'Future Computing' online taster day a huge success

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A woman using a laptop with computers in the background

Following the cancellation of large-scale events around the world, the Department of Computing took their annual year 12 taster course online for 2020

The event saw 101 sixth form and college students in attendance, with over 300 questions submitted throughout the day. 

Lectures from leaders in their fields Professor William Knottenbelt and Professor Andrew Davison followed an admissions talk by undergraduate admissions tutor Dr Peter McBrien.

"Really great day - really enjoyed it and am so happy it was made virtual rather than cancelling it, so thank you!"

Dr Konstantinos Gkoutzis, Senior Teaching Fellow and first year undergraduate coordinator, led an interactive lab session whereby students were able to remotely log in to on-campus machines and learn the basics of Java. The session was supported by Imperial undergraduate volunteers and received excellent feedback from attendees.  

An image of six people on a video call smiling at the camera

With the new online format this year, a live Q&A session with students and alumni was introduced. Professor Francesca Toni and Dr Maria Valera-Espina hosted the sessions, with student panelists Helena Cherrill, Nicholas Duer, Roxanne Sammons, Daniel Hails and alumna Dr Oana Cocarascu answering questions about computing courses and life at Imperial. 

Recent alumna Dr Marily Nika also supported the session by submitting a video from San Francisco, in which she discussed her experience of being a student at Imperial and shared advice with prospective students. 

“I really liked that there were a lot of women in the session, I was a bit nervous about the gender gap on Computing courses”

Dr Jackie Bell, Senior Teaching Fellow in the Department of Computing and coordinator of the online Future Computing taster day says she is delighted with the success of this year's event: 

“I’m hugely grateful to the staff and students who gave up their time to support this online taster day. Without your generosity and passion to inspire future generations with computer science an event like this would not have been possible. I’m delighted with the feedback received and I will use this to inform future sessions – of which I hope there are many more!” 

Following the taster day, the Department of Computing took part in Imperial’s Imperial360 Live event where over 550 students attended the live session dedicated to Computing.

Find out more about upcoming Taster Courses in Computing

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Jackie Bell

Jackie Bell
Department of Computing

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