Surrey Computing puts space into cyberspace
Thursday 21 June 2007
On the 20th June, the Department of Computing successfully held its first virtual class for Year 9 pupils, linking together the University with Coombe Girls' School and Coombe Boys' School, with Dr Craig Underwood of the Surrey Space Centre talking about the range of satellites developed at Surrey and launched into space.
The lesson was part of the HEA-ICS and University funded project to trial the use of video-conferencing systems to link schools with the University. So far, links have been made with Coombe, Esher College and, shortly, Farnham Heath End School.
The session delivered by Craig was very well received by the pupils, who then went on to ask some difficult questions, including "How long does it take for a space craft to reach Pluto?" and "How many objects are orbiting the Earth?" A video of the session will be made available shortly.
The next session planned for the project is on the 2nd July, where students at Esher College will get the opportunity to ask some of our past graduates what University life is all about.
Further details on the project can be found here.