Surrey's Department of Computing goes back to school with videoconferencing

Friday 18 May 2007

The project is using videoconferencing technology generally referred to as an Access Grid to connect the University with local schools and colleges.

Access Grids have been widely used in Universities for group-to-group research seminars and meetings often involving national and international participants.

They are now being used to enable frequent interactions with multiple schools and colleges simultaneously, and will eventually involve interactions with the IT industry, while reducing the need for travel to accomplish this.

Interactions involving other subjects at the University are currently under discussion.

Two Access Grid desktop-based systems have been developed and delivered to Coombe.

Andrew Martin, Information and Communication Technology Coordinator at Coombe Girls’ and Boys’ Schools, said, "We are discussing interactive sessions, related to the curriculum, of database and web technologies – and we have recently made additional use of the systems to provide face-to-face support between the two sites that we manage."

The HEA-ICS sponsored project is a part of the University of Surrey’s efforts to reverse the decline in computing graduates, identified as a potential crisis for industry by the incumbent President of the subject’s professional body, the British Computer Society.

Head of Computing at Surrey, Professor Steve Schneider, considers that "by demonstrating the challenges, excitement and substantial rewards of careers in the Computing profession via effective engagement with schools and colleges, increased uptake of the subject could be encouraged longer term."

Technology provision has been the responsibility of Mr Gary Dear, Computer Support Manager, according to whom "the biggest challenge to date has been getting the video and audio traffic through firewalls. We have demonstrated that the technology works well locally, for schools and colleges, and all the way to China, for our link-up with Dongbei University of Finance and Economics."

Commenting on the progress of the project to date, Dr Lee Gillam, project lead and member of the Department’s Outreach team, said, "Our successful interactions with Coombe demonstrate substantial potential and we are already building on this with further trials at Esher College and Farnham Heath End School".

The project is part of the Department’s programme of Outreach activities that recently included the National Science and Engineering Week talk from Simon Pick of EA Games. The project is part-sponsored, also, by the University’s Widening Participation initiative. The Outreach team, and project participants, including Drs. Treharne, Casey, and Tang, are keen to hear from other schools and colleges in the area interested in these activities. Outreach activities involve the development and delivery of a range of hands on activities suitable for a variety of student age groups. Further information can be found at the Department of Computing’s Outreach activities website: http://www.cs.surrey.ac.uk/outreach

The Department of Computing’s main Access Grid Node (AGN), one of three on the campus, consists of a 6 metre screen, interactive whiteboard, and an induction loop for the hard of hearing. The AGN is part of the Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF-3) programme of improvements at Surrey, and is supplemented by a High Performance Computing (HPC) system from IBM and Premier Business Partner OCF that uses the latest Intel Woodcrest processors.