university of manchester it news - winter 2014
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Issue 5 – Winter 2014
Our promise to you Setting strong foundations
Welcome 2014 Personal Device Support Desk DigiLab Sustainability Laptops versus tablets Student employability Research IT
IT news
In this issue:
Our promise to you ............................................ 1
..................................................... 1
Setting strong foundations ........................2 – 3
Start of year – Welcome 2014 ...................4 – 5
The Personal Device Support Desk .........6 – 7
DigiLab .............................................................8 – 9
Sustainabiliity .............................................10 – 11
Laptops versus tablets – you decide! ..........12
Improving Research Data Management ....13
Student employability .............................14 – 15
Research IT ................................................16 – 21
If you would like to leave comments or feedback onany of our services, visit:
www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/talktous
IT news
highlights the latest activities and innovations from IT Services.
As we head towards 2015 we welcome Roberto Confessore as
our new Head of Projects and Simon Bell as our new Head of
Strategy, Security and Architecture.
new and returning students to the University and helping them
settle down smoothly into university life. We also look forward
to the future of IT Services as our organisational re-design is
now complete. These strong foundations will bring new
opportunities to the University and ensure that we
continue working towards our values here in IT Services:
rry PennellGerDirector of IT
Our promise to you
In support of our on-going transformation we’re delighted to have beengranted the Customer Service Excellence (CSE) award.
Assessed over the summer based on a body of written evidence which
IT Transformation.
This is an encouraging step as we continue our ambitious programme of
challenging and stretching targets for customer satisfaction.
Work does not stop there however – the assessment will be reviewed each year and so our ability to demonstrate continued improvement across arange of areas will be the key to us retaining this award in the future.
Earlier this year we launched ‘Our promise to you’ which outlines our
University of Manchester and how each work in partnership to supportthe University’s 2020 vision.
delivery framework on our website:
www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus
2 Setting strong foundations
Our IT Partners are already working
across Faculties and Professional
Support Services (PSS) to lead on local
developments and be your key
contacts with IT. Our new project
delivery framework is already up and
process for all stages of IT projects to
enable a consistent and controlled
The organisational re-design of IT Services
is now complete and as of the beginning of
December, the majority of IT Services
colleagues are starting to transition into
further elements of IT Transformation to
deliver visible, positive changes.
g
Setting strong foundations 3
As we move towards the summer of 2015,
redevelopment will be the creation of a
new IT Support Centre, bringing a bigger
collection of support colleagues in one
ways for you to interact with IT including
online, face to face and through self-service.
Look out for news of some roadshows
taking place across campus in early 2015
for you to hear more about the changes.
many improved services for the new academic year.
(SSC) resulted in a quicker response and telephone call
had been completed.
attendance.
We were on hand to address any questions the SSC had with
shows this proved extremely useful at this critical time.
4 Start of year – Welcome 2014
Welcome 2014IT and registration queries
improve service to students during our busiest period of the year.
astonishing reading; the Blackboard eLearning system saw
were all logged in at once.
Over
22,000Blackboard logins in one day.
Start of year – Welcome 2014 5
8,363 students visited the Start
of Year Fair which
showcased IT as
well a wide range
of other University
services including
the Library, Media
Services, Sport,
Sustainability and
many others.
with an eye-catching ‘fairground’ theme to our stands. We
all-important literature to let students know what we do.An Apple iPad mini was won by Abdul Amin Gani and an iPod touch was won by Montague Wilfred Brice.
We had numerous questions about wireless access and
computing is to our students.
ensuring our services were available.
All the fun…
of the fair!
Apple iPad mini winner Abdul Amin Gani with Kristian Scott.
Tori Brown gives the thumbs up to Montague Wilfred
6 Personal Device Support Desk
The Personal Device Support Desk (PDSD) opened on
at our University.
Typical requests include:
Setting up email
Connecting equipment to the campus network andVirtual Private Network (VPN)
Virus and malware removal
General mobile device setup
General hardware advice (not including setup)
the problem! Managed to see where I was going wrong’.
Commons.
The Personal Device Support DeskA partnership between IT Services and
The University of Manchester Library is
trialling a service to provide students
with support for their own devices.
Personal Device Support Desk 7
www.manchester.ac.uk/itservices/personal
Fast and very supportive
Helped me set up emails on my smartphone
Well done, this is a great service
Got support on virus/malware issues with my laptop : )
“
”
In the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons the Library’s DigiLab
and an array of other technology we had available to test.
DigiLab is an area where students can interact with newtechnology that they may not have an opportunity to use
that are still in development with fellow students. It is a place
well as support the emerging talents coming from withinthe University.
8 DigiLab
everything technology based is welcome at DigiLab.
Demonstrations – 3D printing
with a Makerbot Replicator 2 and a 3Doodler pen. PhD student
troubles with the Makerbot. She spent all day talking tostudents and answering their questions.
Epic projection keyboard
with feedback ranging from super positive to very negative.
DigiLab 9
Google Glass
the next release is likely to be more streamlined than this.
concerned that it would take a while to get used to the weight
were concerned that we wouldn’t have enough relevant apps
basic functionality. It’s interesting to think that given how
Oculus Rift
a new headset displaying a fully immersive 3D experience
allowing the wearer to step inside a virtual world. We had a
and a rollercoaster simulator. Again this is a developing
the demos we showed only scratch the surface of what this
education and retail to name a few.
Contact us
continually looking for new technology to test and showcase.
it’s something already available on the market that you think
10 Sustainability
Our carbon footprint – recent reductionsWe have a strong commitment to reducing our
impact on the environment. During 2008 - 2013
our Green ICT Action plan set a carbon footprint
Our Environmental Sustainability Plan
be taken forward for delivering sustainability within IT
Services and across the University. The plan focuses
on IT Services role as an enabler supporting the
remote working
Further improving the power management of the
Working with Estates to embed IT within
refurbishments and new builds enabling smarter
or contact us.
www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/sustainability
Sustainability 11
only printed out when the student chooses to
collect it.
Not printing immediately means fewer pages are
printed – typical reasons for this include:
it won’t print out automatically
be cancelled at the printer
Students have also seen other advantages from
means savings for them on printing charges.
As printing can be collected from any pull printer
the most convenient location for them to collect
their work.
Next steps
We’re considering how this same service can be
In the 2012/20113 academic year,
our pull printing service saved
602,000 pages of unwanted
student print ouuts and thought is
now being givenn to how this could also
12 Laptops versus tablets – you decide!
usage of mobile devices like
has increased hugely.
embracing tablets and
of productivity in their everyday working lives.Those who engage in a lot of mobile working and regularly battle with information overload at frequent meetings are
boot up making them ideal for note-taking and email on the go.
the abilities of tablets has been one of the challenges faced byIT over the past couple of years. Customers who are eager toembrace new technology have been convinced that tabletsare ‘the new laptop’ and have purchased tablets instead of laptops in the hope that they will provide a complete mobile working solution.
Laptops versus tablets – you decide!
www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/pss-mobile
Learning from our experiences of supporting Professionalwe decided that a ‘plain
English’ buyer’s guide was required to help to managecustomers’ expectations and to help them make the right
would suit them better.
evaluate a range of the latest mobile devices via the web site so they could ‘try before they buy’ and make a moreinformed decision.
So far feedback has been positive.
This new technology appears
however it is unrealistic toexpect all current devices to match the capabilities of a powerful workstation.
Weather Forecasting 5Improving Research Data Management 13
Improving Research Data Management
The whole lifecycle of research data is being considered; from the initial
Providing solutions
University meet the new data management expectations of research councils.
Complex challenges
solutions currently in use by researchers.
Get involved
A user group has recently been formed to assist the service team with the
the University.
Anyone wishing to assist should contact [email protected]
www.manchester.ac.uk/library/ourservices/research-services/rdm
The Library and IT Services are currently
conducting a project to identify and implement
software tools to improve Research Data
Management across the University.
What is the Research Data Management Service?
Launched one year ago and hosted
Research Data Management (RDM) service is to provide the tools and
service currently provides the
used by researchers during the
data publishing aspect of the
datasets to be cited and accessed.
14 Student employability
Coming full circle
Dalinder Sall –
Research Computing
Outreach Assistant
(intern)
Research Computing Outreach Assistant intern.
and Communication and knew that I wanted to stay inManchester and kickstart my career in the most vibrant andexciting city there is. My strengths and experiences lie in
and constantly checked Manchester Graduate Internship Programme (MGIP) for any relevantopportunities. The position of Outreach Assistantwithin the RAC team popped up on CareersLink(The University of Manchester careers website) and I
shorter… here I am!
read by the Pro Vice-Chancellors of the top eight
the organisation of events and build on customer relationship management processes.
and supportive team and have a great amount of responsibilitywhich I know will provide me with the right experiences tofurther my career. I’m certainly not youraverage tea making and photocopying intern!
Our regular series of articles featuring graduates working with us
Student employability 15
Cerian Lindsay –
Research Computing Assistant (intern)
– recent graduate views
I’ve recently graduated with an honours degree in
I wasn’t immune to the ‘so what do I do now?’ cliché!
and what I craved most was an opportunity to gain insight
The Manchester Graduate Internship Programme (MGIP)
internship in the Research Applications and Collaborations team in IT Services. As a Research Computing AssistantI’ll get to support researchers with their computing andtraining needs and help develop new services for theirday-to-day work.
I’m so happy to be in such a great position; I get to work
be helping our team to deliver to gain a wide range of new skills. I’m also really grateful for the
encouragement and support I’ve been shown in
Science foundation course.
I genuinely couldn’t ask for more.
member institutions of the N8 Research Partnership.
Access to the machine is by a very lightweight
collaboration are particularly welcome.
national resources helping researchers to graduate to larger
www.n8hpc.org.uk
16 Research IT
To bring IT support to the University’s
are being held within the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (EPS). These surgeries allow
with the IT Services research support team to discuss theirresearch work and ask for help and support on advanced use of hardware and software.
asked for help speeding up MATLAB and
Computational Shared Facility and theEPS Condor pool.
These monthly surgeries
and student mailing lists.If you’re interested in
information regardingthe time and place of the
next surgery.
Research IT team:
www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/research
Supporting business engagement through High Performance Computing (HPC)
‘Drop in’ surgeries for researchers
Research IT 17
we provide a free programmingoptimisation service to
researchers from all faculties.
service focuses on short-
Mathematica and R.
performance of code by 100 times or more in some cases.
We can also help you modify your code
Computing facilities such as the Computational Shared Facility and Condor pool.
many are in use at any given moment. This data allows us to make service improvements.
We recently increased the number of MATLAB toolboxes available
Search for ‘MATLAB toolboxes’ available at:
servicedesk.manchester.ac.uk
Programming optimisation
An enhanced MATLAB service
Research IT – Travel fellowships XX18 Research IT
…but what should researchers do if they need
to run larger or more complex models than is
possible on our University hosted facility?
Governments around the world have invested in more
Each facility typically invites researchers to apply for accessvia a peer review process.
Our researchers have a clear advantage over their peersin gaining access to these facilities. IT Services has built
established via Research Councils UK (RCUK) and EU funded
into what details are expected in proposals.
us and hosted at the University of Leeds).
External Supercomputing facilities
The University of Manchester
infrastructure for research
computing is an excellent
resource that covers a broad
range of needs…
Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE)program and the Chinese Tianhe-2 service.
IT Services is also fostering new collaborations between UK and
2013 when a special UK delegation was invited to visit keyfacilities in the US by the British Consulate General in Chicago and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council(EPSRC). Dr Lee Margetts in IT Services is one of the leadersof this initiative along with colleagues from the University of
Council (STFC) and Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG) Ltd.
a number of network grants. See the full story on page 20.
Dr Lee Margetts:
Research IT 19
Services has provided
researchers with assistance
in applying for access to
these facilities, helping them
secure over 100 million hours
of computing time.
The purpose of the fellowships is to foster new UK-US collaborations
initiative was started in 2013 when a special UK delegation was invited
to visit key US facilities by the British Consulate General in Chicago and by
EPSRC.
and Civil Engineering (MACE) was one of the recipients of the SC13 travel
fellowships. This enabled him to achieve his goal of meeting one of the
principal engineers at NASA. Neil has since established a very productive
research collaboration with the NASA Computational Fluid Dynamics team.
fellowships were awarded to researchers at The University of Manchester.
The researchers are all PhD students: Jose David Arregui Mena (School
awarded to our University.
is funded by the EPSRC. There will be other opportunities during the year
for Manchester researchers to receive support for collaboration with US
researchers.
Travel fellowships to New Orleans
20 Research IT
Three of our student researhave been awarded prestigi
in November 2014.
Network’ in collaborating with US researchers or accessing US facilities.
chers – the only PhD students from the UK ous fellowships to attend the world’s highest
Research IT 21
Contact usTo send general comments and feedback on any of our services visit: www.itservices.manchester.ac.uk/talktous
IT Services The University of ManchesterOxford Road ManchesterM13 9PL
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