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Welcome Back

Year 2

Prof Nick Taylor: Director of Studies for Year 2

E-mail: N.K.Taylor@hw.ac.uk

Office: EM 1.62

Student Drop-in Hour: Mondays 2:15-3:15

Where to find these slides: http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~nkt/year2

Congratulations on progressing to Year 2

• By the skin of your teeth?– If it wasn’t all plain sailing then learn from that

• Smoothly?– You’ve made a good start in Year 1 but don’t be

complacent - Year 2 is more demanding than Year 1

• Meritoriously?– Well done if your overall average was 70% or more

last year - keep up the good work

• Prestigiously?– Congratulations to Tommy Lamb on winning the

University Prize and the ICL Prize in Year 1

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Year 2 – What’s coming up

• More challenging courses– Year 1 was meant to ease you into university study

• More prizes to aim for– University Prize (£100)

• For outstanding merit

– Andrew Stewart Prize (£200)• For most deserving student

• Consider standing for Student Rep– Or nominate somebody else (if they agree)

• Golden Anniversary of Computer Science @ HWU– You are our 50th cohort

• Consider an internship over the summer– Much better than working in a supermarket, etc.

Year 2 Courses

Semester 1

InfSys Courses Lecturers

F28IN Interaction Design Helen Hastie Diana Bental

C17EB Management in a Global Context Kevin O’Gorman

C18FM Fundamentals of Marketing Graham Pogson

C19PT Project Management Amos Haniff

CompSci, CompSys, SoftEng Courses Lecturers

F28IN Interaction Design Helen Hastie Diana Bental

F28DA Data Structures and Algorithms Manuel Maarek

F28PL Programming Languages Jamie Gabbay

F28WP Web Programming Hamish Taylor Santy Chumbe

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Year 2 Courses

CompSci, SoftEng, InfSys Semester 2

InfSys Courses Lecturers

F28SD Software Design Andrew Ireland Patricia Vargas

F28DM Database Management Alasdair Gray

F28CD Creative Design Project Jenny Coady

C18OP Operations Management Abhijeet Ghadge

CompSci, SoftEng Courses Lecturers

F28SD Software Design Andrew Ireland Patricia Vargas

F28DM Database Management Alasdair Gray

F28HS Hardware-Software Interface Greg Michaelson Hans Loidl

F17SC Discrete Mathematics Anatoly Konechny

Year 2 Courses

CompSys Semester 2

CompSys Optional Courses Lecturers

F28HS Hardware-Software Interface Greg Michaelson Hans Loidl

F28CD Creative Design Project Jenny Coady

C18OP Operations Management Abhijeet Ghadge

F17SC Discrete Mathematics Anatoly Konechny

CompSys Mandatory Courses Lecturers

F28SD Software Design Andrew Ireland Patricia Vargas

F28DM Database Management Alasdair Gray

Choose 2 optional courses from 4

Everybody does these 2 courses

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Attendance

• Attendance is very important– We know you have other demands on your time but

your studies are equivalent to a full-time job

– 10 hours per week on each of 4 subjects means a 40 hour week

– We know that poor attendance is highly correlated with students failing to progress

– We also know, from what we see when we mark your coursework and examinations, that there is a causal relationship at work here

• Attendance registers will be taken at all classes– We don’t like having to do this but we want all of you

to progress to Year 3

Coursework

• A schedule of deadlines for all coursework is made available to you at the start of each Semester– Use the schedule to plan your effort and balance your workload

– Be aware of the commitments of other students when working on collaborative coursework

– Do not become a deadline junkie!

– Do not use coursework/examination weightings to distribute your effort – each course deserves its 10 hours/week

• Make sure you know which coursework is collaborative and which coursework is meant to be individual work– Submitting joint (or copied!) work which we expect to be

individual is a disciplinary offence

– We have access to a range of tools to help us check whether your written work or program code is your own original work or derived from others!

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Feedback

• Do not become obsessed with marks/grades

• Other types of feedback can be much more

helpful to you

– Specific comments we make on your own work

– General comments we make on class performance

(both your class and classes that preceded you)

– Answers to questions – do not hold back on

questions!

People

• There are some faces missing from last year– Vindhya Liyanage

– Prof Rob Pooley

• There are also some new faces– 11 new students have

joined Year 2• Please look out for them in

your classes and help them to settle in

– Dr KatyaKomendantskaya

– Dr Ron Petrick

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Key contacts

• Your Personal Tutor (formerly known as your Mentor)

• Tessa Berg (Special Needs Advisor)

• Nick Taylor (Director of Studies for Year 2)

• Hans-Wolfgang Loidl (Undergrad Programme and CS/SE Director)

• Hani Ragab Hassen (Computer Systems Programme Director)

• Jenny Coady (Information Systems Programme Director)

• Andrew Ireland (Head of Department)

Your views matter

• If you have a request or a suggestion about a course then talk to the lecturer first or ask your Class Rep to do it

• Student feedback has led to timetable changes to give you a day free of classes– Tuesdays for CompSci, Compsys, SoftEng

– Wednesdays for InfSys

• Don’t bottle problems up – if you tell us about them then we may well be able to help you to sort them out– Contact your Personal Tutor (formerly known as

Mentor) with personal problems in the first instance

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Personal Tutors

(formerly known as Mentors)

• Every student has a Personal Tutor allocated to them (see the CS student web pages)– Read about Personal Tutors in your handbook– Contact your Personal Tutor if you have any

personal difficulties

• The Personal Tutors this year are– Jenny Coady, Ruth Aylett, Diana Bental, Tessa

Berg, Frank Broz, Peter King, Michael Lones, Manuel Maarek, Fiona McNeil, Stefano Padilla

Class Reps

• If you would like to stand for Class Rep then please e-mail me – There is a Year 2 Rep for each of

• Computer Science (including MEng)• Computer Systems• Information Systems

– So, 3 of you in total

• You can nominate somebody else if you wish but please check with them first

• Elections will be held if necessary

• Student-Staff meetings are twice per Semester

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School Officer

• There is also one School Officer for all of

Computer Science

• We need volunteers!

• See

http://www.hwunion.com/representation/aca

demic/school-officers

• Email Hans-Wolfgang Loidl if you are

interested

Access to Earl Mountbatten

• All students can stay until 10pm on weekdays

– Doors open at 7am

– Can’t get back in if go out after 7pm

– No access at weekends

• You can access our machines (through x2go) from the labs in the university library (http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/cs/localinfo/facil/macs-cs-faq.html#Qexceed1)

• The library is open 24 hours during most of the Semester (http://www.hw.ac.uk/is/openinghours.html#24hour1)

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Computer Labs and Study Spaces

• MACS computer labs are in

– EM G.47, G.46, 2.45 (Windows)

– EM 2.49, 2.50, 2.51 (Linux)

• University computer lab in EM 2.52, plus

university library

• New Information Services Learning Commons

(200+ seat supported study area next to

Elements café)

Remote Access

• You can access machines in MACS from the labs in the university library or from home/laptop – See the MACS IT FAQ under Support Services

– http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/cs/localinfo/facil/macs-cs-faq.htm

• To access university resources outside the campus– https://hwvpn.hw.ac.uk/

– See https://www.hw.ac.uk/is/virtual-private-network-vpn.htm for instructions

• You can also connect devices to eduroam

– https://www.hw.ac.uk/is/it-essentials/wifi.htm

– Use your university (not MACS) login details

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Technical Help

• For help with university computers e-mail

ithelp@hw.ac.uk

• For help with MACS computers e-mail

help@macs.hw.ac.uk

• See also Code Clinic …

Code Clinic

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Software Updates

• Office365 (including OneDrive for sharing documents)

• Firefox :- 47.0.1, Thunderbird :- 45.3.0, Eclipse :- Mars

• Adobe CS Master Collection :- Version 6 – EM G.46/G.47 ONLY

• Blender 2.77a :- EM G.46/G.47 ONLY

• Java :- 1.8.0_102

• Tomcat 6 server -- www2

• Visual Studio :- VS2015

• The android SDK has been replaced by Android Studio (not supported on Linux)

Student Equipment Fund

• We have a pot of money which we use to

purchase kit at the request of our students

• If you have an idea for a project which needs

some hardware or software that we do not

already have then you can ask us to buy it

• Your project needs to be clearly defined

• The kit can be made available to you on a

sole-use basis during semesters and vacations

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Student

Equipment

Fund

More information attiny.cc/hwsef

Rolling submissions with

cut-off dates inOctober, January

and May

Heriot-Watt CS Department supportsstudents in purchasing new technologywith the Student Equipment Fund

Apply to run hands-on experiments with new tools for a personal or course project

Parallella cluster

Sphero SPRK

Raspberry Pi3B

Available at:

http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/macshome/StaffStudentExpectationsHWCS.pdf

Expectations

Students� Staff

Staff � Students

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What students can expect from staff

• Commitment to helping you learn

• Politeness and respect

• A regular office hour slot for face to face meetings

• Written feedback and a mark for coursework

within 15 working days after the hand-in time

• A reply to general e-mail questions within 5

working days

• A response from your Personal Tutor within 2

working days

• If you would like to see your exam script to see

where you went wrong

– go to the School Office and ask for a form to request

this

– It’ll take a bit of time to get the paper out of archives

• You can also make an appointment with the

lecturer to get advice on your work

What students can expect from staff

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What staff expect from students

• Commitment to your learning

• Politeness and respect

• Attendance at classes, unless they are specifically identified

as voluntary - it is your responsibility to be available on

campus to attend classes and, in particular, class tests

• Attention, courtesy and participation during classes

• Preparation and practice for classes as specified by the

lecturers - for every hour of timetabled class we expect you

to spend 2-3 hours in private study

• Practice, practice, practice!

• Basic organisation skills - come prepared to take notes, use a calendar

so you don’t forget deadlines and appointments

• If you can’t make a scheduled meeting with a staff member please

notify them in advance

• Check your e-mail and log into Vision at least every other day

• Reply to e-mail from staff within 5 working days (if required!)

• Pay attention to the feedback we give you and attempt to improve your

work based on that feedback

• Keep yourself informed about developments in computer science - the

department is full of experts so seek them out!

• If you have a problem which is interfering with your studies please

discuss it with your Personal Tutor

What staff expect from students

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Graduate Attributes

New Student Website

http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/students

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E-mail

• Check your university e-mail at least every second day

• You can get your university e-mail on your smart phone– https://support.hw.ac.uk/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Arti

cle/View/57/0/email-configuring-a-mobile-device-for-hwu-exchange-email-service

• You can forward your university e-mail to gmail– https://support.hw.ac.uk/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Arti

cle/View/4/2/email-manage-your-hwu-email-via-googlemail

• Use your university e-mail to send e-mail to staff– We get a lot of spam so our filters may intercept e-mail

from strange places or we may just delete e-mail from accounts with weird names

Twitter

• @MACSHW for news, class cancellations, etc.

• @HWUcareers for info on careers, internships

and vacancies

• @CSResearchHWU for research news from

the department

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Other Useful Twitter Accounts

• @HWUnion

• @HWUAdviceHub

• @HWU_IS

• @HeriotWattUni

Many staff have their own accounts

E.g. @taylornk

• @HW_RAG

• @HeriotWatt_ISAO

• @CompSocHW

• @HWISSoc

Facebook

• Heriot-Watt University– https://www.facebook.com/HeriotWattUni/

• MACS– https://www.facebook.com/hwu.macs/

• Heriot-Watt GameDev Society– https://www.facebook.com/groups/hwgamedev/

• Many staff have their own pages– https://www.facebook.com/Nicholas.K.Taylor

• 60% of young people do not set privacy settings – Check yours!

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Use LinkedIn as a Log

Go Global

• Opportunity to study at one our overseas

campuses for a Semester or a Year

• Also possible to study at other universities

overseas

• Contact Jamie Gabbay M.Gabbay@hw.ac.uk

• https://www.hw.ac.uk/students/studies/go-

global.htm

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50 Years of Computer Science

• The BSc in Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University was the very first undergraduate degree in Computer Science offered in Scotland

• The first students enrolled in October 1966

• You are the 50th cohort of students

• We are celebrating our Golden Anniversary with a series of events in October this year

• We’d like you, as our 50th cohort, to play a special part in these events

• Please e-mail me if you’d like to participate

• First key dates: Thursday 6th and Friday 7th October

Golden Jubilee 1966-2016

This year marks the Golden Anniversary of Heriot-Watt gaining

its Royal Charter in 1966

October 2016 is also the Golden Anniversary of the first cohort

of Computer Science undergraduates enrolling at Heriot-Watt

Watch out for e-mails from hwcs.golden@macs.ac.uk or

contact us at that address with celebratory ideas …

We are celebrating both events

with a number activities

through which we are bringing

together former and current

students and staff, local

schools, teachers and pupils,

our research collaborators and

our partners from industry

We are very proud to have

launched the first Computer

Science degree in Scotland

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Any Questions?

We wish you all the best for Year 2 and hope you have a

great year