8 March 2017 Minutes
Meeting minutes from the Informatics Board of Studies meeting held at 2.00pm, Wednesday 8th March 2017, Forest Hill Room 1.B10
Present: B. Franke (Convenor), A. Smaill (Academic Secretary), A.Welsh(secretary), M. Cryan, M. Fallon, S.Goldwater, M.Fourman, V.Mactaggart, P.Patras, F.Keller, Fotis Papadogeorgopoulos (Student Rep.), Rui Zhao (Student Rep.), N.Goddard, A. Kiayias, M. Arapinis.
1. Apologies: Johanna Moore.
2. Minutes of Previous Meeting
Items rolled forward from BoS 22nd February 2017
BoS 22/02/2017 –
Item 5. Course Proposal Change – Machine Translation - A. Lopez
Outcome: Approved
Action: 10 credit course to be put through and 20 credit course deleted for 2017/18.
Update: This change has been implemented.
BoS 22/02/2017 –
Item 6. Course Proposal Credit Change - Text Technologies for Data Science - W. Magdy
Outcome: Approved
Action: To be re-submitted with the recommended changes for working hours and sent to college.
Update: Updated documents have been sent to College.
BoS 22/02/2017 -
Item 7. Course Proposal - PgCert in Informatics by Distance Education - B. Fisher.
Outcome: Approved
Action: Bob to contact ITO with changes and then submit to College.
Update: Updated documents have been sent to College.
BoS 22/02/2017 -
Item 8. Course Change Proposal - Computer Communications and Networks (COMN) - M. Lee
Outcome: Approved
Action: M. Lee to contact ITO to arrange scheduling of lectures.
Update: M. Lee has not yet contacted the ITO with scheduled requirements however this can be arranged over the summer.
BoS 22/02/2017 -
Item 13. Course Proposal - Robot Learning and Sensorimotor Control – M. Mistry & S. Vijayakumar
Outcome: Approved
Action: Revised with recommended changes to credits and assessments and to be sent to college.
Update: Updated documents have been sent to College.
3. Matters Arising
There were no matters arising.
4a. Revised Course Proposal - Principles and Design of IoT Systems (PDIoT) - D K Arvind
This course will replace SLIP and has a 'blackbox' approach to data fusion which has little overlap with its complimentary course, 'IoT Systems Security and the Cloud.' This course is available to anyone, including Data Science students.
The board was concerned that the course title might not accurately reflect the content as the course is about principals, application and design of IoT and may cause misunderstanding among the students.
Outcome: BoS recommends title change to 'Integration and Design of IoT Systems' to ensure clarity of content to students.
Action: Arvind to send in revised course proposal. ITO to make changes on EUCLID and submit to College.
Update: Submitted to College using original course title.
4b. Revised Course Proposal - IoT Systems, Security, and the Cloud (IoTSSC) - Paul Patras
This course will replace Embedded Systems and is the complimentary course to the proposed Principles and Design of IoT Systems (PDIoT) (replacing SLIP).
Outcome: Board recommended the proposal include an academic description and missing information on the existing proposal - add pre-requisites to aid with filtering intake of students. Also recommended course be opened to visiting students.
Action: Update course proposal and resubmit to ITO. ITO to make changes on EUCLID and submit to College for approval.
Update: Updated documents have been sent to College.
5. Course Proposal - Informatics Project Proposal (IPP) - Sharon Goldwater
This proposal aims to rename IRP & change the wording of the course descriptor to benefit the student’s understanding of requirements. No longer always research based students due to increase in students and projects. This proposal has been previously discussed with the Deputy Head of Teaching, Mark Van Rossum and the Convenor.
Group work could be in the same areas to accommodate demand. Students doing theory might need to have theoretical goals to accommodate hypothesis driven. MSc student reps in attendance agreed that this change would be good for both group and independent work.
Outcome: Board recommended the proposal be revised to update wording and learning outcomes then submit to college for approval.
Action: S. Goldwater to revise current proposal and resubmit.
ITO to make changes on EUCLID and submit to College for approval.
Update: Updated documents have been sent to College.
6. New Course Proposal - Blockchains and Distributed Ledgers - Aggelos Kiayias
Course already exists on EUCLID as CO already entered. Pre and Co-requisites need to be made clear. CO clarified course is meant to be taught in parallel to the Introduction to Modern Cryptography course of the same level (INFR11131) every other year (with the latter course as a prerequisite or co-requisite). If the course is to be open to MSc students they need to know the list of topics as won’t have taken any previous courses. It was noted that the syllabus was missing from the course proposal.
Outcome: Board recommended CO submit an updated and full proposal to the next BoS.
Action: CO to update and complete course proposal and re-table at Extraordinary BoS.
ITO to arrange Extraordinary BoS in May 2017.
Update: Revised proposal submitted for next meeting in May.
7. New Course Proposal - Advanced Topics in Cyber Security and Privacy - Myrto Arapinis
Seminar type course; no exam (presentation, essay and project). CO would like to have a natural cap of 20 students as seminar/presentation based. CO was advised that UG courses cannot be capped. This is a Yr4 Level 11 course. Need clarity if UG or PG course and whether offer to Yr4 or MSc students. CO to check with College regarding the rules on capping courses.
Outcome: Board recommended CO submit an updated and full proposal to the next BoS.
Action: CO to update and complete course proposal and re-table at Extraordinary BoS.
8. Course Proposal (course change) - Natural Language Understanding - Frank Keller
Change lectures from 18 to 16. Change course work from 2 to 1 and adjust percentages to bring in line with workload model.
Outcome: Approved.
Action: ITO to make changes on EUCLID immediately.
9. Course Proposal (change) - Introductory Applied Machine Learning (Full & Distance Learning) Nigel Goddard
Assessment changes to both distance and campus versions. BoS recommends CO speak to fellow CO and external examiners to check if course work 50%, that ITO can make changes on EUCLID.
Outcome: Approved pending checks.
Action: ITO to make changes on EUCLID.
10. Course Proposal (changes) - Introduction to Vision and Robotics - Maurice Fallon
Proposed changes will bring course in line with workload model.
Outcome: Approved.
Action: ITO to make changes on EUCLID immediately.
11. Course Proposal (change) - Applied Databases - Sebastian Maneth.
This item has been on the Board of Studies agenda 3x and never presented by the proposer.
Outcome: The board decided that it should be taken off and not progressed at this time.
Action: NFA
12. Course Proposal (change) - Randomized Algorithms - Mary Cryan
Proposed to change course work to 20% and exam to 80% (previously 30% course work and 70% exam). Mary also proposes to increase the number of tutorials by an extra 5x however this will be needed due to student numbers.
Outcome: Approved.
Action: No need to go to College, ITO can edit course on EUCLID.
13. Course Proposal (change) - INF1 - Computation and Logic (Item from TC) - Mike Fourman
CO to change Learning Outcomes as EUCLID only allows 5x (CO proposal currently at 6 so need to combine or add). It was noted that course content needs to be tidied up/updated.
Outcome: Approved pending revised changes.
Action: ITO to make changes on EUCLID as soon as possible.
14. AOCB
It was agreed that there should be an extraordinary Board of Studies meeting held on 3rd May 2017, before the last College Meeting. Alexandra Welsh agreed to book a room in the Informatics Forum at 2pm. Reminders will be emailed before the May meeting.