Labs – 2016/17

The Department is located on levels 11 to 14 of the Livingstone Tower. At present there are three large undergraduate teaching laboratories, one on each of the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth floors of the Tower, plus a restricted access laboratory on the fourteenth floor (primarily for fourth and fifth years). There are printers in each main lab. All departmental machines are linked by a high speed local area network and operate under a single network file system so you can access your files from any of our machines. At present the configuration of the laboratories is as follows:

Name Room Use Machines No.
 Arrol LT 11.05 General 55 Dell Intel i5-3570 with 8GB + 5 HP i5-4570 with 8GB 60
 Kelvin LT 12.01 & LT 12.20 General HP i5-4570 with 8GB 60
 Muir LT 13.01 General HP i5-4570 with 8GB 30
 Telford LT 13.20 General Dell Intel i5-2500 with 4GB 25
 Baird LT 14.14 Final Year Projects HP i5-4570 with 8GB 12

All lab machines are dual boot Windows 10/Ubuntu Linux 16.04. Wireless access is provided throughout the departmental area.

The Department operates a printer quota system for printing. We charge a small amount to print each page (currently 5p for basic laser printers up to 12p for colour printers). You get your printer quota credited at the start of the year to your account and can check your quota at any time and top up your account in the general office during office hours.

Some of the first year practical work is done in the Faculty of Science first year laboratory on level 3 of the Livingstone Tower which is operated by IT Services (not Computer and Information Sciences) so slightly different rules and setup apply:

Room Use Machines No. Operating System
 LT 3.01 1st Year Classes Dell Optiplex i5-2400s 98 Windows 7

In addition to formal labs the bulk of the 11th floor of the department is open for use in two zones: the study zone for quiet working and the creative zone for group working or as a group common room. These areas have power supplies and are covered by our wi-fi network.

Conditions for use of Departmental Facilities

You are expected to make responsible and mature use of the equipment made available to you and you must adhere to the University Policy on the Use of Computing Facilities and Resources, which is available via the University’s web page on Information Security. The following summary of rules for use of departmental facilities does not detract from the other requirements of the regulations, but you should note in particular that:

  1. You should only use computing resources for academic purposes.
  2. You must not use computing resources to download, distribute or store music, video, film, software, data or other material, for which you do not hold a valid licence, or other valid permission from the copyright holder.
  3. You must not use computing resources to store any data which is forbidden under UK or Scots law (e.g. obscene, discriminatory, inflammatory or defamatory data).
  4. All individually allocated usernames, accounts and passwords are for the exclusive use of the individual to whom they are allocated.
  5. You must not use computing resources to access any computing resource(s) for which you are not an authorised user.
  6. You must not use computing resources to compromise the integrity, security, availability or operability of any other computing resource(s) within or outwith the University.
  7. You must not eat or drink in labs (with the exception of water from a slow-spill bottle).

Any person who is identified as breaching any of the University’s or Department’s regulations, policies or similar will be subject to disciplinary procedures.

Please note that for operational purposes (e.g. to provide IT and teaching support, to investigate academic dishonesty or malpractice) it may be necessary for the Department to access the email or filestore of any user. This will only be undertaken on the authority of the Head of Department or his/her nominee, or in response to a user request regarding his/her filestore or email.

Access to Laboratories

Labs are open on week days from 7am to 10pm (except when the University is closed). If you have particular reasons for accessing the labs in the evenings (between 6pm and 10pm Monday-Friday) or at weekends or Public Holidays (between 7am and 10pm on Saturday or Sunday and on Public Holidays), you may apply for out of hours access (labs are completely closed between 10pm and 7am every day). When open you can normally access laboratory and other departmental areas freely except when a laboratory is scheduled for a class, in which case you need the explicit permission of the member of staff in charge.

Access to departmental laboratories is through a coded electronic lock. During normal working hours, use the code issued to you when you register with support for a departmental account (access outside normal hours also requires a security card, obtained with your out of hours access).

No food or drink is permitted in labs (with the exception of water in slow spill sports cap bottles).

Systems Support

All of the labs within the Department are looked after by our Systems Support group. If you have any problems using our labs you may find the Systems Support FAQ useful. You can also check the status of IT systems within the Department.