Departmental facilities and resources
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Informatics Teaching Laboratory
Award-winning design
Teaching laboratories are held in the Informatics Teaching Laboratory (ITL), a purpose-built building designed by the architectural
firm MacCormac Jamieson Prichard
[external link], who also designed our new student village as well as several major projects in London and around the UK.
The Laboratory opened in 1989 and was made possible by a generous gift from the
Wolfson Foundation, substantial funding from the UFC and resources from the College.
The building is dedicated to the teaching of computer science.
The ITL consists of four large open-plan programming laboratories over three floors, a robotics research lab, workshops, a range of seminar, study and meeting rooms, a quiet room, a 'help-desk' and offices for support staff. The top floor is reserved for MSc students.
Equipment and Software
Our rolling replacement programme ensures that we maintain a high-quality,
modern computing provision with over 150 fully networked multimedia workstations,
which run both the Linux and Windows operating systems. The workstations are
connected to the department's own network, which provides fileservers and
additional services. Network ports are also provided for students choosing
to use their own laptops for practical work. In addition, a wireless network
covers all areas of the Department. A high quality printing service is provided
by laser printers on each floor.
Students have access to a wide range of industry-standard software, including a variety of integrated software development environments, database management systems and web servers. A variety of specialised equipment and software is also available for course and project work.
Open Access
The Laboratory is open between 7am and midnight seven days a week. During
supervised laboratory sessions some areas may be reserved for use by individual
courses but there is rarely any difficulty in getting access to a workstation
on demand at any time. Access is under security card control. Students can also gain remote access to the department's
facilities 24-hours-a-day via a system which provides the same software as
the workstations.
Augmented Human Interaction Laboratory
Our recently built Augmented Human Interaction (AHI) Laboratory combines high-tech technologies
including full-body and multi-person motion capture, virtual and augmented reality systems
and advanced aural and visual display technologies. It allows students and staff to explore
the potential of digital media to enrich and transform human communication.
Founded on a collaboration between the Department's Interaction, Media and Communication research group and the Computer Vision group, in conjunction with researchers in open and distance learning, it exploits a unique combination of expertise in expression and gesture recognition, 3D modelling, human-human interaction and engagement and creativity.
Click here for further information on the AHI Laboratory.
Postgraduate resources
The Department of Computer Science provides a superb physical
environment in which each group has its own research laboratories, integrating
full-time researchers and research students. All the groups benefit from a strong
departmental infrastructure and a high level of technical support. Most groups
also have their own specialised equipment to support their research.