Lecture halls and labs
Lectures and seminars are an important part of your student experience,
and our 1000-seater Ivor Crewe Lecture Hall is used for large lectures and
big events, such as our graduation ceremonies in July. This impressive
stainless steel building has won three prestigious architectural awards for
its intricate design but was described as a “dustbin” by HRH Prince Charles,
on a visit to our Colchester Campus in 2008!
We also have a second lecture theatre building which includes slightly
smaller rooms, as well as film screening facilities for use during lectures
and for Students’ Union activities, like the Film Society.
Our state-of-the-art laboratories are used by those studying science
subjects, such as computing and electronics, health, biological sciences or
psychology.
Our School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering provides six
laboratories for use by its students, which includes facilities for teaching
and research in brain-computer interfaces, embedded systems, computers and
networks, photonics and a renowned robotics lab and arena. Our School is
justly famous for its research into robotics, with staff expertise spanning
the entire range of intelligent systems and experience of developing robots
intended for land, under water and in the air. Research carried out by this
team has resulted in appearances in the Robot Soccer World Cup final, an
autonomous robot fish in the London Aquarium and a self-programming computer
vision system.
Our School of Health and Human Sciences has state-of-the-art clinical
laboratories with the very latest equipment and IT facilities. In addition,
recent investment in our Department of Biological Sciences has provided
modern facilities for imaging biological systems, transcriptomics,
proteomics and bioinformatics. Our Coral Reef Research Unit now has a
£50,000 aquarium to address key research questions under controlled
laboratory conditions, and we have technical/post-doctoral staff who provide
a service to all our staff and students.
Our Department of Psychology has extensive laboratory space for
experimental psychology and special facilities for visual and auditory
perception, developmental psychology and social psychology, with our Hearing
Research Laboratory and our Visual Perception Unit. We also have a
state-of-the-art research facility dedicated to the study of brain activity
in relation to psychological processes. This provides a dynamic resource for
psychology and neuroscience, with specialised laboratories for investigating
brain activity and behaviour.
Our language students also benefit from our Department of Language and
Linguistics’ two multimedia language teaching laboratories which have
state-of-the-art software.