Natural and Computing Sciences

1st Year and Direct Entry 2nd Year Induction - Thursday 14 September, 12pm, Meston 2
3rd Year Information Session – Friday 15 September, 11am, Meston 2 
5th Year Information Session – Friday 15 September, 2pm, Meston 013

Chapter 1 of the main textbook Chemsitry³ is available as a PDF.

This chapter aims to review the topics you should have covered in your final year at school or college of Advanced Highers or A levels. Please make some time to look over the content. Don’t worry – we will provide a summary of these topics in your first year!

At university you will have a lot more independence and responsibility for your own study. You will be responsible for filling the gaps in your timetable with self-study, reviewing class notes or listening to recorded lectures, doing practice worksheets or textbook problems, and writing lab reports and doing continuous assessments.

Over summer try to get into a good daily routine, including organising daily tasks such as cooking, shopping, or laundry, around any summer job, social time, or study. Or at least think about how good you are at time management, and consider ways you can make it work for you.

If you struggle to focus on tasks (and let’s be honest, there’s lots of distractions around!) you might want to consider a productivity hack such as pomodoro technique. A guide to this is on our really useful Uni Toolkit.

Get into the habit of reading – including thinking about what you agree or disagree with, and what you don’t understand. It’s ok not to understand something at first – that’s what learning is all about!

You could consider science pages of well know broadcasters and newspapers, general science magazines such as New Scientist, or Chemistry World which is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry. This will help with your study routine and also help to develop your writing and explaining skills.

Maths – yes, we will use some numbers and equations! Students mainly struggle to apply the maths they know to a chemistry context. Look over the Chem³ chapter PDF available here, and think about the example calculations for a refresher.

Getting support. If you have any accommodations or provisions in place at school or college to help you with your studies, then you will need to let the University know. If you have a disability, ongoing health condition, or specific learning difference this information will not automatically follow you from school, so we need to be informed so we can best support you.

The list of recommended textbooks for 1st year chemists is available at Blackwells. Other deals and second-hand copies are often available, so don’t feel that you need to buy all the books before you arrive.

Sheryl Mackay
chemistry@abdn.ac.uk

You will be assessed in a variety of different ways; online multiple choice and typed answer tests, written lab reports, class exams. Continuous assessments may be individual or group work submissions. We use a range of assessment methods to allow everyone to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in a variety of ways.

All of our labs will take place in the University’s new Science Teaching Hub.

The lab manual will be available online in advance. You will normally have to complete an online pre-lab test before coming to the lab to ensure that you are prepared and understand the experiment and health and safety issues. Some courses have online post-lab tests, and others have online submission of written lab reports. You will be given more information in class before your first lab session.

Guidance of Laboratory Coats and Safety Glasses

Please note that all new Science Teaching Hub students should possess a clean, white, Howie laboratory coat to use in laboratory classes. This should be a ‘Howie’ style laboratory coat – elasticated cuffs, fastening all the way up to the neck with popper fastenings. Press stud fastenings are integral for Howie style coats to enable the coat to be removed quickly should contamination occur.  Older lab coats that are open at the collar or those with button fastenings are not suitable and should be avoided. Fabric · Polyester Cotton approximately [65%:35%]. Coats made from this fabric are light weight [195g/coat] and easily laundered.

If a practical has a special exemption where a laboratory coat is not required, students will be informed. However, you should always assume you need your lab coat for practicals and bring it with you. If you do not bring a laboratory coat, you will not be admitted to a laboratory class.

Students must also bring their own safety glasses.

You will be responsible for cleaning and maintaining your own laboratory coat and safety glasses throughout the term.

New students can pick up a lab coast and safety glasses pack on Tuesday 13 September from 10am to 5pm at the Science Teaching Hub. Alternatively, you can purchase a lab coat on campus from Bear Essentials in the Student Union Building. 

For Safety Glasses, there are many options available online. They should have side shields. The examples below all have a suitable safety rating (EN 166) and  If you wear spectacles, you should look for styles of safety glasses that will fit over them.

1st Year Induction - Friday 15 September - 1pm, Meston 1
2nd Year Information Session – Friday 15 September, 2pm, Meston 1
3rd Year Information Session - Thursday 14 September, 1pm, Meston 1
4th Year and 5th Year Information Session - Thursday 14 September, 2pm, Meston 1

Shirley Mackie - "Computing Science -NCS"
computingscience@abdn.ac.uk

Reading lists for individual courses will be available through MyAberdeen later in the summer. In the meantime, you can brush up your study skills and learn more about the University at our award-winning Toolkit website.

Most courses will not be assessed by formal exams on campus, unless you are taking a course for which a formal exam is required by a professional body. We will use alternative ways to assess your learning throughout the term. These may include essays, online exercises, and timed assessments online. This will vary from course to course, and there will be specific details in every course guide at the start of term.

If your course includes lab work or other kinds of practical sessions, we will aim to provide these, subject to safety constraints or create online alternatives. If your course includes a placement, we will follow national guidance and health and safety requirements from professional bodies.

For Computing Science degrees at Undergraduate level plus the MSc Information Technology and MSc Artificial Intelligence programmes:

All Students MUST have:

• A modern computer (not a phone or tablet) with stand-alone compute capacity and the ability to function when not connected to the internet (not a chromebook etc).
• Students intending to study not fully online must have a functional laptop with a good battery that they can take to campus.
• Enough main memory (RAM) on the computer (indicatively, a typical minimum of 8GB)
• Enough free space on the hard drive (indicatively, a minimum of 40GB, for most activities, but more for some)
• A fast and stable enough internet connection to enable them to participate in online assessments and activities at scheduled times
• Built-in devices or peripherals to allow for interaction in meetings via sound and vision (camera, headphones).
• A backup drive, or cloud storage.

All students SHOULD:

• Arrange so that they will have uninterrupted access to their personal IT resources in the event of lockdowns
• Be advised to have to have a safe and comfortable place, properly configured  with appropriate peripherals (e.g., large monitor, separate keyboard and mouse) to work for extended periods.

Students MAY use any operating system of their choice, with specific exclusions and caveats as below:

• The operating system MUST interface adequately with the University’s information resources (webpages, MyAberdeen, MyTimetable, Student Portal, Office365, Microsoft Teams, etc.)
• Students without a Microsoft or Mac OS operating system (e.g. using Linux only) accept as their own responsibility any difficulties they may have in interacting with Microsoft Office products, e.g. through variations in supported fonts resulting in documents not displaying correctly.
• Students on the courses CS3026 Operating Systems and CS4048 Robotics MUST have access to the Linux Ubuntu operating system.  A partition for dual-boot may have more acceptable performance than a virtual machine.

Students will be REQUIRED:

• To administer their own computers:
• This includes the requirement that they install and maintain the software required for courses or study on their machine.
• Digital and Information Services (DIS) do not do this. Academics in the School will not be able to do this.
• To install software on their machines as required for courses
• To set-up accounts and use accounts on third-party services used in courses, for example, but not limited to, Codio, Google, Amazon.

For students studying the MSc Data Science programme, the requirements are as follows:

Minimum requirements:

• Windows 10
• Mac OS 10.12 (Sierra) or later
• Linux (Ubuntu 16.04 or later or equivalent)
• Chrome Books, iPads, Surface Go, etc will not be sufficient
• Intel i7 or equivalent
• 16 GB of RAM
• 512 GB HDD
• >=13” screen
• Headset or appropriate speaker/microphone (Jabra)
• Internet access, download speed >5 MBits, upload >1 Mbit (Download of required software > 5GB, software is campus license)
• External hard drive 

Ideal Specification:

• Windows 10, Mac OS 10.13 (High Sierra) or later, Ubuntu 19.04 or later 
• Chrome Books, iPads, Surface Go, etc will not be sufficient
• Intel i7 or equivalent
• 32 GB of RAM
• 1GB SSD as HDD
• >=13” screen
• Headset or appropriate speaker/microphone (Jabra)
• Internet access, download speed >50 MBits, upload >10 MBits (Download of required software > 5GB, software is campus license)
• NVIDIA GPU (for Windows Systems, not supported by OS X)
• internet connection speed 8-10 MB/s download and 2 MB/s upload. 

1st Year and Direct Entry 2nd Year Induction – Friday 15 September, 10am, Meston 1
3rd Year Information Session - Friday 15 September, 2pm, Meston 2 
4th Year Information Session - Friday 15 September, 3pm, Meston 2 

Sheryl Mackay
maths@abdn.ac.uk

Reading lists for individual courses will be available through MyAberdeen later in the summer. In the meantime, you can brush up your study skills and learn more about the University at our award-winning Toolkit website.

Most courses will be assessed through Continuous Assessment and a final Exam worth 50%. Continuous Assessment may include essays, projects, online exercises, and timed assessments online. This will vary from course to course, and there will be specific details in every course guide at the start of term.

1st Year and Direct Entry 2nd Year Induction – Friday 15 September, 12pm, Meston 3
2nd Year Information Session - Friday 15 September, 3pm, Meston 3
3rd Year and 4th Year Information Session - Friday 15 September, 10am, Meston 3

Shirley Mackie - "Physics -NCS"
physics@abdn.ac.uk

Reading lists for individual courses will be available through MyAberdeen later in the summer. In the meantime, you can brush up your study skills and learn more about the University at our award-winning Toolkit website.

Most courses will not be assessed by formal exams on campus, unless you are taking a course for which a formal exam is required by a professional body. We will use alternative ways to assess your learning throughout the term. These may include essays, online exercises, and timed assessments online. This will vary from course to course, and there will be specific details in every course guide at the start of term.

If your course includes lab work, we will aim to provide these, subject to safety constraints or create online alternatives.

MSc Artificial Intelligence and MSc Information Technology: Wednesday 24th January 16:00-17:00 Fraser Noble 114.

Rowena Hardy
Email: ncspgt@abdn.ac.uk

Reading lists for individual courses will be available through MyAberdeen. In the meantime, you can brush up your study skills and learn more about the University at our award-winning Toolkit website.

Most courses will not be assessed by formal exams on campus, unless you are taking a course for which a formal exam is required by a professional body. We will use alternative ways to assess your learning throughout the term. These may include essays, online exercises, and timed assessments online. This will vary from course to course, and there will be specific details in every course guide at the start of term.

If your course includes lab work or other kinds of practical sessions, we will aim to provide these subject to safety constraints or create online alternatives. If your course includes a placement, we will follow national guidance and health and safety requirements from professional bodies.

For Computing Science degrees at Undergraduate level plus the MSc Information Technology and MSc Artificial Intelligence programmes:

All Students MUST have:

• A modern computer (not a phone or tablet) with stand-alone compute capacity and the ability to function when not connected to the internet (not a chromebook etc).
• Students intending to study not fully online must have a functional laptop with a good battery that they can take to campus.
• Enough main memory (RAM) on the computer (indicatively, a typical minimum of 8GB)
• Enough free space on the hard drive (indicatively, a minimum of 40GB, for most activities, but more for some)
• A fast and stable enough internet connection to enable them to participate in online assessments and activities at scheduled times
• Built-in devices or peripherals to allow for interaction in meetings via sound and vision (camera, headphones).
• A backup drive, or cloud storage.

All students SHOULD:

• Arrange so that they will have uninterrupted access to their personal IT resources in the event of lockdowns
• Be advised to have to have a safe and comfortable place, properly configured  with appropriate peripherals (e.g., large monitor, separate keyboard and mouse) to work for extended periods.

Students MAY use any operating system of their choice, with specific exclusions and caveats as below:

• The operating system MUST interface adequately with the University’s information resources (webpages, MyAberdeen, MyTimetable, Student Portal, Office365, Microsoft Teams, etc.)
• Students without a Microsoft or Mac OS operating system (e.g. using Linux only) accept as their own responsibility any difficulties they may have in interacting with Microsoft Office products, e.g. through variations in supported fonts resulting in documents not displaying correctly.
• Students on the courses CS3026 Operating Systems and CS4048 Robotics MUST have access to the Linux Ubuntu operating system.  A partition for dual-boot may have more acceptable performance than a virtual machine.

Students will be REQUIRED:

• To administer their own computers:
• This includes the requirement that they install and maintain the software required for courses or study on their machine.
• Digital and Information Services (DIS) do not do this. Academics in the School will not be able to do this.
• To install software on their machines as required for courses
• To set-up accounts and use accounts on third-party services used in courses, for example, but not limited to, Codio, Google, Amazon.

For students studying the MSc Data Science programme, the requirements are as follows:

Minimum requirements:

• Windows 10
• Mac OS 10.12 (Sierra) or later
• Linux (Ubuntu 16.04 or later or equivalent)
• Chrome Books, iPads, Surface Go, etc will not be sufficient
• Intel i7 or equivalent
• 16 GB of RAM
• 512 GB HDD
• >=13” screen
• Headset or appropriate speaker/microphone (Jabra)
• Internet access, download speed >5 MBits, upload >1 Mbit (Download of required software > 5GB, software is campus license)
• External hard drive 

Ideal Specification:

• Windows 10, Mac OS 10.13 (High Sierra) or later, Ubuntu 19.04 or later 
• Chrome Books, iPads, Surface Go, etc will not be sufficient
• Intel i7 or equivalent
• 32 GB of RAM
• 1GB SSD as HDD
• >=13” screen
• Headset or appropriate speaker/microphone (Jabra)
• Internet access, download speed >50 MBits, upload >10 MBits (Download of required software > 5GB, software is campus license)
• NVIDIA GPU (for Windows Systems, not supported by OS X)
• internet connection speed 8-10 MB/s download and 2 MB/s upload. 

MSc Data Science: Monday 22nd January 10:00-12:00 Meston 311.

Reading lists for individual courses will be available through MyAberdeen. In the meantime, you can brush up your study skills and learn more about the University at our award-winning Toolkit website.

We will use various ways to assess your learning throughout the term. These may include essays, online exercises, and timed assessments both on campus and online. This will vary from course to course, and there will be specific details in every course guide at the start of term.

If your course includes lab work or other kinds of practical sessions, we will aim to provide these subject to safety constraints or create online alternatives. If your course includes a placement, we will follow national guidance and health and safety requirements from professional bodies.