Question:Computers in UCD

FrozenUp

Hey, I'm planning on going to UCD and I want to study computer science but recently I was told that the computers in UCD aren't the best and that I should go to another college.

My question is do you like, hate or don't mind the computers in the college. If I'm going to study computers then I'm probably going to be around them for a while and I'd prefer to have some that won't drive me up the wall.

Thanks for the help.

irlrobins

Computers in UCD are prob as good/bad as any other college. To be fair to UCD, they do try and provide a good IT resource and in recent years it's gotten better. Some of their more recent projects like wireless, stand up PCs, etc have been very good.

You will always have people complaining about X and Y tbh.

As regards the computers for computer science, the comp sci dept run their own computer labs and they tend to be better spec'd and maintained than the ones for the general student population.

I think that they're (comp sci dept) moving away from providing large computer labs with lots of desktops to creating hot desk type environments which allow people to bring in their own laptop. So you might find they start running a laptop programme similiar to the Commerce one.

So from my personal experience of 10 years in UCD and as a compter science graduate, I have to give the computers in UCD a thumbs up.

Fremen

If you study CS in UCS, you'll be able to use the computers in the computer science building, there's at least one per student.

This is actually pretty damn handy because you never need to queue for a computer.

I think CS are starting a laptop scheme for future years.
Info here:
http://csiweb.ucd.ie/LocalInformation/TechSupport/StudentLaptops.shtml

Red Alert

In general the machines themselves are quite good - they are all 1-2 years old as a result of a big upgrade programme that was ongoing over the last year. Most run Windows XP Professional, however it's locked down quite a bit.

The usual stuff like e-mail, slightly heavier stuff like compiling and making games run if you managed to put them on an external drive will be no problem. The machines are probably a lot better than some of the cheapo ones that are in the leaflets in newspapers.

One of the poorer services in terms of uptime and quality is Blackboard, which is not very resilient despite having been put on souped up hardware.

Much of the student population own laptops, at least in engineering anyway. For what it's worth I own a Mac and have used Linux as well as Windows on my old laptop, so the network is more or less ok.

Fremen

I miss the good ol' days when you could play counterstrike on the network.

There was a really nice "feature" where marking files as hidden meant they didn't get deleted from the hard drives in computer science.

Brimmy

Do CA in UCD, it's the best course in the country for Programming if that's what you want

(It also has one of the highest fail rates too:D )

stolenwine

Brimmy wrote:

(It also has one of the highest fail rates too:D )

I hope that you're joking I was thinking of doing the h.dip conversion course.
Are the lecturers good? Any real horror modules?

Fremen

What's CA? Computers and Arts? Computer Architecture?

mwrf

stolenwine wrote:

I hope that you're joking I was thinking of doing the h.dip conversion course.
Are the lecturers good? Any real horror modules?

the lecturers are mostly good to great but there are some bad ones. It depends on who you get

mwrf

FrozenUp wrote:

Hey, I'm planning on going to UCD and I want to study computer science but recently I was told that the computers in UCD aren't the best and that I should go to another college.

My question is do you like, hate or don't mind the computers in the college. If I'm going to study computers then I'm probably going to be around them for a while and I'd prefer to have some that won't drive me up the wall.

Thanks for the help.

as someone said, computer science has a high dropout rate. Make sure you know what you are getting into before you apply. Computer science is NOT playing with windows in your spare time. Lots of maths and programming. Programming is either loved or hated by people. I'd recommend you try learn some basics and see if you would like to spend the next four years doing it.

In first year you will be thought java.

irlrobins

stebishop wrote:

as someone said, computer science has a high dropout rate.

Orly?

mwrf

No, it was Brimmy

gubbie

Well, let me tell you what I know about computers...
Step 1: Physical
Step 2: Data Link
Step 3: Network
Step 4: Transport
Step 5: Session
Step 6: Presentation
Step 7: Application
Step 8: Ask Red Alert

I was all looking forward to this being a thread ranting about the computers. I've had so much bother with the one's in engineering in the past week!

BKtje

There are actually more computers than computer science students in 2nd year lab (well thats how it feels, never needed to queue for one ever...infact i usually get lots of space to spread out too ).

Comp Science has a lot of maths but less if u do it as a BA (you'll get comp science maths instead of more general maths. The maths is useful tho..)

To answer your question: i've never had a problem with the machines not having enough "oomph" to do a task that i needed to do.

Waltons

B-K-DzR wrote:

There are actually more computers than computer science students in 2nd year lab (well thats how it feels, never needed to queue for one ever...infact i usually get lots of space to spread out too ).

Comp Science has a lot of maths but less if u do it as a BA (you'll get comp science maths instead of more general maths. The maths is useful tho..)

To answer your question: i've never had a problem with the machines not having enough "oomph" to do a task that i needed to do.

QFT - our class this year is seriously small and the only problem in the lab is generally noise from people dropping in to use our computers :rolleyes:
Computers in the lab are fine for anything you'll need to be doing in terms of lab work and they've clamped down (literally) on people nicking mice and keyboards, so that's no longer a problem and, as Robin said, there's plenty of space if you have a laptop too.
I'm in the BA course that BK mentioned, and I can vouch for the less maths. As yet, it hasn't made any difference to the classes I've taken; I seem to get on as well as the rest of the lads who are taking maths modules.

rainbow kirby

Waltons wrote:

the only problem in the lab is generally noise from people dropping in to use our computers :rolleyes:

One of the funniest things I've seen all year was Tahar Kechadi exploding at someone not in our class who went to use a computer in the 3rd year lab...

Red Alert

As someone who does most of my programming in environments like MATLAB, or else Perl and C, and who learned programming from the perspective of engineering:

• Maths is actually a big deal, you don't appreciate it until you want to do something relatively hard, or want to back up why you did something, or why you think it'll be faster, more accurate etc.
• I'd love to have learned Java at some stage, but I think my current crop of languages and Visual Basic which I've used on and off have given me a permanent handicap on that one!

To the OP, the CS people would probably explain this better, but having Java is amazing because everything from your phone to huge mainframes can all run java.

Notorious

FrozenUp wrote:

Hey, I'm planning on going to UCD and I want to study computer science but recently I was told that the computers in UCD aren't the best and that I should go to another college.

My question is do you like, hate or don't mind the computers in the college. If I'm going to study computers then I'm probably going to be around them for a while and I'd prefer to have some that won't drive me up the wall.

Thanks for the help.

As a former computer science student, I would really only advise you in taking up the subject if you've an idea of the frustrations involved with programming, and maybe even a basic idea or get an introduction to programming. Most people don't find it in anyway easy. Its got a low points requirement for a reason!
I dropped out of comp sci after my first year, I just found it way too tough. I thought it'd be the course for me after being on computers all my life, and knowing the architecture of a computer backwards. As I said already programming is frustrating, and a certain 2nd semester class which was thought by a very 'hardcore' lecturer had, from what I remember an 80% failure rate. He thought because he was a computer genius, that we all were! Another problem was the lack of social interaction within the class, and this wouldn't help at all when your looking for help on how to sort out an error in your script. Most of my class kept to themselves, and to their own gang of friends and some of them weren't interested in sharing their knowledge to help out. I've heard the courses in NCI and DIT are much, much more social and are more friendly I suppose you could say. Everyone in the class knows each other, and if you need help others in the class will provide. This is only an opinion I've gathered being a past student in comp sci, and having a friend who switched from the course in NCI to UCD.

I'd say if you don't have a genuine interest in computer programming already, steer away from this course. Its not for the faint hearted!

Back to your question, there is no problem with the computers in UCD at all, there not too dated and most are only used for the day to day tasks like bebo etc. They definitely won't drive you up the wall!
Good luck in your choice.

EDIT:

Brimmy wrote:

Do CA in UCD, it's the best course in the country for Programming if that's what you want

I've actually been told that in more recent years Computer Science graduates from colleges like NCI are more sought after than the UCD/TCD grads. No idea how true that is, but I can understand why that could be the case.

irlrobins

Just to counter Notorious remark about comp sci not being social. (I'm not questioning your experience, but I want to give my own view point).

I found Comp Sci to be very social, prehaps not on the level as Eng (which I also did) but it was still good. I always found there was a good atmosphere and that people weren't shy in asking for help from their class mates and in getting it in return.

And later as a demonstrator to first years, I would always see people getting into groups to solve the lab work (which has it's pros and cons). But there was def a social interaction going on between class maths.

just my view point as I said.

rainbow kirby

I've actually been told that in more recent years Computer Science graduates from colleges like NCI are more sought after than the UCD/TCD grads. No idea how true that is, but I can understand why that could be the case.

Courses in places like NCI and the ITs have much more of a practical focus in their CS courses than UCD/TCD would, and quite a lot of those courses also include a work experience placement.

Donald-Duck

stolenwine wrote:

I hope that you're joking I was thinking of doing the h.dip conversion course.
Are the lecturers good? Any real horror modules?

First year CS perspective at the momentL

The "computer" lecture are decent, the maths lecturers however are woeful at best. So much so I haven't gone to any maths lectures since September/October. Trusting my honours leaving cert maths book more than their notes too. Somehow they manage to make the most simple concept seems foreign

No horror modules that I can think of. You have to do a project for one in the second semester but its not too bad. Programming modules are simple enough, even if you had no past experience with it. Maths, as mentioned above, but are relatively easy exams. I can't be bothered listing every module but most of them tend to have 40% continuous assesment or slightly more/less which makes sitting the final exam much easier.

stolenwine

COMP D001 Programming and Data Structures
COMP D002 Computer Architecture
COMP D003 Information Technology and Applications
COMP D005 Web Based Information Systems
COMP D006 Software Engineering:
COMP D007 Interactive Multimedia Systems
COMP D008 Computer Architecture: Networks
COMP D009 Operating Systems I
COMP D010 Artificial Intelligence
COMP D011 Software Engineering: Object-Oriented Programming

That's a list of the modules for the course. My previous experience is some digitisation of objects and html and I did ordinary level leaving cert maths

gubbie

Red Alert wrote:

To the OP, the CS people would probably explain this better, but having Java is amazing because everything from your phone to huge mainframes can all run java.

Really? Wow... why are we learning crappy C so?

And I never knew there were so many Comp Sci people on this

I think you have to absolutely love programming to do it. I liked doing it in robotics but that could just be cos I like breaking things and when I can get a robot to do it, thats all the more better. But my brain seems to bleed when ever I've to sit down for 3 hours and do computer programming. But I can't avoid it so I just gotta get on with it!

IRLrobins did English, he's just trying to pretend he did Engineering :cool:

irlrobins

gubbie wrote:

IRLrobins did English, he's just trying to pretend he did Engineering :cool:

Pft! Three years of Elec Eng under my belt thank you very much...

Waltons

I think I'm in the same year as Notorious, except I continued on with computer science after first year, and I'd be somewhat in agreement with him over social interaction in first year; I found it quite hard to get to know people for a while. That said though, I'm doing a joint major with Economics, and I've since found it a lot easier to find friends within Comp Sci than I have in Economics - possibly due to class sizes and specified lab times which, unlike tutorials, would leave you for 1-2 hours to sort out programming exercises, rather than being like a mini lecture.
I'd agree with Robin in that the programming labs are good for getting to know people, especially in first year when you're on an equal skill level with most other people there. Obviously, there are some cons involved with students working in groups, but it's a good chance to meet people in the class anyway!

I'm not so sure about only taking the course if you've a previous interest in programming - I had no previous programming experience and I enjoy the course a lot - but I would say that you have to have the sort of mindframe Notorious pointed out and be either knowledgeable about frustrations involved in programming, or have an interest in solving problems.

Some of the modules can be quite challenging, requiring teamwork over a semester to complete a given project. Obviously if you're in a good team with people who are willing to work, this isn't a giant problem, but I found team projects in first year rather hard, more due to lack of programming experience than anything else. Other modules I've found generally fine once you keep up with the coursework from week to week, and the demonstrators in labs are very helpful most of the time.

Of course, this is all just in my experience

Notorious

Waltons wrote:

I think I'm in the same year as Notorious......I'm doing a joint major with Economics...

Haha! I was doing a joint major in economics too, but thank god they let me switch out of Comp Sci and into 2nd Arts.
I'd agree with you that economics have huge classes, so what usually happens is your talking to someone you don't know one day, then the next day your talking to someone else you don't know. The classes are so big, it can be difficult & daunting to make friends. The labs are a great way to get to know people, but in some cases I still found it difficult to talk to some people who just weren't interested in helping out at all. Thats only some people though!

Red Alert

I think C is the language taught in eng because Java has a high overhead. C is great if you want to do things like speed up math problems rather than coding them in something higher-level like MATLAB. Java loses a lot of that performance advantage.

Java however starts to become a better idea when you're writing a large application, like on the scale of Microsoft Word.

Fremen

Really? Wow... why are we learning crappy C so

C code runs "natively" as machine code, so it can run quite a bit faster.

Historically, Java was kind of clunky and slow, but it's improved a fair bit. Java code can run on anything with a "java virtual machine" installed on it. That's a kind of program which pretends to be a computer, which runs the java code.

Stepherunie

FrozenUp wrote:

Hey, I'm planning on going to UCD and I want to study computer science but recently I was told that the computers in UCD aren't the best and that I should go to another college.

My question is do you like, hate or don't mind the computers in the college. If I'm going to study computers then I'm probably going to be around them for a while and I'd prefer to have some that won't drive me up the wall.

Thanks for the help.

Right don't do comp sci, I'll leave other people to that but I do know about computers in general in UCD. Computer services have a 3 year policy about computers, i.e. computer rooms are upgraded every three years - they're done in rounds so the oldest pc you should ever find is three years.

Disclaimer: I won't include lecturers - my fav lecturer PBL until 2 weeks ago had a first generation iMac.

stolenwine

don't mean to keep bumping the thread but how much practical experience do you get with the hard ware or is it all programming and aplications?

BKtje

Very little hands on hardware in first and second year, it's more the theory behind it. Dunno if that changes in third year.

Fremen

I just finished a joint CS/maths course, and you don't learn anything about the hardware side of things, you'll have to learn that on your own.
There are some computer architecture modules which teach you how processors work and stuff, but you'll never be putting a computer together.

These are the courses I took:
First year: Java programming, basic comp. architecture

Second year: data structures, more java programming, introduction to recursion, more computer architecture

Third year: introduction to AI, C++ programming, design of an interpreter (basically you write your own programming language), operating systems

Fourth year: AI for games, concurrent programming (splitting programs on multiple processors), neural networks, and spatial information systems (fecking geography on computers. Godawful).

As a full CS student you'd do more than this, I took half as many modules as the others.

You might want to start reading slashdot if you're thinking about doing computers: http://slashdot.org/
If you look up all the stuff you don't understand in the articles, you'll learn at least as much as you do in college.

Woof!

Im heading into 3rd Year Comp Sci in UCD in September. To be honest it's not that bad, there's a wee jump in second year but that's assumed in any course. The one thing I would say is do first year right and you'll be way ahead of everyone in 2nd year, I learned this the hard way.

With regards to computers in CSI (computer science and informatics, not Horatio Cane[cain??]) you dont need a super huge computer to program in first year, or in any year to be honest. I mean the head of Googles Java division uses a P2 machine at home!

All the computers are Dell Optiplex something or others with crt monitors, I heard a rumour they were getting updgraded but there's no need. They all also have graphics cards and can play Quake, if you know where it is!
edit: As Rainbow Kirby pointed out there are a few laptop spots, mainly desks against one wall in the labs that are set aside for laptops, but if you want to sit with friends plug out the psu to a lab machine, BUT PLUG IT BACK IN grrr.

Modules are all pretty standard as with any course and are in a nutshell what Fremen listed ^^^^^. If you have any questions about them hit me with a PM. Also don't forget to pick stupidly easy electives. There's a few computer one's that spring to mind, one involving MS Word in Ag Science, there's one in Med somewhere where you google image search for your first two practicals and there's one in Quinn called Intro to computer information systems, also e-business is reportedly a piece of piss!

Hope this was helpful!

BKtje

E-business is indeed very easy

Stepherunie

Woof! wrote:

There's one in Med somewhere where you google image search for your first two practicals.

I'd say you're speaking of Healthcare Informatics. One of the easiest courses that ever existed. When I did it last year it came to the last week and we'd covered about a third of the theory all year and he managed to do the rest in about an hour and a half. That's how little is in it.

Oh warning though; if you do take this module, if it's anything like the time I took it, the lecturer will be teaching the course to about 3/4 different classes so won't actually remember what lecture/ practical you're on so you get a good few lectures twice.

Hardest thing you do computers wise is you learn how to use Microsoft Access.

sh0rty7

Hey first post! I did my leaving this year so going into college in september and I got computer science in arts as my no.1. I read on the ucd website they had modules(albeit I think only in 3rd and 4th year) in multimedia design and graphics for games and the web and also a couple modules in motion picture post production.I wanna be a graphic designer so I was hopin this would be a good basic start that I wud actually get a job out of.I know theres not much graphic stuff but can anyone whos doin the degree tell me how much there actually is?
thanx

oh and also if I didnt like it and wanted to move to 2nd year arts after 1st year and do english cud I?or is that impossible cos I wudnt of been able to do english+computers in 1st year

aequinoctium

all computer systems were updated throughout the year.
they are just as good as anywhere else