News from the Faculty of Computing

Successful Launch in Nepal

Getting a taste of University at The Faculty of Computing
10 February 2011

The start of the new semester saw the arrival of 60 pupils to Tower Building, Holloway Road for a series of taster sessions delivered by academic staff in the Faculty of Computing. Pupils from Gladesmore, Fortismere and St Thomas More Schools took part in workshops delivered by our Senior Lecturers Dr Nigel Medhurst – (3D Animation using Maya 8.5), Michael Ghebru – (Visual Basic version 10) and Ken Fisher (Java Population Modelling).

Alan Stuart gave a presentation related to our World of Work Agency (WoW) within the Faculty and Dr Shahram Salekamankhani gave students a tour of one of our CISCO Networking Academy Laboratories.

The students found the event both informative and enjoyable. They spoke candidly with both Associate Deans of the Faculty, Dr Vince Hargy and Peter Chalk, about their current Computing experiences at school and also about their interest in the Faculty’s provision of Undergraduate course titles.

LinkedIn Alumni Group
01 February 2011

Friday 27 January 2012 saw the launch of a LinkedIn group for the newest alumni from the Faculty of Computing. Almost 300 Faculty graduates were invited to connect to the group in order to initially share work experiences. Within just a few hours, a very high proportion of these graduates had accepted the invitation. The group will be expanded shortly to include graduates from our international partners.

This initiative is a useful way to keep in touch with our alumni and find out what their experiences are and the types of issues they are facing after graduation. It is also an opportunity for us to highlight forthcoming events, such as Student Enterprise Workshops, to which graduates may be invited.

Mathematics Masterclass - 2012
30 January 2012

Saturday 21 January 2012 saw the beginning of this year's session of six Mathematics Master classes designed specifically for the most talented Year 12 school children studying AS level Maths. This year’s classes will focus on topics such as Diophantine equations, dynamical systems and the maths behind juggling all delivered in an informal and engaging way.

The event is being run on Saturday mornings by David Brown, of FoC. Speakers included FoC's Dr Andy Tonks, Dr Zhanyuan Hou and Prof. Mikis Stasinopolous, as well as external speakers from accipio-learning.com, the University of Hertfordshire and Eton College.

This is the third year the Faculty of Computing has run the Royal Institution Master classes and they have attracted pupils in large numbers, approximately ninety a year, from over 30 local schools, hopefully encouraging more young people into the STEM subject

IET Technical Enterprise Workshop
20 January 2012

The Institution of Engineering and Technology is holding an IET Technical Enterprise Workshop on 22 February 14.00 - 17.00. The workshop will enable researchers, research students, and young professionals to interact with relevant industries and experts.

This workshop will include presentations from Academic Speaker Dr Yang Hao, Professor in Antennas and Electromagnetics at Queen Mary, University of London, and Industry Speaker David Daniels, Cobham Technical Services.

The workshop also consists of a poster competition and best posters will receive industrial awards. Please visit the following links for further information:

www.theiet.org/events/2012/microwave-metamaterials.cfm
www.iom3.org/events/microwave-metamaterials-and-their-applications

This event is free to attend (subject to online registration).

Please contact Kafil Ahmed (IET Technical Enterprise Workshop Committee)
kafil.ahmed@londonmet.ac.uk

Graduation Ceremony 2011 at The Barbican Centre
20 December 2011

On 5 December 2011, around 285 Faculty of Computing students donned their gowns to attend the Graduation Ceremony at The Barbican Centre in London. The Dean, Professor Dominic Palmer-Brown, gave a short speech before calling upon graduates to come on to the stage to receive their award. There was much cheering and enthusiastic applause from the audience made up of family and friends. Applause was equally enthusiastic from the stage where several Computing academics had come to celebrate their students’achievements. The day was captured on so many digital devices which will ensure that the event remains accessible for a long time. A total of 600 students graduated from the Faculty with 102 of those from our international partners.

Tennis star Anna serves career ace
07 December 2011

Anna was a successful professional tennis player in Greece when she applied for a scholarship to study a BSc in Business & Business IT in London Met's Faculty of Computing.

At the peak of her tennis career, Anna was ranked in the world's top 200 women players (doubles ranking) and was part of the Greek Olympic National tennis team at the 2004 Athens Olympics and 2008 Beijing games.

But Anna said it was difficult to fund her tennis career as she didn't have a sponsor, and decided to instead embark on a new life in London.

Choosing her course was easy, said Anna. "At a very young age I had a passion for IT. Since I was 10 years old I was very good with electronics and technology."

As a scholarship student, Anna was committed to playing for the London Met tennis team throughout her three-year course. She trained every day and played at least one match a week, often travelling outside of London for games.

Anna enjoyed playing for the London Met women's tennis team, which has won five out of the last seven British universities championships. She said a highlight of her time at London Met was the team winning the 2008 European championships in Dublin.

"It was an unforgettable experience of my life being a student at London Met", said Anna.

Qicheng Yu, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Computing, said: "It is very challenging to plan, manage and coordinate her time between sports and study activities, but Anna did it and did it very well."

Anna now works for Universal Pictures as a project analyst: "I am involved in build process, compatibility testing and overall rollout of Windows Seven for our company's employees around the world. I have enjoyed every minute!"

Anna got the job after completing an internship at Universal right after she finished her course. Anna applied while still studying and began the internship one week after handing in her dissertation.

Her next ambition is to become a project manager at Universal, and if anyone has the drive and determination to achieve their goals, it's Anna!

For more on studying Business Information Technology at London Met, see here. To search for other London Met courses, please use the Course Finder.

BSc Computer Animation students produce DVD for Camden Council
02 December 2011

The Director was film maker Suzanne Cohen who is also an HPL in Digital Media (Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities).

Faculty of Computing academics, Chris Dyson and Nigel Medhurst worked closely with the students and Suzanne to ensure that the work met the required technical and creative standards and was delivered on time.

This has proved an excellent way to incorporate real commercial work into the fabric of the BSc Computer Animation course. Having a commercial credit to their name this early in their career will help these students to get work in the animation industry when they graduate.

The video is being displayed on the Camden Council web site here: Why I had a FGC

For further information contact Chris Dyson: chris.dyson@londonmet.ac.uk

FoC students engage in Government's "Appathon" - a mobile app development competition.
25 November 2011

The government intends to open a Public Data Centre (PDC) in December 2011 as part of its transparency agenda to create opportunities for developers, businesses and members of the public to make use of public sector data. As part of the build up to this new initiative, in November 2011, more than 850 university students entered a mobile app development competition - the SVC2UK Appathon to consume and pass on information on the public data.

Two students from MSc Mobile Computing course - Fraser Hardy and Beatriz Juarez formed a Londonmet team supervised by Dr. Yanguo Jing. The team designed an Android app and an iPhone app named "I want to be a" (currently available on app stores). The app uses data from Unistats.gov.uk and associates graduate job titles with relevant university courses. This creative mobile app earned the team a place in the final 18 out of the hundreds of entries. Well done to the team!

Unfortunately, the team's entry was ranked just outside the final eight entries that are selected to receive an amazing award from the Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street on 17th November 2011 and a trip to Silicon Valley to visit entrepreneurial technology companies. Prime Minister David Cameron said: "I warmly welcome the fact that Silicon Valley Comes to the UK has organised this competition to reward the creative use of government data and I congratulate the winners. This type of innovation can produce new applications and services that generate significant social and economic benefits across our society." [See quote from
www.computerweekly.com/news/2240111088/Government-awards-students-in-open-data-competition]

Beatriz said: "It´s a pity that we made the short list (of 18) but at the end we couldn´t be the winner app (final 8)! Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot and met a lot of people there. It was hard work with Facebook and Twitter integration, as well as connecting to Web Services but I learnt a lot, so I think it worth it!"

Fraser said: "It was a great experience to get together with like-minded developers from different universities. It was an opportunity to network with peers and professionals from companies such as Apple, Google, and Facebook. As well as exploring our creative side to design an app.".

Dr. Jing said: "This was a great opportunity to expose our students to the cutting edge IT industry, and enables them to apply what they've learned in the classroom to real life problems and improve their employability. Fraser and Beatriz made many contacts with the key people in the UK's very own Silicon Roundabout and there is no doubt that it will give them confidence and inspire them with new ideas."

Dean's meeting with StARs
18 November 2011

Successful Launch at Islington College, Nepal
10 November 2011

The Faculty of Computing is proud to welcome students onto undergraduate courses from our newest international collaborative partner - Islington College in Nepal. The following courses: BSc (Hons) Computing, BSc (Hons) Computer Networking and IT Security, BSc (Hons) Multimedia Technologies and the Extended Computing Programme are offered, and delivered locally, to Nepalese students. Members of the Faculty, including Professor Dominic Palmer-Brown (Dean), Dr Vince Hargy (Associate Dean) and Dr Fang Fang Cai (Academic Leader and Academic Liaison Tutor) participated in the successful launch of these courses at the end of October 2011 in Kathmandu. Over 300 students were welcomed by the Londonmet staff as they commenced their various programmes of study. More than 350 other students will be joining them in February 2012.

Click on the images to see larger photos

Students flock to FoC
12 October 2011

During Welcome Week the Faculty held a number of events for new students, including a treasure hunt, social lunches and informative breakout sessions for subject areas. New students found the events helpful as it is a good opportunity to meet staff and other students prior to classes commencing. One MSc student from China commented that the ‘social’aspect was very different to her home country and that she really enjoyed it. New student numbers in FoC are up by 150.

Digital Toybox Success
11 July 2011

The annual Faculty of Computing Show for student projects, Digital Toolbox 2011, was very successful with many commenting on the high standard and variety of projects on display. (Click on the showreel image on the left to see a videa of some of the work) These included games, multimedia and animation, as usual, and in addition this year, some mobile and robotic applications (pictured below). The Faculty would like to thank and congratulate the event organiser Fiona French, course leader for BSc Computer Games.

The winner of the iPhone app design competition was Pawin Thepbanchaporn, from the MSc Computing course, pictured below receiving his prize at the show from the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Dominic Palmer-Brown. Pawin's app was part of the coursework in the Mobile Applications Development module supervised by Dr Yanguo Jing. This app is used to practise typing skills and compete against another iPhone users via bluetooth or Wi-Fi. This app won the best coursework award sponsored by O'Reilly.

Facebook app group: www.facebook.com/typeaholic.