Faculty of Information Technology

School of Computer Science and Software Engineering
Clayton Campus

Student/Staff Meeting 2/2001 of the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering Clayton Campus, was held on Friday 24 August 2001 at 1 pm in the Seminar Room, Clayton Campus.

Present:
Prof David Abramson, Dr David Albrecht, Dr Peter Atkinson, Mr Chris Avram, Mr Dima Bensky (Second year BSE), Ms Nandita Bhattacharjee, Mr Chris Bond (First year BSE), Ms Amanda Crawford (Second year BCS), AssocProf Trevor Dix (from 1.40pm), Dr Alan Dorin, Dr David Dowe, Dr Graham Farr, Mrs Karen Fenwick, Dr Tim Ferguson, Ms Kymberly Fergusson, Ms Edwina Goh, AssocProf John Hurst, Dr Kevin Korb, Dr Carlo Kopp, AssocProf Kim Marriott, Ms Linda McIver, Dr Bernd Meyer, Mr Shane Moore (Honours BCS), Mr Rodney O'Donnell (Hons BDS), Mr Andre Oboler (Third year BCS), Dr Andrew Paplinski, Dr Ronald Pose, Mr Glen Pringle, Dr Sita Ramakrishnan, Dr Sid Ray, Mr Joel Reicher, Mr Stewart Smith (Second year BCS), Dr Cristina Varsavsky (Maths rep), Dr Rod Worley, Dr Henry Wu

Apologies:
Mrs Leeanne Evans, AssocProf Trevor Dix, Mr Shane Hill (Third year BCS), Mrs Shiranthi Ponniah, Dr Bin Qiu, Mr Casper Szymiczek-Graley (First year BCS), AssocProf John Stillwell (Maths Dept)

Welcome
The Head of School, Professor David Abramson opened the meeting and thanked Student Representatives and Staff for attending.

1. Confirmation of previous minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting were accepted.

2. Actions arising from previous meeting
Allocate+ - no official complaints were received by HOS, however the School will direct any problems reported in writing to the appropriate department.

Laboratory problems - Stewart Smith reported that he and a group of fellow students will be approaching the Dean directly to meet and discuss this problem. Laboratories with optical mice are working well. It is hoped that all laboratories will move to having optical mice. Prof David Abramson read a report from Mohammed Bekir on various problems raised at the last meeting.

Laboratories are now opened later.

Mathematics representative Dr Cristina Varsavsky was welcomed to the meeting.

CSE2318 - An extension was given for assignment work.

CSE1401 - Professor Heinz Schmidt held discussions with students.

Honours printer still causing problems. Mr Glen Pringle reported that the printer has been serviced since the last meeting. Prof Abramson advised that a new or more reliable printer will be supplied.

Dr Bernd Meyer explained the situation with 6 point Masters / 4 Point Honours topics.
Action: Hons Co-ordinator and ADT to take discussion off line.

3. HONOURS
Honours students requested new chairs, and the removal of excess chairs.
Action: Mr Milton Richardson

Honours students reported that they were happy with the split semester units.

4. SECOND YEAR
SSH issue - Students raised their concerns. Kym Fergusson explained the present situation to students.

CSE2305 Object oriented software engineering. Students weren't happy that lecture notes were sometimes not available in advance. Prof Abramson advised that this is not always possible but we offer our best effort and they are usually available following the lectures. Concerns were raised about lecture topics and what is examinable in the subject.
Action: Statement of examinable material to be provided to students
Ordering of labs and lectures needs to be considered. The lecture time of 8.00am is not ideal. Students also reported that some material in pracs had not been covered in lectures, and assignment specification difficulties.

CSE2302 Operating systems. Students reported that the first prac was confusing. The lecturer referred students to the feedback on the web page. Students were satisfied with everything else.

Students thought BUS2176 subject is well structured and going well.

CSE2316 Database management systems. Students reported initial difficulties with Oracle remotely.

5. FIRST YEAR
CSE1402 Technical documentation for software engineers. Students complained about the length of prep work - 1500 word essays. The lecturer advised that this was necessary for the kind of skills they were trying to acquire. Students felt that tutors are not able to help everyone in 2 hours.
Action: Possibility of lengthening the time of pracs to be looked at.

6. THIRD YEAR

CSE3322 Programming languages and implementation. Generally good. One comment is that couple of the more difficult concepts were skimmed over a bit.

CSE3309 Artificial intelligence. Good.

CSE3316 Database management systems. Students appreciated 1 to 2 minute break half way through lecture.

CSE3301 project. Students reported they were being pushed hard, but appreciated and liked this.

CSE3323 The computer industry. Some students felt that the first couple of lectures were very disorganised and a bit dry. Good "open ended" research assignment that encouraged self learning. It was thought that the reading packages should be more readily available so that students have more of a guide to study.

CSE3302 Software engineering project. A number of issues were raised in this subject including consultation, workload, linkage with CSE3308 and objectives of the subject. These were discussed and it was decided that it would be more helpful to hold a meeting of relevant people.

On behalf of the CSSE Student Club's Committee, students thanked staff for their support of the Ball which is fully booked, and reported that the Linux Install day held by the club was a major success.

Meeting closed at 2.10pm.