ANU Department of Computer Science Intranet

Internal information base for staff and postgraduate students

Contents

Last modified: Wed Jun 21 15:50:53 EST 2000

Department and Faculty meetings

The governance of the university is still carried out partly by reference to collective decision making through Department and Faculty meetings (and the Board of the Faculties). Academic and general staff are included in these meetings.

DCS staff meetings

Chair and convenor: Head of Department
The regular time for DCS staff meetings is 3.00pm - 4.30pm Fridays. Meetings will generally be held fortnightly, but this timeslot is also held for working groups etc.

You should always be aware of the agenda and action list:

You are welcome and encouraged to add items to the agenda up until 9.15am on the day of the meeting (it's under RCS control: check out (co -l) and check back in (ci -u)).

Previous meetings are also listed therein.

Department meeting

Chair: Head of Department. Convenor: secretary: Malcolm Newey
The Computer Science Department meeting is a more formal affair with advisory status, held once per semester. The committee has large numbers of student representatives as well as members of the departmental staff.

Faculty Meetings

The department is a full member of Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT, generally pronounced Fee-yut). All academic staff are members and elegible to attend and vote at meetings, and general staff have representatives.
DCS is also a cognate member of Faculty of Science, and sends voting 3 reps; and has 2 reps on Faculty of Economics and Commerce.

FEIT meetings are held in the Chancelry Building. They are scheduled for 3.00pm-5.00pm on the following dates for 2000:
Wed 5 April Ross Hohnen Room
Wed 7 June Ross Hohnen Room
Mon 10 July Mills Room
Wed 13 September Mills Room
Wed 18 October Mills Room
Mon 11 December Mills Room

Who's who and where

Some common DCS email aliases are maintained by TSG and sometimes by year coordinators.

DCS phone numbers are available from DAIS 

       DAIS->Reports->Dept Directory

University phone numbers are available in a printed directory or on the ANU web phone index.

DCS Technical Support Group

TSG (alias the programmers) has a separately administered TSG homepage.
Go look there for details of the DCS computing environment, consultant, helpdesk etc.

email alias: dcsprogs

Teaching duties

Current teaching duty assigmments.

Administrative duties

Various administrative duties are assigned in DCS. The duties vary. They include:

Teaching and examinations

Lecturer and tutor duty statements

Communicating with students

email
email to snnnnnn@student where nnnn is the students ANU ID number
news
newsgroup per unit at newshost called teach.compXXXX and generic teach.compsci
dialogue with class
newsgroups teach.compXXXX.talk and teach.compsci.talk
careers, jobs announcements to all comp students to teach.compsci.careers (use discretion)

Examinations processing

Teaching administration support

The DAIS system provides admin support for academics to record and discover fairly up to date information on class lists, unit details such as text book lists, tutors and sessions, localised timetable information.

Timetables

Unit lecture timetables are determined by central admin (SASS) using information provide by deprtments about unit and staff requiremnts well inadvance (months ahead).

Lab and tutorial timetables are determined by the Timetable person in DCS. Person varies from year to year. In 2000 this is Trevor Vickers.

There is a defined process of interaction between ATLES (the students' registration system for labs and tuts), tycho (the lecturers' unit-by-unit student record keeping support system) and DAIS (the department's longer term record system and forms producer). Deadlines and target dates for transfers of information are published before the start of each semester.

Teaching documentation

Full unit descriptions (whence derive the Undergraduate Handbook entries) are kept under RCS control in ~dcs/unitdb. The Handbook is the definitive contract with students; the full descriptions are our contract internally for flow of topics and skills between subject units in a degree course, and for accreditation etc.

See the Makefile and README there for partial descriptions of how to produce various brands of entry as text or html. (yes this is not clear to the newbie but I don't propose to do a full documentation thing here and now).

No definitive version for display or printing is kept as a whole ready to look at - one needs to retrieve all individual units. Gurus: Jim, Brian.

Curriculum development for the Bachelor of Software Engineering has its own web index.

Spreading information to staff and students

Unit bulletin boards - Web pages, newsgroup structure

Local newsgroups

teaching general - all undergraduate students
teach.compsci, teach.compsci.careers (see above)
These groups are restricted to posting by staff in DCS. Careers includes permanent job ads (from respectable entities!), scholarships, part-time jobs, vacation work.
unit specific - official
one newsgroup per unit called teach.<unit-name> such as teach.comp3310
managed and posted to by the unit manager, by convention - posting is restricted to staff in DCS
unit specific - student interaction
one newsgroup per unit named teach.<unit-name>.talk
Posting by students is allowed; usage is unit specific, determined by the manager and the culture.
Unit managers may choose to conduct quick feedback through this group (build up an FAQ), or allow students to discuss unit-related matters (only) between themselves, with occasional corrections of facts etc., or leave it to the students.
Postings are subject to the Netquette Monitor's attentions (a tutor who reads the groups and quenches flames, harassment, etc))
year specific - student general interaction
one group per year, allows students to have more general chat about conditions. Also subject to Netiquette Monitoring.
Names are of the form anu.comp1000.chat for 1000, 2000, 3000, 4000.

Seminar notices

Weifa Liang is seminar convenor.
But - to do your own seminar arrangements: book a room (N101 preferred, or N329) via Margot Napier); post a notice to email alias seminars@cs.anu.edu.au.
This alias goes off campus also.

There are some funds to support seminar visitors (fares, accommodation, hospitality, exceptionally honorarium) case by case: ask the HoD.

email

mail to aliases all@cs, staff@cs, academics@cs, phds@cs is an acceptable way of disseminating broadcasts to the department. Use with discretion - not idle chatter nor excess flames please.
See also email aliases.

Equipment, furniture and Building matters

DCS Computing Environment

A current list of printers and their locations is available on antares, the main server for the DCS staff network. The list is in antares:/etc/printers.conf

Building plans and room allocations

DAIS has a nifty building plan function, with inbuilt room allocations. 
        DAIS->Reports->Building Matters->Plans

Home equipment and dial-in access

DCS equipment used at home should be signed out in the Loans Book (held in TSG area). This includes newish Macs etc. Older equipment may be written off by Chief IT Officer (Bob Edwards).

DCS will pay for all work-related use of the Apex ISP service. Charging is by hours and volume; usage is logged monthly by account name; excessive usage may be queried by DA/HoD. Look at the details. The department will supply a modem on request (but maybe not straight away).
DCS has 3 direct external lines for modems for the highest volume users determined from time to time.

Using the departmental car

The DCS car is available to all those with an ANU driving licence (a formality - check with department administrator) for official use (such as delivery, pickup, meetings, conference attendance). The car lives in its reserved spot outside CSIT Building during the day and is garaged at HoD's home overnight and weekends.

To use the car, ask the departmental administrator and get the spare key and petrol card from DA's office. The accompanying log book must be filled in at the time of use - this has financial implications.

There is no formal booking system. Please observe any reservation notes left on the keys. The HoD appreciates having the car available after 5.30pm. It is unlikely to be available before 9.30am without specific arrangements being made with HoD beforehand.

Daily life in DCS: parking, teaclub, phones, faxes, mail, email

Parking

Teaclub

Phones and faxes

Individual use is not accounted for but provided on honesty system for official purposes only (research, teaching, university admin, conference travel arrangements etc.).

Staff and postgrad phones are unbarred for local calls; staff phones allow interstate calls; a few phones allow international (Head, Department Administrator) and are available on request.

The fax machine is not serviced regularly: if you are expecting an incoming fax you must check it yourself. Otherwise it is a service to other members of the department to put faxes with an obvious addressee into their mailbox pigeonhole when you use the machine yourself. Faxes will be pigeonholed approx once a day by the assistant administrator.

Photocopying

Individual use is not accounted for but provided on honesty system for official purposes only (research, teaching, university admin, conference travel arrangements etc.).

All copying is subject to the Copyright Act - be aware (and ask the office if you are unsure). Fair dealing for individual reserach is permitted; multiple copies for students or for staff must be declared (as of Jan 2000 until further notice) unless a written exemption can be pointed to. Such copies need a copyright stamp (including overhead foils - stamp a separate sheet if necessary to construct a stamped copy by cut and paste or overlay).

Photocopying onto overhead transparencies should use only the Canon-supplied transparencies. Use the by-pass feeder and do not put more than a very few sheets into the feeder.

Take care with fat books etc to minimise pressure on the glass.

If the copier jams while you are using it, tell the office - or at least leave a note so that it can be fixed as soon as possible.

email and other Internet services

Financial Matters

Travel

Any out-of-ACT absence from the university on official duties should be preceded by lodging a signed Travel Form - see Departmental Administrator. Allow time for HoD signature.

Travel paid for by your own grants or other resources needs a travel form for two reasons: permission for absence and ANU insurance cover for you.

Absence during teaching semester is possible if you make arrangements that are acceptable to HoD.

Your travel may get financial assistance, paid primarily for fares, accommodation, meals. All travelk expenses need receipts to be handed in to match the claim - even if money is paid in advance, receipts are needed afterwards.

Air travel is special, and the policy varies from time to time. Ansett is the preferred supplier for ANU at present - but note they can be asked to act as a travel agent and book your flights in Qantas. (note they may not find the cheapest fare available). ANU can pay them by warrant. You must leave enough time for signatures, payment to be processed etc.
Pragmatically, to make bookings most efficiently, the best method seems to be to determine your own flight times by reference to airlines' website first. The Departmental Administrator will not usually make flight bookings for you.

Funding for conferences

Depending on budget allocations and remaining balance, there is usually DCS funding for one (1) overseas conference trip per year per academic. A local conference per year is also likely to be funded, depending on timing, cost, value. Amounts for postgrad students vary from time to time - start from a basis of one overseas trip per lifetime. Apply to HoD directly in all cases. Last modified: Wed Jun 21 18:30:36 EST 2000
Chris Johnson