SSO的概念：
&&&&&& 单点登录SSO（Single Sign-On）是身份管理中的一部分。SSO的一种较为通俗的定义是：SSO是指访问同一服务器不同应用中的受保护资源的同一用户，只需要登录一次，即通过一个应用中的安全验证后，再访问其他应用中的受保护资源时，不再需要重新登录验证。
SSO的用途：
&&&&& 目前的企业应用环境中，往往有很多的应用系统，如办公自动化（OA）系统，财务管理系统，档案管理系统，信息查询系统等等。这些应用系统服务于企业的信息化建设，为企业带来了很好的效益。但是，用户在使用这些应用系统时，并不方便。用户每次使用系统，都必须输入用户名称和用户密码，进行身份验证；而且应用系统不同，用户账号就不同，用户必须同时牢记多套用户名称和用户密码。特别是对于应用系统数目较多，用户数目也很多的企业，这个问题尤为突出。问题的原因并不是系统开发出现失误，而是缺少整体规划，缺乏统一的用户登录平台，使用SSO技术可以解决以上这些问题
SSO的好处：
方便用户：从用户实际使用角度考虑
&&&&& 用户使用应用系统时，能够一次登录，多次使用。用户不再需要每次输入用户名称和用户密码，也不需要牢记多套用户名称和用户密码。单点登录平台能够改善用户使用应用系统的体验。&
方便管理员：从日常维护管理角度考虑&&&&& 系统管理员只需要维护一套统一的用户账号，方便、简单。相比之下，系统管理员以前需要管理很多套的用户账号。每一个应用系统就有一套用户账号，不仅给管理上带来不方便，而且，也容易出现管理漏洞。
简化应用系统开发：从应用扩展角度考虑&
&&&&& 开发新的应用系统时，可以直接使用单点登录平台的用户认证服务，简化开发流程。单点登录平台通过提供统一的认证平台，实现单点登录。因此，应用系统并不需要开发用户认证程序。&&&
SSO架构及原理：
&&&& 单点登录的实质就是安全上下文（Security Context）或凭证（Credential）在多个应用系统之间的传递或共享。当用户登录系统时，客户端根据用户的凭证（例如用户名和密码）为用户建立一个安全上下文，安全上下文包含用于验证用户的安全信息，系统用这个安全上下文和安全策略来判断用户是否具有访问系统资源的权限。
&&&&&&& 上图中的流程反映出当应用系统调用信息平台所提供的SSO登录过程中的步骤。从上图中，当应用系统或用户访问应用系统的单点登录页面（aspx、JSP、Servlet、ASP）时，应用系统需要检查用户当前请求中是否包含信息平台的单点登录信息（如Cookie）。如果当前请求中包含SSO Token，应用系统应该获取SSO Token的数据，并把SSO Token的数据通过信息平台提供的WebService(或其它方式)对其进行验证。如果当前请求中不包含SSO Token，应用系统可以直接返回登录错误信息给客户端。应用系统可以根据信息平台对SSO Token的验证结果进行相应的处理。
SSO的技术：
基于cookies实现：&&&& 利用浏览同域名之间自动传递cookies机制，实现两个域名之间系统令牌传递问题；另外，关于跨域问题，虽然cookies本身不跨域，但可以利用它实现跨域的SSO。如：代理、暴露SSO令牌值等。
Broker-based(基于经纪人)&&&&& 这种技术的特点就是，有一个集中的认证和用户帐号管理的服务器。经纪人给被用于进一步请求的电子的身份存取。中央数据库的使用减少了管理的代价，并为认证提供一个公共和独立的&第三方&。例如 集团SMAP 、Kerberos、Sesame、IBM KryptoKnight（凭证库思想）等
Agent-based(基于代理)&&&&& 在这种解决方案中，有一个自动地为不同的应用程序认证用户身份的代理程序。这个代理程序需要设计有不同的功能。比如, 它可以使用口令表或加密密钥来自动地将认证的负担从用户移开。代理被放在服务器上面，在服务器的认证系统和客户端认证方法之间充当一个&翻译&；例如 SSH等。
Token-based&&&&& 现在被广泛使用的口令认证，比如FTP，邮件服务器的登录认证，这是一种简单易用的方式，实现一个口令在多种应用当中使用
基于安全断言标记语言(SAML)实现&&&& SAML（Security Assertion Markup Language，安全断言标记语言）的出现大大简化了SSO，并被OASIS批准为SSO的执行标准。
笔者实现的单点登录：
&&&&& 笔者基于实现成本最低，当然安全系数是最低的基于Cookie的单点登录系统。单点登录的交互过程如下图（图画的不专业，见笑了）：
简单描述一个笔者的实现过程
步骤1：用户通过浏览器访问系统A，验证是否有SSO信息
A,系统A首先读取客户端的cookie,若cookie的值为空则转步骤2，否则继续往下判断； B,读取系统A的Session，若Session与cookie的token值相同，则直接返回用户所访问的页面；若不同则继续转C步骤处理；
C,调用SSO的Web服务【这期间需要对调用web服务的参数如帐号密码进行验证，也可以对访问IP或IP段做访问控制】，验证cookie中的值包含的时间戳是否过期，若过期则转步骤2；若未过期则判断SSO是否被篡改，篡改则转步骤2，未篡改则记录**用户于**时间登录了**系统（还可以记录客户端的相关信息，如OS，Browser，IP等信息）转步骤D； D，返回用户信息，重新记录Session及cookie信息。
步骤2：无SSO信息，返回重定向信息至用户端，转步骤3
步骤3：用户端收到信息后，跳转至单点登录的统一认证界面
步骤4：单点登录站点接收到页面请求后，将统一认证界面返回给用户
步骤5：用户输入帐号密码进行登录
步骤6：单点服务到数据库中验证用户的信息
步骤7：返回Token信息，将token写入cookie
&&&&&& 若验证通过，则将时间戳信息+加密后的用户信息作为token值写入cookie。其中，token的时间戳加上超时时间的1/3&=当前时间，则重新生成一个时间戳及Des加解密用的key、iv；从而保证用户在操作页面时得以延长超时时间。
步骤8：认证通过后系统又重新定到系统A
&&&&& 在刚重定向至系统A时，由于系统A无Session系统，故仍会执行步骤1的判断，调用Web服务去验证token信息（这一步有点重复，不知各位大侠有何更好解决办法。若通过系统A自身调用SSO接口进行验证并记录session或cookie则不存在这个问题），直到在返回后重写cookie。
步骤9：用户通过系统A的链接进入系统B
步骤10：系统B首先判断服务端的Session及客户端的Cookie的Token是否一致。
&&&&& 由于系统B第一次被某个用户访问，故无Session信息，只有Cookie信息&
步骤11：调用SSO的Web服务将Token信息传递给SSO进行验证
步骤12：校验Token信息
&&&&& 判断token是否过期，若过期则跳转至SSO登录；未过期则对token进行解密，若不能解密，则token被篡改，重新跳转SSO登录（判断过程跟步骤1一致）
步骤13：返回Token信息,系统B写Session及Cookie
步骤14:将用户向系统B请求的页面返回给用户
&& 以上是本人是根据现在整的单点登录整理出来的思路，有点闭门造车的味道，东西也被我粗制滥造出来了，估计在中小企业还能发挥所长。简单给大家展示一下SSO统一认证的&庐山面目&，如下：
&&&&&& 上面的介绍步骤稍微粗略简单了些，还有一些相关的细枝末节没谈及。由于本人非SSO领域的行家，不少地方很不专业，难免被大家贻笑大方，恳请各位前辈们，同行们多多指教。
阅读(...) 评论()Your weekly round-up of undergraduate life in The University
of Manchester
from , Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 31 October, and it&s Week 6 & Reading Week.&There are no scheduled teaching activities this week & it's a chance for you to have a break and recharge your batteries and maybe do some catchup. Usual teaching and timetabled activities resume next Monday 7 Nov (Week 7B). But this week is as busy as usual, so on with today&s news! And Happy Halloween!
Best wishes,
Director of Undergraduate Studies
&&&&&& && &
& && &&&&&
&&​
UKIEPC. Ettore Torti (Y3, CSwIE) writes: Last weekend at the UK & Ireland Programming Contest we had 11 teams competing from Manchester this year, out of around 200 in the UK, and 2 of our teams made the top 40. The top three teams from Manchester were: Kifte (4 problems) & Tsvetomir Tsanev (Y1, CS), Konstantin Vladimirov (Y1, CM) and Valentin Borisov (Y1, CM); &m4dch35t3r (4 problems) &&Ettore Torti (Y3, CSwIE), Ion Diaconu (Y4, CS4), Izz Abudaka (Y3, CSwIE); and Anonymouslambda (4 problems) &&Daniel Thomas (Y3, CSwIE), Ignas Bolsakovas (Y3, CMwIE), &William Brown (Y3, CSwIE). Well done all!
PASS1. Josh Dawes (Y3, CMwIE) and Hugh Williams (Y3, CMwIE) write: Since this week is Reading Week, there&s no PASS1, so see you all again next week.&Remember, if there&s anything you struggle with during this week&s reading, bring it up with your PASS leaders!
EXAM FEEDBACK. Final call! The feedback session at 14:00 on Weds 16 Nov in IT407 gives returning students the opportunity to view their marked exam answer books for AY15 (and AY14 for IE students). Advance registration required:
with your ID, name and list of courses you&d like to view (COMP excludes Y1 Java). Deadline for registration&is 12:00 this Weds 2 Nov.
MEET DOMINIC. Hi! I'm Dominic Laing, the Careers Consultant working with your School. I&ll be in Kilburn on Thursdays if you'd like to see me about anything. Just book a slot with me on . Whatever you want to see me about, whether it's applications advice, developing your interview skills or not knowing what to do, please make a booking. Look forward to meeting you soon!
ENTREPRENEUR / INTREPRENEUR? The University of Manchester, the Manchester Tech Trust, and&Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK), are jointly hosting a business growth forum for students tomorrow Tues 1 Nov&that aims to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs and intrepreneurs. Speakers this year include
from The Coca-Cola Company,
from LoopUp,
from Couchbase (BSc Computer Science 2001),
from Dream Agility Ltd and
from Social Chain. .
STARTUP WEEKEND. Mihai Bujanca (Y2, out on IE) writes: Startup Weekend is coming to Manchester this Fri-Sun 4-6 Nov at Auto Trader. It&s a 54-hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation. This is a great opportunity to meet entrepreneurs and innovators to work on ideas that could potentially turn into successful start-ups. Teams organically form around the top ideas so attendees can come both as individuals or groups. A great team of speakers, mentors and judges will be attending, giving constructive feedback to teams and assisting them in executing their idea. Do you want to get hands-on and learn about business design, marketing research and developing a prototype? Use the code STUDENT to get an exclusive student discount of 50% OFF ticket price. .
CALLING ALL BLOGGERS. Are you a keen writer/blogger? Want to earn a bit of extra money whilst studying? The School is recruiting up to 3 new student bloggers to represent life in the School and Manchester. To give you an idea, check out recent graduate . We&re seeking talented writers who are in 1st or 2nd year and will commit to contribute posts regularly. We&ll pay &25 per blog post (up to 12 per year). Interested? .
FAMILY SCIENCE DAY. Thanks to&Teo Taylor (Y4, CS4) and Mihai Garbur (Y3, CS) who joined the Computing At School team on Saturday at the Manchester Museum Science Spectacular to show families how exciting Computer Science can be. Children and parents watched the Nao robot perform the Macarena, and saw how Lego Mindstorms robots can be programmed, as well as carving pumpkins in Minecraft on the Raspberry Pi. If you&re interested in getting involved with events like this,&&would be pleased to hear from you.
CUTTING EDGE RESEARCH. Our School is a hotbed of research, much of it done by PhD students working together with academic and research staff. Want to know what&s going on? Thinking of doing a PhD? Check out our annual
this Tues-Thurs 1-3 Nov in Kilburn and find out what over 60 of our research students are up to. There&s amazing stuff covering a wide range of topics: from facial behaviour analysis to mobile d from reverse engineering legacy code to GPU acceleration of Java. Everyone welcome to attend talks or browse poster sessions.&
POSTGRAD STUDY. And if you&re interested in further study after your UG degree, pop along to our upcoming Postgraduate Open Days: this Weds 2 Nov for
and Weds 23 Nov for . If you have any queries, contact .
DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT PHDS. The , based at Bath and Bournemouth Universities, is offering paid postgraduate research studentships, to start September 2017. Their funded PhD programme includes mentoring by companies specialising in games, visual effects, and animation.
GREAT UNI HACK. GreatUniHack 2016 will be held just up the road at Manchester Metropolitan University on the weekend of 12/13 Nov. Get your !
CREDIT SUISSE. Join Credit Suisse for drinks, nibbles and networking with a difference at their&. Test your problem solving and collaboration skills against the clock. The event takes place at the Manchester Museum 13:30&15:30 next Weds 9 Nov.
MANCJS. Manchester's monthly JavaScript user group
returns this Weds 2 &Nov, at Common Bar, across the road from MadLab. Join them for casual JS/programming talk. Meetings range from lightning talks, panel discussions and pub quizzes to games like Code Golf or Code & Conquer. Everyone is welcome, regardless of their level of JavaScript.
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Deadline for
Monday Mail items: 17:00 every Friday.
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 31 October, and it&s Week 6 & Reading Week.&There are no scheduled teaching activities this week & it's a chance for you to have a break and recharge your batteries and maybe do some catchup. Usual teaching and timetabled activities resume next Monday 7 Nov (Week 7B). But this week is as busy as usual, so on with today&s news! And Happy Halloween
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 24 October, and it&s Week 5, an A week. I hope everything is going well! &A reminder that next week is Reading Week and there won't be any scheduled teaching activities then & it's a chance for you to have a break&and maybe do some catchup. But this week is as busy as usual, so on with today&s news!
Best wishes,
Director of Undergraduate Studies
&&&&&& && &
& && &&&&&
&&​
HACKTRAIN. Congratulations to Struan McDonough (Y3, CMwIE), Daniel Thomas (Y3, CSwIE) and Daniel Ireson (MSc) on being selected as three of the lucky participants in
(4&6 Nov), arguably one of the craziest and most memorable hackathon experiences. A weekend-long adventure hacking whilst travelling on a train from London to Paris, Lyon and back again. One hundred of the very best developers, designers and entrepreneurs will be building apps, websites and hardware that tackles the transport industry's biggest challenges. If you&d like to jump aboard, the last few places are still available.
PASS1. Josh Dawes (Y3, CMwIE) and Hugh Williams (Y3, CMwIE) write: It was great to see the much improved turnout for PASS1 last week, and we&re looking forward to seeing you all again this week on Weds at 12:00&13:00 in Collab.
PASS2. Struan McDonough (Y3, CMwIE) and Tom Robinson (Y3, CS) write: Thank you to all the people that came to PASS2 last week, don&t worry if you couldn&t make it due to the Software Engineering deadline, the links to the techniques discussed will be put onto the . This week we will be looking at Interviews and Assessment centres for companies such as IBM, Avecto and many more. See you there this Friday 13:00&14:00 in Collab.
EXAM FEEDBACK. The feedback session at 14:00 on Weds 16 Nov in IT407 gives returning students the opportunity to view their marked exam answer books for AY15 (and AY14 for IE students). Advance registration required:
with your ID, name and list of courses (COMP excludes Y1 Java) you&d like to view. Deadline for registration (so we have time to get your papers out) is 12:00 next Weds 2 November.
CAPTURE THE FLAG. Thanks to all the students who took part in last weekend's Capture the Flag event organised by . Armed with tools like hex editors, packet sniffers,
there was clearly some serious learning (and legal hacking) going on. Ten teams of students participated, around 70 students in total in Collab 1&2,&and they devoured &350 worth of pizza! We&ll announce the final results ASAP.
CALLING ALL BLOGGERS. Are you a keen writer/blogger? Want to earn a bit of extra money whilst studying? The School is recruiting up to 3 new student bloggers to represent life in the School and Manchester. To give you an idea, check out recent graduate . We&re seeking talented writers who are in 1st or 2nd year and will commit to contribute posts regularly. We&ll pay &25 per blog post (up to 12 per year). Interested? .
EEE CAREERS. The 2016
will take place this Weds&26&Oct in the Renold building, North Campus. Of interest to students doing Computer Systems Engineering or Computer Science (with a hardware / systems bias).
GREAT UNI HACK. GreatUniHack 2016 will be held just up the road at Manchester Metropolitan University on the weekend of 12/13 Nov. Get your !
PROGRAMMING CONTEST. Ettore Torti (Y3, CSwIE) writes: Manchester will be acting as host for the UK & Ireland Programming Contest this year!
and compete in teams of 3 this Saturday 29 Oct. The top teams will be given an opportunity to represent the University at the Northwestern Europe Regional Contest (part of the ACM&International Collegiate Programming Contest) in Bath later this year. We've only got space for 8 more teams, so sign up now!
LEGAL HACKTHON SUCCESS. Last weekend the Manchester Deaf Centre and the Schools of Law and Computer Science took over the lower floor of the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons for 24 hrs of legal hacking! All 7 mixed teams of law and CS students completed a working prototype ranging from an Android app to scan and analyse legal documents to a crowdsourcing site for legal advice in British Sign Language. Winners got vouchers as well as internships (on the law or on the tech side) with the law firm Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer.
SKYSCANNER. This from : we&re proud to announce that
will be holding a one hour talk entitled: &Distributed Systems at Skyscanner: Case Studies&,&this Weds 26 Oct, at 15:00 in Kilburn 1.1. You&re all invited for a one-of-a-kind behind the scenes look at Skyscanner&s technology. See you there!
MORGAN STANLEY DROP-IN AND CV REVIEW. Following the success of last year&s event, Morgan Stanley are returning for a repeat of their CV screening skills session. Bring your CV to receive advice from industry leading professionals and ensure your CV is application ready. Tomorrow Tues 25 Oct, 13:00&15:00 on LF.
OXFORD ROAD CLOSURE. Oxford Road is currently closed for resurfacing between Hathersage Road and Booth Street until late Sun 30/early Mon 31 Oct.
about the Oxford Road changes.
BUBBLE SORT. As a computer scientist you need to know about sorting data. How better to explain the classic
algorithm than through the medium of ? Worth 5 minutes of anyone&s time! As you will know,&other sorting algorithms are available, so the team from&Sapientia University in Romania&also demonstrate Quick Sort, Merge Sort, and Insert Sort.
GIVE BLOOD. Your blood could make a difference to someone&s life. This Thurs 27 Oct in Byte Cafe between 11:30&14:00, why not sign up as a blood donor and make an appointment to donate (the donor centre is very close to the School). Do something amazing & become a blood donor.
CLOCKS. Don&t forget that clocks go back an hour to GMT at 02:00 this coming Sunday 30 October. It&s official & summer's over!
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Deadline for
Monday Mail items: 17:00 every Friday.
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 17 October, and it&s Week 4, a B week. We're a month into the new Semester now, and&I hope everything is going well. First Year students, I hope you're beginning to feel settled in the School, and in Manchester too. Remember, if you have any questions or concerns, talk to us!
is a great place to start and they can advise who best to speak to. Right, let's get on with today&s news, and there&s rather a lot of it &&as usual!
Best wishes,
Director of Undergraduate Studies
&&&&&& && &
& && &&&&&
&&​
STAFF-STUDENT COMMITTEE. Voting for student reps is now complete, and thank you to everyone who took part. This year&s reps have now been elected. You have 9 reps for Year 1, 7 for Year 2, and 4 for Year 3 & you can see them all, with contact details, on the . There&ll be a start-up session for the new reps this Weds 19 Oct, and the first meeting between reps and the School to discuss issues will be on Weds 9 Nov. If you&d like to raise any issues, please contact a rep for your year. A reminder that for day-to-day stuff (broken things, software install requests, etc), please use our
to submit a ticket which will be actioned ASAP. I should also mention that we can&t guarantee to keep track of discussions on Facebook, so to make sure any concerns get raised and properly dealt with, please use the above mechanisms.
PASS1. Josh Dawes (Y3, CMwIE) and Hugh Williams (Y3, CMwIE) write: Hey guys, PASS will be back in your normal rooms this week. The leaders have great sessions planned and plenty of snacks too! We'll see you at PASS this Weds 19 Oct at 12:00.
PASS2. Struan McDonough (Y3, CMwIE) and Tom Robinson (Y3, CS) write: This week in PASS we're looking at study techniques, the title being "How to study less and remember more". There was great attendance last week, so see you there this Friday 13:00&14:00 in Collab.
OUR RESPONSE TO YOUR FEEDBACK. We&ve now looked in detail at the Course Unit Survey results from Semester 2 of last Academic Year (2015-16). We take your views seriously, and we&ve asked all the Course Unit lecturers to respond to your comments. Your can read their responses .
CAREERS FAIR. I hope you enjoyed our Careers Fair here in Kilburn last week on Wednesday & Thursday. It was a huge event&with&28&employers coming from all over the UK&to Kilburn to meet&YOU! I'm sure you will join me in thanking &(Employability Tutor &&Year 2 Tutor) and Mabel Yau (Careers and Placements Officer) for their fantastic efforts to put it all together. Thanks Duncan&and Mabel!
BIG CAREERS FAIR. The&Manchester Central Exhibition Centre&will be hosting the
this Tues/Weds 18/19 Oct, with over 70 exhibitors.
YEAR&3 DEADLINE CHART. Third Year students & to help you keep track of your work Third Year Tutor
has summarised all the Semester 1 COMP deadlines in a . We hope you find it useful.
GREAT UNI HACK.&GreatUniHack 2016 will be held just up the road at&Manchester Metropolitan Universiity&on the weekend of 12/13 Nov. Get your !
EYE TRACKING. Tonight at 18:45 is the monthly
meeting at the Albert Club in Didsbury () and
(who co-runs&COMP23420 Software Engineering) is giving​ a talk on &The computer is watching you&. Caroline describes her talk: "The way we look at the world is the product of millions of years of evolution, and while we think what we &see& in our heads is an accurate representation of the environment, in fact it is a construction, influenced by current thought processes and previous experience. Increasingly, eye tracking technology is being used to monitor where our attention lies. Are we willing to allow computers this level of access to our minds?"&Free entry, all welcome!
SOCIAL JUSTICE. Tomorrow Tues 18 Oct, the
is on campus to give you the chance to meet charities, see performances and explore a huge range of activities in Manchester, the UK and across the globe. Get inspired to take action in your local community and find out how you can help to build a fairer society through volunteering and&campaigning, and lots more.
ROYAL VISIT. You probably noticed that&the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came to visit the University last Friday. See the .
TECH EVENING. This Thurs 20 Oct at ThoughtWorks, there's a free event taking its inspiration from
& &Ada: The Empowered Technologist&. An evening of , designed to inspire, educate and empower technologists.
MORGAN STANLEY. Tomorrow Tues 18 Oct, MS are hosting a Technology Presentation & Networking event&at Manchester Museum. Next&Tues&25 Oct, they're doing&CV review, on-campus interviews and a drop-in here in Kilburn.
UG OF THE YEAR. Could you be an Undergraduate of the Year 2017? TARGETjobs
is an annual awards competition to find the best undergraduates in the UK. Prizes include work placements and overseas trips. Applications are now open in 11 categories, deadline for entering the competition is 30 Jan 2017. Why not enter?
CAPTURE THE FLAG.&&are running a&&event, a day of cyber security challenges and games, this&Saturday 22&Oct&in Kilburn.&The competition will be held in Collab 1 & 2,&starting at 10:00&and finishing at 16:00, with lunch provided by BAE Systems. Take part in challenges including web security, cryptanalysis, forensics, reverse engineering, shell coding, problem solving, packet analysis and hacking trivia. Develop your understanding of defensive programming, buffer overflows, SQL injections, program decompilation, data forensics, protocol analysis, advanced debugging and crypto limitations.
GIRL POWER. JP MORGAN are running an exclusive event for female students looking to discover more about careers in technology with companies such as Accenture, BAE Systems, CGI, Deutsche Bank, ThoughtWorks and more. Students will spend a full day taking part in sessions to showcase their skills and personality including the opportunity to network with the recruitment teams, graduates and senior female managers. The event dates are: 28&October & J.P. Morgan HQ, L 11 Nov & J.P. Morgan, G 18 Nov & Bloomberg HQ, L &2 Dec & Capital One, &Nottingham. The event is free and travel up to &50 will be reimbursed. .
LEGAL HACK.&We've teamed up with our friends at the Manchester Deaf Centre, the University's&School of Law and the law firm
to create a unique&&this Fri/Sat 21/22 Oct in the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (free food and drink throughout), to help make deaf people heard in the legal community.
ABOUT THE COURTYARD. You may be wondering what&s going on in the courtyard. It&s being redeveloped, and will include a &light well&, aka &a hole&, which will allow natural light to shine down onto the ground floor of the building, where IT Services would otherwise live and work in semi-darkness. It's a big&job and will take many months. We'll try very hard to minimise disruption, but if you find the noise a problem, please let me know. What&s the strange white object, I hear you ask? That&s a (rather lovely, IMHO) kinetic sculpture installed when the building opened in 1972. It&s affectionately called Floating Point Zero, because it used to sit in a pond in the courtyard (which sprung an expensive leak into the Computer Centre below, but that&s another story).
BEAGLEBOARD. This month's meeting of the
group is all about the , with Michael Dorrington. The BeagleBoard is a series of ARM-based Free&Hardware computers that are Free Software friendly. Everyone welcome at&19:00 tomorrow Tues 18 Oct at
in the Northern Quarter.
FREE BOOKS ON-LINE. Wait! Don&t buy that book just yet! Did you know the University has a deal with lots of &so you can read full-text books online for free? It covers all the big names &&O&Reilly, Microsoft Press, Addison-Wesley, Prentice Hall, Adobe Press and many more.
SCHOOL SEMINAR. As part of the School&s weekly , this Weds 19 Oct at 14:00 in Kilburn LT1.5,
from Oxford University will talk about &More accuracy with less precision - from climate change to the human brain&. Many systems are so complex that they will never be simulated, at least in the foreseeable future, with any degree of completeness. This raises important questions when attempting to simulate a particular system of interest. For example, is it better to solve a more complete computational representation of the system less precisely, or a less complete computational representation of the system more precisely? All welcome!
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Deadline for
Monday Mail items: 17:00 every Friday.
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 10 October, and it&s Week 3, an A week. &I hope you're doing well and enjoying life both inside and outside the School! A lot to tell you today, including a huge number of events, some of which&take place in Kilburn in the evening and at weekends, and you'll need&an out-of-hours pass to attend those.&If you haven't got one, !&&OK, on with the news&
Best wishes,
Director of Undergraduate Studies&
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STAFF STUDENT COMMITTEE. If you haven&t already, please vote for your reps! Voting closes at 12:00 this Friday 14 Oct. Login to Blackboard (via ); under "My Communities" click "CS UG Community"; click on the link for your year (e.g., &SSC Voting 1st Year"); on the next page click on the survey link. Results will be announced next week.
QUIET LAB. Labs can often be vibrant places, and you&ve been asking (for quite a few years) for a quiet lab... and now it&s here & Room 1.8 has changed from being the &3rd Year Lab& to "The Quiet Lab&. This lab is a place for all UGs for quiet working at PCs (when the room is not in occasional scheduled use for teaching). If it&s to be a success, it needs to be QUIET, and that&s up to you. Need to talk in there? OK, we understand that, but please do so VERY VERY QUIETLY INDEED :-). The room at the far end of this lab is still the Quiet Study Room (Room 1.12) which is strictly for quiet personal study (no PCs in there). I hope you&ll find these quiet rooms helpful, and of course I&d welcome your feedback ().
PASS1. Josh Dawes (Y3, CMwIE) and Hugh Williams (Y3, CMwIE) write:&PASS1&is this&Weds at 12:00&13:00 in Collab. All 1st year students welcome!
PASS2. Struan McDonough (Y3, CMwIE) and Tom Robinson (Y3, CS) write: Thanks for the awesome turnout last week & we had more than 50 join us for our chat on placements! This week we'll be talking about the sorts of things you can do outside of study to make your CV stand out, such as Hackathons and other side projects (it doesn't quite match the flyer & but we're adapting to what people tell us is important to them). We'll be posting a lot of really useful resources in our : such as how to get free textbooks, and info on the application process for different companies. See you there this Friday 13:00&14:00 in Collab.
ATTENDANCE. As you know, we keep track of your attendance at tutorials, labs, examples classes and project meetings. We've implemented a new web-based system to enable you to .
EXAM FEEDBACK. The feedback session at 14:00 on Weds 16 Nov in IT407 gives returning students the opportunity to view their marked exam answer books for AY15 (and AY14 for wIE students). Advance registration required:
with your ID, name and list of courses (COMP excludes Y1 Java) you&d like to view. Deadline for registration is 12:00 Weds 2 November.
PI CLUB. Will Woof, PhD student and TA writes: Are you, like so many of us, impressed by the capabilities of the Raspberry Pi, but just can't think of what to do with it? We'll be running the first of a series of Pi Appreciation events at 13:30&15:00 this Weds 12 Oct in LF31 where people can share cool projects and project ideas, and get help with Pi-related topics. In particular we&ll show you how to set up your Pi as a WiFi hotspot so you can connect to your Pi outside the labs. All welcome!
CAREERS FAIR. There are lots of employers in Kilburn and on campus this week recruiting students for placements and graduate positions. This Weds/Thu&12/13 Oct in Kilburn&come and speak to Amazon, American Express, Apadmi, ARM, Autodesk, Avecto, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Bloomberg, Cisco, Cyberscience, Deloitte, DigitalBridge, Ferranti, FreeAgent, GE Healthcare, Imagination Technology, Morgan Stanley, NCC Group, Ocado, , The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Shell, The Hut Group, Thoughtworks, Top Cash Back, UKFast, Ultra Electronics and Zuto. This week see also the Calculating Careers fair (Maths) and the Little Careers Fair (alternative employers). And next week there's the Big Careers fair in Manchester Central.&.​
CAPTURE THE FLAG.&&are running a&&event, a day of cyber security challenges and games, on&Saturday 22&Oct&in Kilburn.&The competition will be held in Collab 1 & 2,&starting at 10:00&and finishing at 16:00, with lunch provided by BAE Systems. Take part in challenges including web security, cryptanalysis, forensics, reverse engineering, shell coding, problem solving, packet analysis and hacking trivia. Develop your understanding of defensive programming, buffer overflows, SQL injections, program decompilation, data forensics, protocol analysis, advanced debugging and crypto limitations.
BLOOMBERG CODECON. CodeCon is a live programming contest. Push your programming and problem solving skills to the limit against the clock to win the title of Bloomberg CodeCon champion against your peers across the UK and Europe! The School&s top winners will be invited to Bloomberg CodeCon Global Finals in London office in January 2017 for a chance to win an amazing prize and compete against the best students from Europe and the US. The event will be taking place here in Kilburn, kick off at 18:30 this Thurs 13 Oct. Food and refreshments will be provided. ! You'll need an out-of-hours pass to attend this event.
LEGAL HACK. We've teamed up with our friends at the Manchester Deaf Centre, the University's&School of Law and the law firm Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer to create a unique
on Fri/Sat 21/22 Oct in the Alan Gilbert Learning Commons (free food and drink throughout), to help make deaf people heard in the legal community.
MAC LAB. Our iOS/MacOS Developers Lab (Kilburn Room LF17, opposite SSO) has 10 Mac-minis with 27& Thunderbolt displays, two wall-mounted HDMI TVs, and a projector. The lab is for all UG/PGT/PGR students who want to do iOS/MacOS development (but it&s not for regular lab work). You can use it any time. Check it out!
OPEN DAYS. The past two Saturdays the School hosted two undergraduate Open Days, and welcomed over 700 visitors in total. Both days were a great success, and we'd like to thank the student and alumni ambassadors (some seen here)&who came and helped out on the days & we couldn't have done it without you! &If you&d like to be involved (paid)&in our applicant Visit Days starting in November, contact .
MORGAN STANLEY. Join Morgan Stanley at one their . This week: Weds 12 Oct, Calculating Careers Fair in the Alan Turing B Thu 13 Oct, Comp Sci Careers Fair in K Tues 18 Oct, Technology Presentation & Networking at Manchester M Tue 25 Oct, CV review, on-campus interviews and drop-in here in Kilburn.
JAGUAR LAND ROVER. Fancy the opportunity of a UG placement in engineering at Jaguar Land Rover? To enter the competition submit your CV & cover letter &&see
for more info.
RETIREMENTS. Many of you will know Graham Gough (below left) and John Gurd (below right), both of whom retired last week. Graham and John made enormous and lasting contributions to the shape of the School. We owe them a lot. I'm sure you will join me in wishing them a happy retirement.
ADA LOVELACE DAY. Manchester Digital will be celebrating Ada Lovelace Day tomorrow Tues 11 Oct with a fireside chat with some of the leading women in the digital and tech industry in the North West. .
UAV SOC. Ismaeel Ramzan (School of Chemistry) writes: I would like to invite you to join the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles society. We are a student-run society that aims to attract students to work together on producing drones for autonomous flight competitions. We require no previous experience and are happy to provide instruction but most of the learning will be self-directed. Some of the things we are working on are rapid creation of orthomosaic photomaps, target identification using computer vision, communication between drones and a ground station, and communicating between the pixhawk autopilot and another board such as a Raspberry Pi. Interested?
EXASCALE RESEARCH. Exascale computing will achieve 1018 floating point operations per second (the fastest achievable today is petascale & 1015 flops, the current leader being the Chinese supercomputer
at 93 petaflops). This Weds 12 Oct, in the Frank Adams 1 lecture room in the School of Mathematics, 13:00&14:00, Professor Bill Gropp (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) will speak on , addressing the task of transforming current-generation parallel programming models to make them effective for programming an Exascale supercomputer by the early 2020s. The talk will be delivered remotely and projected, followed by a panel discussion on the topic "Programming for Exascale, Complete disruption or slow evolution?". All welcome.
NIGHTLINE. Greater Manchester Nightline is a confidential listening and information telephone service run by student volunteers. They are currently recruiting volunteers to take calls. It&s a great opportunity to gain strong communication skills and make new friends. It can count towards the Manchester Leadership Programme and looks great on your C.V. Interested? .
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Deadline for
Monday Mail items: 17:00 every Friday.
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 3 October, and it&s Week 2,&a B week. I hope you&re enjoying the new Semester, and first year students, I hope you&re settling in well. Need any help? Call into . Lots to tell you today, so let&s get on with the&news, and I hope you have a good week!
best wishes,
Director of Undergraduate Studies
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SSC. Represent your fellow students here in the School. Nominations for student reps on the UG Staff Student Committee (SSC) are still open. So if you&d like to be a rep email &by the extended deadline of 17:00 this Weds 5 Oct with a brief statement (max 50 words) about why you want to be a rep. Once all the nominations are in, there&ll be an online vote & details next week.
SU UNION OFFICERS. And speaking of representing students, the SU elections are open. If you have ideas for events, campaigns or things the Students' Union and the University could be working on to improve the Manchester experience, then stand for election as a Student Officer. The Students' Union has a range of Student Officer roles filled by a cross-campus election each October. They offer training, support and advice throughout the year and all the resources you'll need to effectively represent the students you're working for. Use
to stand for election, and see . Deadline 17:00 this Friday 7 Oct.
COURSE UNIT CHOICES. A reminder that the deadline for finalising and entering your Semester 1& is 15:30 this Friday 7 Oct.
INDUSTRIAL EXPERIENCE. If you missed last week&s talk on Industrial Experience and summer internships, see&.
CAREERS. Looking for a job, placement, internship or postgrad course starting in 2017? Check the
of off-timetable activities. Coming up soon, next week Weds 12 and Thurs 13 October is the Kilburn Careers Fair, right here on your doorstep.
PASS1. First year students!&Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) for&1st Year students&start&this&Weds at 12:00-13:00 in Collab,&and the first session will&be about PASS&leaders and groups getting to know each other, and exploring what&PASS is all about.
PASS2. Struan McDonough (Y3, CMwIE) and Tom Robinson (Y3, CS) write: this Friday 7 Oct 13:00-14:00 in Collab we&ll be looking at placements. A selection of third year students who have been on summer or year placements will be available for advice on the pros and cons of taking one.
CSSOC GO BOWLING. Stefania-Anais Hristea (Y2, HCIwIE) and Riccardo Biraghi (Y2, CS) say: if you like burgers and enjoy bowling, CSSoc has got you covered! Join us for our
this Friday 7 Oct at 19:00 at the .
BBC CHALLENGE. Want to enhance your skills and employability? Relish the opportunity to gain insight into the operations of three major organisations while competing against other Northern Universities? Teams are invited to apply for the 2016
& and we hope&will&retain the title we won&last year (last year's winners pictured)!&If you'd like to enter, email&&before this&Friday 7&Oct&with&details of your team members (maximum 7 per team)&and why you think your team should be selected to represent The University of Manchester.&
GCHQ CRYPTO CHALLENGE. The annual
contest on Sat 29 Oct (tickets still available) has recently gained sponsorship from GCHQ, the security organisation providing signals intelligence to the UK government. If you&ve an interest in CyberSecurity take a look at their
(hidden messages).
GIRL GEEKS. As part of Geek Mental Help Week,
are holding an all-day event this Sunday 9 Oct at Autotrader&s Manchester office (). There are talks and interactive workshops, and spots for lightning talks and smaller discussions.
are &4.50 including refreshments and lunch.
COLLABS. We'll be setting up for our second Saturday UG Open Day&from this Friday morning 7 Oct. The Collab rooms won&t be available that&Friday afternoon, so apologies for any inconvenience.
MEET THE ROBOTS. Over the summer the University was part of a project to create a Robot Orchestra. After a successful debut, The Robot Orchestra will be performing at the Museum of Science and Industry on Weds 26 Oct as part of the Manchester Science Festival. Find out more in .
PI TALK. If you&re interested in the past and future of the Raspberry Pi, check out Pi founder and CEO Eben Upton
from Slashdot readers.
SCHOOL SEMINAR. As part of the School&s weekly , this Weds 5 Oct at 14:00 in Kilburn LT1.5,
of the University of Oslo, will talk about &Unleashing Artificial Intelligence in the Real World&. Artificial intelligence (AI) has in recent years taken off. In contrast to earlier promising AI periods, this time not only academic researchers are involved but also a number of large companies including Facebook and Google. This talk will give a brief intro to the AI field represented by biologically inspired computing and give some examples of how they have applied it at University of Oslo in several applications including robotics, interactive music and others. All students and staff welcome.
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Deadline for
Monday Mail items: 17:00 every Friday.
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 26 September, and it&s Week 1A of Semester 1. Teaching starts today for all years. Throughout the semester we alternate Week A's and Week B's, with different timetabled activities according to A and B. The Monday Mail will always remind you which week it is & and this is a Week A (here's the ). OK, on with today&s news& and have a good week!
Best wishes,
Director of Undergraduate Studies
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FIRST YEARS. First year students (seen below!), I hope you enjoyed Welcome Week, and I hope you're settling in ok. We tried not to overwhelm you with information last week, and if you have any questions, just drop into our
(SSO, next to lab LF31), contact your Personal Tutor, or see Year 1 Tutor
&&they&ll all be very happy to help.
PRIZE WINNERS. &Every year the School awards prizes to UG students who have excelled academically or made significant contributions to the School. Below are the winners whose prizes were awarded last week by , our new Head of School. Top, left to right, IBM ThinkPad Challenge for the best second year group project: Tom Robinson (Y3, CS), Eugen-Alexandru Virtan (Y3, CS4wIE), Anuj Vaishnav (Y3, CSE), not present: Andrew Crofts (CS, out on IE), Cristian Brisan (CSwIE, out on IE), Ivelin Rachev (Y3, CS4); Professors' Prize for the best second year student: Andi Zhang (Y3, CM); Michael Jealous memorial prize for best first year student: Lewis Grozinger (Y2, CS4). Below, Golden Anniversary prizes for excellence in first year studies: Alexander Mitcu (Y2, CS4wIE), Samuel Da Costa (Y2, CMwIE), Yangguang Li (Y2, CM), not present: Igor Wodiany (Y2, CSwIE), Dmytro Chekunov (Y2, CS), Cristian Bodnar (Y2, CSwIE).
SSC. Represent your fellow students and make a difference. Nominations for student reps on the UG Staff Student Committee (SSC) are open. If you&d like to be a rep then email &by 12:00 next Monday 3 Oct including a brief statement (max 50 words) about why you want to be a rep. Once all the nominations are in, there&ll be an online vote for students to elect this year&s reps & details next week.
PASS1. PASS Coordinators&Josh Dawes (Y3, CMwIE) and Hugh Williams (Y3, CMwIE) write: PASS for 1st Year students starts next week .
PASS2. Struan McDonough (Y3, CMwIE) and Tom Robinson (Y3, CS) have sent their announcement in visual form (see below) &&so this week's PASS2 session is this Friday 30 Sept 12:00-13:00 in Collab 1, all about 3rd year students' opinions of their 2nd year courses.
HACKSOC. This from&Cristian Bodnar (Y2, CSwIE): HackSoc is the main student-led tech society in Manchester. We organize hackathons in Manchester and bring the coolest companies to give talks and workshops. This Wednesday 28 Sept at 13:00 in LF15 we&ll have our first meeting. Come and find out more about what we do and become a member of the society! We hope we&ll see you there! Free pizza and drinks will be served.
CS SOCIAL SOC. &Riccardo Biraghi (Y2, CS) and&Stefania-Anais Hristea (Y2, HCIwIE), pictured here, write: this Weds 28 Sept at 15:00 in LF15 CSSoc are recruiting for our committee roles, so everyone is welcome! We also have our first meeting after recruitment and FREE pizza and drinks for everyone who's coming.
COURSE UNIT CHOICES. If you haven&t yet, please finalise and enter your Semester 1 . Deadline 15:30 on Friday 7 Oct.
QUICK SURVEY. First year students, please take a few seconds to fill in our .
VOLUNTEERING. Why not become &a Computer Science volunteer? & with no commitment, and hear about paid and unpaid volunteering opportunities. Or contact .
HACK MANCHESTER. , a 24-hour coding competition, will be held on Sat 29 October. Teams of up to four turn up with an idea and just 24 hours later present a working product. The event is at Manchester&s Museum of Science and Industry as part of the Manchester Science Festival. Registration is filling up quickly with the last few places available! If you&re interested, sign up now!
PODCAST. The School&s latest
features Laura Howarth-Kirke&(pictured here) who graduated from the School in 2013 and won the national SET Student of the Year Award. She&s since worked at the BBC in&their graduate scheme and is now a software developer for BBC Sport.
COLLABS. We'll be setting up for the first of the upcoming&Saturday UG Open Days this&Friday 30 Sept. The Collab rooms won&t be available that&Friday afternoon, so apologies for any inconvenience.
DON&T BE PHISHED! Phishing scams are bigger than ever and targeting UK Universities, reports . If you have any doubt about an email asking to to click a link or provide personal details&&&&Congratulations! You&ve received an Educational Grant!& etc& & don't click anything! , and if you need advice contact them on 4 & telephone support is available 24/7.
HARDWARE LIBRARY. Do you like to tinker with hardware? The School has a
for you to borrow. We have Arduino boards and shields, Raspberry Pi components, Kinect sensors, robots, even drones, and much more.
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Deadline for
Monday Mail items: 17:00 every Friday.
Good morning UG! It&s Monday 19 September, it's Welcome Week, and a very warm welcome to you all, especially to students joining us for the first time.&I'm Toby Howard, Director of Undergraduate Studies,&and you are reading the Monday Mail & which I send to all undergraduates every Monday during term-time & to keep you up-to-date with what's happening in the School. And there's always a lot happening! So have a great week, and on with today's news.
Best wishes,
Director of Undergraduate Studies
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WE'RE HERE TO HELP. Got any questions? Need any help? Call into the
(aka SSO) open Mon-Fri 09:00-17:00 in Kilburn Room LF21, sso@cs.man.ac.uk,&5. You&ll also see lots of people around campus wearing ASK ME badges so& ask them things!
TIMETABLES. This is Welcome Week, and
for this week is special, with activities for students in all years. Year 1 students have int Year 2 students hav Year 3 students have P so please check your timetables and make sure you know what&s going on.
LOOKING FOR INFO ABOUT THE SCHOOL? Bookmark the
...and get familiar with the , your one-stop source of information about the Undergraduate School. It tells you about student support, term dates and opening hours, course structures and assessment, how you progress between years, rules and regulations, and much more.
STUDENT FEEDBACK. This year the School scored a 91% satisfaction rating in the National Student Survey, voted by final year UG students. We take your student experience very seriously, and always want your feedback. We&ll soon be launching this year&s Staff-Student Committee. Details next week.
THE QUIET LAB. In response to your feedback, we've introduced a PC lab specifically&for working quietly.&Room 1.8 has changed from being the&&3rd Year Lab& to "The Quiet Lab& (when not in scheduled use for teaching). The room at the far end of this lab is still the Quiet Room (Room 1.12) which is for quiet&personal study (no PCs in there). There's no longer a dedicated lab for 3rd Year students.
UNDERGRAD AWARDS SUCCESS. Congratulations to Veneta Haralampieva (CSwIE, graduated 2016) who was Highly Commended in the international Undergraduate Awards for her 3rd Year Project. The scheme, which recognises exceptional performance at UG level, ran across 244 universities worldwide, with a total of 5,514 project entries. Veneta was selected as one of the 9 best Computer Science projects worldwide & an exceptional achievement!
UNIVERSITY AWARD SUCCESS. And congratulations to Almudena Carrera Vazquez (CM, graduated 2016) who received one of the University&s prestigious Academic Achievement Awards, awarded to the top 0.5% of students across the whole University&.
COURSE UNIT SELECTION. You have until 15:30 on Friday 7 Oct to finalise your Semester 1 course unit &choices. &
OUT OF HOURS.
passes&issued last academic year 2015/16 will be valid up until 30 September. &To get a pass for the new academic year, please follow .&
BECOME AN AMBASSADOR. The University&s Student Recruitment and Widening Participation Team are seeking Student Ambassadors. Get paid to promote the University! Interested?
FINANCE HELP. The University has launched a new
to help students manage their money & check it out.
SCHOOL SEMINAR. As part of the School&s weekly , this Weds 21 Sept at 14:00 in Kilburn LT1.5,
from Google (and a graduate from our School!) will talk about Deep Learning, Hardware, and TensorFlow, looking at the rise of deep learning as a solution for many audio, image, NLP, and other ML problems. He'll&discuss the work that Google has been doing with TensorFlow to support different platforms, with a focus on ARM and DSP solutions for mobile and embedded deployment of models. Everyone welcome.
FREE SOFTWARE. This month's meeting of the
group is about&, a&free&BIOS replacement.&This&will include the different options, recent improvements&and a live install demonstration. 19:00 tomorrow Tues 20 Sept at
in Manchester's Northern Quarter.
SOMETHING TO SHARE? Deadline for
Monday Mail items: 17:00 every Friday.