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17 December 2003
The Computer Laboratory
This document is specifically intended for Assistant Staff, but may contain information useful to others. These notes were originally written as guidelines for reception staff. They have been added to in a rather haphazard manner, and probably include things that seem obvious — for which I apologise. But the University is notorious for assuming that everyone knows about everything without the need to be told, and so I have erred on the side of giving too much information rather than too little. Suggestions for inclusion are welcome.
So in no particular order:
1. W HAT AND WHERE?
The Lab was founded in 1937 as the Mathematical Laboratory on the part of the New Museums Site now occupied by the Arup Building. The building was known as Old Pathology and was notorious for its strange smell (formaldehyde, used for preserving bodies) and the extra large lift (for transporting them!). The name was changed to Computer Laboratory in 1969 and the Computing Service was created in 1970 as part of the same department.
Professor Sir Maurice Wilkes was the Head of Department from 1946 until 1980 when he was succeeded by Professor Roger Needham. In 1996, Roger was appointed Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University, and Professor Robin Milner became Head of Department. He stood down in 1999 and was replaced by Professor Ian Leslie.
The Lab is a department of the University and is part of the School of Technology along with Engineering, Chemical Engineering and the Judge Institute of Management. It is independent of any faculty but has strong links with Engineering and Mathematics. Teaching and research are done in Computer Science as an academic subject.
Until January 2001 Teaching & Research and the Computing Service were part of the same department. They then separated to become two departments, the Computer Lab and the Computing Service. In September 2001 The Computer Lab moved to the William Gates Building (WGB) on the University's West Cambridge site.
To help you find you way around the rooms are labelled by: Floor (ground-G, first-F and second-S) Corridor (north-N, centre-C, south-S, and east-E) Number For example room GC04 is on the ground floor, centre corridor. The large central entrance corridor is known as The Street. For consistency with the room labelling in the other parts of the building, the public rooms off The Street are labelled in “corridor” W (west). The Intel Lab in SW11 is a large computer room for undergraduate students, not to be confused with Intel Research.
The Computer Lab occupies the ground and first floors of the William Gates Building.
The second floor is currently occupied by Intel Research (Intel), Cambridge Enterprise Laboratory (CEL), the Laboratory for Communications Engineering (LCE) and the Photonics
Group (Optics). The second floor occupants are arranged as follows:
Intel – The South Corridor – SS rooms CEL – The Centre Corridor – SC rooms LCE – The North Corridor – SN rooms Optics – (access via) The North Corridor – SC and SE rooms
2. W HO ' S W HO
The Head of Department is Prof. Ian Leslie. He is also Professor of Computer Science. The Deputy Head of Department is Dr. Peter Robinson.
Professors Jon Crowcroft Professor of Communication Systems (Marconi) Mike Gordon Professor of Computer Assisted Reasoning Larry Paulson Professor of Computational Logic Andrew Pitts Professor of Theoretical Computer Science Glynn Winskel Professor of Computer Science
Readers Dr Ross Anderson Reader in Security Engineering Dr Jean Bacon Reader in Distributed Systems Dr Ted Briscoe Reader in Computational Logistics Dr Ken Moody Reader in Distributed Information Management Dr Alan Mycroft Reader in Programming Language Implementation Dr Peter Robinson Reader in Computer Technology
University Senior Lecturers Dr Neil Dodgson Dr Frank King Dr Ian Pratt Dr Martin Richards
University Lecturers Dr Gavin Bierman Dr Alan Blackwell Dr Ann Copestake Dr John Daugman Dr Anuj Dawar Dr Marcelo Fiore Dr Richard Gibbens Dr David Greaves Dr Steven Hand Dr Timothy Harris Dr Sean Holden Dr Mateja Jamnik Dr Marcus Kuhn Dr Pietro Lio’ Dr Simon Moore Dr Simone Teufel
There is more information about academic staff in the blue booklet ‘The Computer Laboratory: an Introduction’
Computer Officers Dr Martyn Johnson is the senior computer officer. His team, Dr Graham Titmus, Dr Piete Brooks, Mr Ian Grant, Mr Chris Hadley, Mr Robin Fairbairns, Mrs Jiang He and Mr Dan
Building Services Technician Mr Martin McDonnell Stores Technician Mr Harry Barnard
The graduate students’ Help poster that is displayed around the department gives additional names.
Visitors
At any one time there will be a number of visitors of varying status in the department. They can be academics from other universities, senior staff from companies sponsoring research here, or students from overseas universities doing part of their studies abroad. Margaret and Caroline generally know who they are and where they can be found. Enquiries about academic visits to the department should be referred to the Head of Department. Visitors can obtain helpful information from the Society for Visiting Scholars (details in the University phone book and on the University website).
3. TEACHING COMPUTER SCIENCE
Undergraduates Information about undergraduate admissions is given in the Cambridge University Prospectus, and on the Lab’s website.
Undergraduates are admitted by one of over 30 Colleges. Subjects are not allocated to specific Colleges so our students come from many different ones. Each College has a Director of Studies in Computer Science and s/he is responsible for the academic studies of all Computer Science students at that College. D of Ss organise supervisions (small tutorial groups), and give help and advice generally.
Undergraduate teaching in the department is administered by the Computer Science Syndicate that reports to the General Board, part of the University's central administration known as the Old Schools.
The undergraduate course is known as the Computer Science Tripos. It takes 3 years and at the end a successful candidate is awarded the degree of Bachelor of Arts - one would expect it to be Bachelor of Science (BSc) but all first degrees at Cambridge are Bachelor of Arts (BA). Degree results are given in Classes: First 1st ` Upper Second 2: Lower Second 2: Third 3rd Pass
The Computer Science Tripos is an Honours course but a Pass does not merit Honours.
The degrees are conferred at a ceremony known as General Admissions which takes place in the Senate House during two days in June. This is followed by a series of celebrations held in the colleges, known as the May Balls (held in June...)
There are many different routes for an undergraduate to follow, but broadly speaking our students follow this path:
Year 1 This is known as the Computer Science Tripos Part IA. Students can take one of two options; either 50% or 25% computer science, with a mixture of maths and other science subjects to make up the total. The 50% is recommended for students intending to continue with Computer Science in year 2.
Some students reading the Maths Tripos can take a first year option of Maths with Computer Science Part IA. These students take the same computer science courses as our students taking the 25% option.
Year 2 The Computer Science Tripos Part IB is 100% computer science.
Year 3 The Computer Science Tripos Part II is 100% computer science.
It is possible to read Computer Science for one year only, having read some other subject for the first two years. This final year course is the Computer Science Tripos Part II (General). It is a restricted entry course so potential candidates need to discuss admission with their Colleges to ensure that their names are included on the list sent to the Old Schools in May. Attendance at the 2-week Long Vac course is compulsory; information about this is published in Reporter (the University's official publication).
Graduate Students There are two groups of graduate students on one-year taught courses:
The Diploma Course in Computer Science This is a conversion course for people whose first degree was in a subject other than Computer Science, generally Maths, Physics or Engineering. It is not a Masters course - we don't have one - so is not suitable for people who have already done a degree in computer science. The course covers one academical year, from October to August, although attendance at the Long Vacation Course in the previous July is recommended. Application is made on forms obtained from the Board of Graduate Studies in Mill Lane. Copies of the syllabus are available from Fiona. The course director is Ken Moody.
The MPhil in Computer Speech and Language Processing This is taught jointly by the Computer Lab and the Engineering Department but it is administered by the Computer Lab. The course director is Ted Briscoe. Lise Gough can advise on application for this course, and lots of information is given on the course web site.
4. THE ACADEMICAL YEAR
The teaching year starts in October and is divided into 4 Terms, three of which contain an 8- week period in the middle known as Full Term. Lectures are given on weekdays and Saturdays during this period. The 3 main Terms are Michaelmas (1 October to 19 December), Lent (5 January to 24 or 25 March), and Easter (10 or 17 April to 18 or 25 June depending on
6. DEALING WITH ENQUIRIES
Please try to differentiate between the sort of courses that the Computer Lab give (ie. the undergraduate course, the Diploma course and PhDs), those given by the Computing Service (ie. courses for computer users) and those given by Chris Northeast and Frank King (ie extra curricular teaching to other departments). Enquiries should be referred to Fiona.
“I’m interested in doing a course here” Determine if it's at undergraduate or graduate level. School leavers will be interested in the Tripos; graduates will either want a course (ie. the Diploma or the MPhil) or they will want to do research. The appropriate information is available from Fiona.
Sometimes, especially during the summer, we get enquiries from foreigners who want to do a course here. Often they are looking for a short word-processing or programming course, or a part-time course, in which case we can't help them. We only have full time courses for properly registered students who are members of a Cambridge College and who are paying fees to the University. It is sometimes difficult to convince them of this!
"I want to do research in X" If we do research in "X" it will be mentioned on the WWW. We don't do research in every aspect of computer science. Discourage enquirers from trying to contact individual members of staff; point them to our Web site and to the Board of Graduate Studies (which also has a Web site). We will call them for interview if we want to talk to them.
"Can I have the application forms?" We don't have application forms for undergraduate entry. The admissions procedure is described in the University Prospectus and on the University website. Forms are available from the Admissions Office of any College.
Application for admission as a graduate student is made on CIGAS Form, available from the Board of Graduate Studies in Mill Lane who can also provide copies of the Graduate Studies Prospectus.
"Can I talk to someone?" or "Can I look round the department?" Obviously we prefer to have advance notice of visitors but in the summer especially, tourists and overseas students have a tendency to call in on spec. We try to be helpful and generally allow access to the Street for sightseeing. Sometimes Fiona can spare the time to talk to potential students or to arrange whistle-stop tours. Tell them about the entry on the Web. The URL for the Lab is
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk
6th-formers often turn up on College Open Days. Tell them about our Open Day that is held annually on the afternoon of the first Friday in July. No advance booking is required, they should just turn up at 14.00 on the day and follow the signs. We don't generally publish a programme but the event usually includes a mixture of demonstrations, displays and talk.
7. LAB PUBLICATIONS
The Blue Booklet Officially called The Computer Laboratory: an Introduction it describes current research, lists academic staff, their interests and their e-mail addresses and/or Web sites.
The Syllabus The syllabus and booklist for the three Parts of the Computer Science Tripos, for the final year course Computer Science Part II (General) and the Diploma in Computer Science, are published as separate booklets.
Copies of the above are available from Fiona in GC04. The Lab also publishes a large number of Technical Reports which are available on the Web.
8. USEFUL THINGS TO KNOW!
Postal services
University Messenger Service (to other departments and the colleges) Out-going post: Please mark envelopes "UMS" in the top right-hand corner, and put them in the ‘UMS TRAY’ wire basket in the GC corridor. There are two collections and deliveries each working day.
External post Business post should be put in the ‘POST TRAY’ wire basket in the GC corridor. Private post should carry stamps for the correct value and may also be put in ‘POST TRAY’. A daily collection is made at 17.00 from Reception.
Incoming post is sorted by reception into the pigeonholes in the GC corridor, individual ones for members of staff and shared ones for research students and visitors.
Internal post for people within the Computer Lab may be left in their pigeonholes.
Telephone services
Telephones in offices are barred in various ways according to the status of the occupant/s. Those in multi-occupancy offices generally have local dialling only. Calls related to work are free. It is understood that brief private calls are sometimes necessary, but lengthy or overseas private calls are unacceptable.
Calls made by direct dialling are monitored by the Finance Division of the Old Schools and monthly printouts are sent to the department.
International business calls can be made through reception for those who do not have access to dial direct.
Assistant staff are paid at calendar month intervals in arrears by credit transfer to a bank or building society. Pay day is the last Friday before the last Saturday in the month. Pay slips are normally sent to mail pigeonholes on Wednesday but receipt of the pay slip is not a guarantee that the money has been credited; pay day is officially Friday.
The leave year runs from January to December. Supervisors should be consulted in good time about proposed holiday dates. Leave has to be approved by them and the workload of the department has to be taken into account so there may be some restrictions on when holidays can be taken.
Departmental practice regarding absence through sickness is as follows. Inform Caroline Bean as soon as is practicable, but preferably early on the first day, the reason for absence. If Caroline is unavailable then messages may be left by phone or email with Margaret Levitt or Reception. Caroline should also be informed of any medical or other appointments that need to be attended. These must first be cleared by the appropriate line manager.
Appraisals
Appraisals are carried out bi-annually, generally between the end of the Easter Term and the beginning of the pre-Michaelmas rush. Staff are usually appraised by their line manager but can request an alternative. Appraisals are intended to be helpful, and if not exactly enjoyable then at least constructive! They are a way of checking that all is well, that you are coping with your work, that you are not bored or over-worked, that the appropriate training is being or has been given, and of giving you an opportunity to look at ways of developing your job. Your job description can form the basis for discussion, and can and should be changed if changes can be demonstrated.
Finally, if you can think of any other information that could usefully be included in this booklet, please tell Margaret!
