Human-Centred Computing News

On Friday, about 22 Year 9 students from six local schools visited the department to get a taster session of programming. The students, most of whom had never done 'real' programming before, were shown how programming is useful in everyday life in everything from video games to mapping disaster zones using mobile phones.

They were a lively group who then worked at an example of programming in the ‘World of Wombats’ - mostly with enthusiasm and lots of questions. Most of them achieved what we hoped for in the short time they had – though they still had several ‘challenges’ to finish. Did we put them off or turn them on? We hope to see some of them again in four and a half years time!

This was part of a full day at the university, organised by the Widening Participation team, in which five other departments held similar events in order to inspire young people to consider a degree at university.

Over a hundred students gathered last week in the Panorama Room for a reception, poster display and then Award Ceremony for the Warwick Advantage Awards. They were all winners of Awards of various kinds in recognition of outstanding extra-curricular contributions to life at Warwick and the local community.

We were delighted that four Award winners were from Computer Science. Main Awards were presented to Phillip Taylor (CS3) and Hoi Zin (Jackie) Tran (DM3). Gold Awards were gained by two Computer and Business Studies students Samantha Edwards and Nikhita Giridhar (pictured above). Among many activities over her first two years at Warwick Samantha has visited numerous local schools (a different one each week!) as one of the Warwick Technology Volunteers to introduce the programming environment Scratch to pupils and teachers. Interestingly Nikhita, a final year student, commented, "I think it counted significantly towards my getting a job offer from Goldman Sachs that I done so many extra-curricular things during my time at Warwick."

The Warwick Advantage Award provides the opportunity to achieve University recognition and reward for the time and effort that students put into societies, sports clubs, campaigns, committees, volunteering, events, URSS research, work experience & everything else that isn't a degree requirement. Find out more at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/advantage/awards/

On the last Wednesday of term about 250 6th formers, teachers and employers converged on the Department of Computer Science at Warwick for a conference Computing Your Future. The purpose was to inspire school students with the astonishing possibilities and challenges that computing now offers and to inform them about the great variety of computing degrees and also the excitement of the numerous career paths that can follow after such degrees. The conference was one of about a dozen similar events across the country during National Science Week sponsored by the Computing At School (CAS) movement and the British Computer Society. Lunch at the event was very generously sponsored by the local branch of the Institution of Engineering and Technology. Further support was provided from the British Computer Society and CAS.

The day began, and ended, with plenary sessions addressed by staff from both Warwick and Coventry universities including a remarkably inspiring final talk from Peter Dickman – an Engineering Manager at the Google Zurich Office. The main work of the day went on in a series of Workshops which participants attended in small groups. There were 17 of these in parallel ranging from Haptic Interaction with Virtual Scenes to First Steps with Greenfoot, and from A Day in the Life of a Video Game Programmer to Ethical Hacking and Network Security. Several Computer Science students (as well as staff) from both Warwick and Coventry Universities helped to lead these workshops. There were also a wide variety of employers – both recent graduates and experienced managers – giving a detailed and practical insight into the huge range of jobs that are calling out for computing-qualified graduates.

The lead organiser of the event, Steve Russ of Computer Science at Warwick, was assisted by staff from Warwick Manufacturing Group and Coventry University as well as the Coventry and Warwickshire LEA. The success of the day depended in large measure on a team of 32 Warwick students who enthusiastically welcomed and guided groups around the numerous venues and helped to run workshops. There were 15 local schools represented and we hope a new CAS Hub can be formed soon which will help to support and share resources among ICT/Computing teachers on a regular on-going basis.