Computing students learn about the future of networking from Hewlett-Packard

Taken from: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/computing-students-learn-about-the-future-of-networking-from-hewlett-packard/

Computing students from the School of Science and Technology had the opportunity to hear from the Senior Product Manager of Hewlett-Packard about the future of computer networking.

In a two-hour lecture Bruno Hareng explained the limitation that IT professionals face with the current distributed architecture used by networks today and how Software Defined Networking (SDN) can make networks more agile and secure.  Defined as cutting edge technology, SDN allows network administrators to manage network services through abstraction of higher-level functionality. The School of Science and Technology has recently received HEFCE funding to purchase the latest Hewlett-Packard SDN lab equipment for teaching purposes and Northampton is one of only three universities to have such facilities.

Dr Ali Al-Sherbaz, Senior Lecturer in Computing at the University of Northampton, commented: “It was a great opportunity for both our students and staff to listen to Bruno Hareng talk about SDN, as some of our research students and staff are working in this area and we are planning to establish a larger research team in the future. They were able to discuss several technical issues regarding teaching and research, which will help to improve our students’ learning experience and employability too.”

Dr Mu Mu, Lecturer in Computing, said: “The talk covers the origins of SDN and OpenFlow (a widely adopted SDN specification), key research and development milestones in academia and industry in the last ten years, and the most recent use cases of SDN in education and enterprise networks. Bruno concluded the talk with a vision of the future networking research, a collaborative effort between academia, service providers, and vendors. Through this talk, students had a first-hand tutorial of emerging network technologies from one of the pioneers in this field. The post-talk Q&A was also centred around the education of future network designers, engineers and architects. We touched on plans to evolve our curriculum, emphasising topics such as: design and prototyping of distributed systems, a great knowledge of network virtualisation, the ability to think outside the box with a solid understanding of the software development process.”

Ameer Al-Sadi , a PhD student whose research focus is on utilising SDN in smart cities, commented:  “This was a great opportunity to meet Bruno Hareng personally and discuss several technical issues with him. Having an SDN lab will open the gate; not only for research, but for teaching both undergraduate and postgraduate students this latest technology, which will have a huge impact on our future careers.”

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

3D model of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon

Taken from http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/students-present-their-3d-model-of-the-hanging-gardens-of-babylon-to-research-expert/

Dr Stephanie Dalley, author of The Mystery of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon: An Elusive World Wonder Traced visited the University of Northampton to talk to students about her research and to feedback on their 3D virtual reality model of the gardens.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon have been described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and are believed to have been built around 600 BC, but there is no evidence that the gardens ever existed. Through her research Dr Dalley has suggested that the gardens weren’t actually located in Babylon, but in Nineveh, which is located around 350 miles north of the ancient city of Babylon.

For the last two years, students studying for the BA (Hons) in Games Art have been developing the 3D visualisation of the gardens based on how various researchers have described it. The students presented their work to Dr Dalley, who was able to critique it and give feedback on the representation.

Martyn Simmons, Senior Lecturer in Games Design, commented: “The virtual reality model that the students have been working on is a conversation piece based on various research and ideas and is an on-going project. It was great to have Dr Dalley’s input and for her to see what the students have created so far.

“We are proud that the model will also be on display on the Dutch National Museum from October 2016 until March 2017.”

Ali Al Sherbaz, Senior Lecturer in Computing, commented: “We are encouraging people around the world to participate in this project. I have met many people in both Babylon and the UK who are interested to be part of it. Part of Dr Dalley’s talk was about utilising technology and virtual reality to rebuild the heritages to be available worldwide in museums, schools or colleagues.”

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

BCS (Bedford) event: Social Project Management – Go Social or Die

Social Project Management – Go Social or Die

Jonnie Jensen, CEO | Online Business Strategist, Live And Social

Tuesday, 12 April 2016

6.30-8.00pm

(Registration starts at 6:00pm)

Tavistock Suite

The Park Inn Hotel, 2 St Mary's Street, Bedford MK42 0AR

(Free Parking at the rear – Inform Hotel Reception)

Register online at: https://events.bcs.org/book/1951/

Jonnie is founder of content marketing and social business agency Live And Social (http://www.liveandsocial.com/). His career has involved the internet, mobile and all things digital since 1999.  This work helped him recognise that social media was going to transform the way we communicate and operate in business, as well as our personal lives.  Live And Social was launched in 2007 to help B2B companies utilise social media across their entire business, raising their profile, generating leads and growing their business in the process.

Agenda

6.00pm                        Registration, refreshments and networking

6.30pm                        Guest Speaker – Jonnie Jensen

7.20pm                        Opportunity to question the speaker

7.45pm                        Opportunity to network and talk to the speaker

You can engage in  discussion via: 

https://www.facebook.com/bcs.bedford 

https://twitter.com/BCSBedford 

https://www.linkedin.com/groups/4701821  

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

Social Robotics for Primary School children

A member of the Computing Team presented a talk on Social Robotics (with a little help from a Red friend) to an audience of primary school children as part of Lab_13's Lectures at Wollaston School, Northamptonshire.

Red performed walking with three of the children and the presentation included discussion about the robots JIBO and Buddy that are expected this year. 

Red @NaoRobot from @UniNorthants @UoNComputing of to Wollaston School for @Lab_13Irchester lecture @STEMatUN pic.twitter.com/IF4HTVyYa1

— Scott Turner (@scottturneruon) March 18, 2016

Social robots meet red and smurf from Scott Turner

A change I would like to make is to bring along an OhBot (a bit like the one in the video below) as well as including OhBot in the revised presentation slides.



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

British Science Week: Raspberry Pi 3

Originally posted as 

British Science Week: Let’s Talk about Raspberry Pi 3. #BSW2016 https://medium.com/@UniNorthants/national-science-week-let-s-talk-about-raspberry-pi-3-nsw2016-fbf6834b25c#.iwi50jpdd

Imagine this scenario: Sarah walks into the ICT suite, and sits down in front of a screen, keyboard and mouse and a few cables. She opens her bag and pulls out a small plastic box around the size of large match box and plugs in the cables, one each for the monitor, the keyboard, mouse and lastly the power leads to the box. One the screen after a few seconds the screen changes and she is ready to work on her coursework on the word-processor and do some searching, because this box has already connected to the wireless network.

The new Raspberry Pi 3 is exciting, but mainly because it is a Raspberry Pi and plays a huge part in what this means for the future of computing.

In the last few weeks, the scenario above took a giant step forward to being a reality with the release of Raspberry Pi 3 from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. A matchbox size computer for under £35 means that a truly personal computer is possible; one for each student or even as an alternative to shared PCs. The downloadable software used for Raspberry Pi includes the basic things most people need such as word-processing, spreadsheets, browsers, etc, and all for free.

Raspberry Pi has been around for four years now, but what puts the new Pi model a step ahead are two fundamental things:

1) Its wireless and Bluetooth connectivity are built into one for the first time

2) The processor is getting closer to that of laptops and desktop computers

Ok, so am I suggesting that schools throw out their current computers? No not for a moment.

When the time comes to renew them though, perhaps considering the advantages and disadvantages of a £30 computer instead or in the extreme scenario above, one £35 computer per student is worth considering.

The technical aspects alone are a good reason to make a Raspberry Pi 3 purchase, but in my opinion it would be the Raspberry Pi Foundation itself and it’s community that are the real advantage. The Foundation’s stated goals are “…to advance the education of adults and children, particularly in the field of computers, computer science and related subjects.”

The Foundation also owns the Code Club; a network of volunteer-led, after-school coding clubs which are committed to training teachers in computing and training on how to use Raspberry Pi through a two-day course called PiCademy.

The ace up their sleeve is that they have the support of a relatively large community of hobbyists who play with Raspberry Pi for their own fun and have a culture of sharing ideas, projects and providing support to each other. In my view this is the ‘secret sauce’; the teachers and hobbyists in the community provide and share resources very openly.

As an example, a new resource for using Raspberry Pi in science classes was recently made available and like most resources this has been produced by one or more hobbyists. One further example is the idea of PiJams; where anyone interested in finding out more or sharing what they are doing can come along and take part.

With these fantastic events in mind The University of Northampton is hosting the first Northamptonshire Raspberry Jam on the 16 April 2016. Register for free and share your knowledge or learn something new!

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

Over 6000 downloads of Computing Open Educational Resources (OERs)

A selection of the open educational resources that have been released from the Department of Computing and Immersive Technologies, School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton. 

	views	downloads
C Programming	827	4998
Summary of Evolutionary Algorithms	643	301
Problem-Solving	393	769
Total	1863	6068

Based on figures from Jorum at 25/3/2016.

Summary of Evolutionary Algorithms

Click here for the resource: http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19204

Author: Dr Scott Turner 

These slides are intended for undergraduate computing students, providing an overview of Genetic Algorithms, a concept of in artificial intelligence. As well providing an overview the material also include links to applications via web resources. The slides are taken from an undergraduate artificial intelligence module on the BSc Computing Programme at the University of Northampton. Possible uses of these including support material for second year, third year or masters level course on artificial intelligence.

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Click here for the resource: http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19204

C Programming

Click here for the resource: http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19192

Author: Dr Scott Turner
In this material you will be introduced to some of the principles of programming, and specifically learn to write fairly simple programs using a programming language called C. An idea central to this material is that programming is about problem solving; you write a program to solve a particular problem. It is hoped that at the end of the material you should see that there is nothing magical or mysterious about programming. One of the features some people like about programming is you are making the computer do what you want. During the programming exercises, do not worry about making mistakes. In this material you will be expected to try out programs and eventually write your own. The target audience is anyone who wants to learn a programming language or is looking for some assessment questions around programming. The material was originally aimed at second year engineering students at the University of Northampton.

Click here for the resource: http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19192

Problem-Solving

Author: Dr Scott Turner

http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19001

These mini lectures are intended for undergraduate computing students, for providing simple steps in problem solving before the students learn a programming language. Problem-Solving and Programming is a common first year undergraduate module on the BSc Computing Programme at the University of Northampton. This material was taken from the problem solving part of the module and provides an introduction to five topics in problem-solving.

The resource can be found at: http://find.jorum.ac.uk/resources/19001

All views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.All views are the authors, and may not reflect the views of any organisation the author is connected with in any way.

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

Financial solutions: University of Northampton students work on real-life industry project for Barclaycard

Taken from: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/barclaycard-challenge-2016/ 

Pictured left: Gherghinoiu Daniel, Hussein Ajam, Zaid Amjed Alhusainy and Rashad Salim at Barclaycard HQ. Right: Ankit Gupta, Jakub Kotlewski, Luke Kirby and Laura Gardner at Barclaycard HQ

Twenty University of Northampton computing students have just finished work on the Barclaycard Challenge; a Dragons’ Den style competition which saw the students develop prototype computer software for the financial giant.

Now in its second year, the Barclaycard Challenge offers Northampton students the chance to gain industry experience in a real business environment. On day one, the students are given a real business related problem and then asked to come up with the best possible solution in the two days available. On the second day the students present their strategy for problem resolution and their prototype software to a judging panel, featuring three senior Barclaycard managers and one University representative.

The University’s Dr Mark Johnson, Deputy Head of Computing explained: “This year, the groups were asked to investigate an alternative to the two pieces of software Barclaycard currently use for their workload management, and rework the current business model with one integrated software solution for Management Information and workflow monitoring. The students did a great job, with the wining group developing a working prototype solution in just two days.”

“The collaboration with Barclaycard really helps students to feel confident that they have the skill set needed to be successful in industry. This is especially useful for final year students currently applying for graduate positions in the computing field.”

Student Ankit Gupta enjoyed the challenge, commenting: “Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to prepare and give a formal presentation in the corporate world. I appreciate the mentor’s help and support throughout the event. I feel very grateful to be a part of such a programme; I learned a lot and gained a very nice experience from it.”

Robin Anderson, Product Owner for Global Payment Acceptance atBarclaycard, commented: “We found each of the students to have a well-developed understanding – and complementary mix – of business drivers, commercial acumen and technical expertise that ensured everyone came away having learned something from the two day challenge, particularly the Barclaycard volunteers who offered up their time to volunteer or judge, and found in the students a refreshing aptitude for creative problem solving and lateral thinking.

Each and every group offered up a solution to the proposed challenge that both met (and exceeded) the expected outcome, the winner differentiating themselves only in the clarity and sophistication of their final presentation. It is a point of some significance that all Barclaycard colleagues involved left the office that night ‘buzzing’ with the great energy of this year’s collaboration, and all expressed a desire to support the development of our relationship with University of Northampton further.”

The University of Northampton is one of the country’s top performers for student employability. In 2015, for the third year running, the University maintained a student employability rate of 96 per cent* of students in work or further study six months after graduating. Within the Computing (Software Engineering) pathway, 22 out of 24 graduates were in full time, graduate level employment just three months after completing their course.

For further information regarding the Computing degree at the University of Northampton, click here.

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Exploring robotics with Red and Smurf

In an in-reach STEAM activity day I have had the opportunity to show off two NAO robots in action to a group of 8-years olds. As well presenting a short presentation on social robots (see below). By the way Red and Smurf are the nicknames for the two robots.

Meeting our robots at our #science day for girls pic.twitter.com/0XwllXL40s

— Chris Fidler (@Chris_UNPR) March 3, 2016

Meet Smurf and Red at Girls S.T.E.A.M. @UniNorthants @scottturneruon @Changemaker_Hub @nick_petford pic.twitter.com/ZMt07ZrSVh

— STEM at UN (@STEMatUN) March 3, 2016

Buddy will be in homes soon Girls into S.T.E.A.M. @scottturneruon @UniNorthants @Changemaker_Hub pic.twitter.com/1jIsU8IKon

— STEM at UN (@STEMatUN) March 3, 2016

Social robots meet red and smurf from 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