Central Timetabling Support Office
What we do
The Central Timetabling Support Office (CTSO) operations are integral to the Imperial timetabling community. We are responsible for coordinating and supporting departmental timetabling accesses, processes and systems enhancements. We UAT all systems before launch and ensure to deliver only the best of systems and products to our departments. With a strong customer focus, our team provides quality assurance services in order to facilitate data transfers and ensure that timetabling data and outputs meet policies and best practices.
What we do
User training and support
CTSO offers a range of training, drop-in sessions and learning resources to help departmental timetabling staff and administrators easily access and navigate the Celcat system, its tools and products. Training sessions are run by our experienced team who have also created learning resources such as video tutorials and help sheets that staff can refer to after the training session.
Policy and quality assurance
Timetabling support is the heart of what we do, we are passionate about improving timetabling and space sharing. We are continuously working with other departments for data integrity checks, policy advice and implementation. This is to help create and enforce better processes and practices that will enhance staff and student experience.
Timetabling best practice
Our team are here to support departments in every step of timetabling annual cycle. We provide support to departments from the very start of selecting data to complex data validation, installation and publication of annual Teaching and Exam Timetabling Build Plan. We provide manual and automated timetabling support and at specific periods of the academic year we update departmental preferred choices of publication windows and products.
System administration
CTSO works to protect departmental resource data, event category information and events by providing only authorised staff access to Celcat. We liaise closely with departmental administrators to update data and ensure data quality to agreed standards. We work with ICT to enhance synchronisation across systems, such as interfaces between Celcat, KX, SoV, Panopto and look to create more efficient, reliable and user friendly systems. This also includes systems where we do not yet have formal integration, such as Banner.
Service enhancement
Our core operations focus on
- Policy
- Procedures
- Service Planning & Development
- Data & Definitions
- Training & Support
- ICT/Supplier Liaison
- Central Systems Liaison
- Imperial's Timetabling Community
We collaborate with Imperial's Timetabling Community, ICT and relevant suppliers to collate user feedback and use it to identify opportunities to improve our processes, systems and services. Our ultimate goal is to create a better timetabling experience for departmental staff and students.
Meet our team
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Helena Smith
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Background & Contributions
Helena has worked in higher education for over 20 years and has joined Imperial from another multi-site Russell Group university. Her role is to oversee the work within CTSO to support departments in delivering student focused timetables and to collaborate on the strategic role of timetabling within the College.
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Tamsin King
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Background & Contributions
Tamsin has worked in further and higher education sectors for over 10 years. Her role is to support the continuous review of timetabling processes and operational improvements within the department.
Tamsin is currently on maternity leave until December 2023.
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Alex Dawson
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Background & Contributions
Alex joined Imperial in 2022 with 20 years’ experience of timetabling in higher education. Her role is to offer guidance to aid strategic decision making and continuous improvement relating to the College’s timetabling and space allocation through modelling and interpreting data.
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Fran Williams
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Background & Contributions
Fran has worked at Imperial College London since October 2021 and joined the CTSO team in September 2023. She has over 10 years’ experience in exams across several institutions. Her role involves working closely with departments across the College to maintain and develop the centrally-coordinated service for supporting examinations.
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Simon Nesbitt
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Personal details
Simon Nesbitt Head of Timetabling Operations (Acting Planning and Management Lead)Send email020 7594 5852
Background & Contributions
Simon joined CTSO in March 2019. He has more than 10 years’ timetabling experience in the HE sector. His role involves co-ordinating with departments across the College to support the annual timetabling cycle and seek improvements for the benefit of students and staff.
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Anna Valentino
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Personal details
Anna Valentino Senior Timetabling Officer (Acting Systems Lead)Send email020 7594 5890
Background & Contributions
Anna is involved in documenting processes, data management projects, timetabling products upgrades and enhancements. She is also responsible for website updates and liase with departments for any timetabling publication matters. Anna also completed a secondment an automation pilot in 2016
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Geraldine Chan
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Personal details
Geraldine Chan Senior Timetabling Officer (Joint Space Lead)Send email020 7594 6693
Background & Contributions
Geraldine's main role is to work closely with departmental staff from the three SEQ departments (Aeronautics, Civil and Mechanical Engineering) to collate and transform timetabling data to enable the use of automation tools for cross department coordinated timetable construction for students and staff.
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Katie Toutoudaki
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Personal details
Katie Toutoudaki Senior Timetabling Officer (Systems – Projects)Send email020 7594 0957
Background & Contributions
Katie joined CTSO in February 2019. She has been working in timetabling in higher education since 2015. In her role as Senior Timetabling Officer, she assists Maths and Computing in scheduling teaching and examination events using the CELCAT automation engine. In addition she has significant experience with Power BI and reporting capabilities. Katie also supports CELCAT training provided by CTSO to new and continuing users.
Katie is currently on secondment with ICT as Information Insight Analyst
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Lisa Seath
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Background & Contributions
Lisa joined CTSO in 2021. She has been working in timetabling in the higher education sector since 2013. Lisa is often the first point of contact within CTSO, taking a lead on responding to ASK tickets and CELCAT training for new and continuing users.
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Tasnima Begum
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Background & Contributions
Tasnima joined CTSO in April 2023. Although she is new to the timetabling world, she brings a year of experience working in the higher education sector. Tasnima will provide support to the team and the rest of timetabling community for any timetabling tasks.