04 April 2018 Minutes
Meeting minutes from the Extraordinary Informatics Board of Studies meeting held at 2.00pm on Wednesday, 04th April 2018 in Appleton Tower, Room 7.14. This meeting replaced the original meeting that was scheduled on 28th March 2018.
Present - Stuart Anderson (BoS Convenor), Alan Smaill, Vicky Mactaggart (Acting Secretary), Stefano Albrecht, Paul Anderson, Kousha Etessami, Stephen Gilmore, Sharon Goldwater, Heng Guo, Timothy Hospedales, Alex Lascarides, Iain Murray, Paul Patras, Don Sannella, Rik Sarkar, Volker Seeker, Kami Vaniea, He Sun, Finn Zhan Chen (Student Rep).
Chair gave apologies from - Alexandra Welsh (Secretary), Mary Cryan, Myrto Arapinis, Alex Lascarides.
Minutes of Previous Meeting - 21st March 2018
The minutes were read and approved at the meeting. Sharon Goldwater queried her comments under Item 15 regarding MSc AI DPTs.
ACTION: ISS to discuss with Sharon and revise minutes accordingly.
Item 1) Revised Full Course Proposal - Algorithmic Foundations of Data Science (AFDS) - He Sun
He Sun provided a revised proposal and this course was approved by Convenors action outwith the BoS. ISS have now created the new course on EUCLID (INFR11156) and made it available for 2018/19 enrolments.
Item 2) Full Course Proposal - Usable Security and Privacy (USec) - Kami Vania
Kami Vaniea provided a full course proposal which was approved by Convenors action outwith the BoS. ISS have now created the new course on EUCLID (INFR11158) and made it available for 2018/19 enrolments.
Item 3) Revised Full Course Proposal - Informatics 1 Introduction to Computation (INF1A) - Don Sannella
Don Sannella provided a revised course proposal which was approved by Convenors action outwith the BoS. ISS have now created the new course on EUCLID (INFR08025) and made it available for 2018/19 enrolments. As it is a requirement to pass both of the exams at 40% or more, it was agreed that the assessment regulations surrounding resits will need to be reviewed regularly to ensure resitting students aren’t asked to redo an exam that they’ve already passed.
Item 4) Full Course Proposal - Informatics Large Practical (ILP) - Stephen Gilmore
Stephen Gilmore provided a full course proposal which was approved by Convenors action outwith the BoS. ISS have now created the new course on EUCLID (INFR09051) and made it available for 2018/19 enrolments.
Item 5) Full Course Proposal - DSTI Dissertation (Informatics) - Bob Fisher
ISS have now created the new ‘Data Science, Technology and Innovation Dissertation’ course on EUCLID (INFR11159) and made it available for 2018/19 enrolments. It was noted that SoA still needs to action the query regarding quotas for Postgraduate courses.
ACTION: Stuart Anderson to consult with College re setting enrolment quotas for courses.
Item 6) Full Course Proposal - Natural Computing (NAT) - Michael Herrmann
The Board queried whether this proposal was the latest version as it doesn’t include the suggestions from the previous meeting regarding reduction of coursework components. ISS to ask Michael Herrmann to provide a revised course proposal, to be approved by Convenor’s action and created on EUCLID.
OUTCOME: Provisionally approved.
ACTION: Michael Herrmann to provide revised course proposal.
ACTION: ISS to create the new course on EUCLID and open for 2018/19 enrolments.
UPDATE: Revised proposal was approved and course now open for 2018/19 (INFR11161).
Item 7) Degree Programme Table (MInf) - Update - Stephen Gilmore
SG proposed relaxing the DPT constraints on the MInf programme to allow students to take up to 10 credits of Level 10 courses in their 5th Year, which would allow some flexibility for students transferring to the MInf during Year 4, and allow students to take a course in their 5th Year that may not have been taught the previous year.
The Board approved the proposal, provided there were no restrictions in the Undergraduate Degree Regulations. It was decided that the credits should be increased further, from 10 to 20, to allow students to choose a 20 credit Level 10 course in 5th Year.
OUTCOME: Approved, subject to checking the MInf regulations.
ACTION: SG to check MInf degree programme regulations.
ACTION: ISS to amend the credits on the MInf DPT for 2018/19.
UPDATE: The regulations stipulate that students must complete ‘at least 600 credits of which a minimum of 120 is at level 11’. This means we can allow students to take level 10 courses, but only if they have taken a minimum of 120 credits at level 11.
ACTION: ISS to add a note to the start of Year 5 on the MInf DPT to clarify the above requirement.
UPDATE: MInf DPT has been updated.
Item 8) Revised Full Course Proposal - Artificial Intelligence, Present and Future - Alan Smaill.
Alan Smaill put forward a revised course proposal, clarifying the course expectations and description.
OUTCOME: Approved.
ACTION: AS to provide ISS with an electronic version of the revised proposal.
ACTON: ISS to create the new course on EUCLID and open for 2018/19 enrolments.
UPDATE: Revised proposal was provided and course now open for 2018/19 (INFR11180).
Item 9) EPCC Timetabling / DPT for 2018/19 - Ben Morse/Stuart Anderson
To check if there an update on the actions from last meeting.
ACTION: SoA to check with EPCC.
Item 10) Changes to Bioinformatics 1 and Neural Computation for 2018/18 - Stuart Anderson & Matthias Hennig
To agree if Level 11 Postgraduate versions should be closed and replaced by the new Level 11 UG4 versions, or keep both courses running.
OUTCOME: Approved.
ACTION: ISS to close Bioinformatics 1 (INFR11016) and Neural Computation (INFR11008), and create the new UG4 versions.
UPDATE: Course closures sent to College for approval at next CCAPB in May, and new Bioinformatics 1 (INFR11160) and Neural Computation (INFR11162) courses created.
Item 11) Introductory Applied Machine Learning - Nigel Goddard, Stuart Anderson, Alan Smaill.
Clarification required on whether a revised proposal needed, or ISS can go ahead and create a third Level 11 UG4 IAML course based on the current Level 10 UG3 version with revisions provided via email. Note this is in addition to the online IAML version (Level 11 PG).
OUTCOME: It was confirmed that all 3 IAML courses are required, but the PG Level 11 course descriptor and learning outcomes need updated to reflect the postgraduate level of the course. GB queried the PG version of IVR, as that also has the same learning outcomes as its Level 9 count and it was agreed that IVR also needs updated.
ACTION: NG to provide updated IAML course proposal.
ACTION: ISS to create new IAML course on EUCLID and open for 2018/19 enrolments.
ACTION: SoA and BFisher to revise the IVR LO’s and inform ISS.
UPDATE: IAML: Revised proposal was provided and course now open for 2018/19 (INFR11182).
UPDATE: IVR – still to be actioned.
Item 12) Course List 2018/19 - Discussion of Possible Closures
OUTCOME: The Board reviewed the list of courses and chose to either suspend for 2018/19 or close the course entirely.
ACTION: ISS to update Theon with suspended courses and send list of closures to College for approval.
UPDATE: 2018/19 courses now suspended and course closures awaiting CCAPB approval on 16th May 2018.
AOCB (Any other current business)
There was no other business and the meeting was concluded.
Date of Next Meeting
EXTRA MEETING: Wednesday 4th May 2018, Room 714, Appleton Tower.