Tag Archives: Computing

Students

Meet Eduardo, our Department Student Co-ordinator.

Eduardo is a student on the BSc Creative Computing (integrated degree). This year he has been doing a wonderful job of one of our Department Student Co-ordinators, representing the student body to both the department itself and to Goldsmiths. Here he tells us a little about himself and his experiences of Goldsmiths:

I am a mature student with a young heart. At the moment I am in the foundation year to shape up and get the tools I need to become a computer scientist. I knew about Goldsmiths because some of my friends who were studying at the university already told me the wonders of studying here.

I was thinking about coming back to education for some time, and after attending to an open day and having a chat with the Computing Department peeps I was convinced I wanted to study here. Studying at Goldsmiths for me has been a great experience and a rollercoaster of emotions, I have met good friends, and given the opportunity to get involved in the academic life, by working closely with students, teachers and other academic figures to support students as Student Coordinator and this way become a bridge for better understanding between the two sides.

My tutors have given me many gifts to be thankful for, like logical thinking and understanding computing behaviour, the hunger for researching, and creating my own personal and creative ways to develop my ideas so I can walk my own path.

Finally studying at Goldsmith has given me the ultimate gift, which is a dream of an amazing future and a second opportunity in life to become the person I want to be.

Women in Computing

Women in Computing workshop at Goldsmiths

On the 27th March, the Computing Department at Goldsmiths ran an Introduction to Arduino workshop specifically aimed at women applicants.

The workshop was a great success. Arduino is a computer that can sense what is going on in the world and make something happen because of it. It is a prototyping board, for all your interactive design/artistic needs. The workshop introduced applicants to some of the amazing things that can be done with an Arduino, how to get started and how to find out more. In the workshop we learned how to write a small computer program to control a light to turn on when it gets dark, or when someone comes near. All participants seemed to enjoy the workshop, as did the workshop leaders, Sophie and Shauna from MzTek.

Our department is committed to actively encouraging more women to take up university places in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) subjects. We are also committed to supporting women students once they arrive at Goldsmiths because we recognise that Computing subjects have traditionally been dominated by men.

Keep an eye out for more Women in Computing events taking place at Goldsmiths over the coming months.

 

 

 

Staff profiles and activity

Meet the staff: Prof Robert Zimmer

In the run up to the new academic year in September, we’re conducting a series of quick-fire interviews with some of the lecturers so you can meet them before you arrive. It would be only right to kick off with the Head of Department, so here you go…

Professor Robert Zimmer in 60 seconds!

What five words would you choose to describe the department? Welcoming, innovative, relaxed, creative, unique.

What do most enjoy about being Head of the Computing department? Being a head of department at Goldsmiths has enabled me to work with world class researchers in arts, humanities and social sciences to build a unique and exciting intellectual environment in the Computing Department

If you weren’t an academic, what would your dream job be? Presenter of a daytime TV.

What do you most like doing when you’re not at work? I would say…drinking wine and cooking!

What piece of advice would you give to applicants hoping to take up a university place in September? Be yourself. Be somebody better.

Staff profiles and activity, Women in Computing

‘Our Correspondent’, Dr Kate Devlin – BBC Expert Women

Our lecturer, Dr Kate Devlin, was one of 60 experts selected out of over 2000 applicants to take part in a scheme to tackle gender imbalance in the media. Here she talks about her experience.

Tuesday, 4pm, at the BBC Academy: I was so busy chatting with three other women about computers, 3D printing, robotics and counterterrorism engineering that I forgot I was in a radio studio in the middle of a broadcast. I was taking part in the BBC Academy Expert Women day as a participant in the second cohort to be put through their paces at White City. Considering I had started the morning panicking that maybe I didn’t know enough, and that maybe they would think I was a fraud, the training had worked.

In four all-too-short sessions we were shown the ropes, getting a taste of how to confidently share our knowledge and research with a wide audience on TV and radio. But it wasn’t just the new skills that were so fascinating: the twenty-nine other women experts and the industry women training us were among the most interesting I have ever had the pleasure to meet. From astrobiologists to actuaries, and from to vulcanologists to feminist historians, everyone had something compelling to share and the opportunity was there to share it.

Women are vastly under-represented in the media and the Expert Women campaign seeks to redress the gender imbalance. This imbalance is also echoed in our own discipline – computing – where women are often discouraged by the “white male geek” stereotype. It’s estimated that the number of UK technology jobs held by women is just 17%. Seventeen percent! And yet we are all using and interacting with technology daily. Research shows we often assume that because we see stereotypes, we feel we ought to conform to those stereotypes in order to be successful. In other words, if we see a geeky male computer scientist, we think we can only be a computer scientist if we are both geeky and male. Not true! It was women who drove many of the early developments in computing and, hopefully, it will be women who contribute more and more in the future. Through initiatives such as these where women talk about what they do and share it publicly, we hope to encourage other women and girls, and show that a career in computing is both possible and desirable.

Dr Kate Devlin
Women in Computing

Happy International Women’s Day

It’s International Women’s Day. Last year i wrote this post about some of the women in our Dept including the wonderful Dr Kate Devlin.

This year I would like to welcome Freida Abtan to Goldsmiths. Freida will be heading up the BSc Music Computing programme and is based in both Music and Computing. In honour of International Women’s Day, Freida has brought our attention to this video by Feminist Frequency, the first installment on a series on tropes in video games. Read more here.

Finally, I want to tell you about my Women in Computing project. On the 27th March we will be offering our women applicants the opportunity to take part in a fantastic Introduction to Arduino workshop here at Goldsmiths. The workshop will be run by Sophie McDonald of MzTek. It’s going to be smashing. So check your inboxes, girls!

Rose

 

Careers

Is Games Programming at Goldsmiths right for you?

BSc Games Programming is for students who are passionate about games and committed to creating games. Making games requires hard work and difficult problem solving but is also incredibly rewarding. You need to have good technical skills, this is our toughest undergraduate degree, but you also need to love games and to really want to make games. The greatest moments of this degree will be when your game, that you designed and implemented, is finished and you can have the satisfaction of playing it and seeing others playing it, knowing that you made it. If you have the dedication to put in the hours of  hard work to get to that point then this is the degree for you.

Careers

Is Business Computing at Goldsmiths right degree for you?

Business Computing is for you if you are passionate about computing technology and how it is transforming our world and businesses. You should relish the challenge of developing a new software application but also be excited about the potential that application has for transforming people’s lives. You should be a creative and innovative individual who can see how the web and mobile apps are changing the way we live our life and want to make your own contribution to that innovation. If you have ever had an idea for an app that you think could change the world or be a mass market success but need to learn the technical and business skills to make it happen, then this is the degree for you.