Swansea Computer Science Postgrad/RA induction cookbook

You are a new postgrad in Swansea University's CS department. You are excited and possibly disoriented. How do you find your way around? Where can you find your mail? Where are the coffee machines? How can you find out about printing, photocopying or scanning documents? How about getting card access to rooms in the department? Fret not young researcher! Your ancestors have put together this cookbook to keep you from feeling out of your depth and focusing on doing research. Good luck!

How do I enroll?

If you’ve started in September/October you should be able to enrol online. If you started in one of the other enrolment periods (January, April, July) you’ll need to visit the Academic Registry and fill out a form (see key buildings, below). If you’re an international student, you’ll also need to fill in an attendance monitoring form (available from Room 313) every month.

How do I get a student card?

Once you have a student number, you can get your student card printed from the Information Desk in the Library and Information Centre.

Where is my desk? How do I get a computer?

Ask your supervisor.

I neeeeeed caffeine! Where are the kitchens?

There are kitchens on the 4th and 5th (Room 503) Floor of Faraday Tower. Both kitchens are great places to chill out or eat lunch. Room 503 has a number of facilities to make hot drinks. Or, if sugar is more your thing, Room 503 also has a Charity Tuck Shop.

Where are all the other postgrads?

Everyone is spread across different floors, labs and rooms. The main space is on the 4th floor, which has a large mix of MRes and PhD students, as well as postdoc researchers. There is also a small room, which houses the PlanComps research group. On the 5th floor (Room 500) there is a smaller version of the 4th floor lab, again with a mix of PhD and RAs. Additionally Room 503 is the FIT Lab, which has a similar mix.

Where can I find snail mail addressed to me?

Go to the 3rd floor and look in the pigeon hole labelled “Postgrads and RAs''.

Where do I go to book travel for a conference?

Fill in an order request form, get it signed by the budget holder, head over to the 3rd Floor (Room 303) and speak to Jill.

How do I get an order request form?

Find a copy in Room 313.

Where do I order new equipment for my research?

Fill in an order request form, get it signed by the budget holder, head over to room 313 and speak to Julie.

Where do I get card access to different rooms/buildings in the department or university?

For university wide access, email cardaccess-at-swansea.ac.uk. For rooms in the department, you will need to go to the 3rd floor and speak to Julie. In general you can get access to most public spaces in the department, (e.g., smalltalk room). Bear in mind that access to certain rooms (e.g., the Robert Recorde or the Board Room) requires approval from your supervisor or the Head of Department.

Where can I find printer settings? I would like to print a few research papers!

There is a great set of articles about things like this at cs.swan.ac.uk/cswiki (you have to log on with your cs account).

How do I get this ‘cs’ web and email account everyone is raving about?

You can request your web and email account from the College of Science technicians.

How can I access/edit my personal website?

You can access your personal web space using any FTP client (e.g., Cyberduck). The server address is cs-svr1.swan.ac.uk. Connect using your cs account credentials.

How do I get a license for software X?

Head over to the 4th floor (Room 407) and have a chat to the technicians, or drop them an email if you prefer. The department also has academic licenses for a variety of Mi-crosoft software through MSDN academic alliance. If you have not got an account for this, request one from the technicians.

Where are the key buildings on cam-pus? See the campus map:

Building 8.2 - Faraday: CS building Building 17 - Fulton House Building 2 - Abbey: academic registry Building 7 - Li¬brary: university IT support and where you get student cards

How do I get on mailing lists?

Visit this link to view and request access to available mailing lists. In general, PhD students should be subscribed to cs-postgrads and RAs should be subscribed to cs-research-staff.

If you have any technical problems send an email to cosit-at-swansea.ac.uk. For other type of problems, speak to your line manager or supervisor. If you have a problem with your supervisor or line manager, speak to the current head of department. For other problems contact Student Support Services at student.support-at-swansea.ac.uk

Campus Plan