Minutes of the SSCC Meeting

Held on Wednesday 4^th February 2004 in Room 229 at 1.00 p.m.

Staff Present:           

Graham Roberts (Departmental Undergraduate Tutor, Chair), Bernard Buxton (Advanced Courses Co-ordinator), Patricia Fenoy (Department Operations Administrator), JJ Giwa (Senior Departmental Officer), Nicola Jarvis (Undergraduate Administrator, Secretary), Janet McDonnell (Conversion Programme Co-ordinator), Jill Saunders (Department Manager), Barry Stein (Technical Support Group), Denis Timm (Head of Technical Support Group).

Student Representatives Present:

Yasin Abbas (MSc VIVE), Philip Bonhard (PhD), Matt DiFranco (MRes), Aleem Juma (3^rd Year BSc), Babatunde Kuti (MSc CS), Avtar Raikmo (4^th Year MSci), Sergio Rojas (MSc IS), AnujSharma (1^st Year BSc), Aingaran Somaskandarajah (3^rd Year MSci), (Dominic Spill (1^st Year BSc), Dennis Suehr (1^st Year MSci).

1          Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Steve Hailes, Toan Hoang, Amir Nabi and Tim Taylor.

2          Notification of Any Other Business

Jill Saunders wished to raise the issue of student feedback questionnaires on the web.

3          Approval of minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

4          Matters Arising

4.1       Printing – the printing service is now laser printer only; the print quota has been increased.

4.2       The departmental strategy for teaching and learning is now available on the web.

4.3       The Pearson Society has now been reactivated.

4.4       The issue of BSc MACS students taking a Maths final year project has been raised at Teaching Committee. A response is awaited from the Maths department.

5          Online availability of Z21/ 4C33 lecture notes. (Avtar Raikmo).

The lecture notes have now been removed and students want the links to be restored. Graham had spoken to Soren on this matter who had confirmed that paper copies had been made available.

6          Spam and irrelevant messages on CS mail lists. (Aingaran Somaskandarajah).

Aleem Juma reported that this was an ongoing problem - some students were using the lists for their own personal gain. Graham Roberts urged students to report misuse to himself or the helpdesk. He will send out a general reminder to students.

Action: Graham Roberts

7          Request to lecturers to make more use of course mailing lists to inform students of lecture changes and cancellations, and coursework deadlines. (Avtar Raikmo)

The students had been inconvenienced by cancellations of Software Engineering lectures and felt that they could have been informed via the mailing lists. Graham agreed to issue a general reminder at Teaching Committee that the lists should be used in this way. He also reminded students to check their e-mail regularly.

Action: Graham Roberts

8          Sample exam papers for new courses and missing exam papers on the library web site. (Avtar Raikmo)

There were no sample papers for MSci courses shared with MSc courses. Graham asked students to directly approach the lecturers in these cases.

9          Recording of lectures and making recordings available to students. (AingaranSomaskandarajah)

Graham Roberts thought that in general staff did not mind students taping lectures on an individual basis, but that formalising this process in any way would not be appropriate.

10        Student access to wireless network. (Aingaran Somaskandarajah)

This was perceived to be a big issue as using wireless cards is easier than hooking machines up in the labs. Denis Timm confirmed that reconfiguration is planned in about three weeks time and it will then be arranged for students to have access in labs and possibly in the common room. Avtar Raikmo reported that access to IS is also available in the Jeremy Bentham room. It was thought that access would be much better in general once the move has taken place to the new building.

11        Certain clashes in Timetables for CS EE students: E746 Control Systems lecture clashes with the 3C05 Advanced Software Engineering lecture. Approx 4 students are affected…the two courses are mandatory for the students so they are having difficulty. Is it possible to amend the times for these lectures? (Aingaran Somaskandarajah)

Jill Saunders reported that this problem had now been solved. Yasin Abbas raised the fact that students on MSc VIVE who had chosen a particular set of options had classes from 9.00 – 5.00 on a Friday with no real break. Jill asked that she be notified about such problems; she will do her best to sort them out.

12        CS centric application/ interview/ CV training sessions. Many students have been having difficulties in making applications and attending interviews for jobs/ internships in the IT/ CS sector. There are current sessions available for all students at the Careers Advice Centre but this is a very general thing and has not helped CS students that well. Is there anyway of setting up a CS version. Possibly set up by Chris Clack? (Aingaran Somaskandarajah

Graham Roberts reported that the transferable skills sessions that have been set up in the second year now cover this kind of material. Final year students can approach their tutors for help and advice on CV’s. Information is also available in the Students Union.

13        The guidelines for – and the implementation of – the MPhil/ PhD transfer process are woefully inadequate. There seems to be a gross imbalance between: i) what is expected from the student ii) the efforts made to make these expectations clear. The rationale behind the transfer process is largely historical, rather than pragmatic; and it comes at significant cost to the student’s time for what is, by definition, a transitory and intermittent report. (Philip Bonhard)

It was agreed to refer this agenda item to the Research Committee.

14        Radiators in the PhD offices (specifically for rooms 116 and 212). They cannot be regulated and thus generate too much heat, making it uncomfortable to work in the office. (Philip Bonhard)

JJ Giwa asked students to report such problems to her initially and to give feedback. If problems persist, she will be able to chase the relevant maintenance services.

15        Are nightly reboots of the college machines necessary? This makes it necessary to run programs that have to run overnight on private machines. (Philip Bonhard)

Barry Stein confirmed that reboots can be changed to weekly for individuals who may find this useful. This can be done by emailing request@cs.ucl.ac.uk.

16        What is happening about the water cooler? Will there at least be a filter at some point? Why is it taking so long (2 months by now) to be resolved? (Philip Bonhard)

JJ reported that a company is coming next week to install a new cooler in the staff common room.

17        Any Other Business

17.1     Student questionnaires on the web

Jill Saunders reported that not enough students were filling in the online questionnaires before they are taken from the website. It is proposed to leave them there longer. Avtar Raikmo thought that it was particularly important that the fourth year gave feedback given that the final year MSci was still in its infancy. Jill reported that there will be an opportunity for final year students to give feedback on the course in general terms in a session before they leave.

17.2     Revision

In answer to a query from Matt DiFranco, JJ Giwa confirmed that the revision timetable for the March exams would be available soon, and that there were three weeks after reading week for revision.

17.3         MSc VIVE Coursework

Yasin Abbas reported an excessive coursework load for some VIVE students this term. He was advised that students should take this matter up with the Course Director in the first instance.

CLOSE OF MEETING