Minutes of the SSCC meeting on November 1998

Minutes of the SSCC meeting on November 27^th 1998.

Natalie May

Attendance List

R Hirsch Chair, N May Secretary, S Wilbur, S Hailes, E Catena VIVE, J Hickey Macs, H Lee CS/EE, A Reina CS2, C Nentwich CS2,
L Eriera CS/Cog, K Sanmugalingam DCNDS, E Mainwaring-Samwell MSc CS, T Hawksley MSc CS, S Berke, P Rounce, S Arridge,
A Mahdavi, CS1, F Khan CS1, A Natarajan MSc IT, A Ramcharan MSc IT, B Stein, D Timm, C Senanayeib MRES.

INTRO

Students were reminded that there are 3 ways to let staff know of difficulties and that depending on time scale each had their merits.

The three ways are a) talk to your tutor, b) Course Assessment Questionnaires, c) SSCC.

1 Apologies for Absence John Washbrook, Ed Perchick, Graham Roberts, Jill Saunders, Tony Hunter, Raphael Carbonell, Zahir Merali.

2 Minutes of meeting held on March 11 1998 The minutes were approved.

3 Matters Arising There were no matters arising from the meeting held on March 11 1998.

4 Communications between CS and EE Students voiced concerns that changes were not communicated to them wrt lecture room changes. There were also problems with clashes.

It is felt that some clashes are unavoidable but we do our best to resolve them.

SAB is working on resolving one clash and will check if there are any more and endevour to resolve as many as possible. [Action SAB]

G Harris (EE) will be requested to inform us of any short term/once off changes which will then be emailed to students. . [Action SAB]

5 Use of `open-source' software The use of word processing was raised by students. They suggested something like K Office being made available.

BS commented that even though such software was free for non commercial use that due to the scale of installation we would more than likely be considered commercial.

BS further commented that the installation and support of numerous different public domain software is costly in terms of time and that anything installed would have to be supported to a certain degree.

All students should be aware of the ISD facilities for word processing and make use of a service which is supported by the department. If there are any requests for specific software email should be sent to request. The services committee will consider such requests and all will be treated on merits.

6 MSc CS issues 6.1 EPSRC funding Whilst students welcome EPSRC funding they wonder how is it apportioned. Funds are awarded on an individual basis. 6.2 Need for more practical orientation for software engineering course. A number of suggestions were made, modelling methods content not deep - covered in 3 weeks - a lab session for practice. Being at a stage where there is a need to build on what you know - students feel they need some more input - perhaps in the form of feed back lab sessions. They are not sure they are going in the right directions as there are no ?right? answers.

RH stressed that there were plans to improve this course next year with the introduction of a more ?hands on? approach.

PAR has been asked to ensure that the comments by students are reinforced with the software engineering lecturers. [Action PAR]

7 Problems with computers in B10 7.1 The second year lab in inaccessible for remote login. BS states that remote login is not allowed because in fiuture the machines are likely to become dual-bootable (linux and Win95).Anyone using the machine remotely would be disconnected without warning if the machine was rebooted to Win95, so it is best not to allow remote logins. However there is a machine which is located elsewhere set aside for this very purpose. The machine is called ?KEW?. . It may be that this has not been communicated to students using B10, information will be circulated.
[Action BS] 7.2 No CD ROM Access Again this is correct - necessary to stem the installation of unauthorised software of all types. BS can see no need for this but if anyone can justify the need email requests and it will be considered.

8 DCNDS issues 8.1 Request for locker B01 A key for a cabinet in B01 was requested. SAB will provide an extra filing cabinet with key. [Action SAB]

8.2 Request for shared disc quota DCNDS students are installing multiple copies of a software and need some shared disc quota. BS pointed out that shared disc quota did not exist. SH was not aware that the students needed to install any software. The DCNDS students should discuss requests for teaching software with SH in the first instance. 8.3 Request for more print quota The quota for students is seen as appropriate, if special cases occur they should be directed to SH. Extra printer quota can be purchased from the departmental office at a cost of £ 5 per 100 sheets. It is also worth reading the document circulated by BS on how to save quota (emailed 27^th November 1998). 8.4 Access to labs after 7pm SRW states that this is not a departmental decision but one made at College level based on Governmental Health and Safety guidelines. Increased opening has been requested before and granted in part, if this matter is approached again we may end up worse off and all extended opening will be disallowed. We do have the duty officer coverage during times of recognised need.

Again it is suggested that Cluster rooms are used. UNIX cluster rooms exist in College and are open until 10 during the week and some coverage on Saturday, also use of the Telnet facility for those who can.

9 Distinguished Teacher Award SRW brought to attention the College scheme called the Distinguished Teacher Award. Whilst the case for such an award would be made by the Department it is felt that the students should nominate teaching staff for this award. We will be looking for staff who provide a greater than expected input to your academic studies. All nominations, with background on why you believe the staff member is exceptional should be forwarded to Robin Hirsch, preferably before the end of term.

10 Announcements 10.1 Retaining Coursework SB reiterated the need for retention of coursework, and email was sent by Jill Saunders recently. It is necessary to keep a portfolio of your coursework for several reasons: An aid to revision, Boarderline students? coursework may be examined by the External Examiners and finally the need for production of same for Internal Quality Assessments, HEFCE inspections and various accreditation visits.

10.2 Use of Screen Locks It has been reported that some students are using screen locks in an inappropriate way. Screen locks should only be used for max 5 mins - to allow the user to collect printouts etc. It is considered anti-social to use screen locks for any longer than this. If this practice is seen to continue to be abused TSG will take action, in the meantime contact the help desk (located in B06) and they will disable the lock and note the lock user. Information will be circulated. [Action BS]

11 3^rd Year issues A late addition to Agenda 11.1 Not enough computers in 3^rd year Lab It is felt by 3^rd years that there are not enough computers in B13. Unfortunately the department is restricted by space. It is suggested that students use machines in other labs when their ?home? lab is used to full capacity. It must be noted however that users of ?home? or specified lab have precedence. 11.2 Access to Labs This item is covered in item 8.4. 11.3 Meetings and Core Lectures It is unfortunate that this must happen but we are restricted by time and room availability. Every endevour is made to find free or least people affected slots for meetings. 11.4 Lunchtime Lecturers (especially Fridays) This item is covered in item 11.3.

12 AOB Items brought up under this heading were covered by other items. The MSc VIVE rep did however happily end the meeting on a high note - despite any problems encountered with access, resources and heavy lecture load, they were all enjoying the course.

13 Date of next meeting To be announced.