Computing students’ talents are recognised with society awards

Originally posted on: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/computing-students-talents-are-recognised-with-society-awards

• Wednesday 30th September 2015
  
  ​​Computing undergraduates from the University of Northampton have been recognised for their work with awards from a prestigious society.
  Ten students received awards during the Northampton British Computing Society branch annual general meeting, which was held at Avenue Campus on Tuesday 30 September.
  Gary Hill, Head of Computing and Immersive Technologies at the University, said: "I'm proud that our students are receiving awards for their achievements from the British Computer Society and HMGCC.
  "To have such an award win on their CVs will help to give them a competitive edge when they embark on their chosen careers."
  The award winners were:
  Best final year student dissertation – Jan Tucholka
  Most promising first year student – Ryan Sinfeld
  Best final year business computing student – Matt Jacobs
  Most promising first year business computing student – Yoanna Slavova.
  HMGCC (Her Majesty's Government Communications Centre) awards were also presented during the evening to the following:
  Best final year student – Matthew Houston De Cesare
  Best group project – Ali Obaid Hassan Al-Mahmood, Jonathan Dimmock, Ryan Edwards, Daniel Constantin Lupan and Deryn David Suttling.
  Computer Science at the University has just received two glowing endorsements in the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2016 league tables.
  The subject was ranked in the top 10 for Teaching Quality and in the top 20 for Student Experience in the tables, which were published on September 20.
  
  
  Pictured, from left, are Ali Obaid Hassan Al-Mahmood, Jonathan Dimmock, Ryan Edwards, Daniel Constantin Lupan and Yoanna Slavova.​

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Race to the Top Coding Competition

Race to the Top Coding Competition

Northamptonshire County Council, The Worshipful Company of Information Technolgists (WCIT, a City of London Livery Company), Code Club and the University of Northampton have organised a competition for schools to encourage increased and improved teaching of computer coding.

The aim of the competition is to inspire young people to achieve digital fluency through collaboration and challenge. The competition will run from the launch event on 2 October, 2015 until the closing date of 8 January, 2016.

The entries will be judged by representatives from all four organisations and our sponsors, and the winning entries will be rewarded with The Northamptonshire Race to the Top Coding Competition Cup and prizes for the students and their schools.

The Challenge

• Primary Category, Years 4-6 – Groups of up to 6 students from Years 4, 5, or 6 will design a game based around saving energy using the coding programme Scratch. Students will also have to come up with their own team name and logo. They will then present their game to the judges with a 2 minute video uploaded to YouTube. This competition will be led by Code Club.

• Secondary Category, Year 9 – Groups of up to 6 students will use coding to design a mobile application based around saving energy. Students will also have to come up with their own team name and logo. They will then present the app to the judges with a 2 minute video uploaded to YouTube. This competition will be led by WCIT and the University of Northampton.

The games and apps will be judged by our panel, and the very best entries from each level will be awarded this year’s Race to the Top Coding Competition Cup and a personal Raspberry Pi computer. Level 2 winners will also be invited to represent the WCIT on their stand at the prestigious Livery Schools Link Showcase event at The City of London Corporation Guildhall in March, 2016.

Website for more details:
Race to the Top Coding Competition - Northamptonshire County Council


 If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Serious games press

There has been recent interest in the new MSc Computing (Serious Games) course in the press links to ITV and The Independent websites are included below.

But to start with what are Serious Games - "A serious game or applied game is a game designed for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment" (Djaouti et al., NA)

Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/university-of-northampton-offers-students-masters-degree-in-serious-gaming-10508086.html

ITV

http://www.itv.com/news/anglia/update/2015-09-15/northampton-university-launches-masters-degree-in-video-gaming/

Reference
Djaouti, Damien; Alvarez, Julian; Jessel, Jean-Pierre. (NA) "Classifying Serious Games: the G/P/S model" (Retrieved 26 June 2015.

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

British Computer Society (Northampton) Branch AGM

29th September 2015 - Northampton BCS Branch AGM

NOTIFICATION OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 

Northampton BRANCH

Annual General Meeting of the Northampton Branch of the BCS, which will be held on Tuesday 29th Sept at University of Northampton, Newton Building, NN2 6JB, 7pm to 9pm

All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Near Northamptonshire BCS (Bedford) Talk Wed 16 Sept "Cyber - The Challenge for us all" and BCS Branch AGM

Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2015 

 Topic: ”Cyber – The challenge for us all”
 Speaker: Detective Superintendent Jon Gilbert, Strategic Lead for Cyber for Bedfordshire Police 
 Time: 6.30-8.00pm; registration starts at 6:00pm 

 Location: Bridge Suite, The Park Inn Hotel, 2 St Mary's Street, Bedford MK42 0AR 

 Register online at: https://events.bcs.org/book/1701 

FREE evening talk at The Park Inn Hotel, Bedford (opposite Bedford College) on Wednesday 16 September 2015. The talk will be followed immediately by the Bedford BCS Branch’s 2015 Annual General Meeting. 

Superintendent Jon Gilbert is the strategic lead for Cyber for Bedfordshire Police and previously led the delivery for the East of England in support of a co-ordinated National Policing response to Cyber 

 Jon’s talk will cover the following topics: 
· An overview of the current use and adoption of (information) technology · Associated risks and criminal exploitation 
· Law Enforcement Strategy and response to the challenges posed 
· Emerging opportunities moving forward in partnership 

Cyber crime is one of the fastest growing criminal activities across the world, and can affect both individuals and businesses. Bedfordshire Police is now embarking on a comprehensive response to cyber crime, working together with partners to research real-world cyber issues, and developing strategies to both prevent and protect against the ever-changing cyber crime profile. In August this year, Bedfordshire Police were proud to announce the launch of its innovative new Cyber Hub – a unit dedicated to analysing digital data to investigate cyber crime. 

The full agenda for the Bedford BCS Branch’s 2015 AGM can be found at: http://www.beds.bcs.org.uk/event.php?event=114 

 Agenda 
 6.00pm Registration, light refreshments and networking 
 6.30pm Introduction ‘Cyber – The challenge for us all’ 
 7.15pm Opportunity to question the speaker 
 7.30pm Bedford BCS branch’s 2015 AGM 

 Registration registering online at: https://events.bcs.org/book/1701 . 

 If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

Model-Based Tool Support for Tactical Data Links: An Experience Report from the Defence Domain

(2015) Ajit, S, Holmes, C, Johnson, J, Kolovos, D, Paige, R: Model-Based Tool Support for Tactical Data Links: An Experience Report from the Defence Domain. Software and Systems Modeling, DOI 10.1007/s10270-015-0480-2, ISSN: 1619-1366, Springer Berlin Heidelberg. 

Abstract:
The Tactical Data Link (TDL) allows the exchange of information between cooperating platforms as part of an integrated command and control (C2) system. Information exchange is facilitated by adherence to a complex, message-based protocol defined by document-centric standards. In this paper, we report on a recent body of work investigating migration from a document-centric to a model-centric approach within the context of the TDL domain, motivated by a desire to achieve a positive return on investment. The model-centric approach makes use of the Epsilon technology stack and provides a significant improvement to both the level of abstraction and rigour of the network design. It is checkable by a machine and, by virtue of an MDA-like approach to the separation of domains and model transformation between domains, is open to integration with other models to support more complex workflows, such as by providing the results of interoperability analyses in human-readable domain-specific reports conforming to an accepted standard.

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10270-015-0480-2

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with

A Textual Domain Specific Language for Requirement Modelling

Oyindamola Olajubu

Conference: 10th Joint Meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, At Bergamo Italy

Abstract:

Requirement specification is usually done with a combination of Natural Language (NL) and informal diagrams. Modelling approaches to support requirement engineering activities have involved a combination of text and graphical models. In this work, a textual domain specific modelling notation for requirement specification is presented. How certain requirement attributes are addressed using this notation is also described.

Paper is available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281372036_A_Textual_Domain_Specific_Language_for_Requirement_Modelling

Oyindamola Olajubu is a PhD student within the Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, University of Northampton, UK and co-supervised with GE Avation. 

Northampton Supervisors:

Dr Suraj Ajit

Dr Mark Johnsom

Dr Scott Turner

If you'd like to find out more about Computing at the University of Northampton go to: www.computing.northampton.ac.uk. All views and opinions are the author's and do not necessarily reflected those of any organisation they are associated with