If there is a word to describe the Student Terminal Area (STA) of the Computing Services Centre (CSC), `bustle' is probably the right one: you always find lots of students in the STA, whether using the computers, printing their course work, scanning images, plotting graphs, attending lectures/workshops or just discussing with fellow classmates via electronic means.  A survey conducted some time ago showed that the STA, except during term breaks, was on the whole 70% full while the demand simply outnumbered the supply during the pre-exam period.  The latter was best demonstrated by the terminal booking status during that period.

As you may know, the booking of terminals in the STA has always been very tight during the pre-exam period as students are hurrying to finish off their course work before the exams.  In order to help our students find out easily whether a vacant terminal in the STA is booked or not, a `Check PC Booking' icon is placed at the desktop of all PC in the STA.  After entering the workstation number (which is found at the top of each PC), the booking status will be shown in the Web page telling if the PC is reserved by another student.  If yes, the first 6 digits of the student ID and the first 8 characters of the name of the student will be displayed.

Our recent meeting with students also revealed their growing need for the STA.  Apart from doing their course work, students use the terminals to access the Internet and to practise new applications/software as the terminals perhaps are of more advanced models or better equipped as compared to their home PCs.  They enjoy staying in the STA probably because of its relaxed and friendly atmosphere that makes them feel at home, and naturally it becomes a meeting point for them.

The CSC will continue to improve the services of the STA and to provide a pleasant computing environment for our students to work in, and any suggestions on the betterment of the STA will be most welcome.