Tag Archives: Goldsmiths

Students

Matt, BSc Computer Science

Matt Huxley, computer science thinkerHi! I’m Matt. I’m 24 and a current second year computer science student at Goldsmiths. I’ll basically be blogging about my degree, what work or projects I’m on and any computing related work I’m doing outside of uni. Here’s a picture of me looking somewhat inspirational in my kitchen; no doubt thinking of doubles or 32 bit single precision floating point binary representation.

Currently I’m working on my Android, Networks & Web and Distributed Programming courseworks and looking forward to the exams in May. Fun! I’m also putting together a project for the Warden about the library at Goldsmiths for the student union. My contribution for the presentation will be presenting it myself and putting together a video of Library project video previewthe interviews we did. Though, an in-proportionate amount of time currently is going into an excessive and perhaps joke intro. Think dubstep, and lens flares, and contrast. Yeah, about that.

 

Outside of uni I work for a company iBid as one of their technicians. They provide wireless silent bidding systems for auctions and events. So I set up the wireless networks in the big event halls/rooms in connection to our server, set up all the tablets and configure them for the tables and manage the guestlist/table number database throughout the night. We also set up the displays and dynamic leaderboards on stages and TVs around the room, so it’s working with a lot of AV people too. It’s quite a lot of fun, getting to be privy to VIP celebrity auctions but pretty long hours and hard work. Most of them don’t finish way beyond midnight, so not for everyone.

Hopefully I can put some examples of what I’m doing as I progress and as deadlines loom next week I’m sure spotting something I missed on the marking criteria will give me something to show off I’ve just done. Back to work!

Women in Computing

International Women’s Day – Women in Computing

On International Women’s Day, we are proud to feature two women from our department: lecturer, Dr. Kate Devlin, and MSc Computer Games and Entertainment student, Ilenia Sparacino. Find out why Kate and Ilenia have been in the Goldsmiths’ news!

We are delighted that our very own Dr. Kate Devlin has been featured on Goldsmiths’ website as part of the student-led Visible Women Campaign:

“I have a huge amount of respect for the women who have shaped modern computing – from the women patch cable operators programming the early computers to fantastic individuals like Grace Hopper, who invented the first compiler. Women have made a wealth of contributions to my field and I am always reminded of them when faced with surprise at being a female in a rather male-dominated area.”

Read more from Kate here.

GAME5HACK: University-Industry Collaboration  – 1 March 2012
Ilenia Sparacino, MSc in Computer Games & Entertainment

What’s been the most challenging thing about the GAME5HACK event?
Making the game work. You can get past the tiredness with plenty of coffee; the challenge comes in overcoming the bugs to make the game playable and fun.

Tell us a little bit about the game you’ve created
It’s called ‘Defeat the Tweet’; the object of the game is to direct a 3D bird through the letters coming out of one of your previous tweets.

What has been the value of collaborating with world-renowned advertising agency M&C Saatchi?
I’ve learnt how to work well as a team, working with professionals rather than just my fellow students. It was difficult at first but I soon adjusted to the environment.

What advice would you offer students considering taking the MSc in Computer Games & Entertainment at Goldsmiths?
If you like programming games then go for it. I’ve developed a broad skillset and had a chance to work alongside a diverse cohort.

More interviews with MSc students, plus info about the GAME5HACK event

Students

Student Profile: Alina, BSc Creative Computing

Hello! My name is Alina, i’m originally from Kazakhstan, but currently I live in London studying BSc Creative Computing at Goldsmiths University, and I really love it here!

When I came to Goldsmiths for my first year of Creative computing, I had no clue about how to use a programming language or what SQL means… And now as I am reaching towards the end of my course, I feel I have opened a whole new dimension of knowledge and skills for myself. I now feel a lot more freedom and confidence in solving any problem I might come across!

Because the areas of technology and especially computing are evolving very fast from year to year, nowadays, our skills in using computer technology have to evolve together as fast; and this is probably the greatest skill that you grasp on this course. Creative Computing is a great course that not only teaches you how to program, but also gives you freedom to explore your creativity, and it is the main reason why I was eager to chose and study this course in the first place.

When working on a group project I always take on an artistic part of it, as this is what I am best at. I love to create designs, and art scope for any of the projects. Nevertheless such languages as
C++/OpenFrameworks and Processing  are of great interest to me, simply because they allow us to create visual and graphical stuff.
Outside of university, I work part-time in ENRC company, where I take care of IT services as well as assist in some website development projects. During my free time I greatly enjoy exploring Fashion and Art exhibitions and practice my drawing and photography skills!

I hope in the future I could devote myself to many artistic projects, and use programming skills I have gathered in Goldsmiths. One of them, for example, will be a fabric pattern designs created with computer coding.

Staff profiles and activity, Videos

Lecture Video: Animation with Dr Marco Gillies

Over the next fortnight or so, I’m going to be posting up some videos of lectures from the first term of Year One of our undergraduate programmes. I’ll post them here but, so people can find them easily, I’ll also collect them together on a new page called ‘Video Lectures’  – up there ^

So here’s the first one – Computer Spectrum: Animation

Computing Spectrum: Animation from Marco Gillies on Vimeo.

Careers

Thinking of postgraduate study? Find out more!

Are you interested in postgraduate study? Why not find out more by taking part in our web chat?

Register for the web chat here.

We will have programme leaders and current students taking part so it’s a really good opportunity to ask them anything you like about any of the following programmes: