Building bridges...

Varsity - something I've not really taken much notice of until last year. Then I realised how important it is to many people- the two Sheffield Universities competing against each other in a week of sports competitions. Last night I was lucky enough to go to the Ice Hockey event in the Arena which was the final. Sometimes the winners are decided at the final event, but this year we'd won before it started. That didn't stop the excitement though! 8,000 students in the Arena - half in red and white and half in black and gold (us), cheering the sides on. Never seen an ice hockey game before - would love to know if there are actually any rules :-) The noise, the excitement was fantastic.


We lost the ice hockey.  But, we won Varsity!


Great celebrations all round. Getting my black and gold scarf ready for next year....

Today we had a "Meet the Department Event" as part of our CUP (Centre of the University Programme), aimed at bringing Professional Services and Academic Departments closer together.  The last one we took part in was with the Faculty of Arts, and this one was with the Faculty of Engineering. about 100 staff attended - 50 from CiCS and 50 from the Faculty, and we began with an overview of the Faculty  - what the departments did, and where it was going.

Then - we tried some engineering!! With a small box of Lego, the different tables had to build a bridge that two people could get under. There's nothing like Lego to get people talking to each other and bringing a room to life.



Our bridge was fab!


Followed by some great talks on the student experience - drawing out where things work well and where they don't - and the research lifecycle. I presented about CiCS services and our priorities and we had roundtable discussions on several topics including support for teaching and learning, research,  social media and security. Then we went for some tours to see some of Engineering's interesting stuff - 3D printing, Robotics, and my favourite, the flight simulator.

Great session - organised brilliantly, and I hope it has helped to bring us and the Faculty together. Here's to many more such sessions.







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