UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER
SCHOOL OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
FIRST YEAR, FIRST SEMESTER
LABORATORY MANUAL
SESSION 2016/2017
Student Name (please write your name below, in case you lose this manual)
2
Chapter 1
General information
1.1
Introduction
This manual is about the laboratories for the COMP10120, COMP12111, COMP15111 and
COMP16121 course units.
The laboratory units are named after the associated course by dropping the letters COMP, using
the first 3 digits of the course code, followed by an L.
Course
COMP15111
COMP16121
COMP12111
COMP10120
Laboratory
151L
161L
121L
101L
This manual is divided into three parts.
1. General information (this part).
2. The 151L exercises.
3. Important information about the 161L exercises.
Note:
• The exercises for 101L are available in Black Board.
• The exercises for 121L are contained in a separate manual.
• The exercises for 151L are also available on the web.
• The exercises for 161L are embedded in the course book, because they are intimately
related to the lectures – but you must read the important information contained in part 3
of this manual.
It is vitally important that you carefully read and take note of the information in this first part, or
you might lose marks by simply doing the wrong thing. The laboratory supervisors and teaching
assistants will assume that you know the rules, and will not be sympathetic to anybody who has
not read this manual. This applies especially to laboratory deadlines.
So please read it!
3
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CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.2
Access to computing and teaching assistant facilities
• 101L laboratories take place in room LF31.
• 121L laboratories take place in the Tootill 1 Laboratory situated in room LF16.
• 151L laboratories take place in room LF31 or G23, depending on lab group.
• 161L laboratories take place in room LF31 or G23, depending on lab group.
(And some groups have a mixture of LF31 and G23!)
You should have been allocated to a laboratory group and given a number of timetabled sessions
in each of the laboratories. The groups are W, X, Y or Z for single honours students, and
Computer Science with Business Management students (all in X), and M for Computer Science
and Maths students.
Your laboratory group is the first letter of your tutorial group. However, you may be allocated to
a different group for specific course units in order to balance out the numbers in the groups for
those course units. You will be told about these allocations by email – please check your email
every day. It will probably be an automatic email from ARCADE.
In particular, 121L has a fifth group, V, made up of people from groups X, Y and Z. Currently the
proposal is tutorial groups X[9-10], Y[7-9] and Z[9-10] will attend the group V session instead of
attending with the rest of group X, Y or Z.
The laboratory timetables for each group can be found on pages 16 – 21 of this manual section. At these scheduled times you are provided with a laboratory supervisor and several postgraduate teaching assistants to help you. Your attendance at these times is required unless
otherwise stated.
Each exercise has a number of sessions allocated to it. The size of a session is 2 hours. However, the degree of difficulty of the work is such that most students will not be able to complete it
using only the scheduled sessions. Thus you should expect to do substantial amounts of work
on your laboratory before the scheduled sessions in order to keep up. Remember that your total
work as a student should occupy you at least 40 hours every week – this is approximately twice
the timetabled hours. It is worth pointing out that students who fail to get through the first
year typically have one thing in common: they did not work anything near to 40 hours
per week, every week.
Whenever there are scheduled sessions, priority is given to the allocated group, but at all other
times the facilities are available to everybody. You are permitted to be in the Computer Science
School between 8:00am and 11:30pm everyday and the facilities are available on Wednesday
afternoons, so there is more than enough time for everybody. (You will need to use your out-ofhours pass to make full use of these times.)
1.3
Laboratory marks
The work you do in the laboratory for each course unit is divided into exercises. Most exercises
have one deadline at the end, but some have more before the end. A deadline corresponds
1.4. PLAGIARISM AND/OR INAPPROPRIATE COLLABORATION
5
to a moment, which is usually the end of a laboratory session, when you must submit (or have
already submitted) one or more pieces of work to be marked. (Submitting might not literally
mean giving someone something – many exercises are submitted electronically and marked at
the computer screen with you present.)
Thus there are a set of marks, one for each deadline, which make up your course unit laboratory mark for each course unit. The way in which these separate marks are combined depends
upon the course unit: different exercises (or part exercises) have different weightings. These
weightings can be seen in your marks tables accessible via the ARCADE client. (However, we
must always reserve the right to alter the weighting for good reason. e.g. if an exercise goes
wrong.)
1.4
Plagiarism and/or inappropriate collaboration
It is very easy to cheat in the laboratories, by handing in somebody else’s work, so it’s nothing
to be proud of. Every year there are a number of people who have a quite high laboratory mark,
but produce an abysmal examination mark. The laboratories are probably the most important
part of the learning process, and copying is not learning. You are in a much stronger position
with a borderline laboratory mark which you gained yourself than you are with a high number
that is not yours. If you find yourself in difficulty and are tempted to cheat, then doing so would
put you in more difficulty, and it is better to get the help you need. It is never too late to get help,
but the sooner you do the better it is.
It is a requirement of the laboratories that you fully understand the work you hand-in and that
you undertook all of the work yourself. To enable us to assess whether this is the case, we
reserve the right to viva you on your work without notice. Vivas may be set at random, or given
in cases where there is grounds for any suspicion about the work in question (which includes
having been caught cheating in other course units). Thus you may not ever get a viva, but if
you do and you do not convince the member of staff giving the viva that the work is indeed your
own, you will have been deemed to have failed that exercise and your mark will be replaced with
zero.
In addition to acting on suspicions, your work for many course units is systematically scrutinised
for evidence of plagiarism and collaboration.
The University treats plagiarism and/or inappropriate collaboration (both examples of academic
malpractice) as a serious offence, and you should make sure you have read the relevant section
in the School of Computer Science Undergraduate Handbook.
As far as the laboratories are concerned, our interpretation is as follows. If it is judged that
a group of people have cheated by copying or otherwise sharing a particular exercise, then
everyone in that group will be awarded zero for that exercise. If then any one person in that
group convinces the Laboratory Manager that his or her work was copied by the others, and
without consent, then he or she gets the mark. The others are not permitted to resubmit that
exercise, and the mark of zero stays.
Further, those who have copied without the consent of the originator of the work, will have
further penalties imposed. Persistent offenders, may be referred to the University Disciplinary
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CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
procedures. This typically results in a more serious punitive outcome.
You should also be aware that the process of detecting cheating is not necessarily a quick one.
Thus it may be quite a long time after you hand in your work, and have had marks back, that you
are challenged on it. A worst case effect of this delay could be, if a student was to persistently
collaborate and/or plagiarise, for him/her to collect marks during the year but then very near the
end of the year have all these marks taken away – and fail as a result.
Even after marks have been made official, if evidence comes to light of unfair practice, they can
be challenged: the worst case of this could be something like a student passing into the second
year and then finding out they actually failed the first year!!!!
So, please don’t cheat! Don’t even think about it. Be very wary of getting “too much help” from
other students: it’s so easy to cheat without intending to this way.
1.5
Working together
Let’s explore the issue of helping each other in some depth.
Many of you will be more than tempted to work together with your friends on the solutions to
the problems. We have no objection to this in principle, but be aware of the fine line between
working together and copying. We will not tolerate copying. If you do not actually do, on your
own, with full understanding, every part you are supposed to do of each exercise that you get
marked, then you have copied. Remember the requirement that you fully understand your work,
and that it is all your own work, and our reserved right to viva you on it without notice!
When working together in an informal group of friends, pay special attention to the relative
abilities of people in that group. The real point of laboratory work is not to get the answer, but to
learn by doing it yourself, even if you actually get the wrong answer! If you find yourself always
telling your friends the answers, then you are not much of a friend to them! You are holding them
back and patronising them, but more to the point, you are undermining their learning. Equally, if
you find yourself with a friend who keeps telling you the answers, don’t be grateful! There is a
good chance that he, or she, is simply trying to impress you. Don’t be impressed!
Everybody who works in an informal group should actually do the work themselves, individually.
Such working together should be restricted to discussing ideas and getting the work off the
ground. Anybody who cannot actually do the work, should get help from one of the teaching
assistants or supervisors. These people are experienced at helping you in such a way that you
can do the work yourself, rather than just giving you the answer.
Similarly: never seek detailed help with your work on the internet, e.g. sites like stackOverflow,
etc.. These will never give you healthy help (e.g. small hints) instead will always give you the
answer. This is cheating and you are likely to get caught because your code is public.
Also, you must take reasonable steps to protect your work from being ‘stolen’: do not leave
printouts lying around, lose USB drives, give others your password, leave yourself logged in,
etc.. In particular do not use sites like pasteBin to transfer your work: you are in danger of also
publishing it for future generations of students to copy!
1.6. DEADLINE SYSTEM
7
Note: if you use stackOverflow or similar forums, you are guilty of both seeking unhealthy help
and of publishing your work, so we will be very cross with you!
In determining the line between healthy help and inappropriate collaboration, a good rule of
thumb to stick to is this: if you get help from another student, or give help to another student,
make sure that the passage of information between you is at a much higher level of abstraction
than the final answer, no matter what the medium is (soft copy, typed, written, spoken, etc.).
So, for example, for exercises which involve you writing some program code (and which is not
supposed to be team work!), never show your code, or your detailed pseudo code, to another
student: that amount of “help” is cheating. Thus, for example, if you and a few friends develop a
solution to a laboratory exercise together, you are by definition cheating.
On the other hand, you can help each other as much as you like about things that you have
not been asked to create, such as explaining the exercise question to each other, or explaining
material that has been covered in lectures, e.g. Java concepts, etc..
1.6
Deadline system
Read this carefully, it is very important.
You must take the deadline system seriously, otherwise you are simply throwing away marks.
The deadlines are there to help you optimise your learning – encouraging you to not merely do
the work eventually, but do it at the best time.
You will see below that attendance plays a part in the deadline system, and missing a session
can cause you to get a late flag. So an accurate record of attendance is vital if the system is to
be fair. Please make sure your attendance gets taken when you are present. (If you arrive late,
or leave the room at the wrong moment, you might get missed – watch out for that.) Also, if you
are absent with a good reason please make sure you inform the supervisor in the next session
for that course unit, briefly giving the reason (or in advance if it is planned).
Note: the following course specific details may be subject to alteration – watch your email.
1.6.1 The 161L deadline scheme
161L has strict deadlines because it is important to work consistently on the COMP16121 material, and undertake the exercises at the right time to maximise your learning.
Each laboratory exercise has a deadline attached, occurring at the end of the sessions allocated
to that exercise. You must endeavour to have the exercise completed by the deadline. If you
miss a deadline, then your work will still be accepted and marked in the normal way, but the
mark for that exercise does not contribute to your course unit laboratory mark once it is above
the bare pass mark of 40%. However, deadlines can normally be extended to the start of the
next laboratory session if you need more time, provided that you ask your laboratory supervisor
in advance of the deadline and you have nearly completed the work.
Deadline extensions are granted on an individual basis: an extension obtained for one exercise
is not an automatic extension for the next one, and so on. You must ask separately for each
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CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
extension you need, the idea being that if you have fallen behind then you ought to catch up
rather than stay behind.
You cannot get an extension for the first two deadlines.
This means there are four normal ways of getting a late flag for any deadline in 161L.
1. Miss the session which has the deadline at the end, without having already met the deadline, and without giving a good reason for absence (in your next 161L session).
2. Not meet the deadline, and forget to ask for the extension.
3. Not meet the deadline, and be refused an extension because you have not nearly completed.
4. Not meet the extended deadline at the start of the next session.
1.6.2 The 151L deadline scheme
151L operates the same scheme as 162L, except for the following.
• The lab cycle is fortnightly, and so extensions are not until the start of the next session.
Instead, extensions are for a period of seven term days, ending at the normal start time
of your laboratory sessions. So, for example, if you have a session at 1pm on a Tuesday,
with the deadline at 3pm, the extension period expires at 1pm the following Tuesday.
• Extensions are granted for all exercises automatically, regardless of how much progress
you have made (i.e. you do not need to be nearly completed) as long as you are recorded
as having attended the session.
This means there are two normal ways of getting a late flag for any deadline in 151L.
1. Miss the session which has the deadline at the end, without having already met the deadline, and without giving a good reason for absence (in your next 151L session). This
means you did not get the, otherwise automatic, extension.
2. Not meet the extended deadline seven days later.
1.6.3 The 121L deadline scheme
In 121L, most exercises have more than one part: comprising parts with automatic marking
and feedback, and a face-to-face mark and feedback. These parts share the same exercise
deadline. As with 161L, extensions are to the start of the next laboratory, and will be granted
near the end of the labs with a deadline on request, if you have nearly completed your work for
the exercise.
Exercise 1 does not count toward the overall 121L mark.
There are four normal ways of getting a late flag for any deadline in 121L.
1. Miss the session which has the deadline(s) at the end, without having already met the
deadline(s), and without giving a good reason for absence (in your next 121L session).
1.7. WHAT DOES A LATE FLAG MEAN?
9
2. Not meet the deadline(s), and forget to ask for the extension (not available for ex4x and
ex5x).
3. Not meet the deadline(s), and be refused an extension because you have not nearly
completed.
4. Not meet the extended deadline at the start of the next session.
1.6.4 The 101L laboratory
101L operates the same scheme as 161L, except you can obtain an extension, upon request,
for all exercises (individually) if you have nearly completed by the deadline.
This means there are four normal ways of getting a late flag for any deadline in 101L.
1. Miss the session which has the deadline at the end, without having already met the deadline, and without giving a good reason for absence (in your next 101L session).
2. Not meet the deadline, and forget to ask for the extension.
3. Not meet the deadline, and be refused an extension because you have not nearly completed.
4. Not meet the extended deadline at the start of the next session.
1.7
What does a late flag mean?
In general (depending on which course unit) you can get a late flag for a deadline in one of five
ways:
1. You did not meet the deadline and were absent from the deadline session, and so did not
get an extension (if entitled to one).
2. You did not meet the deadline and were present at the deadline session, but forgot to get
an extension (if entitled).
3. You did not meet the deadline and were present at the deadline session, but were refused
an extension (if otherwise available) because you had not nearly completed the work –
remember an extension is intended for finishing off, and you are supposed to aim to meet
the deadline.
4. You did not meet the deadline, got an extension (if entitled) but did not meet that extended
deadline.
5. You did not meet the deadline, got an extension (if entitled), did not meet that extended
deadline, got an extra extension (for some special circumstance – see below), but did not
meet that extra extended deadline.
Two common misunderstandings are that you can only get up to 40% of the maximum marks
for a deadline which is late, or that you only get 40% of what your work was worth. Neither of
these are true.
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CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
Work which is flagged late is marked in the normal way, and you get whatever marks your
work is worth, but the marks are flagged as late. When your overall marks for the laboratory
component of an individual course unit is being computed (or semester thereof for a year long
course), two separate totals are calculated: your late total, for all deadlines which are flagged
late; and your on-time total, for all the others. Both of these are first scaled by the scaling factor,
if there is one, and then:
• If your on-time total is greater than 40%, that will be your mark and your late total will be
completely ignored.
• If the sum of your on-time total and your late total is less than 40%, your mark will be
that sum.
• Otherwise, your mark will be 40%.
A way to visualise this is as follows. Think of a glass measuring cylinder, with markings up the
side from 0 to 100. Imagine your (scaled) on-time marks as a thick liquid, and your (scaled)
late marks as a thin one. When both are poured into the cylinder, the on-time marks sink to the
bottom, with the late marks sitting on top. However, there is a very fine vertical slot cut through
the side of the cylinder from the top right down to the 40 mark. The thin liquid late marks can
seep out through this slot, and be lost; but the thick liquid on-time marks cannot.
1.7.1 Examples
Assume a course unit which has 5 deadlines, all equally weighted, each is marked out of 20,
(and ignoring the scaling factor, if any). This would mean that the overall mark (%) for the course
unit would simply be the sum of the 5 deadline marks. Please be aware that reality is rarely this
simple!
Here are some scenarios. An ‘L’ on the end of a mark signifies a late flagged mark.
Ex1
Ex2
Ex3
Ex4
Ex5
Total
Explanation
16
16
16
6
6L
12
12L
12L
2
2L
14
14
14L
4
4L
17
17L
17L
7
7L
15
15
15
5
5L
74
45
40
24
24
None are late, so all count
The two late ones are ignored
The three late ones only bring the mark up to 40%
None are late, so all count
All late, but all count because total is below 40%
1.8
Illness and other circumstances
Extra time can be given if you have good reason, for example if you have been ill. Please inform
your laboratory supervisors if such circumstances have affected your work. The supervisor for a
laboratory is usually the member of staff who takes attendance. Note: it is usually not sufficient
to tell a teaching assistant (demonstrator) if you have been ill: they will typically assume you
have also spoken to the laboratory supervisor, and so do nothing about it (apart from express
sympathy!). It is the laboratory supervisor who will sort out your laboratory data with you, not
the teaching assistants.
1.9. COMPLETING YOUR WORK AND GETTING IT MARKED
11
Please do not report all such things to the Laboratory Manager directly – he simply cannot deal
with them all. However, in very extreme cases, for example missing a whole week or more,
or circumstances which justify you being granted more than just one extra lab session for any
deadline, you should inform the Laboratory Manager (John Latham – email jtl@cs.man.ac.uk).
In any case, if you miss a laboratory session for a good reason, you must inform us. The best
way to do this, especially for small periods of absence, is to simply tell the laboratory supervisor
in the next session for the same course unit.
1.9
Completing your work and getting it marked
Most laboratories have a face-to-face feedback and marking process, in which the marker,
usually a demonstrator, discusses your work with you. For these, you must not underestimate
the benefit of your feedback – it is not just about getting marks!
On the other hand, some courses use the more classical ‘offline marking’, by which we mean
you, the student is ‘offline’ at the time. That is, it is marked without you being present.
For some exercises, you are required to hand in reports of listings, etc..:
Please read the specific instructions for each exercise very carefully to determine exactly what
you have to do.
1.9.1 Electronic submission of work and marks
Most exercises use ARCADE’s facility for the submission of work and marks by students. For
these, this is what you do.
• Each exercise has a file directory associated with it, e.g. COMP16121/ex1 is where your
work for exercise one of COMP16121 is to be done. (A variation of these rules apply for
121L.)
• As soon as you have completed your work, you run the command submit while in the
directory for the exercise. This bundles up your work and submits it to the server. The
exact time of completion is recorded and used to determine whether you met the deadline
or extended deadline, etc..
• A common mistake is to run submit only when you are about to have your work marked.
Remember that ARCADE takes your time of submission as your time of completion, and
so doing this is likely to make your work be flagged late – don’t make this mistake!
• You might also be required to run labprint which is a facility to obtain a hard copy of
your work ready for marking. You should do this as soon as you are next in the school –
i.e. straight after submitting, if you are already in the school or the next working day if you
are logged in remotely.
• If you change your work after submitting and wish to resubmit it, then you run submit-again.
However, this will adjust your completion time and so could make your work late.
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CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
• If you just want to check for any differences between your work and what you have submitted you run the command submit-diff.
• After submitting, you must get your work marked at your next opportunity – e.g. in your
next laboratory session for that course, if you submit between sessions. One reason for
this is that you should want to get your feedback as soon as possible – otherwise mistakes
you have made will be repeated in later exercises. The second reason is about resources
– if you allow a backlog of marking to build up, then the markers are under-utilised at the
right time and cannot cope with demand later. Despite this, in the past some students have
saved all their marking to the end of the semester, at which time they were deliberately
given a low priority for marking by us, and when inevitably time for marking ran out, their
work did not get marked and those students failed!
We now have a simple solution to this problem: IF YOU DO NOT GET YOU WORK
MARKED AT YOUR EARLIEST OPPORTUNITY without good reason, WE WILL ASSUME YOU DO NOT WANT THE WORK MARKED EVER, AND WE WILL REMOVE
YOUR UNMARKED SUBMISSIONS FROM THE ARCHIVE. This would mean, if you actually did want it marking, you would have to resubmit it, and thus it would be flagged as
late.
• When it is time for you to obtain face-to-face feedback and a mark for your work, you must
run submit-diff to show your marker that the work in your file store is the same as that
which has been submitted. If there are changes between what has been submitted and
what is to be marked, you must run submit-again (which could make your work late).
Then he or she will go through the work with you to give you verbal and written feedback
on it. At the end of this process you will know your mark and the you will run the command
submit-mark. This will prompt you for a marking token and the mark, both of which the
demonstrator will give you and watch you type in.
• Make sure you wait for confirmation that your mark has been submitted successfully!
(In particular, do not close the terminal before the program has had chance to report your
mark!)
• Keep your marked labprint reports for your future reference and as your official record
of your feedback and marks.
• Your submitted work will, at some point, be analysed for plagiarism and/or inappropriate
collaboration.
1.9.2 Physical submission of work
When you are required to physically hand-in your work:
• If the work you are handing in or getting marked contains more than one listing or hand
written page, etc., please staple the pages together.
• Please do not hand in work relating to two different exercises in the same stapled bundle.
This just makes life difficult for us – often the work is separated into different exercises to
be marked by different people.
1.10. COURSEWORK PORTFOLIO
13
• Please clearly write your tutorial group, your name, and the course unit and exercise
number on the outside of your work. There may be a form to be used for this – please fill
it in carefully and staple it to your work.
• After handing in your work or having it marked, please do not throw away your own copy
of it, otherwise you may end up having to do it again! This could be necessary, if for
example a printed copy you handed in got misplaced in the marking process.
1.10 Coursework portfolio
You must keep copies of your coursework, so that you can refer back to it in the future, and so
that your tutor might peruse it with you, if that is appropriate, and so that it can be remarked in
the unlikely event that your marks are lost.
This means you should never delete files in your file store which are part of your work. Also, any
printed material relating to your work should be kept, such as program listings. This especially
applies to those laboratories that require you to have a hard copy of your work marked, as this
will often include some written feedback from the marker.
You will be provided with a special folder in which to keep your coursework. Please use it,
and keep it safe. From time to time, some students may be picked at random and asked (at
reasonable notice) to produce their coursework portfolio for scrutiny by various accreditation
bodies who are external to the School.
1.11 Log-books
You are required to keep a logbook during the first year laboratory. This requirement is intended
to help you organise your own work, and to encourage good practice in laboratory work in
general. Since the same considerations apply to tutorials and examples classes, you should
use your logbook there too. In order to maximise the benefit, you should follow a few simple
rules:
• We will give you hard backed durable logbook. You must label it clearly with your name in
the inside of the front cover, carry it with you, and don’t lose it!
• Use your logbook every time you do some theoretical or practical work on a laboratory
or tutorial or examples class exercise, but which does not need to be handed in. Use
the logbook to work on preliminary ideas and designs, and to record decisions made and
the reasons behind them. Record results and errors as appropriate. Note the date and
time each time you work on laboratory material, so that the logbook contains a record of
ongoing progress.
• It will help you to number your logbook pages and to keep a running index.
Your logbook should be available at all times during the year. It will play a part in formal assessment in some laboratories. It might be used at any time as the basis of discussions about your
progress with your tutor, the Laboratory Manager, or the Year Tutor.
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CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
1.12 Use of the computer facilities
With regard to your use of the computers during timetabled and peak hours (i.e. weekdays
between 9am and 6pm) certain principles apply:
• You must not play any games on the workstations or PCs – this occupies a machine and
also slows the network system down for everybody else. In particular, multi-user games
are extremely disruptive due to the inevitable noise from the players.
• You must not lock the screen on a workstation for more than 15 minutes (i.e. time enough
to obtain a printer listing or visit the toilet, or have a short break etc.).
• During your own scheduled sessions you may only do work for the course unit associated
with that laboratory session. This forces you to be simultaneously working on several
different exercises (one for each course unit), and also to spend the right balance of time
on each course unit.
• During your own scheduled sessions you may be asked to log-off if your supervisor thinks
that somebody else who is waiting could make better use of the machine (for example,
you are ahead and they are behind, or you have not thought about your solution and so
are just wasting machine time, or you have a game running, etc.).
People who abuse their privilege of computer access during scheduled hours will have it removed – so that all their work has to be done at other times.
Outside of normal working hours, you can be more relaxed, although you must always give
priority to somebody who wants to work if you are playing a game, and you must always actively
avoid disturbing others.
There are other requirements on your behaviour and conduct in laboratories and on computer
equipment in general. You should see the handbook.
These principles are designed to provide the greatest service to the greatest number of you –
please observe them.
1.12.1 Noise and mobile telephones
One of the biggest problems is the level of noise in laboratories, which many students can find
very disruptive. At all times, you must avoid unnecessary noise such as loud conversations,
tapping on tables and externally audible personal headphones. In particular, the use of mobile
telephones in laboratory rooms is totally banned : your phone must be switched off or set to nonaudible ringing; and if it does ring (non-audibly), you must leave the room before you answer
it.
1.13. HOW TO KEEP ON TOP OF THE WORK
AND IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS
15
1.13 How to keep on top of the work
and impress your friends
As you have read in the previous sections, there are a number of exercises for each course
unit, each having a number of scheduled laboratory sessions and one or more deadlines for
submission. We have also warned you that you will have to do work outside of your scheduled
sessions.
So what is the best way to proceed? Clearly you want to avoid getting behind and having a lot
of work to do at the end of the semester (which you won’t get the full credit for due to being
late) when you should be revising. You also want to make best use of the scheduled sessions,
because at those times you have a number of experts available to help you.
You should also take note that you do not need a computer to think about your work. Most of
the exercises require a considerable amount of design effort, and this is best done when not sat
in front of a computer. You should do a substantial part of the work in the quiet of your room.
You could be in a bed, in a bar, or in a bath, and you will be able to think better than if you are in
front of a machine demanding that you type to it.
So here is our advice for sensibly organising your work:
• Read the question before the first session allocated to the exercise so that you can discuss
anything you do not understand with your laboratory supervisors or the demonstrators in
the first session.
• Do as much thought and design work outside of laboratory sessions as possible before
the sessions. You should regard the sessions as opportunities to access the facilities and
the experts.
• For an exercise that has one session, you must be half way through the work before the
session starts if you hope to meet the deadline.
• Keep a close eye on the deadlines and extended deadlines – use a diary if necessary!
• If you find yourself always needing the extension, then you need to work harder to catch
up and do more work before the laboratory sessions.
• If you think you are having general difficulties, then get help from your laboratory supervisor, who is provided to help you. Or discuss it with your tutor. If you leave it too late, you
might never recover and then you will fail the course unit.
1.14 Timetables
16
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
Group M First Year Semester One Laboratory Timetable
Below is the timetable for the 101L and 161L laboratory exercises for group M. In the table, n.m
indicates the mth session for exercise n. A ‘D’ on the end of a session name indicates that there
is an exercise deadline at the end of that session. ‘Marking’ indicates a session scheduled only
for handing in and/or marking final work. If you obtain an extension to the final exercise, then
it is up to the start of the corresponding ‘Marking’ session unless you are told otherwise by the
first year laboratory manager.
Monday
[3]10/10 10am 161L G23 2.1
[5]24/10 10am 161L G23 4.1
[8]14/11 10am 161L G23 6.1
[10]28/11 10am 161L G23 8.1
[12]12/12 10am 161L G23 10D
[12]12/12 10am 161L G23 8oD
[12]12/12 10am 161L G23 10oD
Tuesday
[1.2]4/10 3pm 101L LF31 1ampD
[1.2]4/10 3pm 101L LF31 1hsD
11/10 3pm 101L LF31 2D
[4]18/10 3pm 101L LF31 3D
25/10 3pm 101L LF31 4D
[7]8/11 3pm 101L LF31 5D
15/11 3pm 101L LF31 6D
[9]22/11 3pm 101L LF31 7D
29/11 3pm 101L LF31 8D
13/12 3pm 101L LF31 Marking
Friday
7/10 3pm 161L G23 1D
14/10 3pm 161L G23 2.2D
21/10 3pm 161L G23 3D
28/10 3pm 161L G23 4.2D
11/11 3pm 161L G23 5D
18/11 3pm 161L G23 6.2D
25/11 3pm 161L G23 7D
2/12 3pm 161L G23 8.2D
[11]9/12 3pm 161L G23 9D
16/12 3pm 161L G23 Marking
1.14. TIMETABLES
17
Group W First Year Semester One Laboratory Timetable
Below is the timetable for the 101L, 121L, 151L and 161L laboratory exercises for group W. In
the table, n.m indicates the mth session for exercise n. A ‘D’ on the end of a session name indicates that there is an exercise deadline at the end of that session. ‘Marking’ indicates a session
scheduled only for handing in and/or marking final work. If you obtain an extension to the final
exercise, then it is up to the start of the corresponding ‘Marking’ session or ‘Submit’ deadline,
unless you are told otherwise by the first year laboratory manager.
101L sessions are at 3pm in room LF31.
121L sessions are at 3pm in room LF16.
151L sessions are in room G23.
161L sessions are in room G23.
Monday
[1.2]3/10 10am 151L 1D
[3]10/10 10am 161L 2.1
Tuesday
4/10 101L 1ampD
4/10 101L 1hsD
11/10 101L 2D
[4]17/10 10am 151L 2D
[5]24/10 10am 161L 4.1
18/10 101L 3D
25/10 101L 4D
[7]7/11 10am 151L 3D
[8]14/11 10am 161L 6.1
8/11 101L 5D
15/11 101L 6D
[9]21/11 10am 151L 4D
[10]28/11 10am 161L 8.1
22/11 101L 7D
29/11 101L 8D
[11]5/12 10am 151L 5D
[12]12/12 10am 161L 10D
[12]12/12 10am 161L 8oD
[12]12/12 10am 161L 10oD
13/12 101L Marking
Thursday
6/10 121L 1.1
Friday
7/10 3pm 161L 1D
13/10 121L 1.2aD
13/10 121L 1.2bD
13/10 121L 1.2cD
20/10 121L 2.1
27/10 121L 2.2aD
27/10 121L 2.2fD
10/11 121L 3.1
17/11 121L 3.2aD
17/11 121L 3.2bD
17/11 121L 3.2fD
24/11 121L 4.1
1/12 121L 4.2aD
1/12 121L 4.2fD
8/12 121L 5fD
15/12 121L Marking
14/10 3pm 161L 2.2D
21/10 3pm 161L 3D
28/10 3pm 161L 4.2D
11/11 3pm 161L 5D
18/11 3pm 161L 6.2D
25/11 3pm 161L 7D
2/12 3pm 161L 8.2D
9/12 3pm 161L 9D
16/12 3pm 151L Marking
16/12 3pm 161L Marking
18
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
Group V First Year Semester One Laboratory Timetable
Below is the timetable for the 121L laboratory exercises for group V. In the table, n.m indicates
the mth session for exercise n. A ‘D’ on the end of a session name indicates that there is an
exercise deadline at the end of that session. ‘Marking’ indicates a session scheduled only for
handing in and/or marking final work. If you obtain an extension to the final exercise, then it is
up to the start of the corresponding ‘Marking’ session or ‘Submit’ deadline, unless you are told
otherwise by the first year laboratory manager.
Friday
[1.2]7/10 3pm 121L LF16 1.1
[3]14/10 3pm 121L LF16 1.2aD
[3]14/10 3pm 121L LF16 1.2bD
[3]14/10 3pm 121L LF16 1.2cD
[4]21/10 3pm 121L LF16 2.1
[5]28/10 3pm 121L LF16 2.2aD
[5]28/10 3pm 121L LF16 2.2fD
[7]11/11 3pm 121L LF16 3.1
[8]18/11 3pm 121L LF16 3.2aD
[8]18/11 3pm 121L LF16 3.2bD
[8]18/11 3pm 121L LF16 3.2fD
[9]25/11 3pm 121L LF16 4.1
[10]2/12 3pm 121L LF16 4.2aD
[10]2/12 3pm 121L LF16 4.2fD
[11]9/12 3pm 121L LF16 5fD
[12]16/12 3pm 121L LF16 Marking
1.14. TIMETABLES
19
Group X First Year Semester One Laboratory Timetable
Below is the timetable for the 101L, 121L, 151L and 161L laboratory exercises for group X. In
the table, n.m indicates the mth session for exercise n. A ‘D’ on the end of a session name indicates that there is an exercise deadline at the end of that session. ‘Marking’ indicates a session
scheduled only for handing in and/or marking final work. If you obtain an extension to the final
exercise, then it is up to the start of the corresponding ‘Marking’ session or ‘Submit’ deadline,
unless you are told otherwise by the first year laboratory manager.
Note: those in group V for 121L follow the group V timetable for that lab.
Tuesday
[1.2]4/10 10am 151L LF31 1D
[1.2]4/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.1
[3]11/10 10am 161L LF31 2.1
[3]11/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.2aD
[3]11/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.2bD
[3]11/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.2cD
[4]18/10 10am 151L LF31 2D
[4]18/10 1pm 121L LF16 2.1
[5]25/10 10am 161L LF31 4.1
[5]25/10 1pm 121L LF16 2.2aD
[5]25/10 1pm 121L LF16 2.2fD
[7]8/11 10am 151L LF31 3D
[7]8/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.1
[8]15/11 10am 161L LF31 6.1
[8]15/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.2aD
[8]15/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.2bD
[8]15/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.2fD
[9]22/11 10am 151L LF31 4D
[9]22/11 1pm 121L LF16 4.1
[10]29/11 10am 161L LF31 8.1
[10]29/11 1pm 121L LF16 4.2aD
[10]29/11 1pm 121L LF16 4.2fD
[11]6/12 10am 151L LF31 5D
[11]6/12 1pm 121L LF16 5fD
[12]13/12 10am 161L LF31 10D
[12]13/12 10am 161L LF31 8oD
[12]13/12 10am 161L LF31 10oD
[12]13/12 1pm 121L LF16 Marking
Thursday
6/10 1pm 101L LF31 1ampD
6/10 1pm 101L LF31 1hsD
6/10 3pm 161L G23 1D
13/10 1pm 101L LF31 2D
13/10 3pm 161L G23 2.2D
20/10 1pm 101L LF31 3D
20/10 3pm 161L G23 3D
27/10 1pm 101L LF31 4D
27/10 3pm 161L G23 4.2D
10/11 1pm 101L LF31 5D
10/11 3pm 161L G23 5D
17/11 1pm 101L LF31 6D
17/11 3pm 161L G23 6.2D
24/11 1pm 101L LF31 7D
24/11 3pm 161L G23 7D
1/12 1pm 101L LF31 8D
1/12 3pm 161L G23 8.2D
8/12 3pm 161L G23 9D
15/12 1pm 101L LF31 Marking
15/12 3pm 151L G23 Marking
15/12 3pm 161L G23 Marking
20
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
Group Y First Year Semester One Laboratory Timetable
Below is the timetable for the 101L, 121L, 151L and 161L laboratory exercises for group Y. In
the table, n.m indicates the mth session for exercise n. A ‘D’ on the end of a session name indicates that there is an exercise deadline at the end of that session. ‘Marking’ indicates a session
scheduled only for handing in and/or marking final work. If you obtain an extension to the final
exercise, then it is up to the start of the corresponding ‘Marking’ session or ‘Submit’ deadline,
unless you are told otherwise by the first year laboratory manager.
Note: those in group V for 121L follow the group V timetable for that lab.
101L sessions are at 10am in room LF31.
121L sessions are at 9am in room LF16.
151L sessions are at 1pm in room G23.
161L sessions are at 1pm in room G23.
Monday
[1.2]3/10 101L 1ampD
[1.2]3/10 101L 1hsD
[3]10/10 101L 2D
Tuesday
4/10 151L 1D
Wednesday
5/10 121L 1.1
Thursday
6/10 161L 1D
11/10 161L 2.1
13/10 161L 2.2D
[4]17/10 101L 3D
[5]24/10 101L 4D
18/10 151L 2D
25/10 161L 4.1
[7]7/11 101L 5D
[8]14/11 101L 6D
8/11 151L 3D
15/11 161L 6.1
[9]21/11 101L 7D
[10]28/11 101L 8D
22/11 151L 4D
29/11 161L 8.1
12/10 121L 1.2aD
12/10 121L 1.2bD
12/10 121L 1.2cD
19/10 121L 2.1
26/10 121L 2.2aD
26/10 121L 2.2fD
9/11 121L 3.1
16/11 121L 3.2aD
16/11 121L 3.2bD
16/11 121L 3.2fD
23/11 121L 4.1
30/11 121L 4.2aD
30/11 121L 4.2fD
7/12 121L 5fD
14/12 121L Marking
[12]12/12 101L Marking
[11]6/12 151L 5D
13/12 161L 10D
13/12 161L 8oD
13/12 161L 10oD
20/10 161L 3D
27/10 161L 4.2D
10/11 161L 5D
17/11 161L 6.2D
24/11 161L 7D
1/12 161L 8.2D
8/12 161L 9D
15/12 151L Marking
15/12 161L Marking
1.14. TIMETABLES
21
Group Z First Year Semester One Laboratory Timetable
Below is the timetable for the 101L, 121L, 151L and 161L laboratory exercises for group Z. In
the table, n.m indicates the mth session for exercise n. A ‘D’ on the end of a session name indicates that there is an exercise deadline at the end of that session. ‘Marking’ indicates a session
scheduled only for handing in and/or marking final work. If you obtain an extension to the final
exercise, then it is up to the start of the corresponding ‘Marking’ session or ‘Submit’ deadline,
unless you are told otherwise by the first year laboratory manager.
Note: those in group V for 121L follow the group V timetable for that lab.
Wednesday
[1.2]5/10 9am 151L LF31 1D
[3]12/10 9am 161L LF31 2.1
[4]19/10 9am 151L LF31 2D
[5]26/10 9am 161L LF31 4.1
[7]9/11 9am 151L LF31 3D
[8]16/11 9am 161L LF31 6.1
[9]23/11 9am 151L LF31 4D
[10]30/11 9am 161L LF31 8.1
[11]7/12 9am 151L LF31 5D
[12]14/12 9am 161L LF31 10D
[12]14/12 9am 161L LF31 8oD
[12]14/12 9am 161L LF31 10oD
Thursday
6/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.1
6/10 3pm 101L LF31 1ampD
6/10 3pm 101L LF31 1hsD
13/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.2aD
13/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.2bD
13/10 1pm 121L LF16 1.2cD
13/10 3pm 101L LF31 2D
20/10 1pm 121L LF16 2.1
20/10 3pm 101L LF31 3D
27/10 1pm 121L LF16 2.2aD
27/10 1pm 121L LF16 2.2fD
27/10 3pm 101L LF31 4D
10/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.1
10/11 3pm 101L LF31 5D
17/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.2aD
17/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.2bD
17/11 1pm 121L LF16 3.2fD
17/11 3pm 101L LF31 6D
24/11 1pm 121L LF16 4.1
24/11 3pm 101L LF31 7D
1/12 1pm 121L LF16 4.2aD
1/12 1pm 121L LF16 4.2fD
1/12 3pm 101L LF31 8D
8/12 1pm 121L LF16 5fD
15/12 1pm 121L LF16 Marking
15/12 3pm 101L LF31 Marking
Friday
7/10 1pm 161L LF31 1D
14/10 1pm 161L LF31 2.2D
21/10 1pm 161L LF31 3D
28/10 1pm 161L LF31 4.2D
11/11 1pm 161L LF31 5D
18/11 1pm 161L LF31 6.2D
25/11 1pm 161L LF31 7D
2/12 1pm 161L LF31 8.2D
9/12 1pm 161L LF31 9D
16/12 1pm 151L LF31 Marking
16/12 1pm 161L LF31 Marking
22
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL INFORMATION
Chapter 2
The 151L exercises
24
CHAPTER 2. THE 151L EXERCISES
Chapter 3
The 161L exercises