Applied Computing Project Exhibition 2014
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Deborah Roberts: Web Developer @ DAC
What was your HE course?
The course that I did was BSc (Hons) Web Development.
What is your job title and role?
My job title is web developer/technical auditor at the Digital Accessibility Centre (DAC). My role varies to include design and development of small SME websites, Mobile Apps, technical auditing, accessibility testing and reporting on larger websites including clients such as Channel 4, Money Advice Service, HMRC, Lloyds, Santander and many more.
Could you briefly describe the organization you work for?
The organisation I work for deals with the accessibility testing of digital products to WCAG 2.0 standards. We have a team of expert testers that have a range of disabilities and use various Assistive technologies to ensure that these products are accessible and inclusive to all.
Which skills learned at University are helpful to you in your job?
The skills that I learnt at University that I have found help me are web design and development skills, report writing, how to research and meet deadlines and the final project that I undertook relating to accessibility and accessibility guidelines.
Do you have a typical day and how would you describe it?
I can be involved in any part or all of the process depending on how many audits are on-going. I could be working with the testers where I analyse code as they find accessibility issues with a website or mobile app in relation to their assistive technologies. I will then find the reason for the problem and offer companies a solution for fixing it.
I will then complete a technical audit and compile a report. This process is then followed up with a conference call with project managers and developers/designers to discuss a way forward for compliance.
I have also been involved in training developers, designers and project managers in creating accessible products, selling the service to clients and presentations.
A colleague and I also developed the Accessibility ‘hub’ for Virgin Media’s website.
What aspects of your job do you enjoy most?
I do enjoy getting out of the office and visiting companies all over the UK and seeing how they work. I have recently been to HMRC offices after being involved in a piece of work for them, along with Channel 4, ITV and Virgin. But the part that I like is the analysing of code, finding the reason why a screen reader for example is not working with the code and finding a way of fixing it. It is also nice to see the fixes that I have suggested being implemented and no longer causing my blind colleagues an issue.
Do you have any advice for students who would like to start a Career?
Yes, work hard and stay focussed, if you’re determined you’ll get there.
IT and Business Development jobs
IT and Business Development jobs in Swansea Caerphilly Cardiff and London:
Industry News: Technology Sector
There has been very positive news this year regarding job creation in the Technology sector. As the extracts from the Financial Times article ‘UK technology job creation‘ indicate “Rates of job creation at UK technology companies have outpaced the private sector as a whole for the past four years.”
This is likely to do with the natural refresh cycle of the Tech sector that occurs every 5 years, making the Technology sector a lot more resilient to economic downturns, e.g. that occurred between 2008 and 2013.
The article continues “The number of jobs in the sector now exceeds 1m out of a total of 28m employees across all UK sectors, compared with 915,000 out of 27m in 2010, confirming that technology is a significant employer in Britain… Jobs in the tech sector rose 4.3 per cent year on year in the first half of 2013 compared with 0.9 per cent jobs growth for the private sector as a whole… The report finds that business activity growth at UK tech companies is the fastest since May 2010. It says: “The figures show that UK tech company output rebounded strongly after the global financial crisis . . . and has now expanded throughout much of the past four years.”
To read the full article please click-here.
IT Employment Opportunities
There are a wide variety of employment websites for specific employment and career sectors. For up-to-date job opportunities in Computing and IT Management checkout:
Prospects.ac.uk is another great site for job opportunities and work experience placements.
Use the above links to search for job opportunities in your area.
Another useful site is IT Jobs Watch, the site provides a map of the UK IT job market, identifying the level of demand for IT skills with a guide to average salaries.
Masters Students 2014
Pics of the MSc Applied Computing and MSc Computer Networks students showcasing their Major Project Posters. Please click-here for more information.
Industry Guest Speakers: Grant Armstrong & Sion Williams
Two of our Graduates Grant Armstrong and Sion Williams return to the School on Friday to talk about their Careers to date including how they got their first jobs which will be very useful for our current students.
- At 11am Grant Armstrong will be talking about his experiences as a software developer working for both Acentic (Hotel TV and hospitality technology) and Aria Networks (Network capacity management software).
- At 3pm Sion Williams will be talking about his work as a build and release engineer working at both the Office of National Statistics and Liverpool Victoria.
The talks will include some biographical material about how the students got their first jobs and also included will be information about interesting/upcoming technologies they thing graduates should be aware of and tips for those entering the industry.
If you are interested please feel free to come along to the School of Applied Computing this Friday 28th February at 11am, room MH303, Mount Pleasant Campus, Swansea.
Acentic are global leaders in hotel TV and hospitality technology, operating in more than 40 countries. Acentic is an integrator of technologies that connect, engage and entertain. Acentic’s range of products include Acentic Smart – future ready Smart TV solution, Acentic Media advertising, hotel mobile applications, digital interactive television (iTV) and high definition TV platforms (HD TV).
Aria’s core technology is called DANI (Distributed Artificial Neural Intelligence) which is a self-learning and evolutionary modelling software suite that can automatically build and execute algorithms on a distributed computing architecture. Aria Networks provides set of solutions to service providers such as capacity planning and management to help service providers achieving the maximum utilisation of their networks.
LV= Liverpool Victoria serves over five million customers with a wide range of financial services including car, home and life insurance plus investment and retirement products. LV= is also is the UK’s largest friendly society.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is charged with the collection and publication of statistics related to the economy, population and society of England and Wales at national, regional and local levels.
What do you do if your spacecraft doesn’t respond? by Karlie Yeung
Karlie Yeung from Rhea Systems is giving a talk at the School of Applied Computing this Wednesday February 26th at 2pm in room MH303.
The talk is titled: What do you do if your spacecraft doesn’t respond?
Karlie Yeung works for Rhea Systems supporting the software used to manage communications between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the recently-launched GAIA spacecraft. She’ll be talking about life working in scientific and research computing as an alternative to working within the commercial sector.
RHEA is an independent Space Engineering Consulting and Software company that offers knowledge-based services and innovative solutions to the space industry. (1)
The European Space Agency (ESA) is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to the exploration of space, with 20 member states. Established in 1975 and headquartered in Paris, France, ESA has a staff of more than 2,000 with an annual budget of about €4.28 billion / US$5.51 billion (2013). (2)
Gaia is an ambitious mission to chart a three-dimensional map of our Galaxy, the Milky Way, in the process revealing the composition, formation and evolution of the Galaxy. (3)
Karlie has been working at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) for four years on software to support mission operations. This has given Karlie experience working with the satellite flight control teams on all phases of the missions from launch preparation to decommissioning. She currently works on the Manufacturing and Operations Information System (MOIS) software suite used for operations preparation and satellite control automation.
If you would like to join us for Karlie’s fascinating talk please come along to the School of Applied Computing this Wednesday February 26th at 2pm, room MH303, Mount Pleasant Campus, Swansea.
‘Exo Minor’ & ‘Happy Rainbow Bird’ by ChaosTrend
Founded by one of our School’s Enterprising Graduates Darren Adams, Swansea-based Games Development Studio Chaos-Trend are proud to announce their new game “Exo Miner” on Steam Greenlight. Exo Miner is a procedurally generated, action based mining, exploration, construction and defence game.
Travel to unexplored sectors of space, claim new sectors for mining, set up defences, buy new ships and drones then customise them to fit your play style. Define patrol routes for protection or attack claimed sectors. Defend your own sectors from rival companies and leave your mark by building the biggest space mining corporation in the galaxy. Can you build a corporation to rival the mighty Europa Mining Company?
Watch this space: They are currently busily developing Exo Miner and some of the content is not yet final. They will be updating this page as often as possible with new info and content.
Chaos-Trend have also recently released a new game titled ‘Happy Rainbow Bird‘ 🙂
Flap those wings, gain some height and use your skill and judgement to get the highest score you can as you Guide your birdie through the many pillars of doom.
The Game is available Now on Google Play and iTunes.
Chaos-Trend are a small but well established Games development studio in Swansea, Wales. They have been running for over 5 years and have successfully released many games across many platforms. The core team consists of Graduates from Swansea Metropolitan – University of Wales Trinity Saint David that have obtained degrees in game programming and design. The founder members of ChaosTrend are: Darren Adams, Russell Drodge, John Franklin, and Ian Malsbury. There are now five in the Team, one being a former Creative Assembly programmer who worked on the award winning Total War series. They have written their our own game engine and tools from the ground up, and love to dream-up and create new and exciting games. For more information please click here.
Upcoming Events @ TechHub Swansea
This half-day workshop provides an overview of User Experience and why it is an important consideration in the development of products, systems and applications. A series of presentations outline real-world implementations and case-studies by leading internationally renowned User Experience experts.
Join us at TechHub Swansea for a workshop on Growth hacking with founder of True Up, Liam Reynolds (trueup.co.uk)
Start Up Business Support and Pizza! Join regional sponsor of TechHub Swansea for an afternoon of business support and pizza, get practical support and guidance, FREE, for all members.
TechHub Swansea have gone all roaring ’20s and are thrilled to invite you to our exclusive prohibition party. …it’s a strictly need to know event, so ‘speak-easy’!
Have you heard of the Raspberry Pi computer? Do you want to know more and see what others are doing with this amazing low cost device? Come along to the Swansea Raspberry Jam event and meet other Raspberry Pi users
As a start-up you need to plan for future and your future success. Getting your website found online by the right people is a huge part of modern-day marketing and being listed for the correct keywords by the search engines is essential.
The Welsh Government Creative Industries team is busy doing a series of regional briefing events across Wales. The events are a brief presentation on the support available from the Welsh Government to creative sector businesses and a plenary, followed by the opportunity of 1:1 half hour slots with Welsh Government Business
Growing and Organising your Engineering Team Advice Clinic
UWTSD Applied Computing Blog 
Written by jameswilliamstsd
on 2014
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