| Address | A28, Horizon Digital Economy Research, Sir Colin Campbell Building, University of Nottingham Innovation Park, Triumph Road, Nottingham, NG7 2TU UK |
| bzb@cs.nott.ac.uk | |
| Phone | UK 0115 95 32557 |
| Degree | I received my first-class BSc (Hons) in Computer Science from the University of Nottingham in 2005. |
| Teaching | As a graduate I have been involved in the following teaching activities:
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| Research | I am currently a Research Associate in the Mixed Reality Lab and also a PhD candidate, previously supervised by Dr. Boriana Koleva and now by Prof. Tom Rodden. My PhD work, funded from 2005-2008 through EPSRC grant, explores the combination or "coupling" of mobile and situated devices, e.g. mobile phones with public digital screens, to determine useful combinations and the issues that arise during the implementation and use of such couples. Early in my PhD I presented an overview of this work at the MIRW workshop at MobileHCI. A major part of my research revolves around the orchestration of experiences with technology: with Dr. Holger Schnädelbach, Dr. Jonathan Hale and the Willi Dorner Company I have explored the use of mobile phones to orchestrate location-based new-media experiences on the streets of Nottingham, first producing Future Garden in 2006, then Anywhere in 2008 as part of the "Exploring the City" strand of research in the MRL. To demonstrate aspects of my thesis I worked with artist Theresa Caruana in 2009 on the Rivers Baghdad project to create Baghdad '09-, an installation combining a motion-sensing mobile phone with projections in public space. This collaboration is ongoing. My publications |
Tutorials for semester 2 have not been arranged yet.
My tutorials this year will be based upon what worked last year. They will be practical, i.e. I will book a room with computers, and I will prepare simple exercises that we will work through together rather than me just reading out slides to you. Being good at programming (and thus getting a good mark in this module) is impossible without practice, so this 50% extra lab time is good for you. We will also use tutorial time to prepare for the tests that you have during the semester.
Follow these steps:
| 1 | Theoretically, you should get all the information you need to be able to do the lab assignments and tests from the lectures. Read through lecture slides more than once - sometimes you need to do this before they make sense. Attending lectures is compulsory. |
| 2 | Failing this, you should have a look around the G51PRG homepage which is here: www.cs.nott.ac.uk/Teaching/G51PRG/. This should be where all the lecture slides, assignment instructions, timetables and contact details should be. |
| 3 | You then have a lab session each week (main lab, ground floor of Comp.Sci., 2-4pm Tuesdays) where all the tutors will be at hand to help you with the assignments. The assignments are compulsory and you can only submit your work via the lab machines, so attendance is useful. In these labs we can't spend a lot of time on individual problems as we have to help everyone. |
| 4 | Following this you have tutorials with me once a week for an hour. Even though you don't have to, you should come to these as I can spend the whole hour answering your questions and working through examples with you. |
| 5 | If you have real difficulties that weren't solved in the tutorials then you can contact me. I am writing a thesis so I will not have time to talk to someone who has not attended the labs and tutorials - I will expect to see real evidence that you have tried your hardest to solve whatever the issue is before you came to me. |
| 6 | Finally you can talk to Essam (ultimately responsible for the labs and assessments). This is a last resort, so you should ask me for his e-mail address once you've exhausted all other options. |
This is the list I've been given by the module convenor and it is what I will use to decide who is attending and who is skipping labs, tests and tutorials. If it is wrong (you are either missing or on it when you shouldn't be) then you should let me know ASAP.
Tutorials are, as far as I am aware, not compulsory. However if you fail one of the assignments or tests and you didn't come to the relevant tutorial then you will not get any sympathy from me or the module convenor. As such you should only think about skipping the tutorials if you are absolutely sure that you have no problems with the assignments.
If you have other commitments that you really cannot avoid (lecture clashes, etc.) then you must let me know, otherwise I'll assume you are just skipping the tutorial. If you can't make my class or need even more help then you can also go to any of the other tutors' classes. If you go to a different tutorial rather than mine then please let me know - I will not take this personally, so don't worry, but I need to know whether you are skipping classes or not.
If you are having problems with my teaching, e.g. you cannot understand the examples or my explanations, then do not be afraid to say so - different students understand things in different ways and without feedback I will just do it the way it has worked before. In the worst case you can go to a different tutorial but please let me know so I know that you are still attending a tutorial.