December 2007 - Posts

• Merry Christmas

  The Academic Team at Microsoft UK would like to wish all of our blog readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Andy, Mark, Ed, Claire, Kate, Anna-Liza, Ben and Muhammad Technorati Tags: Merry Christmas Posted Friday, December 21, 2007 10:26 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Developer Highway Code book updated and available for download

  To build software that meets your security objectives, you must integrate security activities into your software development lifecycle. This handbook captures and summarises the key security engineering activities that should be an integral part of your software development processes. Now the ever popular concise security guidance book  has been updated by Paul Maher with new chapters covering topics such as; Threat Modelling and WCF... You can download the updated book in electronic form from the UK Application Security website here. Hard copies are currently only available for the original version of the book. The new version will be available as a hard copy in the New Year. Claire Posted Thursday, December 20, 2007 7:38 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Software, Teaching, Technology

• Robotics and .NET Fundamentals webcasts

  Dan Waters has posted a series of introduction level webcasts on his blog. The content includes: Introduction Getting Started Setting up the Create Serial port communication in VC# Express Teaching the robot to sing More on serial port stuff Setting up and utilizing Bluetooth Driving the robot in a square Intro to VPL and MS Robotics Studio Learning how to drive the robot via a dialog box See how you can use VPL to create a program without writing any code whatsoever Introducing Autonomous Behavior Using the iRobot Create's sensors and a flow diagram to back up when an obstacle is encountered Conclusion to the series and you can access it here. Claire Posted Tuesday, December 18, 2007 10:41 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: .NET, Robotics, Training

• Only 4 days left to claim your early bird 10% discount off the Games Development in Computer Science 08 conference

  The UK has a well deserved reputation in the field of Games Development and yet so far is not well represented at this world-class conference aboard the luxury Celebrity Century cruise ship, . It promises to be a very informative and fun event and will provide an excellent opportunity for networking too. If you have any questions then please let me know.   Claire General session and tech talk speakers include: Henry Kelly, President, Federation of American Scientists John Cash,  Technical Director, Blizzard Entertainment Sam Glassenberg, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft Steve Seabolt, VP, Global Brand Development, Electronic Arts Colleen McCreary, Director of Corporate HR & Diversity, Electronic Arts Matt Brown, Design Director, Sims Label, Electronic Arts Andrew Brownsword, Electronic Arts, Senior Software Engineer – could be a tech talk. August De los Reyes, Sr. User Experience Designer, Microsoft Dennis Wixon, User Research Manager - Halo, Microsoft Randy Pausch, CMU, Alice Project Wanda Dann, CMU, Alice Project Cory Ondrejka, Linden Lab - 2nd Life Ben Sawyer, Serious Games Raph Koster --Designer of Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies Steve Theodore, Bungie, Technical Director Chris Hoffman, Purdue Mark Overmars, Utrecht University   Academic papers accepted through a peer review process include: Game2Learn: Improving the motivation of CS1 students Game Design and Development Students: Who are They? Bringing a pioneer games project to the next level. Adding Handheld Game Programming to a Computer Science Curriculum. Gaming for Middle School Students: Building Virtual Worlds. Group Interactions in a Game Engine Class. Impact of Game Design on Students' Interest in CS. A Hybrid Approach to Projects in Gaming Courses. A Game Framework to Enhance Stem Pipeline. The ETH Game Programming Laboratory: A Capstone for Computer Science and Visual Computing. Assessing Game-Themed Programming Assignments for CS1/2 Courses Integrating Games and Machine Learning in the Undergraduate Computer Science Classroom Introduction to Game Design in the Large Classroom Games, Robots, and Robot Games: Complementary Contexts for Introductory Computing Education Operating A Computer Science Game Degree Program Posted Friday, December 14, 2007 5:06 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• What your colleagues have downloaded from the Academic Resource Centre this month

  I have blogged before about the wealth of resources available on the Academic Resource Centre and have posted links about the most popular global downloads. I now have a tool that lets me see what the popular downloads are in the UK so this is what your colleagues have been looking at since November 1st. There are thousands of articles and resources on all kinds of subjects so if you have not yet had a look, I recommend that you do so soon. Claire   Title   Author Name   Date Of Creation   Windows Operating System Internals Curriculum Resource Kit (CRK) Russinovich, Mark E; Polze, Andreas; Solomon, David A 2/16/2006 Network Programming (C#) Xing（邢文娟）, Wenjuan 1/5/2006 ProjectOZ Probert, Dave 7/13/2006 Introduction to Parallel Programming Gergel, Victor P 9/11/2006 Windows Operating System Internals Curriculum Resource Kit (CRK) - Tools Russinovich, Mark E; Solomon, David A; Polze, Andreas 2/16/2006 ASP.NET for C# - Part One (Modules) DevelopMentor 11/10/2003 Comparing the Linux and Windows Kernels -- CRK Unit OS-B Polze, Andreas; Solomon, David A; Russinovich, Mark E 2/16/2006 Introduction to Embedded Systems using Windows Embedded CE - Presentation Materials Hamblen, James 1/2/2007 Scripting -- CRK Unit OS12 Polze, Andreas; Solomon, David A; Russinovich, Mark E 2/16/2006 Operating System Principles -- CRK Unit OS2 Polze, Andreas; Solomon, David A; Russinovich, Mark E 2/16/2006 Posted Thursday, December 13, 2007 12:13 PM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments Filed under: Academics, Teaching, Technology

• XNA Games Studio 2.0 released

  Great news, XNA 2.0 is now available. Find out all about it on the XNA team blog. I still have a few "Getting Started with XNA" DVDs left so if you are a UK academic please get in touch and let me know how many you would like. Claire Posted Thursday, December 13, 2007 7:51 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Imagine Cup - Software design deadline extension, new mentor service and extra prize

  Students competing in the Software Design category of the Imagine Cup will be delighted to learn that the deadline has been pushed back to January 9th. This gives everyone chance to work on their submissions over the Christmas holidays. We realise that it is in the last stages that students need the most assistance and so to take the pressure of you, their lecturers, we have a team of impartial techies on standby ready to provide a free mentoring service. Please have your students get in touch so that we can link them up. In addition we have added an extra bonus prize for the 15 teams that make it through to the next stage: free professional training from innerworkings on a .NET developer interface that integrates directly with Visual Studio. Claire Posted Tuesday, December 11, 2007 6:57 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Learning XNA - Webcasts and Tutorials

  Two of the Italian MSPs have enjoyed learning XNA so much that they have devised tutorials and webcasts to help others have a great experience too. The content is available in both Italian and English and can be found at http://xnalearners.spaces.live.com/. We recommend that games students keep up to date with new postings by subscribing to the site's RSS feed.   (Just click on the orange button and choose Subscribe) Claire Technorati Tags: Games, XNA, Students Posted Monday, December 10, 2007 11:53 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Useful site for Science and Technology departments

  Microsoft is committed to collaborating with the global scientific community to find solutions for some of the toughest challenges facing humanity, in diverse disciplines like life sciences, environmental science, and engineering. The new technical computing @ microsoft website is aimed at both Science and Technology departments and features articles, tools, case studies and more. www.microsoft.com/science Please pass this link onto your scientific colleagues and students Thanks Claire Technorati Tags: Science, Technology, Academic Posted Monday, December 10, 2007 11:22 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Winter snaps photography competition

  Most of us carry a camera at this time of year to capture pictures of friends and family but why not take some pictures that  capture the essence of winter and submit them in this competition?   http://www.wintersnaps.windowsvistamagazine.com/ You don't even have to be a great photographer because with Windows Live Photo Gallery you can: Create a panorama Sharpen a blurry photo Take away red eye Crop your photos Publish your photos online You can download it for free here The competition is open to anyone (including academics and students!) of UK nationality who is over 18 years of age. A maximum of five entries are permitted. Your photos should not exceed the maximum size of 2MB, in JPEG format. Closing date 15th February. Finally, don't forget to visit the gallery in a few weeks to cast your vote. Good luck, Claire   Technorati Tags: Photography, competition, Windows Live Photo Gallery Posted Monday, December 10, 2007 10:59 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments

• Microsoft Robotics Studio materials and opportunities

  Our colleagues in Virginia and Washington recently ran a session which provided an overview of Microsoft Robotics Studio (MSRS), its application model and Visual Programming Language as well as peek under the hood at the MSRS technology foundation - Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR), and Decentralized Software Services (DSS). Attendees learned: How to get started with Microsoft Robotics Studio How to easily create services for a wide variety of robot hardware using the Visual Programming Language How MSRS makes Asynchronous Programming easy with the Concurrency and Coordination Runtime (CCR) which simplifies programming to handle asynchronous input from multiple robotics sensors and output to motors and actuators How the Decentralized Software Services (DSS) application model makes it simple to access, and to respond to a robot’s state, using a Web-browser or Windows-based application thereby allowing real time monitoring of robotic sensors and response to motors and actuators. All of the code, materials and tutorials from this session are now available for download on Robert Shelton's blog.   In addition our colleagues in the Enthusiast team here in the UK have 2 Robotics projects underway: 1. UK’s first Robots publication dedicated to hobbyists issued by PC Plus in association with Microsoft Join the home-build robots revolution with hands-on tutorials and product news as well as a feature focused on creating humanoids, www.pcplus.co.uk. The supplement is free with the 18th December issue of PC Plus. I also have a small number of copies that I can distribute so If you are a UK academic then please request your copy by emailing me.   2. Calling all Robotics enthusiasts to join in the fun Enter your mechanical buddy into Robot Idol OR share your creative ideas for the next it robot. http://www.iloverobots.wotudo.net/   Claire Technorati Tags: Microsoft Robotics Studio, Visual Studio Posted Monday, December 10, 2007 8:55 AM from UK Academic Team Blog | 0 Comments