Your weekly round-up of undergraduate life in The University
of Manchester
Department of Computer Science
from Paul Nutter, Director of Undergraduate Studies.
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Good morning UG! It's Monday 1 June, and it’s the final week of exams – I hope they’ve been going well. This is the last Monday Mail for this academic year, so I'll wish you a happy and rewarding summer. If you’re graduating, we hope to see you and your families on Graduation Day (Weds 8 July). If you’re about to start a year's Industrial Experience, good luck for what I’m sure will be a fantastic time 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 again. On with today’s news...
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* DATA ON THE MOVE. Kilburn is not only home to the School. The ground floor hosts IT Services, and they’re moving to an off-site data centre. Interesting story here about “6.5km of cables, 430 devices and 3,000 nuts and bolts“ → http://goo.gl/EirGtk
* INFOSEC MANCHESTER. If you’re in Manchester over the summer and have in interest in Information Security (who doesn’t?) you might be interested in B Sides Manchester – a free conference by the community for the community on 25 August → http://www.bsidesmcr.org.uk
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 25 May and it’s the third of the 4 exam weeks – and it's the Spring Bank holiday today, so have a few minutes break from revision! I hope the exams are going well for you. A reminder to know your exam schedule and locations. In case of emergencies contact SSO immediately → compsci-sso@listserv.manchester.ac.uk or 0161 306 6625. On with today’s news!
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* SCHOOL PODCAST. The School has launched its own monthly CS@Manchester podcast (on iTunes and SoundCloud) which will cover events, interviews with staff about their research, reflect our student experience and feature alumni profiles. Episode One kicks off with a recent panel discussion on the future of computing from the Kilburn Club, featuring Professors Steve Furber and Ross King, with Tom Higham (Future Everything) and Mark Ewart (Barclays Bank). If you have any ideas for content for future editions, contact Jez Lloyd → jez.lloyd@manchester.ac.uk. Listen to the first podcast → https://goo.gl/gBWwoC (iTunes) or https://soundcloud.com/cs-manchester-podcast (SoundCloud)
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 18 May and it’s the second of the 4 exam weeks. I hope all is going well. Remember to know your exam schedule – it's your responsibility to be in the right place at the right time! In case of emergencies contact SSO immediately → compsci-sso@listserv.manchester.ac.uk or 0161 306 6625. On with today’s news...
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* STRESS MANAGEMENT. While we offer free duck-watching as a stress-relieving service here in the School, it seems that other Universities around the country have got similar ideas. At the University of Central Lancashire the Students Union organised a Puppy Room to help stressed students wind down. The University of Leicester offers a bouncy castle, at Exeter University the SU is working with a local petting farm to bring micro-pigs onto campus, and at Bath Spa University they have a Shetland pony. → http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-32690644
* THE ROBOTS ARE NOT COMING TO KILL US. Join Gavin Brown and John Gigg (Faculty of Life Sciences) and as they take you on a stroll down memory lane, exploring both the biology of memory and its implications for machine learning. Today Monday 18 May at 19:00, The Old Monkey, 90-92 Portland Street, Manchester, M1 4GX → http://pintofscience.co.uk/event/hold-that-thought/
* IP EXPO. Europe's leading Cloud and IT Infrastructure Event Series arrives in Manchester this week (20 & 21 May). Keynote speakers include our very own Professor Steve Furber, and Microsoft's James Akrigg, Head of Technology for Partners. Well worth attending if you have an interest in the cloud, data virtualization & analytics, devops, cyber-security and more. Free tickets are available until 19:00 tomorrow Tues 19 May → http://www.ipexpomanchester.com/
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 11 May and it’s the first of the 4 exam weeks. I hope all goes well. Make sure you know your exam schedule and locations precisely – it's your responsibility to be in the right place at the right time! In case of emergencies the central contact point is SSO, and you should contact them immediately if you think you have any issues → compsci-sso@listserv.manchester.ac.uk or 0161 306 8155. On with today’s news ...
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* LATHAMS = LATHAMS + 1. As you might have heard, a few weeks ago John and his wife Alison became the proud parents of Monty, who weighed in at 6lbs 7oz (2.92kg). I’m sure you'll join me in sending John and his family congratulations!
* AWARDS FINALIST. Congratulations to Daniela Florescu (Y3, CSwIE) on her fantastic achievement of getting as far as the final in the TARGETjobs Undergraduate of the Year awards. Daniela (front row, left) was among 109 undergraduates from across the UK invited to the final in Canary Wharf, London. The University of Manchester had ten finalists in the twelve award categories – more than any other university. Well done Daniela!
* SLEEPYTIME. If you need a power nap during your revision, why not pop over to the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons and try a sleeping pod. You can have a 20 minute snooze inside the pod, in the “Zzz Zone” on Floor 2. The pod was designed by Y1 Psychology student Grace Bamber for the University’s Eureka! 2014 competition → http://goo.gl/cU9YDg
* COURSE UNIT FEEDBACK. Last chance! Please take a few moments to give us your feedback on each of your Semester 2 course units – deadline end of tomorrow Tues 12 May. We want your feedback and we take it seriously, and we react. We also publish responses from staff to your comments (see for example our responses to your Semester 1 comments → http://goo.gl/iyuUlT). Send your feedback using the app, or do it online → http://goo.gl/g3YWiH.
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 4 May and it’s Week 12, a B week, and the final teaching week of the year. 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. On with today’s news!
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* DUCK NEWS. As you probably know, the ducks are back! This year Mrs Duck has 13 ducklings, and they must be the best looked after (and most photographed) in Manchester, with a duck-house, regular gourmet duckfood, a ramp up to the garden, and their own paddling pool.
* COURSE UNIT FEEDBACK. Please take a few moments to give us your feedback on each of your Semester 2 course units – deadline next Tues 12 May. We want your feedback and we take it seriously, and we react. We also publish responses from staff to your comments (see for example our responses to your Semester 1 comments → http://goo.gl/iyuUlT). Send your feedback using the app, or do it online → http://goo.gl/g3YWiH
* IBM COMP. IEEE and IBM are searching for creative, forward-thinking students to participate in an exciting team-based showcase, with an opportunity to work with IBM's Watson to develop an innovative app, and a chance to win up to $2000 in cash prizes. Register your team now → http://goo.gl/52WU1h
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 27 April and it’s Week 11, an A week. I hope everything is going well. As you know we’re now into the last two weeks of teaching, so now is a good time to make sure you have all your lab marking up to date, to help avoid a last-minute panic next week! Lots to tell you about today – have a good week!
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* GREAT UNI HACK. Last week Great Uni Hack took place at Granada Studios in Manchester. The event, co-funded by the School, was organised by a team of our UG students in conjunction with Major League Hacking (→ https://mlh.io). As well as running the event, we had amazing success winning it too! Four of our teams won! Team Bloomopoly – Sami Alabed (Y1, CSwIE), Adrian Culea (Y2, CSwIE, out at GSK, London), Adrian Nenu (Y2, CSwIE) and Vlad Berianu (Y2, CSwIE, out at ISA Software, Paris) – won the best use of Bloomberg API with their stock market-based monopoly game (→ http://bloomopoly.codevolution.com/bloomopoly.html). They also won 2nd place overall and a silver MLH medal, plus tickets to the Techsylvania Hackthon in Romania in June. Team Aria – Mark Larah (Y3, CS) – won the Funniest Hack and the Barclays Challenge. Team Dungeon Master – Jack Winstanley (ex-Anthropology student), Ion Diaconu (Y2, CS4), Ettore Torti (Y2, CSwIE), Andrei Tomeci (Y2, Architecture) – won the Apadmi Best Retro Challenge. And team PyPly – George Vanburgh (Y2, CSwIE, out at Credit Suisse), Tom Robinson (Y4, CS4), Matt Akerman (Y4, CS4) and Prakhar Bahuguna (Y4, CS4) – won the Layershift challenge. See all the submissions → http://guh.challengepost.com/submissions. Huge congratulatons to all the winners, and to all the organisers for making this major event such a success: Sami Alabed (Y1, CSwIE), Mihai Bujanca (Y1, CS4wIE), Pez Cuckow (CSBMwIE, graduated 2014), Josh Langely (Y1, CS4wIE), Miso Zmiric (Y4, CS4), Diana Bite (Y1, CSwIE), Jonathon Dilworth (Y3, CS4wIE), Dainis Gorbunovs (Y1, CS4wIE), Mark Larah (Y3, CS), Daniel Ma (Y2, CSwIE), Sebastian Mararu (Y1, CS), Charlie Reynolds (Y2, AI4wIE), Cornelia Secelean (Y1, CS4wIE), Tim Xiao (Y1, CS).
* STAFF-STUDENT COMP. Ettore Torti (Y2, CSwIE) writes: Coding Dojo's annual Staff vs Student competition is this Wednesday at 15:00 in Collab. Don't miss out on the fun and free pizza by signing up at http://codingdojo.cs.man.ac.uk/svs. There will be cash prizes for the top teams, and a free drink for all sponsored by our Head of School, Prof Jim Miles, at Kro Bar after the competition. There are only a limited number of places left and they'll be filled on a first come first served basis, so sign up early!
* PASS VIDEO COMP. PASS Coordinators Dan Underwood (Y3, CS) and Sarah King (Y3, CMwIE) write: The School’s PASS team has entered the annual Peer Support Video competition! If we win we get £100 to help grow PASS (so, more socials!). Please look at all the entries and vote for your favourite – voting is open to all students and staff (only one vote per person; staff: use your staff ID number where it asks for student ID, and enter Computer Science for subject). See all the entries → http://goo.gl/R7Fcst. But hurry, the voting deadline is 12:00 TODAY! → https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/VideoCompetition2015
* COURSE UNIT FEEDBACK. Please take a few moments to give us your feedback on each of your Semester 2 course units – deadline Fri 12 May. We want your feedback and we take it seriously, and we react. We also publish responses from staff to your comments (see for example our responses to your Semester 1 comments → http://goo.gl/iyuUlT). Send your feedback using the app, or do it online → http://goo.gl/g3YWiH.
* NEW CSSOC CHAIRS. Bryn Hanby-Roberts (Y2, CSwIE) and Josh Langley (Y2, CS4wIE) write: Sami Alabed (Y1, CSwIE) (left) and Shane Booth (Y2, CS4) (right) are the new co-Chairs for next year’s CSSoc. We wish you all the best, we all can't wait to see you at the May Ball!
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 20 April and it’s Week 10, a B week. I hope everything is going well. Lots to tell you about today (yes, I know I say that every week!). The weather forecast promises yet another sunny week in Manchester, so I hope you enjoy it!
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* GREAT UNI HACK. By all accounts last weekend's Great Uni Hack, organised by Sami Alabed (Y1, CSwIE) and his team at Granada Studios in Manchester was a great success. Over 170 international attendees hacked for 36 hours, downloading over 1TB of data in the process. We'll have a full report in next week's Monday Mail.
* PASS BLOG. SSO’s Gavin Donald (pictured here in his student days at Liverpool) has a new blog post looking back at this year’s PASS. He says “it’s a great testament to our PASS teams that they do so well and have established CS PASS as one of the top schemes in the University". Read in full → http://goo.gl/gMSmFN
* MEET THE PRESIDENT. The President of the University, Nancy Rothwell, is visiting the School this Weds 22 April, and she's holding an informal open 30-minute meeting for all students (no staff, just for students) at 15:00 in Kilburn 2.19 (second floor). If you’d like to have the chance to talk directly to the President, here’s your opportunity!
* NSS PRIZEWINNER. Congratulations to Lorin Nicolae (Y3, CSBM) who wins a £100 Amazon voucher in our fortnightly National Student Survey prize draw. Y3 students: when you’ve done your NSS, just take your ack page to SSO for a free bar of chocolate and entry in the prize draw for the one remaining £100 prize! – the NSS closes on 30 April.
* STAFF-STUDENT COMP. The third annual Staff vs Students coding competition ( → http://codingdojo.cs.man.ac.uk/svs ) is next Weds 29 April 15:00–18:30 in Collab. Organize in teams of 2, solve up to 5-6 problems in 3 hours, get some free pizza and win prizes! And free drinks from the Head of School afterwards! Pre-registration required → http://goo.gl/forms/oNhf0sshGc
* UNDERGRADUATE AWARDS. The Undergraduate Awards is the world's only pan-disciplinary academic awards programme. Students submit their work (coursework/project) to a panel of international judges. The winners are published in an academic journal, flown to Ireland for the UA Global Summit 4-day networking event, and recognised as the best in their field. Think you could be a winner? Go for it! → http://www.undergraduateawards.com
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 13 April and it’s Week 9, an A week. I hope you've had a refreshing three weeks break over Easter. So welcome back! We have another 4 weeks of teaching, and then it’s the exams. And after that, yes, it's the Summer! So lots to look forward to! Have a good week. On with today’s news…
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* MEET THE PRESIDENT. The President of the University, Nancy Rothwell, is visiting the School in the afternoon of next Weds 22 April, and she's holding an informal open 30-minute meeting for all students. This is your chance to talk directly to the President! We’ll confirm the time and location ASAP.
* CSSOC NEWS. Bryn Hanby-Roberts (Y2, CSwIE) writes: This is our final week for selling May Ball tickets – they're £32 and include a bucks fizz reception and 3 course meal with a few bottles of wine/soft drinks per table. We'll be in the Byte Cafe, so keep an eye out. If you can't make it this week, message CSSoc on Facebook and we'll sort something out. If you think CSSoc have done a good job this year, why not nominate us for the Best Academic/Departmental Society award in the SU? Last year we won Event of the Year for the Hackathon, let's try and win again! You can nominate here → http://goo.gl/MjNhBq. And finally, CSSoc are holding our AGM where people can tell us how the year went and give us useful feedback. We also elect people to next year's senior positions (Chairs, Secretary, Treasurer, some officers). If you've got something to say, come along. There will be pizza! The AGM will be held next Weds 22 April in LF15, at 13:00.
* GREAT UNI HACK. Sami Alabed (Y1, CSwIE) writes: The Great Uni Hack takes place this coming weekend 17-19 April, here in Manchester. We’ve released more tickets specially for Manchester students ( → http://goo.gl/pUQXS1 ). We have amazing prizes which include VIP tix to the Techsylvania conference in Rumania this June, plane tickets for a winning team of 4 to visit Korea, a drone, bluetooth speakers… and more to be announced. Selected winners from The University of Manchester will be offered a working space in an office. Full details → http://greatunihack.co.uk
* CODEBUG. CodeBug is a fun, engaging, entry-level introduction to coding and physical electronics. It’s the work of Andrew Robinson, Tom Preston and Tom MacPherson-Pope, the people behind Pi-Face ( → www.piface.org.uk ) and they're all recent graduates from the School. They’re looking for backers on Kickstarter to get Codebug off the ground. Check it out → http://goo.gl/ULF7AY
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 23 March, and it’s the first week of the 3-week Easter vacation. I hope you’re enjoying a well-earned rest and perhaps doing a bit of catch-up. Year 3 students, good luck with writing your project reports and making your screencasts, and remember to ask your Supervisor for comments on drafts of each. The Monday Mail is having an Easter break, but will be back again on Monday 13 April (Week 9, an A week). Meanwhile, on with today’s news...
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* DUCK ERROR. Image processing (COMP27112) and internationally-renowned duck expert Dr Tim Morris has pointed out an error in last week’s Monday Mail. An error in the Monday Mail, I hear you cry in disbelief, how can this be possible?! Well, it turns out that the picture by Alyson Owens of Mrs Duck wasn’t of Mrs Duck at all. It was Mr Duck. As the photo here shows, male ducks (below right) are generally much more colourful than female ducks (above left). Perhaps Mr Duck was sent on an advance mission by Mrs Duck? We just don’t know. We will, of course, keep you posted.
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 16 March, and it’s Week 8, a B week. It’s the last week before the Easter Vacation, but you probably know that! It's been a long Semester so far, and I hope it's been successful and enoyable for you. Have a good week!
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* MLH PRIZEGIVING. Last Weds 11 March, Major League Hacking visited us for the awards ceremony, where we received the 1st Prize cup for the Fall Major League Hacking Europe competition. Well done again everyone who took part! In the photo are Sami Alabed (Y1, CSwIE) and Mihai Bujanca (Y1, CS4wIE) at the awards event. The cup will soon go on prominent display!
* CSSOC. Bryn Hanby-Roberts (Y2, CSwIE) writes: this Friday 20 March is Karaoke night. We're still finalising the details so keep an eye out for the posters and check on Facebook! We're also selling tickets for the May Ball all this week, 12:00-15:00 in the Byte Cafe. All the early bird tickets were sold on the first day, but there's still discounted tickets available for CS students and staff. The tickets could well sell out so get them while you still can! Don't forget to bring the £32 for your ticket with you.
* HERONS AND DUCKS. You may have noticed two herons have mysteriously appeared in the courtyard. They're fairly static, and don’t seem to do very much at all really, but that’s because they’re made of plastic. The idea is that their presence will discourage Mrs Duck from choosing our courtyard again this year as her home for starting a family. Mrs Duck, however, spotted last Friday by Alyson Owens from our External Affairs office, does not seem particularly bothered so far.
* NSS PRIZEWINNER. Congratulations to Naseem Alswainy (Y3, CSwIE) who wins a £100 Amazon voucher in our fortnightly National Student Survey prize draw. Y3 students: when you’ve done your NSS, just take your ack page to SSO for a free bar of chocolate and entry in the prize draw for the next £100!
* ECLIPSE. Thank you to Struan McDonough (Y2, CMwIE) for the alert that this Friday 20 March there's going to be a total solar eclipse in Manchester, and the next one won't be until 2026. The eclipse begins at 08:26 with maximum eclipse at 09:35 when the Sun will be 93 per cent covered → http://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/uk/manchester
* GOOGLE SUMMER OF CODE. A reminder that GSoC opens for applications today Monday 16 March. This summer you can develop your experience and skill set, enhance your CV, and earn money too (a stipend of $5500), working on open source projects for organisations including Apache, CERN, FreeBSD, Github, GNU, Google, KDE, LibreOffice, MIT Media Lab, Python, Ruby and over 100 others. One project, lowRISC (→ www.lowrisc.org) includes alumni from our APT research group. GSoc details → http://goo.gl/9rmiKg
* SNEEZE APP. A team in the Faculty of Life Sciences wants to make a smartphone app to get data about breathing, wheezing and sneezing from members of the public going about their everyday lives. They’re running a workshop on Saturday 28 March, 12:30-15:30, to try and develop the app. If you’re an allergy sufferer and would like to help, come along – there’s a free lunch, £40, and you’ll be helping science! You don’t need any experience or tech skills to take part, just be ready to share your opinions. Sign up → lamiece.hassan@manchester.ac.uk
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 9 March, and it’s Week 7, an A week. Spring is here, the flowers are coming up, and I am sure the long hot summer days that Manchester is famous for are just around the corner! I hope things are going well for everyone – and good luck to all 3rd year students doing their project demos at the moment. Have a good week!
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* CALLING ALL BAKERS. This Friday 13 March is Red Nose Day, and at 15:00 in the Staff/Postgrad Common Room, it’s the inaugural Computer Science Bake-off! Bakers: you can bake a team or individual entry. Non-bakers: you can still enter the competition with a shop-bought cake but you must decorate it yourself! Eaters – everyone is welcome! Come along and eat, and make a donation. If you want to enter the comp, just tell ACSO → acso@cs.man.ac.uk
* NSS. The School is doing well in completion of the important annual NSS Survey. At the last count we’re second only to the School of Geography at 65% completion rate. We’re at 63% (Single Hons) and 56% (Joint Hons). Third year students, please help us get 100% completion! Don’t forget there’s free choccy and chance to win £100 for all completers – just take your ack page to ACSO.
* GOOGLE SUMMER OF CODE. This summer you can develop your experience and skill set, enhance your CV, and earn money too, working on open source projects for organisations including Apache, CERN, FreeBSD, Github, GNU, Google, KDE, LibreOffice, MIT Media Lab, Python, Ruby and over 100 others. The scheme opens for applications next Monday 16 March → http://goo.gl/9rmiKg
* HOMER-GENIUS. On Tuesday 14 April at 19:00 physicist and author Simon Singh (“Fermat’s Last Theorem”, ‘The Code Book” ) will speaking at the Manchester Conference Centre (Sackville Street) about his latest book The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets. Free booking → http://goo.gl/FpQKmV
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* GREAT UNI HACK. Sami Alabed (Y1, SEwIE) writes: Great Uni Hack invites you to its second edition. Come join us to hack, learn and connect with fellow hackers in a 36-hour hackathon starting on 17 April at a Manchester venue. Judges will pick the top 10 teams to present on stage, and there are prizes and swag. Come up with an idea, and turn it into reality. We’ll provide you with coffee, hardware, talented team members and mentors! → greatunihack.co.uk Check out Sami’s talk on Great Uni Hack at last week’s COMP101 lecture → https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=776804245745834
* INFINITE PLAYLIST. Charlie Reynolds (Y2, AI4wIE) writes: Today Mon 2 Mar at 17:00 in LT1.5, 1-UP will be hosting Liam Maloney, a PhD student from The University of York for a guest talk about his research. Part of the topic and demonstration will be on composing an infinite playlist based on measurements of your own neuronal activity. The other part will be on building “sunshine machines” which convert light, location, weather changes into sound (for example → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8o081veL90 ) Details →
https://www.facebook.com/events/1551295251803293
* STREET MARKET IS BACK. The weekly pop-up street market is back, starting tomorrow Tues 3 March from 10:00. It’s just behind the Kilburn building and sells locally sourced and produced products like organic coffees, BBQ food, wood-fired pizza, meaty and vegan hot dogs and pies, pulled pork sandwiches, and Burmese curry. If you have a sweet tooth, there’s marshmallows, cake and ice cream too. Something for everyone!
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 23 February, and it’s Week 5, an A week. I hope things are going well. Lots of news today – have a good week!
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Director of Undergraduate Studies
* HAPPY BIRTHDAY CSSOC. Bryn Hanby-Roberts (Y2, CSwIE) and Josh Langley (Y2, CS4wIE) write: Somebody get the cake! It's a happy 10th birthday to CSSoc! That's right, on 23 February 2005 CSSoc was registered as a UoM society! So if you see any committee members wandering around today, be sure to give them a pat on the back! Thanks to everybody who has supported us and come along to our events. We'll see you at the next one… which is: if you want to go drinking shortly after you get your exam results (which you will) CSSoc is going on a pub crawl to "celebrate", this Friday 27 Feb from 19:30 at Ford Maddox Brown. Also later this week there’ll be a poll on Facebook for whether anyone else wants more hoodies, so if you missed out on the last batch and you want one make sure to let us know.
* TURING LECTURE. The annual BCS/IET Turing lecture is being given this year by Robert Pepper on The Internet Paradox: How bottom-up beats command and control. The lecture is this Weds 25 Feb at 17:30 in University Place. Robert is Vice-President for Global Technology Policy at Cisco. Register → http://goo.gl/0XAQXv
* GAMERS NEEDED. PhD student David Buckley writes: Would you play a video game for science? Whether you've never played a single game before, or you've been playing Counter-Strike since you were little, we’d like you to help us with our research. We’ve designed and constructed a single player, first-person shooter, and we’d like you to test it out. All that's required is that you play. Participation is completely voluntary, and any data collected during the study will be anonymised. Interested? → www.projectblueroom.com/manchester
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 16 February, and it’s Week 4, a B week. I hope everything is going well. On with today’s news, and I have some major stuff to tell you about today! Get ready!
Best wishes, Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* IOS DEVELOPERS LAB. I’m very pleased to announce that our new iOS Developers Lab (Kilburn Room LF17) opens today. The lab has 10 Mac-minis with 27” Thunderbolt displays, two wall-mounted HDMI TVs, and a projector. The lab is specifically intended for UG/PGT/PGR students who want to do iOS/OS X development. I hope developers will enjoy using it, and make fabulous things! Building a brand new lab with completely different hardware to our existing infrastructure has been a challenge, so thank you to the team who made this possible: Tony Curran, Tim Furmston, Duncan Hull, Tony MacDonald, Allan Ramsay, Steve Rhodes, Paul Waring, and all the students who helped us with commissioning. For details of access, infrastructure, security, and support → tinyurl.com/CSMacLab
* NSS PRIZEWINNER. Congratulations to Alex Herbert (Y3, CM) who wins a £100 Amazon voucher in our National Student Survey prize draw. Y3 students: having completed your NSS, just take your acknowledgement page to SSO for a free bar of chocolate and entry in the fortnightly prize draw. You’ve got to be in it to win it!
* MEET EVE. Yet more robot news! The School’s Professor Ross King is developing a robot scientist called Eve, and it was featured widely in the news last week. Eve is designed to automate early-stage drug design and has already discovered that a compound shown to have anti-cancer properties might also be used in the fight against malaria. You can see Eve in action here → http://goo.gl/GC6lIF and Ross discusses automated drug discovery in this BBC article → http://goo.gl/mc7cVP
* CSSOC MOVIE NIGHT. Can it just be a coincidence that CSSoc are running a movie night this Wednesday in the SU to watch… a robot movie? It’s Wall-E as voted for by you. It's free entry and starts at 20:00 sharp. For more details → https://www.facebook.com/events/1412505325714407
* BIG CHIP AWARDS. Find out more about this year's Big Chip Awards. Last year, an MEng student from the School of Computer Science (Raluca Puichilita) won the award for best student placement. This Wednesday night UK FAST will be launching this year's competition, so come along to find out more → http://goo.gl/v3xbgO
* STUDENT TEACHING AWARDS. Have you had inspirational teaching/support? (I hope so!). Why not nominate someone for the Students Union Teaching Awards 2015? → http://manchesterstudentsunion.com/teachingawards
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 9 February, and it’s Week 3, an A week. I hope things are going well. On with today’s news, and there's a lot going on this week!
Best wishes, Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* HACKSOC. Mark Larah (Y3, CS) writes: Join the brand new society HackSoc for our launch event “Cracking the Coding Interview Workshop”, at 13:00-14:30 this Weds 11 Feb (location TBA), where we'll be running mock interviews, and going over common interview questions and algorithmic techniques. HackSoc will run regular workshops throughout the term to keep you up to scratch with languages and frameworks used in the hottest startups and big tech companies → http://goo.gl/OT4LnE
* CSSOC QR HUNT. Josh Langley (Y2, CS4wIE) writes: Get ready for Wednesday, because we're holding a QR Code Hunt then! This will be set in Kilburn Building, so hopefully you're used to the layout by now! You can do it as a team (max 4 per team) or you can go solo, whichever is best for you! Don't forget to bring a smartphone that can register QR Codes → http://url.cssoc.co.uk/qrcode
* NOT JUST FOR BOYS. Over 50% of the 200 women who attended an “IT’s not just for the boys!” event in Autumn 2014 have gone on to work for one of the companies they met there. The next event takes place on Fri 20 March at Deloitte HQ in London. If you’re a female student considering summer placements and internships you can apply for this prestigious, expenses paid event, and discover opportunities in 2015 and beyond → www.itsnotjustfortheboys.co.uk
* CALLING ENTREPRENEURS. Ideas Factory is a regular series of early stage guest entrepreneur events for all students with an interest in enterprise and entrepreneurship. Lunch is provided. Upcoming @ 12:00, Alumni Clubroom, MBS West are Vikas Shah (this Weds 11 Feb), MD of Swiscot Group; Amin Amiri (next Weds 18 Feb), A2E Venture Catalysts Ltd; and Weds 4 Mar: Nikolay Piriankov, Co-founder and CEO of Rare Pink Diamond Jewellers. Reg → http://goo.gl/pT87QU
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 2 February, and it’s Week 2, a B week. I hope you're settling in after the exams period. Lots of Monday news today, so let's go...
Best wishes, Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* FUNCTIONAL PROGRAMMING. Charlie Reynolds (Y2, AI4wIE) writes: UP will be hosting a workshop on functional programming in Node.js, led by our good friends at Phyramid ( → https://www.phyramid.com ). The workshop will feature a short talk on how functional programming can aid you in writing more beautiful code (with examples in Ruby), and a series of practical exercises to familiarise you with this paradigm in the popular Node.js (which is a valuable skill to have). You’ll need to bring your own laptop or pair up with someone else who has one. Mac/Linux environments preferred, but not required. This Weds 4 Feb 13:00–14:00, location TBA → http://www.facebook.com/events/727136094069164/
* CALLING ALL BLOGGERS. Are you a keen writer/blogger? Want to earn a bit of extra money while studying? The School is recruiting up to 5 new student bloggers to represent life in the School and Manchester. To give you an idea, check out the blog by Edoardo Moreni (Y3, CS4) ( → http://goo.gl/OoGj5D ). We’re seeking talented writers who’ll commit to contribute posts regularly. If you’re interested in applying (£100/semester) → http://bit.ly/cs-blogs
* BUILDING BRAINS. Steve Furber (Professor of Computer Engineering, co-designer of the ARM chip, and teaches COMP28512 Mobile Systems) will be talking about bio-inspired massively-parallel computing tomorrow Tues 3 Feb 19:00-20:00 at the Royal Northern College of Music. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear one of Steve's entertaining and inspirational talks. Everyone welcome! Free registration → http://goo.gl/RXW2nb
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 26 January, and it’s Week 1 of Semester 2, an A week. We’ve got 12 weeks of teaching ahead, and then the Summer exams. For your diaries: the Easter vacation starts after Week 8, for 3 weeks from 23 March - 13 April. I hope you enjoy this Semester! OK, on with today’s news...
Best wishes, Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST. Congratulations to Simon Harper (founder of our new Human-Computer Interaction programme, and runs COMP33512 User Experience → http://simon.harper.name ) who has been recognised as a Distinguished Scientist by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). Simon was the only UK winner out of 49 awardees worldwide from academia and industry → http://goo.gl/cEJwIa
* NUMBER TEN. Steve Pettifer ( → http://aig.cs.man.ac.uk/people/srp ) was stalking the corridors of power last Friday. Steve was at No.10 Downing Street representing the School at a meeting looking at the government’s new Degree Apprenticeships programme.
* REPRODUCIBILITY IN SCIENCE. The School’s Professor Carole Goble ( → http://www.manchester.ac.uk/research/Carole.goble ) will be speaking at Reproducibility in Science and Policy - An Open Data Manchester January Special, tomorrow Tues 27 Jan from 18:30 at Manchester Science Park. Free reg → http://goo.gl/YeKbct
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 19 January, and it’s the second week of exams. I hope they’re going well. Once again, make sure you know your schedule. In case of emergencies, don't delay, contact SSO immediately → compsci-sso@listserv.manchester.ac.uk or 0161 306 6625. Semester 2 teaching starts next Monday – something to look forward to!
Best wishes, Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* BRAINS AND CHIPS. Steve Furber (Professor of Computer Engineering, co-designer of the ARM chip, and course leader for COMP28512 Mobile Systems) will be talking about bio-inspired massively-parallel computing on Tues 3 Feb 19:00-20:00 at the Royal Northern College of Music. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear one of Steve's entertaining and inspirational talks. Everyone welcome! Free registration → http://goo.gl/RXW2nb
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 12 January. Welcome back and Happy New Year to you! I hope you had a good break. The two-week exams period starts today, so I wish you good luck. Top tips: stay calm, write and illustrate your answers clearly – and keep in mind that someone has to actually read your writing!
Best wishes, Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 8 December. Not only is it Week 12, an A week, but it’s also the last week of term – but you probably already know that! I hope this Semester has gone well for you, and that you've had a stimulating, interesting, and fun 3 months. On behalf of the School I wish you a very Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year. The Monday Mail will be back in mid-January, for the first week of the exams. Until then… on with today's news.
Best wishes, Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* DAFT NEWS OF THE WEEK. According to YouTube's Google+ blog, "We never thought a video would be watched in numbers greater than a 32-bit integer (2,147,483,647 views), but that was before we met PSY. Gangnam Style has been viewed so many times we had to upgrade to a 64-bit integer (9,223,372,036,854,775,808)" → http://goo.gl/EXnrPQ
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 1 December – can it really be December?! – and it’s Week 11, a B week. On with the news and I have a jam-packed edition for you today.
Best wishes,
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* 1-UP. This from Petrut Bogdan (Y2, CS4): 1-UP is organizing the first practical FPGA event of this academic year. It's this Weds 3 Dec at 13:00 in Tootill 0. Join us in implementing your own hardware design for a processor, image processing of skin colours or creating funky fractals, such as the Mandelbrot set. We will be supplying FPGAs, instructions and fully developed designs in VHDL of the previously mentioned. You can come along even if you have other ideas of something you might want to do (e.g. Bitcoin/Dogecoin mining). More info → goo.gl/aHk3NH or from Dirk Koch → dirk.koch@manchester.ac.uk. See you there!
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 24 November, and it’s Week 10, an A week. I hope you're well! On with this week's news.
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* CODE CLUB MANCHESTER. Code Club is a nationwide network of volunteer-led after-school coding clubs for children aged 9–11. They’re having a meetup this Thurs 27 Nov from 18:00, at Code Computerlove Digital Agency in central Manchester. If you’re curious about teching Computer Science in primary schools, why not find out more → http://goo.gl/ZLzIWL
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 17 November, and it’s Week 9, a B week. I hope things are going well. On with today's news!
Best wishes,
Toby Howard → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 10 November, and it’s Week 8, an A week. I hope everything is going well. On with today’s news, and there’s quite a lot of it!
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 3 November, and it’s Week 7, a B week. I hope you had a refreshing break last week. We’re back now to normal timetabled activities, and I hope you'll enjoy the second half of the semester. On with today’s news...
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Good morning UG! It’s Monday 27 October, and it’s Week 6. The clocks have gone back, so it’s now officially winter, and this is Reading Week, so there are no scheduled teaching activities. It's a chance for you to have a break and make sure you're up to date with everything. Usual teaching and timetabled activities resume next Monday 3 Nov (Week 7B). Now, on with today’s news...
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* IN THE NEWS. Congratulations to Raghav Bansal (Y2, CS4), who was featured in The Guardian newspaper last week (print circulation: 200,000, monthly web hits: 53 million) in their “Meet the Global Student” section → http://goo.gl/klQF4h
Good morning! It’s Monday 20 October, and it’s Week 5, an A week. Next week is Reading Week, and there won't be any scheduled teaching activities then – it's a chance for you to take a breather. But this week is busy, as you'll see below – so on with today’s news!
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
Good morning! It’s Monday 13 October, and it’s Week 4, a B week. I hope things are going well. As you’ll see below, today we’re announcing a new centralised support system for all students. I hope you’ll find it helpful, and I’m very keen to hear your feedback. On with today’s news!
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* PASS BLOG. Pass Leader Zac Hamid (Y3, CMwIE) writes: Last week in PASS, some groups got to experience a working Neurosky Mindwave device – it’s a headset that measures brain activity. Read all about it, and much more, on the all-new CS PASS blog → http://cspassmanchester.tumblr.com
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* PHD SUCCESS. PhD student Kostas Sechidis, supervised by Gavin Brown, collected the prize for Best Student Paper at the European Conference on Machine Learning (ECML). The paper introduces statistical hypothesis testing methodology for positive-unlabelled big data → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~sechidik
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
• UG AREA ON FRIDAY. This week again there’ll be some LF/Collab disruption on Friday 3 Oct, as part of the preparations and set-up for our second Open Day on Saturday. Apologies for any inconvenience.
Good morning! It’s Monday 22 September, and it’s Week 1A of Semester 1. Teaching starts today. Throughout each semester we alternate Week A's and Week B's, with different timetabled activities according to A and B (→ http://studentnet.cs.manchester.ac.uk/ugt/timetable). The Monday Mail will always remind you which week it is – and this is a Week A.
First year students, I hope you enjoyed Welcome Week. Here you are listening to Steve Pettifer talking about what inspired him to be a Computer Scientist. What inspires YOU? Tell me → toby.howard@manchester.ac.uk
We tried not to overwhelm you with information last week, so if you have any questions, drop into our Student Support Office (SSO, next to lab LF31), or contact your Personal Tutor – they’ll be very happy to help.
OK, on with today’s news...
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby
* WIRING IT UP. Over the summer, Jonathan Heathcote, who graduated from the School in 2013 and is now a PhD student in Steve Furber’s Advanced Processor Technology group, made an amazing time-lapse video of the 4 hours it took him to wire up over 100,000 ARM cores in a massively parallel architecture to simulate the human brain. See Jonathan in action → http://goo.gl/UiIJBg
* PHD PULSARS. Since August this year five new pulsars have been discovered by a team at Jodrell Bank using a new data classifier developed by Rob Lyon, a Computer Science PhD student here in the School’s MLO Research Group. It’s a superb example of the role of Computer Science in modern scientific exploration → http://www.scienceguyrob.com
Best wishes,
Toby → http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~toby