Term 1 Meeting Minutes with DCS (04/10/2023)

Wed 04 Oct 2023 Meeting Minutes

Discussing DCS and UWCS matters

Attendance

Lea
James
Richard
Alex D.
Mat
Alia
Edmund
Samit
Josh R.
Alex W.
Icen
Josh H.
Morgan
Joel
Shivani
Skiros
Preya
Serene

AGENDA I: Introductions

Hi. We exist!

AGENDA II: Any new members/role changes

We exist again!

AGENDA III: Events

Department
- Careers
  - Alex said there will be careers events, and if any UWCS exec wants to help out they are always open to it
  - Unitemps: when trying to log hours, access website during quieter times and add one day at a time
  - End of term socials (Term 1 & Term 2)
    - Christmas Social, Computing can help ⇒ will be booked
      - Will occur in Fusion because Esports is moving
      - Society will set up games for event
    - One will be held in department and one out of it
  - Game Jam / Innovation
    - Alex Dixon will organise
      - One will be computer game design, and the other will be entreprenurial
      - Cash prizes 💰
    - Week 3 to Week 5, same format as last year including the showcase (happening in Term 2)
    - First session was about pairing people with similar interests to develop groups
    - Difficult to organise around coursework deadlines
Society
- Comp Café
  - Send event details about Comp Café and it can be advertised in DCS newsletters
  - Free vending machines
    - Will continue running
  - No more financial support needed, we are happy thank you :)
- Computing Ball
  - DCS offers support
    - Potential venues in the field (500 - 600 people)
    - DCS can book a venue out
      - Can possibly pay for the venue (must be on campus)
      - Only can advertise if venue is off-campus
    - We are estimating we will offer 200 to 250 tickets
      - Last year the cost was 40 pounds per ticket if a member, 60 pounds otherwise (members could also buy multiple tickets though)
    - Subsidising DCS students was also offered
      - Department needs to see how much they can do along with how much they can rent
    - If there is a minimum of 500 then DCS and UWCS can collaborate and DCS will officially host it
  - Possibly completely hosted by department instead of society
    - SU makes it problematic for society in terms of event and payment
    - Department could invoice society if needed
  - Last year had a working group to organise it, this will be repeated this year
  - Food allergies and alcohol are the biggest isues to deal with
- Networking Events
  - Optiver and Qube want to collaborate in hosting events with recruiters and speakers, DCS might be interested in collaborating
    - Society should not promise any solid numbers
    - Oliver Twins scary story
  - UWCS wants to book a room for the events
  - C͟o͟n͟t͟a͟c͟t͟ ͟A͟l͟e͟x͟ ͟D͟i͟x͟o͟n͟ ͟f͟o͟r͟ ͟c͟a͟r͟e͟e͟r͟s͟ ͟e͟v͟e͟n͟t͟s͟
  - Talks have to be interesting, not just about the company and their API
  - If labs/rooms are used for an event out of teaching time, a member of staff has to be nearby
    - CS0.01 is easier because we always have access
    - Other room on campus where we can have access regardless through room booking system
    - Atrium is accessible 24 hours for all students
      - Just don't leave a mess and put garbage in proper bin
      - Labs should not have food
- Hackathon
  - October 28th and 29th a hackathon is planned
    - May not be best timing because one week after IBM hackathon
  - DCS is happy to advertise
- Study and Revision sessions
  - Coursework sessions are not supported by DCS due to plagiarism
    - UWCS needs to avoid the incident of third year and should avoid coursework study session
  - First-year revision cram sessions for example
  - Just avoid plagiarism issues with the department
  - Debugging session/workshop would be supported
- Git Better session
  - Run after software engineering session
    - Want list of topics to be covered and how it works with module

AGENDA IV: Wild Cards – Create a Bespoke Student Led Event (funded by dept.)

Department is looking for inclusivity events
- Morgan/Preya creates a bespoke student-led event
  - Guest speakers, lab, history of LBTQ+ in computer science, etc
  - Can be run in term two
  - Brainstorm ideas and get back to department about it
    - Offering catering
    - Offering other academic support
Ada Lovelace Day
- Send slide with details for TV and for publicizing

AGENDA V: Communications

Newsletter
- More ongoing communications in DCS newsletter
  - They are happy to put events in their newsletter
    - Upcoming events, reactions from SSLC student feedback
    - Hard to embed newsletter in email to avoid clicking link
    - Comes out Week 1, Week 5, and Week 10
    - Just put banner and link to page needed
Discord
Events Page
Notice Board
- Allocate to exec so they can get filled up
  - Society has one board on the right of CS0.07, one in the kitchen area, and one in CS0.01
  - SSLC Board also present
Student Handbook
- Encourage students to read it
  - Email will be sent about it
  - Assessments page now has been revised to include large language modules (GPT), module organisers can have their own statement on it and will include it in their module
  - Don't take the piss, give credit if you use it
    - Overuse can result in academic call of misconduct
- Might be worth mentioning in discord with start of academic year

AGENDA VI: Technical

Additional Storage
- ██████ ███████
  - Richard did not want this to be mentioned
- We have a new cupboard!
  - Lea will find how to get the keys for it
Xbox Controllers
- Possibly get everything from USB subsystem
- University rules make it difficult :wah:
- Steam rules attempting to use kernel module in order to get xbox controllers working on DCS machines
  - DCS system controlled by them, not by university so cannot allow all devices access
    - Particular devices can be added
    - Alex Wright will write down each device needed
  - Network speed tends to drop after attempting specific downloads
    - Steam cannot download well because of how slow it is
Decommissioned Cluster
- Asked nearby store for server but did not respond and did not provide in the end
  - Requested server might not be decomissioned yet
- Tech team using 5 Amps but lowered to 3
  - Can be quite a lot more if we get more servers
  - Not very easy to use server asked for due to demands
  - All machines in DCS have quite good GPUs
- Joey mentioned the value of using the server and fiddling with the racks

AGENDA VII: Other

Buy calculators in bulk and put in welcome packs (like engineering)
- Add DCS logo and won't arrive for three months!
DCS Quiz
- Run by James and Alex D.
- Slides cannot be shared sadly :(
CS0.01 and CS0.06 are always open all hours, not others because of university regulations
- MB building is slightly different
Batch compute cluster with GPU and CPUs, all available in university guide