Tag: university of nottingham

354/365 Ingenuity Centre

354/365 Ingenuity Centre
354/365 Ingenuity Centre by rutty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

I went to my very first conference today. I’m nearly fifty years old and have never made it to one before. This is mostly due to tight-arsed employers (everyone I’ve ever worked for has failed to pay when I’ve requested to go to one) and I’ve only gone to this one because my work is hosting it (and it’s essentially free).

However, I am pleased to have finally popped my conference virginity. It was held at the Jubilee Campus and had some very interesting talks. Even the keynote about medium term plans was made vaguely amusing by an entertaining turn by our CFO. We also had some inspiring words from our new VC Professor Shearer West.

The best keynote was one about social media in HE by the very entertaining and knowledgeable Eric Stoller. He had us all considering how we might use Twitter et al for the betterment of the University.

I had an enlightening introduction to Mindfulness for my morning breakout session – I’ll be booking a course in the new year – then spent some time learning how to maintain working relationships in the afternoon.

Most importantly there was free food. I was happy.

On the way home I took some photos of some of the fabulous buildings on this campus. The Ingenuity Building has a fascinating facade.

Here it is in colour. Other fascinating building are also available at this location.


by rutty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

341/365 Studio 7

341/365 Studio 7
341/365 Studio 7 by rutty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

This morning saw our new Vice Chancellor, Professor Shearer West, give her inaugural speech to staff and students at the University of Nottingham. Those of us cooped up at Kings Meadow Campus were able to watch it live in one of the old television studios; Studio 7.

This is the largest of the two main studios left over from the Carlton TV studios days, and has this impressive structure in the ceiling for lights. It’s a huge space used often for exams, but today saw a large collection of IT professionals watching our first female VC talk on a screen.

She spoke for 45 minutes about her vision for the university. Higher Education establishments are getting a bit of a rum deal in the media recently, and she recognises that perhaps our old universities are in need of some urgent change. She intends to break open the old silos to encourage co-operation, not only between faculties at the UoN, but in the wider world too.

I was very impressed. She touched on a lot of systems thinking ideas and I think she is the breath of fresh air that our lovely, old institution needs. I suspect some of the old warhorses in their ancient empires may have other ideas – change is hard and painful – but the modern world is very different to when the UoN was founded and there’s a real danger that these instructions will get left behind their more ambitious, adaptive competitors.

We shall see, but I am encouraged by her passion for educational.

278/365 Portland Building

278/365 Portland Building
278/365 Portland Building by rutty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

I am still getting used to the camera on this iPhone 8 Plus. The quality of the images I’m getting are probably better than I was getting from my old Canon 400D dSLR! They are seriously good for a camera phone.

This photo is of one of the main University of Nottingham buildings, the Portland Building. It’s where many of the student services are based. It’s currently under redevelopment, so will have some of the best facilities anywhere soon.

249/365 Trent

249/365 Trent
249/365 Trent by rutty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

It’s Notts Test tonight, and we are hosting it in the Trent Building at the University of Nottingham for a change.

This building is impressive. The clock tower is visible, and audible, from miles around and there are a number of impressive rooms within.

We are in one of the teaching rooms. The contents are more basic than some of the more plush rooms, but the facilities are great for what we need.

96/365 George Green Library


“96/365 George Green Library” by rutty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

The University of Nottingham has some remarkable buildings on its campuses. The Jubilee Campus is probably better know for its adventurous buildings, but the University Park Campus is also starting to gather some truly beautiful, modern architecture.

The George Green Library is one of these. It’s been built in a very tight space in-between existing buildings near the East entrance. Our students have access to some excellent facilities here, and the inside is as impressive as the outside.

88/365 Campus


“88/365 Campus” by rutty is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

I have the pleasure of working for the lovely University of Nottingham in the unfortunately named IS (Information Services). We occupy most of the King’s Meadow Campus, a former TV studios on the outskirts of Nottingham.

The buildings are certainly interesting. This is the view from the toilet window on one side across to our offices on the other. I love the vents on the top, which you can see when travelling along Gregory Boulevard on the tram.

The TV studio history is fascinating. They filmed Crossroads here, along with Supermarket Sweep, Bullseye, Blockbusters and a whole pile of other shows from that era. There are still some of the friezes from Blockbusters up on various walls around the campus.

I do like it here.

55/365 Rawwwwr

55/365 Rawwwwr

The University of Nottingham is a global uni, in that it has two international campuses; one in China and another in Malaysia. These are fantastic links with quite different cultures, and the UoN has many references to this relationship dotted around.

The most obvious are the two lions in University Park. They stand guard across the lake from the Trent Building and are popular selfie locations.

I can’t help but think I should have done a bit better with this photo, mind. I’ll have another go a different time.

38/365 Sunset

38/365 Sunset

There was a spectacular sunset taking place while I was walking home, so I took a little diversion through University Park to get a better look.

I’m not sure black and white is the best option for sunsets, but I think this works OK with the reflections on the lake.

I’m getting better at using the built-in camera functions on my iPhone. It isn’t the most feature-rich camera around, but you can adjust the exposure times a bit, so I made sure that I didn’t over-expose this one. It all turned out pretty dark and moody.

Here’s the same photo in colour, for comparison:

31/365 Studio 11

https://flic.kr/p/R8Ai8q

Today was ‘2016 in review’ day at work, an event in one of the old TV studios in King’s Meadow Campus. We had a presentation by the Powers That Be going over all our successes from the last year.

Our building used to be Carlton TV Studios and there are still plenty of artifacts of its old use dotted around. We maintain a number of the old studios – very useful large spaces – and there is some Blockbusters memorabilia hanging on walls. I keep finding new stuff to gawp at.

It’s probably the least interesting of the University campuses, but it’s still a great place to work.