July 2012 - Physics-Departmental-Computing

Mathematica
by David Colling 31 Jul '12

31 Jul '12

Dear All, It is high time that I sent an email outlining the new procedure for Mathematica. All members of physics are now entitled to download and use a full version of Mathematica so please distribute this information as widely as possible. The procedure for obtaining a license and a legal copy of the software is slightly different for students and staff. However the instructions are pretty clear and should be followed from the websites below. Student: https://user.wolfram.com/portal/requestAK/0442cd45033874137828d35b72d30e67b… Staff: https://user.wolfram.com/portal/requestAK/7bd02d9cadc529ab688cbf0e002413302… You will have to create an account with which to login (this takes less than a minute). You will then be issued with a temporary license key so that you can download and run the software. This will also generate full license request. You will also be asked to contact one of the three license managers at Imperial - two of whom are on this list. Once confirmed your temporary key will be extended until 31st of May 2013. Best, david

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Fwd: ICT Audio Visual Exhibition
by David Colling 23 Jul '12

23 Jul '12

Hi All, This is rather late notice for me and I plan to be at CERN that day (security strike permitting). However, it would be good if some other people could attend. Best, david -------- Original Message -------- Subject: ICT Audio Visual Exhibition Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 13:37:00 +0000 From: Maguire, Brendan <b.maguire(a)imperial.ac.uk> Dear Colleague, As you may be aware, the ICT Audio Visual team have for the last 7 years been involved in the refurbishment and management of a large number of departmental lecture theatres and teaching spaces. We are now in the process of looking at how we can now move forward over the next few years to see what areas we can improve and also what new technologies can be exploited to assist you with the real day-to-day task of teaching and educating students. We will be planning small workshops and meetings with all the departments over the next few months and as a taster we have arranged for a few AV hardware suppliers to come in for a day and show some of the equipment that is in use at other universities. It will not be a hard sell and we will not have any of our AV integrators there. Caroline, Tom and myself will be around to introduce you to the suppliers, so come along share a coffee and enjoy this opportunity. The event will be held between 10:00- 15:00 on Thursday 26th July in SAF 120-122 with the following companies attending: Revolabs Christie Panasonic NEC Crestron AMX CUK Team Mate Steljes We hope you can make it and look forward to seeing you there. Thanks, The AV Team *Brendan Maguire, Support Manager, IT Services* Imperial College London Information and Communication Technologies West Wing, Level 4 Sherfield Building South Kensington Campus London, SW7 2AZ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 6969 (extension: 46969) Mobile: +44 (0)7734 162 414 (mobex: 57829) http: //www.imperial.ac.uk/ict email: b.maguire(a)imperial.ac.uk <mailto:b.maguire@imperial.ac.uk>

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Fwd: Microsoft Dreamspark
by David Colling 16 Jul '12

16 Jul '12

Dear All, I am looking for opinions on the email below: I also asked Steve to clarify who pays for this on the teaching machines on level 3 and his answer is in between the hashes ##########################################################################That's all paid for by ICT centrally but it can only be used on College owned machines. The idea of Dreamspark is that you can then say to students "go to this web site and you can have the same setup at home as in College" and all for free. I think it's a nice selling point if we provide this for the students (and it is pretty cheap!) Steve ########################################################################## My opinion is that £242.06/year seems nothing, however, I would like some evidence that other groups would use it before recommending to Kenny that we buy it as wasting even £250/year is bad (could be spent on some sort of party for those on the departmental computing committee instead ;-) for example). As for the UG, we are moving away from Visual Studio when teaching them so they are less likely to be asking for it at home regardless. I have cc'ed Kenny in case he has any strong feeling (such as we are in danger of wasting more than £250 of people's salary discussing and so so should just buy it). Best, david -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Microsoft Dreamspark Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2012 08:42:14 +0000 From: Rochford, Steve <s.rochford(a)imperial.ac.uk> To: Colling, David J <d.colling(a)imperial.ac.uk> Dreamspark (https://www.dreamspark.com/) is a collection of Microsoft software aimed at Universities. It’s undergone a number of changes recently (there used to be a free product called Dreamspark and a paid for product called Microsoft Developer Network Academic Alliance and these have now merged) The Maths department buys this so that their PhD students can have a free copy of Windows and Visual Studio on their personally owned computers but a side benefit is that all students can be offered the range of software (it doesn’t cover Microsoft Office but it does cover many other packages). Adrian Sutton’s group currently has a license which is about to expire which was only used by his group but it could be renewed and extended to the whole Physics department at a price of £242.06 for the next 3 years. If the department paid for this then all students and staff could have a legal copy of any version of Windows on their personal computer as well as all the developer tools. I think this would be a good thing – we quite often get students whose machine needs to be reinstalled and they’ve got no install discs and we can’t help because we can’t use our license on personal machines. Who could make a decision about spending the money? Steve

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Fwd: Research Data Management (RDM) Policy
by David Colling 12 Jul '12

12 Jul '12

Dear All, Firstly, I would like to thank everybody for the good wishes when I was away. Secondly, I was sent this by Arthur Spirling yesterday. I am due to meet with Arthur at 3pm and so I don't really expect any feedback on these forms by then but if you do send me some I will report it to Arthur and if you send me some more afterwards I will forward it on to him. Best, david -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Research Data Management (RDM) Policy Date: Wed, 11 Jul 2012 09:35:19 +0000 From: Spirling, Arthur G <a.spirling(a)imperial.ac.uk> To: Colling, David J <d.colling(a)imperial.ac.uk> CC: Allatt, Paul <p.allatt(a)imperial.ac.uk> Dear Dave, Thanks for agreeing to meet. As you may know, the EPSRCrequires all Institutions that it funds to have a ResearchData ManagementPolicy that indicates how data producedfrom their researchgrants will be properly managed during the project then be preserved, discoverable and shared via a College, or discipline specific, repository once the project has completed. They accept that some data might need to be embargoed or, for personal data, be anonymisedbefore it can be shared but they still want the presumption to be that data is shared. They also expect all grant requeststo have an associated Research Data Management Plan. The policy was supposedto be in place by May 1st 2012, but at a meeting between College and EPSRCwe were given a littleleeway. In consultationwith the College Research Committee (CRC), Faculty ResearchCommittees, the Libraryand the ResearchOffice (RO), ICThas generated a Policy for College ResearchData Management. I attach a copy of the current draft that is with Prof. DonalBradley, chair of CRC, for final editing and approval prior to be adopted by the CRC as College policy. Please note that this really is a draft and I would be grateful if you would not circulateit further at this stage, however we can hardly consult if we can't show you it. ICT has also generated a draft Research Data ManagementPlan (RDMP) template, based on work by the Digital CurationCentre. We would like to discuss the policy and the template with you, the possible impact on the way you work and how ICTand the Library might be able to help. We have made both documentsrelatively generic because it is the case that many of the other Research Councils require similar treatment of the data that theirfunds have helped produce. It may be, however, that more specific versions of the RDMPtemplate might be better to meet both the, slightly, differingrequirements of the funders and more particularly the differing nature of the data being gathered. We appreciatethat this requirementof the funding councils will result in an increased workload for PIs so your input will be really helpful as this activity develops and we look to provide as much help/automation as possible. Regards Arthur

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