PASSing Computer Science

Last Thursday (30/5/15), The Palace Hotel played host to the PASS Celebration of Achievement Evening, attended by representatives from PASS and Peer Mentoring Schemes from across the University.

While CS PASS did not win the video competition with our great video, falling to the mighty Aerospace, nor did we get nominated for Scheme of the Year (won by Speech and Language Therapy PASS), it was still a brilliant night for the scheme.

Four members of Computer Science PASS Scheme were nominated for, and eventually won, Awards for Outstanding Contribution to Peer Support. First up to collect an award was *curtsey followed by elaborate hair toss* Zac Hamid, followed by PASS2 Coordinator and CS PASS stalwart, Matt Akerman, and finally PASS Coordinators, Sarah King and Dan Underwood.

The night ended with the afterparty at XOLO, organised by our own coordinators as well

1) What is your PASS History?

My first PASS session in first year was a bit weird. Nobody really knew me, and I had no clue to what PASS was all about. One thing I do remember was the food. There was lots of chocolate, biscuits and other treats. I then decided to go to PASS for the snacks every week. But surprisingly, I learnt something. The leaders did a pretty good job of getting us to understand some of the mathematical concepts, and with the free food, it was a win-win scenario.I decided I wanted to do PASS myself. I’ve had a history with working with younger people, and I used to run a programming club in my secondary school, teaching people the fundamentals of programming, using tools such as scratch to get people started. This was a really great experience for me, and I decided I wanted to do further work in this line of work. The people I’ve worked with in PASS are great people, I’ve made a lot of friends I might not have, should I not have joined the scheme. I look forward to coming back next year.

2) Do you feel you have developed personally during your first year as a leader

A skill you learn as a PASS leader, is being able to recognise that someone is having difficulties, without them expressly saying it to yourself. I’ve found that some people can be quite reluctant to admit they have problems with a course, but there’s some techniques you can go about to approach this. One way I’ve found, is to get stickies, and have people write their problems on these, then stick em all in a hat. You can then solve people’s problems, without having to identify the person who originally had the problem.

3) How do you think your PASS sessions have gone this semester, compared to last

As opposed to the first semester, I believe we are doing a much better job at this. Having a semester gives you the time to learn the dynamics of the group, and who to play off when asking a question. I would imagine should I do PASS again, we would have a similar scenario in the first semester there.

As leaders, we’re always finding ways which work, and those which don’t, when leading groups. Maths in itself is a very difficult subject to facilitate, and we’ve had to get creative with encouraging the Passlings to answer their questions as a group. Usually, you’ll identify a person who knows the answer, but it can often be a bit unfair to always ask the same person to answer the problem. A technique is to ask open ended questions, break the problem down into smaller parts.

4) What, would you say, has been the biggest positive influence on your PASS sessions?

The biggest influence is the Passlings themselves. Should an approach to facilitation not work, then we have to rethink, and take another approach.

5) Do you plan on continuing with PASS in your final year, if so how do you plan on improving PASS?

I’d love to continue with the PASS team in my third year. Since I’m shortly going to be escaping Kilburn for a year in industry, I’d probably be back for the 2016 year. I might even apply for the coordinator position.

6) What has been your fondest memory of this year?

In semester one, I ran a PASS leaders console night, where there was pizza, board games and consoles. This was a really good night, and since we’ve run other PASS nights including a karaoke and versus night, against the Aerospace PASS. I vividly remember playing a fantastic game of cards against humanity, especially when some of the participants had never played it before.

7) Tell us an interesting titbit about Struan McDonough

Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday we were starting out this year with our new PASS groups and here we are having our End of Year Meal looking forward to the Celebration of Achievements Gala later this week.

We were kindly treated to a buffet at Peachy Keens in the Printworks, where some of us, like future coordinator Liam Kennady Breeze, enjoyed the food more than others

Also in attendance were our lovely Staff Coordinators, Dr. Andrea Schalk and Gavin Donald, who took the opportunity to interact with their students in a non academic setting.

A fantastic turnout (may have been the free food) was a fitting way to close out a great year of PASS, with food comas all around

How long have you been involved with PASS in the School of Computer Science? I’m in my seventh year now.

What do you make of the current crop of leaders this year? I have been very fortunate to work with several excellent PASS Leaders over the years. This year’s crop is right up there with the best of them.Computer Science seems to have a production line of quality PASS Leaders and Coordinators

What do you think of how well our four coordinators are doing so far? As a unit we have never had better. Starting with the Coordinators individually they are great people who have a lot of enthusiasm and commitment. Matt following on from being a top Coordinator last year has laid down a blueprint which Dan and Sarah have picked up and expanded on with new ideas. Becky has done an amazing job with 2nd year PASS and has now put it firmly on the map. You say 4, but just like it was always alleged that there was a fifth Beatle (I’m showing my age here), there is a fifth Coordinator with Zac Hamid. Creating this Tumblr to mention just one of the things he is added to CS PASS. We have another excellent team of PASS Leaders this year. They have clearly influenced their groups as we have over 60 applications to be PASS Leaders next year.

In what ways do you think Computer Science can improve in the next Semester? Very hard to improve from a high base. But I know our PASS Coordinators and Leaders will come up with something they never cease to amaze me. There has been inter School Scheme activity and development of this area will take PASS to new levels. Personally I think there is maybe a bit too much monitoring of everything that is done. This takes away from the fact that PASS as well as being useful can be a lot of fun. This is something that I’ve been fortunate to witness for myself.

How do you think this years CS PASS Scheme ranks amongst the last few years? Computer Science PASS will never be easy to run as our 1st and 2nd year students have very busy schedules. Therefore it is a great testament to our PASS teams that they do so well and have established CS PASS as one of the top schemes in the University. We seem to be lying 2nd in the league tables most of the time this term and we were 2nd for Scheme of the Year last term. Both achievements should not be understated.

The new PASS Coordinators have been decided upon for the next academic year, so all of you leaders next year, these people will be your first port of call for all things PASS-related.

Current leader Devin Ridgway will be bringing his wealth of experience, from his two years as a leader, to lead PASS1 in the final year of his MEng degree. Joining him in taking the reigns from Sarah and Dan will be George Vanburgh, currently on placement at Credit Suisse in London.

Devin’s current PASS co-leader, Liam Breeze, will be taking over PASS2, from Becky and Matt, in his third year. His Co-coordinator will be CM student David Green, who currently works with George at Credit Suisse.

Given the great working relationship that the four already possess, I can only imagine CS PASS moving from strength to strength in 2015/16.

Last week, the PASS Coordinators ran PASS assessment centres for the first years, hoping to become next years PASS leaders.

The intention was to make sure the PASS-pects (PASS prospects) were fully aware of what they were getting into.

The hour was split into three sections. The first was a simple presentation on who they were, what they enjoyed about PASS this year, and what they would improve, which involved a very passive aggressive stand off between Standout Leader Liam Pringle and his on-again-off-again PASSee Yazan.

There were then mock sessions where the tables were turned - Leaders became PASSees, and PASSees became Leaders. There were several interesting questions, some pretend introverts and one mock-serious accusation of misogyny.

The hour ended with a feedback session, where Dan and Sarah asked the first years to feedback on what went wrong this year in PASS. This feedback will be passed on to the next coordinators.

Aerospace PASS. The Scheme that is always ahead of us in the league table. After deciding that substituting their leaders for Artificial Unintelligence wouldn't be feasible, we opted for interviewing one of its coordinators in order to find out how they run their scheme and maybe discover one of their secret tactics. This is how it went:

What do you think of the recruitment process we have started to do this year? 

What we do is similar: we get the applications forms and we normally hold interviews where we will set up a scenario for them to see mainly how they act under pressure, if they can think on the spot.

From your point of view, what are the similarities and differences between CS and Aerospace PASS leaders?

From what I saw they [CS leaders] are all pretty much similar to us.

We are quite proud of our leaders: we custom choose them, we know exactly how are they going to work in terms of their personalities. So we get like most charismatic few from the year and from what I saw that seems to be what you do as well. Your leaders are really good at what they are doing.

The people that end up being [our] leaders are the ones we know that are committed and that are going to put the time in. And something we look out for is people that do it for the CV. We don't really take them on because we don't want that the main reason of doing it.

What kind of activities do you do during your PASS sessions?

We are not really fans of strategy cards. ... We try and get them to be as creative as they can. Just [doing] something that is not sitting down in a room doing work. Some groups take it into extreme [and plan] sort of physical activities, like a race. So there’s one group at the beginning of the year that went outside in a field doing some sort of race and the losing team would do some sort of academia thing like teaching the other group.

How is the attendance of first years?

Last semester was a lot higher: we were averaging at 80% because PASS was in between two lectures. But now the timetable has changed and they have got nothing in the morning and PASS the first thing. But we are still around 70%, which we are happy about.

Has any of your PASS groups ever gotten zero attendance?

No, I think the lowest a group got it is 50%. There was a group that got 100% seven weeks last semester.

How frequently do you do social events both for PASS leaders and attendees and what are they about?

The ones for the leaders aren't really scheduled [and] we decide [them] during Debrief. But we definitely do one at the beginning of the year, because you got the new leaders in and we want them to know the old leaders because we want them to be really good friends.

With first years they aren’t really socials. They are like year-wide activities. We always have one in the first two weeks just to get everyone together [and] we have four year-wide activities, so two each semester.

What do you do to stay on top of the board?

Basically last semester we weren’t really bothered at the beginning and then Mechanical [Engineering] all of a sudden was number one. Seeing them in front of us encouraged us to do well. I think last semester was literally like do exactly what Peer Support wants us to do.

But I think this semester we are more relaxed and just have fun for the sake of it. Probably because its not as restrictive as last semester, so now we are not constricted by strategy cards. The guys are being a lot more creative, coming up with new strategies [every week]. The more

they see the guys [attendees] are appreciating that, the more they want to do so. Now they are spending sort of two hours a week planning a session because they are so excited to implement ideas for a game.

Do you think you will be awarded best scheme of the year a second time?

(He laughs) We would like to be. Who wouldn’t? But it is difficult, because how do you gauge it? Is it who has improved the most? Or who is the best scheme? A scheme that was nearly non- existent last year and suddenly new coordinators have turned it around. They may not be top of the league table but, compared to the year before, they are doing so much better.

We are worried Peer Support Office says “Aerospace has already won it, so we should give the prize to another scheme” because we have put a lot of effort in this year. Even to maintain the standard from last year requires going further what other coordinators would do. And we have brought a lot to the scheme and introduced new things.

I know Dan and Sarah have done a great job, so it would be fair to give you the scheme of the year. And the same with Mechanical: their attendance is low, so they struggle to do things, but the new coordinator has put so much effort. You want people to get recognition for their work.

Did you feel pressured becoming a Coordinator after being a PASS Leader knowing that you were best scheme of the year?

I knew it would be a lot of hard work and there was a lot of pressure from one of the previous coordinators to do well. So during the first weeks she kept messaging to check how was it going, the attendance [etc.] and Maz [the Sabbatical for Aerospace] asked us what we were planning to do at the beginning of the year. So there was a lot of pressure and we wanted to prove everyone else we could do just as good.

I would advise Dan and Sarah to keep in touch for the first few weeks and make sure the new coordinators are on top of it. Just because they have worked so far to get it up from where it was that it would be a shame if it went down.

Have you done any mayor or important changes to the PASS scheme since you became a Coordinator?

It’s our responsibility to keep it in the direction it was. How we try to affect first years is through leaders. So if we start with them and we get the leaders to a level we want them to be, then we can trust them to act that way for the first years. We are just trying to make Debriefs a bit more fun to people because its easy to fall in a routine and for leaders thats not fun, they don't want to go through questions week on week. We don't want to put our leaders down. We focus a lot on pushing leaders as far as they can. We are really good friends with each and every one of them. And I think once you got a team that is so close... it just works.

Debrief isn’t a work session: it is counting a tale of the fun you had today. And we trust them to go off and plan the sessions for next week because if they don't, they won’t have anything to say next debrief and... they don't want to let the scheme down as well. They have all pride in the scheme itself.

Do you feel there are any areas you can improve as a PASS Scheme?

(Jokingly) No. We are perfect. (Both laugh). I think as coordinators we could do more planning but there comes a point where we have to write reports, projects and dissertations. How to improve? I don’t know, it’s difficult. We can always try and help as much as we can. But it’s working at the moment, so I wouldn't want to change it.

Are there any things or changes you would like to see on PASS itself?

[I would like to see the] league table gone because it’s limiting. We understand it is there for those schemes who don’t necessarily have the guidance or the knowledge of what to do [, but] nobody wants to be marked on their attendance. You can’t even compare because 70% of 80 people compared to 20% of 200 is difficult.

SCM [Student Coordinator meetings] would be more beneficial if they took something a successful scheme has done and teach others how to implement that.

I think it would be better something more proactive with all the coordinators, because even during our meetings nobody talks to each other.

What about the social media platforms, like Tumblr or Twitter?

Facebook works well because everyone is on Facebook and its not the most imposing thing. With the Tumblr: who uses Tumblr? If you are going to have one just have one, don’t have five. I don’t know how Dan and Sarah feel... but I feel it is a bit ridiculous.

It is hard to think what PASS could do differently because all they do is provide the guidelines to something that the coordinators are essentially in charge of. We like freedom but maybe other schemes need the support. But it does the job, doesn’t it? We are learning things... and at the end of it if the first years say “thank you”, then what can you ask for?

Name: Zac Hamid

PASStory: I was a regular attendee in my first year, then attempted to become a PASS Leader in my second, but due to administrative Issues, I couldn't finish my last PASS training session, and so could not be a leader. Instead, I became an 'observer leader' in my second year, mostly sitting in on other PASS sessions. I completed my PASS training early this year, a week removed from finishing my year in industry.

Why did you become a PASS Leader? In my first year, I had a great experience with PASS, with a Leader, Theo, who was very dedicated to his role. That experience inspired me to become a PASS Leader. I was keen on becoming fully immersed in the all that the PASS Scheme had to offer, especially after missing out in my second year.

What has been your favourite social event? That is a difficult one, I'd have to choose, the Games night, purely because it's something a little different, in the School of Computer Science, and it has produced some great laughs. Other than that, the Quiz at the beginning of the year was a great opportunity to hang out with my PASS Group in a less formal environment, which was a lot of fun.

You’re (relatively) a latecomer to joining PASS in your degree compared to some of the other leaders, do you think this has helped you having come straight from industry? I'd like to think that it would add a little extra perspective to the PASS sessions. I can see how most things fit into place, whether in industry or later in the course, and offer that viewpoint to the PASSees (whether in PASS1 or PASS2). I personally have benefitted from being a 3rd Year in PASS1, where we were able to discuss presentation techniques and plans ahead of their initial presentation and my project seminar.

Any tips for the new PASS Leaders we are currently recruiting? I think PASS from a first year's perspective is very limited: You can only really see a small fraction of what PASS really is. I would recommend that you see PASS as more than just giving people help, and get involved in more of the things that PASS and Peer Support have to offer.

What one thing would you change about your year as a PASS leader? I can't think of anything I would change about this year in particular. However, my one regret is that I was not a PASS Leader in second year, to resume the role and improve in my final year. I think that nearly all the PASS Leaders that have stayed on during their third year, have shown themselves to be some of the stand-out Leaders, and I'm sure that if the current second year leaders stay on the scheme, they too will be the benchmarks. Also, other opportunities were not available such as applying to be a coordinator, or completing the Advanced Leadership Strand, which would have been great experiences in themselves.

If you were coordinator, what would you have done differently this year? I feel that if I was a coordinator at the beginning of this year, I would have been either too rigid or too lenient, neither of which would have been a credit to the scheme. I think that the coordinators need to hit the right balance, so that they can react dynamically to demand, but still convey the message that this responsibility isn't to be taken lightly. Personally I think our current coordinators have hit this balance perfectly, and as a result the scheme, in both years, has been quite successful. I do feel now that, through being a PASS Leader this year, I can strike that balance a little better, and I would feel confident in putting an application (to be a coordinator) forward this year.

1) What has your history been with PASS at University?

Like most people, I was new to PASS whilst in first year. I had the good fortune of having two very effective PASS leaders, Diego and Daniel, who showed me how PASS could be beneficial. I received advice regarding academics (COMP15111 hellooo), coursework and with non-academic stuff. I think my positive experience as a PASSee, has motivated me to provide the same sort of friendly and helpful environment to my group of PASSees

2) What has been your experience with PASS this year?

PASS this year has been great for me. I have developed personally from conducting the PASS sessions. I have managed to engage with my PASSees properly and every session is fun and productive at the same time. While, I was in first year, I had these ideas about PASS that I would implement to make PASS experience better. It is very satisfying to know that you have been successfully able to put your ideas into practice and your methods actually work. It is even more satisfying to know that the students actually value your PASS sessions.

3) Could you perhaps pick out one highlight?

In week 3/week 4 of the first semester, three groups of 4 members each, trying to build a tower out of spaghetti and marshmallows. This was when we actually realised that we were doing pretty well as a group, we had a consistent 90% - 100% attendance each session. Everyone was off their seats, getting involved in the activity and talking to each other.

4) Despite your success in PASS this year, do you feel there are any areas you can improve on in this semester?

Yes, there is room for improvement.

Attendance wise, its mostly the same people that attend the session and the same people who skip it. I plan to approach those who skip it every time, to get their views and feedback as to what they would like to be added to the session to make it useful for them.

Activities wise, we also could improve on the activities that we have been carrying out during the session. After more than a semester of PASS sessions, we find ourselves repeating the activities sometimes. Before it starts to get boring, we need to find some new and interesting new activities.

Academics wise, there are a few courses for which the courses have changed, and there is a gap between what first years are being taught and what we leaders learnt in our first years. We had this problem with math in first semester, where the material was changed and we were caught off guard. I believe the leaders could collectively approach some lecturers of these courses and ask them for extra worksheets with solutions that we could use in the PASS sessions. Slightly better support from the lecturers could help make the PASS sessions much more useful.

5) Do you hope to continue being a part of PASS next year?

Definitely. I believe that its a great way to meet new people and to help them by sharing your experiences and knowledge with them. Being a PASS leader in itself is a very enriching experience and I wish to continue being a leader next year as well. .

6) What impact do you hope to have left on your PASSees by the end of this year?

I want to leave them with an impression of PASS being something useful. Really, if there is an overarching goal of the whole scheme, it is to instill the belief that PASS does help. The goals in the first semester were different, namely, to get their attention, to connect with them and to keep the attendance up. The challenges this semester are to to leave them with the impression that PASS was fruitful for them and to inspire them to become PASS leaders themselves.

7) Would you like to tell us something interesting about yourself?

Las week, the Kilburn Building played host to the first inter-PASS Scheme Games night of the Year. The Challengers: Aerospace Engineering.

The night included many a game, starting off with various card games, and ice-breakers, allowing everyone to get to know one another.

Then the real competition began.

CS and Aerospace would each face each other in a whole assortment of games. A few of the notable results:

Aerospace's Fred and Ibrahim beat out Hugh and Zac of CS PASS in a best out of 3 FIFA 15 contest, winning 5-0 on aggregate

Team CS beat Team Aerospace in the opening contest of Articulate

Team Aerospace beat Team CS in a inter-disciplinary game of Cards Against Humanity, after a tie-breaker

In addition to the games, each scheme provided a challenge for the other:

CS were challenged to land a plane from a mountainous terrain to an island runway. After a few near-misses, and (in some cases) crashes, we finally landed the tiny biplane.

Aerospace had two mini challenges: the first, was a virtual maze delivered through Dan Underwood's pride and joy, the Oculus Rift. The next part was a quest in a real life maze: The Kilburn. The visitors were quickly able to complete it, earning 5 points towards the rankings.

By the end of the night, our Aerospace visitors were the victors narrowly beating the hosts. However, we do believe the football mantra: There is always a return leg.

How do you feel that you have transitioned into your role, from being a Overall PASS coordinator and an ex-leader, to PASS2 coordinator?

Rebecca:  Considering that I was [drunkedly] conned into being coordinator I think I have transitioned quite well into being a coordinator. Speaking just as a PASS2 coordinator I found it very easy to transition from leader as PASS2 is essentially just a massive PASS session.

Matt: The transition has been easy really - the way we run PASS2 makes it feel like a return to being a PASS leader, except with a much larger group! It has been a fun chance to run different sessions, many of them focussed on careers.

What do you feel you have done well in PASS2 so far?

Rebecca: I think the best thing that we have achieved in PASS2 so far would be the careers sections where we focused on how to get placements, our experiences, how to pass interviews and assessment centres.

Matt: As Becky says, the careers sessions worked well and generated a lot of interest!

Where do you feel there is room for improvement?

Rebecca: Fresh ideas, because there is a large variance in courses it is hard to tailor a session at specific subjects, so I think we need more ideas of what second years want or need help from

Matt: Finding a way to accommodate the range of second year subjects is an ongoing process where there is work left to do, but in second semester I think that timetabling is a big obstacle as there is no PASS2 slot. This is something we can ask for a direct solution to, but we also have to explore the possibility of using Google Hangouts to deliver PASS sessions to see if it can work (and if there is sufficient interest!)

Have there been any standout PASS2 Leaders that others can take example from?

Rebecca: In PASS2 I have a set of 3rd year pass leaders that help me out every week and all are brilliant. They all draw on their own experiences from industry and courses to help the second years in the best way they can.

Matt: It is tough to choose one person as many people muck in and help out in different weeks. We love everybody equally!

What has your highlight of PASS2 been so far? 

Rebecca:  I alluded to it earlier, I think the careers sessions have been my favourite particularly the one we ran on assessment centre activities where I ate marshmallows

Matt: I too loved the Marshmallow and spaghetti towers for the assessment centre help session!

What are you most looking forward to in the next semester?

Rebecca: This semester I am looking forward to running more sessions and hopefully helping out anyone that needs help.

Name: Diego Abel

Nickname: None

PASS History: PASS leader during my second and third year

Your PASS group has consistently been attaining high attendance this semester. What do you attribute it to:  Definitely the cupcakes we gave them during our first session with them. I think it also means that they are enjoying the sessions and learning during them. This makes me feel that me and my co-leader, Liam, are performing well, which in return is quite rewarding.

5) Being a third year PASS Leader, what advice would you give to first- and second-year students? You should never give up, specially during the second year as I felt it was the one that required the best time-management skills due to the amount of coursework to be done. As Robert Frost said "the best way out is always through".

6) You have been highlighted by both our Student Coordinators and our Sabbatical Intern Annabelle, for your technique during sessions. How do you feel you can improve in the second semester? Plenty of things come to my mind: improve the communication with the students, as we barely get information about the problems they are facing; coming up with better activities for the sessions, as I feel that sometimes they are a bit boring; improving coordination with my co-leader, managing that some of the students that have never come try at least one session... As you can see, there is a lot of room for improvement!

7) You have also made use of the Strategies of the Week. What do you see as the benefit of doing so, other than leaderboard points? Even though there were some cases where they limited what we intended to do for the session, they have proved to be quite valuable as they provided us with a basic idea to come up with an innovative activity for the session, like when we used Xmas postcard instead of normal index cards to prepare them for revision.

Here at CS PASS, we give a new definition to the term Christmas Stuffing

After the successful PASS Christmas Quiz, as a reward for a great semester, we descended on Peachy Keens in the Printworks for an all-(Zac)-can-eat world buffet.

Student Coordinators Dan, Becky and Matt, and Staff Coordinator Gavin Donald, were just some of those gorging themselves on food from all around the world, including Italy, Spain, India and the Far East.

One by one, each of the attendees fell victim to the dreaded food coma as CS PASS capped off a great semester with a cracking meal.

Name: Adam Lambe

Nickname: None (as far as I know)

PASStory: When I first attended PASS in first year, I saw it as a good opportunity to get to know the people on my course better, and to get help with the course from people that had been through it already. It definitely delivered and I found PASS to be really useful. I really like the fact that it's so informal and that the leaders are students, it makes it a much more comfortable experience for new students.

How do you feel you have fit in to your (larger) group of leaders? I was kinda suprised when I saw that there were four leaders in our group, as last year we had just two. But I think we work really well together and get along well. I think I've fitted in fine with the team, and get along great with the other leaders.

The CM group has consistently gotten high levels of attendance. What would you attribute that to? I'd say the high attendance in our group is partly down to the leaders not taking ourselves or the sessions too seriously. All the PASSees (if that's even the right word) seem to enjoy the sessions as well as finding them useful, and they're open to having a laugh and a chat with the leaders as well as between themselves.

At the same time, CM has been called out on the repetitive nature of their sessions, As a leader, how would you respond to those comments? I see those comments as fair, even though we do try to add some variety to the sessions. I think it's partly down to the methodical nature of maths (which is the vast majority of what we cover). This can make it difficult to come up with new ways to get points across.

Have you had any PASS highlights this year during your sessions? I think the session I really enjoyed most was when we had practice runs of the first year presentations. Seeing the ideas that they'd come up with, and the different presentation styles was really interesting, and took me back to when I was presenting to my PASS leaders. Also, the feedback we gave as leaders was well received and useful.

What are you most looking forward to PASS next Semester? I'm looking forward to seeing how the group projects develop, and just generally continuing the sessions and having a laugh with the group.

There is never a dull week in CS PASS. Since it is the season, we were treated to the PASS Annual Christmas Quiz.

The PASS cohort were put through four rounds, festively themed and designed to distinguish Santa's Helpers from the Grinches. The preliminary round was the Picture Round, where the teams were asked to name the popular faces hidden by Rudolph, Ranging from Head of School, Professor Jim Miles, to Members of Staff, to our own Student Coordinators.

The First Round was Dan Underwood's Christmas Trivia, where the teams were tested against the tinniest titbits of Christmas History, ranging from Armenian Yule Traditions to the Origins of the Christmas, most of which were received with a mixture of displeasure and mild interest.

Next Up, we had Rebecca Doran's Christmas Music and Movie Round, which was much welcomed following Dan's torturous trivia round, Participants were taken back to their childhoods, recalling fond memories of watching Elf, Home Alone and Die Hard, and enjoyed the great renditions of classic Christmas tunes. However, many people were shocked and appalled by Ms. Doran's decision to completely ignore the impact of the X Factor, nowadays synonymous with the Christmas Charts.

Following, the music round was the maker-or-breaker of Quiz Champions, the True-or-False Wipeout Round. Getting every question right doubled your points for that round, however getting one wrong wiped your total for it. The meticulous Sarah King, sweat the small stuff, and one by one, teams fell to the dreaded wipeout round.

The Quiz write up would not be complete without mention of the large presence that was the Quiz-Master-ee. Big Matt Akerman, walking up and down the Collab, dressed as a large foam Christmas Tree, amusing all in his presence.

Now for the prizes. The Best Team Name, chosen by our guest judge, PASS Sabbatical Annabelle Britton, was the creative Rage Against the Turing Machine, combining a well-known Computer Science Concept with the popular Band who, five years ago, robbed X Factor starlet Joe McElderry of the Christmas No 1. Close behind them was Stack OverSnow, who added a winter twist to an awful occurrence in Computer Science.