Undergraduate Teaching 2016-17

Part IIB briefing notes - Lent term supplement

Part IIB briefing notes - Lent term supplement

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Table of contents

Link back to main IIB briefing notes.


Dyson Centre for Engineering Design

The Dyson Centre for Engineering Design will open for business on Thursday 14 January, with a party and a day of challenges. Between 10am and 5pm there will be refreshments, including freshly made popcorn, and short construction projects to start getting undergraduates familiar with the Centre and what they can do there. There will be two maker competitions: students can work individually or in teams to build automatic musical instruments (in 40 minutes), or to build a cardboard bridge. See the Dyson Centre website for more information about this event and the Centre itself:

http://www.dysoncentre.eng.cam.ac.uk/ugrad-launch-day

For more information email the Outreach Officer.

 


Library internal opening event

As you will know, there has been considerable construction work over the last six months to refurbish the library, which is now linked by a new bridge to the Dyson Creativity centre.  The library is now ready for use: staff and students are invited to explore the new facilities at the internal opening event on Thursday 14 January, when the Dyson Centre is also opening for business.

The key changes are that the library has been split into two main areas, a silent study area and a more collaborative area. The collaborative area is linked via the new bridge to the Dyson Centre.


Module choice

You will be emailed a reminder to log on to COMET to confirm or change the Lent modules you selected in October.  The system will check your selection is valid before you finally register them.  It is important to attend the first timetabled period of any module of interest since it is then that the leader will give a general description of its content.  You are reminded that you must take eight modules in total,of which a set number (usually 4 or 6) must be within one Engineering Area (as specified in your options document.  See also the Part IIB Guide.  You should also note that you may not take more than one module from any set, even if there is no clash on the lecture timetable, because modules in the same set are examined at the same time.

The deadline for confirming choices for Lent term modules is midnight on Wednesday of week 1 (20th January).  Your choice of Lent modules will be finalised at this point.  Please note you may not discount any module for which you were entered in the Michaelmas term.

Syllabus and clash information are available on the CUED undergraduate teaching web pages.  Queries about particular modules should be addressed to the module leader (as show at the top of the syllabus).

Candidates who offered a IIB module for Part IIA cannot offer the same module again for Part IIB.



Procedures concerning coursework hand in

All coursework is marked anonymously and each student has been allocated an individual coursework candidate number (CCN).  From this term it will be the responsibility of the student to enter their CCN onto the coversheet and they will be able to find this number at: http://www3.eng.cam.ac.uk/comet/student/yr4


Coursework

You are reminded that all marked coursework associated with modules from both Michaelmas and Lent terms must be handed back during Easter term for scrutiny by the examiners.  Full details will be given in the Easter term briefing notes.  You will be asked to sign a declaration sheet confirming that all work submitted is your own.  Note: the examiners or staff in charge of coursework may, at their discretion, interview candidates in connection with any element of coursework.


Fourth-year projects

You are reminded that TWO copies of your Technical Milestone Report should be handed in to your Group Centre by 4pm on Thursday 14th January.  The deadline will normally be 4pm, but check with your Group Centre.

Remember that the Group Centres are an important point of contact and will be able to help you with many of the questions arising from the administration of fourth-year projects.  You should familarise yourself with the routine practices of your group in order to maximise the support on offer and to avoid confusion over handing in times etc.  For full details please refer to the Second Notice.


Transcripts

In July, the Department will issue College Tutorial Offices with an electronic transcript for each student showing details of their performance over the academic year .  Transcripts will be passed on to you by your Tutorial Office or your Director of Studies.  Should you require a transcript before this time, or one for previous years, you should contact your Director of Studies or your College Tutorial Office, not the CUED Teaching Office as copies of this Departmental transcript are not kept by the Department.


Exams skills

Examinations study skills session

A study skills session on 'exam skills' will be held on Wednesday 15th March 2017 from 2.00-4.00pm in lecture room 4.  The course is particularly targeted at first-years, exchange students and incomers from other courses.

How to save time in Part IA Engineering Exams: Know how to use your calculator

It is clear from many answers in CUED Tripos Examinations that candidates are simply unfamiliar with the standard-issue calculator and thereby lose marks.  Some calculator exercises can be found here.


Workshop skills sessions (Lent term)

This voluntary practical is based on the manufacture of a small oscillating air engine. The engine will consist of several parts, some of which will be supplied. You will be required to make the remaining parts and then assemble the engine. Manufacture will include turning, milling and drilling operations using workshop machine tools.

Sessions for this activity take place in the Instrument Workshop (reached from the south-east corner of the DPO) and last from 9 am to 4 pm with an hour's break for lunch. This activity will take place on Friday 10 March 2017.

12 students can be accommodated, and you should book on the booking sheet, which will be posted in the Instrument Workshop on Thursday 23 February 2017.

If you book a session and then find you are unable to attend, please inform Dr Parks (tel. 748553) or Mr Ross (tel. 332853) at the earliest opportunity.

 


Science and engineering ambassadors

Cambridge Science Festival, the highlight of the Outreach year, takes place at the end of Lent term.  If you only do one Outreach activity, this is it!  Put Saturday 12th March into your diary now.

Over 1000 people will attend this flagship event and make model aircraft powered by rubber bands to take away.  It is big, buzzy and fun, it will remind you why you wanted to study Engineering in the first place and you get the great tee shirt as a souvenir.  You don't need to be a STEM Ambassador to volunteer for the Science Festival, just email the Outreach Officer or come and see me in the DPO.

The Outreach Development Group will continue to meet at 1pm on Thursdays in LR5.  Join us to organise the scope, logistics and marketing of the Light Flight Challenge and eat cake. 

Lower key Outreach opportunities will also occur.  If being part of a panel who answer questions from a group of 15 sixth formers and dispel their misconceptions of Cambridge is more your style, get onto the Outreach mailing list by emailing the Outreach Officer.


Online guide to writing skills

The online guide to writing skills incorporates advice to students on report writing, record keeping and plagiarism, introduced through IA Exposition.  But the guide also progresses to the much greater depth required by the time students complete their IIB project report.  It will also be linked to any other guidance specific to particular report writing tasks, providing a one-stop shop on the Teaching webpages.  Feedback and any suggestions for improvements to the resource would be welcome and should be sent to Dr Hugh Shercliff.



Fast feedback facility

The fast feedback facility can be used to send rapid messages to warn teaching staff of problems as they arise (or to complement teaching staff on a job well done).  These messages are automatically anonymised (email addresses are hidden).  In order for the system to work, it is necessary to specify the general topic area of each feedback comment using the menus at the top of the comment window.  Note that all fast feedback traffic is monitored (before anonymisation) by the Director of Undergraduate Education in the Teaching Office.

To use the fast feedback facility for a machine in the DPO either (i) type "feedback" at the teaching system prompt, or (ii) click on the "fast feedback" icon on the desktop. To access the facility from elsewhere: click on the "fast feedback" link on the CUED local web page, which takes you to http://www.eng.cam.ac.uk/teaching/apps/FFF/.  If you have any problems with the fast feedback facility please contact the Director of Undergraduate Education.


Undergraduate students buying goods on expenses

For further information about buying goods on expenses click here


Course material on Moodle

Most courses in the department have a page on the University's Virtual Learning Environment Moodle.

These pages are maintained by course lecturers. Students registered to these courses are automatically enrolled at the start of the course and can engage in the course activities, including coursework submission when appropriate.

Other members of the University, staff or students, can self-enroll as observer and gain access to handouts and other documents made available to the students by the lecturers. This access is provided to students so that they can make an informed decision regarding their course selection. There might be copyright restrictions to the course material; any use of the course content that is not related to students education is not allowed. The material should not be redistributed by the students in any circumstances.

A key is needed to self-enroll on any course. By using this key, you indicate that you agree with the condition above.

Enrolment key: cued_moodle_access

NB. If you wish to unenrol yourself from a page that you have enrolled yourself on, please look for the Administration block within the course (usually lower down the page on the left) and click 'unenrol me'.

Last updated on 07/01/2016 11:39