Archive for the Maynooth Category

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Maynooth Matters

Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth on May 31, 2018 by telescoper

Well, it’s another lovely day here in Maynooth and it feels even nicer that now that I’ve finished the stack of examination and project marking I had to do relating to the Computational Physics module I’ve been teaching for the past term.

I was feeling a bit guilty that I only just got the marks ready before today’s deadline, but it turns out that mine is far from being the last set to go into the database.

Tomorrow we have an internal meeting to discuss all the examination results and then on Tuesday next week we have the full formal meeting of the Exam Board complete with visiting External Examiner. It’s always a busy period preparing for these meetings as not only does everything have to be marked, but also all the marks need to be checked and double-checked, and various statistics produced ready for the forthcoming meetings. We take all these things very seriously because they’re so important.

I’m not sure students appreciate how much goes on behind the scenes at this time of year, but in this period they are finished with their academic work and probably out and about enjoying the sunshine. They were cooped up indoors sitting their examinations just a few days ago while we staff were in a state of comparative relaxation, and now it’s our turn to suffer.

Anyway, it’s at busy times of the year that we rely heavily on the efforts not only of administrative staff, without whom the whole business of examinations would grind to a halt. We rely on them all round the year, in fact, but their contribution is particularly obvious during exam season.

As it happens the Department of Theoretical Physics at Maynooth University will soon be losing an invaluable member of administrative staff who is retiring in a month or so. We have an advertisement already out for a (full-time) Executive Assistant with a deadline of 17th June to provide us with a replacement as soon as possible.

Anyway, Monday 4th June is a Bank Holiday in Ireland. It’s the equivalent holiday to the Late Spring Holiday in the UK (which is always on the last Monday of May), but here in the Emerald Isle it is always the first Monday in June. This year it happens to be on my birthday! So after the ordeal of tomorrow’s pre-Board meeting I have a long weekend to relax before the official meeting on Tuesday. I’m not sure if the fine weather will last, but I intend to do a bit of sightseeing if it does.

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Student access to marked examination scripts

Posted in Cardiff, Education, Maynooth with tags , , , on May 25, 2018 by telescoper

I’m currently waiting for the last couple of scripts from my Physics of the Early Universe examination to arrive so I can begin the task of marking them. The examination was yesterday morning, and it’s now Friday afternoon, so I don’t know why it takes so long for the scripts to find their way to the examiner, especially when marking is on such a tight schedule. I’m away next week (in Ireland) so if I don’t get papers by this afternoon they won’t be marked until I return. The missing two are from students sitting in alternative venues, but I don’t see why that means they take over 24 hours  to get to the marker.

(By the way,  `script’ refers to what the student writes (usually in a special answer book), as opposed to the `paper’ which is the list of questions to be answered or problems to be solved in the script.)

Anyway, while I’m waiting for the missing scripts to arrive I thought I’d mention that here in the School of Physics & Astronomy at Cardiff University we have a system whereby students can get access to their marked examination scripts.  This access is limited, and for the purpose of getting feedback on where they went wrong, not for trying to argue for extra marks. The students can’t take the scripts away, nor can they make a copy, but the can take notes which will hopefully help them in future assessments. There’s a similar provision in place in the Department of Theoretical Physics at Maynooth University, where I will be relocating full-time in July, based around a so-called `Consultation Day’.

When I was Head of the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Sussex University I tried to introduce such a system there, but it was met with some resistance from staff who thought this would not only cause a big increase in workload and but also lead to  difficulties with students demanding their marks be increased. That has never been the experience here at Cardiff: only a handful take up the opportunity and those that do are told quite clearly that the mark cannot be changed.  Last year I had only one student who asked to go through their script. I was happy to oblige and we had a friendly and (I think) productive meeting.

If I had my way we would actually give all students their marked examination scripts back as a matter of routine. The fact that we don’t is no doubt one reason for relatively poor performance in student satisfaction surveys about assessment and feedback. Obviously examination scripts have to go through a pretty strict quality assurance process involving the whole paraphernalia of examination boards (including external examiners), so the scripts can’t be given back immediately but once that process is complete there doesn’t seem to me any reason why we shouldn’t give their work, together with any feedback written on it,  back to the students in its entirety.

I have heard some people argue that under the provisions of the Data Protection Act students have a legal right to see what’s written on the scripts – as that constitutes part of their student record – but that’s not my point here. My point is purely educational, based on the benefit to the student’s learning experience.

Anyway, I don’t know how widespread the practice is of giving examination scripts back to students so let me conduct a totally unscientific poll. Obviously most of my readers are in physics and astronomy, but I invite anyone in any academic discipline to vote:

And, of course, if you have any further comments to make please feel free to make them through the box below!

 

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From Maynooth to Cardiff

Posted in Cardiff, Maynooth with tags , on May 21, 2018 by telescoper

So here I am in Dublin Airport, waiting for my flight back to Cardiff. It’s been a nice weekend in Ireland, with good weather and lots to do in and around Maynooth. In the course of my perambulations on Saturday I came across a group of people campaigning to Repeal the Eighth Amendment. I A referendum on that issue takes place on Friday this week (25th). I bought a badge from them, which I’m happy to wear in solidarity:

There are lots of posters around supporting supporting one or other side in the campaign. It’s very noticeable that the `Yes’ ones seem to be getting torn down quite regularly. It’s also noticeable that the `No’ ones are frequently rather crude and sometimes offensive. That’s a shame because there is a serious ethical issue at stake, and a grown-up debate is important. Still, past experience suggests that referendums and grown-up debates don’t necessarily go together.

I won’t be in Ireland for the vote, but I hope the ‘yes’ campaign succeeds in removing what I think is a daft piece of law. If it fails then it won’t stop Irish women having terminations, it will just mean that the continue to have to travel abroad (if they can afford to do so) or take terrible risks have an illegal abortion at home (if they can’t) . For me, a vote for `No’ is therefore just a vote for hypocrisy.

Incidentally, a letter arrived at my Cardiff residence a few days ago from the Human Resources Department at Cardiff University, acknowledging my resignation (which I handed in about 6 weeks ago). I noticed that the letter contains the sentence `We have sent this letter to the home address we have on record for you. If this address is incorrect please contact us..’. Hmmm. If the letter had gone to the wrong address how would I know?

Anyway, I’ll be back in Cardiff for the next week, with another set of exams to mark in a few days, then back to Maynooth. And now it’s time to go to the gate.

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When Log Tables aren’t Log Tables

Posted in Education, mathematics, Maynooth with tags , , , , , on May 17, 2018 by telescoper

Every now and then – actually more frequently than that – I reveal myself in Ireland as an ignorant foreigner. The other day some students were going through a past examination paper (from 2014) and I was surprised to see that the front cover (above) mentioned  `log tables’.

Now I’m old enough to remember using tables of logarithms (and other mathematical tables  of such things as square roots and trigonometric functions, in the form of lists of numbers) extensively at school. These were provided in this book of four-figure tables (which can now buy for 1p on Amazon, plus p&p).

As a historical note I’ll point out that I was in the first year at my school that progressed to calculators rather than slide rules (in the third year) so I was never taught how to use the former. My set of four-figure tables which was so heavily used that it was falling to bits anyway, never got much use after that and I threw it out when I went to university despite the fact that I’m a notorious hoarder.

Anyway, assuming that the mention of `log tables’ was a relic of many years past, I said to the group of students going through the old examination paper that it seemed somewhat anachronistic. I was promptly corrected, and told that `log tables’ are in regular use in schools and colleges throughout Ireland, but that the term is a shorthand for a booklet containing a general collection of mathematical formulae, scientific data and other bits of stuff that might come in useful to students; for an example appropriate to the Irish Leaving Certificate, see here. One thing that they don’t contain is a table of logarithms…

Students in Physics & Astronomy at Cardiff University are also given a formula booklet for use during examinations. I don’t remember having access to such a thing as an undergraduate, but I don’t object to it. It seems to me that an examination shouldn’t be a memory test, and giving students the basic formulae as a starting point if anything allows the examiner to concentrate on testing what matters much more, i.e. the ability to formulate and solve a problem. The greatest challenge of science education at University level is, in my opinion, convincing students that their brain is much more than a memory device…

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Out Thinkers Dublin

Posted in LGBTQ+, Maynooth on May 5, 2018 by telescoper

I’m back in sunny Cardiff and have quite a lot to do today, so I’ll just do a quick post to say that yesterday I left work in Maynooth slightly earlier than usual to take the train onto Dublin for an event called ‘Out Thinkers’ at the Science Gallery in Dublin. I got there in good time before the show, which was held in a nice little theatre inside the Science Gallery, which is about 15 minutes walk from Connolly Station.

Out Thinkers serves to showcase the talent of LGBT+ researchers, providing a platform where people can talk about their scientific work while truly being themselves. This Out Thinkers event featured a range speakers talking about their research and experiences as LGBT+ individuals in academia.

It was a very enjoyable event and it was a nice opportunity to see some familiar (and some unfamiliar) faces in a new setting.

Sadly, because the event overran a but I had to leave before the finish to get a train back to Maynooth so I didn’t get the chance to say goodbye and thanks to the organisers for the splendid show!

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Midweek Flight to Dublin

Posted in Biographical, Cardiff, Maynooth on May 2, 2018 by telescoper

I’ve just arrived in Dublin after the last regular mid-week flight I’ll have to make from Cardiff because of teaching commitments. Last lecture of term in Maynooth tomorrow, and after that I can be more flexible about the travel.

I’ve generally avoided evening flights since the introduction of the summer schedules. Budget airlines such as FlyBe work on very tight schedules and delays tend to accumulate throughout the day, meaning that incoming planes needed to make evening flights are frequently very late. Sometimes they get so late the plane can’t fly because of restrictions on night flights, in which case they are cancelled. This is much less likely with an earlier flight in my experience.

So I took a chance this evening but as it happened there were no delays I got safely on the bus to Maynooth and got to my flight at a reasonable hour. The plane, by the way, was only about a quarter full.

The picture was taken shortly after takeoff from Cardiff Airport, with South Wales underneath and Devon in the distance.

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Cardiff Bound

Posted in Biographical, Cardiff, Maynooth with tags , , , on April 21, 2018 by telescoper

Just time for a quick post using the airport WIFI to fill some time before my flight leaves from Dublin Airport. Once again on a Saturday morning I was up at 5am to get the 6am bus here from Maynooth. The journey back to Cardiff is far from arduous, but I won’t be sorry when I won’t have to do it every week. Fortunately, term is coming to an end and after teaching finishes I won’t be dictated to by the timetables of Cardiff and Maynooth Universities. And after July I won’t have to do the trip at all!

This morning a large group – I believe the correct collective noun is a murder – of crows gathered to give the bus a sendoff. I did think of Hitchcock’s The Birds but the birds in this case were more interested in rummaging through the rubbish bin than attacking any of us waiting for the bus. Incidentally, it was the anniversary of Daphne Du Maurier’s death on 19th April; she wrote the short story on which that film was based.

Anyway, it’s a lovely sunny morning. Yesterday was a nice day too, both in terms of weather and other things. In the afternoon there was a staff barbecue and an awards ceremony at Maynooth University. There was a big crowd already there when I arrived, a bit late because I’d been at a seminar. Standing at the back I couldn’t really hear the speeches. I didn’t win any awards, of course, but I did get a glass of wine and a beefburger.

On my way home I bumped into the President, Philip Nolan, who is the equivalent of a Vice-Chancellor. To my surprise he mentioned a point I had raised in a recent Faculty meeting about the possibility of Maynooth signing up to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). To my even greater surprise he went on to say that this was going to be in the University’s strategic plan. Good news!

Anyway, I’d better make my way to the gate.  Have a nice day!

 

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On the Eighth Amendment Referendum

Posted in Maynooth, Politics with tags , , , , on April 6, 2018 by telescoper

When I was walking to lunch yesterday I saw that there was some sort of demonstration on the road (the R148) that divides the North and South Campuses at Maynooth University:

It was all a bit confusing as it seemed to be a protest and a counter-protest all in the same place. It turned out after asking a few people that the original demonstration was by a group calling itself the Irish Centre for Bioethical Reform (ICBR), which is  a fringe anti-abortion group that specialises in putting up gory images to make their point. They have been pulling a series of stunts in the area ahead of the forthcoming Referendum on the Repeal of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, which will take place on 25th May 2018.

The Eighth Amendment introduced Article 40.3.3 into the constitution. This was subsequently amended twice (following referendums) and now reads:

The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.

This subsection shall not limit freedom to travel between the State and another state.

This subsection shall not limit freedom to obtain or make available, in the State, subject to such conditions as may be laid down by law, information relating to services lawfully available in another state.

The counter-demonstration (which seemed to involve more people) deployed the simple device of standing in front of the the ICBR demonstration so their lurid images were hard to see. This is why I couldn’t quite see what was going on as I walked past.

Anyway, for the record, I’ll state that I support the campaign to repeal the Eight Amendment, which effectively prohibits abortion in Ireland. I realise that abortion is an emotive ethical issue for many people, but it strikes me as a new arrival in Ireland that the fundamental thing is that Eight Amendment is basically a muddle, and that it really does not belong in the Constitution anyway. In my opinion it is regrettable that it was ever passed (which it was, after another referendum campaign, in 1983). If the repeal side wins the referendum then the existing Eight Amendment (which is Article 40.3.3) will be replaced with

Provision may be made by law for the regulation of termination of pregnancy.

(Incidentally, that would be the 36th Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland. It is in the drafting and amending of any such provisions that emerge when the ethical issues should be debated. The matter for the referendum is (or should be) simpler than this: it’s just about whether the existing Article should be scrapped.

Incidentally, a number of people have asked me if UK citizens resident in Ireland can vote in this referendum, as Irish citizens resident in the UK could in the Brexit referendum in 2016. The answer to that question is `no’: British citizens in Ireland can vote in local elections, elections to the Dáil, and European Elections (although presumably that will change if the UK leaves the European Union); they cannot vote in any referendum or in the election of the President (which will take place later this year). Irish citizens can vote in every election and referendum.

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Spring comes to Maynooth

Posted in Biographical, Cardiff, Maynooth with tags , , on April 5, 2018 by telescoper

After a good night’s sleep last night I was up early this morning to give my usual Thursday 9am lecture on Computational Physics. It was a bright sunny morning, though there was overnight frost and a distinct chill in the air, as I made my way to Physics Hall. Once there, for the first time this year, I had to close the blinds because the Sun was shining too bright for the projector screen. It has hitherto always been too gloomy outside for this to happen. The picture above (of St Joseph’s Square, on the South Campus) was taken as I left St Patrick’s House after a very nice lunch of roast lamb in Pugin Hall. By this time of day it was pleasantly warm.

Here’s a nice picture of the Library circulated by the Maynooth social media folk earlier today.

library

Anyway, this mornings’s lecture was an introduction numerical solutions of ordinary differential equations, beginning with Euler’s method applied to initial value problems. Further studies of this topic – which is very important for bidding computational physics – will take up the rest of the lectures as we explore the delights of, e.g. Runge-Kutta codes and boundary value problems. This morning’s lecture was followed this afternoon by a two-hour lab session in which the students had to write their own ODE solver.

Among the advantages (for me) of teaching this module is that I’m actually becoming reasonably competent at Python. At any rate I’ve difficult improved my ability to spot bugs in codes written by other people. In fact, it is traditional for the exam in this module to include a question that involves finding 10 mistakes in a piece of Python code. That’s a fun challenge, the only real problem for me being to write a bit of code with only 10 mistakes in it in the first place…

Talking of exams, the timetables for my two current employers are now out. Computational Physics in Maynooth is on Friday 11th May while Physics of the Early Universe in Cardiff is almost a fortnight later, on Thursday 24th May. The Easter recess is shorter here in Maynooth than in Cardiff, where lectures do not resume until April 16th (assuming the UCU strike does not continue), which is why the exams in Maynooth are earlier. I’m grateful there isn’t a clash. I should have ample time to mark the Maynooth ones before the Cardiff ones are due. After the first week or so of May I won’t have to teach in both institutions, so my somewhat hectic schedule should become a little more relaxed from then onwards.

I mentioned the UCU strike above in passing. The UCU leadership has decided that there will be an online ballot on whether to accept the `offer’ recently made by the management organisation UUK. The ballot will be open until April 13th. If the vote goes against acceptance then Cardiff staff will be back on strike from 16th April, and there will be further industrial action over the examination period. I can’t predict what the result of the ballot will be. Although the UCU leadership is recommending acceptance I don’t know anyone personally who intends to vote for it, but there’s a probably a big selection effect there! There is a distinct possibility that examinations will be badly disrupted not only in Cardiff but all over the UK. It’s a very sad state of affairs but all those on strike (and the majority of students) consider the UUK side to be to blame…

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A Time to Resign

Posted in Biographical, Cardiff, Maynooth on April 2, 2018 by telescoper

After a weekend in which I did very little apart from sleeping, eating and doing crosswords, it was time today to get my finger out and start organising for the coming months.

Top of the agenda was writing a letter of resignation from my position at Cardiff University, which I have now done. I’ll hand it in tomorrow. I’ve already told my colleagues there that I was planning to leave this summer, but it’s now time to make it official. After my notice period expires, I will be relocating full-time to Ireland in July.

One of the complications of the resignation process is that I am obliged to use up all my annual leave entitlement before I go. I haven’t taken much this year so I have to sort out how to take it before I go while also ensuring I am still available to carry out my remaining duties and attending meetings that require my presence (eg examiners meetings). I’ll also have to sort out my pension, arrange removal of my office things to Ireland and, finally, return my keys.

When I leave it will only be two years since I went through a similar process at Sussex. I burst into tears on my last day there. I hope I don’t embarrass everyone at Cardiff in a similar way.

My contract at Cardiff was for a fixed term of three years, on a part-time basis. I’ll be leaving a year early, but I think the record will show that I’ve done virtually everything I was brought in to do. In particular the Data Innovation Research Institute has expanded dramatically over the past couple of years and looks set for a bright future, as does the School of Physics & Astronomy in which I am employed for the other half of my time.

When I returned to Cardiff two years ago I had it in my mind to retire when my contract was up but I’m now very excited about the move to Ireland, an opportunity which I hadn’t foreseen at all!

Anyway there’s lots to do in the next few weeks, including my remaining teaching duties in Cardiff and Maynooth, so I’d better get back to it!

P. S. Incidentally, I discovered that one of the readings at Stephen Hawking’s funeral was the beautiful fatalistic passage from Ecclesiastes that begins

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die..

That may have influenced the title of this post…

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