University College London

Department of Computer Science

Minutes of the SSCC Meeting
Held on Wednesday 12th November 2003 in Room 229 at 1.00 p.m.

Staff Present: 

Graham Roberts (Departmental Undergrad Tutor, Chair), Simon Arridge, Bernard 
Buxton (Advanced Courses Co-ordinator), JJ Giwa (Senior Departmental Officer), Steve
Hailes (Director of Studies), Robin Hirsch (3rd Year Co-ordinator), Nicola Jarvis
(Undergraduate Administrator, Secretary), Sally Longley (Conversion Programmes 
Administrator), Soren Sorensen (1st Year Co-ordinator), Barry Stein (Technical Support 
Group), Denis Timm (Head of Technical Support Group). 

Student Representatives Present:

Yasin Abbas (MSc VIVE), Marek Bereza (2nd Year MSci), Philip Bonhard (PhD), Matt DiFranco (MRes), Toan Hoang (4th Year MSci), Aleem Juma (3rd Year BSc), Babatunde Kuti (MSc CS), Amir Nabi (2nd Year BSc), Avtar Raikmo (4th Year MSci), Sergio Rojas (MSc IS), Dominic Spill (1st Year BSc), Dennis Suehr (1st Year MSci), Tim Taylor (MSc CS), Dimitrios Tsalikis (MSc DCNDS).

1 Apologies for absence

Apologies were received from Ricky Kotecha (3rd Year BSc MACS), Jill Saunders (Department Manager) and Aingaran Somaskandarajah (3rd Year MSci).

2 Notification of any other business

There were two items of further business.

2.1 Dimitrios Tsalikis wished to raise problems with revision time for DCNDS students.

2.2 Avtar Raikmo wished to raise the issue of hand-in times clashing with lectures.

3 Approval of minutes of the last meeting

The minutes of the last meeting were approved.

4 Matters Arising

4.1 There is still a low response rate on the on-line student feedback questionnaire. Graham Roberts urged student reps to encourage their colleagues to respond.

4.2 No feedback had been received from registry on the large time gap between students finishing their studies and attending the graduation ceremony. When feedback is received it will be reported.

4.3 The issue of coursework overload has now been overtaken by events. A system is in place whereby hand-ins have been staggered. Graham asked students to bring any clashes or overloading to the attention of staff.

5 Announcements

There were no announcements.

6 SSCC Constitution

Student numbers have increased on some courses this year. The Chair asked the meeting if they thought more student representatives were needed. The meeting agreed that the constitution should not be changed.

7 Printing and Printer Quotas

Various issues had been raised by the students including the status of the line printer, extra quotas for projects, cost of extra pages, having to print out lecture notes and double sided printing counting as 2 pages.

Barry Stein reported that after 15 years of service, the line printer has now failed beyond repair. It has been suggested to increase student quota on the laser printer to compensate, sue to the high cost that would result through replacement.

Barry also explained that the costs involved in running the laser printer (toner, contracts, and maintenance etc.) set the price level for extra copies. He confirmed that student quotas had been raised to account for projects in term 3. Yasin Abbas asked if it would be possible for a breakdown of costs involved with the printer to be available to students. Then perhaps they would object less to 5p per copy. Matt DiFranco asked if there was a page of FAQ’s for printer issues.

Graham Roberts agreed that students should not have to use their quotas for printing lecture notes. This issue was referred to the Teaching Committee, where tutors would be reminded that this is the case.

In answer to a query about high volume printing from Aleem Juma, Barry confirmed that there is a programme under UNIX which produces plain text files which are readable. Barry agreed that this service needed to be publicised better.

The Chair confirmed that quotas and cost would be monitored. He also suggested that a visible presence on the website be created, dealing with printing issues.

8 Student representation on other departmental committees

Students may be a representative on the following committees:

Operations and Premises Committee
Technical Services Committee
Undergraduate/ Graduate Teaching Committee

All interested students should email Jill Saunders via deptadmin@cs.ucl.ac.uk.

9 Departmental Strategy for Learning & Teaching (Steve Hailes)

Steve Hailes reported that a copy of this document is on the web, at the moment accessible to staff only. It will be accessible to students in due course and will be publicised when this is the case.

10 2B15 Software Engineering I content. (Marek Bereza)

Marek Bareza reported that some of his colleagues found lectures in 2B15 Software Engineering I hard to follow because the lecturer tended to jump about within the material. Graham urged all students to ask if they did not understand material in lectures – otherwise lecturers would not know there was a problem.

11 Overlap between 2nd year Maths and Theory courses, especially stats. (Marek Bereza)

This matter had now been resolved.

12 2B11 lectures on Tuesdays – no other lectures that day, can it be moved? (Marek Bereza)

This issue affects a number of cohorts. Avtar Raikmo reported that the fourth year found this most problematic when the only scheduled lecture was in the afternoon. If it was in the morning, they found it easier to continue their study for the rest of the day.

Amir Nabi asked if scheduling just one lecture in one day for core modules could possibly be avoided. Graham Roberts replied that it would be very difficult to avoid as timetabling is so complex – but this will be kept in mind when the timetable is constructed for next session.

Matt DiFranco reported that some students also find 9.00 a.m. starts a problem. Graham replied that some 9.00 a.m. lectures are unavoidable due to the constraints of the timetable. Multiple 9.00 a.m. starts for a particular cohort would be avoided if possible.

13 Pearson Society – how can we change it around to make it an active and useful society for CA and non-CS students? (Amir Nabi)

Amir Nabi reported that the Pearson Society appeared to have become defunct and asked if there was a way it could be resurrected. It transpired that Tim Taylor and some MSc students had already looked into setting up a computer science society and gone through some of the process with the Student Union. AN and TT were actioned to liaise about the issue. Graham Roberts confirmed that the staff would be happy to support the resurrection of the Society.

14 Why can’t MACS 3rd year BSc students do a Maths final year project? (Ricky Kotecha)

It was agreed to forward this question for discussion at Teaching Committee.

15 Student common room, tea/ coffee machine, providing a water cooler for student use. (Aleem Juma/ Matt DiFranco)

Many students had asked if/ when the coffee machine in the student common room will be replaced, and if it would be possible to install a water cooler. JJGiwa confirmed that there were no plans to replace the coffee machine as it had only been available for a few months before it was vandalised and the money stolen.
The possibility of plumbing in a water fountain had also been discussed – but this would not be possible for health and safety reasons. Drinking water is available in the toilets near the common room.

16 Mailing list moderators. (Aleem Juma)

Aleem Juma reported that stray e-mails were appearing on the student mailing lists, and asked if it would be possible to appoint some moderators. 

Avtar Raikmo disagreed that the lists should be ‘policed’ but suggested the deterrent of an access ban for those who abuse the system.
Graham Roberts confirmed that rules and regulations exist concerning abuse of computer facilities. He suggested that students email him or their course director if problems arose.

17 Timing of MRes residential course over reading week. (Matt DiFranco)

Bernard Buxton replied that this course had previously been scheduled in the first week of taught lectures, which had caused even more disruption. It was agreed that this would be discussed with the students outside the meeting.

18 Is there a budget available for Masters Student activities? (Matt DiFranco)

Bernard Buxton explained that there was a Research Training Services Account which pays for attendance at conferences. There was no specific budget for Masters students’ activities.

19 Temperature in computer labs. (Sergio Rojas Galeano)

Sergio Rojas Galeano reported that the temperature control in the computer labs was not working. Denis Timm confirmed that the problem had been reported to College Maintenance, but that they may be slow to examine the problem.

20 Extra copies of books in library. (Sergio Rojas Galeano)

Sergio Rojas Galeano reported that for some courses books were in short supply. This was explained by the start of some new modules this year. Bernard Buxton suggested that students recommend books to staff members. Currently, members of staff recommend books to Denise Gorse, who looks after the library budget. It was decided to raise at Teaching Committee if this practice could be extended to students.

21 More review sessions on MSc IS course. (Sergio Rojas Galeano)

Sergio Rojas Galeano reported that some MSc IS modules had not included sessions for review/ additional help. It was suggested that requests for review sessions should be made to the course director, who will often oblige. Avtar Raikmo confirmed that a requested session had been set up for the fourth years in one of their modules.

22 Any Other Business

22.1 Revision time for DCNDS (Dimitrios Tsalikis)

The DCNDS students were concerned that there was not enough time for revision before their exams. Graham actioned the MSc students to talk to Saleem about the problem. 

22.2 Hand-in times clashing with lectures (Avtar Raikmo)

Avtar Raikmo reported that deadline for Unsupervised Learning clashed with an 11.00 – 1.00 lecture. Graham replied that the students would have to hand their work in before 11.00.
A clash in the second term is being investigated by JJ Giwa.

The next meeting will be held in January 2004 – Date to be confirmed.

The meeting closed at 2.00 p.m.