HCI) and Albert Viilik (3rd year, CS) for winning 2nd place in the competitive healthcare category at the Venture Further Awards (VFA) on Wednesday 4th May in the Whitworth Building. VFA is an annual start-up competition for all current students and recent graduates at The University of Manchester, offering a £75,000 prize fund. Jiaao and Albert won for HeyHealth – a venture providing non-English speakers services in their native language for NHS healthcare services. Congratulations and well-done to Jiaao and Albert. You can find out more about the Venture Further Awards here.

CRACKCHESTER.

Hi everyone! We at Crackchester want to first thank everyone who attended Hacker's Hub both in person and online. We were thrilled to provide you all with an opportunity to gain a little insight into the cyber-security industry. If you weren't able to join us stay tuned as we are currently editing a copy of the livestream which will hopefully be released soon! Be sure to follow us on social media to stay up-to-date with the latest Crackchester news!

LF 5,

6 AND 8 REFURBISHMENT. Work has started on refurbishing the rooms LF 5, 6 and 8 on the lower first floor of Kilburn. The plan is to create an open plan office with working pods and a computer cluster (old layout to the left, new layout to the right), with a glass entrance wall to allow some natural light to enter the lower first area. The rooms are now closed to students and will be screened off during the next week. There will be some noise as the current rooms are demolished, but this noise should not impact any teaching activities or any exams taking place in the Kilburn building.

INTERNATIONAL HUMMUS DAY.

Yes, you heard it right, on Friday 13th May we will be celebrating international hummus day. Take a break from revising and come down to the ground floor of University Place between 1pm and 3pm to celebrate International Hummus Day for some free hummus and a selection of dips! Be quick while stocks last!

UNICS MAY BALL.

For anyone who bought May ball tickets we are looking forward to seeing you next week! Accessibility info for May ball: Access would be via Private Events entrance on Whitworth Street under the arch, for any Wheelchair users they would come through the main hotel entrance. Event details:

Location: Kimpton Clocktower Hotel
Date: 13th May
Time: 6:30 PM-Midnight

The dress code is formal.

UNICS NEWS.

It's coming!!!! We're almost ending this term and need to think about regeneration! If you're interested in running for a UniCS Committee, be sure to submit your application using this form. The deadline has been extended to13th May 2022, 23:59pm. We hope to hear a lot about what you can do for UniCS! Ask a member of the committee if you've any questions!

CRACKCHESTER 2022 ELECTIONS.

It's that time of the year folks! Nominations for next year's Crackchester committee will be opening on the 9th May! If you want to be a bigger part of the Crackchester community this is your chance! Nominations will close on the 22nd May so be sure to submit before then. The vote will then be held from the 23rd to the 29th. Click the link to find out more!

COURSEWORK MARKING.

As we approach the end of the semester, it is vitally important that you get any outstanding coursework marked. Some course units have deadlines for marking, after which point no marking is possible and a mark of zero will be awarded. Generally, there is no opportunity to have work marked after the end of teaching (so after Week 12), apart from agreed deadline extensions for DASS students or those with documented mitigating circumstances. The onus is on you to get your work marked.

THIRD YEAR PROJECT ALLOCATION.

We are hoping to publish the results of the first round of the third year project allocation on Wednesday. An email will be sent out when the allocation has been published, which will include a link to the allocation webpage. If you failed to submit choices, or were unfortunately not allocated a project in the 1st round, then the 2nd round will open after the allocation has been published. If you are unhappy with your allocation, then you are free to decline the project offered and you will be entered into the 2nd round, where you can make new choices.

GREAT CHARITY BAKE OFF.

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a baking genius then why not put your skills to the test and bring out your best bakes to raise money for two incredible charities? On Tuesday 10th May our Student Wellbeing Champions will be hosting a baking competition at the Students’ Union in which all of the donated baked items will be sold on a charity stall to raise money for MIND and PTSD UK. Sound interesting? Bring your baked goods to The Hive between 11:30am and 12:30pm where a panel of judges will decide which top 3 bakers will receive prizes. Then why not stick around as we put on a fantastic bake sale outside the SU from 12:30-3pm with all the donated baked items on display. If baking's not your thing, then feel free to visit us at the stall outside the SU, indulge in some baked goods or simply spread the word. Every little helps, and we hope to raise as much as possible. We hope to see you there!

KILBURN WINDOW DESIGN COMPETITION.

Are you enthusiastic about Computer Science in Manchester? Are you creative and have an eye/brain for design? As you may have noticed, there is a large window from Kilburn’s first floor onto Oxford Road (above the Kilburn Building sign in the image below) … and it isn’t pretty. We want to change this - with your help: we plan to use this window to showcase Computer Science in Manchester, via an engaging design to be placed on this window, from the inside. It should be in colour, may possibly be back-lit, could be a single design or exploit the window’s three panels. It can be about the history of Computer Science in Manchester or more recent achievements or developments of our staff and students. If you feel inspired, please email Uli Sattler a pdf with a sketch of your design idea, plus a short (approx 400 words) description of your idea, its relationship to CS and to Manchester/the department, and an explanation of why this is a great idea. The deadline for submissions is Monday, June 13th, 2022. A panel (incl design specialists and CS staff) will assess the ideas submitted. The winning idea will be turned into a professionally designed window design, implemented over the next academic year, with an explanation on the ground floor outside Kilburn Building. The creator of the winning idea will get a 100GBP book token.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of puzzle and the fourth is a chess puzzle. Finally, we also have another intriguing puzzle from Crackchester for you to think about. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Squarrows by Walking Writer

Normal sudoku rules apply. The digits along an arrow must sum to the number in the connecting pill (read left-to right or downwards) or circle. Each number in the four highlighted pills must be a perfect square, none of which can be repeated among those four pills. Digits connected by a white dot must be consecutive. Not all white dots are shown.

Bonus Puzzle - Futoshiki by puzzlemadness.co.uk

The objective is to place the numbers such that each row and column contains only one of each digit. Some digits may be given at the start. Inequality constraints are initially specified between some of the squares, such that one must be higher or lower than its neighbor. These constraints must be honored in order to complete the puzzle.

Chess Puzzle - Kovacevic Vs. Gimenez, 2020

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Crackchester Puzzle

We've got another challenge lined up for you all. One of our committee documented touching grass this week, but they were slacking with regards to personal security! How much can you find out about their walk? Stumped?

Answers to the Last Week’s Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 10 • Monday 2 May 2022 • #21.26

Paul pic

Good morning UG, it’s Monday 2nd May 2022 and it’s Week 10. Today is a bank holiday in the UK (a public holiday), so there are no scheduled teaching activities and the Kilburn building is closed to students. It was great to see all the great projects developed by the first year groups last week in the project showcase, well done to the winners! The third year project Q&A sessions start this week, so good luck to all third years!

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

LIVING COST SUPPORT FUND.

Living costs are rising at an alarming rate and we know some of you may have felt the pinch. If you are struggling, apply for the Living Cost Support Fund to help you overcome financial hardship or unforeseen expenses. Applications are open all year round. The fund is what was known as the Manchester Hardship Fund and provides financial support to students - helping overcome food insecurity, supporting with utility bills, and addressing any other issues arising from financial hardship. See this link for more information and the application.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB MOVE.

The new Student Support Hub in the home of Engineering and Materials has moved from the ground floor to the first floor of the Engineering A building. Come and see us to get to know the team, find any support you need or just have a chat with us. We offer different types of support including academic support, wellbeing support including mitigating circumstances applications, and any other general enquiries.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (5th May) we’ll run a drop-in session especially for exam support, feel free to ask us anything! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there!

1st YEAR PROJECT SHOWCASE.

In this year’s showcase, first-year students showed the applications they’ve built in their teams. We were impressed by the range and quality of the applications we saw, and enjoyed getting a good overview of what has been done. Students voted on two categories, with the following results: Team R5’s “My Common Room” - an application for finding flatmates/flat shares for students - was voted the Application with the Best Idea or Concept. Team Z8’s “MP.DAASS” - an application for personalised music recommendations - was voted the Application with the Most Impressive Design and Implementation.

MEETING OF THE STUDENT STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE (SSLC).

The last meeting of the SSLC of this academic year took place last Wednesday (27th April). There haven’t been many issues reported this semester (apart from the issue with the heating in the Collabs) which I hope is an indication that the Department is doing things right. Even though we are nearing the end of the academic year you can still let us know of any issues, so please talk to a student rep if you want to raise anything. I will be stepping down as chair of SSLC at the end of this academic year, with Tom Carroll taking over for the new academic year. If you'd like to stand as a student rep next academic year then nominations will open soon. I’d like to personally thank all of this year’s student reps for all their hard work over the year.

UNICS NEWS.

It's coming!!!! We're almost ending this term and need to think about regeneration! If you're interested in running for a UniCS Committee, be sure to submit your application using this form. The deadline is 9 May 2022. We hope to hear a lot about what you can do for UniCS! Ask a member of the committee if you've any questions!

COURSE UNIT SURVEYS.

Please consider completing the course unit surveys for the course units you are taking this semester. We are really interested to know how the teaching has gone, and we do take your feedback seriously. Please provide us with comments so we know what has worked well and what hasn’t. Unless you tell us, we can’t do anything about it!

THIRD YEAR PROJECT Q&A.

The project Q&As start this week (Tuesday 3rd - Friday 20th May), so please make sure you check when your session takes place here. You can find out what’s involved in the COMP30030/40 Blackboard pages. If you don’t yet have a time allocated this could be because we are waiting for availability from your supervisor and 2nd marker and will arrange it as soon as possible. If you have any questions on this please contact SSO.

EXAM TIMETABLE.

Please don’t forget to check your exam timetable via My Manchester and make sure you know when and where your exams are taking place. If you have any questions, please contact SSO.

THIRD YEAR PROJECT ALLOCATION.

The deadline for selecting a 3rd year project or next academic year has now passed. We hope to produce the project allocation and publish it to students by the end of the week. If you failed to submit choices, or are unfortunately not allocated a project in the 1st round, then the 2nd round will open shortly after the allocation has been published. If you are unhappy with your allocation, then you are free to decline the project offered and you will be entered into the 2nd round, where you can make new choices.

MAY BALL.

This from the UniCS committee: For anyone who bought May Ball tickets please remember to fill in the form we emailed u ASAP, to ensure that u get ur desired meal preference and seating! Please make sure to check your personal emails as well, you should have received an email from: unics@manchesterstudentsunion.com to the email you bought the ticket with. For those who haven’t there are still a few tickets left so make sure u get them while u still can! We will be closing ticket sales very soon (only 5 tickets left). Event details:

Location: Kimpton Clocktower Hotel
Date: 13th May
Time: 6:30 PM-Midnight

The dress code is formal.

SEMINAR ANNOUNCEMENT.

There will be a guest seminar by Carolyn Swinney titled “Software Defined Radios: Radio frequency enabled cyber vulnerability exposure and early warning” on Wednesday 4th May 2022, 13:00 - 14:15, Room 6.207 University Place. Abstract: Often when Cyber threats are considered, fixed (or wired) Internet connections are the assumed way that a target device is accessed. However, Radio Frequency (RF) links are becoming more prevalent in connected systems, from 5G to driverless cars and even control systems for Critical National Infrastructure. There is a growing need to consider RF links when securing networks and identifying potential vulnerabilities. Software Defined Radios (SDRs) expose vulnerabilities by providing a viable means to access or even deny access to these links. In this seminar the term SDR will be defined and the capabilities of open-source software in conjunction with low cost, easily available devices on the market today, will be demonstrated. Full details can be found here.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR FLEXIBLE LEARNING?

The University (in partnership with the Students’ Union) is hosting an open meeting 11am-12pm, Friday 6th May, to update students on the next steps we are taking to make blended and flexible learning a success for students. At the open meeting we’d like to share how we are taking the feedback you have provided forward. It’s a chance to learn more about what the future of teaching and learning at the University of Manchester will look like, ask questions, and let us know if there’s anything we’re missing. Professors Dan George, Associate Vice-President for Blended Learning, and Steve Pettifer, Deputy Director for Flexible Learning, will host the event together with members of your Students’ Union Executive team. You can find more information and a link to register here.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Assassin8 by Ore

Each row, column and region contains the digits 1-8. Digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow's circle, and can include repeat digits. Digits in a cage sum to the small number in the top left corner.

Bonus Puzzle - Suko by puzzlemadness.co.uk

Your aim is to insert the numbers 1-9 in to the grid so that each number only appears once, and all the totals are satisfied.

Chess Puzzle - Slepov Vs. Puglia, 1959

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Last Week’s Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 9 • Monday 25 April 2022 • #21.25

Paul pic

Good morning UG, it’s Monday 25th April 2022 and it’s Week 9. I hope you managed to have some time off and take a well earned break over the Easter vacation. We are in the last stretch of the semester (and the year) with only four weeks of teaching left before the exam period starts. If you are a 3rd year student, don’t forget that the deadline for the project report and screencast is this Friday (29th April). The timetable for the Q&A sessions has now been published (link below). If you are starting your 3rd year in September then you have until the end of the week to select projects you are interested in from the projects list. Don’t forget that the deadline for registering for the staff-student programming competition is this Wednesday. Finally, the 1st year project showcase is taking place in Kilburn today, so please pop along and have a look at the applications created by the 1st year teams (see below).

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Student Union Advice Centre. The Student Union offer advice and support with any wellbeing problems you’re facing in a safe and confidential space away from the University. What can they do?

Give free, impartial and confidential advice or simply offer a place to talk.
Provide free contraception and sexual health tests
Help you report a hate crime, and give you advice and support if you have been the victim of a hate crime.
Provide confidential advice and support if you have been a victim of sexual assault.
Help you understand University procedures around bullying, harassment and discrimination.

You can find more information on their website. Remember you can always contact the Student Support Office in Computer Science for any advice or help at any time.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you had a lovely break! This Thursday (28th April) we’ll talk about third year modules and give you our honest opinion on them. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there!

EQUALITY DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION TRAINING.

A reminder that all students must complete the mandatory Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training that can be found in Blackboard. If you have not yet completed this training, please complete it as soon as possible. You can find it on the CS UG Community page or linked here. We welcome student feedback on the training in order to improve the quality for future students, and to ensure the training is reflective of the student experience. After you have completed the training, please send any feedback to the equality, diversity and inclusion training Project Coordinator for the School of Engineering.

SUMMER GRADUATION.

The date for the Computer Science July 2022 Graduation Ceremony has now been announced. It will be held on Thursday 21st of July at 2pm. Registration for the ceremonies will open Tuesday 12 April 2022 to those eligible to graduate. The graduation team will email you to let you know when the booking system in My Manchester is open. Keep an eye on their website for updates.

MIMUC WINNER.

Congratulations to Riccado Ali (Year 2, CM) who won second place at MIMUC (Manchester Interdisciplinary Mathematics Undergraduate Conference) for best presentation, with a work titled "Theory and Praxis of Equivalence: a philosophical and mathematical perspective". In his talk, Riccardo presented how the notion of equivalence is fundamental to our understanding of reality, with examples from geometry and Felix Klein's Erlangen Program (1872), also linking it to the Erlangen Program of Machine Learning (2021). A huge well done to Riccardo! Abstract: In this talk, we will explore the notion of equivalence, how it shaped mathematical thinking and how it’s influencing contemporary machine learning research. Through equivalence, mathematicians usually try to represent the very essence of the objects they’re studying, to get rid of the unnecessary complications and uncover the uniqueness of such objects. For example, is the length of the radius a defining trait for a circle to be called a circle? We will start with very simple definitions and the ideas they encode, what equivalence is and what it represents. Then, Felix Klein’s Erlangen Program (1872) will be presented to explore how the notion of equivalence shaped the conception and development of geometry. Why do we say that, for example, a parabola and an ellipse are two different “shapes”? Are they really? Are there invariants that all equivalent shapes share with themselves? We will then enforce this concept of invariance through the lenses of Category Theory, which allows us to build bridges between different areas of Mathematics. Finally, we relate history to contemporaneity and present The Erlangen Program of Machine Learning (2021).

1ST YEAR PROJECT SHOWCASE.

Do you remember your first year team project? Well, this year’s first-year students will showcase the applications they have created today, from 12-2pm. Come along to 1.8/1.10, 2.25 and LF31 in Kilburn and see what they have built!

MEETING OF THE STUDENT STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE (SSLC).

The last meeting of the SSLC of this academic year takes place on Wednesday (27th April). If you have any issues that you would like to raise, then please let one of your reps know - you can find contact details on the SSC Blackboard page. The Department is particularly interested in what’s going well, so we can make sure we do more of it. Maybe you want to let us know about a member of staff who you feel is doing a good job teaching, or has gone the extra mile for their students. Please let us know!

UNICS NEWS.

Hi everyone hope you had a great easter break. UniCS is back with one of the most awaited events of the year May Ball 2022!! The third batch tickets are on sale now, be sure to get them before they sell out, there are only a few tickets left! Be sure to get your tickets before the 29th of April to ensure you get seated next to your friends and you get the meal type that you want. May Ball 2022 details:

Location: Kimpton Clocktower Hotel
Date: 13th May
Time: 6:30 PM-Midnight

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

The Undergraduate Handbook is your one-stop resource for all the information you need to inform you about your studies. It contains a vast amount of information, such as the rules for progression between years, or how mitigating circumstances are handled, or details on what is academic malpractice. The handbook contains all the information you need during your studies. The handbook has recently been updated to extend the discussion on how mitigating circumstances cases are handled in the Department, and in particular it includes an explanation of the recommendations made that occur in student notifications.

EXAM TIMETABLE.

The semester 2 exam timetable has now been published here. Your individual exam timetables are also available to view via My Manchester. Please make sure you check your exam timetable so you know when and where your exams are taking place. If you have any questions, please contact SSO.

COURSE UNIT SURVEYS.

It’s time to tell us what you think about our teaching via the course unit surveys. The surveys offer the perfect opportunity for you to give feedback on anything and everything about the course units you have taken in the 2nd semester. We ask for feedback so that we can take action and make improvements to our course units for future students, so please provide as many useful comments as possible for us to act on.

THIRD YEAR PROJECT SELECTION.

Just a reminder that if you expect to be in the 3rd year in September (i.e. you're currently a 2nd year not going out on placement, you're currently out on placement, or you're a 2nd year without a confirmed placement) then you have until the end of the week to select projects you are interested in from the project list. You can find details on the project selection process in Blackboard, in the CS UG Community pages. There are still a number of students who have not made a selection. Please email Tim Morris if you have any queries.

THIRD YEAR PROJECT Q&A.

All third years please check your project Q&A time from this link. If you don’t yet have a time allocated this could be because we are waiting for availability from your supervisor and 2nd marker and will arrange it as soon as possible. If you have any questions on this please contact SSO.

STAFF-STUDENT PROGRAMMING COMPETITION 2021-22.

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.

Date: Wednesday, 4th May, 2022
Time: 14:00–18:00
Location: Collabs 1 and 2, Lower first floor, Kilburn Building.
Registration deadline: Wednesday, 27th April, 2022 (this week!)

The competition is open to staff and students (undergraduate and postgraduate) in Computer Science. Teams will consist of a whole number of persons between 1 and 3 inclusive. 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. Problems will be given out at the start of the competition. Teams will try to solve as many as they can. Contestants may use any of the supported languages: C, C++, Java, and Python. Each team should bring a laptop computer with the desired compiler(s) installed. It is allowed to bring any printed materials into the competition room; however the use of stored electronic files or of the internet to access any sites other than the competition site is forbidden. Refreshments–-free to contestants–-will be provided in the course of the afternoon in the Lower First Floor area. To participate, visit here by the deadline for participation. Space is limited, and teams will be accepted on a first-come-first-served basis, subject to a reasonable balance of staff and students.

DIGITAL FUTURES.

The Advances in Data Science and AI Seminar will be presented by Augusto dos Santos Pereira at 14:00 - 15:00 on 26th April 2022. The title of the talk is: Urban-Regional Planning and Data-intensive technologies: needs, trends and challenges in a developing country. Dr Pereira presents the current demands, opportunities, and bottlenecks for the application of data-centric tools to urban and regional planning in developing countries- Brazil. You can register here.

BLACKCHAINERS IDEATHON.

Hey everyone, the Blockchainers Society will be organising an Ideathon for blockchain ideas for the next 3 weeks (21st April to 12th May). If you got a blockchain idea, join this competition and stand a chance to win from a prize pool of £4000, and bring your idea to reality! All you need to do is to write a basic whitepaper and present it, no coding required! (full details in the sign up form). You can sign-up here. As part of this 3 week Ideathon, we will also be organising an in person networking social in AMBS on the 28th April, 5-7pm, so use this chance to find teammates for your team or just network with other blockchain enthusiasts! There will also be a guest speaker in this talk for blockchain ideas, so don’t miss out on this opportunity! Register for the networking social here.

SEMINAR.

BETTER WORLD AWARDS 2022.

Better World Awards 2022 – final call for nominations. The deadline for nominations for the Faculty of Science and Engineering Better World Awards is fast approaching but there is still time to nominate! Why not recognise someone who has done something great with their local community, offered their time to volunteering or maybe contributed to the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic? You can also self-nominate. Full details can be found on the Better World Awards website. The deadline for nominations is Saturday 30th April.

FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING BETTER WORLD FUNDING 2022.

Better World Funding enables staff and students to bid for up to £3000 for projects that ‘make a difference’ and support the University’s social responsibility agenda. Applications are open and run on a rolling basis by month. Submit your application between:

16 April and 15 May for review by 31 May.
16 May and 15 June for review by 30 June.

To apply, please complete the online application form (If you are unable to complete the form online please email for a paper copy). You will be contacted via email within two weeks of the review date for the month of entry. You can find more information here.

INCREASED CYBER SECURITY RISK.

There is currently an increased cyber security risk to our University and we are asking all students and staff to be vigilant and aware – particularly for phishing emails. There are a number of things you can do to help, see here for further information.

NEW UNIVERSITY CHANCELLOR.

We are delighted to announce that our new University Chancellor will be Nazir Afzal OBE. Nazir will take over from our current Chancellor, Lemn Sissay OBE on 1 August 2022 and an installation ceremony will take place at the University in October. See here for more details.

LIBRARY.

Gemma Smith writes: Exam & Assessment Support: The Library is offering online assessment support including revision workshops & online resources, Library drop-in support. The Library is here to support you to revise and prepare throughout the exam and assessment period. You can:

access online resources and workshops for revision, exam and assessment strategies
access wellbeing support via our Counselling and Mental Health Services workshops
speak to Library staff via our regular Library drop-in support

Find out more here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given the usual puzzles: an easier Sudoku, a more challenging Sudoku, a different form of logic puzzle and a chess puzzle. We also have a bonus puzzle this week set by Crackchester. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Plaid Lunchbox by Rdndnt

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits cannot repeat in a cage and sum to the clue in the upper left corner. A clue outside the grid indicates the sum of the digits between the 1 and the 9 in that row or column.

Bonus Puzzle - Kakuro by puzzlemadness.co.uk

Place the numbers 1 to 9 into the puzzle grid so that each continuous horizontal or vertical run of empty squares adds up to the value to the left of it or above it respectively. This value is shown either to the right or below a diagonal line.

Chess Puzzle - Naiditsch Vs. Van de Wiel, 2004

Drag and drop the Whitepuzz pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to Week 8 Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 8 • Monday 28 March 2022 • #21.24

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 28th March 2022, it’s Week 8, and the last week of teaching before the Easter break. UCU are striking again this week, which may have an impact on your learning (more information below). If you are a 3rd year student then don’t forget that the deadline for stopping work on the implementation element of your project is this Friday (more below).

Make the most of the Easter break and try to find some time to relax and take a break from your studies. Monday Mail will be taking a break over the Easter vacation and will return on Monday 25th April.

Have a good week and enjoy your Easter break, on with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Counselling Service. The University counselling 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
Group workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools

You can refer yourself to the counselling service by booking an appointment online. Remember you can always contact the Student Support Office in Computer Science for any advice or help at any time.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (31st March) we have a very special, surprise session planned for you. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks)! We won’t run zoom this week so please come to Collab and have fun! Hope to see you all there!

CLOCKS MOVED FORWARD.

Yesterday (Sunday 27th March) the clocks went forward by 1 hour, so we are now in British Summer Time (Greenwich Mean Time +1 hour). Hopefully you figured this out yesterday!

EASTER OPENING HOURS.

The Kilburn Building will be open as normal during the Easter vacation, 09:00 - 18:00 Monday to Friday, apart from Friday 15th April (Good Friday) and Monday 18th April (Easter Monday) when the Kilburn building will be closed and there will be no access for students. For students holding an extended working hours pass, access is still available when the Kilburn building is open.

STUDENT 360.

Three student partner interns are currently working across the University on a project called “Student 360”, which is the development of a system that brings various student data together in one place rather than students or staff (notably academic advisers/personal tutors) needing to access this in different places. An example would be for academic adviser meetings to enable better discussions around how your studies are going or for writing references. We have developed a short survey that we would be very pleased if as many students across the University (especially UG and PGT) could complete so we can see what your views are on this. The link to the survey can be found here.

CRACKCHESTER COMPETITION TIME!

We're hosting a sweatshirt design competition and you can take part! All you have to do is create your design for the official Crackchester sweatshirt using the template found on our discord, and then send your design to the submissions channel. The competition ends on April 7th at midnight so be sure to submit before then! The winner of the competition will receive a free sweatshirt with their design! Be sure to get creative whilst still in-keeping with the Crackchester aesthetic. The winner will be determined by the Crackchester committee after the deadline has passed. Good Luck!

MEME SURVEY:

Hello! I'm Romans Kuznecovs, a 3rd year AI student, and for my 3rd year project, I've created an AI that can make captions for memes. To evaluate its performance, I've generated a bunch of memes, mixed them with real human-made memes and put them all in a survey. For each meme, the question is simple - do you think the meme was made by an AI or by a human? It takes 15-20 minutes to complete, and I would greatly appreciate any submissions :) Find it here.

UNICS NEWS.

Hi everyone, UniCS is back with one of the most awaited events of the year!! May Ball 2022 in Kimpton Clocktower Hotel on 13th May, 6:30 PM-Midnight. Tickets going on sale on 28th March.

3RD YEAR PROJECTS.

All current 3rd year students - the deadline to stop working on your project is 6pm this Friday (1st April). Please submit your project artefact (in most cases this will probably be your code) through the COMP30030&20040 Blackboard page (see the Project Submissions link where instructions are provided) by the deadline. If you have any issues with the project submission then please contact Tim Morris.

HACKER'S HUB REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

! Hacker's Hub is the largest cybersecurity event that Crackchester has ever hosted! With talks from leaders within the industry, a 48 hour CTF, and £100's worth of prizes! It's truly the event you don't want to miss! Be sure to register as soon as possible to avoid disappointment and IT'S FREE! You can register using the google form. We hope to see you there!

TURING-MANCHESTER SEMINAR SERIES.

The Digital Futures team are hosting a series of online talks by The University of Manchester's new Turing Fellows for 2021-22. For the final event in this series, taking place on Tuesday 29th March, 14:00 – 15:00, new Turing Fellow Christopher Conselice is joined by Turing AI Fellow Anna Scaife. Professor Conselice will be talking about “Machine learning applications in astrophysics: Large surveys and galaxy properties/evolution” and Prof Scaife will be talking about “AI in the SKA Era: Challenges for Bayesian Neural Networks in Radio Galaxy Classification”. If you’d like to attend the presentations then you can register here.

ATLAS TALK.

This week, the ATLAS talk will be presented by Johan Åkerman, University of Gothenburg who will talk about “Spin Hall nano-oscillator based Ising Machines for combinatorial optimization”. You can download the abstract here.

MENTAL HEALTH AND DISCLOSURE.

The Careers Service would like to introduce the first of our live online sessions with our partner, EmployAbility. The session will take place on Tuesday 29th March, 2pm-3pm, and will be recorded and made available online. This session looks at the sorts of adjustments that can be effective for mental health conditions in recruitment and the workplace. It will address why mental health is difficult to talk about, the ways in which the recruitment process works, the stress of asking for adjustments that can aggravate existing conditions, and provide practical tips for dealing with this - including the ways EmployAbility can help. The session also explains how your privacy and choice are protected by law, and the different ways people may choose to exercise these rights to get the adjustments they need. Register on CareerConnect.

STAFF-STUDENT PROGRAMMING COMPETITION 2021-22.

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.

Date: Wednesday, 4th May, 2022
Time: 14:00–18:00
Location: Collabs 1 and 2, Lower first floor, Kilburn Building.
Registration deadline: Wednesday, 27th April, 2022

UNIKRAFT PROJECT.

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2022 is waiting for you to apply and get the chance to work on an open source project during a paid summer internship. Unikraft is one of the GSoC22 projects. Unikraft is a fast, secure and open-source Unikernel Development Kit. If you're fond of open source, virtualization and low-level topics and you want to be work on work on an open source project during the summer, Unikraft is the way to go. Please see here for instructions on the application process. See you on Discord!

MICROPOETRY COMPETITION.

Creative Manchester, in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and the Great Science Share for Schools, is running a Micropoetry competition themed around ‘Climate Change’. To enter write, a climate-themed micropoem and tweet the poem with the hashtag #micropoem22 before the closing date of Tuesday 21 June 2022. You can find more information here. The entries will be judged by our Chancellor, Lemn Sissay. The first prize id £500, with two runners-up prizes of £250.

UCU STRIKE ACTION.

The University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics and support staff in UK universities, will be continuing to hold more strikes all this week (Monday 28th March - Friday 1st April), which may have an impact on your teaching over the week. Members of UCU have voted to strike over pay and working conditions - the so-called ‘Four Fights’ dispute. You can find out more information here. There’s also more information about the strikes on the Manchester Students’ Union webpages.

LIBRARY.

This from Gemma Smith: Order a Book and Order an Article. If you need research resources that the Library does not currently hold then we will get them for you (electronically wherever possible). The Order a Book service is free; the Order an Article service incurs a £2 administration charge. Please visit the Library website to find out more.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Crackchester Puzzle

Do you have what it takes to solve the first of our Crackchester Puzzles? This first puzzle seems to be a QR code, but for some reason it doesn't appear to scan correctly. Can you figure out how to fix it? Need a hint? Feel free to ask one of the committee members on our discord here.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Stitches Sudoku by Walking Write

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits on a gray line must be between the digits in the circled ends. A clue outside the grid gives the sum of the digits along the indicated diagonal, which may include repeats. Digits connected by an X sum to ten. Digits connected by a V sum to five. Digits connected by a white circle must be consecutive. Not all X's, V's and white circles are shown. Digits along the blue diagonal cannot repeat and must alternate between odd and even.

Bonus Puzzle - Numberlink by puzzlemadness.co.uk

The numbers must be at each end of the line. Lines can't cross each other. No T-junction. Lines can't loop back and 'touch'. All squares must be filled.

Chess Puzzle - Royce Vs. Liao, 2014

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to Last Week’s Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 7 • Monday 21 March 2022 • #21.23

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 21st March 2022, and it’s Week 7 of semester 2. Huge congratulations to all the CS students who took part in the Darren Huyton Sports Day last week, the Department ended up winning the competition overall (more below). Well done to all those who took part! Just a reminder that if you are doing your project next year you should start thinking about what type of project you would like to do. Whilst academic staff in the department offer projects to supervise, we very much encourage you to consider proposing your own project, for which you will need to find a willing supervisor, which you should do as soon as possible (more below).

Don't forget that Monday Mail includes links (essential links below) to a number of pages where you can find essential information, general information, as well as help and support.

Make the most of the sunshine this week. On with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Living Cost Support Fund. The Living Cost Support Fund, open to all students, is designed to help students experiencing financial hardship to ensure no one is struggling whilst studying at The University of Manchester. This has become increasingly prevalent due to COVID-19, resulting in the government distributing an additional £50 million to assist students. The fund is designed to help as many students as possible, so if you feel that you are struggling to make ends meet and cover essential daily living costs, please apply, whereby you will be assessed to determine what kind of assistance may be offered to you. Before you do so, you should have accessed all other sources of funding available to you, including your full entitlement of student loans/NHS Bursary. The fund cannot assist with the cost of tuition fees for any student. The University funds are discretionary with a maximum non-repayable award of £2,000. Awards are granted on a case-by-case basis after consideration of each application, and we cannot guarantee financial support to every student who applies. The Living Cost Support Fund for the 2021/2022 academic year is still open and available to all students to apply to via a portal on MyManchester. You can find out more about your eligibility, what you may be entitled to and the application process on the university website. If you have any further queries or concerns, please contact funding@manchester.ac.uk.

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. My learning essentials offers a range of online resources including help and support on writing (useful for 3rd years) and revision (useful for all). You can find a link to My Learning Essentials on your Blackboard landing page.

REPORT AND SUPPORT.

If you or someone you know has experienced or witnessed a micro-aggression or any form of harassment, discrimination or hate you can report it anonymously or report it and get support from an advisor. For more information or to file a report, visit: Report + Support - University of Manchester

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: As deadlines get closer and you run behind on material, you can always attend your PASS session to get support with course material, get careers advice and talk about your plans for next year. You can talk about running for a society, volunteering, part time jobs and being a PASS leader! Sign up to be a pass leader for next year here.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (24th March) we’ll talk about the different academic routes after graduation, e.g. Masters, PhD, or Research. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there! Don’t forget to join our discord and check our site for all our previous session slides.

DARREN HUYTON SPORTS DAY WINNERS.

Last Friday we had a huge number of students turn up to have fun, get active and represent their department... You've been patiently awaiting the results and here they are! …..drumroll..... The winner of the Darren Huyton Sports Day 2022 is Computer Science with 1.33 points per game! Hurray! CS had the most number of participants and played more games. An engraved trophy will be put on display in the Manchester Engineering Building soon. A huge thank you to everyone who participated, we hope you had fun!

FIRE ALARM PROCEDURES.

In practice fire evacuations some people have not been following procedure. You must follow instructions associated with fire alarms; it is for your own safety and it is grossly irresponsible to assume it is a practice; you put your own safety, as well as that of others, at risk.

An intermittent fire alarm means you must prepare to evacuate the building.
A continuous fire alarm means you must evacuate the building.

You must familiarise yourselves with these procedures as well as evacuation routes and assembly points.

YEAR 1 SSLC.

James Downes writes: Hi everyone! The SSLC made an announcement at the beginning of a COMP10120 a couple of weeks ago about releasing Google forms for reporting any issues that you may be experiencing. The form is now up on Blackboard, along with forms about the SSLC, Positive Feedback for Lecturers, the Byte Café and Labs. Filling out these forms will help us make sure that the student body’s voice is heard! So tell all your peers and get form completing!

BE ACTIVE.

March is the month where we focus on a new Way to Wellbeing ‘Be Active’. Studies have shown looking after our physical health can positively impact our wellbeing, so why not use today to think about how you can make small changes in your life to help you become more active. The UoM Sport website has lots of classes and clubs you can join!

FACULTY FORUM.

The Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Students' Union will be hosting a Faculty Forum for all FSE students on Wednesday 23 March, 2022, 13:00-14:30, in Academy 3 (in the SU Building). This will be a chance for you to discuss big topics and influence strategic change across the Faculty. The forum is open to ALL students across the Faculty. Faculty Officers and Student Reps are expected to be in attendance and are encouraged to bring along other students with them. We will be discussing Mental Health, with a secondary focus on assessment hygiene and plagiarism. It is not necessary to prepare anything for this Forum, nor do you need personal experience of these topics, but any experience or ideas you may have with exam support within FSE will help. Registration is mandatory to attend. Sign-ups via this form will end at 10 am on the 23 March. If you wish to sign up after this point, please emailstudentreps@manchester.ac.uk for the joining information. Register here.

RECLAIM THE NIGHT 2022.

Reclaim the Night is an annual campaign against gender-based violence and sexual harassment. Every year we take to the streets to march for the right to feel safe at night. Join us, at 6:30pm, Owens Park on the 22nd March and make your voice heard! We will be marching from Owens Park, down Oxford Road to Manchester University Students Union where we will hold a short rally. After the march we will be heading to The Pink Room at YES for RECLAIM THE NIGHTLIFE, our Reclaim the Night after-party featuring an all-female DJ line-up including artists from feminist DJ collective All Hands On Deck! All proceeds will go to charities which support sex-worker safety. Click here to get your ticket! As well as marching for Reclaim the Night on the 22nd of March, we will be holding a series of events to fundraise and raise awareness for women's charities in the weeks leading up to the march. These include banner/placard making sessions, a self-defence class, film screenings and panel discussions. Click here to see what's on. To find out more about the march, our events, and the campaign see the Students’ Union website.

EXAM FEEDBACK.

We provide feedback on the exam for each course unit, which you can find in Blackboard, along with the data dashboards used to make decisions on scaling of course units. Note: data dashboards are only provided for course units that completed in semester 1. The feedback should provide general information about the performance of the students, common mistakes etc.

THIRD YEAR PROJECTS.

Just a reminder that if you expect to be in the 3rd year in September (i.e. you're currently a second year not going out on placement, you're currently out on placement, or you're a second year without a confirmed placement) now is the time to start thinking about your third year project. This is particularly important if you are interested in proposing your own project (which we strongly encourage) as you will need to find a member of academic staff willing to supervise you. Your project forms a major part of your degree, and offers you the opportunity to showcase the skills you’ve developed over your time in Manchester. So it’s worth making the right decision about it now! To help you decide, we have a number of resources:

https://supervisors.cs.man.ac.uk is a searchable graph showing supervisors and the topics they’re interested in supervising. Use this if you want to work in a specific area, or want to find someone to supervise an own project you would like to propose.
The list of projects that 3rd years are currently working on is available here, so you can get a feel for the range of projects that have been offered by staff in the past (although there is no guarantee that some of these will run again next year).
We also have a YouTube channel to showcase some of the best screencasts produced by past students. It’s still a new thing, so there aren’t many there at the moment.

You can find details on the project selection process in Blackboard, in the CS UG Community pages. We hope to have a list of staff projects for next academic year available around the Easter vacation. You can email Tim Morris if you have any queries. The project book should go live for you to start making choices on the 26th March.

GOOGLE DEVELOPER STUDENT CLUBS.

Google Developer Student Clubs are delighted to invite Valerii Babushkin, Head of Data Science at Blockchain.com to Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.1 on Wednesday March 23rd! Learn about the blockchain and its various applications from a real professional in the field, and enjoy free food at our preliminary Games Night before the talk! Register for a free ticket here.

DIGITAL FUTURES INDUSTRY EVENT.

Don’t miss this upcoming free careers event on Wednesday 30 March. Technology is disruptive! And now there are so many tech careers available in the fashion, textiles and manufacturing industry so don’t miss this opportunity to find out more. The Digital Futures: Industry Summit 2022 will be held at the University of Manchester's Engineering Building (MECD) on the 30th March, and will see global experts in the digital fashion, retail and manufacturing industries come together to explore tech across the fashion landscape. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about your future career opportunities. For more details and to book your tickets visit eventbrite.

COMMUTER STUDENTS FOCUS GROUP.

We are looking for commuter students from the School of Engineering to participate in a focus group centred around making campus more accessible for commuter students and improving the student experience for commuter students. The focus group will be 1.5 hours long maximum and if you volunteer to participate, you will receive a £25 voucher. The date for the focus group is TBC based on participant availability. If you would like to get involved, please email Charlotte Taylor.

ESTATES STRATEGY - STUDENT VIEW WORKSHOP.

The Directorate of Estates & Facilities is running a number of workshops to hear the student view to prepare the next estates strategy. At the workshop they want to gain a better understanding of the types of spaces and facilities that students need on campus to enhance the student experience. The areas for discussion will include, but are not limited to, learning and social space, what would encourage students to stay on campus between academic activities, how could the campus better support wellbeing, what about green/outdoor spaces and its use, what are the future digital/technology requirements that may impact the estate. If you would like to get involved please email laura-raluca.pasca@student.manchester.ac.uk and Katrina.hendry@manchester.ac.uk.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Theorema van Thoen by Aad van de Wetering

Normal sudoku rules apply. Cells separated by a knight's move (in chess) cannot contain the same digit. The yellow line is a palindrome and must read the same backwards and forwards. Digits along an arrow must sum to the digit in that arrow's circle.

Bonus Puzzle - Network by puzzlemadness.co.uk

Each puzzle has one power cell marked with a lightning bolt, the aim of a Network puzzle is to link every cell in the puzzle to that power cell. Dead-ends are not allowed.

Chess Puzzle - Shaw Vs. Khenkin, 2008

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to Last Week’s Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 6 • Monday 14 March 2022 • #21.22

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 14th March 2022, and it's Week 6. We are halfway through the semester already, and we have just three more weeks to go until the Easter break. If you are graduating this year then please don’t forget to complete the National Student Survey … best to get it out of the way before Ipsos MORI, who run the survey, start contacting you by phone to ask you to complete it! If you are a second year student, or you’re currently on placement, then it’s time to start thinking about your final year project … more details below.

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Student Services Centre. The Student Services Centre (SSC) is a central point for information for all students and can provide specific advice to international students. They provide a wide range of services including those related to: immigration and visas, exams, certificates and transcripts, registration, fee payments and sources of funding. If you need help with any practical matters of University life, the SSC will always be happy to help you. Find their contact details on their website.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello everyone! Scheme evaluations are up, give us feedback on how we did so far, open to both leaders and passlings. Coordinator recruitment is open! If you want to shape up the pass scheme and help all our first year students then this role is for you. If you are interested email Alexandru.suciu@student.manchester.ac.uk or have a chat with us at the debrief. See you at PASS!

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (17th March) we’ll demystify the third year project and share our experiences and tips on what the best strategies are for picking your project. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there! Don’t forget to give us feedback and sign up here if you want to be one of next year’s PASS2 Coordinators.

FREE BOOKS.

Free books are still available in the Staff Common Room (1st floor of the Kilburn building). You have until 28th March to pick up any books you would like, after which any remaining books will be donated to a local college. Please be sensible when taking books, and only take those that you will use.

EQUALITY,

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION TRAINING. A reminder that all students in the School of Engineering must complete the mandatory Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training on Blackboard. If you have not yet completed this training, please complete it at your earliest convenience. You can find it on the CS UG Community page or linked here. We welcome student feedback on the training in order to improve the quality for future students, and to ensure the training is reflective of the student experience. After you have completed the training, please send any feedback to the EDIA Project Coordinator for the School of Engineering.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY (NSS).

Calling final year students – Don’t forget to fill in the National Student Survey (NSS) The survey is your chance to look back on your university experience and speak out on everything from the teaching on your course, access to resources and equipment, and about the student voice. Your views can make a difference to the Computer Science department. With your feedback, we can make improvements to your course and the overall student experience in the future, and it’s never been so important to give your feedback following the challenges you’ve overcome during the pandemic. You’ll also be helping some fantastic charities too; we make a £2 charitable donation for each response completed to the following organisations:

Fill out the survey now on the NSS website

HEART HEROES TRAINING FOR STUDENTS.

A basic knowledge of CPR saves lives! Attend a Heart Heroes training session to learn vital lifesaving skills and help spread first aid awareness across Greater Manchester. Come and be taught by your peers in basic life support. In the session you will learn:

How to perform Basic Life Support on an Adult
How to use an AED
How to put an adult in the recovery position
How to assist someone who is choking

There are a number of training sessions taking place from now until Easter for students. Sign up for these is open here.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY.

To mark International Women’s Day, scientists and engineers across the Faculty of Science and Engineering discuss the women who inspire them most – past, present and future, you can find out more here.

THIRD YEAR PROJECTS.

This from Tim Morris: If you are in your 2nd year, or currently on industrial placement, it will soon be time to choose your project for your final year (or 3rd year for MEng students). Even if you’re planning to go on placement next year, it’s worth thinking about a project, just in case, for some reason, you do not end up going on placement. Your project forms a major part of your degree, and offers you the opportunity to showcase the skills you’ve developed over your time in Manchester. So it’s worth making the right decision about it now!

We strongly encourage you to consider creating and proposing your own project, i.e. your own idea for a project - is there an interesting problem you'd like to explore? or software you'd like to develop to fill a gap? - then you could think about proposing it as an own project. There will also be a wide range of project topics offered by staff that you can choose from. Either way, now is the time to think about what sort of project you would like to do: an in-depth investigation into a particular area? Implementing a substantial application? Investigating solutions to some interesting problem? Working on a specific platform? Working in a specific subject area? The opportunities are endless.

To help you decide, we have a number of resources:

https://supervisors.cs.man.ac.uk is a searchable graph showing supervisors and the topics they’re interested in supervising. Use this if you want to work in a specific area, or want to find someone to supervise an own project you would like to propose.
PASS2 are running a session this week on projects. They’ll talk about how to choose a project, find a supervisor, manage your time and all the other questions you have but were afraid to ask.
The list of projects currently being done by 3rd years will be made available here, so you can get a feel for the range of projects that have been offered by staff in the past (although there is no guarantee that some of these will run again next year).
We also have a YouTube channel to showcase some of the best screencasts produced by past students. It’s still a new thing, so there aren’t many there at the moment.

WOMEN IN KILBURN EVENT.

All women (whether student or member of staff) in the Department of Computer Science are invited to an informal Women in Kilburn Social on Wednesday 23rd March, at 1pm in the Turing Lounge. Come along and join us for a chat! Snacks will be provided.

MANCHESTER INTERDISCIPLINARY MATHEMATICS UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE (MIMUC).

MIMUC will bring together over 100 participants, BSc/MSc students, from across the Faculty of Science and Engineering. It will be a simulation of a real conference – meaning there will be research/project talks about mathematics projects from students. There will also be talks from companies who use mathematics everyday and want to recruit UoM students, as well as panel sessions with academics, experts and alumni. Oh and don’t forget the free food and socials! There will also be cash prizes for those who choose to give a talk/presentation. It takes place 31st March - 1st April. You can find out more on our website, and you can register here. Do you want to give a talk about something you’ve done in mathematics or are interested in? We are now accepting abstracts and poster submissions for the conference! Your inspiration can be something interesting you learnt in a module, something you heard or even your own research! More information about the abstract/poster submission can be found on our official website. Submit your abstract via the conference registration form. For more information or queries contact us by email, see our website or Instagram: @mimuc_manchester.

GLOBAL LEGAL HACKATHON.

The Global Legal Hackathon takes place between Friday 25th and Sunday 27th March and it taking place simultaneously in over 40+ cities around the globe, bringing the legal industry together with non-legal technical specialists, academics, students and beyond, to apply innovative ideas and emerging technologies to progress the business of law, or to facilitate access to the law from the public. The Manchester event is brought to you by The University and Bruntwood. Teams should have a mix of technical (coders) and strategy specialists and will require a level of legal knowledge. Individual entrants are welcomed and will be assigned a team at the launch event. Mentors will be on hand to provide advice on your ideas. Interested? You can find out more information here.

STUDENT TRAVEL SURVEY:

Let us know about your study-related travel experiences and we’ll donate to the Proud Trust. Following a packed calendar of events across the University in February to mark LGBT+ History Month, we are continuing our work to ensure inclusivity for all in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. We’ve launched a survey to understand more about the study-related travel experiences of our LGBTQ+ students, to ensure we make opportunities inclusive for those taking part. We’re also keen to understand the experiences of all students undertaking all forms of travel linked to their course and we welcome responses from all equality groups. If you have or are planning travel as part of your studies, including for a placement or a field trip, we’d like to hear your views. The survey is anonymous and will take around 15 minutes to complete. Find out more and fill in the survey here. We appreciate you taking time to complete the survey and we’ll donate £1 for every completed survey (up to a maximum of £500), to the Proud Trust, a local charity supporting LGBTQ+ young people.

HYBRID POSTGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS.

The Faculty of Science and Engineering has launched a hybrid postgraduate scholarship offering the highest level of funding. This year we will support 20 UK candidates to tackle areas of key research whilst also developing their teaching experience. They’ll get a teaching salary plus a stipend (£22,606 per year), with all tuition fees covered, while receiving training as a PGR teaching associate. We’re looking for highly motivated, resilient people with the determination to succeed. Get in touch if you’ve got a real passion for breaking new ground in your chosen subject area and think you could share that enthusiasm through teaching. Interested? The deadline to apply is the 15th May, apply here.

SCIENCE & ENGINEERING CAREERS Q&A.

Calling all Science and Engineering students! Do you have questions about your future career? Join the Science and Engineering Careers Team at one of their informal Careers Q&As taking place over the next four weeks. The Science and Engineering Careers team will be on hand to answer your questions on:

Where to start thinking about your career
What employers look for
Where to find jobs, placements, internships or just experience for your CV
…and anything else on your mind!

Have your question answered or just listen to others ask theirs! Attend one (or more) of the Q&As listed below for your year group:

Q&As open to all 1st and 2nd Year students:

Monday 21st March, 12pm-12:45pm
Thursday 24th March, 11am-11:45am
Wednesday 6th April, 12pm-12:45pm
Wednesday 6th April, 1pm-1:45pm

Q&As open to all 3rd and 4th Year students:

Tuesday 5th April, 12pm-12:45pm
Tuesday 5th April, 1pm-1:45pm

POTENTIAL NETWORK DISRUPTION.

There will be some work on the network in the Kilburn and IT buildings taking place this week. While there should be no long periods of network downtown whilst the work is taking place, there will potentially be short outages of the network lasting for up to 20 minutes. The work will take place in the Kilburn building between 10:00 on Tuesday 15th March until 16:00 on Thursday 17th March, and in the IT building between 10:00 and 13:00 on Tuesday 15th March. An upgrade to the University’s network may result in general outages on campus and in halls, between 6pm on Thursday 17th March and 2am on Friday 18th March.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

This week, the bonus puzzle has been suggested by Andrew Forsyth (Year 2, AI) - thanks Andrew - we hope you enjoy it!

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Thermo Sudoku by Seri Tyshchenko

Normal Sudoku rules apply. Along thermometers, digits increase from the bulb.

Bonus Puzzle - Suguru by puzzlemadness.co.uk

The aim of Suguru is to fill each n-sized region with the numbers 1-n. For example, if a region has 3 cells, you need to insert the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in to those cells. If a region has 4 cells, you need to insert the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4 in to those cells. Each number can't be next to the same number in an adjacent cell, this includes horizontally, vertically, and diagonally.

Chess Puzzle - Shocron Vs. Gacharna, 1953

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Last Week’s Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 5 • Monday 7 March 2022 • #21.21

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 7th March 2022, and Week 5 of semester 2 … time is flying by so quickly! The semester 1 marks have now been released, I hope you got the marks you were expecting. If you want to chat to someone about your marks, then feel free to speak to your Personal Tutor, or your Year Tutor. You will be meeting with your Personal Tutor over the next couple of weeks to discuss your results anyway. If you are interested to know what your results mean when it comes to progressing/graduating then take a look at the Undergraduate handbook (more information below). Finally, just a reminder that 2-factor authentication starts for students from Wednesday, so you need to make sure you are set up with Duo and have the app installed on your phone.

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

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT DURING THE CURRENT EUROPEAN CONFLICT.

Across the University, we are all hugely concerned about the dreadful conflict in Ukraine. We appreciate that many of you may be affected by the conflict, whether that be directly or indirectly. We would like to remind you of the support available to you as we appreciate this may be a distressing time, and to reiterate that we provide support to all students without prejudice. If you have been affected by these events, we would encourage you to reach out for support through your Personal Tutor or Student Support and Welfare Service. If you are concerned about the impact of the situation on your mental health and wellbeing, you can reach out to a range of services (including some that are available 24/7) through the Student Support website and the Students' Union Advice Centre. Should you be worried about any impact on your studies, we have our mitigating circumstances procedure for taught students and support for changes of circumstances for postgraduate researchers. If you are feeling anxious about your finances, particularly if transfer of funds to you from overseas may be delayed, our Living Cost Support Fund is there to help you. You can find out more about supporting each other at this distressing time in this article.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

TOGETHERALL. Togetherall is a 24/7 anonymous online mental health and wellbeing resource for students, staff and researchers. You can access the service by going to www.togetherall.com and signing up with your UoM email address. Whether you’re struggling to sleep, feeling low or finding it hard to cope, or just want to the chance to think more deeply about your wellbeing, Togetherall can help you to explore your feelings and think things through. You will have access to a 24/7 online community, monitored by trained clinicians. Togetherall is a safe space online to get things off your chest, have conversations, get creative and learn how to manage your mental health and wellbeing. Togetherall is totally anonymous and confidential, so no one will know you’re using it unless you tell them! Find out more here.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 12:00 - 12:45.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (10th March) we’ll talk about how to be an adult and EVERYONE can join (not just 2nd years). Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there! Don’t forget to give us feedback and sign up here if you want to be one of next year’s PASS2 Coordinators.

UNICS NEWS.

The StudentHack organising team needs more people! Hi everyone, we are currently busy organising StudentHack, our first in-person hackathon for 3 years. We are looking for people to join the organising team. If you are interested can you complete the following form. Thanks, Luke and Jeremy.

FREE BOOKS.

The Department has made the difficult decision to close the Department library, as it is now surplus to requirements. As a result, we have decided to offer the books held in the library to students for personal use. You will be able to pick up books from the Staff Common Room, on the 1st floor of the Kilburn building (entrance opposite the 1st floor lab near the Atlas rooms) from Tuesday 8th March - on a first come first served basis. Please be sensible when taking books, and only take those that you will use.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

If you are a graduating student, then please complete the National Student Survey (NSS). The National Student Survey (NSS) is a UK-wide, official survey aimed at final year students, and is your chance to look back on your higher education experience to speak out on everything from the teaching on your course, access to resources, and even about the student voice. Your responses are anonymised, so feel free to provide open and honest feedback on how your degree has gone from start to finish. We want your views. It’s your NSS, see here for further information.

MY ATTENDANCE.

Please don’t forget to check in for your all of your timetabled activities through my.manchester. You can assume that for any timetabled activity, you should check the attendance system to see if you need to check in. It is important you do this as we use this information to spot students who we feel are not engaging with teaching activities and so that remedial action if required. We will be using this system much more this semester so please remember to check-in for your classes. If you run into any issues checking-in please contact SSO.

2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

Just a reminder that 2-factor authentication stats for students from Wednesday 9th March 2022. All students (whether on or off campus) will be required to use 2-factor authentication to log in to Blackboard, University email and Microsoft 365. Our 2-factor authentication service is provided by a company called Duo and is already used by all staff and postgraduate research students. Duo has shown great success in helping us stay safe and increasing the University’s security. If you have any issues then please contact the IT Support Centre, by calling 0161 306 5544. If you’re on campus you can also visit one of the Walk-up IT support desks. If you’re already set up with Duo and have registered a device in the IT Account Manager then you are all set - just make sure you have the Duo App ready on your smartphone. Find out more about 2-factor authentication.

MONDAY MAIL FEEDBACK.

Do you like what we post in Monday Mail? Is there enough content? Is there too much content? Do you find it useful? Is there anything else we could be writing about? Please feel free to provide me with feedback on what we currently include in Monday Mail, or tell me of anything else we should be informing students about. Thanks, Paul.

EXAM RESULTS.

I hope you received the exam results you were expecting. Over the next two weeks you will discuss your results with your tutor/project supervisor. Year tutors will also be in contact with students where we have concerns about student performance/progression, please engage with this process. It is important to reflect on your performance and take action, if required, to address any issues.

DATA DASHBOARDS FOR SEMESTER 1 COURSE UNITS.

As part of the University Assessment Pledge, all Departments in the Faculty introduced moderation panels that scrutinised course unit results and made recommendations for any adjustments to be made, such as the scaling of marks for course units. Further information regarding how this process was applied in Computer Science can be found on the UG Community Blackboard page, which also contains the data dashboards used in this analysis, along with information about which COMP course units were scaled.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

BET365 CODING CHALLENGE.

Bet365 and UNICS will be hosting a coding challenge on Wednesday 12/03 from 1-6pm in Kilburn, 2.25A Participants can enter either on their own or in a team of up to three people, which you can form on the day. The challenges are designed to be completed in any programming language you choose, all you need is a laptop with access to the internet. Food will be provided! There are limited spaces so sign up here.

UNICS PROBLEM SOLVING WORKSHOP.

Hi everyone, We are excited to announce on Wednesday the 9th of March UNICS will be running an interactive problem-solving workshop with Palantir from 2-4 pm in Collab, Kilburn. There will be snacks for those who attend! There are limited spaces, so please sign up here.

CELEBRATING WOMEN LEADERS IN STEM PANEL.

Save the date! In aid of International Women's day on the 8th March we are running a faculty wide event. The event is open to everyone! Join our panelists who will talk about their careers, leadership in engineering (with a focus on women's strengths and challenges), followed by a chance to ask any questions. Panelists will include alumni and academics from a variety of backgrounds across the faculty; including engineering and natural sciences. Refreshments will be provided. The event will take place on Wednesday 9th March, 12-2pm, Online & University Place 2.220. You can sign up here.

FIRST INSIGHTS CONFERENCE.

Calling all first years! This is your last chance to register for the First Insights Conference! Register before Wednesday, 9 March 2022 to secure your place. This interactive, online conference is exclusively for first years. Taking place on Wednesday 16 March, 1-5pm, it will give you the chance to:

Hear about three different sectors that interest you
Gain valuable insights from employers and alumni working in those industries
Find out how you can build the skills and experience you need during your time at uni.

Don’t miss out, register now.

GIRLS WHO CODE.

Girls Who Code (GWC) is an organisation that seeks to close the gender gap in tech. It is currently seeking enthusiastic UK-based computer science summer teaching and support staff for their virtual summer school programme. This is an incredible opportunity to join the GWC community. Paid summer positions include on-the-job coaching, the opportunity to join a team of fantastic educators, and a chance to inspire and teach students ages 14-18 how to code and have fun doing it! Open positions can be found here. Interested applicants can join a live informational session on Thursday 10 March at 7:00 pm GMT - sign up here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Yo Banana Boy! By Danny Mecler

Normal Sudoku rules apply. Diagonals contain the digits 1-9 once. Each line is a palindrome, consisting of only 2 digits (ie: ABABA, ABBA).

Bonus Puzzle - Nurikabe by Adolfo Zanellati

Tint the grey boxes of the chart black or white. The black fields divide the diagram into areas of orthogonally contiguous white fields. The white areas must not touch each other orthogonally (but diagonally). A cell with a number is always white; each white area has exactly one field with a number. The number indicates how many fields make up the white area. The black squares must not cover a 2x2 area anywhere and must form a single orthogonally contiguous area.

Chess Puzzle - Przemyslaw Vs. Marcin, 2021

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to last week’s puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 4 • Monday 28 February 2022 • #21.20

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Good morning UG, it’s Monday 28th February 2022 and we are into week 4 already! The semester 1 exam results will be released at 1pm this Friday, so I hope you get the results you are hoping for! The UCU strikes continue this week (Monday to Wednesday) which may have an impact some of your teaching. Did you know that the Department has a hardware library that is free for students to use? We have a wide range of items you can borrow, see below for more information. Finally, just a reminder that the undergraduate handbook contains all the information you need to know about your studies, again you can find further information below.

I hope you have a good week, on with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

STUDENT 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. If you need any support then please request an appointment directly with our Student Support and Welfare Administrators, Maria Sloan and Guy Malkin in the SSO office, or, drop into the student hubs and ask to speak to someone confidentially about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. Also, remember to contact your Academic Adviser (your tutor or project supervisor), or your year tutor if you are struggling and feel you need guidance academically. If you have been impacted then it’s likely you will be directed to submit mitigating circumstances which the Department will then consider and make a recommendation to the exam board following the University policy on mitigating circumstances. You can find out more about how we handle such requests in the undergraduate handbook. It is vitally important that you let us know of any mitigating circumstances as and when they happen, submitting them at the earliest opportunity.

SUPPORT FOR A DISABILITY/DYSLEXIA IN EXAMS.

If you need extra time, rest breaks etc. because of a disability, please contact the Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) ASAP to register with our office. You can contact DASS by email, or give them a ring on 0161 275 7512. If you want your condition to be considered then you must have fully registered with the DASS and have met with a Disability Adviser to discuss and agree any exam adjustments by 4pm, Thursday 17th March 2022 in order to receive support in the May/June 2022 examinations. Appointments with Disability Advisers in the week leading up to the deadline become booked up very quickly, so please ensure that you contact us as early as possible. If an adviser is not able to see you to determine appropriate support before the deadline, it is likely we will not be able to put support in place for you. Fully registering will include completing our registration form, confidentiality form and providing appropriate evidence of your disability. Please contact us for more information.

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. Following student feedback, My Learning Essentials should now by advertised on your Blackboard landing page.

COVID-19 GUIDANCE:

UPDATE. Some COVID-19 legal restrictions have ended in England. However, while the lifting of restrictions and the return to some form of normality is welcome, we need to be particularly mindful of those who may be more vulnerable to COVID-19. If you test positive you should report this and stay at home, avoiding contact with other people for at least five full days. You should only return to campus when you have received two negative test results on consecutive days. You can still order free coronavirus rapid lateral flow tests online or collect them from your local pharmacy until the 1st April. The best way to keep yourself and others safe is to get vaccinated and take up your booster vaccination if you haven’t already done so. We strongly encourage everyone to continue to wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus; in some areas this will be a requirement. We will review this in April following government announcements. You can view the full article here.

UNIVERSITY MENTAL HEALTH DAY.

Thursday 3rd March is University Mental Health Day, which brings together our university community to open up the conversation around mental health and highlights the support that the university has on offer. We have lots you can get involved with this year including:

Guide Dogs meet up – ticketed sessions from 1pm-2:30pm. Meet Guide Dogs and notice the difference that being around animals has on your wellbeing! Book your place on Eventbrite, spaces are limited!
Photography competition – Instagram. Send in your photos using the theme of the Six Ways to Wellbeing. This could be a snap of where you have Taken Notice on a walk or a photo from your volunteering/sport activities. Feel free to be as creative as you like! You could be in with the chance of winning a year’s subscription to Headspace, 1x £10 Feel Good Club voucher, and a mindfulness journal. The winner will be announced on University Mental Health Day (3rd March). Head to @uomwellbeing on Instagram to find out more and how to submit your photo.
KitKat ChitChat – University Place 11am-2pm. Pop along to the ground floor of University Place between 11am-2pm to grab a KitKat and stay for a ChitChat! You can meet other students and also find out more about the wellbeing and mental health support on offer at the university from staff members.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (3rd March) we’ll talk about tips and currently available internship opportunities. We will also be reviewing your CVs so bring those along. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there! Our scheme’s evaluation is still open - scheme evaluation form. And we have opened our PASS2 Coordinator Recruitment for 2022/23 - fill in the form if you would like to be involved in PASS2 next academic year!

MEET A STUDENT REP.

This week’s featured student representative is Ribhav Ojha (Year 1, CSwIE): “Hey everyone! I am Ribhav from New Delhi, India. I am a student representative, so please do not hesitate if something concerns you. I was doing first semester online, but I am now on campus! Cheers!!” Please contact Ribhav by email if you want to raise any queries about life in the Department, tell us what’s good about what we do, or just want a chat!

Hannah pic

SSO NEWS.

Hannah Cousins. This week we say a sad farewell to Hannah Cousins. Most of you will have received help from SSO at some point or other, but you may not realise that Hannah has been doing a great job of leading the team since 2019. In particular, she made sure that SSO was able to cope with the additional requests for support during the pandemic; a difficult period for both students and staff. The great level of support we’ve been able to provide students over this period is down to the hard work of Hannah and her team. Hannah is leaving us to take on the role of Teaching and Learning Manager in the School of Medicine, and will be vey much missed in the Department. I'm sure you'll want to join us in wishing her all the best for the future.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY.

March 8th is International Women’s Day and to celebrate there will be a number of activities happening across the campus - see here for further information. In the Department, UniCS are organising a Women in Kilburn event - see below for further details.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY.

National Student Survey (NSS): Now Open. The National Student Survey (NSS) is a UK-wide, official survey aimed at final year students, and is your chance to look back on your higher education experience to speak out on everything from the teaching on your course, access to resources, and even about the student voice. Remember, the NSS is anonymised, so you can give your open, honest feedback. We want your views. It’s your NSS, see here for further information.

STAY SAFE AND DOWNLOAD THE SAFEZONE APP.

Would you know who to contact for urgent medical help or to report security incidents? Download the SafeZone app on iOS and Android devices to get quick access to both first aid and emergency alerts. This lets security know where you are, so a team can get to you quickly. Or, you can call security on 0161 306 9966 – take a look on the back on your staff/student card and the number is always there. Take note of the first aid and security posters of the building you are in so you know the best way to get help if it is needed. If you need a defibrillator, you can find one in the Kilburn Building and Engineering Building A. The orange box is next to the stairs on the right-hand side as you enter the building. Download the SafeZone app through the app store or save the Security team’s number – 0161 306 9966 to your phone.

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY DATA SCIENCE SOCIETY.

The Manchester University Data Science Society will be holding our usual workshop on Wednesday the 2nd of March, where we will not only teach the fundamental skills required for the field, but will also join Peak AI for their networking event. Our first workshop will be from 4pm to 5pm in Roscoe Building (room 3.5), and we are pleased to be joined by CGG, where we will discuss data science applied to geoimaging. CGG are a geoimaging company that render geographic data into digital 3D structures. Their data scientists will join us via Zoom to discuss how the company applies cutting-edge data science techniques to fulfil this mission, and how their images inform environmental projects. We will then proceed with our Content Workshop, where we will join Peak AI at their Manchester office, to give us a lovely evening with free food and advice on career progression! Peak AI is Manchester's most dynamic data science company, and they want to meet MUDSS members to share exclusive tips for landing a data science role - including tips tailored for women entering the industry. They are also keen to pair MUDSS members with their data scientists under a 1-1 mentorship program and are offering us dinner on the house. Get your FREE ticket for the Content Workshop here. This workshop will be between 5pm and 8pm in the Neo Building (M1 4ET). There are only a limited number of tickets available so get yours before spaces fill!

UNICS NEWS.

We are excited to announce on Wednesday the 9th of March UNICS will be running a problem solving workshop with Palantir from 2-4pm in Collab, Kilburn. There will be snacks for those who attend! There are limited spaces, so please sign up here.

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE.

Last Wednesday we held the first meeting of SSLC this semester. It was a fruitful meeting, where we discussed a number of things, in particular the department was keen to get feedback on what to do with the Byte Cafe area in the lower first floor area of Kilburn, which has now closed permanently. We also discussed the School Student Experience Action Plan (SEAP), which details actions for improvement to ensure we provide the highest quality student experience. If you would like any further information, then speak to one of your student reps. It was pointed out that we’ve not had any issues raised through the reps (or any praise for the good things we do) since before December, so please remember to make use of your reps if you want to tell us about anything, whether that’s an issue, or something we do well. You can find out more about the meeting in the SSLC Blackboard page, where you can find minutes from the meetings, along with contact details for the student reps, the issues log etc.

HARDWARE LIBRARY.

Don’t forget we have a student hardware library in the Department that contains hardware components that are free for you to borrow. There are all sorts of items available, from Raspberry Pi components to Drones, Arduinos to Microsoft Kinects, basic electronic components to robots … even Oculus VR headsets. 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 when an item your reserve is available for pick up from the Kilburn building (from Tootill 0). Please note, any loaned items should not be taken away from Manchester.

CRACKCHESTER.

Hiya folks, following the success of the first 'intro to pwning' workshop, this week we're hosting a follow up workshop on Thursday in Atlas 2 from 4-6pm in the Kilburn building. In the workshop you will learn some of the techniques used in the binary exploitation of services, make sure to be there! Don't forget! The latest episode of our podcast is out now! We discuss what cybersecurity is like within University, so give it a listen here. Hacker's Hub is back for 2022! Be sure to stay tuned for one of the biggest cybersecurity events here in Manchester. With £100s worth of prizes, special talks from experts in the field and to top it all off, a 48 hour Capture the Flag! This is an event you simply can't miss out on! Keep an eye on our social media for more details! As usual we will also be running our weekly meet-up in the Atlas room from 2-4pm so be sure to pop by and say hello, we'd love to see you there! Be sure to follow us on our socials to stay up to date with the latest news and events: Crackchester | Linktree.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

SEMESTER ONE RESULTS.

The semester one exam results will be released at 1pm on Friday 4th March following the Faculty Exam Board on the 2nd March. Results will be released via the student system and SSO will email to confirm when they are available to view. For further information about semester one results please see the intranet page here. The Department holds scaling panels to look at the marks distribution for each course unit and take action where we feel the marks for the cohort are out of line. This may result in marks being potentially scaled up or scaled down for the cohort on a particular course unit. We will provide further information closer to the publication date where you can find out what action has been taken (if any) along with copies of the data dashboards for each course unit (but not course units that run over both semesters). Please note: marks are provisional and may be subject to change, they will be confirmed in the end of year exam boards that will take place in June/July.

COMP101 GUEST LECTURE.

A COMP101 guest lecture will be held on Monday at midday in the Engineering building, Lecture Theatre A. All welcome, not just first years. The business opportunities for cameras and machine learning technology: An introduction to https://seechange.ai/ who we are and what we do. We’ll provide examples of some of the uses we put our technology to and how this relates to COMP101.

UNICS:

WOMEN IN KILBURN EVENT. Hi everyone! We are organising a Women in Computer Science (Kilburn - to be more precise) event on Wednesday 🙂 2nd of March, 1pm in the Turing Lounge (where the ping pong table is opposite the 1.8-1.10 labs). We want to create a safe space in which we can talk about the difficult moments we might go through, nasty comments and how to deal with them. PS: We’ll have snacks for you

FACULTY FORUM.

The Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Students' Union will be hosting a Faculty Forum for all FSE students on Wednesday 23 March, 2022, 13:00-14:30, in Academy 3 (in the SU Building). This will be a chance for you to discuss big topics and influence strategic change across the Faculty. The forum is open to ALL students across the Faculty. Faculty Officers and Student Reps are expected to be in attendance and are encouraged to bring along other students with them. We will be discussing mental health, with a secondary focus on assessment, hygiene and plagiarism. It is not necessary to prepare anything for this Forum, nor do you need personal experience of these topics, but any experience or ideas you may have with exam support within FSE will help. Registration is mandatory to attend. Sign ups via this form will end at 10 am on the 23 March. If you wish to sign up after this point, please email for the joining information.

DARREN HUYTON SPORTS DAY.

On Friday 11th March, the School of Engineering Student Experience team will be hosting “The Darren Huyton Sports Day”, in collaboration with UoM Sport. Throughout the day there will be opportunities to play football, netball, basketball, table tennis, and badminton, as well as taking part in old-school sports day activities such as the egg and spoon race and three-legged race! At the end of the day, we will crown the winning department or discipline. It doesn’t matter if you’re an expert or have never played before, the day is a chance for everyone to have fun, keep fit, and represent your department! Find the full timetable here. 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 late January. He was extremely excited for the upcoming sports day we were planning, and, as a lover of sport who worked in student experience for many years, there seemed no better way to honour him than to name this event The Darren Huyton Sports Day. At the event there will be collection boxes available to donate to the British Heart Foundation for anyone who wishes to do so. You can also donate online here. Sign up to take part by the 4th of March here.

PURPLEWAVE:

In partnership with the Great Run Company, UoM Sport is hosting a 2.5km and 5km event at Platt Fieldson March 9th 2022. It doesn’t matter if you have never taken part in an organised run before or if you are a seasoned runner this event is for everyone. This year UoM Sport are working with the UoM Run Wild society to promote this event as well as wider running opportunities. Registration is via the Students' Union website. Entry costs £3 (+£5 if you would like to purchase a purple t-shirt to run in). Once registered you will receive further event day information, have access to training plans and support, and hear first-hand about future PurpleWave events. If you would like to volunteer to support the event please visit our Volunteering in sport page for details on how to get involved. Any enquires please contact us or pop in to the Sport office, located on the first floor of the SU on Oxford Road.

MANCHESTER INTERDISCIPLINARY MATHEMATICS UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE (MIMUC).

PGCE PRIMARY & SECONDARY.

Thinking about teaching? Join our free virtual Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) Information Sessions this March and learn more about our PGCE teacher training for Primary and/or Secondary level at Manchester. The events will cover an overview of the courses, followed by a Q&A session with admissions and academic colleagues. You can find out more about the courses we offer in our PGCE brochure and register here to join our events:

Monday, 7th March 2022, 6-7pm GMT (PGCE Primary)
Tuesday, 29th March 2022, 6-7pm GMT (PGCE Secondary)

ACADEMIC SUCCESS PROGRAMME – JOIN OUR FOCUS GROUPS.

We’re looking for international postgraduate taught or international undergraduate students to take part in our Academic Success Programme Focus Groups. They will take place in March and we want to get your views on how we can improve the Academic Writing classes which the University Language Centre offer as a part of the Academic Success Programme. We want to find out more about what other topics or skills you would like us to cover, and how you would like the sessions to be delivered in the future to get the most out of them. If you take part, you’ll get a gift voucher to thank you for your time. If you are an international student, and interested in giving us your views please fill in the form. For more information on the Academic Success Programme, or if you want to enroll on a course, please click here.

WHITE MALES FOCUS GROUP ON VOLUNTEERING.

The University of Manchester and Students’ Union Volunteering Teams are conducting research into student demographics in volunteering by running a series of focus groups. For this particular focus group we are seeking white male students who do not have much experience with volunteering. The session takes place on Friday 11 March, 1:30 - 2:30pm at the Students’ Union. It will last no longer than an hour, and you will receive a £10 Love2shop voucher for your time. We will be hosting the session in-person, and support is available for any accessibility requirements. If you are interested in taking part, please complete this short form by no later than Monday 7 March. You will be contacted by email to confirm your place on the session. For any questions, support completing the form, or access requirements, please contact the University of Manchester Volunteering Team.

LIBRARY:

INCREASE IN STUDY SPACES. The library has increased the number of study space available at various locations around the campus, including the main library and the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons. They have also introduced a new learning space in Prospect House, which can be found next to the IT building (the white building), so not far to walk for CS students! This space is currently open Monday to Friday from 9am to 8pm. You can find out more here.

UCU STRIKE ACTION.

The University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics and support staff in UK universities, will be holding more strikes this week from Monday 28th February - Wednesday 2nd March, which may have an impact on your teaching during these periods. Members of UCU have voted to strike over pay and working conditions. You can find out more information here, there also more information about the strikes on the Manchester Students’ Union webpages.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Highs and Lows by RK2793

Normal sudoku rules apply. The cage shows its sum. Symbols on the left of cells indicate if the digit in the cell is lower (-) or higher (+) than the cell on its left. Symbols at the top of cells do the same comparing to the cell above. Clues to the left of the grid sum all cells in the row which only have - signs. Clues above the grid sum all cells in the column which only have + signs.

Bonus Puzzle - Creek by Iwa Daigeki

Tint the grey boxes of the chart black or white. The number in a circle indicates how many of the orthogonal neighbouring fields are to be blackened. All white squares must form a single orthogonally contiguous area.

Chess Puzzle - Baadur Vs. Andrei, 2021

Drag and drop the Black pieces to draw the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week Puzzles

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 3 • Monday 21 February 2022 • #21.19

Paul pic

Good morning, it’s Monday 21st February and it’s week 3. I hope everything is going okay so far!! The University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics and staff in the University, will be holding a series of strikes starting this week (Monday and Tuesday), which may have an impact on some teaching activities. We have a meeting of the student-staff liaison committee on Wednesday (23rd Feb) so please contact a rep if you have any issues that you would like to raise (or to report something positive!). Finally, Manchester has been recognised as the most targeted by the UK's top 100 graduate employers.

Have a good week … on with the rest of today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Living Cost Support Fund. The Living Cost Support Fund, open to all students, is designed to help students experiencing financial hardship to ensure no one is struggling whilst studying at The University of Manchester. This has become increasingly prevalent due to COVID-19, resulting in the government distributing an additional £50 million to assist students. The fund is designed to help as many students as possible, so if you feel that you are struggling to make ends meet and cover essential daily living costs, please apply, whereby you will be assessed to determine what kind of assistance may be offered to you. Before you do so, you should have accessed all other sources of funding available to you, including your full entitlement of student loans. The fund cannot assist with the cost of tuition fees for any student. The University funds are discretionary with a maximum non-repayable award of £2,000. Awards are granted on a case-by-case basis after consideration of each application, and we cannot guarantee financial support to every student who applies. The Living Cost Support Fund for the 2021/2022 academic year is still open and available to all students to apply to via a portal on MyManchester. You can find out more about your eligibility, what you may be entitled to and the application process on the university website. If you have any further queries or concerns, please contact us.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, and online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: It's never too early to start putting your name down for things for next year! If you think helping on the PASS 1 team next year sounds like something you want to get involved with, the recruitment form is now open. As ever, PASS 1 sessions are at 12pm this Wednesday. If you need a refresher of where your group is meeting, you can check the allocation sheet here. The scheme evaluation form is still open, so if you have any feedback (both positive and negative!) we'd love to hear about it.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (24th February) we’ll talk about how to increase your grade for Software Engineering 2 and how to use the Software Engineering modules’ content in interviews and industry. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) and on zoom! Hope to see you all there! Also, our scheme’s evaluation is up so... second year students: it's your turn to tell us what you think about PASS2 so far: scheme evaluation form.

MY ATTENDANCE.

New semester, new check-ins! Don’t forget to check in for your all of your timetabled activities through my.manchester. It is important you do this as we use this information to spot students who we feel are not engaging with teaching activities and so that remedial action if required. We will be using this system much more this semester so please remember to check-in for your classes. If you run into any issues checking-in please contact SSO.

UNICS.

Hello everyone, we are in the process of organising our first in person hackathon in over two years. We would appreciate it if you could fill in this quick anonymous survey so that we can tailor our events/sponsors. It should take no more than a minute to fill it in. Many thanks, Jeremy and Luke (Hackathon Co-Directors)

CRACKCHESTER.

We at Crackchester want to thank everyone who attended our 'intro to pwning' workshop this week. It was great to see so many of you face to face! We'd also like to thank Nathan for hosting an amazing workshop! We have plenty more workshops on the way so be sure to follow us on our socials to make sure you don't miss out! Don't forget, we still host our weekly meet-up every Thursday in Atlas 2 of the Kilburn building. Be sure to drop by and say hello! As usual it will be held from 4:00pm to 5:00pm. Want to take a more active part in the Crackchester community? We're currently recruiting volunteers to help out a number of the teams we have here at Crackchester. If you're interested, fill out this form, we're always looking for people to help out! We've also released a new episode of the podcast! If you haven't already listened, be sure to check it out. This episode covers what cybersecurity is like at university so be sure to give it a listen here. Follow us on our socials: Crackchester | Linktree. We'll see you next time! The Crackchester Team

MEET A STUDENT REP.

This week’s featured student representative is James Downes (Year 1, CSwIE): “Hi, I’m James. My goal is to bring the Year 1 CS Community together, making sure that everyone is involved and heard. If you ever have any issues with your course or uni life general, I’m always happy to discuss it over a pint.” Please contact James by email if you want to raise any queries about life in the Department, tell us what’s good about what we do, or just want a chat!

COVID TESTING KITS.

You can no longer pick up free COVID testing kits on campus. This decision has been made by the Department of Health and Social Care who have ended the agreement which allows us to distribute free testing kits. Whilst we have been encouraging staff and students to test twice-weekly, we recognise that without access to free testing kits this may no longer be possible. If you do have testing kits available to you, we would recommend you to continue to test twice weekly to help minimise the transmission of COVID-19 on campus.

2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

Just a reminder that the introduction of 2-factor authentication is just around the corner. From Wednesday 9th March 2022, all students (whether on or off campus) will be required to use 2-factor authentication to log in to Blackboard, University email and Microsoft 365. Our 2-factor authentication service is provided by a company called Duo and is already used by all staff and postgraduate research students. Duo has shown great success in helping us stay safe and increasing the University’s security. Look out for communications from IT Services with further information and instructions for you to register for 2-factor authentication, using your smartphone. If you don’t have a smartphone, or you have specific needs that you wish to discuss, please contact the IT Support Centre today, by calling 0161 306 5544. If you’re on campus you can also visit one of the Walk-up IT support desks. If you’re already set up with Duo and have registered a device in the IT Account Manager then you are all set - just make sure you have the Duo App ready on your smartphone. Find out more about 2-factor authentication.

SUSTAINABLE CLOTHES AND BOOK SWAP.

This week is National Student Money Week and the theme this year is ‘Sustainable Spending’. In line with this, the Student Wellbeing Team are running a clothes and book swap on Thursday 24th February, 1pm – 4pm on the ground floor of University Place. Bring any of your unwanted items to join in with this guilt free shopping by coming away with some fabulous freebies. Remember, one person’s trash is another person’s treasure! Check out the @uomwellbeing Instagram account during the week for a collaboration with Want Not Waste. If you’d like to find out about more events happening, be sure to check out the wellbeing events calendar.

MEETING OF THE STUDENT STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE (SSLC).

The first meeting of the SSLC this semester takes place on Wednesday (23rd Feb). If you have any issues that you would like to raise, then please let one of your reps know - you can find contact details on the SSC Blackboard page. The Department is particularly interested in what’s going well, so we can make sure we do more of it. Maybe you want to let us know about a member of staff who you feel is doing a good job teaching, or has gone the extra mile for their students. Please let us know!

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

The coursework deadlines chart, which you can access here, is fully populated with the semester 2 deadlines. 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.

SEMESTER ONE RESULTS.

The semester one exam results will be released by Friday 4th March following the Faculty Exam Board on the 2nd March. Results will be released via the student system and SSO will email to confirm when they are available to view. For further information about semester one results please see the intranet page here. Please note: marks are provisional and may be subject to change, they will be confirmed in the end of year exam boards that will take place in June/July.

HACKER’S HUB.

Hacker's Hub is back! The biggest Crackchester event of the year is back this year bigger and better! With a 48 hour CTF, £100's worth of prizes, talks from some of the biggest companies in the industry. It's simply an opportunity you cannot miss out on! Be sure to keep an eye out for any updates on our social media for dates and times! Follow us on our socials: Crackchester | Linktree.

MANCHESTER INTERDISCIPLINARY MATHEMATICS UNDERGRADUATE CONFERENCE (MIMUC).

LGBT+ HISTORY MONTH.

Our University has celebrated LGBT+ History Month every year since 2010. This year, the month is adopting the theme of Politics in Art. We are staging a programme of events and activities throughout February that will focus on different aspects of LGBT+ inclusion. Events will be delivered on line and are free and open to all staff, students and our community.

Rainbow Day - Wednesday, 23rd February The Athletic Union will be encouraging all clubs to wear rainbow laces, dress up, decorate, run social media campaigns, and anything else they can think of. It’s their main day to celebrate the month!
Him - Her - They - Why do we use pronouns? Navigating the landscape - Thursday, 24th February, 12noon This collaborative event will bring together our University, the GMMH NHS Trust and the LGBT Foundation to explore the use of pronouns to improve inclusion for the LGBT+ community. Register to attend
The Students’ Union LGBTQ society also has a number of events taking place during February.

MUDSS HACKATHON.

The Manchester University Data Science Society is pleased to announce an exciting all-day Hackathon, in collaboration with Peak AI. Everyone is welcome, regardless of your background in data science - whether you're an expert or you'd like to see what it is all about from the beginning! You will not only have a great time meeting like-minded individuals, but also be given a taster into the role of a real life data-scientist! Come and join data scientists from Peak for an exciting hackathon at their Manchester clubhouse! You’ll be using data from one of their customers, allowing you to explore a real life data science problem. You’ll be supported by data scientists from Peak throughout the day, exploring any issues with the data, solving a technical problem, and presenting your results. We will have two options - one “standard” hackathon suitable for anyone that has intermediate Python knowledge, and one “beginners” hackathon for anyone with no or minimal experience with Python. The former will go more into depth with the technical challenge and will be similar to a standard data scientist’s day, whereas the latter will be a gentle introduction into data science and solving a problem using coding. There will be many opportunities for networking and discussing mentoring within Peak, as well as free food and awards! For those of you that are interested in this amazing opportunity, you may sign up using this link. Details of this Hackathon:

Date: Saturday 12th March
Time: 10am to 5pm
Location: Neo Building (M1 4ET)

Hackathons are a fantastic way of gaining invaluable skills that will help accelerate your career in the industry. You would not want to miss out!

PERSPECTIVE 2022.

Perspective 2022 is a week of events this week jointly run by all the Christian unions in Manchester. Whether you've never investigated Christianity before, or have a burning question you want to ask, there's a talk or event here for you; all events are totally free :-). To find out more, check out the website.

GIRLS WHO CODE.

POSTGRADUATE OPEN DAY.

Calling all final year students, do you want to know about postgraduate research, what’s involved, opportunities etc? On Wednesday 23 February, between 2-4pm, the Faculty of Science and Engineering is hosting an in-person postgraduate research open event in MECD. It's the perfect opportunity for students considering their next steps, to meet with supervisors and find out about the funding and projects available across our Departments and CDTs. The event is open to all undergraduate students, it'll be a one-stop-shop of information, with supervisors, admissions colleagues and current PGRs available to answer questions. Right now, it's the single best way for prospective postgraduate researchers to understand what a future in research could look like for them. You can find more information here.

UCU STRIKE ACTION.

The University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics and support staff in UK universities, will be holding a series of strikes over the coming weeks:

Monday 21st - Tuesday 22nd February
Monday 28th February - Wednesday 2nd March

which may have an impact on teaching during these periods. Members of UCU have voted to strike over pay and working conditions. You can find out more information here. You can also find more information on the Manchester Students’ Union webpages.

MANCHESTER MOST TARGETED BY EMPLOYERS.

The University of Manchester has been named the most targeted university by the UK’s top 100 graduate employers, according to The Graduate Market in 2022, an independent annual review of graduate vacancies and starting salaries at the UK’s leading employers. This is the seventeenth year High Flyers Research has produced the independent assessment of the graduate job market. In that time, no other institution has been number one more frequently than The University of Manchester or ranked as consistently amongst the top three. You can find out more here, and the full report can be downloaded here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - The Leaning Tower of ZooZ by Joseph Nehme

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

Bonus Puzzle - Chocona by Kurotento

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. A number in a region indicates how many cells in this region must be blackened. In a region without a number any number of cells may be blackened (also none). The black cells must form rectangular areas, independently of the region borders. The rectangular areas must not touch orthogonally (diagonally is allowed).

Chess Puzzle - Karadeniz Vs. Vokarev, 2003

Drag and drop the Black pieces to draw the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 2 • Monday 14 February 2022 • #21.18

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Good morning UG! It’s Monday 14th February 2022 and it’s week 2. I hope you have settled back into a routine and that you now know your teaching timetable. The deadline for making any course unit choices is 3pm this Friday, so please make sure you have selected your optional course units by this deadline. As a number of students will be using Linux on the Kilburn PCs for the first time, we've provided some advice on how to set up your Linux environment, please read this (see below). We (finally) have a table tennis table in the Department, located in the Turing lounge (Kilburn 1st floor), which was requested by students via SSLC a number of years ago ... better late than never! If you use it, please look after it.

Lots of news today … and have a happy Valentine’s Day!

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Student Union Advice Centre. The Student Union offers advice and support with any wellbeing problems you are facing in a safe and confidential space away from the University. What can they do?

Give free, impartial and confidential advice or simply offer a place to talk.
Provide free contraception and sexual health tests
Help you report a hate crime, and give you advice and support if you have been the victim of a hate crime.
Provide confidential advice and support if you have been a victim of sexual assault.
Help you understand University procedures around bullying, harassment and discrimination.

You can find more information on their website. Remember you can always contact the Student Support Office in Computer Science for any advice or help at any time.

HATE CRIME.

Last week was Greater Manchester’s Hate Crime Awareness Week. Hate crimes are acts of violence directed towards someone because of who they are. No one should face hate, violence or abuse because of who they are, who they love, where they’re from, what they look like or what they believe. No hate crime is acceptable. We all have a right to live without fear, hostility & intimidation. This includes physical violence and the use of offensive language and/or harassment towards you or someone else for who they are. If you’ve been a victim or witness of hate crime, you can report it via the University’s Report and Support Service, www.letsendhatecrime.com, or call 101 to report a hate crime anywhere in Greater Manchester. If for whatever reason you don’t want to report it, you are not alone; the university has resources to listen and help you such as the Counselling and Mental Health Service and you can also anonymously report through Report and Support. If you need further advice or support, don’t hesitate to head over to the student support website.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Considering being a PASS leader or coordinator next year? Peer Support are running a student engagement week this week full of sessions that explain different roles and how you can get involved. View all the different events, when they're running, and book on here. PASS 1 sessions are on as normal again this Wednesday at 12pm (not at 1pm, as some timetables seem to suggest). If you need to check where you're meeting, the room allocation form is here. The scheme evaluation form is still open so please fill it in if you haven't yet to help us.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (17th February) we’ll run a fun and interactive recap session about second year and industry! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks). Hope to see you all there!

MEET A STUDENT REP.

This week’s featured student representative is Akhilendra Sabherwal (Year 1, CMwIE): “Hi I'm Akhilendra Sabherwal, I am doing Computer Science and Mathematics. I love watching F1 and playing golf. If you have any issues or some feedback just drop in a mail. I look forward to helping out you with any problems you might come across.” Please contact Akhilendra by email if you want to raise any queries about life in the Department, tell us what’s good about what we do, or just want a chat!

TABLE TENNIS TABLE.

A number of years ago a request came through the Student-Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) for a table tennis table in the Department. I’m pleased to say that after a number of years of delay (building work and then COVID), we have now installed a table tennis table in the Turing Lounge (1st floor Kilburn) that is free for anyone to use. Please look after it, bats and balls are provided. A risk assessment is provided, so please read this. Have fun!

2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

2-factor authentication is coming soon for students. From Wednesday 9th March 2022, all students (whether on or off campus) will be required to use 2-factor authentication to log in to Blackboard, University email and Microsoft 365. Why are we making this change? Passwords are increasingly easy to compromise. They can often be stolen, guessed, or hacked – you might not even know if someone is accessing your account. 2-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security by requiring two types of information before you can log in. These two types include entering your password (as you already do) and then confirming your login, usually through an app on your phone or through a different device. Our 2-factor authentication service is provided by a company called Duo and is already used by all staff and postgraduate research students. Duo has shown great success in helping us stay safe and increasing the University’s security. What next? From mid-February, look out for communications from IT Services with further information and instructions for you to register for 2-factor authentication, using your smartphone. If you don’t have a smartphone, or you have specific needs that you wish to discuss, please contact the IT Support Centre today, by calling 0161 306 5544. If you’re on campus you can also visit one of the Walk-up IT support desks. If you’re already set up with Duo and have registered a device in the IT Account Manager then you are all set - just make sure you have the Duo App ready on your smartphone. Find out more on about 2-factor authentication

MANCHESTER STUDENT HOMES.

If you are returning to Manchester next academic year, now is time when you need to start thinking of finding accommodation. 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, put you in contact with accredited landlords, help with finding a flatmate, or even check contracts for you. They are running drop-in housing surgeries where you will be able to get information on all things housing between 12 - 2 pm on:

Thursday 24th February
Thursday 7th March
Friday 8th April

See this article for further information.

BIKE THEFT.

There has recently been an increase in bike thefts around the campus. So, if you cycle into the University please be vigilant. If you see anyone suspicious then you can alert the University Security Team using the phone number on the back of your student ID, or by using the SafeZone app. The University offers a free bike marking service where your bike will be marked with a unique anti-tamper serial number that can be traced by Greater Manchester Police. Marking sessions take place regularly on campus. You can also purchase a gold standard ‘D’ lock for £15 under the University funded subsidised lock scheme. See this article for further information.

NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY - NSS.

If you are a final year student, now is the time to have your say as the NSS survey for 2022 is now open and we need your views. All students eligible to complete the NSS will receive an email from Ipsos Mori with a link to the survey, but you can also go directly to the NSS website and complete the survey at any time. We do understand that feedback requests can just feel like another ‘ask’ on your time; but we also know that you will have views on your student experience – and we really want to hear about them. During your studies here we have experienced many unforeseen and rapid changes to the way we operate, and to us this means it’s more important than ever that we listen and really understand what has worked for you, and what may not have worked so well. We’re really hoping that your views can help us to enhance our provision and make the improvements that matter to students. Thank you for your time (and views). Each year, we make a charitable donation for each completed response, and this year we’re really pleased to have been able to double that donation to £2 per response. In January, we asked you to choose which charities and, thanks to your votes, the following organisations will benefit from this year’s NSS campaign:

The survey only takes 5 minutes and is completely anonymous. Further information about the NSS is available from your School or the NSS website. For more information about surveys and feedback in general visit Your Say.

REPORTING ISSUES WITH THE KILBURN/IT BUILDING ENVIRONMENT.

If you are experiencing issues with (for example) the heating in the Kilburn/IT buildings (a room is too hot or too cold), or you see broken furniture, slip/trip hazards etc, then please report these to the Department using the following form. Please note: you should only use this for reporting issues in the Kilburn and IT buildings, DO NOT use it to report issues in other buildings. This form should also NOT BE USED for reporting issues with the IT infrastructure (such as broken PCs, login issues etc), which should be reported to IT Services through the Service Portal.

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT WEEK.

This week is student engagement week, a fantastic and full week of student facing events to boost excitement for, and engagement with, Peer Support and Student Partnership, and to start thinking about recruitment for our next cohort of students! The week kicks off with our Demystifying PASS and Peer Mentoring panels. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions about everything PASS or Peer Mentoring to a panel of current PASS Leaders or Peer Mentors. These panels will be running both in person and online. We are also running a How to Become a Student Partner panel on Wednesday 16th February. An opportunity for students to ask an in-person panel of current and previous Student Partners all their questions about what a Student Partner is, what the role entails and how to get involved. All are welcome, so if you are interested click this link to sign-up to the events.

SEMESTER ONE RESULTS.

BLACKBOARD ISSUES.

If some of your course units are missing from your Blackboard space then please raise a help desk ticket using the online system. Tickets should be assigned to “FSE eLearning” and you should include the code for the course unit you are not seeing, along with your student ID number. IT Services are hoping to sort out any issues within 24-48 hours of being reported.

LINUX IN THE MANCHESTER ENGINEERING BUILDING CLUSTERS.

You may have noticed that the PCs in the Manchester Engineering Building clusters do not have Linux installed. However, you can run the VM Linux image virtually on these machines through your University OneDrive. Information on how to do this can be found here.

LINUX SETUP.

As a large number of students will be logging into the Kilburn machines for the first time, then it’s important you configure your Linux account properly. We’ve produced some guidance on how to set up your Linux profile so that when you login to a machine you go straight into the Linux window manager, and when you log out of the window manager, it logs you out of the machine. You can find this information in Blackboard. We strongly suggest that 1st and 2nd years update their Linux profile following this advice.

COURSE UNIT CHOICES.

The deadline for choosing/changing your Semester 2 course units on the University system is 3pm Friday 18th February. Please do this urgently, because the size of a course unit cohort has implications on room bookings and we need to finalise the timetable ASAP. See full details and instructions. Please note that some units may have a maximum enrolment capacity, and this is stated on the relevant syllabus pages. If you have any issues or need help, then please contact SSO.

UNICS EVENT:

PEAK AI. Hi everyone! We are really excited to announce that Peak AI will be joining UNICS on the 23rd of February to host a career booth, share their experience tackling the startup market in a talk and later on will even be hosting a pub quiz at The Turing Tap! Peak AI is an award winning technology company that is working to build the world's first Decision Intelligence Platform and aims to make AI more accessible to all. Whether you’re interested in getting some career advice, learning more about startups and Peak AI or simply having some fun at a pub quiz this is the event for you! You can join in at any time or stay with us the whole time. This event is open to all. Learn more about Peak's graduate scheme here.

EW BRIGHTSPARKS.

Each year Electronics Weekly and RS Components run EW BrightSparks, our annual awards to highlight the brightest and most talented young electronics engineers in the UK - 30 or so young electronics engineers who are already making waves. Basically, it is to highlight and celebrate the impressive work achieved already by young people. EW BrightSparks is now in its fifth year, and once again we are looking for the engineers who are already making a difference in the first years of their careers, or those who are still studying but showing the promise to become the innovators and leaders in electronics in the years to come. This year, we are particularly interested to hear from those who have:

Applied electronics know-how in the field of sustainability and the environment
Started their own electronics business
Demonstrated ingenious ways of safeguarding health or preventing the spread of Covid-19
Participated in STEM activities to spread knowledge, information and understanding

Nominations must be received by 1 April 2022, so start your entries now! More details, and the entry form can be found here.

FIRST INSIGHTS CONFERENCE.

Calling all first years! The First Insights Conference is here to help you get ahead in thinking about your career. This interactive, online event (taking place on Wednesday 16 March, 1-5pm) will give you the chance to:

Hear about three different sectors that interest you
Gain valuable insights from employers and alumni working in those industries
Find out how you can build the skills and experience you need during your time at uni.

Places are limited this year! Register here before Wednesday, 9th March 2022 to secure your place.

BLUEDOT FESTIVAL.

The bluedot festival returns to Jodrell Bank Observatory from 21st - 24th July 2022. The award-winning music, science and culture festival returns to the iconic surroundings of Jodrell Bank after a three-year hiatus. Speakers include Jim Al-Khalili and Professor David Olusoga, along with a great music line up including Bjork, Groove Armada and Metronomy. Find out ticket information including camping options on the bluedot website along with details of the full line-up.

STUDENT VIEWS ON WELCOME WEEK.

The University would like to explore your experiences and ideas for Welcome Week. What do you value in Welcome and how can we communicate the different pieces of key information across that period? You will work with other students to shape this and feed into the future development of Welcome Week. To thank you for your time, you will be reimbursed with a £10 voucher. For undergraduate students, this consultation will count as 1 of the 3 consultations needed to achieve Student Consultant award on your HEAR (Higher Education Achievement Record). Join us in our workshop on Wednesday 23rd February 1-2.30pm in the Simon Building to help shape the future of Welcome, to sign up please follow the link to our Qualtrics form. If you have any questions please email.

LEADMCR.

Applications are NOW OPEN for LeadMCR! LeadMCR is a yearly event where we hire our new Officer team. It’s your chance to take control of the student experience at the University of Manchester. The Exec Officers are the top tier of the Union’s student roles! They represent all students and influence their experience throughout the University and wider city. It’s the hottest “grad scheme” you’ve never heard of. As an Officer you could host award shows, go on national TV and radio, create blogs, vlogs and TikToks, and even organise some major events such as Reclaim the Night. The possibilities are endless. Better yet, Officer’s get paid £20,403 per year and get 30 days holiday + closure days! It’s really easy. Just put yourself forward, tell us your ideas, and get your peers to vote for you. It’s your city, university, and union … and we could do better. So come and show us how. If you’ve been looking for something to do after uni, then this is it! These roles give you the power to lead your union and make the city yours. If 2021 made you stop and question those in power, why not get a job that can make an impact. Applications are open NOW and close on the 21st February.

UPCOMING STRIKE ACTION.

The University and College Union (UCU), which represents academics and support staff in UK universities will be holding a series of strikes over the coming weeks:

Monday 21st - Tuesday 22nd February
Monday 28th February - Wednesday 2nd March

which may have on your teaching during these periods. Members of UCU have voted to strike over pay and working conditions. You can find out more information here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Arrow Canal View by Abed Hawila

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow must sum to the digit in that arrow’s circle. Shade some cells so that all shaded cells form one orthogonally connected area. Arrow circles are the clues for a “Canal View” puzzle. Ie They cannot be shaded, and represent the number of shaded cells connected in a straight line horizontally or vertically to the clue. No 2x2 region may be entirely shaded. Additionally, digits cannot repeat within unshaded regions.

Bonus Puzzle - Snake by Otto Janko

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. The black cells must form a single "snake" which is exactly one cell wide, starts and ends in the marked cells and never touches itself, not even diagonally. A number on the top and left edge of the diagram indicates how many cells must be blackened in the corresponding row or column.

Chess Puzzle - Kurtesch Vs. Flesch, 1966

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 1 • Monday 7 February 2022 • #21.17

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Good morning UG! It’s Monday 7th February 2022 and it’s the start of semester 2 (week 1). I hope you managed to take some time off and relax last week. It’s a new semester, so you have a new timetable to follow. You should check your personal timetable regularly over the next few few weeks, as it may change as the number of students enrolled on course units settles down. Please continue to keep safe on campus and respect your fellow students and staff by continuing to wear face masks when inside university buildings, in lectures, labs etc. It’s a packed Monday Mail today, and a welcome return of Gareth’s Puzzle Corner after its Christmas break.

Please continue to keep safe … on with today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

STAYING SAFE ON CAMPUS.

The University recently wrote to you about Staying safe following the lifting of COVID restrictions. The delivery of on-campus teaching and learning in Semester 2 will take place under the control measures described in the risk assessments below. These control measures are in place to keep students and staff safe, and so please familiarise yourself with the risk assessments relevant to your programme. The key points regarding the wearing of face coverings are summarised below:

We strongly recommend that everyone wears a face covering while moving around indoors on-campus
We expect that face coverings are worn in lecture theatres and large teaching spaces
There are spaces where face coverings are mandatory and these are identified in the risk assessments

Students and staff who have an Occupational Health approved exemption from wearing a face covering will be issued with lanyards to indicate the exemption and avoid them being challenged. The Risk Assessments are:

The University will review the restrictions again on the 21st February and any changes will be communicated to all students.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

NIGHTLINE. Greater Manchester Nightline is a confidential listening and information service run for students by students. They offer anonymous, non-judgemental and non-directive support for all callers, regardless of the situation. You can talk about anything you like. As well as the listening service, Nightline can also provide information, such as contact numbers for a wide range of places. Just give Nightline a ring and ask – it’s as easy as that! You can contact Nightline by phone or instant message. Find out more about and see contact information on their website. They are also currently recruiting volunteers if you want to get involved. They provide full training which takes place from the start of February. See more details on their website.

DID YOU HAVE YOUR COVID-19 VACCINATION OVERSEAS?

If you had your COVID-19 vaccination overseas and would like this recorded in the UK (for use on COVID passes etc) then you can visit a pilot clinic in Manchester this week to have your overseas vaccination recorded on your GP record. See this article for more information.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) Tuesday 12:00 - 13:00, amd Online - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello First years, PASS sessions are coming back this semester, starting this week!. Find the locations of each PASS group here. Also please fill the scheme evaluation form so we can improve the scheme and direct sessions to cater to your needs and preferences. See you on Wednesday.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope your exams went well and you had a lovely break! This Thursday (10th February) we will talk about our opinions on your Semester 2 modules. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks). Hope to see you all there!

2-FACTOR AUTHENTICATION.

Why are we making this change? Passwords are increasingly easy to compromise. They can often be stolen, guessed, or hacked – you might not even know if someone is accessing your account. 2-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security by requiring two types of information before you can log in. These two types include entering your password (as you already do) and then confirming your login, usually through an app on your phone or through a different device. Our 2-factor authentication service is provided by a company called Duo and is already used by all staff and postgraduate research students. Duo has shown great success in helping us stay safe and increasing the University’s security.

What next? From mid-February, look out for communications from IT Services with further information and instructions for you to register for 2-factor authentication, using your smartphone. If you don’t have a smartphone, or you have specific needs that you wish to discuss, please contact the IT Support Centre today, by calling 0161 306 5544. If you’re on campus you can also visit one of the Walk-up IT support desks. If you’re already set up with Duo and have registered a device in the IT Account Manager then you are all set - just make sure you have the Duo App ready on your smartphone. Find out more on about 2-factor authentication.

ATTENDANCE MONITORING.

We’d like to remind you as teaching is about to start to check in on the Attendance Monitoring System. The reasons for monitoring attendance are to

support academic attainment and progression,
to ensure student wellbeing
to satisfy reporting requirements to accredited programmes and external bodies such as the Student Loans Company, UK Visas and Immigration, and third-party sponsors.

Students will be expected to attend - and check into - all timetabled activities as part of their course whether on-campus or online. The only exceptions to this are optional/drop-in activities, which will be clearly shown on your timetable (and not available to check-into from My Attendance). Many of you have questioned why you have to check in your attendance in the first place, we are not checking up on you, it’s for your own wellbeing. It gives us an accurate picture of attendance and engagement so our student support teams can use the data to ensure that we can identify, reach out and help students who are having problems, whether those are welfare, personal or academic related issues. We have lots of help and information about how to use the online attendance system, and you can access this through the links below. If you have any questions or need help using it, please email compsci-sso-ug@manchester.ac.uk and one of the team will get back to you. For information about the system click on this link My Attendance | Welcome to Manchester | The University of Manchester. From this page you can link the Video portal of The University of Manchester, a video guide to using the Attendance Monitoring System and list of FAQs which includes how to access on a mobile device.

MEET A STUDENT REP.

This week’s featured student representative is Ignes Simeonova (Year 2, CS): “Hey! I am Ignes from Bulgaria! About tech stuff, I am the most passionate about C++, algorithms, and Math. About hobbies, I like philosophy, linguistics, literature. I play volleyball, regular and table tennis, and the violin (any Twoset fans here??). Please feel free to reach out to me to share any concerns or talk about anything!” Please contact Ignes by email if you want to raise any queries about life in the Department, tell us what’s good about what we do, or just want a chat!

STUDENT SUCCESS AND ENGAGEMENT.

In Student Success and Engagement, we have been looking forward to and planning our Student Engagement Week! This will be a fantastic and full week of 17 different student facing events, put on by our joint teams, to boost excitement for and engagement with Peer Support and Student Partnership as we head into 2nd semester and start thinking about recruitment for our next cohort of students! The week will kick start on Monday 14th February with our Demystifying PASS and Peer Mentoring panels. This is an opportunity for you to ask questions about everything PASS or Peer Mentoring to a panel of current PASS Leaders or Peer Mentors. These panels will be running both in person and online. We are also running a How to Become a Student Partner panel during the week on Wednesday 16th February. An opportunity for students to ask an in-person panel of current and previous Student Partners all their questions about what a Student Partner is, what the role entails and how to get involved. All are welcome, so if you are interested click this link to sign-up to the events.

KILBURN LAB MACHINES.

The issues with slow PCs in the Kilburn building should now have been alleviated. If you are having problems logging into one of our lab machines, or if you find a machine that is not working, then you can request support via IT services. Go to the IT Services Support website, login using your university credentials, select ‘Request Support’ then ‘General request or IT Issue’ (you may need to scroll down), in the popup window that appears, click ‘Request’. You should enter your university username and for the question ‘Are you reporting a fault of experiencing issues’ select ‘Yes’. Fill in the remaining form, including as much detail as possible, such as the hostname of the machine (you can find this on the machine, or at the common line in Linux), and error message you receive etc. Then select 'Review & Submit', then finally ‘Submit’. Please note that a typical mistake is for a student to use the wrong username to login, this should be just ab1234rc without adding @manchester.ac.uk.

CRACKCHESTER.

Hi all, we at Crackchester want to firstly congratulate you all on completing this exam season! It's been a tough time for us all but now it's time to kick off semester two. We have some big projects in the works so make sure to keep an eye out ;-) Want to help out? Become a crackchester volunteer! We're always looking for a helping hand, just fill out the form and we'll be in touch! Don't forget, we're still hosting our weekly meetup from 2-4pm on Thursday in the Kilburn building but this week it is being held in Atlas 2 on the first floor (check out the map below where to find us). Make sure to pop by for snacks and to say hello! Stay up to date with the latest news and updates on our social media here! We hope you have a great start to Semester 2! The Crackchester Team.

FLEXIBLE LEARNING,

WHAT SHOULD THE FUTURE OF TEACHING & LEARNING LOOK LIKE? Let us know how we can make the move to more blended and flexible learning a success for you. All you need to do is complete our online form - it’s a real chance to make your voice heard and shape the future of our University. Read the full story and access the form here. You have until 16th February 2022 to let us know your views. The form will take a maximum of 15 minutes to complete.

GETTING READY FOR THE START OF THE SEMESTER.

The second semester is here. You’ve probably noticed that the academic year is going very quickly and, before you know it, it will be the end of the year. How do you make sure you don’t fall into the same traps as in semester 1? How can you improve on how the 1st semester went? Why not have a look at the advice provided here.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES CHART.

The coursework deadlines chart, which you can access here, has been updated to show the deadlines across all COMP course units for semester 2 (see the relevant year sheet for semester 2). The deadline chart aims to give you an overview of your deadlines and to help you plan your time, as you will see that depending upon to the course units you are taking, you may have a number of deadleins around the same time/week. 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.

MUDSS:

CLIMATE HACK AI. Mohammed Rashid writes: After the success of our last event, we are pleased to announce the upcoming Climate Hackathon for this semester! MUDSS has teamed up with Climate Hack AI, to bring you the biggest event of this year. We, alongside 24 other universities (e.g. Cambridge, Harvard, Toronto), have been invited to participate in this challenge. The main focus of this challenge will be to create a model, using a dataset based on the UK'S electricity consumption, to reduce carbon emissions and fight climate change. Participants have two months to apply cutting-edge machine learning techniques in order to develop the best satellite imagery prediction algorithm for use in solar photovolatic output forecasting. The competition launched on the 28th January, and the top three participants from MUDSS will be invited to an all-expense paid trip to London to compete in the finals towards the end of March, with the grand prize being upwards of £50,000! The winning entry has the chance to be deployed by the UK National Grid Electricity System Operator to minimise the use of standby gas turbines, potentially resulting in carbon emission savings of up to 100 kilotonnes a year. You may enter, or find further details through their website. There is also a discord available for all participants which you may join. This is not an opportunity you would want to miss. Best of luck to everyone entering!

STUDENT VOLUNTEERING WEEK.

This week (the 7th – 13th February 2022) sees the return of Student Volunteering Week – a celebration of all things volunteering. The University and Students’ Union have teamed up again to recognise our student volunteers and to encourage those who don’t already volunteer to give it a go. Across the week there’s a host of information sessions and opportunities to get involved with. See the full programme of events here. There’s the ‘Get Into Volunteering 2.0 Fair’ to help you get started, as well as opportunities to try volunteering every day! From a gardening workshop led by Incredible Edible, to helping map remote areas of Uganda, or packing toiletries to be distributed to homeless women – our events show the variety of opportunities volunteering can bring. Wednesday 9 February 2022 is our Big Volunteer Day! This year we’re cleaning and greening in Moss Side. Alongside local residents, we’ll be cleaning and tidying improving the space for residents, wildlife and for everyone passing by! Take a look at the results from a similar previous day in our video. If you’ve been thinking of volunteering, or you’re just not sure if volunteering is your thing – Student Volunteering week is a great, no-pressure way to explore the benefits of volunteering (for you, your CV and your community) and the variety of opportunities out there. And if you’re already one of our student volunteers don’t forget this week is also about celebrating everything you do. We want to shout about your massive commitment to helping others – so we’re asking everyone to log their volunteering hours on Volunteer Hub to see if we can reach 15,000 hours by the end of the week!

WHERE HAVE ALL THE WOMEN GONE?

This from Duncan Hull: Join us today (7th February at 2pm GMT for the latest Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE) meeting to discuss widening participation for Women in Computing. Computing is too important to be left to men, but where have all the women gone? While women continue to play a key role in computing they are currently under-represented in Computer Science. How can we change this and what evidence is there for practices that get more women into computing? Join us to discuss the subject via a paper by Briana Morrison et al, on Monday 7th February at 2pm GMT. Here is the abstract of the paper:

“Computing has, for many years, been one of the least demographically diverse STEM fields, particularly in terms of women’s participation. The last decade has seen a proliferation of research exploring new teaching techniques and their effect on the retention of students who have historically been excluded from computing. This research suggests interventions and practices that can affect the inclusiveness of the computer science classroom and potentially improve learning outcomes for all students. But research needs to be translated into practice, and practices need to be taken up in real classrooms. The current paper reports on the results of a focused systematic "state-of-the-art" review of recent empirical studies of teaching practices that have some explicit test of the impact on women in computing. Using the NCWIT Engagement Practices Framework as a means of organisation, we summarise this research, outline the practices that have the most empirical support, and suggest where additional research is needed.”

We will be meeting on zoom, details and paper are at sigcse.cs.manchester.ac.uk. (Public domain image of Margaret Hamilton standing next to a print out of software that she and her MIT team produced for the Apollo Guidance Computer in 1969 via Wikimedia Commons)

CELEBRATE LBQT+ HISTORY MONTH.

February is LBQT+ history month which has been celebrated in the University every year since 2010. There are plenty of events and activities to get involved with that will be delivered online and free and open to students, as well as staff and the community. You can find some suggestions how you can be involved here, and a full list of events can be found here.

MUDSS:

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY DATA SCIENCE SOCIETY. Mikhail Konovalov writes: The Data Science society (MUDSS) is pleased to announce a brand new role opportunity. At MUDSS, we recognise that our members need a way to direct all their thoughts and ideas to us, to help better and improve the society. That is why, we are looking for a team of enthusiastic first year students, to represent and be a voice for all members.

There are a few responsibilities:

Share news about MUDSS’ upcoming events.
Attract people to MUDSS’ workshops and events.
Socialising with members during the workshop.

The key benefits are:

You can meet new, like-minded people.
Learn new skills and gain industry knowledge.
Improve your CV and employability, as you learn to work as part of a team.

This role is only available for students in their first academic year. If you wish to apply, fill out the form here. If you have any questions about what the society does, look at the website linked above and if you still have questions, email us. Thank you for your application and good luck, The MUDSS Team.

ANNUAL START-UP COMPETITION – NOW OPEN FOR APPLICATIONS.

Do you want to start your own business? Here's your chance to win up to £10,000 and make it a reality with our annual start-up competition. Turn your ideas into reality and win significant early-stage funding to start your own business. It’s not all about the cash though. This competition will introduce you to a world of support programmes, workshops, mentors and networks to grow your ideas. If you have a viable business proposal then get involved. Just visit the VFA22 webpages where you can apply online and find out more. The deadline for applications is midday Thursday, 24th February 2022.

STUDENT WELLBEING CHAMPION LAUNCH.

Do you have a passion for wellbeing? Would you be interested in organising wellbeing events and promoting the six ways to wellbeing to your course or school? If this is you, why not apply to become a Student Wellbeing Champion! Becoming a Student Wellbeing Champion is a fantastic volunteering opportunity that will allow you to make a real difference to your own wellbeing and the wellbeing of others. Being a champion would also count towards the Step up and Lead section of the Stellify award and will be recorded on your HEAR. Applications open on Monday 31st January and close on Sunday 13th January. You can find out how to apply here.

THE HULT PRIZE.

This from Rishi Ravikumar: Do you want the chance to win $1,000,000 for your startup idea? Join the Hult Prize competition today! What is the Hult Prize? The Hult Prize foundation has brought impact focused programs, events, and training to over a million students globally, creating a pathway for youth everywhere to take action to build a better world and it is a disruptive global leader in social entrepreneurship and youth empowerment for the 21st century. The annual competition for the Hult Prize aims to build and launch the most compelling social business ideas—start-up enterprises that tackle grave issues faced by millions of people every day. The winning team will receive USD 1 million in seed capital, as well as mentorship and advice from the Hult Prize community. The next winner could be from the University of Manchester… and it could be you! The first step is to sign up for the the OnCampus stage, which is taking place at the University of Manchester. After that, you could qualify directly to the regional summits, and after that, the Global accelerator. You have until the 5th of March to come up with an idea (if you haven’t already), assemble a team and submit an application for the competition. Sign up by clicking this link. We will have multiple introductory events in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out for notifications from us! Check out our website for more information. For any queries, please send an email.

NEW STUDY SPACES.

The Library team is delighted to see more and more students back on campus and studying in Library sites again. The Library has installed 250 new study spaces at Main Library and the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons. The new spaces include individual desk spaces, focused study booths and tables for group work and discussion. Study spaces have also been added to the Library Lounge.

The team needs your help to make sure all Library sites provide pleasant places to study. When you’re in a Library site, please:

only bring in cold food
put your litter in the bins provided or take it away with you
clear your study space before you leave
wear a mask, unless you are exempt

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - A Meandering Path by 10feet

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits on a line must be between the digits in the connected circles, i.e. greater than the lower of the two circled digits and lower than the greater of the two circled digits. Digits connected by a black dot must have a ratio of 2:1. Not all possible dots are given.

Bonus Puzzle - Creek by Otto Janko

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. A number in a circle indicates how many of the 4 adjacent cells must be blackened. All white cells must form a single orthogonally contiguous area .

Chess Puzzle - Labunskiy Vs. Davydov, 1982

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Semester 1 Week 12 puzzles

The answers to the semester 1 week 12 puzzles can be found here.

Post Exams Week • Monday 31 January 2022 • #21.16

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Good morning UG! It’s Monday 31st January 2022. The exams have now finished (hurrah!), I hope they went well. We hope to release the results in the first week of March. You have a free week this week, as semester 2 teaching starts on Monday 7th February (next week). Just a reminder that we no do not offer a remote learning option in semester 2, and that all students are now expected to be in Manchester and attending teaching activities on-campus. Enjoy your week off, make sure you take a break and make the most of your free week!

Please continue to keep safe … on with today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID UPDATE & SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

While restrictions have lifted, and a sense of normality is returning, we are still in a pandemic and it is important that we move forward with caution to protect ourselves, each other, and the most vulnerable in our society. This means:

We strongly recommend everyone wears a face covering while moving around indoors on campus. We expect that you will wear face coverings in lecture theatres and large teaching spaces, and they may be required in other areas – this will be indicated by clear signage. Face coverings will be available in all teaching spaces and other locations around campus. This recommendation regarding face-coverings will be reviewed in the week beginning 21 February.
Social distancing is no longer legally required, however please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.
Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser dispensers will still be available at key points around campus.

In addition, we encourage you to:

Get vaccinated if you can: A recent student survey told us that 95% of students are already either fully or partially vaccinated, but if you’re still looking to get your first or second jab we can support you.
Get tested twice a week (even if you have no symptoms): Testing kits will be available from catering outlets on campus. If you have COVID-19 symptoms or test positive, you’re legally required to self-isolate. Find out more in our self-isolation guidance for students.

You can find more information about our COVID-19 guidance and staying safe on campus on our Health, Wellbeing and Safety webpage. You can see the recent announcement here.

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.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

ResLife. If you live in University of Manchester Halls of Residence then check out your local ResLife team who live onsite and can help you get all the support and guidance you need during your stay. ResLife can offer support relating to your mental and physical wellbeing, your safety on campus and adjusting to life in a new place. They also organise lots of fun events and extracurricular activities to help you meet people, make friends and feel at home in Manchester.

FINANCIAL SUPPORT.

Are you struggling financially? Help is available through the University through a number of routes, such as the Living Cost Support Fund, which exist due to donations from alumni and friends, and can provide support if you are experiencing unforeseen circumstances or financial hardship, either as a result of the COVID-19 crisis or otherwise. It can be used to help overcome food insecurity, supporting with utility bills, and addressing any other issues arising from financial hardship. It is open to ALL students and is open all year round and can award grants to help you overcome financial hardship or unforeseen expenses. You can find more information on the student financial support webpage.

SAFEZONE //www.welcome.manchester.ac.uk/get-ready/health-wellbeing-safety/safezone/">Safezone is our mobile app designed to provide you with enhanced security and assistance whilst studying or living on campus. The app is free to download and easy to use. You can use it to:

'Check in' any time of day – tell us where you are on campus 24/7

Quickly and discreetly call for assistance – whether it’s for first aid or in an emergency

Keep up to date – notifications sent directly to your phone if there is an incident on campus

Contact our COVID-19 helpline – ask questions, report concerns or inform us of a positive COVID-19 test

Further information about Safezone and how to register can be found online here.

IT'S TIME TO TALK!

If you wish to talk to us about any difficulties with your mental health, or if you just fancy a chat with someone, then why not join us in the Ground Floor Blended Learning Room (GA.056 next to the Collaborate Cafe) in the Engineering Building? Our Student Support/Welfare Officers and Student Experience Staff will be there and are happy to talk to anyone about their concerns. This drop-in session will take place on Thursday 3rd February between 9:00-12:30, and refreshments will be available! Why is Time to Talk Day so important?

One in 4 of us experience a mental health problem in any given year.
We want everyone to feel comfortable talking about mental health - whenever they like.
Opening up the conversation about mental health problems is important - by talking about it, we can support ourselves and others.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. Online (this week) - Monday 13:00 - 14:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. On-campus (Kilburn 2.80) - Thursday 15:00 - 16:00 (no online).
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. On-campus (Kilburn 2.107) 12:00 - 13:00, and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. Online (this week) - Thursday 10:00 - 11:00.

BLOCKCHAINERS SOCIETY.

Is the Metaverse just a new tech buzzword or the next big thing? Join our event Metaverse 101 hosted in collaboration with the Encode Club, the home for all things blockchain learning, building, jobs, and funding! They'll be delivering a 101 talk on how Metaverse works (no prior knowledge required), and talking about the free opportunities they provide to students interested in the space! There will be a Q&A section after the talk.

Eventbrite
Time: 3rd February, 7pm
Location: Zoom (In Eventbrite)

PLANNED NETWORK DOWNTIME.

There will be disruption to network connectivity on the evenings of Wednesday 2nd and Thursday 3rd February as IT Services need to replace essential equipment in the University’s data centres. It is expected that services will be unavailable between 19:00 and 21:00 on both evenings, however please allow up to 23:00 for the work to complete. This will affect access to all network connected services, including (but not limited to) the wired and Wi-Fi networks, My Manchester, IT login, GlobalProtect VPN, Remote access and University websites. Thank you for bearing with us while this essential upgrade takes place. See this post for further details.

VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR AWARDS:

NOMINATIONS OPEN. Do you know a student, group, staff member or alumni who is making a difference, the Volunteer of the Year Awards allow the opportunity to recognise their efforts. As a University we want to take time every year to thank volunteers for the skills, commitment and tens of thousands of volunteers hours given. One of the ways we do this is through our annual Volunteer of the Year Awards, which are given in four categories. The awards are affiliated to the University’s Make a Difference Awards and the winners also receive the President’s Social Responsibility Medal.

Nominations are open for 2022, and close at 23:59 on Sunday 6th March. You can find out more information here.

COURSE UNIT SELECTION.

Course unit selection opens on 31st January (today) and the deadline for choosing/changing your Semester 2 course units on the University system is 15:00 Friday 18th February. Please do this urgently, because the size of a course unit cohort has implications on room bookings and we need to finalise the timetable ASAP. See full details and instructions. Please note that some units may have a maximum enrolment capacity, and this is stated on the relevant syllabus pages. If you have any issues or need help, then please contact SSO

DUAL DELIVERY.

We no longer offer a remote study option and all students are expected to be on-campus and attending face-to-face activities in semester 2. As a result, we will not be offering dual delivery of activities, so there will be no requirement for staff to stream (for example) lectures live over Zoom. Lectures will still be recorded using the University podcasting service and made available in the video portal, or in course unit Blackboard (or Teams) spaces.

TEACHING TIMETABLE.

The teaching timetable for semester 2 is different to that of semester 1, so please check your new timetable which should be available via my.manchester. Please check your timetable regularly in the first few weeks, as we may need to update it, such as changes in location in activities due to changes in student numbers. Please keep to your own timetable and only attend those sessions shown in your timetable. If there are any issues with your timetable then please contact SSO.

LAB AVAILABILITY.

If you are interested in knowing when a lab is not booked for a timetabled activity, then follow this link, select “Kilburn” for the building, select the lab you’d like to use from the locations panel and select “View Timetable”. You will be shown what activities are using that room for the current week. You are free to use the lab outside of these timetabled activities. Please note, you may have to be on campus or running the VPN to get access to the timetable.

ACADEMIC SUCCESS PROGRAMME:

THE UNIVERSITY LANGUAGE CENTRE. Whatever your first language is, our Academic Success Programme aims to help you succeed in your studies. Writing Academic English can be challenging, even for native speakers. Our team of experienced tutors are here to support you, and will help boost your confidence to work independently in English. From 7th February, we re-start our programme of in-year Academic English support. We’re running our popular Academic Writing and Academic Grammar workshops. The workshops are free, interactive and encourage small group work to solve problems and edit texts, and we aim to offer a choice of on-campus or remote workshops (via Zoom). Please visit www.manchester.ac.uk/academicsuccessprogramme and click on “Academic English Workshops” for more details and registration.

LIBRARY:

NEW ONLINE RESOURCE: DEVELOPING YOUR DIGITAL CAPABILITIES. This from Gemma Smith: New online resource, Start to Finish: Develop Your Digital Capabilities. The resource, available via My Learning Essentials, guides students in using the JISC Discovery tool and helps them to:

understand what is meant by digital capabilities
explore their digital capabilities
get help using the tool
create a plan to enhance their digital capabilities
access further resources to support their development

The Library’s Student Team made a significant contribution to the development of the online resource, you can read their recent review of the tool in My Manchester Student News Introduction to Digital Capabilities.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Exams Week 2 • Monday 24 January 2022 • #21.15

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Good morning UG! It’s Monday 24th January 2022. This week is the second week of the semester 1 exam period, I hope everything is going okay. Remember, if you have any issues with attending an exam then please let SSO know immediately.

Even though the government advice on wearing masks has been relaxed, we are asking you to continue to wear masks when inside a University building, and to continue to take lateral flow tests during the exam period (more below). You have a week’s break next week before teaching resumes, and semester 2 begins on Monday 7th February.

Please continue to keep safe … on with today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SEMESTER 1 EXAMS AND MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES.

We know students have many questions about the delivery of on-campus exams and what to do if you miss an exam due to Coronavirus or any other reason out of your control. Please ensure you read the Departments’ Examination Guidance & FAQ’s here and the Faculty FAQ’s here before your first exam. The deadline for applying for mitigating circumstances for semester one coursework and examinations is Monday 31st January. Further information can be found on the student intranet pages here, we also have some guidance in the mitigating circumstances Blackboard pages and in the undergraduate handbook. The handbook also explains how claims are handled by the mitigating circumstances panel. If you would to discuss your circumstances or need help with your application, please don't hesitate to contact SSO, or speak to your year tutor:

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The University Counselling Service. The counselling 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
Group workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools

You can refer yourself to the counselling service by booking an appointment online.

Remember you can always contact the Student Support Office in Computer Science for any advice or help at any time.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Manchester Student Homes & the Accommodation Office. Are you starting to think about accommodation for next year? Need a place in Manchester over the summer? 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. Alternatively if you’re thinking of staying in Halls next year, applications close on Sunday 13th February 2022 via the UoM Accommodation Office. Halls are also available for short term stay over the summer vacation period – see their website for more details.

ON CAMPUS EXAMINATIONS:

FACE COVERINGS AND LATERAL FLOW TESTS: In recent days you may have seen speculation in the media regarding the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. The control measures described in the Health and Safety risk assessment for on-campus examinations will remain in place until a time when we receive a change in guidance from the UK government through the Department for Education. If this happens then we will write to you. Until this time, you must continue to wear a face covering (unless you have an exemption approved by Occupational Health) and you must continue to take a Lateral Flow Test within the 24-hour period before coming on-campus for an examination. Faculty teams have been carrying out random spot checks of compliance with the risk assessment. We are very grateful that the vast majority of students are following all of the control measures and helping keep fellow students and staff safe. Can we remind all students that the wearing of face coverings in University buildings is mandatory, and so you should wear a face covering as soon as you enter a building and not just when you arrive at the examination room. In addition to minimising the transmission of COVID-19, you will be reducing the anxiety levels of the students around you. It is important that students report positive COVID-19 tests through the University online form (details in the attached FAQ) as this enables us to look for clustering of cases and act on this information. Thank you again for wearing face coverings and taking lateral flow tests.

PRINT CREDITS.

The Department has topped up the printing account for all UG students with a £5 credit. This allows you to print using the printers located in computer clusters across the university. You can find out more information on printing here, along with instructions on how to add extra credit to your printing account if you run out.

WHAT DO I NEED TO PASS A COURSE UNIT?

We often get questions from students regarding the pass mark for a course unit? Do we have to get 40% in each assessment, is it 40% overall? etc. You can find detailed information on the progression rules, and what is required to pass a course unit, in the undergraduate handbook.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN EXAMS.

We know that most of you may not have sat an exam in an exam hall before (or it’s been a long time since you last did) and so below is some information to help you feel as prepared as possible. You might be doing your exam in a lecture theatre, a sports hall or another exam hall.

What to expect on the day

Arrive in plenty of time before the start of the exam
When you go in you will be shown where to put your bags
Make sure you know your student number and where to sit, if you are unsure then please ask a member staff
Bring your student card or alternative ID
If it's a paper-based exam, then exam invigilators will instruct you what you need to fill out on the papers. If it's an online exam, then you will be told what you need to do, but make sure you have your university username and password to hand.
Make sure you read the rubric (the instructions for the exam paper) so that you know what you are expected to do for the exam
You will be notified when you have 15 minutes left
At the end of the exam, if it's a paper-based exam the exam invigilators will collect your papers, if online, you will be asked to log out of the machine. They will then instruct you on when and how to leave.

Exam Preparation Tips

Visit the room before the day if possible so that you know where you are going
Double check the room of the exam, and check your emails to ensure there are no room changes
Wear warm comfy clothes
Get a good night's sleep so you can stay focused
Make sure you have everything you need - pen, water, student card, calculator etc
Have something to eat and take water - we will be holding revision breakfasts throughout exam period from 8-10am in the Barnes Wallis and MECD student hubs.

EXAMS:

We hope your exams have gone well so far. For those with exams taking place this week please be reminded that the exam timetable is available to view here, or via your personal exam timetable in my.manchester. We have provided some help and guidance for the exams in Blackboard. Please remember to continue to wear a mask during exams, and undertake lateral flow tests regularly to minimise the spread o COVID.

COURSE UNIT CHOICES.

The deadline for choosing/changing your Semester 2 course units on the University system is 15:00 Friday 18th February. Please do this urgently, because the size of a course unit cohort has implications on room bookings and we need to finalise the timetable ASAP. See full details and instructions. Please note that some units may have a maximum enrolment capacity, and this is stated on the relevant syllabus pages. If you have any issues or need help, then please contact SSO.

CRACKCHESTER.

Don't forget to sign up for the BAE CTF on the 5th of February! The event will be held on Discord from 9:30 till 4:30. Be sure to try your hand at the range of challenges on offer! Contact ctf@baesystems.com to sign up. We hope to see you there! Also don't forget to check out our podcast for new episodes! Keep up to date with the latest news and events!

TALENT DAY CAREERS FAIR.

The Talent Day careers fair takes place on the 9th February 2022, Manchester city centre. Talent Day is the largest digital and tech careers fair in the North and a must-attend event for those looking to start work in the industry. 40 of the North West's most pioneering digital, creative and tech companies will be in attendance, scouting for the best talent to come and work for them with career opportunities in software development, data, cyber security, design, project management, digital marketing, UX and much more. If you are interested in attending then book your free tickets here.

WHAT DIGITAL SUPPORT DO YOU NEED FOR YOUR LEARNING?

We would like to invite you to join our Digital Learning Environment workshop to hear about your experience using web-based platforms at the University. You don’t need to be a tech expert to join, you just need an interest in improving the learning experience for you and your peers. Access the article. The Digital Learning Environment includes web-based platforms that support teaching and learning, such as Blackboard Learn, and all other digital tools and applications that can be used to support teaching on your degree.

The workshops will take place on:

Wednesday, 2 February 2022, 10.30am - 12.00pm (online)
Wednesday, 16 February 2022, 2.00 - 3.30pm (online)

We want to hear your views on how we can improve our digital platforms. For instance:

How can they better support you on your learning journey?
How can they help you to work more collaboratively with your peers and teaching staff?
How can we make them more inclusive and accessible?
How can we make them easier to use?
Is there any functionality we could improve or introduce?

Please register your interest for the workshops (you only need to choose one of the above) if you’d like to take part. If you do, you will receive a £15 Amazon voucher as a thank you! Thank you for getting involved!

LEARNING THROUGH RESEARCH.

The Careers Service is pleased to announce that internship proposals are now being accepted for the Learning Through Research Internships programme for 2022. Designed for non-final year undergraduates, the objective of the Learning Through Research Internships is to provide students with an insight into the work of academic researchers plus an informed understanding of some of the key issues shaping contemporary research. Additionally, these internships aim to have a high proportion of Widening Participation students taking part, helping this group of students in particular to gain an insight to a career that they may not normally have, nor consider. Funding is available to pay the students for an eight week internship period during summer 2022. We are now seeking proposals for Learning Through Research Internships for next summer, aiming for the internships to start in June or July 2022. To be considered for funding, please submit your proposals by Thursday, 3 February 2022. To apply please contact Lewis Howells for further details. You can find further information here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Exams Week 1 • Monday 17 January 2022 • #21.14

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Good morning UG! It’s Monday 17th January 2022. Welcome back and Happy New Year! I hope you managed to take some time to relax over the Christmas break, and are ready and raring to start what will be a busy period. A big warm welcome to those students who were working remotely in semester 1. Welcome to Manchester!

The Semester 1 examinations start this week and run for two weeks, finishing on Friday 28th January, with all undergraduate exams being held on-campus. Please make sure that you are familiar with your exam timetable and the location of your scheduled exams. This is particularly important if you are new to Manchester, so please take some time to identify the location of each exam before they take place! You can view the full list of exams here, or see your personal exam timetable. Please note: some exams originally scheduled in 2.25A, G23 and LF31 in the Kilburn building have been moved to 1.8+1.10. However, personal timetables have not been updated. Any students affected by these changes will have been contacted by email, so please check your University email if you haven't done so already. Staff will be available on the day of the exams to guide students to the new location. If you have any issues on the day of an exam then please contact SSO immediately. Good luck in your exams!

Please continue to keep safe … on with today’s news

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

SEMESTER 1 EXAMS AND MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES.

We know students have many questions about the delivery of on-campus exams and what to do if you miss an exam due to Coronavirus, having to self isolate, or any other reason out of your control. Last week we shared a number of FAQ’s with you which covered safety measures during exams, testing and mitigating circumstances processes. Please ensure you read the Departments’ Examination Guidance & FAQ’s here and the Faculty FAQ’s here before your first exam. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact SSO.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

DASS. The Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) at the University 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 Crohns. 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 here. For advice talk to the Department’s DASS coordinators Maria Sloan and Guy Malkin.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

TOGETHERALL. Togetherall is a 24/7 anonymous online mental health and wellbeing resource for students, staff and researchers. You can access the service by going to www.togetherall.com and signing up with your UoM email address. Whether you’re struggling to sleep, feeling low or finding it hard to cope, or just want the chance to think more deeply about your wellbeing, Togetherall can help you to explore your feelings and think things through. You will have access to a 24/7 online community, monitored by trained clinicians. Togetherall is a safe space online to get things off your chest, have conversations, get creative and learn how to manage your mental health and wellbeing. Togetherall is totally anonymous and confidential, so no one will know you’re using it unless you tell them! Find out more here.

ASSESSMENT SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS FROM THE LIBRARY.

This from Gemma Smith: The Library is here to support you to revise and prepare throughout the exam and assessment period. Students can:

access online resources and join in-person workshops to learn new revision strategies
speak to Library staff in drop-ins and one-to-ones to get revision and assessment support and guidance
get wellbeing support by accessing helpful resources and workshops via the Counselling and Student Service

Find out more: Exam & Assessment Support.

MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES.

The deadline for applying for mitigating circumstances for semester one coursework and examinations is Monday 31st January. Further information can be found on the intranet pages here. We provide some guidance on mitigating circumstances in Blackboard, as well as in the undergraduate handbook. The handbook also explains how claims are handled by the mitigating circumstances panel. If you would to discuss your circumstances or need help with your application, please don't hesitate to contact SSO, or speak to your year tutor:

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk

MENTAL HEALTH UPDATE.

When life feels tough and you’re feeling down, it can be hard to see a way through. You are not alone. You or someone you know might be feeling depressed and sad. Lots of people have these feelings from time to time, but if those feelings have become overwhelming and you don’t know what to do about them, you might start to feel that life is not worth living and to think about ending your life. These feelings can get in the way of everything else – so much that you might find it hard to believe that you can feel better. But you can, whatever the problem. Suicidal thoughts do not have to end in suicide – talking openly about how you feel and seeking help can save lives. What’s important for you to know is if you are feeling like this, there will be a way that things can get better and you can come out the other side and feel ok again. If you feel like you may not be able to keep yourself safe, then it’s time to get immediate help. Take a look at our support and advice for help in a crisis.

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SSO NEWS.

Anna Warburton-Ball (Student Experience Intern) leaves the Department this week for pastures new. Anna has made a huge impact to the student experience since joining SSO in September 2020; from organising staff/student quizzes and graduation celebrations to supporting student societies, PASS and student representatives. Thank you Anna – and best of luck in your new role!

KNEEBONE BURSARY SUCCESS.

Congratulations to Ewan Massey (2nd year CSwIE) who is the recipient of this year’s Kneebone Bursary award, sponsored by the Kneebone Family and Arm in memory of Kate Kneebone. The short-listing panel was impressed with the strength of applicants this year, so thank you to all those who applied. As well as a £500 bursary, Ewan will be given the opportunity to discuss a placement at Arm next academic year. Well done Ewan!

SECURITY ON CAMPUS.

The Kilburn building (along with other buildings on campus) is a public building and, as such, is open to the general public during normal working hours. If you are in a University building revising, then it’s important to take regular breaks. Now, more than ever, the device you use to complete your work and prepare for exams is essential. So keep it close and if you need to leave, even just for a bathroom break, ask a friend to look after it, or take it with you, do not leave valuables unattended! Thefts can easily take place from inside any building. You can report any instances of theft to University security. You can find their number on the back of your University card.

UNIVERSITY FINANCES.

Are you interested in how the university is funded, or how your tuition fee is spent, then please have a look at this information for the 2020/21 academic year.

EXAM BREAKFAST.

Over the next two weeks (Monday 17th – Friday 28th January) we will be running exam breakfast’s every weekday from 8-10am from both the Barnes Wallis and Manchester Engineering building student hubs. You can come along at any time between 8am and 10am and staff from both Welfare and Student Experience will be there to support you with any pre-exam worries and stress. Free breakfast snacks and drinks will be available and we would love to see you there!

COURSE UNIT CHOICES.

WHAT TO EXPECT IN EXAMS.

We know that most of you may not have sat an exam in an exam hall before (or it’s been a long time since you last did), so we've provided some information below to help you feel as prepared as possible. You might be doing your exam in a lecture theatre, a sports hall or a dedicated exam hall.

What to expect on the day:

Arrive in plenty of time
When you go in you will be shown where to put your bags (you cannot take you bag with you)
Make sure you know your student number and where to sit, if you are unsure ask a staff member
Bring your student card or alternative ID
If it's a paper-based exam, then the exam invigilators will instruct you what you need to fill out on the papers. If it's an online exam, then you will be told what you need to do. Make sure you have your university username and password to hand.
You will be notified when you have 15 minutes left
At the end of the exam, if it's a paper-based exam, the exam invigilators will collect your papers. They will instruct you on when and how to leave.

Exam Preparation Tips:

Visit the exam location before the day of the exam if possible, so that you know where you are going
Double check the room of the exam, and check your emails to ensure there are no room changes
Wear warm comfy clothes
Get a good night's sleep so you can stay focused
Make sure you have everything you need - pen, student card, water, calculator (where allowed) etc.
Have something to eat beforehand and take some water with you - we will be holding revision breakfasts throughout exam period from 8-10am in the Barnes Wallis and MECD student hubs.

INCREASING STUDY SPACES AT MAIN LIBRARY AND AGLC.

Gemma Smith writes: We’re adding 250 new study spaces at the Main Library and the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (AGLC) by the end of January 2022. When the work is completed, students will be able to choose from a variety of new study spaces with comfortable furniture, including individual desk spaces, focused study booths and tables for group work and discussion.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Week 12 • Monday 13 December 2021 • #21.13

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Good morning UG! It’s Monday 13th December, it’s week 12 and the last week of teaching! It's been a very busy semester and the past 12 weeks have flown by, I hope you’ve enjoyed it. The course unit surveys open today, so please provide us with feedback on how things have gone this semester and what we do to improve our teaching. The exam timetable is now available, so please check when your exams are happening and put them in your diary!

This will be the last Monday Mail until the exam period starts in January. Enjoy your Christmas break, and have a happy New Year. Make sure you take some time off to relax over the break before you start to prepare for the exams in January. I look forward to seeing you all in 2022!

Please keep safe … on with today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

A number of students have been ill already this semester, not just with COVID (although numbers are thankfully low) but other similar illnesses too. Consequently, to help reduce the spread of infection, we strongly encourage you to follow our safety guidelines – this will help us protect each other and reduce the chance of spreading COVID-19 on campus. Remember "hands, face, space".

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Hand sanitiser is available at the main entrances of all campus buildings and outside teaching rooms.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings should be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings as well as in laboratories.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

ASSESSMENT SUPPORT.

Assessment Support (previously known as Exam Extra ) provides resources outlining revision strategies, time management techniques and ways to manage exam stress. It might seem overwhelming knowing where to start, so why not focus on one session a week? Perhaps try planning a workshop into your timetable? Click here to access online resources, revision strategies, podcast playlists and more.

EXAMS WELFARE SUPPORT.

This from Maria Sloan: As you are aware exams are approaching in the new year. This can be a challenging time for some of you. The Counselling and Mental Health Service have a workshop running on the 10th January: Get Prepared: Strategies for managing exam stress, to help you get ready for exams and to help manage your current coursework or tasks. Please book now to reserve a place. This link provides useful information about workload management, both for exams and throughout the year. If you need any support then please request an appointment directly with your Student Support and Welfare Administrators, Guy Malkin and Maria Sloan in the SSO office, or, drop into the student hubs and ask to speak to someone confidentially about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. Also, remember to contact your Academic Adviser if you are struggling and feel you need guidance academically.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 16:00 - 17:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2! Hope you enjoyed last week’s exam tips session! Our slides are available on our website now. This Thursday (16th December) will be our last semester 1 session so we prepared a special quiz for you! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there!

1ST YEAR POSTER SESSION:

Uli Sattler writes: Last Tuesday we held the annual COMP10120 Poster Session - this year in 2 instalments: each of the 1st year teams of students presented their poster about the web application they are going to build in Semester 2, and they did this either on-campus or online. Both sessions were great fun and attracted loads of interested visitors, particularly the on-campus event which was held in the foyer of the Manchester Engineering Building for the first time. I received a number of positive comments from colleagues expressing how impressed they were by the range of ideas presented and the qualities of the posters, so well done to everybody involved! We also had a public vote for the best posters in a range of categories (with over 400 votes!):

The Application with the Best Idea or Concept: R2 (Boring Indoor?) M6 (COMP1)
The most Visually Appealing and Imaginative Poster: R15 (MUSIC ONA) Y9 (Plan Smarter)
The most Carefully Thought Through Application and Plan: R6 (Your Manchester) Y10 (Hour Space)

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Sambbhav Khare (Year 1, CS4): “Hi I am Sambbhav Khare you can call me Sam. One of the student reps in your course. I’m an international student from India. If you have any issues or some feedback just drop in a mail. I am a foodie. Need suggestions to cut down expenses, I’m your guy. I look forward to help out you with any problems you might come across.” Please contact Sambbhav by email.

CHRISTMAS CLOSURE.

The University will be closed from Thursday 23rd December until Tuesday 4th January 2022. Consequently, there will be no access to the Kilburn building for students during this time. Additionally, from Monday 20th December – Wednesday 22nd December inclusive there will be no extended hours access to the Kilburn building.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE AWARDS.

The annual Making a Difference Awards are OPEN for entries! Know someone that’s making a difference to society or the environment? Why not help recognise their hard work by nominating them for @officialUoM 2022 Making a Difference Award! Submit your nomination here. Entries close 17 January 2022.

WOOD STREET MISSION.

A BIG THANK YOU. Karon Mee writes: Thank you so much to all those of you who donated gifts for the Wood Street Mission charity. You are amazing! They have just now been picked up and are now on their way to Wood Street to be sorted and wrapped. What a wonderful thought that a child will be opening your donation on Christmas morning.

SEMESTER ONE EXAMS.

Your personal timetable for semester 1 examinations (with venues) will be published in My Manchester w/c 20th December. The composite list of all exams can be found on the central exams website here, where you will also find support and advice on how to plan your revision as well as general support. For more information about the examination period please see our General Exam Guidance on Blackboard here. If you have any questions about your exams please don’t hesitate to contact SSO.

COURSE UNIT SURVEYS.

Every semester the University surveys students to ask for feedback on the course units we teach. The semester one course unit surveys open today and close on 9th January 2022. We take your (anonymous) feedback seriously and we make changes to our teaching as a result of the feedback we receive. Staff are also required to provide a response to any issues raised in the feedback. You can find out more information on the University Have Your Say webpages. Please provide us with written comments to explain why you rated course units as you did. Without these comments it’s difficult to make informed decisions on how to change and improve how we teach.

IMAGO STUDENT RECRUITMENT.

This from Suzanne Embury: Imago, the University's student software company, is recruiting for its spring 2022 projects. We have an exciting set of opportunities for students to gain paid development experience on projects that help make the world a better place. Our clients are aiming to: restore mangrove forests in the Philippines through an innovative online gaming approach, make life safer for visually impaired people when collecting their medication from pharmacies, grow the membership of a new UK-based association for ethical AI, reimagine agile coaching games for online flexible learners and pilot a new Impact Accelerator for open source software. All current undergraduate students not out on placement are eligible to apply. Imago aims to create diverse teams containing a mixture of experienced students and talented but inexperienced younger students from all backgrounds. See our website for more details of the projects and how to apply. Deadline for applications is 5.00pm GMT on Monday, 20th December 2021.

LIBRARY OPENING HOURS OVER THE CHRISTMAS VACATION.

This from Gemma Smith: Study spaces will be available at the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (AGLC) over the Christmas vacation as follows:

Friday, 17 December 2021: closes at 8pm
Saturday, 18 December 2021 to Sunday, 2 January 2022: open 8am-8pm, Monday to Friday and 9am-5pm Saturday and Sunday
Christmas Day and Boxing Day: closed

All other Library sites will be closed from Thursday, 23 December 2021 to Monday, 3 January 2022. Face coverings in our University are mandatory in all indoor spaces with the exception of solo use spaces. They are available at building entrances. This includes when you are in the Library and seated at a study space. Find out more here.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Whisperstop World Tour by Starwarigami

Normal sudoku rules apply. Travel around the world following the international whisper lines from Berlin to Moscow. The arrival hall at each airport (red) tells you the minimum difference between digits along the next leg of the journey, starting from the departure lounge (green). A terminal with a white control tower must contain consecutive digits. A black control tower indicates the digits are in a ratio of 1:2.

Bonus Puzzle - Nurikabe by Otto Janko

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. The black cells divide the diagram in areas of orthogonally contiguous white cells. The white areas must not touch each other orthogonally. All cells with a number belong to a white area; to a white area belongs exactly two cells with a number. The sum of the numbers in these cells indicates how many cells belong to the white area. The black cells must not cover an area of 2x2 cells or larger and must form an orthogonally contiguous area.

Chess Puzzle - Nepomniachtchi Vs. Bocharov, 2011

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 11 • Monday 6 December 2021 • #21.12

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Good morning UG! It’s Monday 6th December and it’s week 11 … the penultimate week of teaching! The UK government has introduced new measures following the emergence of the Omicron variant of COVID, which means that face masks are now mandatory when travelling on public transport or when in shops. The University has also made it mandatory to wear a mask in ALL indoor spaces on campus, so please wear a mask at ALL times on campus. More information can be found below. The deadline for the Kate Kneebone bursary is this Friday. If you are a second year student, then please consider applying.

Please continue to stay safe … on with today’s news.

Paul

Undergraduate Programme Director

WEARING MASKS ON CAMPUS.

The University of Manchester is closely monitoring the situation over the Omicron variant of COVID. We don’t yet know the risk that this new variant poses, but as a precautionary measure in line with government guidance on public transport and retail, face coverings in our University will be mandatory in all indoor spaces with the exception of solo use spaces. This includes when you are sitting in offices or study spaces, unless you are socially distanced to 2 metres. Face coverings are freely available from building entrances around campus and this new guidance is irrespective of the signage around campus. These measures are precautionary as we wait to learn more about the variant, and will remain in place until further notice. We are monitoring the situation continuously and will issue further guidance in due course. We understand that not everyone can wear a face covering for medical reasons, but if you can you must do so to help protect others. You should also consider wearing a visor if a face covering is not possible for you. I would also strongly encourage you to take all other measures available, including getting vaccinated against COVID and flu, and regular hand washing and sanitising. Further information on our COVID response can be found on our website.

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Hand sanitiser is available at the main entrances of all campus buildings and outside teaching rooms.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings should be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings as well as in laboratories.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

EXAMS WELFARE SUPPORT.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 16:00 - 17:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello first years, time has gone by quickly and we are close to the end of the semester. This week, we recommend you find time with your pass leaders before your project presentations, to rehearse and get feedback on your presentations, and have a look at their presentations, if they still have them. We would also recommend you attend this week's PASS2 session, as they are running an exam advice session on Thursday and this would be very helpful, especially if you haven't sat in person exams in 2 years. The session will run both in person and online, in the collabs and on zoom on Thursday at 12pm .

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! This Thursday (9th December) we’ll walk you through the logistics of in person exams at UoM and give you some revision tips! This session is also open to first years, so feel free to join us too. Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there!

KATE KNEEBONE ACORN BURSARY.

The Kate Kneebone Acorn Bursary is an annual commemorative award of £500 funded by the Kneebone family and ARM, that has been awarded since 2013. In addition to the £500 award, the Bursary offers the successful applicant the opportunity to discuss a funded 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 full details and how to apply. The deadline for submissions is 5pm (UK time) Friday 10th December (THIS FRIDAY!). Please consider applying as this is a great opportunity to source a placement with ARM.

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Vinayak Bhadoriya (Year 1, CS4): “Hi everyone! I'm Vinayak, an international student from India. I look forward to meeting all of you soon, so please don't hesitate to contact me about anything. Hope you have a great year :)” Please contact Vinayak by email.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY.

The International Society is an independent, not-for-profit organisation based in Greater Manchester supported by the city’s Universities. We have been promoting international friendship and celebrating cultural diversity in the city since 1966.

Day trips

Sat 11th Dec – Stratford-upon-Avon
Mon 27th Dec – Chester and Cheshire Oaks

Events

Christmas Carolling 17th Dec 6pm. Get into the festive spirit with us and sing along to Christmas songs with us! Did you know, it is one of the oldest customs in Great Britain, going back to the Middle Ages when beggars, seeking food, money, or drink, would wander the streets singing holiday songs. What’s your favourite Christmas carols?
Christmas and New Year Get Together 30th Dec 11am. Are you in Manchester during the festive period? Join us for a small gathering with friends and enjoy some Christmas treats.
Weekly Socials on campus. Every Wednesdays and Fridays 3pm at Nest (UoM's Student's Union). Come along and meet new friends or have a catch up over tea, coffee and biscuits. Board/card games are also provided so you can spend the afternoon playing together or just to relax with a cup of tea and biscuit.

To book onto a session follow this link. The Socials are only for our members. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up here.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE AWARDS.

The annual University Making a Difference Awards are OPEN for entries! Do you know someone that’s making a difference to society or the environment? Why not help recognise their hard work by nominating them for @officialUoM 2022 Making a Difference Award! Submit your nomination here. Entries close 17 January 2022.

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, select “Kilburn” for the building, select the lab you would like to use under “Select Location”, select when under “Select Week(s)” then select “View Timetable”. You will be shown what activities are using that room for the current week. You are free to use the lab outside of these timetabled activities. Please note, you may have to be on campus or running the VPN to get access to the timetable.

GOOGLE DEVELOPER STUDENT CLUB.

Shadi Abumattar writes: Join our Google Developer Student Club as they welcome Sergei Nozdrenkov, Software Engineer at Google X, to Manchester! Learn about Google, Google X and opportunities for students to apply to Google and Google X at this exclusive tech talk in Kilburn Theatre 1.1 this Wednesday at 2pm. Free snacks and drinks included! RSVP for free tickets here.

CRACKCHESTER SOCIAL.

Tis the season to be Jolly! We here at Crackchester hope you're having a wonderful time this festive season. We have our Christmas social Tuesday 9th in the Kilburn Building, be sure to join us for Home alone and Pizza from 2-4pm. We'd love to see you there!

STEM ROLE MODEL - WORKSHOP COORDINATOR AND SPEAKER.

Are you a female engineering student? You could be a mentor for other UoM students! The Women in Engineering Society have started a mentoring scheme to create a network of female engineering students across the university, and we need mentors! You don't need any prior experience, just enthusiasm for helping others! You could be helping your mentee with academic work, giving advice on applying for placements and internships, or you could just have friendly chats with them! The scheme is flexible around your studies - how many hours you spend mentoring is up to you, and you have the freedom to run things as you want. The mentoring is done completely online so it's COVID safe. If you have any questions email us.

MIMUC UG CONFERENCE.

The STEM student societies (MathSoc, UMAS, MUDSS, and Algorithmic Trading Society), have joined forces with the Department of Mathematics, to deliver the Manchester Interdisciplinary Mathematics Undergraduate Conference (MIMUC). This 2-day event, happening in April 2022, made by students for students, will bring the valuable experience of attending a professional conference, not to be found in any lecture course. We invite everyone interested in mathematics, as well as its applications in various fields, including, but not limited to, Computer Science, Physics, Biology or Finance, to share their passion with like-minded peers. Everyone is welcome to attend regardless of experience and background! For ones inclined to do so, it will give you the opportunity to present your independent work, both within and outside studies, including projects, internships, work placements, or just self-study. This will take the form of short talks and poster presentations. Expect also panels from top academics, professionals and industry specialists, as well as coffee and snacks with time and place to network (or just chat!) with others. If you are interested in attending, either to attend these presentations as an audience member or present, use this interest form to register!

INTEL WOMEN IN STEM VIRTUAL TALK AND Q&A.

Join our Intel Corporation’s Women in STEM Virtual Talk and Q&A on Thursday 9th December 14:00 15:00. This session will be hosted by a Technical Sales Specialist and a current intern in Intel’s Placement Programme. Join the session here. Our talk will give you an insight into the type of work they do at Intel as Women in Technology, and share with you their advice. There will be a chance at the end for a Q&A. We will also share the various placement opportunities we have available for undergraduate students looking for a placement for 2022-23. We offer 13 month internships in a range of disciplines within our Swindon, Marlow and Basingstoke sites.

COVID VOLUNTEERS.

This is an opportunity for you to volunteer across the city and in local neighbourhoods supporting the COVID-19 vaccination sites, gain new skills, make new friends and be part of the incredible Manchester COVID-19 journey. To support the increase in demand for COVID-19 vaccinations and booster jabs, we are in need of more volunteer marshals at sites across the city. The role includes tasks such as:

Directing patients around vaccination delivery sites, directing to pods, directing to waiting areas, directing to exit
Supporting traffic flow in car parks
Handing out masks at entrances

We are also looking for volunteers to support with community engagement. Manchester is hugely diverse and over 100 languages are spoken across the City. We especially need volunteers who can speak other languages so we can offer advice and support to people who otherwise might not be able to access it. Click here to find out more and apply.

SIEMENS (GRADCRACKER).

Gradcracker is hosting a live webinar with Siemens to get an exclusive insight into their career opportunities for STEM students. Register your interest on Gradcracker now to attend. Siemens designs and creates products and systems ranging from traffic lights, to gas turbines, to the magnets used in medical scanners. Attend the Gradcracker/Siemens webinar on 9th December to discover their career opportunities. Next up in Gradcracker’s webinar series is Siemens, a leader in manufacturing, power generation and Smart infrastructure. Attend the webinar on Thursday 9th of December to hear from the company’s Recruiter and several of its graduates. Register here now. Gradcracker will be speaking to Siemens in a live webinar. Tune in on the 9th of December for an exclusive insight into this global technology company and its opportunities for STEM students and graduates.

VENTURE FURTHER 22.

The Venture Further annual start-up competition is now open for applications. Do you want to start your own business? Here's your chance to win up to £10,000 and make it a reality with our annual start-up competition. Please visit our dedicated VFA22 webpages where you can apply online and find out more. The deadline for applications is Thursday, 24 February 2022, MIDDAY. However we encourage all applicants to submit early to allow us to review your submission and provide feedback before the final deadline. If you would like to be added to the VFA22 mailing list to hear more competition news, please email entrepreneurship@manchester.ac.uk. We have a variety of support sessions available to help strengthen your application available here. The first session begins on Tuesday 14 December. Venture Further is organised by the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre and kindly sponsored by Huawei, Peak and Slalom

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Don’t You Dare by Bakpao

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits do not repeat in cages, which show their sums in the top left-hand corner.

Bonus Puzzle - Kuromasu by Koyoppz

Colour the gray cells of the diagram black or white. A cell with a number cannot be blackened. The number indicates how many white cells can be seen altogether looking north, south, east and west (including the cell with the number) up to a black cell or the edge of the diagram. Black cells must not be orthogonally adjacent. All white cells must form a single orthogonally contiguous area.

Chess Puzzle - Nepomniachtchi Vs. Tang, 2020

Drag and drop the white pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 10 • Monday 29 November 2021 • #21.11

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 29th November and welcome to week 10! There may be some disruption to teaching on Wednesday to Friday this week due to strike action by members of the University and College Union, you can find out more about why academics are striking below. If you are a second year, then please consider applying for the Kate Kneebone Bursary. Hope you enjoyed the snow on Sunday!

Stay safe … on with today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

GETTING IN TOUCH WITH SSO.

You are hopefully all well versed by now in sending us emails but we also have a phone line available. You can ring us anytime between 10am - 4pm Monday - Friday for any queries, big or small. Call us on: +44 (0) 161 306 8155.

STUDENT SUPPORT HUB.

To help support and answer any questions there is a student support hub in Engineering Building A. The temporary home of the Student Support Hub during this semester is in the Maker Space on the Ground Floor. The student hub will support all face to face queries and is staffed by an experienced team of staff who can answer your questions about university life. You can still make departmental queries to your own department via email email. The student hub is open for 10am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Hand sanitiser is available at the main entrances of all campus buildings and outside teaching rooms.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings should be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings as well as in laboratories.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

EXAMS WELFARE SUPPORT.

This from Maria Sloan: As you are aware exams are approaching in the new year. This can be a challenging time for some of you, so the Welfare Team has put together a few resources you can access now to help you plan and organise in order to be well prepared. The Counselling and Mental Health Service have two workshops to help you get ready for exams and to help manage your current coursework or tasks. Please book onto these now to ensure you have a place:

30/11/21 via Zoom : Managing Procrastination
10/01/22 Get Prepared: Strategies for managing exam stress

This link provides useful information about workload management, both for exams and throughout the year. We hope these resources help, we will provide further information and drop-ins throughout the year. Please request an appointment directly with your Student Support and Welfare Administrators, Guy Malkin and Maria Sloan in the SSO office, or, drop into the student hubs and ask to speak to someone confidentially about anything that might be affecting you and your studies. Also, remember to contact your Academic Adviser if you are struggling and feel you need guidance academically.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 16:00 - 17:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: We hope everyone had fun at the Great Uni Hack and got a chance to work on their wellbeing. For those of you who are hungry for more you can check out more hackathons here. Some PASS groups are hosting sessions aimed at exploring tkinter and clear common misunderstandings about it. Check out if your group has this planned. If not you can always ask your PASS leaders to make the session about it. In the next few weeks, we will be giving away 3 tickets for the UniCS bury arcade event to 3 lucky pass attending first year students.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (2nd December) we’ll run a mixed session - 15 mins sharing ideas about things to do in Manchester with some recommendations and 45 mins answering any questions you may have (not only coursework related)! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there!

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Nikitha Anbuchitra Shanmugasundaram (Year 1, CSEwIE): “Hi, I'm Nikitha, and I am an International student from India. I am an avid traditional music (Carnatic music) fan and a singer as well. I am an amateur astronomer who enjoys building telescopes to watch the skies. If anybody is interested in these hobbies please feel free to contact me. Moreover, if you have any concerns or ideas to improve our university life, please contact me by email.” Please contact Nikitha by email.

THE MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY DATA SCIENCE SOCIETY.

The Manchester University Data Science Society (MUDSS) is now announcing one of our biggest events to conclude the year! This winter, we will be hosting our very first in-person Hackathon! This will be an all-day event sponsored and overseen by HSBC, where you will be given the chance to put your programming and data science knowledge to the test. Hackathons are a fantastic way of gaining invaluable skills that will help accelerate your career in the industry. The Hackathon will be split into two sections: a technical section and a data visualization section, and so you are free to participate in whichever best suits your skills and interests. You will be competing as teams which means, as well as being able to practice your data science skills, you have the opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and expand your network. You may team up with friends or join solo and be matched with new people! Free food and snacks will be provided and the winners of the event will be given a prize! The Winter Hackathon will be taking place on Saturday 11th December between 9am to 5pm in Renold Building G2. You may register using the following link. There are limited spaces available so hurry and sign-up before you miss the chance!

KATE KNEEBONE ACORN BURSARY.

The Kate Kneebone Acorn Bursary is an annual commemorative award of £500 funded by the Kneebone family and ARM, that has been awarded since 2013. In addition to the £500 award, the Bursary offers the successful applicant the opportunity to discuss a funded 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 full details and how to apply. The deadline for submissions is 5pm (UK time) Friday 10th December. Please consider applying as this is a great opportunity to source a placement with ARM.

STUDENT VOICE.

Student voice is vital, as it forms a key part of continuous monitoring of what we do, providing opportunities for students to contribute to their programme curriculum and the overall learning experience. To help understand the mechanism and the steps whereby students can raise issues and/or leave a legacy that relates to their overall teaching and learning experience we have created an interactive ‘Student Voice’ document. This document was created as an action from the student experience action plan (SEAP) for this academic year to help promote awareness and inform students of the correct steps. The document is available in your Blackboard community space which is accessible via ‘My Manchester’ portal, the link to access this can be found here. Any further information or any questions that you might have regarding the journey please contact us.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY.

Day Trips

Sat 4th Dec – Birmingham and German Christmas Market
Sun 5th Dec – Keswick and Victorian Fayre

Events

Christmas Wreath Making Workshop Wed 1st Dec. Celebrate the festive season with us and make your very own Christmas wreath! No previous wreath making skills required, just a little bit of creativity.
Christmas Afternoon Tea 5th Dec 2.30pm. Join us for an English Afternoon Tea with a Christmas twist! There will be a selection of delicious sandwiches, cakes and scones for you to try, as well as plenty of fresh English tea and coffee

Weekly Socials on campus

Every Wednesdays and Fridays 3pm at Nest (UoM's Student's Union). Come along and meet new friends or have a catch up over tea, coffee and biscuits. Board/card games are also provided so you can spend the afternoon playing together or just to relax with a cup of tea and biscuit.

The Socials are only for our members. If you are not yet a member, you can sign up here.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FAMILIES GROUP.

Join our Families Group Every Thursday 4pm to 6.30pm and meet other student families here in Manchester. Children and babies are very welcome. For more info for Families Group, please email us or drop by our office (in UoM's Student's Union). More information on the International Society can be found here.

NO REMOTE STUDY OPTION IN SEMESTER TWO:

A reminder that all students must be on campus for the semester one examination period onwards, including semester two teaching and the semester two examination period. There will be no remote study option in semester two. Key semester and examination dates for the academic year can be found here. Note your personal exam timetable will be released week commencing 20th December 2021. If you are currently studying remotely you must make arrangements to arrive in Manchester ahead of the semester one examinations. Students who require a travel visa will need to arrive before their latest acceptance date on the CAS (if entering the UK for the first time using the visa). We strongly advise that all students travelling to Manchester from overseas are to arrive by 5th January 2022 to account for the time required to adjust and quarantine as required. If you have any questions please contact SSO as soon as possible.

NEED A PLACE TO WORK?

UCU STRIKE ACTION.

The University and College Union (UCU) - the trade union representing academic staff - is to hold a 3-day strike between the 1st and 3rd of December. This means that some activities may be disrupted, such as lectures being cancelled, over these three days. You can find out more information about why academic staff are striking here. The issues centre around pensions; pay; gender, race and disability pay gaps; security around employment practices; and workloads.

ARCADE CLUB BURY.

This is your last chance to buy tickets to our end of year social at the largest Freeplay arcade in Europe. The new link to buy tickets is here. Tickets close on the Sunday 5th December. The £6.50 covers 5 hours of freeplay modern and old arcade games, from dance rhythm to all the latest consoles. The bar at the venue will be open to buy from. This event is brought to you by UNICS and supported by HCI, RoboSoc and MUDS.

CHRISTMAS GIVING PROJECT.

This year it is more important than ever to support struggling families and help those who are in need across Manchester and Salford have a happy Christmas and Holiday period. The Department of Computer Science is organising a Gift collection for a number of local charities! We are collecting lots of different items which will be distributed across a number of local charities. Some of the charities we will be supporting are: Wood Street Mission, Mustard Tree, Women's District Access Centre and many more. You will be helping to provide a safe, comfortable and happy Christmas period to people living rough, children from low income families, women escaping domestic violence and families struggling for household essentials. Please bring all donations to Kilburn LF.21 on Tuesday 30th of November. Items which we are collecting are shown below.

GOOGLE X EVENT.

Shadi Abumattar writes: Ever heard of Google X? Then who better to tell you about it than a software engineer at the secret research and development facility! We welcome Sergei Nozdrenkov to Manchester on Wednesday December 8th, who will unravel the secrets behind Google's classified division. Learn about Google, Google X, and opportunities for students to apply at this upcoming tech talk! Free snacks and drinks included! All students from all degrees are welcome to join us. The exact venue and time for this Google X Event will be announced on our Instagram very soon - follow @gdscmanchester for updates!

SUSTAINABLE ENGINEERING INITIATIVE.

The aim of the Sustainable Engineering Initiative (SEI) Society is to provide an environment for students with an interest in sustainability, to develop their knowledge on the subject by collaborating with like-minded individuals. Our main goal is to increase student engagement by conducting research on three principal methods of integrating sustainable energy into urban built environments through the exploitation of Micro-Wind Turbines, Hydroelectricity and Energy Storage Methods. Members of the Sustainable Engineering Initiative Society will have the opportunity to attend recurring industry talks, whereby working professionals share valuable experience on how to tackle the real-world problems facing the industry. From professors and lecturers at the University to engineers at renewable energy firms, we aim to obtain a variety of inputs for all our members to fuel their interests. Join us this upcoming week, Wednesday the 1st of December from 4-5 PM, in our first industry talk hosted by Dr. Jaise Kuriakose, and make sure to follow all our socials @uomsei for more details.

JUNIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER OPPORTUNITY.

Embedded function development in MATLAB. This is an excellent opportunity to work on an interdisciplinary project as a Junior Software Engineer. The engineer will develop a MATLAB interface to automate a custom-made microscopy set-up in an optical materials research team (BioFuM) at the Department of Materials. The microscope system has the ability to run time-resolved experiments to watch a droplet to dry under controlled conditions. The Junior Software Engineer will write a MATLAB based interface to define a focal point at a specified microscopy setting and follow this specific focus during the drying process. At this stage the microscope should take photographs and spectra at 2-5 min intervals automatically. Through this project the Junior Software Engineer will have the opportunity to become a part of our interdisciplinary team and apply their software development skills to a real lab-based problem in an academic project at the University of Manchester. The offer is a part time (50% FTE max basis) and the working hours are flexible to fit the candidate’s timetable. A successful candidate is expected to have will have skills and competence in

Software Development
Programming experience in MATLAB

The position is available as soon as possible till the end of January in the first instance. For informal and formal inquiries please get in touch with Dr Ahu Gumrah Dumanli-Parry.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY,

TUTOR THE NATION. Tutor The Nation is looking for university students, recent graduates and experienced tutors to volunteer 1 hour per week to provide free 1:1 online tutoring to disadvantaged GCSE and A-level students. Our tutors have a big impact on the lives of pupils across the country. Your role is more than simply academic support but to be a positive role model and to give young people the confidence to work toward their future aspirations and beyond. We aim to address the growing divergence of educational opportunity and educational success, between the relatively privileged and the relatively underprivileged. We do this by delivering online, 1:1, subject-specific, free tutoring sessions. What is more, our project is unique as our 1:1 online tutoring is completely free: to the pupils, tutors, schools, and the taxpayer. We interact directly with local councils to ensure that we support the young people who need it most. So, what are we looking for?

You are a UK university student, recent graduate, or experienced tutor
Passionate and knowledgeable about your subject area(s)
Empathy and compassion towards your student will make you a great tutor
Commitment to a minimum of 1 hour per week for a State school term
Maintain a growth mindset towards learning and tutoring practice
Serve as a role model for your tutee

This is an awesome, low time commitment opportunity that allows you to give back to the community and develop a huge range of communication and leadership skills which would look great on a CV! Find out more about this opportunity over on the Volunteering Hub.

EXAM AND ASSESSMENT SUPPORT FROM THE LIBRARY.

This from Gemma Smith: From 29 November 2021 to 28 January 2022, the Library is here to support you to revise and prepare throughout the upcoming exam and assessment period.  You can:

access online resources and join in-person workshops to learn new revision strategies
speak to Library staff in drop-ins and one-to-ones to get revision and assessment support and guidance
get wellbeing support by accessing helpful resources and workshops via the Counselling and Student Service

  To find out more about how the Library can help you, visit our exam and assessment support page.

ADDITIONAL LIBRARY LEARNING SPACES.

Gemma Smith writes:The library has opened several additional study spaces for students. You do not need to book a study space in advance; spaces will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Prospects House, Booth Street East: 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday; closed Saturday and Sunday
Atrium, University Place: 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday; closed Saturday and Sunday

Please go to Locations and opening hours for more information.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Eye of the Beholder by Kyle Watt

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits on thermometers increase from the bulb to the end. Digits on arrows sum to the number in the attached circle. The central cell must be less than its orthogonally adjacent neighbors. The greater than symbols ‘point’ to the smaller cell.

Bonus Puzzle - Kurotto by Iwa Daigeki

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. A cell with a circle must not be blackened. The number in a circle indicates the total number of all cells in black areas which are orthogonally adjacent to the numbered cell.

Chess Puzzle - Hulusija Vs. Gasic, 1967

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 9 • Monday 22 November 2021 • #21.10

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 22nd November, it’s the start of week 9, and we’re into the last third of the semester! I hope things are going okay. If you want to know anything about your degree programme, such as how we calculate your final degree mark, how we deal with mitigating circumstances, what industrial experience involves, coursework processes etc. then you will find all this information in the undergraduate handbook (see below). 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 (details below).

Please continue to stay safe … on with today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

WINTER WELLBEING WEEK.

The week marks the beginning of our Winter Wellbeing Week. After talking with student groups, we were made aware that students within The Department of Computer Science would like more wellbeing activities. Over the next week we have a number of amazing wellbeing activities planned for our students.

Tuesday 23rd November: Volunteering project for PostPals.
Wednesday 24th November: Wellbeing with PASS1.
Wednesday 24th November: Board Games afternoon with UniCS
Thursday 25th November: Yoga and Mindfulness with PASS2
Sunday 28th November: Open football training session with the Computer Science Football team.

Keep a look out on our social media for more information on the events and links on how to book onto them!

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Hand sanitisers are available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings should be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

EQUALITY,

DIVERSION & INCLUSION TRAINING. The Faculty of Science and Engineering are committed to making the university a fair and inclusive place for all students and staff. To help all of us better understand our rights and responsibilities, the University of Manchester provides online Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) training for both students and staff. This year, we are asking all students in the Faculty of Science and Engineering to complete a short online training module on Blackboard. The training can be accessed here. If you haven’t already completed the training, then please do so. At the end of the training, there is a short quiz and you will need to achieve a score of 55% or above to pass. You can complete the quiz as many times as you want.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

CHEATING:

CALL IT OUT. Before most of your assessment deadlines start to hit, we wanted to raise awareness of contract cheating and what you can do about it. Contract cheating is the practice of engaging someone else to write any - or all - of a piece of assessed work for you (including online exams). Essay mills are companies who supply written work (such as essays, lab reports etc.) to students for payment. Essay mills may contact you directly by email, or in a chat box when you’re searching the web looking for resources. Some are quite explicit that they are selling bogus assignments, others pretend to being offering “study support” or “academic writing services”. Essay mills are unscrupulous and a student who passes another’s work off as their own is contract cheating - a type of fraud that is highly unethical and can carry severe penalties. It is a form of academic malpractice, and also exposes you to scams and financial risk. What you can do about it:

If you receive an email from someone offering to sell or share written work, forward the message to cheating.spam@manchester.ac.uk. Our Student Conduct and Discipline Team will take action, in collaboration with IT Services and possibly with our Legal Services team, to get the sender blocked
If you search for study support online and come across a website that offers “writing services” or “sample essays” – take a step back and think whether it seems fair and ethical. Ask your Academic Advisor or the My Learning Essentials team in Alan Gilbert Learning Commons about it if you’re unsure. If you think it’s encouraging students to cheat, report the website using the same cheating.spam@manchester.ac.uk address and we will block them from our on-campus machines.

This article written by a current student at Manchester explains more… Contract cheating’ – what it is and how to avoid it.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 16:00 - 17:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! This Thursday (25th November) we’ll be running a mental health session including a relaxing activity run by a very special guest! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there!

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Leonor Resende (Year 3, HCI4wIE): “Hi everyone, my name is Leonor! I’m a third year HCI student and I’m a student rep. I hope I can make a positive impact in the department this year and improve the student experience. Feel free to contact me to discuss any issues and concerns. I will do my best to work the situation with you and report it appropriately. Also please share any positive feedback you want me to pass along in the Staff Student Liaison Committee.” Please contact Leonor by email.

BLOCKCHAINERS.

The Blockchainers Society Discord is here!!! If you want to learn more about blockchain (technical or non-technical), discuss about blockchain, and network with people interested in blockchain, this is where you should be. We host blockchain and cryptocurrency related events and activities, and we can't wait to see you here. Join here.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Careers Service. The award winning Careers Service at the University can offer help and advice with job applications, career direction, mock interviews, psychometric tests, CV checks plus much more! Check out their website to see what they can offer you and don’t forget to register for CareersLink to see current job vacancies.

CRACKCHESTER.

This from the Crackchester team: Hi all. This week, Crackchester is hosting it's Enigma Workshop on the 25th November from 2pm to 4pm In Collab 1. Come join us if you're interested in learning more about cryptography and the famous Enigma Machine and more importantly, how they solved it.

HARDWARE LIBRARY.

Don’t forget we have a student hardware library in the Department that contains hardware components that are free for you to borrow. There are all sorts of items available, from Raspberry Pi components to Drones, Arduinos to Microsoft Kinects, basic electronic components to robots … even Oculus VR headsets. 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 the Kilburn building. Please note, any loaned items should not be taken away from Manchester.

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 opportunity to discuss a funded 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 full details and how to apply. The deadline for submissions is 5pm (UK time) Friday 10th December. Please consider applying as this is a great opportunity to source a placement with ARM.

NEWS FROM OUR ARM CENTER OF EXCELLENCE.

Arm Research has opened various internships for next summer targeted at both under- and post-graduate levels in different research areas, ranging from hardware to software engineering. You can obtain further information at https://careers.arm.com/early-careers.

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.
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 due date will change to the submitted date. You should also see a ‘crossed fingers’ emoji, which indicates the work is submitted but not yet marked. Once the work is marked the emoji will be replaced with your provisional mark.
Software Engineering Y2: work submitted for Software Engineering will not show as submitted in SPOT until the work has been marked because tags are not used.
Whilst SPOT may show you something has been submitted, but not what, so cannot be used to verify you've submitted the required files.

LATE FLAG REMOVAL REQUEST.

If you have been ill or self-isolating and this has resulted in you submitting work late (within 5 days of the deadline) then you should submit a request to have the late flag removed. We have a system for requesting the removal of late flags which can be accessed via SPOT or using this link. If you have been ill for more than 5 days (or major circumstances have impacted your ability to complete work) then you should submit a mitigating circumstances form, you can find more information here. We have also produced some videos to explain the mitigating circumstances process in Blackboard.

COMPUTER SCIENCE FOOTBALL EVENT.

Asim Abdelrazik writes: As part of "Wellbeing Week", on Sunday 28th November between 1-3pm we will be having a football tournament, which is free to participate in and open to everyone in the department of Computer Science. For more information join the CS football discord server.

IMAGO MEETUP.

Imago is the University of Manchester’s student software company. We create beautiful and useful software for paying clients, using the skills and experience we’ve gained during our time at University. On Thursday 2nd December, we will be hosting the first in a series of outreach events at 6pm at the Alliance Business School. If you're interested in a job in software development, or would like to learn more about what we do, please come along! Sign up here.

CAKES AND GAMES AFTERNOON.

Hi everyone, Good Luck with your Coursework. Take a break, have some cakes and relax your mind with board games on 24th November. Feel free to DROP-IN at any time between 2-5 pm in the lower first general area, Kilburn

ARCADE CLUB BURY.

A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all Arcade Fans is going to be over soon as 69% of Tickets are sold out. The bar will also be open so book your tickets for the 15th of December at 6 pm. This is the largest free-play arcade in Europe brought to you by UNICS in collaboration with HCI, ROBOSOC & MUDSS. For booking and other details click here.

VOLUNTEER WITH STUDENT ANGELS.

On a Friday and Saturday night, groups of trained student volunteers head out into the Manchester University and Oxford Road area at busy times during the night. The volunteers ensure our student community are safe whilst on a night out and attend to those who may look vulnerable. Support can include calling them a taxi, giving them water, having a conversation, checking in or performing first aid. Find out more by emailing studentangels.su@manchester.ac.uk or heading to @studentangels on Instagram.

PEER BUDDY SCHEME.

Are you looking to make a difference to somebody's time at university? We are looking for volunteers to help do exactly that! All hours you spend volunteering with the scheme count towards your Stellify award (Make a Difference). We provide you with all the training you need, and offer support throughout the whole time you're a volunteer with us. Sign up here. You can find our more information by emailing peerbuddy.su@manchester.ac.uk, or heading to @umsupeerbuddies on Instagram.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY:

Volunteer Software Engineer. Medlock Primary School are looking for a team of software engineers to deliver a piece of software to help engage their students with improving eco-friendly and climate aware practices. The software will be used to gamify habits, such as bringing in a reusable water bottle to school, so that good practices are rewarded and are carried into their adult life. Tech First Impact will play the part of project management and communication between the software engineering team and the school. Successful applicants will be managed by a professional software engineer and guided to deliver a valuable piece of software as quickly as possible. Agile methodologies and other useful software engineering principals will be taught throughout the project. Volunteers are expected to spend a minimum of two hours per week on the project, preferably pairing with other teammates. As this project is all online, volunteers can carry out all their work from home if they wish. Following application an informal interview will occur and successful applicants will start work as soon as possible. More information can be found on Volunteer Hub.

COMPUTER SCIENCE CHRISTMAS CRAFTS AND VOLUNTEERING AFTERNOON.

Computer Science Post Pals Session. We have joined forces with the University's Volunteering Team to plan and host a fun Christmas themed volunteering event just for Computer Science students. Come and join us in the Kilburn Building for an afternoon of letter-writing and Christmas crafting for charity Post Pals. This is a great volunteering event to help you get into the festive spirit, make a positive difference to people's lives and help spread the festive cheer. Coming along to our Computer Science Christmas Crafts and Volunteering afternoon and volunteering with Post Pals counts towards your Stellify hours. Post Pals is a small charity run solely by volunteers who are dedicated to making seriously ill children and their siblings smile by the sending of cards, letters, little gifts, support and friendship. Post Pals supports children aged three to 17 in the UK and was set up in 2002 by teenagers who had experience of long term illness and being in and out of hospital. We will meet in Collab 2 in the Kilburn Building at 2:00pm and enjoy some treats while we make Christmas cards and write letters to children who are supported by Post Pals. The Volunteering Team will provide all the information you need to get started and will bring coloured paper, cards, pens, stickers and envelopes but if you have any favourite stationary or crafty items you are welcome to bring your own too! Please use the link below to sign up to the event.

Computer Science Volunteer Day: Christmas crafting for children's charity Post Pals - Tuesday 23 November, 2 - 4pm | The University of Manchester Volunteer Hub

CHRISTMAS GIVING PROJECT.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Late 4 the Party by Botaku

Normal sudoku rules apply. On each of the four grey clones, the same digits occur in the same positions. Digits may repeat along the indicated diagonals, and sum to the given values.

Bonus Puzzle - Curving Road by Otto Janko

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. Black cells must not be orthogonally adjacent. All cells with circles are white. Any path on white cells from a circled cell to any other circled cell must turn at least two times. All white cells must form a single orthogonally contiguous area.

Chess Puzzle - Wagner Vs. Kubicka, 2021

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 8 • Monday 15 November 2021 • #21.09

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 15th November and it’s the start of week 8. I hope everything is going well and you are managing to keep on top of your work. If not, then it's important that you speak to someone, your personal tutor (for 3rd years this is your project supervisor), your Year Tutor (see below), or contact SSO. This is particularly important as we enter the latter part of the semester where you may find that you have more coursework to complete, particularly the last few weeks. Consequently, it’s very important to plan your time and not to leave work until the last minute. Make use of the deadlines Gantt chart to see where your deadlines fall and manage your time accordingly. If any issues have prevented you from submitting by a deadline (illness etc) then submit a late flag removal request.

Please continue to stay safe … on with today’s news.

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings should be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

EXAMINATION GUIDANCE:

The semester one exam period is fast approaching. We’ve provided advice and guidance regarding timetables, revision, exam technique and what to do if you miss an exam on the UG Community Blackboard page here. Please take the time to read this ahead of the exam period. If you have any questions regarding your exams please don’t hesitate to contact SSO.

DEPARTMENT DASS COORDINATORS.

The Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) at the University 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 can help students access exams, study and specialist support but only if you register with them. The DASS coordinators for Computer Science are Guy Malkin and Maria Sloan. If you would like any advice regarding registering with DASS or how they can help you, please don’t hesitate to get in contact by emailing SSO or Guy and Maria directly.

WINTER WELLBEING WEEK.

After feedback from many students, The Department of Computer Science Student Experience Team has organised a Wellbeing Week. This will take place from the 22nd to 26th of November and will include a number of events. Some of the amazing events we have planned include Volunteering craft sessions, UniCS Socials and Sessions in collaboration with PASS. Keep an eye on the departments Instagram and Facebook for more information and links to book onto sessions!

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 16:00 - 17:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello everyone! Last week we have levelled up our PASS Leader's CV debugging skills, so we are inviting you to write your first draft, or bring a completed CV, and get some feedback on it. Some companies, such as Google, for example, have a special internship track for the first-year students, this means that you'll be compared only against other first years. Make the best out of these opportunities as you will gain experience with interviews and other tests that the companies have prepared.

First-year project presentations: Although they might seem far away, remember how you just began your first year 7 weeks ago, time flies! Don't forget to make good use of your PASS leaders as they can provide you with lots of advice on what makes a good presentation.

Threshold vs Good Submissions: We all had at least one coursework where we've done just the right amount to get the rubric ticked, but is that all we really want. As the next big wave of coursework approaches we will start to discuss, what is a good submission, how it helps you develop as a computer scientist, and what methods and systems you can employ to give you the best chance to do so. Tune in to your PASS sessions to find out more.

See you on PASS, Alex and Mohammed.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (18th November) we’ll run a chill drop-in session, feel free to ask us anything! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there!

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Raluca Stinga (Year 3, CS): “Hi, everyone ! I'm Raluca, one of the Student reps. I'm looking forward to hearing feedback from as many of you as possible so I can improve your student experience. If you’ve got anything in mind, don't hesitate to contact me. Hope you have an amazing year!” Please contact Raluca by email.

FSE FACULTY FORUM.

The Faculty of Science & Engineering and the Students' Union will be hosting a Faculty Forum for all FSE students on Wednesday 1st December, 2021, 13:00-14:30. This will be a chance for you to discuss big topics and influence strategic change across the Faculty. The forum is open to ALL students across the Faculty. Faculty Officers and Student Reps are expected to be in attendance and are encouraged to bring along other students with them. We will be discussing Exam Support, with a particular focus on mitigating circumstances and MyLearningEssentials. It is not necessary to prepare anything for this Forum, nor do you need personal experience of utilising either of these tools, but any experience or ideas you may have with exam support within FSE will help. Registration is mandatory to attend. Sign ups via this form will end at 10 am on the 1 December. If you wish to sign up after this point, please email for the joining information.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY.

The International Society is an independent, not-for-profit organisation based in Greater Manchester supported by the city’s Universities. They have been promoting international friendship and celebrating cultural diversity in the city since 1966. They run trips and events throughout the year primarily for international students to attend.

Upcoming Trips

Sat 20th Nov – York (St Nicholas Fair)
Sun 21st Nov – Peak District visiting Poole’s Cavern and Bakewell

Upcoming Events

Thanksgiving Celebration Wed 24th Nov. Thanksgiving: a time to get together with family and friends and be thankful for not just the fruits of the harvest but for the new people around us.

For more information or to book onto a session follow this link.

GREAT UNI HACK 2021.

UniCS are happy to announce that applications are now open for the 2021 instalment of Great Uni Hack, taking place on 27th-28th November. All students are welcome to attend, regardless of experience. Get registered using this link. The theme this year is a post-apocalypse world. We have very cool events lined up for you, and we have amazing sponsors such as Booking.com, Peak AI, and many others. We look forward to seeing your applications!

CHILDREN IN NEED BAKE SALE.

What is better than cake? Cake which supports a good cause! On Friday the 19th of November, the Department of Computer Science is having a bake sale in the Kilburn Building to support Children in Need. Please come along and buy a sweet treat to support this cause. The bake sale starts at 11am till sell out and will take place in Kilburn LF Area. You can also bring your own baked goods as donations for the bake sale (handmade or store bought are both fine). Please bring these to Kilburn LF.21 before 11am on Friday the 19th of November. If you bring your own baked goods, please bring a list of the ingredients you’ve used and any allergens to look out for. We look forward to seeing you there!

ARCADE CLUB.

For you arcade lovers we are running an end-of-year trip to the largest free-play arcade in Europe in collaboration with HCI & MUDSS. Save the date: 15th December from 6 pm. A third of the tickets are already gone with unbelievable discounts! Click here for booking.

NORTH WEST CYBER RESILIENCE CENTRE STUDENT CHAPTER EVENT.

As part of our mission to support the next generation of talent, the North West Cyber Resilience Centre launched our Student Chapter in October 2020. Our objective is for cyber security experts to share their journey and experience of working in the industry. In previous Student Chapter events, we’ve heard from experts working for CGI, KPMG and TryHackMe as well as CREST. Interest from students has grown across the North West, welcoming students from universities in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire and Cumbria. For our next Student Chapter, we are welcoming experts from BT and Chainalysis who will be presenting on Thursday 25th November, 6-8 pm. For students in the North West, this is a great opportunity to be part of a community of cybersecurity enthusiasts and engage with the region’s leading cyber companies, improve your knowledge and develop skills that will help you to get a job when you finish studying. This event will be a hybrid event, both physical and virtual. The event will be held in the event space at the Manchester Technology Centre on Oxford road, students can attend in-person or join us virtually via Zoom. There will be food & refreshments available to attendees. For more information and registration follow this link.

CISSE UK | RESONATE PRE_PILOT LAUNCH EVENT FOR STUDENTS.

CISSE UK | resonate, is a career design and development programme for university students and graduates who aspire towards careers in cyber security that relate to governance, risk, compliance, networking, software development, software engineering, DevOps, SecDevOps, UX, security testing, vulnerability management and much more. Register here for the launch event.

ONLINE MEET THE PROFESSIONALS SESSION.

On Monday 15th of November, we will be running a Meet the Professionals - Careers in Tech Panel. This session will be a great opportunity for you to ask University of Manchester alumni about their career progression, any hints and tips they may have for successful job hunting, and how you can build skills for a career in the future. You’ll be engaging with past students who now have successful careers in the tech industry. You will also have the opportunity to connect with some panellists on LinkedIn, giving your professional network a kick-start for when you graduate. The Zoom link for the session is linked here, please note that you will need to use your University of Manchester Zoom account to access the session.

MEET THE TECH-XPERTS.

Get the chance to meet a panel of men and women working in the tech industry on Wednesday the 17th of November from 3 - 4 pm, ask them any industry-related questions and discuss your plans with them. This event is hybrid so you can join us from Kilburn G41 (for free snacks and hopefully pizza) or online.

MENTOR FORM FOR GUH.

Hi Everyone! If you would like to volunteer as a mentor for GreatUniHack, an annual 24-hour hackathon, on November 27th-28th please fill in this form. Applications for mentors close on 22nd November at 18:00.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - The Devil’s Whirlpool by Marvin Kannhäuser

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits in cages sum to the small clue in the top left corner of the cage. Digits along arrows sum to the digit in that arrow’s circle. In large circles (without arrows) the indicated digit must appear in one of the surrounding cells. Cells separated by a small white dot must contain consecutive digits.

Bonus Puzzle - Nondango by Not Hatsuduki

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. In every region exactly one circle must be black. There must not be three circles of the same color in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line without a circle of a different color or an empty cell in between.

Chess Puzzle - Ajay Vs. Mulenga, 2020

Drag and drop the White pieces to draw the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 7 • Monday 8 November 2021 • #21.08

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 8th November and it’s week 7. Welcome back after Reading Week, I hope you managed to take a break last week. We are back to the normal teaching timetable this week. Great to see an app developed by a team of Imago students being used at COP26, well done to all those involved!

I hope you enjoyed the fireworks last week, where we celebrated Bonfire Night (or Guy Fawkes night) in the UK on the 5th November. If you are an overseas student you may be wondering what it was all about! Well, Bonfire Night is when we commemorate the failed gunpowder plot of 1605, where a dissident group attempted to kill King James I by trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. The event is observed by setting off fireworks and lighting bonfires where we burn a ‘guy’, an effigy of Guy Fawkes, one of the key conspirators in the plot.

Please continue to stay safe … on with today’s news.
Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

SERVICE SUPPORT SPOTLIGHT:

Counselling Service Workshops. As part of the counselling service the university offers a variety of workshops. They range from Mindfulness Meditation, to Managing Anxiety and Reducing Stress, please see a selection of courses starting from this week. See the list of workshops that you can book on in November and December.

LATE FLAG REMOVAL REQUEST.

If you have been ill (or issues out of your control have affected your studies) and this has resulted in you submitting work late (within 5 working days of the deadline) then you should submit a request to have any resulting late flag removed. We have a system for requesting the removal of late flags which can be accessed from SPOT, or by following this link. If you have been ill for more than 5 working days (or other circumstances outside of your control have impacted your ability to complete work) then you should submit a mitigating circumstances form, you can find more information about how to do this here. Please do not contact members of staff to ask for late flags to be removed.

EXAM SUPPORT.

Do you need support for a disability/dyslexia for your Exams? If you need extra time, rest breaks etc. because of a disability, please contact the Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) ASAP to register. Alternatively you can contact the Department DASS coordinator Hannah Cousins to discuss a referral. Please note that you must have fully registered with DASS and have met with a Disability Adviser to discuss and agree any exam adjustments by 18th November in order to receive support in the January 2022 examinations.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 15:00 - 16:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: We hope you used reading week to its full potential and are fresh and ready to go back. This week and next week, we will be having observations with other PASS schemes across the university. Your PASS session may have a guest from another department, so make them feel welcome as they take inspiration from your PASS sessions and provide feedback to your leaders. Duncan, our careers officer, will also be training PASS leaders on giving feedback on CVs, so feel free to bring in your CV on week 8 or after for feedback and advice.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you all had a lovely reading week! This Thursday (11th November) we’ll be doing a live system design mock interview and being conscious of your deadlines, we will keep it shorter than usual. We will be around after, as always, so feel free to ask us anything! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there!

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Asad Khabir (Year 1 AIwIE): “Hi my name is Asad and I am an International Student from Pakistan. I am your guy for anything anime (please hit me up if you have any recommendations). Aside from that I love reading bad fiction novels and writing even worse ones. As part of the Staff Student Liaison Committee, I look forward to helping out you guys with any problems you might cross.” Please contact Asad by email.

UKIEPC 2021.

This from Ian Pratt-Hartmann: On Saturday, 30th October, the UK Ireland Programming Competition (UKIEPC) took place, in which teams of three attempted a series of twelve 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. (Remote registration was also possible.) Twenty-six teams from Manchester took part. Of these, the teams "Last Dance" and "robuman" (the latter registered remotely) solved an excellent 8 problems each, while "Am I ready for FAANG now" and "DetaAC" solved 5 problems each. The final standings can be found at https://ukiepc2021.cloudcontest.org/public.

Congratulations to the top four Manchester teams: ‘Last Dance’: Dragos Petrut Marin (CS, Year 3), Alex Iordachescu (CSwIE, out on IE), Andrei Gabriel Bostan (CS, Year 3); ‘robuman’: Alexandru Stoica (CSwIE, Year 2), Ignes Simeonova (CS, Year 2), Andrej Velichkovski (CS, Year 2); ‘Am I ready for FAANG now’: Tudor Bujdei-Leonte (AI4wIE, Year 2), Petr Kolar (external), Anthony Nguyen (CM, Year 2); ‘DetaAC’: Codrut-Grigore Irimie (AIwIE, Year 2), Alexandru-Stefan Buburuzan (AIwIE, Year 1), Claudiu Craciun (CMwIE, Year 2).

UNICS NEWS.

Ziyang Yu writes: Hi everyone I hope you had a productive reading week and enjoyed Halloween. Thank you so much for joining us on our Halloween pub crawl with all your amazing costumes. Winners of the UNICS pub crawl costume contest 2021!

APP BUILT BY MANCHESTER IMAGO TEAM IN USE AT COP26.

Suzanne Embury writes: An app built by a team of Imago students is being used at the COP26 climate change conference to help present the scientific evidence for bioenergy. The student team - Karam Agha (CSwIE, 3rd Year), Jang Belche (HCI, 3rd Year), Amish Shah (CSwIE, on placement at Zuhike), Miranda Watkins (CS4wIE, 3rd Year) - developed the app under the guidance of Dr Andrew Welfle, a Research Fellow at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research here at the University of Manchester. The app provides a showcase for the work of the Supergen Bioenergy Hub, a consortium of academics, industry and government groups working together to create effective and sustainable bioenergy systems for the UK. Congratulations to all involved!

CRACKCHESTER.

Hey, all. Crackchester is back after a refreshing Reading Week, with an exciting Social on Friday (12th Nov) at Turing Tap. We will post further details on our social media platforms. Additionally, the voting for our elections will be opening today!! Vote for your committee here. We will be holding qualifiers for The HTB (HackTheBox) Uni CTF team on HackTheBox. If you would like to participate in the qualifiers enter your HTB username in this form, and request to join the University Team on HTB. We will let you know what to do on our Discord Server, once you have joined the team!

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

GREAT UNI HACK.

One of the most awaited competitions is back!!!!! Coders be ready to sharpen your skills by participating in Great Uni Hack 2021. For more information visit our website. Apply soon to be a part of the Hackathon with students participating from 88 universities across Europe.

ARCADE CLUB TRIP.

For you arcade lovers we are running an end-of-year trip to the largest free-play arcade in Europe in collaboration with HCI & MUDSS. Save the date: 15th December from 6 pm. Limited Tickets with unbelievable discounts! Click here for booking.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY EVENTS.

The International Society is organising the following trips and events over the next week:.

Weekend day trips

Sat 13th Nov – Yorkshire visiting Bolton Abbey and Skipton Castle
Sun 14th Nov – South Lake District with boat ride on Lake Windermere

Event

Capoeira Night Wed 10th November. Capoeira is an Afro-Brazilian mix of dance, acrobatics, martial arts and music, all combined in a fun group activity suitable for all physical conditions. That’s the perfect occasion to try it! Come along to our taster class to learn new moves, meet new friends and have fun!

SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL PRE-GRADUATE AWARD.

Are you ready to play an active role in developing cutting-edge technological innovations to making the world a better place? Be part of the team at A*STAR, the largest public research agency in Singapore with a strong network of over 20 A*STAR Research Institutes. Apply to SIPGA for hands-on research and development with distinguished and world-renowned researchers through short-term research attachments between four to five months. SIPGA aims to engage students in holistic research to make ground-breaking contributions in their respective fields. International students in Physical Science and Engineering related disciplines who are undergraduate students in their third or fourth year can apply. SIPGA awardees may be attached to A*STAR research entities for 4 to 5 months and will receive S$1,500 in monthly stipends. The application deadline: 15 Nov. More information in the following brochure.

GET INVOLVED IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACTIVITY DAYS.

Would you be interested in working with secondary school students at a Science and Technology Activity Day? MCS Projects are looking for university students that could help to lead Robotics and E-FIT Forensics activities. See here for more information. Students should have an enthusiasm for Science and Technology and ideally also have some experience of working with young people. The pay would be £75 plus travel expenses for each event. To apply for this work please send a copy of your C.V to john.waterworth@mcsprojectsltd.co.uk. Successful applicants would need to attend an hour-long training session.

*HELP SHAPE THE UNIVERSITY’S FLEXIBLE LEARNING STRATEGY. As a University, we want to move in this direction to give you an outstanding student experience and the best learning outcomes and moving to a blended and flexible strategy is key to this. As a student in the University we are keen to hear your ideas and suggestions to help us shape the Flexible Learning strategy. In November and December, we’ll be running one-hour online workshops in a variety of areas from technology to assessments and we want YOUR input. If you take part in one of these sessions, you’ll also be invited to a joint staff and student session in February, and you will receive a £15 Amazon voucher as a thank you! Register your interest for the workshops. You can find out more information here.

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITY.

Volunteer to help older persons with digital devices: The three charities of Didsbury Good Neighbours, Withington Assist and Chorlton Good Neighbours are seeking volunteers to assist with the delivery of a digital inclusion project supporting older South Manchester residents to engage more confidently with digital devices. Volunteers will support the Digital Inclusion Officer to deliver digital drop-in sessions offering one to one support to residents with whatever digital support they may need in a friendly community setting - a perfect opportunity for those looking to pursue a career in consultation and/or teaching that allows volunteers to develop their skills in a low pressure, relaxed environment. A level of familiarity across digital devices is recommended however nothing beyond that of everyday use that comes as second nature to students, as the majority of our residents are beginners that require patience and understanding over digital expertise (the digital inclusion officer will be on hand to assist with any technical issues beyond the skills of the volunteer).

Volunteers are welcome to apply for any of the following:

Didsbury Good Neighbours Digital Drop-in: Tuesdays 10:00 - 11:30
Withington Assist Digital Drop-in: Wednesdays 14:00 - 15:30
Chorlton Good Neighbours Digital Drop-in: Thursdays 10:00 - 11:30

Follow this link to find out more information and how to apply.

RECYCLING FOR SINGLE USE FACE MASKS.

Since the pandemic we have seen necessary increases in some plastic usage across the Estate in order to protect our staff and students. Those recently returning to campus are being encouraged to continue to wear face masks. In line with the University’s commitment to eliminating avoidable single-use plastic, we would in the first instance encourage staff and students to wear a reusable fabric face mask which can be kept and used repeatedly. However, in the instances where single-use face masks are used, rather than send unnecessary plastics for disposal, the University has set up single-use face mask recycling collection points across the campus, in partnership with ReWorked. The current PPE disposal bins in most academic buildings on main campus are being repurposed into collection/recycling points for single use/disposable face masks. These will be emptied by staff in House Services and the masks are then collected by ReWorked and will be repurposed into Stormboards, durable plastic boards for use in construction, shopfitting, joinery and much more. See how we recycle PPE (Covid masks, gloves, visors etc.).

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Fibonacci Thermo by Sumanta Mukherjee

Normal sudoku rules apply. Along the thermo, 2-digit numbers increase from the bulb - any 2-digit numbers beginning with 2 or 8 must have an odd second digit. The black dot join digits with a 1:2 ratio.

Bonus Puzzle - Nonogram by Hermann Kudlick

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. The black cells form stripes which are one cell wide. The number, sequence and lengths of the stripes are specified by the clue number sequences on the top and on the left edge of the diagram. Each clue number defines the length of a stripe in the corresponding row resp. column. Two stripes of black cells are separated by at least one white cell.

Chess Puzzle - Muzychuk Vs. Jakab, 2006

Drag and drop the Black pieces to draw the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 6 (Reading Week) • Monday 1 November 2021 • #21.07

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 1st November, it’s week 6 and we are nearly halfway through the semester already. Where’s the time gone? This week is reading week. What does that mean? It means that for most of you there are no teaching activities scheduled this week (well no COMP activities) but you may have some coursework deadlines this week, and some external course units may still have activities. Try and make use of your free time this week if you can, take a break and recharge your batteries. Why not go and meet 'Little Amal' on Wednesday?

Keep safe ...

Paul

Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE MEETING.

We had a very productive first meeting of the student-staff liaison committee last Wednesday. Thanks to all the student reps who turned up. SSLC is one way in which you can feed your opinions back to the department and report any issues. If you want to raise an issue, or let us know of something we are doing well, then please contact one of your reps. Contact details can be found in Blackboard, or you can contact them in Discord.

LATE FLAG REMOVAL REQUEST.

If you have been ill and this has resulted in you submitting work late (within 5 working days of the deadline) then you should submit a request to have the late flag removed. We have a system for requesting the removal of late flags which can be accessed from SPOT or using this link. If you have been ill for more than 5 working days (or other circumstances have impacted your ability to complete work) then you should submit a mitigating circumstances form, you can find more information here.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Health Assured Helpline. 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’s 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. Find out more here.

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.

EXAM SUPPORT.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 15:00 - 16:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello first years, This week there won't be any PASS sessions, but feel free to discuss what you need to catch up on with your PASS leaders and ask them to cover something for next week's PASS session. We recommend you make the most of your reading week!. Aside from catching up with your studies, look at volunteering opportunities on the volunteer hub or sign up for a Hackathon and find a team. Also feel free to discuss these topics on the discord server. We wish everyone a fruitful reading week, and we will see you in PASS in Week 7.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team, hope you enjoyed our last week’s session and are having a lovely reading week! Although there will not be a session this week, we have prepared lots of resources which you can find on our website, and we are happy to discuss anything with you over Discord. Also, it’ll be really helpful for us if you could give us some feedback or suggestions. Look forward to seeing you all again next week!

OUT OF HOURS ACCESS.

Out of hours access to the Kilburn building is now available between 18:00 to 21:00 hours on weekdays. Note there is no out of hours access permitted over the weekend. All students will need to complete the following training in order to be granted out of hours access to the building (if you have completed these already you do not need to redo them, however you must contact SSO to have your card activated);

Academic Malpractice Training here
Equality & Diversity Training here here
Health and Safety Induction Modules here
Read the out of hours information and take the test here

Once you have completed the required training and the test please email compsci-sso-ug@manchester.ac.uk with a screenshot of the completed training and test along with confirmation of your student ID number. SSO will then activate your University ID card so you can gain access to the building out of hours. This will be done within 3 working days of your email.

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Bozhidar Klouchek (Year 2 CSwIE): “Hi! I’m Bozhidar and I’m from Bulgaria! I’m interested in front-end development, game development and data science and my hobbies include dancing and desperately keeping my house plants alive.” Please contact Bozhidar by email.

COURSE UNIT HEALTH CHECKS.

Thanks to everyone who participated in our course unit Health check survey. We will pass on your feedback to course unit leaders and will ask for any issues raised to be considered and action taken if appropriate.

ESRC FESTIVAL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE.

We are delighted to announce that between the 1st and 21st of November, the annual ESRC Festival of Social Science returns to Manchester for its eighth year, with events taking place both virtually and in person. Alongside poetry workshops, performance art and urban gardening, this year the programme offers a unique insight into the role that the social sciences can play in addressing the climate crisis, as the UK hosts COP26 in Glasgow. Join us this November to explore the world of social science, from how our behaviour can help fight climate change to the effects of the pandemic on society. Take a look at our range of free events, for all ages and tastes. For more information and registration details, take a look at the Festival website.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY EVENTS.

The international society organises trips and events for international students, the following trips and events are happening soon, so please get involved.

Weekend trips

Sat 6th Nov – Liverpool
Sun 7th Nov – Blackpool & Illuminations

Events

Language and Cultural Exchange Fri 5th Nov. Learning a language and want to meet native speakers? Join the online language and culture exchange to learn from each other and make friends while there.

If you want more info or would like to book a trips or event, then follow this link.

THE WALK.

Meet Little Amal, a young refugee, who has embarked on a remarkable journey across Turkey and Europe to find her mother. In 2021, from the Syria-Turkey border all the way to the UK, The Walk is bringing together celebrated artists, major cultural institutions, community groups and humanitarian organisations, creating one of the most innovative and adventurous public artworks ever attempted. At the heart of The Walk is ‘Little Amal’, a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a young refugee girl. Little Amal is travelling over 8,000km embodying the urgent message “Don’t forget about us”. Amal will be visiting Manchester on Wednesday 3rd November at the Castlefield bowl, why not go and say hello!

UNIVERSITY OF READING DIGITAL EDUCATION & ACCESSIBLE LEARNING SURVEY.

If you are a student who is deaf or hard of hearing, neurodiverse (particularly with dyslexia), or you speak English as a second or other language, The University of Reading would like to hear from you! They would like to find out what you online learning experience has been like and thus,

Identify optimal conditions for online learning in Higher Education
Develop a model to support comprehension of video and textual information
Create a platform that will be responsive to different user needs
Inform the development of guidance to providers of online learning

All eligible completers of both the first and second assessments will receive a payment of £10 to cover expenses (internet use, etc.). You will also be entered once into a prize draw for £25. For every person you recommend the study to, who also enrols for participation, you will gain another entry into the prize draw. Follow this link to find out more about the survey.

STUDENTS UNION EVERY EXPERIENCE MATTERS SURVEY.

The Student Union at The University of Manchester recognise the challenge of the past couple of years for Higher Education Students. This survey will help your Students Union understand your experiences of Education at the University of Manchester; how it is now and how you want it to look in the future. As an additional incentive, the SU are running a prize draw for a selection of student who have completed the survey. Our winners will receive any one of the following

A £25 Love2Shop or Amazon Voucher
A pair of gig tickets for the Manchester Academy venues
A free coffee voucher for Corridor Coffee Co
A free drink voucher for 532 Bar and Kitchen

Click here to get started.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

The deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday. Just contact Paul.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - The Odd One by Joseph Nehme

Normal sudoku rules apply. In cages, digits must sum to the small clue in the top left corner of the cage. Digits cannot repeat within a cage.

Bonus Puzzle - Kuroshuto by Otto Janko

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. Cells with numbers must not be blackened. Black cells must not be orthogonally adjacent. Starting at a cell with the number N exactly one of the cells with distance N must be blackened. All white cells must form an orthogonally contiguous area .

Chess Puzzle - Ojeda Vs. Alvarez, 1998

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 5 • Monday 25 October 2021 • #21.06

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 25th October and it’s week 5. I hope everything is going okay so far. Next week is reading week, which means there are no teaching activities for COMP course units. However, you may still have some coursework to complete, or activities may be taking place for some external course units. Do try and take a break if you can. The clocks in the UK go back by one hour at 2am on Sunday 31st October … just in time for Halloween! Have a spooktacular time ...
Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

A number of students have been ill already this semester, not just with COVID (although numbers are thankfully low) but other similar illnesses too. Consequently, to help reduce the spread of infection, we strongly encourage you to follow University safety guidelines – this will help us protect each other and reduce the chance of spreading any illnesses on campus. Remember "hands, face, space".

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Student Union Advice Centre. The Student Union offers advice and support with any wellbeing problems you’re facing in a safe and confidential space away from the University. What can they do?

Give free, impartial and confidential advice or simply offer a place to talk.
Provide free contraception and sexual health tests.
Help you report a hate crime, and give you advice and support if you have been the victim of a hate crime.
Provide confidential advice and support if you have been a victim of sexual assault.
Help you understand University procedures around bullying, harassment and discrimination.

You can find more information on their website. Remember you can always contact the Student Support Office in Computer Science for any advice or help at any time.

LATE FLAG REMOVAL REQUEST.

If you have been ill, or have been self-isolating, and this has resulted in you submitting work late (within 5 working days of the deadline) then you should submit a request to have the late flag removed. We have a system for requesting the removal of late flags that can be accessed from SPOT or using this link. Please do not contact staff about removing a late flag, please follow this process. The handbook also provides further information. If you have been ill for more than 5 working days (or other circumstances have impacted your ability to complete work) then you should submit a mitigating circumstances form, you can find more information here.

ACADEMIC ADVISORS.

Your academic advisor provides pastoral support if you are having any issues during your studies. Who is your academic advisor? If you are a 1st or 2nd year student, your academic advisor is your personal tutor (you can find out who that is here). In the 3rd year your academic advisor is your project supervisor, and in the 4th year it is Tim Morris.

STUDENT-STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE MEETING.

We have the first meeting of the student-staff liaison committee (SSLC) on Wednesday 27th October. If you would like to raise any issues then please contact one of your student reps. SSLC is one way in which you can feed your opinions back to the department and report any issues. Remember, we also interested in what’s going well, which course units are doing a good job etc, so we can learn from what works and what doesn’t.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 15:00 - 16:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (28th October) we’ll be talking about system design interviews and being conscious of your deadlines, we will keep it shorter than usual. We will be around after as always so feel free to ask us anything! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there! :D

HARDWARE LIBRARY.

Did you know we have a student hardware library in the Department containing hardware components that are free for you to borrow? There are all sorts of items available, from Raspberry Pi components to Drones, Arduinos to Microsoft Kinects, basic electronic components to robots … even Oculus VR headsets. 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 the Kilburn building. Please note, any loaned items should not be taken away from Manchester.

OUT OF HOURS ACCESS.

There is currently no access to the Kilburn building outside of normal working hours (8am - 6pm, Monday to Friday) while we sort out new arrangements for access. We hope new arrangements will be in place by early November. From then on, access to the Kilburn building will be permitted from 8am - 9pm, Monday to Friday; there will be no access at the weekend. If you would like to use the Kilburn building during the extended opening hours (6pm - 9pm) then you will need to complete the Health & Safety module in Blackboard, as well as successfully completed an out of hours test. Once you have completed the out of hours test, you should send proof to SSO. Access will then be granted to you once the new arrangements are in place. Entry to the building outside of normal working hours is via the loading bay using your University swipecard. Your card will not be activated unless you have emailed proof of completion of the out of hours test to SSO.

CRACKCHESTER.

Mark Paveszka writes: Hey all, Crackchester here. We are extending nominations to our committee positions with further opening two additional ones: Treasurer and Outreach Officer. Make sure to check out https://elections.crackchester.cc for details! The deadline for nominations is the 29th of October at 6pm! Furthermore, we are running our first workshop on Wednesday 27th at 3pm called Popcorn and Privacy. We will be talking about how you can protect your privacy on the web, and more.

MEET A STUDENT REP.

Each week we will introduce one of the student representatives, this week it’s the turn of Dhrishaj Garg (Year 1 CSwIE): “Hi! My name is Dhrishaj and I’m an international student from India. I enjoy cooking, am an avid reader and an amateur writer. I enjoy reading anything that ranges from contemporary fiction to high fantasy. I look forward to helping out my peers in any way possible and thus chose to be a part of the Staff Student Liaison Committee. Please feel free to contact me for any of your difficulties, and we as a team will try to address and solve our problems.” Please contact Dhrishaj by email.

LAB AVAILABILITY.

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 degree programme, information on student support etc. The handbook also has information related to how to apply for mitigating circumstances if your learning has been affected. 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.

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.
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 due date will change to the submitted date. You should also see a ‘crossed fingers’ emoji, which indicates the work is submitted but not yet marked. Once the work is marked the emoji will be replaced with your provisional mark.
Software Engineering Y2: work submitted for Software Engineering will not show as submitted in SPOT until the work has been marked because tags are not used.

UNICS.

Ziyang Yu writes: Our next event is a Halloween pub crawl. Join us for a spooky night filled with drinking, walking, and socialising. Get your costume game up for a chance to win a free drink on us. See you on the 29th of October.

UNICS GAMEJAM.

Last chance to register for the UniCS GameJam. It will take place online from the 28th October to the 7th November. You can make use of online assets but you have to pick one of the themes provided and integrate it into your game. You can join as a team or individual (if you don't have a team you can still team up with other students using the discord channel provided). To be able to make a submission, make sure you join the GameJam by clicking on the Join button here. We also encourage you to join the discord to not miss out on any updates.

APPLE DEVELOPER TECH TALK.

We would like to invite your students to join us for a tech talk with Myra Haggerty, leader of Apple’s Sensor Software and Prototyping team within the Hardware Technologies organisation. Hear about Myra’s career journey and what it’s like to be at the core of creating innovation at Apple.

Date: Tuesday November 9, 2021
Time: 4:00p.m. - 5:00p.m. GMT
Register for the event here.

What’s a tech talk? A tech talk is an information session presented by a thought leader or senior engineer to talk about industry-leading and cutting edge trends, concepts, and technology. What’s the benefit for attending? Tech talks are a great opportunity to stay up to date, learn new concepts, and express interest in a field or company that you’re curious about. It’s also a good way to explore internship/full time opportunities and increase your exposure. We hope you’ll be able to join us.

GREAT UNI HACK.

Hi everyone, UniCS are happy to announce that applications for the 2021 instalment of Great Uni Hack will open this Friday (29th October) at 18:00. Get registered here! The theme this year is a post-apocalypse world. We have a very cool event lined up for you, and we have amazing sponsors such as Booking.com, Peak AI, and many others. We look forward to seeing your applications. Thanks, UniCS committee.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Even Arrow Sudoku by Scott Strosahl

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow must sum to the digit in that arrow's circle. Cells containing a grey square must contain an even digit.

Bonus Puzzle - Creek by Iwa Daigeki

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. A number in a circle indicates how many of the 4 adjacent cells must be blackened. All white cells must form a single orthogonally contiguous area.

Chess Puzzle - Eppinger Vs. Fleck, 1986

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 4 • Monday 18 October 2021 • #21.05

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 18th October and it’s week 4. I hope that everything is going well as we make our way (what feels) rapidly through the semester. We are running course unit health checks this week to discover how course units are going so far this semester, as this will allow us to tackle any issues quickly, so please complete the survey (see below). It’s that time of year when we get illnesses spreading across campus, so if you have a cough or cold/flu-like symptoms please can I ask you to stay at home and minimise the spread of infection. If you have cold/flu-like symptoms then it’s important that you get yourself tested for COVID and receive a negative PCR test before you return to campus. If you are ill, or self isolating, then you can join any teaching activities online, and you can let us know if this impacts the submission of work (see below).

Have a great week, on with today’s news and please continue to wear masks when moving around campus ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

As students from all around the world arrive on campus, we strongly encourage you to follow our safety guidelines – this will help us protect each other and reduce the chance of spreading COVID-19 on campus. Remember "hands, face, space".

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

SAFEZONE.

Safezone is our mobile app designed to provide you with enhanced security and assistance whilst studying or living on campus. The app is free to download and easy to use. You can use it to:

'Check in' any time of day – tell us where you are on campus 24/7
Quickly and discreetly call for assistance – whether it’s for first aid or in an emergency
Keep up to date – notifications sent directly to your phone if there is an incident on campus
Contact our COVID-19 helpline – ask questions, report concerns or inform us of a positive COVID-19 test

Further information about Safezone and how to register can be found online here.

STUDENT SUPPORT & WELFARE ADMINISTRATORS.

Hi everyone, we just wanted to introduce ourselves as the Student Support and Welfare Administrators for the department. Our names are Guy Malkin and Maria Sloan and we’re looking forward to meeting you, and you’ll probably be in contact with us if you reach out to Computer Sciences Welfare. Please get in touch with us if you are having difficulties with university life, your wellbeing/welfare, or if you need additional support due to a disability or other mitigating circumstances. You can contact us by email: guy.malkin@manchester.ac.uk and maria.sloan@manchester.ac.uk. Our advice is to contact us sooner rather than later. If you are struggling with anything at all during your university journey please let us know straight away! We are here to support you and work out what we as a university can do to help you during your studies

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

Nightline. Greater Manchester Nightline is a confidential listening and information service run for students by students. They offer anonymous, non judgemental and non-directive support for all callers, regardless of the situation. You can talk about anything you like. As well as the listening service, Nightline can also provide information, such as contact numbers for a wide range of places. Just give Nightline a ring and ask – it’s as easy as that! You can contact Nightline by phone or instant message. Find out more about and see contact information on their website.

LATE FLAG REMOVAL REQUEST.

UNIVERSITY ASSESSMENT COMMITMENT.

Even though we are back on campus, the COVID pandemic is not over. As a result, the University is once again making a series of assessment commitments for the 2021/22 academic year. These are additional measures applied for assessments to mitigate any ongoing effects of the pandemic that may affect your performance. Highlights include:

Moderation & Scaling. Examination boards will review and scale marks to ensure the cohort performance is not out of line with previous (non-COVID) years.
When determining degree classifications, the boundary will be extended by 1%. For example, a student with an overall mark in the range 67-69.9% will be considered for a 1st class classification.
Waiving of resit fees.
Changes to Mitigating Circumstances. For example, for illness we won’t require evidence from a GP, instead alternative supporting evidence can be provided.

You can find more information here.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00. .
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 15:00 - 16:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team, hope you enjoyed our last week’s session and had a nice weekend! This Thursday (21st October) we’ll be talking about the different types of HR interviews and evaluating a live HR mock interview. We will also review your CVs again so bring those along! Same place, same time: 12pm, both in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Don’t forget to join our Discord server, visit our website and come along to our 4th wonderful session! :D

MANCHESTER FORMULA STUDENT AI TEAM.

Manchester's Formula Student AI team is now looking for new team members. Formula Student AI is a competition hosted by IMechE, where teams from universities compete in making the best software for an autonomous race car. If writing code for an autonomous race car and getting to race it at the end of the year is something that could interest you then come to our info meeting in Kilburn 2.33 on Friday (22.10) at 5 pm to hear more about the team and the competition! You can also sign up for the team through our online form.

LINUX SETUP.

We have noticed that a number of students have been leaving themselves logged in on Kilburn machines because they haven’t set up their University Linux profile to automatically log them out when they log out of the Linux windows manager. We’ve produced some guidance on how to set up your Linux profile to enable this, which you can find in Blackboard. We strongly suggest that 1st and 2nd years update their Linux profile following this dvice.

COURSE UNIT HEALTH CHECKS.

We are running an early-Semester Course Unit health check – please take a moment to give us your feedback on your course units so far this semester. We run health healths early in each semester just to make sure everything is okay, and so we can pick up and address any issues at the earliest opportunity. Please follow the appropriate link depending on your year group: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3 and complete a form for each of the course units you are taking. The deadline for feedback is 6pm Friday 22nd October, as we want to address any issues (where we can) at the earliest opportunity. You can find more information on the Department wiki pages.

ASSIGNMENT WRITING SERVICES.

Just a reminder that the use of assignment writing services is a form of Academic Malpractice and you will face a penalty if you are found to be using one. These services often advertise that they can write your coursework, essays or even programming for you and it will be 100% plagiarism free. Passing off someone else’s work as your own is plagiarism! We ask you to complete coursework as part of your learning; paying for these services means that you are missing out on being able to understand the course which ultimately will make future work more difficult for you.

INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY EVENTS.

The International Society is an independent, not-for-profit organisation based in Greater Manchester supported by the city’s Universities. They are here to help you make the most of your life in Manchester! The International Society is the best place for you to make new friends from all over the world. They aim to provide a warm welcome to everyone who visits. Our trips, classes, events, activities and volunteering opportunities are open to all. Upcoming events include

Day trips

Saturday 23rd October – York
Sunday 24th October - Yorkshire Visiting Fountain’s Abbey and Harrogate

Events

World Quiz online Thursday 21st October. Come along and challenge your knowledge of the World! Can you guess which famous landmark is missing from the image? Which country has this as their national anthem? There will also be funny and unusual trivia questions, not just boring geography!

Weekly Events

Weekly Socials on campus. Every Wednesdays and Fridays 3pm at Nest (UoM's Student's Union).

UKIEPC PROGRAMMING CONTEST.

This from Ian Pratt-Hartmann: The UK and Ireland Programming Contest (UKIEPC) will take place this year on Saturday, October 30th, 2021. (Likely time: 12:00–17:00; details to be confirmed.) UKIEPC is an annual event in which teams of three participants try to crack a series of programming challenges. This year, remote participation will be possible. However, there will be on-site participation, and it is planned that Manchester will be a site. On-site participation at Manchester will be available ONLY to teams consisting entirely of students of Computer Science at Manchester. Details (just announced and still subject to last-minute changes) can be found here. You should register using the Competition website. (There is a "Take Part" button in the top right corner, which is surprisingly easy to miss.) You may register for Virtual Participation if you prefer. Registration is now open. Completing the form should be easy.

The best individuals from Manchester will be able to form teams to compete in the North West Europe Regional Programming Competition (NWERC), which will be hosted virtually by the University of Reykjavik in November 2021. (For a summary of what is known, see https://www.nwerc.eu/). 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 2021.

The detailed rules on eligibility are explained on the ICPC website. However, in practice, any UG or Master's student at Manchester, as well as some PhD students, are eligible.) Please understand that this is all being arranged in great haste, and details are likely to change, so please keep checking the competition website. There will be some training sessions occurring Wednesday on 20 and 27 October, from 14 to 17 in G41. There is also an opportunity to join online. People who are interested in joining UKIEPC have the chance to see the format and the type of problems, which will appear in the official contest. This event is also supported by the HCI Society. For information on how to register, join the Discord server or send a mail to marin.dragos296@gmail.com. Have fun and good luck!

POSTGRAD FAIR.

Book a place on our Master’s virtual open day to find out more about studying on a postgraduate programme at the University of Manchester. The event will be taking place from the 18th – 22nd October and will include online talks and Q&As to introduce you to master’s options at Manchester. There will be lots of opportunities to speak with our students, alumni and connect with our teaching staff.

RECREATION GRANT.

At the Students’ Union we want to reduce the barriers to engaging in the social aspects of University life. The Access to Recreation Grant has been set up to reduce financial barriers, so you can make the most of your university experience. Students can claim up to £100 (in advance or after spending) towards. Such costs may cover, but are not limited to:

Subsidising end of year balls
Joining SU societies and groups which have membership fees
Purchasing equipment necessary for joining SU society activities (for example, team kit)
Joining RAG (Raise and Give) challenges which have admin fees
Trips that meet the goals and purpose of the society
Gaining relevant documentation to participate in activities (e.g. overseas criminal records checks that require payment)

More information can be found here.

TOWARDS BETTER DASHBOARDS.

Mohammed Alhamadi writes: Participants needed! At the Interaction Analysis and Modelling Lab, we are trying to understand how users use dashboards (a collection of visualisations on a screen) and what they do if faced with information presentation problems. You'll be shown several dashboards and asked to complete a set of simple information finding tasks. Your participation will help us create better dashboards for everyone.

Where? Online
How long? Approximately 1 hour.
Compensation? Yes! You'll be compensated for your valuable time.

If you'd like to take part, please remember to use a computer (desktop or laptop) and to do it in one sitting. For more information, or if you have a question, please contact Mohammed Alhamadi.

MASOOD ENTERPRISE CENTRE.

Bright Ideas Competition. Are you a current student with a Bright Idea? A sustainable solution? Or maybe a particular project you’re passionate about! Why not sign up to Bright Ideas for your chance to win £200 of Amazon Vouchers and the chance to explore your idea, with the support from our team in the Masood Entrepreneurship Centre. How to enter:

Read the Bright Ideas terms and conditions in full.
Complete the online application form by Thursday 28 October 2021 which includes a 500 word summary of your idea (it might be easier if you type this on Word and then copy and paste into the online form).
If shortlisted (you’ll find out by Tuesday 2 November), you’ll be invited to submit a poster giving a visual overview of your idea to present and discuss with an expert panel.
Keep an eye on your emails! Ten students selected by our judges will each win a £200 prize.

We look forward to seeing your application! If you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at entrepreneurship@manchester.ac.uk.

DIG DEEP’S KILIMANJARO CHALLENGE.

"2022 will be your year of adventure", discover Dig Deep's Kilimanjaro Challenge. Join the University of Manchester Team and reach the Roof of Africa next summer! Join Volunteer Team Leader, Sapriya, and their team of like minded adventurers on this epic challenge. Together, through your fundraising efforts, you will raise money for NASFA's Charity of the Year, Dig Deep, unlocking opportunity for Kenya's poorest residents by ensuring they have clean water, safe toilets and good hygiene - forever. Tune in to one of our upcoming Zoom webinars to meet the team and hear everything you need to know about the challenge. Deadline to sign up is 30th November 2021. Find out more and register here. If you have any questions you can contact 0114 360 1471 or email support@digdeep.org.uk.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - River Sudoku by Xailran

Normal sudoku rules apply. A river is a snake path of orthogonally connected cells starting next to a cage; the digit in that cage shows the length of the river. The number in the top-left corner of the cage shows the sum of the digits along the river. Rivers must strictly decrease in digit value, starting from next to the cage. Rivers must not include cages. Rivers may touch themselves orthogonally, and rivers may overlap.

Bonus Puzzle - Pills by Otto Janko

In the diagram N pills are hidden. A pill is a rectangle of size 3x1 or 1x3 cells. The value of a pill is the sum of the numbers in the three cells of the pill. There exists exactly one pill with every value from 1 to N. A number at the edge of the diagram indicates the sum of the values in the pill cells in the corresponding row resp. column.

Chess Puzzle - Kasparov Vs. Vachier-Lagrave, 2011

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 3 • Monday 11 October 2021 • #21.04

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 11th October, welcome to week 3, I hope everything is going fine so far. It's great to get feedback on the tools we provide to help you, even better when students suggest improvements, so Id like to say a big thank you to David Baxter for providing a new CSS stylesheet to enable SPOT to work and look better on mobile devices. We are always ready to listen to student suggestions, so if there is something you would like to see change, do tell us! I'd also like to express my thanks to all the students who have nominated themselves as student reps this year; I look forward to working with you to improve the student experience offered in the Department. A number of our societies are recruiting team members, so if you want to get involved then get applying! Each week we will highlight some of the support services available through the University, today it’s Togetherall and the University Counselling Service.

Please consider your fellow students and staff by wearing a mask indoors. Have a great week, on with the rest of today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser is available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face masks are available at the main entrances of all campus buildings and in the Kilburn labs.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

EXAM SUPPORT.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

TOGETHERALL. Togetherall is a 24/7 anonymous online mental health and wellbeing resource for students, staff and researchers. You can access the service by going to www.togetherall.com and signing up with your UoM email address. Whether you’re struggling to sleep, feeling low or finding it hard to cope, or just want the chance to think more deeply about your wellbeing, Togetherall can help you to explore your feelings and think things through. You will have access to a 24/7 online community, monitored by trained clinicians. Togetherall is a safe space online to get things off your chest, have conversations, get creative and learn how to manage your mental health and wellbeing. Togetherall is totally anonymous and confidential, so no one will know you’re using it unless you tell them! Find out more here

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

THE COUNSELLING SERVICE. The University counselling 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
Group workshops
Online support materials and self-help tools

You can refer yourself to the counselling service by booking an appointment online. Remember you can always contact the Student Support Office in Computer Science for any advice or help at any time.

PHISHING EMAILS.

Students are not immune to receiving phishing emails trying to get you to release personal information, such as passwords, banking details etc. The University does not send out emails asking you to verify your account, or to tell you your account is being suspended, so please ignore such email. In general, if the email just doesn’t look right, then ignore it. You can find advice on phishing, how to report a suspicious email and what to do if you think you’ve been a victim on the IT services phishing webpage.

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVES.

We now have our full complement of student representatives for UG. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to apply. If you would like to raise any issues about your degree programme, the teaching you are receiving, issues with coursework etc, then please talk to one of your student representatives. You can find a list of all the student reps, by year group, in the UG Student Staff Liaison Committee page in Blackboard. This page also contains some advice on how issues are addressed and how you can track any issues raised. When taking issues to a student rep, it is important that you provide enough information, at a sufficient level of detail, to allow us to take action.

YEAR TUTOR OPEN HOURS.

The Year Tutors are here to support you if you need any help and advice, so feel free to contact your Year Tutor by email. They also run a weekly open hour where you can pop in (in-person or virtually) for a chat:

Year 1 (not CM): Gareth Henshall. In-person (Kilburn 2.82) - Thursday 12:00 - 13:00. Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00.
Year 2 (not CM): Ahmed Saeed. In-person (Kilburn 2.80) and Online - Wednesday 12:00 - 13:00. .
Year 3/4 (not CM): Tim Morris. In-person (Kilburn 2.107) and Online - Wednesday 10:00 - 11:00.
CM (all years): Andrea Schalk. Online only - Thursday 09:00 - 10:00.
UG Programme Director: Paul Nutter. In-person (IT119) - Thursday 15:00 - 16:00. Online - Friday 13:00 - 14:00.

IT SERVICES SERVICE AVAILABILITY.

Are you having problems logging into Blackboard? Does the WiFi not appear to be working? If you are experiencing issues such as these it may be worth visiting the IT Service website. Here you will find service availability information where they will report any issues currently being experienced on campus and when they hope to fix them by. Regular updates are also provided on Twitter.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello from PASS1. The first session turned out great, with lots of people attending and meeting their leaders. Don't worry if you missed your pass session last week, it was only an introduction, this week your leaders will be preparing some supplementary material for your courses and you are encouraged to ask questions! Snacks are Back! Starting next peek you will have FREE snacks at your PASS Sessions. If you don't know what group are you in or where you have your sessions click here. Your PASS group is the same as your tutorial group. Join the 1st year's discord server. Search for an email from alexandru.suciu@student.manchester.ac.uk from the 22nd Sept for the VERIFICATION CODE. The bot does not send any new emails. You do not need to add your phone number to discord. Leaders and passlings, for any timetable clashes email compsci-sso-ug@manchester.ac.uk. They should be able to sort it out for you. For any questions ask us on the discord.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Hello from the PASS2 team! Hope you enjoyed last week’s session! This Thursday (14th October) we’ll be talking about the different technical interviews you may face and 2 returning placement students will do a live mock coding interview for you. We also have Duncan joining us to review your CVs so bring those along! Same place, same time: 12pm, in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Hope to see you all there! :D

UNICS NEWS.

Ziyang Yu writes: Hi everyone! We hope you had a fantastic first week of teaching! Recruitments for different UniCS teams are now open. Apply now to be part of the societies' Graphics, Dev, Game Dev, Hackathons, PR, Treasurer, May Ball or Events teams, using this application form. Join our UniCS Discord Server to get in touch with relevant officers, and be a part of our School of Computer Science Community!

GOOGLE DEVELOPER STUDENT CLUB.

Shadi Abumattar writes: Google Developer Student Clubs is proud to announce that the first event is soon on its way! Join our community page and follow us on all our socials to stay updated. We are also excited to announce that we are actively recruiting students to join our outreach, creative, and events teams! The deadline to submit your application is October 17th 23:59, and submissions are accepted on a rolling basis (i.e. apply early)! More details are in the following Google Form.

CRACKCHESTER.

Mark Paveszka writes: Hey, all, we are extending nominations for our committee positions till the 15th of October at 6 PM. Make sure to nominate yourself at https://elections.crackchester.cc before the deadline if you want to join our committee. Additionally, we are opening sign-ups for our volunteer dev and events teams. If you want to help us out with organising events and creating challenges make sure to apply by the end of the week here!

SPOT V2 MOBILE STYLING.

Following student feedback, a new CSS stylesheet has been incorporated into SPOT to enhance the visibility and User Interaction for mobile devices. The issues addressed are:

Top navigation overflow fixed
Table of due assessments minimum height increased (it was impossible to resize on some mobile devices)
Overflowing list of courses fixed with scrolling & sticky course ID column
Padding on the body decreased to make better use of screen real estate

The stylesheet was provided by one of our 3rd year students, David Baxter (Computer Science with Year in Industry). Big thanks to David for his contribution and for taking the time to create the stylesheet. We are open to further feedback, so if you have any suggestions how we can improve SPOT then drop Stewart Blakeway an email and we will consider any sensible ideas.

BLACKBOARD HINTS & TIPS.

Can’t remember if you’ve submitted your work to Blackboard? For each course unit, if you check out the “My Grades” link to the left, you will find information about which assignments have been submitted, which quizzes have been completed etc, along with any marks that are available. The “Submitted” page tells you what has been submitted (but has not been marked), the “Marked” page tells you what has been marked.

LAB AVAILABILITY.

UNICS GAMEJAM.

This year UniCS is hosting an awesome GameJam from 28th of October to 7th of November and you are invited to take part in! You will have to choose one of the themes provided and make a game around it, be as creative as you can. The games will be rated by us (GameDev department) and the top three will be awarded prizes (£300 prize pool). Be sure to join our discord for more information and updates and don't forget to register on the jam page.

COMPETITIVE PROGRAMMING PRACTICE.

Calling all Computer Science undergraduates students. Are you interested in programming competitions? Do you want to improve your problem solving skills? Now’s your chance! The 2021 edition of the UK and Ireland Programming Contest (UKIEPC 2021) will take place on 30th October. We hope that a number of teams from Manchester will take part. Details of participation are still being finalised. However, we will be running a practice contest on 13th October (15:00-17:00) in G41. (More, hopefully, to follow.) This contest will be similar to UKIEPC/ICPC and will consist of multiple algorithmic problems (easy, medium and hard). Throughout the session, we will support you with hints, ideas and implementation details. See you there! Please contact Dragos Marin (NWERC bronze medallist)" to participate.

ADA LOVELACE DAY.

This from Duncan Hull: Ada Lovelace was the world's first software engineer. Every year, Ada Lovelace Day celebrates the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). It aims to increase the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM. The bad news is that over 80% of the 1.5 million biographies on Wikipedia are about blokes. The good news is that anyone can change it. Join us for a round-the-clock online event on 12th October, including inspiring presentations and extensive support around the globe. There are three two-hour on-line events in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the United States, which will be focused on encouraging new contributors and inexperienced editors to create (or improve) their first biography about women in STEM. If you already know how to edit, you can help less experienced editors to do so. Find out more about the UK event and register here. Lovelace portrait via Wikimedia Commons.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY ACTIVITY DAY.

APPLICANTS SURVEY.

Calling all 1st year students. We’d like you to complete a survey so you can help us to learn more about the information you found helpful throughout your application, as well as what influenced you the most in your decision to study at the University of Manchester. This will help us to make our communications with future offer holders better and give you a chance to have your say. On completion of the survey, you will be entered into a draw to win a £50 Amazon Voucher. Follow this link.

ETHICAL GRAD CHALLENGE.

Create a better world, complete the Ethical Grand Challenge. Create a more sustainable world, tackle social injustices and learn how to navigate ethical dilemmas in the workplace. The Ethical Grand Challenges allow you to learn about three of the biggest challenges facing the world in the 21st century - Sustainability, Social Justice and Workplace Ethics. Our online and face-to-face activities take place in each year of your study and give you the tools you need to become a more socially responsible graduate. Completion of two of three challenges also counts towards the Stellify Award. Find your challenge here: Sustainability, Social Justice and Workplace Ethics.

STEM FAIR.

The STEM Careers Fair takes place on Wednesday 13 October, 11am - 4pm. This fair is a great opportunity to meet with graduate recruiters offering graduate jobs, internships and student placements across science, engineering and technology. Book your place at the fair via the button to the right so that you can:

Have a 1-1 chat with individual exhibitors by booking a 10 minute slot with them in advance of the fair or on the day itself. This will be via Zoom, Teams or similar, and
ask questions and find more about their opportunities via open forums or drop-ins which do not require a booking. Again this will be via Zoom, Teams or similar.

EQUAL ENGINEERS.

Looking for opportunities in Tech? Sign up to Equal Engineers today to meet with a wide range of Tech employers! Our exhibitors will be ready and waiting to tell you all about what it is like to work for them and what you can expect from pursuing a career with them. We will also have some training providers and educational establishments to talk about how they will support you alongside employers. EqualEngineers connects inclusive employers with diverse talent in engineering and technology. We want to increase social mobility within the engineering and technology profession. EqualEngineers specifically targets female; ethnic minority; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT+); and disabled engineers, and other underrepresented groups in the profession.

VOLUNTEERING AND SOCIAL JUSTICE WEEK.

Volunteering and Social Justice week is taking place this week from Monday 11 - Friday 15 October 2021. This year we are running a whole week of activities to help you get started with volunteering including the Volunteering and Social Justice Fair on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 October in Whitworth Hall. Join us at an event to find out about our huge range of opportunities to volunteer from home and in-person. Please register on Volunteer Hub in advance to make sure you get the most out of the week.

LIBRARY STUDY SPACES.

Gemma Smith writes: Most library spaces are available on a first come, first served basis during each site’s opening hours, but there are now a limited number of bookable study spaces and rooms available. Students can book individual study spaces in the Muriel Stott Building and group study rooms at the Main Library and the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons. Bookings can be made via ResourceBooker.

LIBRARY RECALLS AND RESERVATIONS NOW AVAILABLE.

This from Gemma Smith: To recall items that are currently on loan to another Library user, log in to your Library account on Library Search and then search for the item. Click on the 'Request' button, and fill in the details on the short form this generates. Once you’ve confirmed your request, you’ll then receive an email notification when your reserved item is ready to collect. If another Library user recalls an item you have on loan, you will be notified by email. For more information, visit this page on our website.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - 400k Milestone Medley by Olima

Normal sudoku rules apply. The arrow outside the grid shows the sum of the indicated diagonal. Other clues outside the grid are the sum of digits sandwiched between the 1 and the 9 in that row/column. Grey circles show odd digits. White dots join consecutive digits. Digits on thermos increase from the bulb. Digits on arrows sum to the number in the attached circle. Digits next to each other on the green line have a difference of at least 5. The purple line joins a set of consecutive digits, not necessarily in order. The cage shows its sum.

Bonus Puzzle - Gappy by Otto Janko

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white. In each row and each column exactly two cells must be blackened. Black cells must not be adjacent, not even diagonally. A number at the edge of the diagram indicates the number of white cells between the two black cells in the corresponding row or column.

Chess Puzzle - Rosenberg Vs. Belenkaya, 2021

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 2 • Monday 4 October 2021 • #21.03

Paul pic

Good morning! It’s Monday 4th October and Week 2 of teaching. I hope everything is going well and you have started to settle into a routine - although I suggest you check your personal timetable as changes have been made - see below. Apologies for the issues with the network at the beginning of last week that impacted lectures and remote delivery. Hopefully these issues have now been resolved by IT Services. We have two tools that help you visualise your marks and assessment deadlines: SPOT, which allows you to view your marks, and the deadlines Gantt chart, which helps you to visualise where deadlines fall and makes it easier for you to manage your time. Information for both of these tools can be found below. If you’d like to know when labs are available to use outside of scheduled teaching, then we’ve provided some instructions on how to check room timetables below. Please can I remind you to make sure you regularly read your university email, as this is our main form of communication when getting in touch with you.

Please consider your fellow students and staff by wearing a mask indoors. Have a great week, on with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

MASKS AND CLEANING WIPES.

Please be considerate of others by wearing a mask when moving around university buildings and in scheduled teaching activities (lectures, labs, tutorials etc). If you do not have a mask, then you can find disposable masks at various locations in the Kilburn building, in particular our labs, so there is no excuse not to be wearing one. You can also find cleaning/sanitising wipes in teaching spaces for cleaning keyboards and mice. Please use these to help stop the spread of the range viruses that inevitably spread round campus at this time of the year (as well as COVID).

WHERE TO FIND SUPPORT.

There are a range of services across the university to support you throughout your studies, covering everything from your academic life and personal wellbeing to specialist services like DASS, counselling and careers. Our Department Student Support Office (SSO) team are your first point of contact and can help direct you to the appropriate service as needed, who you can contact by email. No question is too big or small so please do contact SSO if you need any help. Each week we’ll include a support services spotlight in the Monday Mail which will focus on a different UoM service or resource. Don’t forget to bookmark the A-Z of services though so you always have these to hand!

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT:

The Disability Advisory and Support Service (DASS) at the University 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 Crohns. 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 here. For advice talk to the Department’s DASS coordinator Hannah Cousins. If you decide you don’t wish to register with DASS, this may affect the level of support that you can receive from the University.

SUPPORT SERVICE SPOTLIGHT.

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.

ACADEMIC ADVISORS.

MY ATTENDANCE.

As you’ll know the University has introduced a student attendance system called ‘My Attendance’ which allows student attendance at timetabled activities to be recorded. You can find out more information here. Please use this system to ‘check-in’ your attendance at the activities you attend whether you are on-campus or attending remotely. Please note: there is no need to report attendance at tutorials and project meetings as academic staff will record attendance for these activities. Please note: do not be concerned if this tool is reporting absences for the activities during Welcome Week or the first two weeks of teaching. We are considering these weeks as a grace period whilst students get used to checking in to the new system. We will not be following up on absences recorded during this time, however do continue to check in and get used to how the system works. From 11th October onwards SSO will follow up with students who are frequently absent to check if there are any circumstances we need to be aware of.

KILBURN LAB MACHINES.

If you are having problems logging into one of our lab machines, or if you find a machine that is not working, then you can request support via IT services. Go to the IT Services Support website, login using your university credentials, select ‘Request Support’ then ‘General request or IT Issue’ (you may need to scroll down), in the popup window that appears, click ‘Request’. You should enter your university username and for the question ‘Are you reporting a fault of experiencing issues’ select ‘Yes’. Fill in the remaining form, including as much detail as possible, such as the hostname of the machine (you can find this on the machine, or at the common line prompt in Linux), and error message you receive etc. Then select 'Review & Submit', then finally ‘Submit’. Please note that a typical mistake is for a student to use the wrong username to login, this should be just ab1234rc without adding @manchester.ac.uk. Any issues with the VM should not be reported to IT Services, instead use the discussion forum in Blackboard, or contact support@cs.manchester.ac.uk.

DISCORD SERVER.

We have set up a 1st Year Discord Server for this academic year. It is designed to be a social space to chat about anything you fancy with your fellow classmates. It is designed as a social space where you can meet like minded people and in some cases go and try something new. There are channels in the server with members actively discussing everything from Climbing to PC Hardware … to a Daily Cat Photo. I encourage all first years to get involved in the server even just to pop in for a (virtual) coffee. Over 400 1st years have already signed up, but the more the merrier. So please get involved and join the community! Details of how to join are in your welcome talks or contact Gareth Henshall. The 1st Year Discord server from last year has been rolled over to the 2nd year, so is available to all 2nd years.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello everybody it is finally time for PASS! This week on Wednesday at 12, you will get to meet your PASS Leaders and have your first session. The group allocations can be found here. Your PASS Leaders will get in contact with you soon. PASS might show in a different location in your timetable but please head to the room from the sheet. If by Tuesday morning you have not been contacted by your leaders please get in touch with us (alexandru.suciu@student.manchester.ac.uk mohammed.madi-3@student.manchester.ac.uk). For any other questions related to PASS1 feel free to contact us. We can't wait to see you on PASS!

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Heyyy from the PASS2 team, hope you enjoyed our 1st session and had a nice weekend! This Thursday, 7th October,we’ll be talking about how to build a killer CV and start applying to jobs. Same place, same time: 12pm, both in Collab (with free snacks) & on Zoom. Don’t forget to join our Discord server, visit our website and come along to our 2nd wonderful session! :D

CRACKCHESTER.

Mark Paveszka writes: Hey everyone, Crackchester is back for the new academic year. We are starting with nominations for some of our committee positions. These roles are Podcast Manager, Events Officer and PR & Social Media Officer. If you have any questions about the positions, join our Discord server and follow us on social media. You'll be able to nominate yourself at https://elections.crackchester.cc from Monday 4th till Friday 8th at 6 PM. Also, we are having our first social on the 7th of October at 8 PM in The Footage, so make sure to come down and have a drink with us!

TIMETABLE UPDATES.

We have now completed the timetabling of laboratories and examples classes for individual students, so please check your personal timetable at my.manchester as it may have changed. It is important that you only attend the activities scheduled in YOUR timetable. You may find that friends have different timetables, however, we can only accommodate the students allocated to each timetabled session. Please note that unless there are exceptional circumstances then we cannot make changes to personal timetables. If you have any questions then please contact SSO.

COURSEWORK DEADLINES.

Last year we introduced a Gantt chart to outline for semester 2 the coursework deadlines for each COMP course unit. This year, we have extended this to include semester 1. You can find the chart here. There are tabs per year and semester (although the semester 2 data will not be available until the start of semester 2). Hopefully this will help you in planning your work during the semester. Don’t forget that we have a one week break for reading week in week 6 (w/c 1st Nov)! The deadline chart aims to give you an overview of your deadlines, but please note that deadlines may still change. Only SPOT (see next item) indicates up-to-date information on deadlines, so please use SPOT to confirm deadlines.

SPOT VERSION 2 LAUNCHED.

SPOT is a student assessment record system that shows all your assessment marks in one central system for the modules that you are taking with the department of Computer Science. SPOT gives you a lot of data for all the course units you are taking, and by clicking on a particular course code you can find out more detail about the unit in question. SPOT can be accessed via the link and further guidance can be found on the departmental wiki pages. SPOT was produced by Toby Howard and is currently maintained by Stewart Blakeway.

COURSE UNIT SELECTION.

You have until 15:30 this Friday (8th October) 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.

LAB AVAILABILITY.

If you are interested in knowing when a lab is not booked for a timetabled activity, then follow this link, select “Kilburn” for the building, select the lab you’d like to use from the locations panel and select “View Timetable” (it will default to show you this week's timetable, but you can select SEM1 under "Select Week(s)"). You will be shown what activities are using that room for the current week. You are free to use the lab outside of these timetabled activities. Please note, you may have to be on campus or running the VPN to get access to the timetable.

COMPUTER SCIENCE CAREERS FAIR.

The Computer Science Careers Fair will be taking place online this year. Come and meet employers including American Express, AND Digital, Apadmi, Bet 365, BJSS, Bloomberg, Booking.com, Cantarus, Climazstudios, DAI, Financial Force, Infosys, Matillion, Morgan Stanley, NCC Group, Recourse AI, Teach First, The Hut Group, TPP! Have a chat with them directly about spring insights, summer placements, yearlong placements and grad opportunities. They will be available online from midday to 3pm on Wednesday 6th October 2021.

FSE CAREERS DROP-IN.

The Careers Service are hosting a series of Science and Engineering (FSE) Careers Drop-ins, every Tuesday between the 5th and 19th of October! On arrival in the Zoom room, you will be asked the nature of your query by a Careers Advisor who will then match you to a Careers Consultant in one of the breakout rooms. As soon as they become free, you will be transferred across so that you can continue your 1:1 conversation. This is an opportunity for you to ask any questions you have (big, small or silly!) and get advice from a Careers expert. FSE Careers Drop-ins will be taking place twice a week until the end of Week 4. There’s no need to book; just come along at any time during one of the drop-ins (but please be prepared for a short wait during busy periods). It’s recommended the earlier you can arrive, the more chance there is of being seen quickly. If there is a long virtual queue, the session may close early to new arrivals to ensure they can talk to everyone. To see alternative dates, times and access links please search for ‘Drop In’ in the Events section of CareerConnect. This is open to Year 2, Year 3 and Final Year Science and Engineering students only.

WOMEN IN ENGINEERING EVENT.

Women in Engineering is a free, high-quality, student and graduate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) event, designed to inspire, empower and educate as many women and men as possible to help reduce the gender gap and increase both gender and ethnic diversity into the engineering industry amongst generation Z. Sadly women still only make up only 12% of the engineering workforce in the UK, this has not been helped by Covid. This event will take place on Wednesday 13th of October. You can find out more information here.

WORLD SPACE WEEK WEBINAR EVENT.

World Space Week takes place from 4th – 10th October 2021. This year’s theme is ‘Women in Space’ and to celebrate the DISCOVERER project, led by the University of Manchester are hosting a webinar on Wednesday 6th October 1.30 – 3.30pm with talks from members of the DISCOVERER team and guest speakers about their experiences of the Aero and space sectors. For more information and to register for the event, please use the link. For further information about World Space Week see here.

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.

FUSE FM.

Fancy having your own radio show or podcast? Well, the opportunity is now! Fuse FM applications are open for the first semester and we’re looking for all kinds of shows! Are you passionate about music? news? sport? film? djing? feminism? fashion? culture? race? Use your voice now! You can have a show on just about anything, just apply using the following links: Live show application, Podcast application. Applications close on 6th October at 11:59pm so get applying. Make sure to read the applications carefully, fill them out and really sell your idea and then email your finished applications to stationmanager@fusefm.co.uk, deputystationmanager@fusefm.co.uk and applications@fusefm.co.uk to make sure we don’t miss your application.

STUDENT NEWS CONTRIBUTORS.

Do you enjoy writing, blogging, or working with social media? Do you have an eye for what makes good content? Are you interested in developing your digital content creation skills? The Student News Team are looking for creative individuals to take on the role as Content Ambassador throughout the next academic year. Content Ambassadors are responsible for the student-made content that you see on MyManchester News, social media, and in our weekly newsletters. If selected, you’ll work with us – the Student Communications and Engagement Team – to create content that reflects your own experiences. We want to hear your story; where do you like to study? What are your revision tips? How do you like to explore Manchester? From how you manage your time to where you spend your spare time, we want to hear it all about it, and we’re looking for students from across all disciplines and levels of study. As a part of the programme you’ll get paid for your work and you’ll attend creative development workshops to master your skills. You’ll work closely with the University’s social media team to create content for their various channels and learn from industry professionals specialising in creative, written and social content. Completed forms should be emailed to studentnews@manchester.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is 9am on Monday 4th October (so be quick!).

MANCHESTER CANSAT AAS TEAM.

We are looking for talented STEM students to compete in the US! Manchester CanSat Project is a part of Manchester Satellite Development Group (MSDG) that focuses on the design and build of CanSats (“can-sized satellites”). Our AAS Team is a multidisciplinary team of 10 STEM students that competes in the annual AAS CanSat Competition held in the USA, sponsored by NASA, Lockheed Martin, and Siemens. This is a great opportunity for you to meet and work with new friends from other courses, and learn new engineering skills, making yourself extremely attractive to prospective employers! Our team has a great track record, after coming 1st in 2018, 10th in 2019, 3rd in 2020 and getting the best grade in one of the 2021 deliverables. Applications for the AAS Team close 23:59 on Oct 6th, so get your CVs and applications in! You can find the application form here. You can check out our other activities on our Facebook page, Manchester Satellite Development Group. You can also contact us at cansat.manchester@gmail.com with any questions you may have. We hope you'll check us out!

APPLICANTS SURVEY.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Trifecta by Jeet Sampat

Normal Sudoku rules apply. Orthogonally adjacent cells must not contain consecutive digits. In cages, digits cannot repeat.

Bonus Puzzle - Thermometer by Otto Janko

Color the gray cells of the diagram black or white [interactively]. A number at the edge of the diagram indicates how many cells are black in the corresponding row or column. Cells in a "thermometer" must be blackened from bottom (circle) to top without gaps but must mot necessarily be completely black.

Chess Puzzle - Rotsagov Vs. Mohr, 1994

Drag and drop the White pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Week 1 • Monday 27 September 2021 • #21.02

Paul pic

Good morning UG! It’s Monday 27th September and teaching starts today, so please make sure you know your teaching timetable (see below). If you’ve joined us in Manchester then I hope you have settled in and have managed to get out and explore the campus and all the sights that Manchester has to offer. It was great to present the welcome talk to first years last Monday, although it felt very strange considering it’s nearly 20 months since I last gave a lecture in a lecture theatre!

Each year we recognise outstanding achievement by awarding prizes to our students, last year’s recipients are recognised below. Congratulations to all the prize winners! We now have a new lab ready for you to use (see below) - thank you to everyone who helped to set the lab up in such a short space of time.

Please consider your fellow students and staff by wearing a mask indoors. Have a great week, on with today’s news ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Hands - Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Face - Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Distance - Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

PASS1.

Mohammed Madi (Y3, AI) and Alexandru-Mihai Suciu (Y3, CS4wIE) write: Hello everyone, our PASS Leaders have just finished up their training and are now planning their first sessions for you. As the first activity from PASS, we invite you to take place in a cool Scavenger HUNT this Wednesday at 12:00 starting on the Lower Floor of the Kilburn Building. This is a different one from the previous week's in Kilburn. You will get to meet your Leaders on the 6th of October 12:00 UKT. Details about where and how will come later this week. Expect some introductory emails from your Leaders as well. We are excited to start another great year of PASS! If you have any questions regarding PASS, please email us: Alexandru Suciu and Mohammed Madi.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Hello from the PASS2 team! We hope you have enjoyed the first week of the second year and are well settled in. PASS2 (‘Peer Assisted Study Sessions’ for second years) starts this Thursday, 30th of September at 12pm in Collab & on Zoom. We will talk about second year modules and give you free snacks. Hope to see you all there! :D

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. The following students received awards for last academic year: Laura Justesen (AI, Professor’s prize for outstanding performance in Year 2), Kashish Raimalani (CMwIE, Professor’s prize for outstanding performance in Year 2), Matei Stan (HCI, Professor’s prize for outstanding performance in Year 2), Joshua Coates (CMwIE, Golden Anniversary Prize for excellence in 1st year studies), Claudiu Craciun (CMwIE, Golden Anniversary Prize for excellence in 1st year studies), Alexander Lindop (CM, Golden Anniversary Prize for excellence in 1st year studies), Anh Trung Nguyen (CM, Golden Anniversary Prize for excellence in 1st year studies), Riccardo Ali (CM, Michael Jealous Prize for best first year student), Vlad Sirbu (CS, Netcraft Prize), Aditya Agarwal (AIwIE, Netcraft Prize), Andrei Hutu (CS4wIE, Netcraft Prize), Yanze Xin (AI, Netcraft Prize), Andrej Velichkovski (CS, Netcraft Prize), George Grainger (CS, Netcraft Prize), Zoya Anwar (CS, Netcraft Prize), Muhammad Ahmad (CS, Netcraft Prize), Alexandru Stoica (CSwIE, Netcraft Prize), and Gwydion Smit (CS4, Netcraft Prize). Huge congratulations to all, give yourself a big pat on the back! Really well done.

UNICS NEWS:

Hi everyone, welcome back! UniCS are super excited to tell you that recruitment for the committee will start on 4th of October - we are waiting for you to join the team! We will have our very first Social soon! If you are interested, please stay in touch with us by following all our social media and join the Discord channel for event updates (simply scan the QR code in the poster below!) The committee is waiting for you!

COMP10120 WELCOME WEEK WORKSHOPS.

Last week, we ran the Welcome Week Workshops for 1st year students: most students found their workshops - and really impressed the COMP10120 team! Aphro, Duncan, Stewart, and Uli saw wonderful feasts of architectural and design creativity, great team spirit, and amazing engagement throughout. We are looking forward to see more from this new cohort! PS. due to timetabling challenges and despite our best emailing efforts, not everybody was able to participate. If that’s you, don’t worry: the slides are on Blackboard in COMP10120 Content.

TIMETABLES.

Your teaching timetable is now available via my.manchester. Please check your timetable regularly as there are still some issues, so it is likely there will be further updates during the week. You can find out information about individual course units, such as Zoom codes for online students, via the Blackboard page for each course unit. Please note: timetables may differ between 1st year students, even if you are on the same degree programme, so (for example) you may have been allocated different laboratory slots. Please keep to your own timetable and only attend those sessions shown in your timetable. If there are any issues with your timetable then please contact SSO.

THE UNDERGRADUATE HANDBOOK.

NEW UNDERGRADUATE LABORATORY.

As I mentioned last week, over the summer we’ve had a lot of work done over the summer to create a new 166 seat computer cluster (which can be split into two separate labs), for the sole use of Computer Science students. The lab, located on the first floor of Kilburn Building, is now finished as you can see below, and should be available for students to use from Tuesday. (Even I got my fingers dirty installing computers, as you can see.)

DEPARTMENT REGISTRATION:

A reminder that all students need to complete Department registration in the Undergraduate Community Blackboard Page. Please navigate to your year group on the left hand side menu in section 'Induction and Registration' and complete the registration questionnaire no later than 30th September 2021.

COURSE UNIT SELECTION.

You have until 15:30 on Friday 8th October 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 unit choices. Please note: 1st years have no choice in the 1st semester.

MY ATTENDANCE.

The University has introduced a student attendance system called ‘My Attendance’ which allows student attendance at timetabled activities to be recorded. This information is then used by the University to spot students who we feel are not engaging with teaching activities so that remedial action can be taken. You can find out more information here. Please use this system to ‘check-in’ your attendance at the activities you attend whether you are on-campus or attending remotely. Please note: there is no need to report attendance at tutorials and project meetings as academic staff will record attendance for these activities. The above link provides further information on how to record your attendance through my.manchester (‘My Attendance’ link). Please note: do not be concerned if this tool is reporting absences for the activities during Welcome Week.

LAB GROUPS.

If you find that a lab group you have been assigned to clashes with another activity, then please do not contact course unit leaders to request a change of group. You should contact SSO to make such requests. However, please be aware that due to timetabling constraints it may not be possible to resolve clashes.

KILBURN DESKTOP MACHINES.

Both 1st and 2nd year students will not have used the desktop machines in Kilburn before. All machines are dual-boot and run Windows and Linux; although you'll find that Linux is our preferred operating system. We've produced some guidance to help you use the machines for the first time. You can find this document in the CS UG Community space in Blackboard: 1st years in the 'Boot-up Labs folder' in the 'Year 1' folder and 2nd years in the 'Year 2' folder.

UNICS GAMES AND SOCIAL NIGHT.

2-5pm Wednesday 29th September, Kilburn Lower First. UniCS welcomes you to the second event of the semester. Come along to play some board games and cards and meet other people in Computer Science. Snacks will be provided. Some games will be provided but feel free to bring your own!

FIRST YEAR STUDENT REPS.

Don’t forget that if you are interested in being a 1st year rep then you can nominate yourself using this form before the 1st October. You may have to login to this page using your university credentials (maybe through an incognito window). More information about SSLC and what being a rep involves can be found on the SSLC Page on the Blackboard CS UG Community page.

WANT TO BRUSH UP ON YOUR GIT SKILLS?

The Institute of Coding team at the University of Manchester have created an online course on Collaborative Coding with Git on the FutureLearn platform. Join an online community of learners from nearly 100 countries to learn basic collaboration skills with Git. The course includes video interviews with software engineers with industry and hands-on activities to practice your skills. The course is free for the first 8 weeks of access and you can start at any time, learning when and where you like. Please use the following link.

STUDENT AMBASSADOR RECRUITMENT.

Register your interest to be a Student Ambassador for the Faculty of Science and Engineering! Being a Student Ambassador is a fantastic CV enhancing opportunity and allows you to represent The Faculty of Science and Engineering, as well as the University of Manchester. Share your university experience with prospective students who are considering their options for starting university.  

This is a paid role that will offer you flexibility and work around your studies.
Meet and work with other students across the University.
Attend a diverse variety of events and projects.

Apply now. If you require any further information or the job description for the role please contact Alyson Owens.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - The Greedy Cup’s Whispers

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits next to each other on a green line must have a difference of at least 5. An orange line contains a consecutive sequence of digits, with no repeats, not necessarily in order. Digits cannot repeat in cages, which contain their sums. The white dot joins two consecutive numbers.

Bonus Puzzle - Kakurasu by Otto Janko

Blacken some cells of the diagram [paper] resp. color the gray cells of the diagram black or white [interactively]. The numbers on the upper and left edge of the diagram denote the sum of the values of the black cells in the respective row or column. The numbers on the right edge of the diagram denote the values of the cells in the corresponding row for the column sums; the numbers on the lower edge of the diagram denote the values of the cells in the respective column in the row sums.

Chess Puzzle - Meiber Vs. Gühring, 2020

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the Previous Week

The answers to last week's puzzles can be found here.

Welcome Week • Monday 20 September 2021 • #21.01

Paul pic

Good morning! It’s Monday 20th September, 2021 and it’s Welcome Week. If you are a new student joining us, then welcome to the Department of Computer Science. If you are a returning student, then welcome back (this time on campus). My name is Paul Nutter and I’m the Director of Undergraduate Studies, which basically means I’m responsible for the day-to-day running of the undergraduate degree programmes in the Department. This email is called Monday Mail and it is sent to all undergraduate students every Monday morning during term-time. The aim of Monday Mail is to keep you up-to-date with what’s happening in the Department, as well as publicising all the great things our students get up to! There are a number of University societies that our students are closely involved with who will publish activities throughout the year, so please get involved. If there’s anything you’d like to share via Monday Mail, then please send me an email. I’m very much looking forward to getting back on campus and life on campus returning to some form of normality (for now). If you are joining us online for semester 1 then I hope you can engage fully with all the activities that are running this semester.

Please make sure you install the VM image we have provided to support your learning this semester (details below) and make sure you find your way round Blackboard, where all the teaching material for your course units can be found.

Have a great week, there’s lots of news items today ...

Paul
Undergraduate Programme Director

MEET THE STUDENT SUPPORT OFFICE TEAM.

The SSO team are here to support you throughout your studies and can be contacted on compsci-sso-ug@manchester.ac.uk. The SSO team are now part of the new Student Support Hub in Engineering Building A (previously MECD). Please visit the Hub for face to face enquiries or contact the team via email. You can find out more information SSO here.

Left to right: Hannah Cousins, Teaching & Learning Manager; Graham Richardson, Senior Postgraduate Administrator; Alyx Adams, Student Support Office Intern; Anna Warburton-Ball, Student Experience Intern; Lisa Wright, Senior Undergraduate Administrator; Mabel Yau, Careers & Employability Officer; Chris Calland, Postgraduate Administrator; Cameron Macdonald, Undergraduate Assistant; Nicola Evans, Timetabling Administrator; Sophie Joannou, Assessment Officer; Selina Low, Teaching & Learning Intern

MEET THE YEAR TUTORS.

The Undergraduate team is here to support you throughout your time in the Department and you’ll meet them during the Welcome Week period. Each year has a Year Tutor who is responsible for looking after that cohort of students, apart from CM students who have the same Year Tutor across all years. The tutors are here to provide you with help and support, so please contact them if you have any issues/questions. Clockwise from the top right hand corner: Paul Nutter (Director of Undergraduate Studies), Tim Morris (3rd/4th Year Tutor), Ahmed Saeed (2nd Year Tutor), Gareth Henshall (1st Year Tutor) and Andrea Schalk (CM Tutor and Deputy Director of Undergraduate Studies).

SSO DROP-IN TABLE:

The decision has been taken this year to close The Department of Computer Science Student Support Office and so it will now be closed for student queries. It is being replaced with a dedicated Student Support Hub which is based in our new Engineering Building A (Booth Street East, Building 24 on the University interactive map). For the Welcome Week period we will be running a number of SSO drop-In tables for you to come and get answers for any of the queries you have. The dates and times of these sessions are detailed below:

Monday: 2 - 4pm (Year 1 focused)
Tuesday: 12 - 3pm (Year 2 focused)
Wednesday: 12:30 - 2:20pm (Year 1 focused)
Thursday: 1 - 3pm (Year 3 focused)
Friday: 10am - 4pm (All years)

The SSO Drop-In table will be located on the Lower First Floor of the Kilburn building. Please note that after Welcome Week we will not be able to facilitate queries in the Kilburn Building and these need to be directed at Engineering Building A Student Support Hub.

COVID SAFETY ON CAMPUS.

Wash hands and use hand sanitiser regularly. Sanitiser will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Wear a face covering while moving around indoors on campus (unless you're medically exempt) and when you’re in teaching settings. Face coverings will be available at the main entrances of all campus buildings.
Whilst social distancing is no longer legally required, please continue to follow any safety signage and guidance you receive from staff, both in teaching settings and elsewhere around campus.

You can find more information on the University health and wellbeing website.

SETTLING IN.

As we reach the start of term, it is normal to feel apprehensive about settling in and adjusting to University life. You may find it useful to take a look at this pack of resources that contains lots of information and tips that should make the transition a little easier. You could also check out the dedicated settling in page on the Student Support website, for further guidance. Also, there's a short module about starting university that you might find useful.

EQUALITY,

DIVERSITY & INCLUSION (EDI) TRAINING. We are committed to making the university a fair and inclusive place for all students and staff. To help all of us better understand our rights and responsibilities, the university provides online Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) training for both students and staff. As a student in the Faculty of Science & Engineering, you are expected to complete the online training module, which can be found here by 15th October 2021.

WELLFEST.

On 22nd September 10:30am-4pm, the Student Wellbeing Team, along with support from many other colleagues, will be hosting a day of wellbeing activities at WellFest. This is an opportunity for students to take a break in the chill-out zone, get involved in activities such as art and movement for wellbeing, meet other students, learn about the Six Ways to Wellbeing and grab a free cup of tea. There is no need to book and the event will be taking place in the huts outside University Place and in the Stretch tent on Gilbert Lawn.

PASS2.

Jingxuan Chen (Y3, AI) and Carmen Faura Praxedes (Y3, SEwIE) write: Hey everyone, hope you had a lovely summer! PASS2 is the Peer-Assisted Study Session for all second-year students. We’ll run a 1-hour session every Thursday at midday from next week. PASS2 will be held on campus, and will be streamed live for remote students. Feel free to join our Discord channel and we can’t wait to see you all in Week 1! :D

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT STAFF LIAISON COMMITTEE.

The UG Student-Staff Liaison Committee (SSLC) meets twice each semester. It’s a friendly and open forum for student reps to discuss any issues, or to let us know of anything positive about what we do in the Department. More information can be found on the SSLC Page on the Blackboard CS UG Community page, where you can find the list of student representatives for the 2021/22 academic year. We need to recruit student reps from the 1st year cohort, so if you are interested in becoming a rep, then please nominate yourself using this form before the 1st October. We do not require any further reps for the other year groups.

HYPERLOOP SOCIETY.

Thomas Simpson writes: We are very excited to announce that Hyperloop Manchester are recruiting for the 2021/22 academic year! This is an opportunity to join a diverse, innovative and ambitious team at the forefront of the next transport revolution. We were a participant and award nominee at the prestigious 2021 European Hyperloop Week and look to further that success in the future. There are positions available across both the technical and business teams in a variety of different roles. To apply, please fill out our recruitment form using this link (Google Form). For more information, don’t hesitate to contact us or visit our website. You can also find us on all social media platforms. Good luck!

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. There are welcome talks scheduled as follows:

Year 1: Monday 12:20 - 2pm, University Place Lecture Theatre B, Wednesday 12-2pm, Engineering Building A Lecture Theatre A
Year 2: Monday 10am - 12pm, University Place Theatre B
Year 3: Monday 12 - 2pm, Kilburn Theatre 1.1
Year 4: Monday 2 - 3pm, IT407

There will be other activities scheduled throughout the week, so please check the timetable in Blackboard. Zoom details will also be provided for those students who are studying remotely in semester 1.

REGISTER FOR THE ACADEMIC YEAR.

All students must register for the 2021/22 academic year on the student system by the 30th September. See the “get ready” welcome pages for further information.

NEW TEACHING LAB.

Over the summer we’ve been very busy converting a space on the first floor of the Kilburn building (opposite lecture theatres 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5) to create a large laboratory space. The lab will have 166 seats and will be available for students to use when there are no timetabled activities scheduled. Contractors are still finishing off the lab and we hope that it will be available for use when teaching starts on the 27th September.

VIRTUAL MACHINE IMAGE.

We have produced a Linux VM image for VirtualBox to help you engage with your studies using your own machine. It is particularly important if you are studying remotely in the first semester that you have access to your own computing hardware and access to the internet for you to engage with your studies. If you have any issues then in the first instance please post a question on the relevant discussion forum in the UG Community Space in Blackboard.

KILBURN SCAVENGER HUNT.

Welcome (or Welcome Back) to The Department of Computer Science and the Kilburn Building! To introduce you to our home in The Kilburn Building and some of the amazing people that we have within our department, your Student Experience Team has organised the Kilburn Community Scavenger Hunt! Come and find me (Anna Warburton-ball) Kilburn Lower First to pick up your Scavenger Hunt! We also have some tasty treats as prizes for those who complete the hunt.

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING SOCIETY SHOWCASE.

One of the best things about coming to university is joining societies! Societies are the best way to find people who have the same interests, the same skills, and the same passions as you. Come along to our ‘Meet the Societies’ event on Friday 24th September between 2-4pm to find out more about all of the societies we have across the Faculty of Science and Engineering. We will be hosting our ‘Meet the Societies' fair in the Event Space of Engineering Building A so this is a great opportunity to look around our new Home of Engineering! Don’t worry if you cannot make it to campus to ‘Meet the Societies’ we will have videos posted after the event so you can get to know more about all of the amazing societies we have within the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

COMPUTER SCIENCE ALUMNI SESSION.

This Welcome Week we will be running a Meet the Computer Science Alumni Session which is open to all year 2 and 3 students. This Alumni panel event will be an opportunity for you to ask alumni about their career progression, any hints and tips they may have for successful job hunting, and how you can build skills for a career in the future. You’ll be engaging with past students from your department and they’ll be talking about how the skills and experience they gained in their studies have helped them in the career they have now. You will also have the opportunity to connect with some panellists on LinkedIn, giving your professional network a kick-start for when you graduate. The session will run on Thursday 23rd from 10am - 11am, please join us on Zoom.

BRIGHT IDEAS STUDENT IDEAS COMPETITION.

The Masood Entrepreneurship Centre’s annual student ideas competition is now open! Bright Ideas is a competition aimed at students in all three Faculties new to enterprise and entrepreneurship who are interested in learning more about spotting opportunities and generating new ideas. Anyone can have a bright idea and bright ideas can come from anywhere. If you’re an undergraduate or postgraduate student here at The University of Manchester and have an idea - no matter how big or small - you could win £200 to help move it forward. Last year we received a high number of entries covering all sorts of topics, from addressing the challenges associated with waste collection in developing countries, to developing a platform for encouraging collaboration between artists and musicians and community educational projects. The idea you enter is limited only by your imagination.

This year’s competition will celebrate the university’s position leading the world on sustainable development. The quality and scale of our impact against the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has been ranked first in the world in the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings in 2021. As well as our usual awards there will be additional prizes for the most enterprising approach to supporting sustainable development here at Manchester. The 17 UN SDGs are the world’s call to action on the most pressing challenges and opportunities facing humanity and the natural world. Just show us how your Bright Idea can help. Simply consider the 17 SDGs described in the link below and choose 1 or 2 which your enterprising Bright Idea would contribute to most and in your entry describe how it does this. Learn how The University of Manchester is supporting the Sustainable Development Goals here.

You may have an idea for a digital platform for improving student mental health provision that would support Goal 3 – Good Health and Wellbeing and Goal 4 Quality Education.
An idea for using smart materials in new buildings that would support Goal 9 Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure.
An idea for reusing children’s clothes through a rental subscription model supporting Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production.

Find out more and enter online.

APP@THON21.

App@Thon is a Hackathon focused on App designing, no coding skills required. Register by October 1st here.

App@Thon happening on Saturday, Oct 2 (9am-5pm CDT)
2 Tracks - Human Health & Climate Tech
Instruction by Apple fellows & a confirmed judge from Apple Inc.

A ONE-day weekend gathering of high school, university and college students & teams organised to address specifically defined challenges! Students using a fast-paced ‘hackathon” methodology will be introduced to a global issue by subject matter experts. Students will choose a challenge to address, receive mentoring and feedback in generating an app showcase and integrated solutions, and present their app ideas to a set of judges for cash awards and recognition, all on the same day!

SASIG CYBERSECURITY SKILLS FESTIVAL.

On Tuesday 12th October 2021 9am to 5pm, we are hosting our FREE VIRTUAL Cybersecurity Skills Festival for students interested in pursuing a career in cybersecurity. Our careers fair gives you direct access to over 30 top UK employers, including Microsoft, DWP, Metropolitan Police, Whitbread, Just Eat, Standard Chartered Bank and many others who can show you the exciting career to be had in cybersecurity. You can register your place here. You can learn more about SASIG and our learning opportunities at www.thesasig.com.

COMPUTER SCIENCE FOOTBALL TEAM.

Asim Abdelrazik writes: Are you looking to play 11-a-side FOOTBALL in the University of Manchester Campus Sport League? If so, then join the Computer Science Football Discord server for more information. We will have weekly training sessions and it will be a great opportunity to socialise and help keep fit too! The team is open for anyone in the department of Computer Science. We will be conducting trials for the team during the first week of the semester and the details for that can be found on the Discord server, so be sure to join! Either Scan the QR code or click on the following link to join.

LIBRARY NEWS.

This from Gemma Smith. Get started with the Library: Welcome to The University of Manchester Library. The Library is here to support your learning throughout your University experience. We provide students with access to resources like books, journals and databases, training to help you develop your study skills, and spaces to study if you’re on campus. To find out more about our services and how you can access them, visit the Get Started page.

You can also attend an online induction session or visit us on campus to learn everything you need to know about using the Library from our friendly team:

Get started with the Library: online drop-in Book your place. Sessions run every Tuesday and Thursday on Zoom, 2-3pm, from 14-30th September.
Get Started space (on campus). Stop by the Main Library to visit our Get Started space, which explains how to find and borrow resources, where to study, how to use Library PCs and how to print, scan and copy.
Runs every day, 9am-7.30pm, 20th September to 8th October 2021.

SOMETHING TO SHARE?

Deadline for sending in Monday Mail items: 14:00 every Friday.

Welcome back to Gareth’s Puzzle Corner, this is your weekly fix of brain teasers and logic puzzles. You are given 4 different puzzles to tackle. One is an easier Sudoku, the second is a more challenging Sudoku, the third is a different form of logic puzzle and finally we have a chess puzzle for you. I hope you enjoy the puzzles and if you have any puzzles you wish to feature or ideas for Puzzle Corner then please get in touch.

Easier Sudoku - Classic Sudoku by sudoku.com

Normal sudoku rules apply.

Challenging Sudoku - Treasure Map by BremSter

Normal sudoku rules apply. Digits along an arrow must sum to the digit in that arrow’s circle. Digits cannot repeat along either of the main diagonals (marked in blue).

Bonus Puzzle - Norinori by Iaw Daigeki

Classic Norinori Rules. Shade exactly two cells in each cage. Each shaded cell is orthogonally adjacent to exactly one other shaded cell. Every shaded cell must be part of a 2x1 or a 1x2 domino, independently from the region borders. Use the default colour of DG for your dominoes.

Chess Puzzle - Perez Perez Vs. Spassky, 1964

Drag and drop the Black pieces to win the chess match.

Answers to the puzzle will be revealed in next weeks Monday Mail