The University of Sheffield
Department of Computer Science

Intranet > Emergency Information

Like any public building the Department is subject to UK safety legislation which is designed to protect all individuals using the premises. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the building and if you smoke in the courtyard please try not to stand near the windows or doors.

The Department Safety Officer is Andrew Lessiter (a.lessiter@sheffield.ac.uk)

Fire and Emergency Evacuation
First Aid and Accident Reporting

The Regent Court building has a single stage evacuation alarm triggered by smoke detectors and break glass call-points.

  • Upon hearing the alarm you should immediately leave the building by the nearest available exit route.
  • Make use of the fire exits found at the bottom of the stair-wells.
  • Do not use the lifts.
  • You must assemble at the designated assembly point, which for this building is St. Georges Church Yard.
  • Do not stand in the roadway, or in other way obstruct an approach to the building which may be needed by the emergency services.
  • ‘Monitors’ will be posted on all doors to ensure that no-one enters the building until it is safe. Please do not attempt to re-enter the building until you are told it is safe to do so.

There are fire call-points at strategic positions around the building, each position has instructions on what to do upon discovering a fire. You should familiarise yourself on the positions of the call-points and the fire alarm procedure.

Like our students, the fire alarms are tested regularly.  Notices are displayed around the building warning when these tests will take place.  At present they are tested twice every Thursday lunchtime.

Make sure you read the Health and Safety Code of Practice leaflet included in your induction pack.

The Department’s first aid boxes are located :

  • Regent Court East; Ground Floor G11 (Support Office)
  • Regent Court East; Ground Floor G12 (Lewin Computer Room)
  • Regent Court East; Ground Floor G28 (NLP lab)
  • Regent Court East; First Floor 127 (Kitchen)
  • Regent Court East; First Floor 136 (Research Workroom)
  • Regent Court West; Ground Floor CG018 (Visual Computing lab)
The Departmental First Aiders are

Accidents, incidents and near-misses should be reported on-line at http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/hs/accident



Safe Use of Display Screen Equipment
Faulty Equipment

No matter how good your typing skills (or lack of them), you can suffer serious ill effects if you use display screen equipment without a few sensible precautions:

  • Make sure that your equipment is properly adjusted
    • ensure that your lower back is well-supported by adjusting the seat back height
    • adjust your chair seat height so that your forearms are level when using the keyboard
    • make sure that the leading edge of the keyboard is at least 8-10cm away from the edge of the desk
    • have the mouse far enough away from the edge of the desk so that your wrist is supported whilst you use it.  If you can learn to use the mouse with either hand, so much the better.
  • Do not have your screen positioned so there is glare from the windows or lights.
  • Maintain good posture - do not lean to one side or the other.
  • Take regular breaks away from the display screen work.  The experts recommend that you should take at least 10 minutes off every hour.

If a piece of equipment appears to be faulty, it is important do not try to interfere with it yourself.  Instead, you should report it either to the demonstrator for your class, if there is one on duty at the time, or by email to sysadmin@dcs.shef.ac.uk, or to the technicians in G13.

In particular:

  • Do not remove any protective covers from equipment that may expose you to potentially lethal voltages.
  • Students are not permitted to move any item of furniture or equipment without the permission and supervision of the support staff.