VICE magazine recently asked three university lecturers: ‘What’s it like to lecture at university while you’re in your twenties?’
One of them was Dr Sarah Wiseman, 29, a research and teaching fellow in the computing department at Goldsmiths University of London. She leads lab sessions, talking to around 50 students at a time, and also has some experience lecturing. Here’s what she said…
“I actually hope the students still think of me as a young person – maybe I’m just getting old and desperately want that to be the case,” she laughs. “I was a bit nervous at first, but I’ve learned a lot after a few years of teaching. I’ve learned it’s absolutely OK to admit you don’t know the answer to something. You’d look like an idiot otherwise. And I’ve learned to freestyle a bit, rather than stick to a script.”
Sarah has taken part in Science Showoff gigs designed to help young academics become more confident public speakers by getting them to do stand-up comedy about their research. “It was kind of terrifying, and definitely put the teaching into perspective,” she says.
When it comes to socialising, Sarah thinks it’s important to maintain a very clear boundary between undergraduate students and academics. “You want to be approachable… but it’s about being viewed as a professional, rather than a friend,” she explains. “There is a culture of end-of-the-day drinks among colleagues in my department, but not with the students. In fact, we do need to be a bit careful about what pubs to go to in the New Cross area to make sure there aren’t awkward encounters.”
Ten hup! Time to get yourself in shape for the digital world of interconnected device computing. This summer we are running an eight-day Bootcamp suitable for anyone who wants to access contemporary digital culture more deeply.
Highly recommended for those without a technical background and about to embark on postgraduate course in digital humanities or even those who simply want to bring themselves up-to-date in a fast-moving digital world, this course covers the basics of computing from ‘what’s inside the box’ through to the basics of coding and Big Data.
Over the last three years this course has become the starting point for many careers at major newspapers, consultancies, NGOs, software startups, and social and public researchers. At less than a £100 per day this represents incredible value for such high-level training.
The course assumes only a basic knowledge of computer operating systems, word processing and the internet. Students have ample time to practice skills and experiment with tools and ideas. Daily self-assessment exercises allow students to gauge their own progress.
If you aren’t able to commit to the full course, we offer one-day (labs 3 and 4) and two-day (labs 5-6 and 7-8) standalone courses.
Lab 1: Lab primer and Computing basics 10am-5pm Monday 5 September 2016
An introduction to our working environment and the basics of computing, hardware and software. This day forms the base for a good understanding of later technical material and gets you started in the computing department labs environment.
Participants will learn how to:
use the resources offered by the computing department labs in a safe and efficient way in order to complete their study and coursework requirements
use the university’s virtual learning environment and computing department intranet servers in order to get information on their courses and submit their coursework for assessment
gain basic knowledge of computing history and internal computer organisation in order to identify the differences between hardware and software, manage resource requirements and fix common issues involved in contemporary networked computing.
identify the common hardware and software components of a modern computer and computer networks in order to manage those resources and work effectively at all times
use common computing units of measurement (Bits, MB, GB etc) in order to calculate sizes of informational units and thus transmit and store them in an efficient manner
set up their working environment for correct ergonomics in order to minimise physical harm and maximise efficiency
perform backups of their work in order to protect their digital work from loss or corruption
use the university’s computing support resources in order to overcome computing-related issues.
Lab 2: Desktop Skills (Mac OS X, Browser, Apps) 10am-5pm Tuesday 6 September 2016
This day builds on day one and gives a detailed introduces the Macintosh operating system used in Goldsmiths Computing labs. The session then moves onto developing skills with common desktop apps including a variety of web browsers, spreadsheets, code editors and media editing tools. Although focussed on computing lab machines, those with laptops can bring them in and the tutor will give you guidance of setting them up for completing coursework.
Participants will learn how to:
use the software suite supplied by the computing department in order to research and complete coursework requirements
use advanced MacOS X and web browser skills in order to work quickly and efficiently on computing lab machines
use advanced web and desktop searching techniques in order to quickly find material relevant to their research or coursework
use the core functions of the Microsoft Office suite in order to manage data and complete coursework for submission
use advanced features of the Chrome web browser to profile and identify issues with web sites in order to design and build efficient and correctly coded web sites
use a code editor to write text or computer code in order to work on websites and software production
use an FTP tool in order to transfer files between machines
secure their computer and online resources in order to prevent loss or theft.
Lab 3: UNIX Fundamentals 10am-5pm Wednesday 7 September 2016
Also available as a one-day standalone course.
UNIX is a key technology of contemporary networked computing and is the world’s most popular operating system. Understanding how to use it and develop practical skills with it is the key to participation in the wider world of digital humanities, open source and creative and social computing.
Participants will learn how to:
use the Macintosh terminal program in order to enter UNIX commands
use the terminal program to perform basic file commands in order to manage files and directories
use the terminal program to connect to remote websites in order to use their resources or move files to them
use the terminal program to create code files and run a webs server in order to develop web resources for publication or perform research related analysis
use the terminal program to interact with the MacOS finder in order to work quickly and efficiently on web and coding projects
use Git version control soft are in order manage and protect code resources and digital assets.
Lab 4: HTML and CSS 10am-5pm Thursday 8 September 2016
Also available as a one-day standalone course.
HTML and CSS are the basic digital languages of the current online and device-based computing era. By understanding the basics of HTML and CSS, students will be able to work at a higher level with a huge range of contemporary online resources such as WordPress, web site publishing, social media and digital mapping. This day serves as a basic introduction to this important markup and layout technology.
Participants will learn how to:
use a professional code editor to write correct HTML in order to build websites
use the Chrome browser inspector in order to identify issues with HTML or CSS
use a range of HTML tags in order to produce a basic web page with images, text and hyperlinks
use CSS in order to style and layout a page
use an FTP tool in order to put their work on a website
use Uniform Resources Locators (URLs) to provide links to pages.
Lab 5: Introduction to Programming with JavaScript I 10am-5pm Monday 12 September 2016
Labs 5 and 6 are also available as a two-day standalone course.
JavaScript has become the world’s most popular programming language and is available on almost every device that can run a web browser. From a relative novelty offering simple enhancements to web page it has grown to take centre stage not only as a technology for web pages but also for web apps and general command line programs. This course assumes that you have already have some basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and have already made your own web page (you will be asked to supply a URL) or have completed Lab 4.
Participants will learn how to:
use the Chrome developer tools in order to write JavaScript interactively, test commands and interact with existing web pages
use the HTML script tag in order to include JavaScript in their web pages
use the console.log statement in order to debug their programs
use variables in order to hold data or various types
use control structures and loops in order to manage the flow of execution in their program
use functions in order to encapsulate and reuse their code
use JavaScript Objects in order to build compound data structures.
Lab 6: Introduction to Programming with JavaScript II 10am-5pm Tuesday 13 September 2016
Labs 5 and 6 are also available as a two-day standalone course.
This day moves on from yesterdays basic introduction to talk more about how JavaScript objects are used through contemporary networked computing and using the Document Object Model (DOM) commands to interact with web pages and respond to user generated events. We also introduce the popular utility library jQuery that makes writing effective JavaScript easier for the beginning programmer.
Participants will learn how to:
use external files in order to organise your code and include third party libraries like jQuery or UIKit
use JavaScript objects in order to produce and consume common online data structures
use jQuery in order to simplify common programming tasks
use jQuery to animate HTML elements
use jQuery to retrieve and use web resources and include them in your web pages
use online resources in order to develop coding skills and overcome common programming errors.
Lab 7: Handling data with spreadsheets 10am-5pm Wednesday 14 September 2016
Labs 7 and 8 are also available as a two-day standalone course.
Spreadsheets are the basic tool of data analysis and investigation for a range of professions from social marketing through to data science. Good data handling skills are essential for the public researcher or marketer and in this course we cover the three central skills, sorting, filtering and pivots that are required to analyse data sets. Although our emphasis is on using Excel we will also look at using Google Sheets to perform the same level of analysis.
Participants will learn how to:
use shortcuts in order to navigate large data sets effectively
use correct formatting in order to represent numbers, money and percentages
use formulas in order to calculate new columns
use formulas to calculate percentage change, rates and per capita values
use sorting in order to find outliers in data sets
use filtering in order to produce subsets of data for further analysis
use pivot tables to summarise and analyse data sets
use export and import functions to produce or consume other common file types.
Lab 8: Statistics with spreadsheets 10am-5pm Thursday 15 September
Labs 7 and 8 are also available as a two-day standalone course.
Data ‘evidence’ is the fundamental principle of many contemporary decision making processes in various levels of business or government. Whatever your opinions on this trend, a lack of data skills can hamper your engagement with the issues. Building on Lab 7, we look at the central principles of modern descriptive statistics such as measures of centrality and distribution. We also take a brief look at the world of inferential statistics and probability. Throughout the day we will use current data sets involving crime, health and the census.
Participants will learn how to:
use a spreadsheet to produce and check summary statistics from large data sets
use a measures of centrality in order to describe large datasets
use a spreadsheet to calculate measures of spread
use charts in a spreadsheet to do visual analysis of data sets
use a spreadsheet to perform basic trend analysis
identify tools to manage very large datasets used in Big Data.
Course tutor
Andy Freeman has 30 years of experience with corporates, startups, non-profits and arts organisations, from Apple Computers to Islington Council.
He now teaches award-winning students on Goldsmiths’ Digital Journalism, Digital Sociology, Creative Computing and Computer Science degree programmes.
Students registering for one-day and two-day courses will be required to attend their first day at 9.30am, in order to read through some notes on how to use the computing lab resources.
In this blog post, we profile the professional development Dr Sylvia Xueni Pan, who joined Goldsmiths in September 2015 as a lecturer and researcher in Virtual Reality.
In 2015, deputy head of Goldsmiths Computing Marco Gillies (who had been one of her PhD supervisors) invited Sylvia Xueni Pan to apply for a job at Goldsmiths. She had been with for University College London for 11 years, and was ready to move on. Sylvia had joined UCL for her Master’s in Computer Graphics after studying Computer Science at Beihang University, Beijing. She wanted to answer the question: Beyond mere entertainment, how can computer graphics benefit us?
Some participants really enjoyed this experience, quite visibly
Continuing on this theme, Sylvia’s PhD research looked at how virtual reality systems might reduce social anxiety, language barriers and cultural difference (something she had experienced personally as a Chinese woman in London). For instance, she studied how the personality of an avatar (shy or confident) could influence our behaviour.
A subsequent post-doctoral position at UCL investigated how people respond when confronted with a moral dilemma in Virtual Reality. Her work was featured in BBC Horizon: Are You Good or Evil? (1’40” to 7’40”). (Related publications here and another here)
Her research interests pulled her towards psychology and neuroscience, resulting in post-doctoral positions at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (UCL), using VR to study the neuroscience of social interaction. Here, she discovered that we subconsciously copy an avatar when playing drums with her.
“But at UCL, the emphasis is on being brilliant at code. But there’s not enough creativity or appreciation of how code might be applied in the real world. I’m not so interested in the technical stuff – I’m interested in how it feels, and whether it works. So it made sense for me to come to Goldsmiths Computing, where creativity is really valued.”
At Goldsmiths, Sylvia teaches third-year and Master’s modules in Data Visualisation, Computer Graphics & Animation, first-year module Audio-Visual Computing, and second-year module Perception & Multimedia Computing. Part of her research interest is on building understanding between autistic and non-autistic people.
“There’s lots of work that tries to teach autistic people how to live in the non-autistic world. For example, at UCL I was working on a camera that can alert its users to emotional meaning by sensing facial expression. But I’m now more interested in teaching non-autistic people how to understand the autistic experience.”
At Goldsmiths, Sylvia is working with her students on VR environments that simulate what it’s like to be autistic. These tools can show non-autistic people what it is like to live in a world where sound affects vision, and where it is difficult to filter or prioritise sensory input.
She’s also keen to involve her students in this research.
She recently challenged her third year Computer Graphics students to create their own work that simulates autism for the non-autistic user. Some students were excited with this idea and decided to do their final year project with her. For instance, see this blog profile of one of her students’ project.
She is excited about the future of Virtual Reality and the unlimited applications in VR that would change our life in all aspects.
“Virtual Reality is going to revolutionise the way we teach, and more and more students will be excited about VR and motivated to pursue a career in this area.”
EAVI Nights celebrates its 17th edition with performances from electroacoustic visionary Simon Emmerson and glitch pop pioneer AGF – plus French art pop, post-USSR loops and live AV performance.
Where: Amersham Arms, 388 New Cross Road, London SE14 6TY When: 8pm – late, Thursday 21 April 2016 Tickets: £5. Buy advance tickets at eavixvii.eventbrite.com
A team of London schoolgirls have scooped four prizes at the national VEX IQ challenge, thanks to mentoring from Goldsmiths Computing.
The Cyborgs – four Year 9 girls from Henrietta Barnett School – competed in the VEX IQ challenge to design and build a robot.
Early in the process of constructing the robot, one of the girls – Elli Gaver – came to Goldsmiths and talked with post-doc researcher Perla Maiolino. Perla helped Elli figure out how to make the basic design she wanted. This was a great foundation for later improvements – and by the time Nationals came along, the entire robot had been made and remade several times over.
After qualifying at the regionals in London, the Cyborgs travelled to Birmingham to compete against 40 of the top UK teams who had qualified at their regional competitions. The Cyborgs ended up winning four of the ten top prizes:
Excellence Award for the best robot in the competition
Teamwork Challenge, for amassing the highest total of points in a series of trials that involved being paired randomly with other teams to cooperatively try to clear a field of balls
Driver Skills, in which they got the highest number of points driving alone in the same ball-clearing challenge
Programming Skills for programming their robot to autonomously do the same task
The girls are now busily improving their robots’ hardware and software in preparation for their trip to Louisville Kentucky to compete in the Internationals on 20 April – 23 April 2016.
Goldsmiths Computing have contributed to the team’s travel expenses – and we wish them the very best luck!
Nuno Correia, part of the Goldsmiths team, describes the game here.
“The game can be played by anyone, including players with hearing or visual impairments. A sequence of three shapes and tones (we call them ShapeTones) is played, and the player tries to reproduce it with three taps. Tapping different areas of the screen triggers different ShapeTones.
“The game starts with three ShapeTones. As the game evolves, more ShapeTones become available. When a new ShapeTone is added, a trial screen is shown to demonstrate where each ShapeTone is triggered. Some surprises happen along the way!
“As a one-player game, the sequence is created automatically. As a two-player game, one player creates the sequence, and then passes the device to the other player, who tries to repeat it. They then swap the roles.
“The collaboration between the two universities aimed to create an audiovisual game accessible to sound or vision impaired users, and allowing for multiple players. The research results from ShapeTones will be presented in May at CHI, the top conference for Human-Computer Interaction, in San Jose, California.”
ShapeTones resulted from a collaboration between the research projects Enabling AudioVisual User Interfaces (AVUIs) and Design Patterns for Inclusive Collaboration (DePIC).
Nuno Correia from Goldsmiths’ Embodied Audiovisual Interaction (EAVI) group participated with the Enabling AVUIs project, and the DePIC team consisted of Fiore Martin, Nick Bryan-Kinns, Oussama Metatla and Tony Stockman from Queen Mary University of London.
Following three successful sessions in 2015, Goldsmiths Computing are running three more free drop-in workshops on the first Tuesday of February, April and May 2016.
Come to all, or come to just one. Participants will work in groups to complete a series of business computing & entrepreneurial challenges. All welcome, but especially suitable for people considering studying business or computing at university.
“Thank you kindly for your informative and inspirational lecture. We really enjoyed ourselves and found the content to be extremely relevant and timely.”
5pm-7pm Tuesday 2 February 2016 What’s in a tweet? How do businesses use social media like Twitter to understand customer behaviour? Register for What’s in a Tweet
5pm-7pm Tuesday 5 April 2016 You can do it, but is it ethical? An introduction to social, legal and ethical issues of digital entrepreneurship. Register for Is It Ethical
5pm-7pm Tuesday 3 May 2016 How can I make it? What are the traits and approaches of successful digital entrepreneurs? (rescheduled from 1 March) Register for How Can I Make It
Andy Freeman has 30 years of experience with corporates, startups, non-profits and arts organisations, from Apple Computers to Islington Council.
