Engineering dept. neglect.!!!!!

Bullzi wrote: »

Is anyone else noticing the complete ****e time of it Engineering has been getting..Still in an undeveloped area of the college, been the same for the last twenty years, a definate lack of resources, ie. Computers, equipment etc. I know from experience the electronics deptartment has a shortage of testing equipment and computers in some of the labs, leaving some students left twiddling there thumbs and falling behind in their work as the rest of the group moves on...the lack of wireless availaabilty this semester is also a joke. for weeks now we have been hearing its coming next week and yet not here yet. AND been told by certain people that its makin it way across the college with the engineering side being the last activated. Why is so much attention being given to the rest of the departments and left out for us. Computing arts media etc have there state of the art carrolls building filled wit any number of computers etc. the business from what i hear has all they need but not Engineering...This needs to change..

I agree and i don't even do engineering - it's by far and away the most neglected area in terms of investment / appearance / equipment... you can tell just by walking around it. Carrolls building / Nursing building / library and reception may as well be on another planet.

Can't see it changing anytime soon though, so i feel sorry for engineering students...

Not much you can do about it (or the college either), the money just isn't there. You can however make it very clear things aren't up to standard, in public. This is a good start. Warn future students if you're not happy because they'll just end up feeling the same way you do.

About the wireless, they've been very careful not to commit to any dates, if you look back at all the official announcements you'll see that. Still, this new wireless network has been in 'testing' since November 2009.

It's just not acceptable (i feel anyway) to have no wireless on a college campus for 2 months and counting of a semester, but it's a good example of the lack of urgency & communication around the place. As i keep saying i don't think any of us would mind too much if we were kept informed of exactly what's happening (or not happening).

EWJim wrote: »

Because of the Employment Embargo and Some Staff are off Sick, So With all the upgrades to the network, phone systems and the carroll Building over the summer they are Realy overworked,

The Information That i have is that They do not want to turn on the system untill They are Sure it wont crash, As they do not have the resorses to Keep on top of it.

I know the IT staff are overworked but that's an excuse for everything - no money, not enough staff, overworked etc... that may well be the case but look at it another way - you've got a school full of IT enthusiasts who many (i'm guessing) would work for experience / CV / as part of college projects...

They just need to be led & managed properly and given some kind of reward, doesn't always have to be financial. The problem i have with wireless being down for a few months is that the college see it as a short term thing, "we'll get it up eventually, just a few more weeks, coming soon etc"...

To students, a whole semester is a hell of a long time, it's not 'short term', it's long term.

I'm not actually in the college anymore, graduated 2 years ago. I did Computing and while I was there our PCs were rubbish, the whole dept was rubbish - especially during 4th year, there wasn't enough PCs for all the 4th years to do our project work etc. Its only after i left that they finally got the Carrols building set up properly & the whole thing sorted.
If you are really that unhappy about it then complain, complain, complain to your head of dept - tell them its just unacceptable. Something will probably be done about the situation but I'm sorry to say it takes so long for them to sort anything that you'll surely be finished college by that time!

Hank_Jones wrote: »

They have the nice shiny Carroll's building now alright, can't get into many of the rooms though, as they only allow people into some of them during class time...

I have a load of projects due you say? Can I get into the room to do them?
Ehhh....no.....

Are you serious?? Are you in 4th year? If you are I would think you're entitled to have a lab room free to do project work... how else are you supposed to do it?! Thats ridiculous...

Any update on this Bullzi? Have you had a chat with anyone about your thoughts on the engineering dept? That place seems to be falling to pieces since I left :P I even heard tell that there's no coffee dock anymore? what what whaaat!?

I was there in 2007/2008 in 4th year IT management... To be honest we were cheesed off then as well because like you say there was classes in our 4th year lab... We complained so much that we thought out would've been sorted by the next year but obviously not. Thought it'd at least be sorted when the carrolls building opened up! Frig sake.

About 10/12 of us bought A3 printers off some company recently. (Ill get the name off them from one of the lads if anyone wants it.)
They are "Brother" by brand, A3 sized, wireless/fax/scanner/copier/colour printer.
Got them for 200 Euros each.(down from 350) Now they were on offer at the time, but I'm sure a phone call with the promise of 10+ customers and a deal could be done with a bit of chin wagging.

I would definately recommend getting one if you can afford it, so much handier if you are doing a drawing and need to print off, if only just to double check any mistakes. plus the amount of notes you need to print off is unreal. You would literally spend 30 quid printing in the college.

I think the CAD lab computers/plotters are a complete joke.
I was in Sligo in 2002 and they had the exact same plotters as DKIT do now. And even back then we were complaining how outdated they were.
I had a CAD test today, and half of us brought in our own laptops and stuck the drawing on a memory stick rather than attempt to go drawing using those dinosaurs of things they call computers.