News Archive 2008

November 2008
Seminar Series - The Start of Something Big!

The 2008 CELCAT Seminar Series entitled ‘Automated Timetabling - The CELCAT Approach’ concluded in Edinburgh on Wednesday 5th November.

Delegates from within senior management in HE and FE institutions attended sessions discussing the challenging problem of using software to automatically schedule courses and examinations.

The opening address by Dr Barry McCollum - an academic heavily involved in this field of research - discussed the often overlooked gap between the research and practice of automated scheduling. Over the last 20 years much headway has been made in the academic community, but this progress has failed to trickle down to those actually involved in scheduling at the coal face.

The seminar series sought to address this gap by highlighting the close association CELCAT has developed with senior researchers in the academic community, and the steps being taken to bring that research to the timetabling community. The sessions following Dr McCollum’s address developed the theme, and highlighted how CELCAT’s approach will bring automated scheduling to practitioners in this field by using the latest research findings.

CELCAT has over a quarter of a century of experience in the field of timetabling, and combined with the latest research techniques, offers solutions that bring progress to this field of activity.

The seminar series has kicked off what, for our customers, will be an exciting twelve months of innovation.

For more information contact your account manager, or email info@celcat.com.

October 2008
Seminar Series

The 2008 CELCAT Seminar Series is entitled ‘Automated Timetabling - The CELCAT Approach’

The timetabling of courses and examinations is a challenging problem. Many not directly involved in the task often underestimate its complexity. This seminar series is designed to explore the issues involved in the successful implementation of an automated solution.

Venues and Dates

• 15th October – Dublin
• 20th October – Cardiff
• 22nd October – London
• 23rd October – Milton Keynes
• 3rd November – Leeds
• 5th November – Edinburgh

The Agenda

• 10:15 Registration & Coffee
• 10:30 Introduction
• 10:50 Automation Bridging the Gap between Research and Practice (Dr Barry McCollum, Queens University)
• 11:35 ‘Automation Ready’ the Strategy for a Successful Implementation
• 12:15 Morning Question and Answer Session
• 12:30 Lunch
• 14:00 Manual Timetabling Features that Complement Automation
• 14:45 Afternoon Question and Answer Session
• 15:00 Finish & Coffee

Registration is £25 per person to include lunch and refreshments. To register attendance go to www.celcat.com/seminar

September 2008
CELCAT at PATAT (Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling) 2008 – Montréal Update

Last month (August) CELCAT attended the PATAT conference in Montréal Canada at the Université de Montréal. Mr Adrian Gough and Mr Adrian Jones were both proud to announce to the attending delegates, that CELCAT and EventMAP Limited have joined forces in the creation of a software aided solution. EventMap Ltd is a research company that has emerged from the combined research and collaboration of academics working at both Queens University Belfast and Nottingham University. These leading experts in the field of automated timetabling have a wealth of experience including the real-world application of course scheduling software in Post Secondary institutions around the globe. Using the latest research and thinking, they have developed the Optime Scheduling Engine™.

The aim of this collaboration is to provide institutions with the most advanced automated timetabling application, incorporating the Optime engine, combined with the renowned, easy to use CELCAT timetabling interface.

We believe that this partnership will significantly add to the user experience of automated scheduling within the timetable creation and management process. In addition to the user perspective gained in developing this solution, CELCAT’s involvement with the academic community in this way will allow us to jointly address the acknowledged gap which currently exists between research and practice in automated timetabling.

CELCAT customers will be able to look forward in coming months to exciting announcements arising from this collaboration.

August 2008
PATAT (Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling) International Biennial Conference

Mr Adrian Gough and Mr Adrian Jones from CELCAT are attending the 7th international conference of PATAT (Practice and Theory of Automated Timetabling). This year the event is being held in Montréal Canada at the Université de Montréal.

PATAT is a gathering of the leading experts in the field of automated timetabling from around the world. CELCAT is sponsoring this year’s conference.

A key area of interest for CELCAT is that of linking research and practice in the field of academic timetabling. To this end we will be jointly presenting a paper to the conference on this very subject.

CELCAT is committed to ensuring we provide leading edge scheduling applications that meet the needs of post secondary institutions in the 21st Century. Our interest and sponsorship of the activities of the academic community as exemplified at PATAT, is a demonstration of our commitment to this endeavour.

For more information about PATAT why not check out their website https://symposia.cirrelt.ca/PATAT2008/en. Additionally for details about CELCAT timetabling products email us at info@celcat.com.

July 2008
SCUP 43 International Conference Montréal Canada

CELCAT is attending the SCUP (Society for College and University Planning) International Conference at the Montréal Convention Center (Palais des congrès de Montréal), Montréal, Canada from July 19 – 23, 2008. We will be found at booth 407 on all days of the convention.

After last year’s successful conference in Chicago, we took the decision to exhibit at SCUP again this year. For all attendees we hope that your plans to attend are well advanced.

CELCAT has been supplying post secondary education in more than 30 countries with scheduling software since 1989. The United States and Canada are key areas of our focus in the coming years. We want to give institutions everywhere the opportunity to discover the benefits of using CELCAT software.

The pressures being faced in tertiary education are not limited to any one country. We find that institutions in North America are facing the same challenges as institutions in other parts of the globe when it comes to student retention or efficient use of space and teaching staff. CELCAT’s holistic approach to resource management and student attendance tracking ensures that our scheduling and attendance monitoring software applications are the right tools for universities and colleges in the 21st Century.

So if you are in the neighborhood why not visit our booth. Or if Montréal is a little too far to travel, email us on info@celcat.com and discover how you can make best use of this popular scheduling software.

July 2008
Timetabler 6.4 Released

Timetabler 6.4 released 3rd July 2008. Downloads available for registered users on the CELCAT Portal.

For more information email info@celcat.com or call us on 024 7646 9930. We would be pleased to arrange for the account manager in your area to call and demonstrate some of the new features of this powerful management tool. Discover how this flexible scheduling application combined with integrated student attendance tracking capabilities can be used by institutions to improve student retention, attainment and resource utilisation.

March 2008
CELCAT in Australia

CELCAT has enjoyed a long association with institutions in Australia. Since 1998 this association has been enhanced by our partnership with Brisbane based company CDS Australasia.

So it was with great delight that on 29th November 2007 the first CELCAT Australian User Group Meeting was held at the University of Sunshine Coast, Queensland.

More than thirty delegates from across Australia attended and the feedback has been most positive.

Mr Mark Bradley, Director, Capitol Programs & Operations, University of Sunshine Coast provided the opening address. Delegates were then provided with a video presentation from Mr Vernon Chapman, International Business Manager, from the CELCAT UK head office. Delegates also enjoyed presentations from Mr Terry Richards, James Cook University, and Mr Ken Cassidy, Southbank Institute of Technology.

Although full minutes, outcomes and other information will be sent out to delegates, others may request information by contacting CDS.

So appreciated was the event by attendees that it is proposed to hold another user meeting in mid 2008 probably in the state of Victoria. Perhaps we could invite delegates from around the world to attend, it may be a popular suggestion if summer in the Northern Hemisphere proves to be a washout?

February 2008
The Timetable - The Key to Effective Planning and Management Decision Making

This highly popular seminar series concluded in Dublin on Wednesday 30th January. Delegates from within senior management in HE and FE institutions took in sessions detailing a key concern in modern tertiary education - space management. Throughout the day we considered some of the recommendations of the Space Management Group (SMG). Over eight days, 150 delegates were introduced to some of the ways computerised timetabling and student attendance monitoring can help in this important area.

Attendees heard how a flexible timetabling system helps in:

• smoothing room utilisation patterns,
• increasing the flexibility of room use to accommodate changing demands in teaching need
• and in monitoring planned and actual utilisation using combined timetable and attendance data

Delegates also considered these issues:

• Space charging
• Attendance monitoring
• Student retention

Edinburgh, South Birmingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, London Covent Garden and Guildford hosted the November events and Belfast and Dublin hosted in January. Because of high demand we also had to run an additional event in London Covent Garden in January.

Many delegates commented positively about the agenda. Comments such as ‘I’ve found today to be very useful,’ or, ‘is this functionality already available to us in our current software?’ were heard. One delegate asked if CELCAT would to further seminars. We plan to do so in autumn 2008.

If you missed this year's seminar series and are interested to know what these delegates discovered just contact us and we would be pleased to arrange a meeting to discuss the content with you.

January 2008
Extension to Seminar Series

Due to the tremendous success of the Autumn seminars during November 2007, we've decided to do a re-run at the Central London venue and add two further venues (Belfast and Dublin) in January 2008.

The CELCAT seminar has the theme "The Timetable - The Key to Effective Planning and Management Decision Making". In recent years, technology has done much to increase efficiency in UK Higher and Further Education. However, the benefits it can bring to the teaching timetable are not always well understood. Our series of seminars are directed at senior managers within HE and FE. You'll gain an insight into the current state of computerised timetabling, and examine offerings in the field of course planning and resource management.

January 2008
CELCAT at BETT 2008

CELCAT are again delighted to be exhibiting at the world’s largest educational technology event. This year, BETT is being staged at Olympia from the 9th - 12th January 2008. Why not pop along to stand SW135. Whether you are an existing CELCAT customer or just considering options we would be pleased to see you.