Accessible Toilets Alarms, associated alarms and fire refuge point alarms testing
In the Physics Building will take place week commencing The 3rd of April 2017 from 9am daily.
Every 2nd week there is a quick test to ensure all Emergency Alarms are operational.
Shonah Ion
Window Cleaning
(External) in Science & Technology Building will take place on 3rd April 2017, for Isolab it will take place on 4th April 2017.
Shonah Ion
Water Hygiene Testing
In the Physics Building will take place week commencing Monday 3rd April from 9am daily. Two Lancaster University engineers will require access to kitchens and shared bathrooms to test hot water temperatures. The engineers will not test every kitchen/bathroom just a sample from different locations within the building. This brief survey will take approximately five minutes, and is to ensure that the hot water is maintained at the correct temperature to prevent any instances of legionella. There will be no shutdown of service.
Shonah Ion
Fire door interface inspections
Will take place in the Physics Building on 5th April 2017 from 9am daily.
Every month the University is required to test the interface between the fire alarm system and door control systems in all buildings with access control and/or automatic doors.
This work is undertaken by Honeywell Control Systems Ltd and requires the physical inspection of all doors controlled by the access control system while the fire alarm is active and the doors are locked. This check is to ensure that all doors on escape routes will allow evacuation in the event that the fire alarm is activated. In most cases the alarm will be silenced during the inspection, but for some older systems, where it is not possible to silence the alarm, the checks have to be conducted while the alarm is sounding. Owing for the requirement for the doors to be locked during this test some buildings, where access is required during the week, will be tested at the weekend.
Shonah Ion
B floor corridor works
Work will begin before Easter to remove redundant data cabling and run new fibers to the comms room on B floor. This will entail some removal of ceiling tiles and operatives on step ladders in the corridors. Disruption will be kept to a minimum but please be aware of the activity. Once this work is completed, work will begin to fit the brew station.
Shonah Ion
Spare PC’s for labs
We’ve got a few spare All-In-One PC’s available, I think we’ve got 6 spare. They’re not the fastest but they’ll do a good job runnign an experiment.
It’s first come first served so if you’d like a free Lab PC then send me an email with the title “Id Like a Lab PC” and then coem and see me in C32.
Rob Lewsey
Spare PC’s for labs
We’ve got a few spare All-In-One PC’s available, I think we’ve got 6 spare. They’re not the fastest but they’ll do a good job runnign an experiment.
It’s first come first served so if you’d like a free Lab PC then send me an email with the title “Id Like a Lab PC” and then coem and see me in C32.
Rob Lewsey
Physics refurbishment update
Please see below details of scheduled works on the Physics refurbishment project for week commencing Monday 3rd April.
Physics scheduled works:
- Re-roofing works and cladding – low noise, no vibration
- Scaffold stripping– minimum noise, minimum vibration
- New toilet block façade works – medium noise, minimum vibration
- 2nd fix joinery works – medium noise, low vibration
- Plastering – low noise, no vibration
- Decoration – low noise, no vibration
- Floor preparation – medium noise, low vibration
- Plant room cladding – medium noise, low vibration
- Plaster-boarding to existing toilet block – medium noise, minimum vibration
- Lift installation – medium noise, medium vibration
- Suspended ceiling installation – medium noise, minimum vibration
- Floor covering – low noise, no vibration
- Fixed lab benching – medium noise, minimum vibration
- Courtyard paving and preparation – medium noise, medium vibration
- Lift lobby floor covering removal – medium noise, minimum vibration
- Lift lobby 1st fix ceilings – medium noise, minimum vibration
- Isolab floor – medium noise, medium vibration
- MBE electrics – medium noise, minimum vibration
- Rear entrance tunnel area electric install – medium noise, minimum vibration
- Central staircase electrics – medium noise, minimum vibration
Should you have any queries regarding the project please contact the Senior Project Manager, Helen Wood, via the Facilities Helpdesk on facilities.helpdesk@lancaster.ac.uk or 01524 593333.
Marketing and Communications
Spare PC’s for labs
We’ve got a few spare All-In-One PC’s available, I think we’ve got 6 spare. They’re not the fastest but they’ll do a good job runnign an experiment.
It’s first come first served so if you’d like a free Lab PC then send me an email with the title “Id Like a Lab PC” and then coem and see me in C32.
Rob Lewsey
Mice and keyboards available to a good home
We’ve got a load of spare keyboards and mice that are surplus to requirements. They’re all in good working order so it’d be a shame to send them to electronic waste.
It’s first come first served again so if your work keyboard or mouse is looking worse for wear then send me an email with the subject “I’d like a free keyboard/mouse for work”
There’s also some slightly more worn keyboards and mice that are still working well but can be taken home. If you’d like one for home then send me an email with the subject “I’d like a keyboard/mouse for home”
Rob Lewsey
Physics Knowledge Exchange
We are thinking of starting a series of mini seminars and workshops aimed at sharing tips and tricks on common used software packages in Physics. The idea is to give a quick intro to a program or to show off useful features to current users.
For example, the first session we are hoping to do is on “Matlab’s Parallel Computing Toolbox”
We have a lot of Matlab users in Physics but not everyone is aware of Parallels, which allows you to optimise your code for multi core CPU’s, GPU’s or Cluster Computing. See: https://www.mathworks.com/products/parallel-computing.html
The format will initially be a quick intro and guide for 30 minutes, 15 minute Q&A plus a hand out with useful information and further reading. If this sort session would be useful to you and you would be interesting in coming, could you let me know so I can see if it’s worth doing. Also we take requests so if you can think of something you’d like to learn or even teach to others then let me know.
So far the most popular requests are:
- Using Matlab Parallel Computing Toolbox
- Introduction to Python and getting set up
- Latex – getting started
- Guide to using Pure
- And on a less IT level “Writing conference abstracts”
Rob Lewsey
Astrophysics Seminar – Galaxy Evolution/Galaxy Zoo Project – 4th April
Title: Galaxy Evolution in a Zoo of Galaxies
Speaker: Karen Masters (University of Portsmouth)
Time: 3pm on Tuesday 4th April 2017
Venue: Physics C36
Abstract:
The morphology of a galaxy provides a frozen snapshot of the orbits of stars within it. As such, important clues to the formation history of galaxies is revealed by their morphologies. Modern astronomical surveys (like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, www.sdss.org) revolutionized astronomy, by providing vast numbers of galaxies to study, however the sheer size of the these databases made traditional visual classification of the types galaxies impossible. Ten years ago (2007) this problem inspired the Galaxy Zoo project (www.galaxyzoo.org), which asks members of the public to help classify images galaxies from modern surveys by type and shape.
The morphological information collected by Galaxy Zoo has since shown itself to be a powerful database for studying galaxy evolution. I will review results which combine visual morphologies from the Galaxy Zoo project with other information about the galaxies to investigate the physical processes which transform the “zoo” of galaxies in our Universe.
I will conclude by introducing, the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA, part of SDSS-IV), a new survey which aims to obtain spatially resolved spectral maps for 10,000 nearby galaxies (all of which have Galaxy Zoo morphologies). MaNGA began observations on the Sloan 2.5m Telescope in July 2014 and is now the largest sample of resolved spectroscopy in the world, with over 4000 galaxies observed. I will give an extremely incomplete review of interesting results from early MaNGA data.
Grainne Wilkinson
Mains water shut down over Easter Vacation
The mains water supply (hot water and cold) will need to be turned off for a couple of days over the Easter vacation. Please let me know as soon as possible if this will cause you problems.
Shonah Ion
April Safety Induction
April’s safety induction will take place on Thursday 6th April at 2:30pm in A27. Any new members of staff or those wanting a refresher please come along.
Shonah Ion