Good morning – it’s Monday 3 June, and it’s the final week of exams – I hope they’ve been going well. This is the final Monday Mail for this academic year, so I'll take this opportunity to wish you a happy and rewarding summer. If you’re graduating, we hope to see you and your families on Graduation Day. If you’re about to start a year's Industrial Experience, good luck for what I’m sure will be a fantastic experience for you. If you’re returning for your next year of study with us in September, have a great summer and we look forward to seeing you soon.

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GRADUATION. A reminder that Graduation Day this year is Weds 17 July. The party starts at 12:00 in The Atlas rooms, Kilburn Building, and at 12:45 Head of School Professor Jim Miles will present this year’s student prizes. The Graduation Ceremony begins at 14:30 in Whitworth Hall – please be sure to be there by 13:30.

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GRADUATE JOBS FAIR. Next week the University hosts the biggest graduate job fair in the UK – meet over 160 companies looking to recruit. Weds 12 & Thurs 13 June, 10:30 – 16:30, at The Armitage Centre, Fallowfield. Register → www.manchester.ac.uk/graduatefair

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WITH-IE PLACEMENTS. If you're finishing your second year and seeking a placement, please let Mabel Yau know if you haven’t already → mabel@cs.man.ac.uk

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KEEP IN TOUCH. If you’re graduating this summer, and would like to keep in touch with the school and its alumni, please consider joining the LinkedIn alumni group, which now has over 800 members. As well as keeping in touch, alumni can be useful to you for building your professional network and taking your first steps after graduation → http://bit.ly/csmcralumni

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GRADUATE JOBS. Many employers contact the School looking for graduates late in the academic year (now!). So if you’re looking for work, keep an eye on Moodle for companies that are specifically looking to recruit Computer Science graduates from Manchester → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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CHARITY WORK. The Booth Centre Manchester Homeless Charity (→ www.boothcentre.org.uk) works with those sleeping on the street and those who have at some point been homeless, helping to re-build their lives after in many cases very traumatic circumstances. They’re looking for some help in maintaining their computers. If you’re interested, contact Amanda Croome → amanda@boothcentre.org.uk

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CALLING ALL POETS. Now in its second year, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Poetry Competition aims to show that the creativity and innovation in science and engineering can produce poetry too! Why not let your creative juices flow and have a go? → http://epspoetry.com

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SUMMER INNOVATION. Got an idea on how to use technology to improve university life? The Summer of Student Innovation programme will give £5000 for each idea voted among the best, to pay for you to develop it over the summer → http://elevator.jisc.ac.uk

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

Best wishes for the summer!

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning – it’s Monday 27 May, and it’s yet another Bank Holiday! I hope your exams are going well. In case of exam emergencies contact SSO immediately → sso@cs.man.ac.uk or 0161 306 6625

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MAY BALL. Some photos from the May Ball are now up on Facebook (you need to be logged in to view)→ http://goo.gl/yNXda

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SUMMER INNOVATION. Do you have an idea on how to use technology to improve university life? The Summer of Student Innovation programme will give £5000 for each idea voted among the best, to pay for you to develop it over the summer → http://elevator.jisc.ac.uk

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BIGGEST GRADUATE JOBS FAIR IN THE UK. Over 160 exhibitors – different ones each day. Companies range from multinationals to small in all kinds of sectors, both local and national. Weds 12 & Thurs 13 June, 10:30– 16:30, at The Armitage Centre, Fallowfield. Register → www.manchester.ac.uk/graduatefair

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HEALTH HACK. Fancy a weekend of design/coding eHealth solutions? Check out North West Health Hack (15/16 June), working with Barclays, TechHub, Health 2.0 and IT recruitment specialist Hudson. Register → http://nwhealthhack.com

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning – it’s Monday 20 May, and I hope your exams are going well. In case of emergencies contact SSO immediately → sso@cs.man.ac.uk or 0161 306 6625

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SUMMER VACATION WORK. Final call for summer vacation work in the School – deadline for applications is 17:00 today Mon 20 May → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/employment/vacationjobs

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FIRST YEAR PROJECTS VIDEO. Many thanks to all the members of tutorial groups B2, M2, W4, X2, Y2 and Z7, who gave up their time last Monday to take part in the shooting of a video about their group projects for our new School webpages.

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BYTE CAFE. Thank you to all 165 of you for sharing your opinions on design ideas for the summer refurbishment of the Byte Cafe area. See what people thought → http://goo.gl/ll2iY

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ROOM G23. We’ll be replacing all the PCs in Room G23 over the summer, and improving the tables and seating.

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COURSE UNIT SURVEYS. The deadline for giving us your feedback on your Semester 2 course units has been extended to 24 May. We really want your feedback! Log into My Manchester and click the ‘My Blackboard’ tab, or use the app → www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/enhancing-my-experience/tellus

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WORKLOAD. We want to understand your workload patterns better, so if you could let us know your feelings on workload levels it would be a big help → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/feedback/view.php?id=10082

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STUDENT HACK. Build interesting things at Student Hack on the weekend of 25/26 May at MMU. Sign up → http://shmcr.eventbrite.co.uk

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HEALTH HACK. Fancy a weekend of design/coding eHealth solutions? Check out North West Health Hack (15/16 June), working with Barclays, TechHub, Health 2.0 and IT recruitment specialist Hudson. Register → http://nwhealthhack.com

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MANCHESTER MAN. Chancellor of the University Tom Bloxham will be telling his own remarkable story: from studying Politics and History here, selling fire extinguishers and running a stall in Affleck's Palace, through to the founding of Urban Splash and chairing the Manchester International Festival. Mon 3 June at 16:30, Manchester Dental Education Centre. To book → http://www.college.manchester.ac.uk/events

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UNION WEB POST. The Students Union fundraising body RAG (Raise and Give) are looking to recruit a publicity officer with experience in web design and marketing → www.manchesterrag.com

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

Until next week,

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning – it’s Monday 13 May, and exams start this week – I hope all goes well. I know it sounds obvious, but make sure you know your exam schedule/locations precisely – it's your responsibility to be in the right place at the right time! In case of emergencies contact SSO immediately → sso@cs.man.ac.uk or 0161 306 6625

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PAST PAPERS. A reminder that you can see past exam papers → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/assessment/exam_papers/index.php?view=ug

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QUIET ROOM. Looking for a quiet place to revise? Try our Quiet Study Room. It’s at the far end of Kilburn Room 1.8 (aka the 3rd Year Lab).

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SUMMER VACATION WORK. Last chance to apply! 17:00 today Mon 13 May is the deadline for applications for summer vacation work in the School – and a new job has just been added → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/employment/vacationjobs

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AWAY DAY. If you were wondering why Kilburn seemed a bit empty last Friday, that’s because almost all academic staff were out. No, they weren’t all playing golf, they were at an intensive Away Day meeting, discussing the future of our Computer Science teaching curriculum, how that interfaces with the research going on in the School, and how the School should react to a rapidly changing world. Interesting questions...

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YOUR STORIES. As we prepare to launch the School's new externally-facing website, we need your help. We’d like to feature the stories of a range of students – so we’d be very grateful if you could spare a couple of minutes to fill in this short questionnaire → http://tinyurl.com/CS-stories

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WORKLOAD. We want to understand your workload patterns better. I hate to ask you to fill in yet another survey... but... if you could let us know your feelings on your workload levels it would be a big help for our ongoing review of the curriculum → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/feedback/view.php?id=10082

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COURSE UNIT SURVEYS. We really want your feedback – deadline Fri 17 May – on each of your Semester 2 course units. Log into My Manchester and click the ‘My Blackboard’ tab, or use the app → http://www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/enhancing-my-experience/tellus

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SEMINAR. Here’s an interesting seminar by two of our recent graduates – Peter Sutton and Lloyd Henning, founders of MAN-UP: “Innovative and User Friendly Web
Application in Running Fortran-based Simulation Modelling”. 15:00 this Thurs 16 May, in Room B8, George Begg Building, Sackville Street. All welcome.

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BIGGEST GRADUATE JOBS FAIR IN THE UK. One for your diaries: over 160 exhibitors – different ones each day. Companies range from multinationals to small in all kinds of sectors, local and national. Weds 12 & Thurs 13 June, 10:30 – 16:30, at the Armitage Centre, Fallowfield. Register → www.manchester.ac.uk/graduatefair

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

Hope your exams go well,

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning all! It’s Monday 6 May, Week 12, a B week, and the final teaching week of the year. And it's the Early May Bank Holiday today too – so no timetabled activities in the School today, but back to normal tomorrow. Have a nice day whatever you’re doing.

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CONGRATULATIONS GAVIN. I know you’ll want to join me in congratulating Gavin Donald from SSO who received the Outstanding Contribution to Peer Support Award at the Annual Students as Partners Celebration Evening last Thursday. Well done Gavin and thank you for all your hard work and kindness supporting our students.

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PROJECT SUCCESSES. Congratulations to Y3 students Qas Ashraf (CSwIE), Oana Bradulet (CSBMwIE) and Radu Asandei (CSBMwIE) whose 3rd year projects (supervised by Andy Brass/John Gurd) have been accepted in the Poster category at the Association for Medical Education in Europe 2013 conference in Prague. Qas's work has been on the use of Q-sort strategies for widening participation activities, while Radu and Oana have been looking at IT systems to improve the management of the volunteer effort → http://www.amee.org

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BYTE CAFE REFURB. Over the summer, we’ll be refurbishing the Byte Cafe area on Kilburn LF, planning to install new furniture, new carpet, and upgrading the coffee machine at the cafe. We want your input on the new look, so please take a moment to tell us → https://sites.google.com/site/bytecaferefurb

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SUMMER VACATION WORK. A reminder that the School has some paid vacation work available over the coming summer. An extra job has been added: assisting with the UK Schools Computer Animation competition, which we organise every year. For details of all positions (application deadline 17:00 next Mon 13 May) → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/employment/vacationjobs

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CODING COMP. The inaugural Students vs Staff Coding Competition last week was a resounding success, with 19 teams (13 UG, 4 staff, and 2 PhD) and a total of 38 participants. The staff put up a valiant effort, but ultimately two student teams triumphed – 1st place went to Team Fossils – Giles Reger (PhD, former UG) and Peter Glaus (PhD) and 2nd place to Team CodeLegends – Mircea Gabriel Suciu (Y3, CS4) and Alexandru Dumitru (Y2, CBAwIE). Clearly staff must try harder next year! See photos → http://goo.gl/vXpxD

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MAN-UP. The last Man-UP session this year will take place this Thurs 9 May at 17:00 – 19:00 in Collab1. They'll be welcoming some guests from the BBC who will hold a workshop on Behaviour Driven Development. The two-hour session will be a mixture of presentation and practice. All students and staff welcome.

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COURSE UNIT SURVEYS. We really want your feedback on each of your Semester 2 course units. Log into My Manchester and click on the ‘My Blackboard’ tab, or use the app → http://www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/enhancing-my-experience/tellus

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NSS PRIZE DRAW WINNERS. Ainur Begalinova (Y3, CSE) wins the iPad mini, and Qas Ashraf (Y3, CSwIE), Richard Gale (Y3, CSwIE) and Edouard van der Weilen (Y3, ICwIE) win Amazon vouchers. Well done all!

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BBC SUMMER JOB. The BBC at MediaCityUK have a vacancy for a software engineer in TV and mobile platforms. They’ll be in the School this Weds 8 May at 1pm in LT1.1 to talk about the position and answer any questions. More details → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/course/category.php?id=17

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SUMMER JOBS IN LIVERPOOL. ScraperWiki in Liverpool have some summer internships available for data scientists → http://blog.scraperwiki.com/2013/05/01/internships-coding-and-data-science/

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STUDENT HACK. Take a break during the upcoming exam period and build interesting things at Student Hack on the weekend of 25/26 May, up the road at MMU. Sign up → http://shmcr.eventbrite.co.uk

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QUIZ NIGHT. Check out Quiz Manchester hosted by Ampersand Commerce this Thurs 9 May at 18:30. Only 9 places left – sign up for the evening (and free pizza!) → http://thequizmcr5.eventbrite.com

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

Enjoy your week! Let me know if you have any concerns.

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning all! It’s Monday 29 April, Week 11, an A week. Quite a lot to tell you about today – so let’s get straight on with the news...

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PROJECT SHOWCASE. Today is the 1st Year Project Showcase – in the LF area 11:00–13:00 (this replaces the usual lecture and PASS session). All students and staff are invited to come and see what this year’s 1st Year students have been up to. We’ll also have a pro-photographer there to take some shots for the new School website.

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MAN-UP. This week Thurs 2 May, Kilburn 1.4 at 17:00, Marius Tudor Morar, who had his IE placement at CERN, will be talking about data acquisition in high-energy physics experiments. All welcome.

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COURSE UNIT SURVEYS. For the next 3 weeks, you’ll have an opportunity to give us your feedback on each of your Semester 2 course units – please do this! We need and value your feedback. Log into My Manchester and click on the ‘My Blackboard’ tab, or download an app for your mobile device → http://www.studentnet.manchester.ac.uk/enhancing-my-experience/tellus

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PASS. No PASS-Y1 today, but PASS-Y2 is on Weds 1 May at 13:00 in Collab. All welcome.

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wIE PLACEMENT STUDENTS. Tomorrow Tue 29 April at 12:00 in IT407, there’s a compulsory meeting for all Y2 students with approved placements, and any student still looking for a placement. And a FREE lunch! If you’re unable to attend please tell Mabel → mabel@cs.man.ac.uk

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SUMMER VACATION WORK. Interested in some paid work in the School during the summer vacation? For details of the positions available, and how to apply (deadline 17:00 Mon 13 May) → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/employment/vacationjobs

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CODING CHALLENGE. The Coding Dojo’s first annual Students-vs-Staff Coding Competition is taking place this Weds 1 May at 15:45–18:30 in Collab. Why not pop in and see what’s going on? If you'd like to compete, hurry! – there's one place left → https://www.facebook.com/events/601792363167109

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LAST CALL FOR THE MAY BALL. There are a few tickets left for this year’s May Ball (in association with the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures) at the Midland Hotel on the evening of Sat 11 May. If you haven’t got your ticket yet, hurry! → info@cssoc.co.uk

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QUIZ NIGHT. Check out Quiz Manchester hosted by Ampersand Commerce next Thurs 9 May at 18:30. Sign up for the evening (and free pizza!) → http://thequizmcr5.eventbrite.com

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OPEN DATA MANCHESTER. Alongside regular updates and discussions on open data, there’ll be a presentation from Dan McKenzie on a brand new project: “Tax Hack”, at MadLab this Tues 30 April, 18:30–20.30 → http://madlab.org.uk

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UNIVERSITY COLLEGE. University College offers a range of credit-bearing course units designed to encourage students to study topics outside their discipline. You can take these units as your external options (subject to timetabling constraints). They’re running taster sessions for their courses for next Academic Year, at 14:00–17:00 this Weds 1 May, and at the same time next Weds 8 May. Full details → http://www.college.manchester.ac.uk/events

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COUNTDOWN. This Weds 1 May the Countdown team will be at the Alan Turing Building looking for future contestants for the popular Channel 4 programme. Want to be a Countdown champion? Book your 45-minute audition slot now → holly.simpson1@itv.com

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APPS FOR GOOD. The nationwide foundation Apps for Good (→ www.appsforgood.org) is visiting the School this Thurs 2 May at 17:00–19:00. They want to introduce exciting science and technology to schoolchildren by enabling them to develop apps. This is a major organisation with industrial and university backing and over 50 schoolteachers will be attending our event. We’d love to have some students who have developed cool apps to give a short demo of what they’ve done (could be very good for your CV too!). If you’d like to get involved → david@cs.man.ac.uk

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HELP WITH WRITING. The University Language Centre offers free personalised help for students having difficulties with their use of English for essay/report writing → www.ulc.manchester.ac.uk/english/academicsupport/tutorial-service

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SEMINAR: FROM CHIPS TO CANCER. Dr Sani Nassif from IBM will be talking about Proton Radiation Cancer Therapy. A team at IBM, working with researchers at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Research center, have been busy applying knowledge from the VLSI area. Thurs 2 May at 14:00 in Kilburn 2.19.

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SEMINAR: DESIGN AUTOMATION OF ELECTRIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS. Dr Sani Nassif from IBM will be talking about the application of VLSI design automation techniques to the design and optimization of electricity distribution systems. Fri 3 May at 14:00 in Kilburn 2.19.

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

I hope you have a great week. Let me know if you have any concerns.

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning all! It’s Monday 22 April, Week 10, a B week.

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GUEST LECTURE TODAY. Ian Cartwright from ThoughtWorks will be guest lecturing on ‘What Is Consultancy?’ at 11:00 today in LT1.1 as part of COMP10120 – all welcome.

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PLACEMENTS. Second year students – If you're still looking for a year-long IE placement come to the Careers surgery this Weds 14 April at 12:00 in Atlas 2.

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THE MAY BALL. Hurry hurry hurry! All students and staff are invited to this year’s May Ball (in association with the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures) at the Midland Hotel on the evening of Sat 11 May. For just £35 per person you get a bucks fizz reception, three course meal, half a bottle of wine, 20% off house-branded drinks, a pro-photographer... and the opportunity to see a number of your lecturers wearing their Dinner Jackets! The deadline for buying tickets is Friday 26 April, and they’re available all this week from the Byte Cafe 11:00–16:00 (Weds 11:00–13:00 only) → http://bit.ly/may-ball

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SSCC. The Staff-Student Committee met last Weds 17 April. It was, as always, an honest and helpful exchange of views. Secretary Sarah King (CMwIE,Y2) has written the report of the meeting with her usual speed and efficiency. Thank you Sarah, and thank you to all the Reps who worked so hard to represent student concerns this year → http://sscc.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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QUIET ROOM. At SSCC we discovered that some UG Reps (so presumably other students too) were not aware that we have a Quiet Study Room (no noisy conversation, no leaky headphones, no mobile devices that go “ping”). It’s at the far end of Kilburn Room 1.8 (aka the 3rd Year Lab). If you need a quiet place to study, why not check it out?

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PASS. Today Mon 22 April, PASS-Y1 is at 12:00 in Collab. PASS-Y2 is on Weds 24 April at 13:00 in Collab. All welcome.

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APPS FOR GOOD. The nationwide foundation Apps for Good (→ www.appsforgood.org) is visiting the School on Thurs 2 May at 17:00–19:00. They want to introduce exciting science and technology to schoolchildren by enabling them to develop apps. This is a major organisation with industrial and university backing and over 50 schoolteachers will be attending our event. We’d love to have some students who have developed cool apps to give a short demo of what they’ve done (could be very good for your CV too!). If you’d like to get involved → david@cs.man.ac.uk

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TEACHING AWARDS. Have any of the School’s Lecturers/Tutors/Support Staff impressed you this year? If yes, please take a moment to nominate them for an award (it would mean a lot to them, and to the School) – deadline today Mon 22 April → http://manchesterstudentsunion.com/teachingawards

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. As projects are now in the final writing-up stage, no further meetings this semester. We'll start again in September.

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HELP WITH WRITING. The University Language Centre offers free personalised help for students having difficulties with their use of English for essay/report writing → www.ulc.manchester.ac.uk/english/academicsupport/tutorial-service

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

I hope you have a super week. Let me know if you have any concerns.

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning! It’s Monday 15 April, Week 9, an A week. I hope you had a great Easter break, and that your batteries are fully recharged. 3rd year students will no doubt have been beavering away on their project reports, so I hope that’s all been going well for you. On with today’s news...

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INFRASTRUCTURE. As you’ll know, the School is planning major computing infrastructure changes for September 2013. We’re holding a special meeting so we can discuss our plans with you. Come along this Weds 17 April at 14:00 – 15:00 in Kilburn LT1.1. Tell us what you want → http://goo.gl/MIqIV

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WATCH YOUR STUFF. There’s been a number of thefts around campus recently, so please be extra careful. NEVER leave your laptop, tablet, phone or any other valuables unattended, and please do remember that the Kilburn Building (like many other University buildings) is publicly accessible during the daytime. Be careful out there.

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THE MAY BALL. It’s back! All students and staff are invited to this year’s May Ball (in association with the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures) at the Midland Hotel on the evening of Sat 11 May. For just £35 per person you get a Bucks Fizz reception, three course meal, half a bottle of wine, 20% off house-branded drinks, a Pro-photographer...! Tickets are available everyday this week from the Byte Cafe 11:00 – 16:00 → http://bit.ly/may-ball

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PASS. Today Mon 15 April, PASS-Y1 is at 12:00 in Collab. PASS-Y2 is on Weds 17 April at 13:00 in Collab. All welcome.

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SSCC THIS WEEK. The Staff-Student Committee meets for the second time this Semester at 15:00 this Weds 17 April (after the infrastructure meeting mentioned above) so if you’d like a Student Rep to raise any issues on your behalf, please talk to them ASAP. Find your Year/Programme Rep → http://sscc.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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TEACHING AWARDS. Have any of the School’s Lecturers/Tutors/Support Staff impressed you this year? If yes, please take a moment to nominate them for an award (it would mean a lot to them) by deadline next week Mon 22 April → http://manchesterstudentsunion.com/teachingawards

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ARM GUEST TODAY. Dr Anton Lokhmotov from ARM will be giving a guest lecture on accelerator processors and associated programming techniques, today Mon 15 April at 15:00 in LT 1.5. Everyone welcome to come along, not just COMP35112 students.

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Suzanne Embury writes: this week Fri 19 April at 15:00 in Atlas 2. A guided retrospective to help you pick out the key lessons from the experience of your third year project. All welcome.

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HELP WITH WRITING. Did you know that the University Language Centre offers free personalised help for students having difficulties with their use of English for essay/report writing? Find out more → http://www.ulc.manchester.ac.uk/english/academicsupport/tutorial-service

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BEST ELEARNING AWARDS. Have you done a course this year which makes innovative and effective use of eLearning? Vote for the best and win an iPod or iPad (deadline 17 May) → is.gd/epsbest

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

I hope you have a great week. Let me know if you have any concerns.

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning everyone. It’s Monday 25 March and it’s the Easter vacation. It’s been a very busy Semester so far, for all of us! So I hope you’ll have a good break, recharge your batteries, and maybe it’s also a chance for some catching-up? 3rd year students – good luck working on your project reports over Easter. The Monday Mail will be back again after the break. Meanwhile, on with today’s news...

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EASTER OPENING HOURS. Kilburn is open as usual 08.00-23.30 throughout the Easter break, but you’ll need your out-of-hours pass. LF31, Tootill, and the 3rd Year Lab (1.8) will be open for you.

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INFRASTRUCTURE MEETING. The School is planning some major computing infrastructure changes for September 2013. There’s a special meeting at which we'll discuss the plans with you – 14:00-15:00 on Weds 17 April in Kilburn LT1.1. If you'd like to come please let us know → http://goo.gl/Dj1G2 ... and as part of the process we want you to tell us what you want → http://goo.gl/MIqIV

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FOOTBALL SUCCESS. Congratulations to Lizzie Hamer (Y2, CSwIE) who plays for the University Women’s football team – they’ve won their league!

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NATIONAL STUDENT SURVEY. Final year students, have you done your NSS yet? If not, please do! It’s terribly important to the School that we get a good response rate. It will only take you a few minutes, and when you’ve submitted your response, print out the ack page and take it to SSO to collect your free yummy choc bar and a chance to win an iPad mini! → http://thestudentsurvey.com

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SCHOOLS ANIMATION COMPETITION. The School runs the annual UK Schools Computer Animation Competition, now in its 6th Year (part of our drive to enthuse schoolkids about Computer Science). This year’s comp closed last Friday 22 March, with 667 schools signed up to take part. We received 1,120 1-minute movies from 154 schools from 1,583 students. We’ll need student helpers for the Animation Festival day on Fri 12 July, and some Summer vacation work may also be available – details to be announced after the Easter break → http://animation13.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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TEACHING AWARDS. The Students’ Union and the University are partnering in the Teaching Awards scheme, which gives students the opportunity to celebrate inspirational teaching and outstanding support from University staff. You can nominate staff in the following categories: Best Lecturer/Most Innovative Lecturer/Most Accessible Lecturer/Best Postgraduate who Teaches/Best Personal Tutor or Academic advisor/Best Support Staff Member or Team. If anyone has impressed you, please take a moment to nominate them (deadline 22 April) → http://manchesterstudentsunion.com/teachingawards

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LONDON HACKATHON. University College London students, in partnership with JP Morgan and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, are organising a hackathon on 6-7 April. They want students from other Universities to get involved. Interested? → www.hackinthecity.com

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RESEARCH TALK TODAY. Mon 25 March at 14:00 in Kilburn LT1.3: Hitting the Sweetspot: Economic Rewriting of Knowledge Bases. Professor Birte Glimm from The University of Ulm will present a novel technique for knowledge base extraction in the Description Logic EL.

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RESEARCH TALK TOMORROW. Tues 26 March at 15:00 in Kilburn LT1.3: The Incredible ELK. Dr Yevgeny Kazakov from The University of Ulm will introduce the ELK system, a high performance reasoner for OWL EL ontologies.

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/themondaymail

Have a great Easter break, and let me know if you have any concerns.

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Hello, good morning and welcome. It’s Monday 18 March and it’s Week 8, a B week. And it’s the last week before the Easter break, but you probably know that! On with today’s news...

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KNEEBONE BURSARY. Congratulations to Tomas Cepulis (Y2, CSwIE) who’s been awarded the inaugural Kneebone Bursary, founded by the Kneebone family in memory of their daughter Kate, who was an undergraduate here in the School. The bursary, awarded annually, comprises a cash award and an opportunity to undertake an internship at ARM in Cambridge.

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PASS. Today Mon 18 March, PASS1 is at 12:00 in Collab. PASS2 is on Weds 20 March at 13:00 in Collab. Everyone welcome.

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THANKING PASS VOLUNTEERS. Talking of PASS, I’m sure you know that our Y1, Y2 and Y3 PASS programmes are run entirely by student volunteers, under the unique guidance of Andrea Schalk. As a small gesture to thank everyone involved for the incredibly valuable contributions they make, the School took the PASS Leaders to dinner last week at the Red Hot World Buffet on Deansgate (which will probably now go out of business after the amount of food they consumed!). A good time was had by all, and Head of School Prof. Jim Miles thanked everyone for their generous and amazing work → http://www.facebook.com/mancspass

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EASTER PUB CRAWL. Neha Agrawal (Y2, CSE) writes: tomorrow Tues 19 March, hop around with CSSoc to get into the Easter spirit! → https://www.facebook.com/events/342212022566078/?fref=ts

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FLU HORRIBLENESS. I know a lot of students (and staff!) are suffering from the various forms of extremely nasty flu-type-thing going around at the moment. If you’re ill and need to miss lectures/labs/examples classes/project meetings, please email to tell us → sso@cs.man.ac.uk. If you’re ill for more than 5 working days you need to give us a GP/Hospital note, along with a Mitigating Circumstances form → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/student-services/absence.php

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GUEST LECTURE. Imagination Technologies are giving a guest lecture today Mon 18 March at 11:00 in LT1.1 as part of COMP10120. They'll be exploring "What it means to be an Intellectual Property (IP) company". All welcome, not just COMP10120 students.

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CAREERS SURGERY. We’re organising a careers surgery for second year students who haven't yet arranged an industrial experience (IE) placement for July-September 2013. Please contact Duncan Hull if you're interested. → hulld@cs.man.ac.uk

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MAN-UP. This Thurs 21 March at 17:00 in the small Collab, looking at some ideas of applications for the Transport for Greater Manchester hackathon 23-24 March. And good luck to all those taking part in the hackathon: Andrew Leeming, Marius Popescu, Miso Zmiric, Bogdan Toader, Dragos Romario Rosu, Daniella Florescu, Rabbie Faruque, Andrei Victor-Serban, Mohammed Shakil, Andrei Ruse, Cristian Borna, Yulia Terzi and Alexandru Dumitru. There are some great prizes up for grabs this year! → http://goo.gl/EtjrE

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MANAGE YOUR QUOTA. One of the worst disk-quota-eaters is your browser cache, so regular emptying of this is a Good Thing, and it’s quick and easy to do. Before deleting any files using the dangerous “rm” command, start by clearing your cache. A reminder that if you accidentally delete precious files, we cannot guarantee to recover them, so keeping your own USB stick or off-site backups is essential, and of course good professional practice! → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/resources/software/backups.php

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FREE NOTEBOOKS. We’ve got a big pile of spare Student Notebooks – if you’d like one just pop into SSO and pick one up from the table by the main SSO counter.

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MEET IBM AND CINETIC. This Thurs 21 March, 12:00-14:00 in Kilburn LF, drop in and meet IBM and Cinetic Landis, both looking for Graduate Developers.

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. No meeting this week, but back after the Easter break, with guided retrospectives to help students pick out the key lessons from their projects.

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RESEARCH TALK. Today, Mon 18 March in Kilburn 2.15 at 14:00. Dan Hammerstrom on UPSIDE – Unconventional Processing of Signals for Intelligent Data Exploitation. Today’s defence missions rely on a massive amount of sensor data collected by intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. The UPSIDE program is researching video and imagery analysis based on the physics of nanoscale devices. All welcome.

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Have a good week, and let me know if you have any concerns.

Cheers,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Hello and a very good morning to you. It’s Monday 11 March and the start of Week 7, an A week. A bit chilly, but Spring nonetheless (I think!). On with today’s news...

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3RD YEAR PROJECT SHOWCASE. Want to see what current 3rd Year students are doing in their projects? We’re trialling a new informal event – “Project Showcase” – this Weds 13 March 13:00 – 15:00 in the Collab. Drop in and see the fantastic project work going on. Everyone welcome, especially 2nd Year students who’ll soon be making their project choices for next year.

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LINUX WORKSHOPS. Last week we scheduled a Schools Linux Workshop in Tootill, which turned out to be inconvenient for some UG students. My sincere apologies for this mistake. To minimise disruption, the remaining Schools Linux workshops this Semester will now be held in LF31, on Weds 13 and 20 March, from 12:55 to 16:10. If you would normally use PCs in LF31 at that time, we’d be grateful if you could use Tootill or G23, where there should be plenty of machines available. Any problems, please let me know.

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MAN-UP. This week the topic is web development, focussing on JavaScript. Thurs 14 March at 17:00 in Kilburn LT1.4. All welcome, especially people new to MAN-UP.

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MEET THE PRESIDENT. The President of the University, Nancy Rothwell, is visiting the School tomorrow Tues 12 March. She's hosting a special open meeting for students at 15:00 – 15:30 in Kilburn 2.15. Come along and meet her. You can ask her, or tell her, anything you like – this is an important opportunity to make your views heard – direct to the Head of the University! All welcome at this informal meeting (it’s for students only, School staff won’t be there).

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WEBSITE CHANGES. Masterminded by Simon Harper, the School’s web presence is undergoing a major reorganisation, moving to 3 main sites: the “external” (→ http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk), the “student facing” ( → http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk) and the “staff facing” (→ http://staffnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk). Obviously this is an immense task, and in the short term this may mean some broken links, so if you find some resources are not where you expected them, please substitute the www.cs of the original with studentnet.cs and if that doesn't work, staffnet.cs. And please tell us about any broken links → web@cs.man.ac.uk

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MUMPS. As well as all the various kinds of horrible flu floating about at the moment, there’s been a recent increase in cases of mumps, which can be very nasty. If you have any concerns → https://my.manchester.ac.uk/d/crucial-guide/personal-life/health/mumps/

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PASS. Today Monday 11 March, PASS1 is at 12:00 in Collab. PASS 2 is on Weds 13 March at 13:00 (Room TBA). Everyone welcome.

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. This Friday 15 March at 15:00 in Atlas 2. All welcome.

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THALES. Come and meet The Thales Group, and check out their engineering and business & finance opportunities for graduates. Get your photo taken in the Thales photobooth and win Amazon vouchers. Tomorrow Tues 12 March, from 11:00 – 15:00, Kilburn LF → http://www.thalesgroup.com

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INNOVATION COMP. There's £16,000 of prize money up for grabs (including an under 21 prize) from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and Future Everything, as part of their innovation challenge, happening in Manchester on 23/24 March → http://futureeverything.org/summit/conference/workshops-fringe-events/innovation-challenge. If you're interested in joining the Computer Science team (or entering your own) please let Duncan Hull know → hulld@cs.man.ac.uk

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

I hope you have a good week. Let me know if you have any concerns.

Best wishes,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Hello and good morning everyone. It’s Week 6, a B week. On with today’s news...

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CODING DOJO. Congratulations to Andrei Balas (Y1, CS) and Clara Andreea Diaconeasa (Y1, CMwIE) who last Wednesday won the mini coding competition held by the Coding Dojo organised by Marius Popescu (Y2, CS4), currently preparing for the ACM coding competition in November. If you want to be in with a chance of representing Manchester in the comp, held in the Netherlands, join the Facebook group, and come coding on Wednesdays at 17:00 in Collab 1. All welcome! → https://www.facebook.com/groups/coding.dojo

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EXAM FEEDBACK: the exam feedback session for Semester 1 exams is at 14:00 on Weds 20 March in IT407, when you can look at your marked exam scripts (COMP only) to help you understand your results. Sign-up required, please email sso@cs.man.ac.uk with your name, your student ID number (shown on your student card), and the list of COMP course unit scripts you’d like to view. Sign-up deadline 12:00 (noon) this Weds 6 March.

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HELP FRED. For his third year project, Fred Kelly (Y3, CS), is investigating the advantages/disadvantages of using social networks as a source for web search results. He’d like you to try his prototype system (all data is recorded anonymously with the sole purpose of measuring the success of the project) → http://search.brogr.am/?ref=csmail1

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PASS. Today Monday 4 March, PASS1 is at 12:00 in Collab. PASS 2 is on Weds 7 March at 13:00 in Collab. Everyone welcome.

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PASS and CVs. Matt Oakes (Y3, CSwIE) writes: today Monday 4 March the Careers Service will be running a CV session for PASS leaders. The session is designed to help you get the skills you've learnt from PASS onto your CV. All PASS leaders should attend. 17:00 in Collab.

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MAN-UP. Andrew Leeming writes: Man-UP will be in Collab at 17:00 this Thurs 7 March, playing around with any peripherals we can get our hands on! The idea is to allow people to play with things they would not normally get the chance to. If you have anything to share please bring it, if not, just bring yourself (and possibly a laptop)!

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MEET THE PRESIDENT. The President of the University, Professor Nancy Rothwell, is visiting the School next Tues 12 March. She's hosting a special open meeting for students at 15:00 – 15:30 in Kilburn 2.15. Come along and meet her. You can ask her, or tell her, anything you like – this is an important opportunity to make your views heard – direct to the Head of the University! Sign up → http://goo.gl/1MIo9

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Every Friday at 15:00 in Atlas 2. All welcome.

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THALES. Come and meet The Thales Group, and check out their engineering and business & finance opportunities for graduates. Get your photo taken in the Thales photobooth and win Amazon vouchers. Next Tues 12 March, from 11:00 – 15:00, Kilburn LF → http://www.thalesgroup.com

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TEAMWORKING AWARDS. Have you worked with other students in a group project as part of your course or in your own time? The 15th Annual Student Team Working Awards (sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers) are an opportunity to recognise and reward both the importance and the quality of student teamwork within the University. Deadline 15:00 Weds 20 March → www.manchester.ac.uk/stwa

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

I hope you have a great week. Anything concerning you? Tell us.

Cheers,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning everyone, it’s Week 5, an A week. On with today’s news...

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EXAM RESULTS. Results will be out this week, and students in all years will have a chance to discuss them with their Personal Tutor. We’ll contact everyone as soon as the results are out.

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SSCC. We had a lively and very productive staff-student committee meeting last Weds. Read Secretary Sarah King’s (Y2, CM) report → http://sscc.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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INSIDE THE HACKER MIND. This week’s COMP10120 guest lecture is something special – an interactive session with the Technology and Information Risk group at Morgan Stanley: “Break a Hacker’s Mind: Web Application Vulnerabilities Exposed…”. Together we will work through a web application the group has created which is riddled with the common issues through which banking applications can be compromised. Free pizzas will be served after the lecture! Today Monday 25 Feb at 11:00 in Kilburn LT1.1. All welcome, not just COMP10120 students.

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COURSE MATERIALS. Looking for course materials? Find links for all at this handy page → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt/syllabus.php

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EXAM FEEDBACK: the exam feedback session for Semester 1 exams is at 14:00 on Weds 20 March in IT407, when you can look at your marked exam scripts (COMP only) to help you understand your results. Sign-up required, please email sso@cs.man.ac.uk with your name, your student ID number (shown on your student card), and the list of COMP course unit scripts you’d like to view. Sign-up deadline 12:00 (noon) on Weds 6 March.

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PASS. Today Monday 25 Feb, PASS1 is at 12:00 in Collab. PASS 2 is on Weds 27 Feb at 13:00 in Collab. Everyone welcome.

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PASS and CVs. Matt Oakes (Y3, CSwIE) writes: next Monday 4 March the Careers Service will be running a CV session for PASS leaders. The session is designed to help you get the skills you've learnt from PASS onto your CV. All PASS leaders should attend. 5pm in Collab.

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MAN-UP. This Thurs at 17:00 in Kilburn LT1.4, PhD student Salman Aljammaz will be talking about Google’s “Go” programming language ( → http://golang.org ).

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MEET THE PRESIDENT. The President of the University, Professor Nancy Rothwell, is visiting the School on Tues 12 March. She's hosting a special open meeting for students at 15:00 – 15:30 in Kilburn 2.15. Come along and meet her. You can ask her, or tell her, anything you like – this is an important opportunity to make your views heard – direct to the Head of the University! Sign up → http://goo.gl/1MIo9

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GAME PLAYERS WANTED. PhD student David Buckley is looking for volunteers to play a first-person shooter game, and answer some questions about the experience. Players of all levels welcome → david.buckley@cs.man.ac.uk

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Every Friday at 15:00 in Atlas 2.

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MEET CHANNELGRABBER: ChannelGrabber creates ecommerce sites and bespoke backend logistic systems for organisations. Drop-in session tomorrow Tues 26 Feb, 12:00-14:00, Lower First. Open to all, but most suitable for final year students. → http://www.channelgrabber.com

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WIN A KINDLE. Twitter-based competition to encourage students to think about Manchester as their community → http://goo.gl/9WqRU

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BEST E-LEARNING. Have you done a course this year which makes innovative and effective use of eLearning? Vote for the best and win an iPod or iPad = > http://is.gd/epsbest

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Hoping you have a great week. Anything concerning you? Tell us.

Cheers,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

It’s Monday again, and welcome to Week 4, a B week, and the sun is shining, hooray! On with today’s news...

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DATA DANGER. Be careful out there! Recently a number of students have suffered catastrophic data losses after typing dangerous commands like 'rm -rf’. Unless you know exactly what you’re doing with this kind of command, you could lose all your work, and it may not be possible to recover accidentally deleted data. You can avoid all kinds of accidental data loss by keeping secure backups of your important stuff, in multiple places. It's easy! – see how → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/resources/software/backups.php

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EXAMS. The University tries to avoid holding exams on religious days or festivals. If this affects you, please tell the Student Services Centre by Fri 22 Feb, in time for the Semester 2 examination period. → http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=2013

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GUEST LECTURE. Antony and Jerome Ribot from www.ribot.co.uk on "Running a software company: The good, the bad and the sweets" as part of COMP10120, today Monday 18 Feb at 11:00 in LT1.1. Open to all, not just COMP10120 students.

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PASS. Today Monday 18 Feb, PASS1 is at 12:00 in Collab. PASS 2 is on Weds 20 Feb at 13:00 in Collab. Everyone welcome.

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PEEUW PEEUW. CSSoc are hosting a LaserQuest event at the Trafford Centre this Weds 20 Feb at 18:00 → www.facebook.com/events/334595633326959/

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POSTGRAD STUDY. PhD student Joe Razavi writes: wondering about postgraduate study? Come and chat to some current postgrads in LF15 at 13:00-14:00 on Weds 20 Feb. It’s informal and friendly – and there will be biscuits!

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HOODIES. This is the last week for grabbing your Computer Science Hoodies – from only £22. On sale 12:00-14:00 in the Byte Cafe.

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SEMINAR. Fri Feb 22 at 14:00 in LT1.3, Prof Ian Horrocks (once an undergraduate here!) from the University of Oxford on “Are Semantics and Scalability Incompatible?” All welcome → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/school/

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MAN-UP. Daniela Florescu (Y2, CSwIE) writes: This week’s it’s a social meeting, at 17:00 on Thurs 21 Feb at the Jabez Clegg. We thought it would be a good idea to get to know each other a little better. Take this chance to have a chat with people you might not normally talk to – other students in your year, students in years above/below/postgrad. New people especially welcome.

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SCANNING. We have two scanners available for student use → http://csis.cs.manchester.ac.uk/hardware/scanning.php … and why not take a look at lots of other useful Computer Services info too → http://csis.cs.manchester.ac.uk/siteguide.php

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Suzanne Embury writes: Currently we’re doing paper prototyping of UI designs and using business values to plan demos and set coding priorities, though we might try some TDD support sessions in the lab if there’s a demand. Or, suggest something yourself. Every Friday at 15:00 in Atlas 2.

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TALENT DAY. Come and meet 60 of the North West's leading digital and creative companies at Manchester Town Hall on Weds 20 Feb 11:30-16:00. They’re all looking for the brightest and the best talent to work for them. → https://www.eventbrite.com/event/4897270869

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Hoping you have a great week. Anything bothering you? Tell us.

Cheers,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Week 3, an A week. I hope you’re settling in to Semester 2. On with today’s news...

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SEMESTER 1 SURVEY RESPONSE. We’ve now looked in detail at the Unit Evaluation Questionnaire results from last semester. You like a lot of what we do, but there are some things you want improved. We take your views seriously, and the Directors of Teaching and all the course unit lecturers have written a report responding to your comments → http://goo.gl/SeKJP

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NSS SUCCESS. Wow! Our School currently has the highest response rate in the whole of the University! ( → http://goo.gl/vDa0l ) Thank you to all final year students who have NSS’d so far. All other final year students, please help us keep our lead by completing your survey ASAP. Don’t miss out on your free choc bar and a chance to win an iPad mini! → http://thestudentsurvey.com

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G23 UPGRADE. All the PCs in the G23 lab (Kilburn, ground floor) will be replaced over the Summer. We’re looking at making some improvements to the room, too. If you have any suggestions, please use this form to tell us → http://goo.gl/skJ6B

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LASERQUEST. CSSoc are hosting a LaserQuest event at the Trafford Centre on Weds 20 February at 18:00 → https://www.facebook.com/events/334595633326959/

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HOW IBM DO IT. Today Monday 11 Feb at 11:00 in LT1.1 – Russell Bee from IBM will be talking about enterprise application software development, and reviewing case studies of practical applications in the oil and gas industry. The lecture will be interactive , finishing with a short University Challenge -type quiz. All welcome, not just COMP10120 students.

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PASS SOCIAL. Matt Oakes (Y3, CSwIE) writes: This Weds 13 Feb at 15:00 is the first PASS social of the semester. We're going bowling at Parrs Wood entertainment centre! All students and PASS leaders welcome → http://j.mp/WVfTna

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PASS. Today Monday 11 Feb at 12:00 in Collab: PASS1. PASS 2 is on Weds 15 Feb at 13:00 in Collab 1. The help is there if you need it. Everyone welcome.

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MAN-UP: This week Weds 13 Feb 15:00-17:00, the BBC are coming to run a workshop on Test Driven Development in Python. Don’t miss this fantastic chance to talk informally with experienced professionals about what they do. Sign up → http://tinyurl.com/ManUP-BBC-TDD

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Suzanne Embury writes: this semester we're meeting on Fridays at 15:00. Come to LT1.5 initially, as the venue varies with what we're going to be doing: paper prototyping for UI designs, using business values to plan your demo and set coding priorities, or TDD-support sessions in the lab. Or, suggest something yourself. All welcome!

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ACM DEBRIEF VID. Missed the ACM competition debrief last week, but really wanted to see what the guys talked about? → http://youtu.be/MI8iRfYvy1w

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CHANGE THE WORLD IN 54 HOURS? Check out the Barclays Social Enterprise Weekend, at the Barclays Technology Centre, 22–24 Feb → http://www.socialenterpriseweekend.com

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SEMINARS THIS WEEK. Tues Weds 12 Feb at 14:00 in LT1.5: Dr Sebastian Rudolph on “A Playful Way of Enriching Ontologies with Negative Constraints”. Weds 13 Feb at 14:00 in LT1.4: Dr Matthew Fortune from Imagination Technologies on “Optimising fixed point arithmetic with Meta IP cores”. All welcome → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/school/

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TURING LECTURE. Suranga Chandratillake, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of blinkx plc on "What they didn't teach me: building a technology company & taking it to market”. Tues 19 Feb 18:00, last few places left! → events.bcs.org/book/484

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APP COMP. Bring your mobile app ideas to life with the UMIP App Development Competition, and win an iPad. Winners will receive funding for the development of their apps → http://umip.com/apps

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Have a great week. Anything bothering you? Let me know.

Cheers,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Week 2, a B week. On with today’s news...

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BYTE CAFE. I’m delighted to tell you that we’ll be refurbishing the Byte Cafe, with new furniture and better facilities. This is a big job, and will happen over the summer. It’s your space, so we’ll be consulting you about design ideas. More on this soon.

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COURSE UNIT CHOICES. Deadline 17:00 Friday 8 Feb. Please finalise your choices (for courses outside the School, you’ll need your Year Tutor’s approval) and check your choices are valid → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt/choicescheck.php

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PASS 1. Matt Oakes (Y3, CSwIE) writes: PASS starts again TODAY Monday 4 Feb at 12:00. You'll be in your normal rooms with the same groups as before. PASS leaders: remember the debrief is now at 17:00 every Monday. See you all there...

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PASS 2. ...and every Wednesday at 13:00 some 3rd year students will be in Collab 1 to help out 2nd year students. We’ll help with your C or any other problems you're having – just come along with questions. Everyone welcome.

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ACM COMP. The team who entered last year’s ACM Programming Competition will be talking about their experiences and inviting people to join up and practice over the next few months, ready for this year’s comp. Come and find out what it’s all about: Thursday 7 Feb at 17:00 in LT1.4.

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CSSOC NIGHT OUT: Tanvi Bhardwaj (Y2, CSE) writes: Join us for a fun-filled evening this Friday 8 Feb at 19:30 at the Font Bar followed by 5th Avenue. → http://on.fb.me/11xQoiH

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MAN-UP: This week Thursday 7 Feb at 17:00 in Collab, a workshop on how to use Git for distributed source control. Next week’s meeting is Wednesday 13 Feb afternoon, when some lovely people from the BBC are coming to run a workshop on TDD in Python. Sign up → http://tinyurl.com/ManUP-BBC-TDD

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HELP CAMERON GET HOME. First year student Cameron Millard (CM) is aiming to raise £100,000 for child health charities Bliss UK and Soft UK. Among Cameron’s planned events he’ll be cycling home from Manchester to Shropshire. Support Cameron by liking his FB page → http://www.facebook.com/bringmehome2013

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TYPE THEORY GROUP. PhD student Joe Razavi is setting up a type theory group, to work with the theorem prover Coq (→ http://coq.inria.fr) and look at exciting ideas about logic and programming. Drop in to the first meeting TODAY Monday 4 Feb 17:00 – 18:00 in G23 → joseph.razavi@cs.man.ac.uk

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TEACH FIRST/GOOGLE PIZZA LUNCH. Final Year students: interested in inspiring schoolkids about Computer Science? Come to TeachFirst’s Pizza Networking Lunch on Thursday 7 Feb in the Alumni Common Room, MBS West, 12:30 – 14:00. Sign up by Tuesday 5 Feb 16:00 → http://www.doodle.com/m4tp8mqm5ghbtmni

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IBM VISIT. The IBM Technology Truck – it’s a great big blue thing, you can’t miss it – will be here TOMORROW Tuesday 5 Feb from 10:00 – 17:00 opposite the George Kenyon building, in the area behind Kilburn. Why not have a look?

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Wishing you a good week. Don’t forget: any problems? Let me know.

Cheers,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning everyone, and welcome to the start of Semester 2 – so it's Week 1, an A week. I hope your exams went well, and that you'll enjoy everything this semester. On with today's news!

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THIRD YEAR MEETING. A reminder that there’s an important meeting for all 3rd Year students, this Weds 30 Jan at 1pm in Kilburn LT1.1. Look forward to seeing you there.

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EXAM RESULTS: We plan to publish the Semester 1 exam results (COMP courses only, other Schools’ exams when possible) on 28 February → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/assessment/results/index.php?view=ug

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COURSE UNIT CHOICES. Most of you will have made your choices by now (if not, please do) but are they valid? If they're not you'll be asked to change them, so please help by checking now at → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt/choicescheck.php

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SEMESTER 1 SURVEY RESULTS. Thanks to everyone who gave us their feedback in the Course Unit Surveys just before Xmas. We're currently analysing all the results, and will soon be publishing a summary, and discussing issues at the Staff-Student Committee.

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SEMESTER 1 SURVEY WINNERS. Congratulations to the following people who completed the survey, whose names have been picked out of my special hat. They each win a £25 voucher (just to reassure you about the anonymity aspect, although we know which students completed the survey, it is NOT possible to link names to responses. So everyone’s comments remain anonymous): Ffion Atkinson, Sarah Kelso, Audrey Leowhui-li, Thomas Walters (Year 1), Oliver Chen, Laura Wareham, Moritz Raabem, Callum Richardson (Year 2), and Jon Gosling, Kimberly Hunter, Raluca Puichilita and Jonathan Norman (Year 3).

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REPLACING CITY TRADERS WITH ROBOTS. Today, Monday 28 Jan, Professor Dave Cliff from the University of Bristol (and formerly at Hewlett Packard, Deutsche Bank and MIT) will be guest lecturing about automation in global financial markets – why and how automation happened, and the risks of things going wrong. Don’t miss this COMP10120 lecture, 1100, LT1.1 (everyone welcome, not just COMP10120 students).

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CALLING ALL BLOGGERS. We're re-launching our Student Blog site ( → http://studentblog.cs.man.ac.uk) and looking for writers who'll commit to writing a blog entry each month of semester, for which we'll pay £100 in total. To apply please send a short bio and an example of your writing to Jez Lloyd by 5pm this Friday 1 February → Jez.Lloyd@cs.man.ac.uk

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FIREFOX & THUNDERBIRD. Firefox and Thunderbird have been updated to the latest releases on all Linux PCs.

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RESEARCH NEWS. Congratulations to Caroline Jay and Simon Harper, who've received a grant of £7,000 for their "GazeMod" project, to investigate the use of eye tracking for the development of medical training and diagnostic software.

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TURING LECTURE. Book now for this year's Turing Lecture: Suranga Chandratillake, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of blinkx plc on "What they didn't teach me: building a technology company & taking it to market” → https://events.bcs.org/book/484

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WANT TO INSPIRE YOUNG PEOPLE? We're looking for student ambassadors to create demonstrations, resources and lessons for schoolteachers across Greater Manchester. If you'd like to help inspire children about Computer Science please contact Aravind Vijayaraghavan → aravind@cs.man.ac.uk and → http://www.stemnet.org.uk

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OPEN DATA MANCHESTER. Interested in making data open for the benefit of citizens, businesses and the public? Come to an Open Data Manchester meeting – presentations, chat and sharing of tips, hacks and data. Next meeting tomorrow Tuesday 29 January, 6.30-8.30pm at MadLab. Sign up → http://opendatamanchester.org.uk/2013/01/23/open-data-manchester-january-2013-edition

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Have a great week,

Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning all, I hope your exams are going well, despite the weather! Just a week to go until Semester 2 teaching starts, so lots to look forward to!

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EXAMS TIMETABLE. Please check your personal exams timetable via your Student Portal (and the whole University exam timetable is at goo.gl/Ahgv2). Tell SSO immediately if you spot any issues.

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LAB RENAME. To make things a bit clearer, we have renamed the "UNIX" lab on the timetable to read "LF31" (its room number).

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COURSE UNIT CHOICES. I'd be grateful if you could please review and enter your Semester 2 Course Unit choices immediately. You have until the end of Week 2 (Friday 8 Feb) to finalise your choices, but we'd appreciate you entering your choices right away – it helps enormously with logistics.

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FUNDING SUCCESS. Congratulations to Mikel Lujan, Gavin Brown, and Javier Navaridas (with 4 other EU partners), on their award of over £420,000 for the "AXLE" large-scale data analytics/machine learning research project, which aims to greatly improve the speed and quality of decision making on real-world data sets (i.e. extremely large, secure, complex, widely used data sets). AXLE aims to make those improvements generally available through high quality open source implementations via PostgreSQL, and developing new hardware accelerators prototyped with FPGAs.

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Until next week, and good luck with your exams,

Cheers
Toby

Hello everyone, and welcome back. Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice Xmas and New Year break. The two-week exams period starts today, so I wish you all good luck. Top tips: stay calm, write and illustrate your answers clearly – keep in mind that someone has to read your writing!

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EXAMS TIMETABLE. Please check your personal exams timetable via your Student Portal (and the whole University exam timetable is at http://goo.gl/Ahgv2). Tell SSO immediately if you spot any mistakes or problems. Also please read this important announcement → http://goo.gl/b8Tw8

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IT407 REFURB. I'm delighted to report that we've received funding from the University for a major refurbishishment of room IT407, installing new lighting and projector/screen.

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COURSE UNIT CHOICES. Please review and enter your Semester 2 Course Unit choices immediately. You have until the end of Week 2 (Friday 8 Feb) to finalise your choices, but we'd appreciate you entering your choices right away, please.

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ALARM TEST CHANGE. The weekly Kilburn Building fire alarm test has been changed from 2pm on Wednesdays to 1:55pm on Wednesdays.

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Until next week, good luck with your exams,

Cheers
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning. It's Week 12, an A week... and the last week of term – as you probably know! I hope this semester has gone well, and that you've had a stimulating and fun 3 months. On behalf of the School have a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year – and don't forget your exam revision! The Monday Mail will be back in January. On with today's news...

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COURSES SURVEY REMINDER. We have 12 prizes of £25 to give away, 4 for each of Years 1, 2 and 3/4. Tell us what you think about each of your courses and you'll be entered into the lottery. Login to Blackboard, click on the link in "EvaluationKIT Course Evaluations". Deadline: 5pm Friday 14 Dec. We want your views, and we will respond.

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EXAMS TIMETABLE. The January exams timetable is out – you can find it through your Student Portal. Please check it right away and visit SSO immediately if you spot any mistakes or problems. Also please read this important announcement → http://goo.gl/b8Tw8

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INSPIRE THE NEXT GENERATION. The UK Computing at School group is looking for people to record 30-second videos of why they think Computer Science is worth studying, to encourage kids at school to get into CS. Why not tell your story? → http://t.co/6itdBzwA

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MAN-UP. Today Monday 10 Dec at 5pm in Collab1. Daniela Florescu (Y2, CSwIE) writes: "We'll be playing with Cloud9 – an online IDE which enables collaboration. We'd like everyone to bring their laptops to the meeting. We'll be tackling coding challenges together in different languages. Sign up for Cloud9 before the event (→ https://c9.io). We'll also be awarding the prizes from MOSHday." → http://man-up.appspot.com

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RASPBERRY PI. The School has been awarded £15,000 by the University to support a new initiative for 1st Year undergraduate teaching. In September 2013, all 1st year students will be given their own Raspberry Pi computer (http://www.raspberrypi.org), which will be used in the introductory labs. If this experiment is successful, we'll be looking at integrating the RPi further into teaching.

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COMPUTER ANIMATION FILM SHOW. Come and see the latest Computer Graphics animations from SIGGRAPH 2012 in Los Angeles, the world's leading CG event. Free to all. This Weds 12 December, 2pm-4pm in Roscoe Theatre B (#53 on Campus Map → http://goo.gl/5WoxN). Sign up → http://goo.gl/4bNpV

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PASS-2. For all Y2 students, today at 11:00 in the Collab.

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XMAS OPENING. We'll be publishing Xmas opening times for the Kilburn building later this week. The Student Support Office is open as usual during December from 09.00-17.00, except:
- Weds 12 December: closed 10.30-11.00
- Weds 19 December: closing at 15.00
- Thurs 20 December: closing at 13.00
- Fri 21 December: closing at 14:00 for Xmas
- Re-opening Weds 2 January 2013 at 09.00

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Enjoy your week!

Cheers
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning everyone. It's Week 11, a B week. Here's today's news...

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STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE. We had a lively and productive SSCC meeting last Wednesday. Read Secretary Sarah King's report → http://sscc.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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MOVEMBER RESULT. The Manchester Mo Bros, led by Employability Tutor Duncan Hull, raised an astonishing £1,233! Thanks to all our sponsors! Take one last look at the team → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~hulld/img_0012.jpg

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NEW LECTURER: We're interviewing for a new Lecturer and we want your views. TODAY Monday 3 Dec, at 11:00 and 15:00 in Atlas 1, come and hear two candidates give a 30-minute lecture on the topic of “Empirically Sound Software Engineering”. We want your opinion of them!

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COURSES SURVEY. For the next two weeks: your opportunity to tell the School what you think about your course units. Login to Blackboard, click on the link in "EvaluationKIT course Evaluations". We take your views seriously, and we act on them – and apologies in advance for the many reminders you'll receive!

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MAN-UP. At today's 5pm meeting in LF15 there'll be presentations from people who developed projects at last weekend's MOSHday hackathon, and judges will award the prizes! → http://man-up.appspot.com

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XMAS PUB GOLF. Come along to CSSoc Christmas Pub Golf! Starting at 7pm on Friday 7 December at Ford Madox Brown and moving down Oxford Road towards a club, it's guaranteed to be a great end to the semester. Check the Facebook event for details, and make sure to bring your golf attire → http://bit.ly/xmas-pub-golf

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PASS-2. For all Y2 students, today a special session on exam revision and technique, 11:00 in the Collab.

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GAMEJAM. 24-hour GameDev hackathon – interested in making games? Want to turn your idea into a "working" game in 24 hours? Ready to take on the challenge and win some awesome prizes? Or just want to have tons of fun? If the answer to any of the above is yes, join us on Sat 8 - Sun 9 December from 4pm to 4pm (free entry, food and drinks). And if your creation is any good it might even catch an eye of large game publishing company... Full details and registration → http://bit.ly/uomgamejam

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COMPUTER ANIMATION FILM SHOW. Doing COMP27112 Graphics next semester? Enjoying COMP37111 Advanced CG now? Come and see the latest CG animations from SIGGRAPH, the world's leading Computer Graphics annual event. Free to all. Weds 12 December, 2pm-4pm in Roscoe Theatre B. Sign up → http://goo.gl/4bNpV

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ATLAS 50. This Wednesday 5 Dec the School is hosting Atlas50, a symposium for 160 guests celebrating the 50th birthday of Atlas, the world's first "supercomputer", developed 1956-1962 by the University. Everyone is welcome to drop into the afternoon talks 2pm-5pm in LT1.1 → http://elearn.cs.man.ac.uk/~atlas

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS / COMPS / REPORT ENVIRONMENT ISSUES. → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

Have a great week!

Cheers
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning all. It's Week 10, an A week. On with today's news...

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BYTE CAFE SURVEY WINNER. Thank you to all 71 of you who completed our Byte Cafe survey. Congratulations to Shahid Abeer (Y2, CSE4) who wins the first prize of £20, and the 3 runners-up Tom Walters (Y1, CS), Jack Duffy (Y3, AI) and Lorin Nicolae (Y1, CSBM) who each win £10.

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SSCC. The next Staff-Student Committee is this Weds 28 Nov. If you'd like to raise anything please contact your rep (or email me directly) → http://sscc.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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ACM COMP. Congratulations to our ACM team, for their valiant effort against over 80 teams from all across Europe. They completed 4 of the 10 coding challenges. The competition was exceptionally strong and close run this year, where just 1 more problem solved would have placed Manchester in the top 20 and maybe even in reach of a medal. On the upside, we did beat Imperial College London!

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FILMING. We're filming around the School tomorrow Tuesday 27 Nov, interviewing students and staff for our website. We'll be taking general shots around the School, and if you wish not to be filmed, please let one of the video people know.

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COURSE UNIT INFO. Hunting for Course Unit materials? Hunt no more. Your definitive one-stop list is here → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt/syllabus.php

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MAN-UP. This week, looking at tools that could make programmers' lives easier, like source control, IDEs and testing frameworks. To demonstrate why tools are useful we'll finish off the session with a friendly 'whiteboard-programming' competition. Today Monday 26 Nov at 17:00 in Kilburn LF15 → http://man-up.appspot.com

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RESEARCH SHOWCASE. Find out about the cool research going on in the School. This week PhD student Tahani Alsubait on generating assessment questions from ontologies: How long do you think it takes to prepare one "fairly" good question to "fairly" assess students' progress? Is it possible to computerise the question-generation process? This Weds 28 Nov at 15:00, LT1.5. All welcome, just drop in → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/showcase

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HACKMAN. This week a tutorial on network security and other things to enhance your knowledge of Linux. LT1.3 at 16:00 on Weds 28 November. Signup → http://doodle.com/yhps9336kdc7kg6g

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INTEL TALK. Dr Roger Espasa from Intel Corporation Iberia on "Xeon Phi: a many-core architecture for high performance computing". This Weds 28 November at 14:15, in LT1.4. All welcome.

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PASS-2. For all 2nd Year students. Today, Monday 26 Nov at 11:00 in the Collab.

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PG STUDY. Want to find out more about postgraduate study here in the School? Come to our Postgraduate Open Afternoon this Wednesday 28 Nov in Atlas 1 from 14:30. Refreshments will be served! → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/phd/opendays/

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GOLDMAN SACHS. Looking for an insight into technology in investment banking? GS are hosting a Technology Decoded event this Friday 30 November at their London offices, with panel sessions, presentations, networking and a skills workshop. They'll pay your travel and there's lunch on the day. Sign up required, deadline this Weds 28 November → bit.ly/S2Cq0O

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VENTURE OUT. Write a 500 word entry and win a cash prize of up to £500 in the University’s student ideas competition, deadline 27 Nov → www.manchester.ac.uk/ventureout

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS. → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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COMPS. → https://www.facebook.com/groups/104658903001137

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BROKEN THINGS? Tell us. Hardware/software → http://csis.cs.man.ac.uk. Hot/cold rooms etc → environs@cs.man.ac.uk

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GET IN THE MAIL. Send me your news, deadline 5pm Friday → toby@cs.man.ac.uk

Have a great week!

Cheers
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Good morning! It's Week 9, a B week. On with today's news...

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BARCLAYS IT CHALLENGE. Huge congratulations to students Vlad-Florin Chitaru (Y1, CS), Andreea Pascu (Y2, AIwIE), Abeer Shahid (Y2, CSE4), Marius Popescu (Y2, CS4), Sreeyanka Ghosh (Y2, CBAwIE) and Victor-Sorin Paunescu (Y2, CS4) on winning £100 of Amazon vouchers each in the Barclays IT Bid Challenge last week. Six teams competed, judged by a visiting panel from Barclays. The competition was very close and the presentations were all very impressive. Barclays are keen to run the competition again next year.

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HACKATHON SUCCESS! The Manchester Hackathon took place last Saturday (17 Nov) at MadLab in the Northern Quarter. Congratulations to students Matt Schofield (Y3, CSwIE) on winning a £600 prize for his demonstrator and presentation of a Taxi Rank Finder app. Also highly commended by the judges was Ziyad Gideir (Y3, CS) for his School Finder app (which got him a job offer!) → http://madlab.org.uk/content/manchester-hackathon

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CHILDREN IN NEED. Last week our online charity auction raised an amazing £615! Thank you to everyone who contributed, and especially Ruth and Iain and ACSO.

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GUEST LECTURES. Guest lectures for COMP10120 this week: Gerraint North and David Haikney from IBM Manchester Lab will be talking about 10 software engineering things that matter. Thursday 22 Nov at 11:00 in LT1.1 (all welcome, not just COMP10120 students).

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PUB QUIZ. Come to the annual Industry Pub Quiz at Jabez Clegg on Tuesday 27 Nov at 18:00. There'll be great prizes, and staff from the School and representatives from companies in the School's Industry Club will be there – a great chance to network, with free food and drink. Places limited, sign up required → http://bit.ly/cs-quiz

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RESEARCH SHOWCASE. Find out about the cool research going on in the School. This week PhD student Alex Constantin on "The Use of Keyphrase Networks in Evaluating Scientific Relevance". How can you tell if a document is relevant to your interests? Weds 21 Nov at 15:00, LT1.5. All welcome, just drop in → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/showcase

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BYTE CAFE SURVEY. Last call! Survey closes 17:00 tomorrow Tuesday 20 Nov. Tell us your opinions on the Byte Cafe and food/drink in Kilburn and enter our lottery to win £ → http://goo.gl/tswVg

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MAN-UP. Join the Man-UP Army – recruiting now! Man-UP is looking for volunteers to help organise its next Hackathon – everyone welcome, just come and say hello. Today Monday 19 Nov at 17:00 in Kilburn LF15 → http://man-up.appspot.com

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PASS-2. For all 2nd Year students. Today, Monday 19 Nov at 11:00 in the Collab.

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Suzanne Embury writes: This Friday 23 Nov at 11:00 in G33 (Kilburn, gound floor). Ian Carroll of ThoughtWorks will be joining us, to give advice about careers in agile software engineering and to answer questions about agile and kanban-based development. All welcome! → sembury@cs.manchester.ac.uk

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GOLDMAN SACHS. Looking for an insight into technology in investment banking? GS are hosting a Technology Decoded event on Friday 30 November at their London offices, with panel sessions, presentations, networking and a skills workshop. They'll pay your travel and there's lunch on the day. Sign up required, deadline 28 November → bit.ly/S2Cq0O

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IMAGINE CUP. Interested in entering the Microsoft Imagine Cup competition? Meet Wednesday 21 Nov at 17:00 in Collab 1, and join our Coding Dojo FB → https://www.facebook.com/groups/coding.dojo

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SPACE RACE. Dropbox is currently giving users at Universities up to 25GB for the next two years. The more people join, the more space their University gets. Sign up to Dropbox using your University "@student.manchester.ac.uk" email address, or if you have a Dropbox account already, link that to your University address → https://www.dropbox.com/spacerace

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WIKIPEDIA TALK. Today Monday 19 Nov at 14:00, in IT407 (in the IT Building, across the bridge from Kilburn). Iryna Gurevych from Technische Universität Darmstadt on "Analyzing the Collaborative Writing Process in Wikipedia". All welcome.

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GPU TALK. This Weds 21 Nov at 14:15, in LT1.4, Dr Anton Lokhmotov from ARM on "Correct and efficient GPU programming" – the state-of-the-art, introducing Khronos OpenCL and Android Renderscript. All welcome.

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PG STUDY. Want to find out more about postgraduate study here in the School? Come to our Postgraduate Open Afternoon on Wednesday 28 Nov in Atlas 1 from 14:30. Refreshments will be served!

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VENTURE OUT. Write a 500 word entry and win a cash prize of up to £500 in the University’s student ideas competition, deadline 27 Nov → www.manchester.ac.uk/ventureout

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS. → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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COMPS. → https://www.facebook.com/groups/104658903001137

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BROKEN THINGS? Tell us. Hardware/software → http://csis.cs.man.ac.uk. Hot/cold rooms etc → environs@cs.man.ac.uk

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GET IN THE MAIL. Send me your news, deadline 5pm Friday → toby@cs.man.ac.uk

Have a super week!

Cheers
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

Hi everyone. Welcome to Week 8, an A week. I hope everything's going well. On with the news, and rather a lot of it – but something for everyone!

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WELCOME FOUNDATIONERS. Welcome to our 19 Foundation Year students, who've joined us as part of their year's study before starting as 1st Year undergraduates next year. We hope to see you at some of our School events – you'll be made very welcome!

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PASS-2. Essential for all 2nd Year students. Today, Monday 12 Nov at 1100 in the Collab. Come and meet 3rd Year students who'll share their experiences.

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BADGES. To help you to get to know your lab demonstrators better, we've provided all demonstrators with name badges. We hope you'll find this helpful. Let me know what you think.

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SOFTWARE UPDATES. Have you noticed that those annoying messages from Firefox and Thunderbird asking you to update have disappeared? We've now updated FF and TB on our Linux machines to the latest versions.

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TEACHING PLAN. Each year we produce a Teaching & Learning Plan for the Undergraduate School, which identifies key objectives and actions for achieving them. It's not as boring as it sounds – I'd like you to see it, and I'd welcome your comments → http://staffnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/acso/documents/index.php?document=ug_action_plan_2012.pdf

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MAN-UP. Today, Mon 12 Nov at 5pm in Kilburn LF15, Matt Schofield (Y3, CSwIE) will talk about his Industrial Experience year at Universal Music, on the ways creative content industries can use ideas like Data Mining and Software Engineering to bring their business into the 21st century. If you're interested in a completely non-typical placement/job after graduating, come and see what you might get up to. All students and staff welcome.

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MOVEMBER. Yes, it's Facial Hair month. Head of School Jim Miles and other staff and students are "rockin' the mo" for Movember, an international event raising awareness for men's health. See how we're doing and donate (and feel free to laugh) → http://uk.movember.com/team/830989

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POETRY SUCCESS! Congratulations to Katie McCarron (Y3, ICwIE) whose poem "Living Virtually" was a runner-up in the Faculty Student Poetry competition → www.eps.manchester.ac.uk/science-for-all/science-poetry

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HACKING SUCCESS! On 28 Oct, overnight in the depths of the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) our HackManchester team, Miso Zmiric (Y2, CS), Ted John (Y2, CS4) and James Roberston (Y2, CS4), coded the night away. They were competing against teams from Leeds, MMU, Salford, Cambridge and others – and they won! They built a "Chinese Whispers" program, which used 8 programming languages, 6 encodings, and 6 protocols, to send and encrypt (and then decrypt) a message between 3 different computers (running different OSs) and finally sending the decoded message to a phone via SMS. Wow! Congratulations to all! → https://hackmanchester.com

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RESEARCH SHOWCASE. This week PhD student Alan Stokes on "Resilient sensor network query processing using logical overlays" – Ever wondered what the temperature is outside? Or the water level of your local river? We use Wireless Sensor Networks, and I'll be looking at how to solve the problem of parts of a network failing unexpectedly. All welcome! 3pm Weds 14 Nov, LT1.5. Signup → http://goo.gl/Z2zqa – and see vids of previous Research Showcases → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/showcase

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BYTE CAFE SURVEY. Got opinions on the Byte Cafe and food/drink in the Kilburn Building? We want to hear them! Take part in our quick survey and enter the lottery. 1st prize is £20 on your student card valid at all Food on Campus outlets; 3 runners-up will get £10 on their cards. → http://goo.gl/tswVg

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TRAILBLAZING. The Guardian newspaper has an article featuring the Raspberry Pi Birdbox, from the School RPi work by Andrew Robinson, Tom Heyes (Y3, CS4), Tom Macperson-Pope (Y3, CS), Tom Preston (Y4, CS4), Ziyad Gideir (Y3, CS), Tomas Cepulis (Y2, CS), Mandi Banks and Jim Garside. "The students and staff of the University of Manchester's Computer Science department, the Raspberry Pi's most innovative trailblazers, have designed a DIY nesting box which can photograph birds and amalgamate data relating to their behaviour." → http://goo.gl/yUnby

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FACEBOOK. The School's got a lovely new FB page → http://www.facebook.com/computersciencemcr

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CHILDREN IN NEED. This Friday, 16 Nov, get involved with our annual Children in Need fundraising activities. This year: the online auction is back! We'll email you when it opens on Weds 14th. Meanwhile if you'd like to donate any unwanted stuff (cameras, bikes, golf clubs, cuddly toys, anything!) for the auction, please take it to Kilburn Room 2.127.

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CREDIT SUISSE. Chat with Credit Suisse about careers opportunities at their drop-in session this Thursday 15 Nov 12-2pm on Kilburn LF.

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CURRY NIGHT. This Thursday 15 Nov is the CSSoc Curry Night at Spicy Hut on the Curry Mile. Tickets are only £9.50, on sale in the Byte Cafe 12-2 all this week. Menu and details → http://tinyurl.com/cnmws3l

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PAINLESS. Steve Pettifer and Toby Howard are researching the use of Virtual Reality to treat Phantom Limb Pain suffered by amputees. Their work is currently featuring in an exhibition at the Science Museum in London → http://painlessexhibition.wordpress.com

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CALLING ENTREPRENEURS. This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week, and Manchester Business School is hosting three events – all welcome: 1) Progressing your Business → https://www.facebook.com/events/425679050831841 2) Social Enterprise - Improving people's lives → https://www.facebook.com/events/470704116301598 and
3) Global Poverty Entrepreneurship Challenge → https://www.facebook.com/events/107854156044165

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MANCHESTER HACKATHON. FutureEverything, Manchester City Council and Open Data Manchester are running an event on Saturday 17 Nov for coders and developers to use open data sets to develop applications for future digital services in Manchester and beyond. Free to enter, with cash prizes. Sign-up → http://goo.gl/5MD8B

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS. → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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COMPS. → https://www.facebook.com/groups/104658903001137

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BROKEN THINGS? Tell us. Hardware/software → http://csis.cs.man.ac.uk. Hot/cold rooms etc → environs@cs.man.ac.uk

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GET IN THE MAIL. Send me your news, deadline 5pm Friday → toby@cs.man.ac.uk

Have a great week!

Cheers
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby/

/ Your weekly round-up of undergraduate life in the School. From Toby Howard, Director of Undergraduate Studies. /

Hello everyone, and welcome to Week 7, a B week. I hope you enjoyed Reading Week, and you're now refreshed and ready to go! On with today's news...

Cheers,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby

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A SLICE OF PI. There was a big article in yesterday's Observer newspaper about the School's work with the Raspberry Pi → http://goo.gl/PUmno

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ALL BACKED UP? We're into the second half of the semester and by now you'll have accumulated a lot of precious data. Do you have it backed up? If not, you really should! → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/resources/software/backups.php

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FIND YOUR LEADER. We've improved our syllabus pages, so if a course unit has more than one lecturer, you can now easily see who has overall responsibility for running the course and making sure everything works. Example → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt/2012/COMP23420/syllabus

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EXAM FEEDBACK. For all of you who've signed up, please don't forget that your Exam Feedback session is at 2pm in IT407 this Wednesday 7 Nov.

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MAN-UP. Today, Monday 5 November at 5pm in LF15, "Getting Funky about Programming". Giles Reger will talk about basic concepts in functional programming: lists, functions on lists and higher order functions with examples from several programming languages. → http://man-up.appspot.com

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CURRY NIGHT. Thursday 15 November is the CSSoc Curry Night at Spicy Hut on the Curry Mile. Tickets are only £9.50, on sale in the Byte Cafe 12-2 all this week. Menu and details → http://tinyurl.com/cnmws3l

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Suzanne Embury writes: Friday 9 November at 11.00 in G33 (note – unusual venue). We'll be creating acceptance tests and discussing how to get started with test-driven development. All welcome! → sembury@cs.manchester.ac.uk

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PASS-2. Essential for all 2nd Year students. Today, Monday 5 Nov at 1100 in the Collab. Come and meet 3rd Year students who'll share their experiences.

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RESEARCH SHOWCASE. This week PhD student David Buckley on "Adapting Video Games to Players": Over the past couple of decades, video games have seen improvements in their visuals, gameplay and Artificial Intelligence. However, games are still unable to distinguish between players, behaving in exactly the same way for each user, despite their differing styles of play. One area of Machine Learning explores how existing techniques can be used to detect these differences in order to adapt video games around their players. All welcome! 3pm Weds 7 Nov, signup → http://goo.gl/c1nIN – and see vids of previous Research Showcases → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/showcase

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BBC LECTURE. Keith Mitchell, Technical Lead at the BBC, will be talking about the London 2012 Olympic Games on mobile platforms. All undergraduates welcome to this COMP10120 guest lecture, this Thursday 8 Nov, 1100 in Kilburn LT1.1.

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VISUALISATION DEMO. Interested in 3D visualisation and image analysis? Come and meet Visualization Services Group, for a presentation and demos. 1000-1200 tomorrow Tuesday 6 Nov in Kilburn LT 1.4. All welcome, just drop in → http://goo.gl/R3Ibs

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MANCHESTER HACKATHON. FutureEverything, Manchester City Council and Open Data Manchester are running an event on Saturday 17 November for coders and developers to use open data sets to develop applications for future digital services in Manchester and beyond. Free to enter, with cash prizes. Sign-up needed → http://goo.gl/5MD8B

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS NEWS. → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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COMPS NEWS. → https://www.facebook.com/groups/104658903001137

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BROKEN THINGS? Tell us and we'll fix them. Hardware/software → http://csis.cs.man.ac.uk. Broken things, hot/cold rooms etc → environs@cs.man.ac.uk

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GET IN THE MAIL. Email me your announcement or news, deadline 5pm Friday. → toby@cs.man.ac.uk

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THE MONDAY MAIL ARCHIVES → http://tinyurl.com/mondaymail

[ That's all folks! ]

Hello everyone. It's Reading Week (aka Week 6), so there are no scheduled teaching activities this week. It's a chance for you to take a bit of a break and make sure you're up to date with everything – although don't forget about assignments due in at the end of the week! Business as usual resumes on Monday 5 November.

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WE'RE ON THE WEB. Don't forget, you can read the Monday Mail on the web too. An essential bookmark! → http://goo.gl/xjOJo

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TWITTER. Did you know the School tweets? → https://twitter.com/csmcr

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EXAMS AND RELIGIOUS DAYS. The University tries to avoid holding exams on religious days during the January exams period for those students whose religious commitments would otherwise cause them to miss exams. If this affects you, please fill in the Examination and Religious Observance form and return it to Student Services Centre, Burlington Street, by Friday 2 November → http://documents.manchester.ac.uk/display.aspx?DocID=2013

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STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE. Last Wednesday was the first meeting of SSCC this academic year, and it was a lively and productive meeting. Thanks to Sarah King (CM, Y2) for volunteering to be this year's Secretary. Read the report of the meeting → http://sscc.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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ANDROID PROGRAMMING EVENT. Matt Oakes (CSwIE, Y3) writes: TOMORROW, Tuesday 30 October in LT1.4 at 2pm – an opportunity to get your hands (figuratively) dirty. The only thing we ask is that you bring your own laptop and that you have some Java experience. We won’t be handing out android devices, but the emulator or your own device will be fine. We'll be sending out instructions before the event explaining how to set up the tools you’ll need. Sign up below or you won’t get them! These steps should be done before the event to save us some time and give us more time to do the interesting stuff. During the event we’ll talk about the fundamental elements of Android apps, and then you get stuck in making a simple app. There'll be a few experienced Android developers floating around to help out. Signup essential → http://j.mp/androidgiag

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PASS-2. For all 2nd Year students – no meeting today, but back next Monday 5 Nov at 1100 in the Collab. Come and meet 3rd Year students who'll share their experiences.

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RESEARCH SHOWCASE. Taking a break this week, but back immediately after Reading Week, with PhD student David Buckley on "Adapting Video Games to Players". → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/showcase

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ACM PROGRAMMING COMP. Last Thursday night we held trials to pick our team for the international ACM progamming contest. After 3 hours of mind-bending algorithmic challenges, the winners emerged: Marius Popescu (CS4, Y2), Alexandru Grigoroi (CS4, Y2), Victor-Sorin Paunescu (CS4, Y2), and Marius Tudor Morar (CSwIE, Y3). These four, combined with our Team Co-Captains from last year, Edgars Sedols (CM, Y3) and Mihail Kovachev (CS, Y2), will be flying to the Netherlands on 23 November to represent Manchester against the whole of Europe. Special thanks to Edgars and Mihail for arranging some neuron-mangling challenges, and to Mike Zmiric (CS, Y2) and Pez Cuckow for arranging the DomJudge server that did an astoundingly smooth job of auto-grading everyone's code. Interested in participating in future challenges? → http://bitly.com/R2RYiW

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JAPAN WA IKAGA DESU KA? Interested in living in Japan? The Daiwa Scholarship is a unique 19-month programme of language study, work placement and homestay in Japan. Open to anyone awarded a degree before September 2013. → http://www.dajf.org.uk/scholarships/general-information

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MENTORING. The Manchester Gold Mentoring Programme is exclusively for University of Manchester students. Students are matched on a 1 to 1 basis with a mentor who can provide advice, information and guidance in order to help you make informed decisions about your future and actively improve your employability. Over 400 mentors available from a wide range of sectors and job roles, both in the UK and across the world. Organisations represented include the BBC, United Nations, Tony Blair Africa Initiative, IBM, Goldman Sachs, HM Treasury, Google, Conde Nast Publishers, Deloitte, Shell and many more. Interested? Apply now, deadline 31 October → http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/students/employable/mentoring/manchestergold

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MANCHESTER SCIENCE FESTIVAL. 27 Oct - 4 Nov, unmissable! → http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com

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HAVE YOUR SAY. → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS NEWS. → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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COMPS NEWS. → https://www.facebook.com/groups/104658903001137

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BROKEN THINGS? Tell us and we'll fix them. Hardware/software → http://csis.cs.man.ac.uk. Environment problems → environs@cs.man.ac.uk

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GET IN THE MAIL. Email me your announcement or news, deadline 5pm Friday. → toby@cs.man.ac.uk

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THE MONDAY MAIL ARCHIVES. → http://goo.gl/xjOJo

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That's all for this week. Have a great Reading Week!
Cheers,
Toby

Good morning! Welcome to Week 5, an A week. I hope it's going well. Lots to tell you about...

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EXAM SCRIPT VIEWING. Deadline 1200 TODAY 22 October – last chance to sign up! If you're a Y2, Y3 or Y4 student and you'd like to see your marked exam scripts from the last set of exams you sat – a very useful way for you to understand why you got the marks you did – book your place now for the 7 November Exam Script Viewing Session (2pm, IT407). Email SSO with your name, ID number and the list of COMP course units you'd like to view (sorry, we can't provide feedback for course units from other Schools). You must pre-book, please, so we can get your papers from the archive. Deadline: 1200 TODAY 22 October → sso@cs.man.ac.uk

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STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE. The first SSCC meeting this year is THIS WEDNESDAY, 24 October. If you have any issues you'd like raising, please contact the rep for your year and programme (or indeed any rep). See who's who → http://sscc.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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MAN-UP. TODAY Monday 22 October, at 5pm in Kilburn LF15. Andrew Leeming writes: "This week, a quick introduction and demo on Microcontrollers (the Arduino). We'll also be introducing the first Euler challenge and explaining how to get bonus (fictional) Man-UP points!". Everyone very welcome.

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PASS-2. For all 2nd Year students – TODAY and every Monday at 1100 in the Collab. Come and meet 3rd Year students who'll share their experiences.

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HALLOWEEN PUB CRAWL. Tanvi Bhardwaj (2nd year, CSE) says: Bring your fangs, cloaks and fake blood and join the ghosts and ghouls in CSSoc’s annual Halloween pub crawl on Thursday 25 October in Fallowfield. All the gory details → http://j.mp/cssochalloween

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ANTI-SPAM. As part of the School's ongoing efforts to reduce the amount of spam you receive, we've got rid of the UG mail aliases 'first', 'second', 'third', 'fourth' and 'undergrads', which were not accurate anyway. This won't affect our ability to contact you, which we've been doing for over a year using our secure and un-spammable web-based "Megaphone" system, courtesy of the School's Software Engineer par excellence, Chris Page. Student reps will also have access to Megaphone, so they can contact you easily. If you're not a rep yourself, and you want to contact whole cohorts of students, please do it by sending an announcement to me to put in the Monday Mail ( → toby@cs.man.ac.uk ). If you have a super-urgent announcement to make, please send it to SSO, who will Megaphone it on your behalf → sso@cs.man.ac.uk

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FOOTBALL NEWS. Craig Johnson (3rd Year) reports: "This week saw SportingCS take on top of the table Weston All Stars and despite taking the lead twice they held out for a hard fought 2-2 draw. A goal in the first few minutes and a second half assist from Mike Taylor helped the team get a real foothold in the game and get themselves to 5th in the league table. Craig Johnson, the superb captain of SportingCS, would like to appeal to any aspiring goalkeepers out there to get in touch ( → football@cssoc.co.uk ) as the team is currently without a full time goalie." → http://www.cssoc.co.uk/cs-football

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RESEARCH SHOWCASE #2. Come and find out about cutting-edge stuff! After last week's extremely successful opener in this new series of talks to introduce the School's research to UG and PGT students ( → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/showcase ), this week PhD student Chris Seaton ( → http://www.chrisseaton.com ) will talk about the Challenges of Irregular Parallelism: "A decade ago only specialists would need to write parallel programs. Today my laptop has four cores, even my phone has two, and some people think we'll have hundreds or thousands of cores one day. Some problems can easily be split across multiple cores, but there are others that resist all attempts to divide them up into parallel tasks. These 'irregular' problems occur in many applications, so what can you do about them?". Weds 24 October 3pm in Kilburn LT1.5. Please SIGN UP if you'd like to come, so we can get an idea of numbers → http://goo.gl/7NOPK

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ACM PROGRAMMING COMP. Now THIS is exciting! Following last year's success (we came 4th in the UK!) we want to put forward 2 teams, each of 3 students, for the world-famous ACM Programming Competition ( → http://2012.nwerc.eu ). Those who entered last year will be invited to form the first team, so others can benefit from their experience. The other team will be picked by Gavin Brown based on enthusiasm and excellence in programming ability. Interested? Come along this Thursday, 25 October, at 5pm in G23, where we'll have trials, tackling hard coding challenges. Please decide on your team of 3 before you come, and be ready for 2-3 hours of tough mind-bending algorithmic challenges. Interested? Let Gavin know ASAP please → gavin.brown@cs.man.ac.uk

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RESEARCH SUCCESS. I thought you'd like to know that PhD student Matthew Horridge ( → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~horridgm ) has won a fantastic national prize for his PhD Thesis "Justification Based Explanation in Ontologies" → http://t.co/WrgoFVpn

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CALLING ALL ENTREPRENEURS. Manchester alumnus Paul Kilpatrick, co-founder of Barburrito, who will be talking about starting and building a successful business. TODAY Monday, 22 October 1630-1730, Alumni Club Room (in the Cafe Bar), Ground floor, MBS West → http://goo.gl/6fT1B

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SCHOOL RESEARCH SEMINAR. The Theory of Darwinian Neurodynamics, Chrisantha Fernando, Lecturer in Cognitive Science at Queen Mary University of London. "We propose that Darwinian dynamics in the brain implements approximate Bayesian inference, is capable of search in the space of physical symbol systems, search for syntactic rules, and search over structured representations in human insight problems." Thursday 25 October at 3pm in Kilburn LT1.3. All welcome.

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MANCHESTER SCIENCE FESTIVAL. 27 Oct-4 Nov, lots of Computer Science there! → http://www.manchestersciencefestival.com/whatson/guide/?tags=1486

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HAVE YOUR SAY. Got any ideas? Anything bugging you? Tell us! → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say

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CAREERS NEWS. For all the latest Careers events news → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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COMPS NEWS. Keep up with competition opportunities → https://www.facebook.com/groups/104658903001137

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PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT. Interested in getting involved in the School's Public Engagement activities, like enthusing schoolkids about Computer Science, or taking part in events for the public, or maybe helping with our annual Schools Animation Competition ( → http://animation.cs.manchester.ac.uk )? Let our Pub Eng Champion Aravind Vijayaraghavan know → aravind@cs.man.ac.uk

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BROKEN THINGS? Tell us and we'll fix them. Hardware/software → http://csis.cs.man.ac.uk. Broken chairs or doors, hot/cold rooms etc → environs@cs.man.ac.uk

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GET IN THE MAIL. Want to announce something in the Monday Mail? Email me, deadline 5pm Friday. → toby@cs.man.ac.uk

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THE MONDAY MAIL ARCHIVE. All of them, ever. → http://goo.gl/xjOJo

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Phew! That's all for this week. Have a super week!
Cheers,
Toby

Good morning all! Welcome to a rather autumnal Week 4, a B week. I hope everything is going well.

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SURVEY WINNERS! Thank you to all 141 of you who took part in our UG Survey last week. And congratulations to the two lottery winners pulled out of the hat – Nihad Ibrahimli (Year 1, CS) and Jon Houston (Year 3, CS) who will each receive their £25 Amazon Vouchers shortly.

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FOOTBALL NEWS. The school's 11-a-side football team, Sporting CS, picked up their first win of the season with an emphatic 9-2 victory over Medics Albion. A solid performance from all involved including a hat-trick from Jon Norman and some inspirational managerial decisions from Craig Johnson set the team up for the success. The team now have their sights firmly set on the next game and going after more wins in the future! → johnsoc0@cs.man.ac.uk

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STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE. Thank you to everyone who volunteered to be a student rep – we have 11 first years, 11 second years and 5 third years. Please talk to your reps – they'll take your views to the SSCC – next meeting Weds 24 October. See who's who → https://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/csonly/sscc

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ART NEWS. Do you like the new pictures we've put up on the walls of LF31 and Room 1.8? – we hope so! Thanks to Rina Srabonian and Steve Pettifer for making it happen.

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MAN-UP. TODAY Monday 15 October, at 5pm in Kilburn LF15. Edmund Chhung (Year 3) will tell you about the technical tools used in his industrial placement at Sophos. Also, Brendan Jay will show off his Whitespace program for solving the first Project Euler problem: add all the natural numbers below one thousand that are multiples of 3 or 5. → http://man-up.appspot.com

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RESEARCH SHOWCASE. Want to find out more about the research that goes on in the School? Well now you can, in a new series of short informal and fun talks aimed at all undergraduates, called Research Showcase. Every Wednesday in term-time at 3pm in Kilburn LT1.5, come and hear a PhD student talk about the research they're doing (20-30 minutes). → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/research/seminars/showcase

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...AND THIS WEEK'S RESEARCH SHOWCASE IS... Dave Thorne on "Utopia Documents - bringing data alive" (→ http://getutopia.com). Most of the world's scientific knowledge is stored in millions of articles published every year, and scientists are finding it increasingly hard to keep up. Combining text mining, visualisation and user interface design, Utopia Documents lets scientists unlock the knowledge hidden in scientific articles. Weds 17 October 3pm in Kilburn LT1.5. Please SIGN UP if you'd like to come, so we can get an idea of numbers → http://goo.gl/2L601

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CAREERS FAIR. The Annual School Careers Fair is TOMORROW Tuesday 16 October 1pm – 4pm, with 20 companies here on the Lower First Floor and in the Ground Floor Foyer. They're here because they want to recruit YOU. This is your chance to talk to Accenture, Amazon, Appsense, ARM, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Bloomberg, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Gresham Computing, IBM, Imagination Technology, LCH Clearnet, Morgan Stanley, NCC and Teach First. Also: the Careers Service, Gradcracker and Freeagent.

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PASS-2. TODAY and every Monday at 1100 in the Collab. Come and meet Y3 students who'll share their experiences.

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AGILE 3rd YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Friday 19 October in Mercury. Bring your user stories along. We'll be assigning business values based on the project marking schemes. → sembury@cs.manchester.ac.uk

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SPEED NETWORKING EVENT: Manchester Entrepreneurs have a networking event TOMORROW Tuesday 15 October, at 6pm in MBS West 3.103. Programmers, web developers and other technical people are always in high demand at these events and this may be a great opportunity to find clients and paid work. → http://www.facebook.com/events/357342127692994/?fref=ts

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LASERQUEST. Pew! Pew! Pew! You’re going down! CSSoc's LaserQuest event is at 7pm at the Trafford Centre on Thursday 18 October. Tickets are limited so grab yours from the Byte Cafe 12-2 every day this week.

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RASPBERRY PI. "Webcast and Demo: Inspiring future generations with open hardware - the Raspberry Pi". Our own Andrew Robinson will be showcasing the Pi work done here in the school over the summer, and the forthcoming Great Raspberry Pi Bake Off Competition. Followed by a webcast of the IET Young Professionals' lecture from London. Pre-booking required → https://localevents.theiet.org/register.php?event=c511cc

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EXAM SCRIPT VIEWING. If you're a Y2, Y3 or Y4 student and you'd like to see your marked exam scripts from the last set of exams you sat – a very useful way for you to understand why you got the marks you did – book your place now for the 7 November Exam Script Viewing Session (2pm, IT407). Email SSO with your name, ID number and the list of COMP course units you'd like to view (we can't provide feedback for course units from other schools). Pre-booking is required. Deadline: 1200 on 22 October → sso@cs.man.ac.uk

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CAREERS NEWS. For all the latest Careers events news → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/mod/forum/view.php?id=9430

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BROKEN THINGS? → If you find some broken hardware or software, tell us, and we'll get it fixed. → http://csis.cs.man.ac.uk

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GET IN THE MAIL. Want to announce something in the Monday Mail? Email me, deadline 5pm Friday. → toby@cs.man.ac.uk

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HAVE YOUR SAY. Anything bugging you? Talk to us! → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say/

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The Monday Mail archive → http://goo.gl/xjOJo

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That's all for this week. Have a great week!
Toby

Good morning all, and welcome to Week 3, an A week. I hope all's going well. Lots happening this week...

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MAN-UP! TODAY, Monday 8 October at 5pm in Kilburn room LF15. Vasilis Nicolaou and Angelos Georgiades will explain how to start writing Android Apps including setting up your code and how the APIs work. Everyone is welcome! → manup@cs.man.ac.uk or → http://www.facebook.com/groups/manchester.ultimate.programming

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STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE (SSCC). We don't have enough nominations for Y1 and Y3 reps! The nominations close at 5pm on Weds 10 October – so please consider standing, especially if you're a first year or third year student. You'll need to find two supporters – a proposer and a seconder. The sign-up sheets are on the SSCC noticeboard, near Room LF31. Don't wait for someone else to do it – sign up today and represent your fellow students!

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SURVEY REMINDER. You still have a chance to win a £25 Amazon voucher by filling in our UG Survey. Deadline 5pm TODAY Monday 8 October. → http://goo.gl/16aru

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PASS-2: Y2 students – TODAY, Monday 8 October at 1100 in the Collab. Y3 students will talk about "How I found my placement and what I ended up doing".

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EXAM SCRIPT VIEWING. If you're a Y2, Y3 or Y4 student and you'd like to see your exam scripts from the last set of exams you sat, book your place now at the 7 November Exam Script Viewing Session (2pm, IT407). Email SSO with your name, registration number and the list of COMP course units you'd like to view (we can't provide feedback for course units from other schools). Deadline for booking: 1200 on 22 October. Please note that you must book in order to see your scripts. → sso@cs.man.ac.uk

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LASERQUEST. Pew! Pew! Pew! You’re going down! The Computer Science Society (CSSoc) is hosting a LaserQuest event at 7pm on Thursday 18 October. Meet at 6pm in the Byte Cafe. Tickets are limited so grab yours while you can from the Byte Cafe between 12-2 every day this week. Be there or... be chicken!

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CAREERS. Two drop-in events this week: Goldman Sachs TODAY, Monday 8 October 8, 12pm – 2pm in LF area. Tomorrow, Tuesday 9 October, Coca Cola, again 12pm – 2pm in the LF area. And coming up: our Careers Fair on Tuesday 16 October. Full details next week.

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BARCLAYS CHALLENGE. We've extended the deadline for the Barclays IT Bid Challenge event, to 5pm Wednesday 10 October. The event is most suited to students in Year 2 and above. → http://moodle.cs.man.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=226

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CAREERSLINK. Vacancies from over 900 organisations. → http://youtu.be/6KxZbhI5v2A

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VOLUNTEERING. The Volunteering and Community Engagement Team are holding a Volunteering Fete on Thursday 11 October in Academy 1 of the Student Union from 11am-3pm. Come and meet lots of external charities and organisations. → christine.taggart@manchester.ac.uk

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HAVE YOUR SAY. Anything bugging you? Talk to us! → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say/

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The Monday Mail archive → http://goo.gl/xjOJo

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That's all for this week. Enjoy!
Toby

Hi everyone, and welcome to the undergraduate Monday Mail for Week 2, a B week. I hope all's going well. A very mixed bag of news and events for you this week... read on!

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CAKE SUCCESS! The student cake sale last Friday 28 Sept raised £104, the staff sale made £277, and the lottery £144 – adding up to a whopping £535 for Macmillan Cancer Support! Well done to everyone involved in organising: Ruth Maddocks and her team, CSSoc's Steph Cook and recent graduate Shahna Mehta.

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STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE. Nominations for this year's Student Representatives on our Staff-Student Consultative Committee (SSCC) open today – please consider standing as a Rep. You'll need to find two supporters – a proposer and a seconder. Don't delay! Deadline 5pm Weds 10 Oct. The colourful sign-up sheets will go up today on the SSCC noticeboard, near Room LF31.

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COURSE UNIT CHOICES. If you have optional units you MUST choose these units before 5pm on Friday 5 October and enter them into Campus Solutions. If you have any issues making your choices, please visit those nice people in our Student Support Office. For details of which units are mandatory or optional for your degree programme and how to enter them into the system → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt/options.php

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PASS2. Starting TODAY, we're launching Peer-Assisted Study Sessions (aka PASS) for 2nd year students. PASS2 will run today and every Monday at 1100 in the Collab. Today: Course unit selection for 2nd year students – come along and get advice directly from students a year ahead of you.

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AGILE 3RD YEAR PROJECT CLUB. Interested in applying agile development practices to your 3rd year project? Or maybe you have experience of agile methods and want to share them with fellow students? There will be a meeting on Friday 5 October, 4.00pm-4.30pm, in Kilburn IT407, to discuss setting up an informal club for students using agile principles and practices in their 3rd year projects. Come along! If you can't make it, contact Suzanne Embury → embury@cs.manchester.ac.uk

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HACK.MAN – a new group for students interested in networks/systems/databases security, data encryption, social engineering, secure coding, and operating systems vulnerabilities. Interested in joining? 3rd year student Luigi Riefolo would like to hear from you → riefoll0@cs.man.ac.uk.

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VOLUNTEERING. The Volunteering and Community Engagement Team are holding a Volunteering Fete on Thursday 11 October in Academy 1 of the Student Union from 11am-3pm. Volunteering is a great way for you to improve your employability and career prospects. Come and meet lots of external charities and organisations. → christine.taggart@manchester.ac.uk

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ROBOT SEMINAR. Interested in the use of robots in bio-science? The School's Professor Ross King will be talking on "Automating Biology using Robot Scientists". 3pm, Kilburn Lecture Theatre 1.3, Weds 3 Oct 2012. Everyone welcome, but advance sign-up requested please → http://mlo.cs.man.ac.uk/events/robotscientist

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ANIMATION13. Did you know that the School runs the annual UK Schools Computer Animation Competition? We're now in our 6th year, and we've just launched Animation13. Already 176 schools around the UK have signed up for this year's comp. Want to get involved? Can you help us promote it with people you know? Contact me directly please, and → http://animation.cs.manchester.ac.uk

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HAVE YOUR SAY. Anything bugging you? Don't delay – talk to us! → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say/

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The Monday Mail archive → http://goo.gl/xjOJo

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Have a great week,
Toby

–– WELCOME TO THE FIRST MONDAY MAIL OF THE YEAR ––

Good morning! A warm welcome to you all, new faces as well as familiar ones. I hope all our new students are settling in. I'm Toby Howard, Director of Undergraduate Studies → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby/

...and this is the Monday Mail – a mail from me to all undergraduates (and staff), sent every Monday – to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in the School. So let's crack on...

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TIMETABLES. Throughout each semester we alternate Week A's and Week B's, and there are different timetabled activities according to A and B. The Monday Mail will always remind you which week it is – and this is a Week A → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/undergraduate/timetable/

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LOOKING FOR INFO ABOUT THE SCHOOL? Bookmark the UG homepage → www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt

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STAFF CHANGES. Sean Bechhoffer is now 2nd Year Single Honours Tutor. Paul Nutter is Deputy Director of Undergraduate Studies. Duncan Hull joins in a new role for the School – Employability Tutor. He will be working alongside Alex Walker.

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ROOMS AND PCs. A lot of room refurbishment happened over the summer, and we replaced over 200 PCs with brand-new ones. We hope you'll enjoy the upgrades of hardware and software.

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QUIET ROOM. Last year you asked for a quiet study space here in Kilburn. We asked for your views on the style and layout, and now the new Quiet Room is open for business. It's Room 1.12, and you get to it through the 3rd Year Lab, Room 1.8. We hope you'll like it. It's specifically for quiet, personal study, away from the hustle and bustle of the School. So, please, set mobiles to vibrate, no leaky headphones etc. This is a New Thing, so I'd welcome your comments.

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COURSE UNIT CHOICES. Please use Campus Solutions to make your Semester 1 Course Unit selections – we need you to do this ASAP – today please. You have up until Friday 5 October to alter your choices, but we need you to make a full initial set of choices now (no need to worry about Semester 2 choices for now).

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CAKES ON FRIDAY! Help Macmillan Cancer Support. On Friday 28 September there'll be a Student coffee morning & cake sale on the Lower First floor from 10.30 Get involved! Email CSSoc co-chair Steph Cook → stephcook22@gmail.com. Food on Campus have agreed to donate 10% of their sale price on hot drinks. There'll also be a coffee morning and cake sale in the Staff Common Room, jointly held with IT services.

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STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE. Nominations for this year's Student Representatives on our Staff-Student Consultative Committee (SSCC) open next Monday 1 October – please consider standing as a Rep. More details next week. → https://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/csonly/sscc/

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GPU CLUB: Interested in novel uses of GPUs? Come to the University GPU Club meeting on 25 Sept at 10-11:30am, Lecture Theatre 1.4, Kilburn: "Financial Modelling Case Studies on GPU, Cloud & FPGA Implementations" → http://gpu.manchester.ac.uk/Club/Meetings/25Sept2012

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HAVE YOUR SAY. Anything bugging you? Don't delay – talk to us! → http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/have-your-say/

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The Monday Mail archive → http://goo.gl/xjOJo

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I hope you have a good week,
Toby