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Friday 21 February 2014 Volume 65
Issue
University pledges cash for What’s RUSU building renovations Inside?
Abbie Weaving
RUSU has been granted funding by the University to expand its building on Whitknights; areas of Café Mondial and Mojo’s will be developed with the work beginning later this year. Since the library’s recent renovation of the second and fifth floors and opening of the study rooms behind Mondial, modern communal spaces are proving popular with students, and the Union has clearly taken note of this. Mark Kelleher, President of RUSU, said that the work will “create a new multi-purpose space”, and that the “existing area will increase by 35% meaning that students will have a brand new space to relax and work in.” In addition, by accommodating for more students, more tickets will be able to be sold for Union nights, which the President of RUSU recognises “can often get sold out,” despite the nightclub already having a holding capacity of 2,300 people. The extension however, will not only have the ability to stand on its own, but will also provide a number of potential configurations for its use between Café Mondial and Mojo’s. Indeed, it can either work as an extension to Café Mondial or Mojo’s, thereby doubling their holding
The Election Issue • • • • capacities, or it can work as a limbo area between the two, creating one large space combining all three facilities. Josh Cave, Student Engagement Officer, said “This will increase the opportunity for students to hire the various areas but will principally be used during the day as an extension to our ‘non-licensed’ areas in Mondial and an extension to Mojo’s when required for larger events.” Indeed, many events will benefit from the plans, such as the Quiz and
Karaoke nights at Mojo’s, Perk evenings, and overflow from the Union dance floor, to name but a few. Arran Ainsworth, a Second Year Philosophy student, said “These plans will be a great addition to the Student Union, and will make it a much more flexible venue. Once the extension is up and running, the Union will hopefully feel less crowded on Flirt! nights when swarms of people gather between the dance floor and Mojo’s too.
Mark Kelleher added “The work is due to start during the Autumn Term 2014 and be completed by the start of the Spring Term, next academic year in January 2015. Students will be able to view the plans later on this term, once they have been finalised. This project could not have been possible without the assistance of the University and it demonstrates the importance and benefits of student representation within the University of Reading.”
Students and staff develop Whiteknights Biodiversity App Daniel Mitchell
Staff and students at the University of Reading are designing an app that will record biodiversity data on the Whiteknights Campus. The student-led project will focus on gathering long-term data sets using a standard protocol that will provide a database for students and staff to monitor long-term changes in the local environment that will develop over time. The app itself has been branded ‘KiteSite’ and users will be able to record photographs, notes, extra information as well as being able to link it to particular projects. Users will also be able to include a date, time and location of what data they are collecting, which will be fed through to a database that can be mined to generate maps,
detect phenological patterns and much more. The project also aims to support other projects at the University, such as Whiteknights Phenology. The app will be used to support teaching as a part of the curriculum in several modules in Biological and Environmental Science courses and the app development process will be shared on the ‘Enhancing Fieldwork Learning’ online resource site which reaches a large network of fieldwork practitioners. Funded by the Teaching and Learning fund, the project allows six students from different disciplines to work on the development of the app. The students who are working on the project are: Liz White, Liam Basford, Mark Wells, Stephen
Birch, Jonathan Tanner, Phillippa Oppenheimer and represent the departments of Agriculture, Biological Sciences, Computer Sciences, Enviornmental Sciences and Typography.
The app has been branded ‘KiteSite’ and is a project funded by the Teaching and Learning fund The students got involved in the project after roles were advertised within their departments and the Teaching and Learning fund offers a £400 bursary for taking part in the project.
Once finished, although the app will be based in and around the University of Reading campus, it will be available for anybody to access. The team are hoping that the app will be available on both of the iOS and Android platforms. Part of the project includes modifying and developing the EpiCollect application in order to produce a bespoke application. The team are currently in the testing process of their app and putting the finalising touches to the way it looks and interacts and will be hoping to finalise it in the near future. For all the latest information and to stay up to date with this project, visit their blog at blogs.reading. ac.uk/whiteknightsbiodiversity/
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President Education Welfare Community and Development Student Engagement Faculty Reps Trustee Part-Time Officers
Film & TV
Robocop
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Gaming
Flappy Bird
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