MSc in in Software Engineering

mmalaka

I am looking for advice about doing this, I am working as a Full time Software Engineer for about 6 years, I am looking for a course that would include more Practical side than the theory research and tasks.

Cionád

Just finishing up this course at the minute,

Firstly yes there is a lot of practical work, you will be doing around 10 assignments in the first semester, and another 7 or so in the second semester. Not all of them will be particularly exciting (Formal Programming comes to mind), but others are very good, stuff like secure design of a website, using components to build airline reservation systems etc...

The Continuous Assessment is based on these practical elements, and generally accounts for 25-30% of each module.

The other 70-75% is based on your examinations which are not always directly related to the practical work (although sometimes are - Formal Programming, Secure Coding) - mostly all the theory of the course.

The lecturers are good, it can get tough sometimes with a lot of assignments due in and around the same couple of weeks.

Finally there is the practicum which is done during the summer. This is purely practical or research based, and you can choose it yourself, and work in a team of two or alone.

taidhger

I'm in that class too. I'd second everything Cionad has said; you'll be kept fairly busy all right. The different projects we do is the best part.

Having worked just a few years before doing this course, I was hoping for a fairly practical course that would be a broad introduction to different areas. I was sorely disappointed with the lack of hands-on labs, as well as the quality of the computing resources themselves. However, I definitely learnt a lot more about web services, secure coding and concurrency than I did in industry.


Semester 1
Security - One of the best modules, alot of work, very practical. C, buffer overflows etc, web security. Pretty relevant to industry.
Advanced Data Communications - entirely theory, a little more than what is covered in an introductory degree course. fairly disappointing.
Software Process - nothing beyond what you know from industry. Nothing insightful.
Formal Methods - very practical intro to formal methods and the B method. well delivered.
Component Software - Exact same material we covered in our degree. Complete theory, much of which you'll know already from experience. The labs consisted of instructions to read J2EE documentation etc. Project in EJB was good, but if you know EJB already...

Semester 2
Service Oriented Architecture - theory of what are web services, choreography, etc. Not bad, but I had hoped for some practical insight into real life architecture or at least a reference to some platforms or industry practice. Project was great fun though and I must admit I learnt alot from it.
Advanced Algorithms - this was actually an introductory AI course covering GA and searching algorithms. We did more than this in our degree. Nonetheless, an interesting module especially if you like searching :-P
Advanced Software Design - very practical course on Refactoring to patterns and testing. well delivered and the very useful for industry. You should know most of this already though given your experience. Very relevant to industry.
Secure Design - Study of confidentiality, integrity and availability. fairly theoretical stuff.
Concurrency and Distributed Systems - Very practical concurrent programming module. Very relevant to industry.
Information Access - Module on Information Retrieval. Interesting enough covering XML, databases, search engines, text, multimedia search, web 2.0, semantic web. This module was shared with some e-commerce people so technical details were light. It was well delivered and thought provoking though.

Overall, I'd do it again. You kind of get out of the course what you put in to it, especially when it comes to group projects where we could go off and develop as much as we wanted. I'd be alot more confident going back to work now than I was before.

H2G2

FYI, this programme is being updated for the new academic year. There will be less modules - as they will change from being 5 to 7.5 (ECTS) credits each. The net result is status quo remains, but there will be less modules, but the modules will be larger. No change in overall workload, but less exams.

taidhger

That sounds like a great idea if they concentrate on the more practical modules. Is there any word on what will be offered?

Darren1o1

H2G2 wrote: »

FYI, this programme is being updated for the new academic year. There will be less modules - as they will change from being 5 to 7.5 (ECTS) credits each. The net result is status quo remains, but there will be less modules, but the modules will be larger. No change in overall workload, but less exams.

Will there actually be less classes though? The M Sc in Computer Aided Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering has changed format similarly and there is still the same 4 modules per semester. I would confirm with the programme chair.