The University of New South Wales

Minutes of Meeting



A meeting of the Computer Science and Engineering Teaching Committee (CSE Teaching Committee 17/2)
was held at 12:00pm on Friday, 05 May 2017, in Room 103 (HoS Meeting Room), Computer Science Building.

Enquiries concerning these minutes should be directed to John Shepherd, extension +61293856494, jas@cse.unsw.edu.au.

John Shepherd
Committee Chair

Agenda

    Present: John Shepherd (chair), Boualem Benatallah (BB), Alan Blair(AB), Annie Guo (HG), Brad Heap (BH), Wen Hu (WH), Jashank Jeremy (JJ), Helen Paik (HP), Andrew Taylor (AT), Wayne Wobcke (WW)
    Apologies: Maurice Pagnucco (HoS), Bruno Gaeta, Fethi Rabhi
    Absent: None
      Present / Quorum:   6 / 6   (quorum reached)

  1. Apologies and Welcome


  2. Business from Previous Meeting

    CN put all of the pre-reqs into SiMS and the Handbook (her final great act in CSE ... for a while). Some problems have emerged this week (1-5 May) in a small number of UG pre-reqs and have now been fixed. JAS is re-looking at all pre-reqs and will post a new set next week for re-checking.

    Still pending ...

    • investigate what other Universities do for Hons
    • how many people transfer from 4-year to 3-year degrees simply to graduate
    • investigate changing dual-badged courses to hybrid
    • develop induction package for new (casual) academic staff
    • develop FAQ for all academic staff

  3. Reports from Bodies outside CSE

    John Shepherd reported from the Engineering Faculty Programs Committee.

    • the revised SENG workshops were approved (subject to minor amendments)
    • the revised COMP2111 was approved
    • the Co-op Scholarship Office briefed the EPC on how Co-op might look under UNSW3+
    • the EPC was unsure how Industrial Training would be handled

    Helen Paik reported from the Engineering Faculty UG Thesis Working Group.

    • several models for theses are being considered: A+B+C? A+BC? (BC=12UC)
    • HP suggests that it will end up being 6UC + 6UC, with flexibility to start B earlier or finish later (JAS: finishing later ends up in exams)
    • discussed having some "thesis prep" in a pre-req course (find topic, find supervisor, learn some research techniques,) to make Thesis A more effective
    • MP has suggested having one semester dedicated to Thesis; nobody likes this idea
    • AB: how does this map to the CS (18UC) thesis? noting that other Universities use the entire Hons year for a thesis
    • HG: when does it run? JAS: every semester/term
    • BH: how does this affect students? #courses? fees?
    • HP: an issue raised was how flexible can supervisors be? will they supervise a 3-term thesis? esp. with only two semesters of scheduled teaching
    • how will staff workload be affected?

    In short: many questions still to be answered.


  4. Course Revision: COMP9321 Data Services Programming

    • title: Data Services Programmingâ (Data Services Engineeringâ)
    • HP: no changes to course learning outcomes
    • HP: maintain theory of webapp dev; focus shifts to online data access + processing/analytics + visualisation, building SaaS, but same core focus -- web dev
    • HP: major change language changes to Python! (not Java) to make it more accessible to early stage PGC students
    • AT: what do we need to implement this? HP/BB: various tools (to be resolved)
    • more discussion on how to realise resources (e.g. AWS, cloud, ...)
    • BH: docker? AT: docker soon, with 64-bit userland on CSE. HP: can docker do what we want?
    • HP: needs data sets, which Fethi can provide, AT: suggested "unsw confessions" dataset from COMP2041
    • JAS: only ten weeks! HP: only ten labs!

    5. No vote taken.


  5. Course Revision: COMP9322 Software Service Design and Engineering

    • HP: COMP9322 revision linked to COMP9321, but want both to have same pre-reqs
    • HP: no changes to course learning outcomes
    • HP: summary of changes: modernise topic coverage, drop XML + XMLRPC, add microservices, API design+management, semantic data modelling (RDF, OWL, SPARQL)
    • JAS: Wei Wang is covering SPARQL in COMP9318
    • JAS: fits in 10 weeks? AT: push stuff into week 0. HP: will merge lab1 + lab2
    • WH: longer labs? AT: 9x4h labs? 7x2x2h labs? (front-loading)
    • discussion on pre-reqs (assumed knowledge: Python + data modelling); PG: 9021+9311, UG: 2041+3311?
    • AT: annotate assumed knowledge in the handbook (python equiv. 9021/2041/9041)

    No vote was taken. HP to discuss with Wei and others.


  6. New Course: COMP6324 Internet of Things Service Design and Engineering

    • BB has been discussing new course with Sydney IoT community. CSE has new adjunct who can give guest lectures, use-cases, high-level understanding of IoT and analytics from IoT data. Agreement with MCIC for assistance and mentoring.
    • JAS: how much can we rely on an adjunct? BB: will be fine, and planning to get more Sydney IoT people involved.
    • Has minimal overlap with COMP6733. BB and WH have consulted. COMP6733 is about devices. COMP6324 is about analytics.
    • WH: course sounds good for School.
    • BH asked about longer term future of course. BB: experimental first offerings, potentially a MOOC, review course after 3 years
    • AT: flag course as "subject to Convenor availability"
    • AB: security courses pose more of a risk because there's a full stream
    • WH: adjunct as LIC? AT: yes, adjuncts allowed as LIC. BB: and will have a CSE staff involved
    • HG: what other resources needed for course development? BB: IoT community will be developing resources (videos, slides), international involvement with production of content/material
    Unanimous support to carry it forward for HoS approval.

  7. Course Revision: ENGG1811 Computing for Engineers

    • Chun Tung Chou has persuaded Eng to make ENGG1811 more programming focussed and using Python
    • ENGG1811+COMP1911+COMP1511 fits with Dean's vision of "more code"
    • syllabus: Python + a bit of Matlab and Spreadsheets (OpenOffice style)

    Proceed with developing proposal and taking it to EPC.


  8. Course Title Revision: COMP9323 Software as a Service (SaaS) Project

    Approved (and can be done as a "field edit" in AIMS)


  9. Course Title Revision: COMP1511 Programming Fundamentals

    Agreed to change course title. And maybe move old title to COMP1911, (for potential confusion).

    Some discussion about wide range of abilities in COMP1511 and how to deal with them.


  10. Elite Students Program

    Discussed and a number of issues raised:

    • will it be available to 1st years? is ATAR a good predictor?
    • students ask for pre-req waivers or substitutions for core courses
    • need a mentor to ensure that program outcomes are met
    • might be useful for one-off v-e-r-y smart students, after adding a research flavour

    Not convinced. Defer consideration of this proposal until new programs bedded down.


  11. UNSW3+

    The UNSW3+ implementation team is asking Schools to propose "delivery patterns" for their courses.

    • JAS: loss of lab time (span) is a major issue
    • WW: do we lost autonomy in how we schedule courses; JAS: somewhat, although they are asking us to propose
    • JAS: should we dump lectures altogether? go for videos? some videos? some live?
    • AB: if we go for 4-hours lectures per week ... can't possibly deliver 4-hours straight, but will 2+2 be attractive to PGC?

  12. Exams

    The new UNSW assessment policy specifies that exams may not be more than 2 hours in length (if centrally managed).

    A way around this is to have school-managed exams in our labs. MP not keen on this (cost). WW asked whether we can provide feedback to UNSW3+ team about this. (JAS: we can, but will anything come of it?)

    JAS: UNSW will provide invigilators for 3-hour exams in 17s1.


  13. Teaching "pinch points"

    MP asked what are the pain points in teaching in 2017

    • WW: sheer number of students leads to more "crisis management"
    • WW: need more tutors => end up using less experienced tutors
    • WW: synch between multiple streams
    • BH: need to encourage good tutors into tutoring in 17s2 and beyond
    • BH: more numbers (of students) means more problems
    • JJ: numbers (JAS: I see a pattern emerging here)
    • AT: constraints, people, space (e.g. labs)
    • BH: asked about blended learning initiatives; AB: described OL in COMP9414: lots of work now, hopefully pay-back in future

    14. The meeting closed at 2:20pm.