Computing Facilities

Contact Person: Mr. D. Bowler

Overview

The computing facilities in the School are a crucial backbone to its intensive teaching and research programs. With the reliable backing of the School's local Computer Support Group, these facilities ensure an environment that is modern and stable, yet flexible enough to easily adapt to the very unique setups required by Engineering students and researchers.

All full time staff and postgraduate students in the School receive a networked workstation on their desk running either Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux or Solaris, depending on the user's need. There are also a number of general access PCs available for use in the Norman Blockley Computer laboratory (EM211) for fourth year undergraduate students, and for School staff and postgraduates should they need to make use of them. In addition there is a pool of PCs available for fourth year student projects should the nature of the project be so specific that the machines in the computer suite are unsuitable.

There are around 300 Windows PCs attached to the School network, most of which are installed with Microsoft Office, internet and e-mail programs, anti-virus protection as well as more specific packages such as Matlab and LabView. All PCs have Novell networking capabilities enabling access to shared resources such as files and printing, and automatic software updating from a central server.

There are a number of Linux and Solaris servers and workstations scattered throughout the School. Data and application disks attached to various servers are cross mounted across the network using the Network Files System (NFS) protocol. This means that disks such as the one containing your home directory appear the same no matter which system you are logged into, even when logging into Windows PCs

Norman Blockley Computer Suite

Room Location: EM211

The Norman Blockley Computer Suite is equipped with 48 workstations running dual-boot Windows XP and OpenSuse Linux, and provides 4th year students with access to all the applications they need for their course work. It has flexible opening hours and, for the security of all users, is monitored by 24 hour video surveillance. The suite is named after Norman Blockley, a staff member who made great contributions to the computer services group over many years.

All Engineering undergraduate students have access to the CAT suite.