Information Technology (GY350) in NUIG

TheCosmicFrog

Hi guys and girls,

Is there anyone out there on boards.ie who is doing Information Technology (GY350) in NUIG, or has done it recently?

I would love to hear your insights into the course. I placed it in the coveted "Number 1" spot on my CAO form, after an engrossing lecture from the head of I.T. on a visit to our school.

Any contributions would be greatly appreciated!

Aaron.

synacron trion

TheCosmicFrog wrote: »

Hi guys and girls,

Is there anyone out there on boards.ie who is doing Information Technology (GY350) in NUIG, or has done it recently?

I would love to hear your insights into the course. I placed it in the coveted "Number 1" spot on my CAO form, after an engrossing lecture from the head of I.T. on a visit to our school.

Any contributions would be greatly appreciated!

Aaron.

I am doing the course. Its pretty good imo. I enjoy it a lot. In terms of insight I could say a lot but it would be easier if you had questions...

The course is 4 years as you know. In first year you pretty much go through the basics of computing. If you know a bit about computers/technology in general you'll find some of the year easy. You are also introduced to programming and its basic principles and algorithms (problem solving) I forget what we did in second year but it wasn't bad/hard :P. In third year you go on placement for 5 months end of March to end of August. 4th year you have a final year project to do.

I wrote advice about someone doing this course before so I'll go look for that and post it up again. If you have any particular questions though ask here.

Were you at the open day in November? (was it on in November?)

corribdude

1). What language(s) do you learn?
2). What type of programming do you learn, network, graphics, application development, etc..?
3). What kind of options do you have for the 4th year project, can you give me an example of what type of stuff you will be asked to do?
4). How many hours a week?
5). Could this course lead to a career in web development or games programming?

KevR

I'm in 3rd Year IT in NUIG. I find it quite interesting but pretty tough at the same time.

Similar to the OP, I only decided to do IT when I came to the NUIG open day and went to a very interesting presentation about it. Before that I never really considered it, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.

Glad I chose IT and good chance of a job when I (hopefully) get my degree because numbers doing IT in Galway and (as far as I know) around the country are very low..

TheCosmicFrog

Excellent, thanks synacon trion and KevR.

I know some of the basics of C++. I've been reading a book on it over the past two years or so. Is it of any use? I know Java is popular in Uni's these days.

synacron trion

corribdude wrote: »

1). What language(s) do you learn?

C and Java primarily. Although I heard that Python is used in 1st year instead of C these days but I can't confirm. After you learn one programming language you can learn any after that. They are all pretty much the same, you just have to learn the syntax. I read somewhere that an industry programmer generally learns some new form of programming language every 2 years or so.

corribdude wrote: »

2). What type of programming do you learn, network, graphics, application development, etc..?

All of the above. Its all command line sort stuff first to get you going on the basics of programming. Either in 2nd year or 3rd year you'll do a bit of java GUI programming. In 4th year you will do a whole module of graphics and image processing. OpenGL is covered in that module. You do some java network programming in 3rd and 4th as far as I remember.

corribdude wrote: »

3). What kind of options do you have for the 4th year project, can you give me an example of what type of stuff you will be asked to do?

Anything really. There are 2 ways to get a fyp (final year project), you can come up with your own or get one from a lecturer. Its harder to come up with your own because 1, you have to come up with something good and 2, you need to persuade a lecturer to supervise that project. Getting given a project means that you get a supervisor that is knowledgeable in the problem domain of the project you are working on. I have a link somewhere for descriptions of older projects I'll see if I can find it.

corribdude wrote: »

4). How many hours a week?

It depends what year you are in. 1st semester of 2nd year is by far the craziest, I think we had 33 hours! It was tough. I think 1st year is around 28hours, 2nd year is around 30 hours, 3rd year is around 20 and 4th is around 12 hours. They change though due to subject choice and are really high in 1st year and 2nd year because you have more labs and tutorials. Its manageable though. You still have a great social life

corribdude wrote: »

5). Could this course lead to a career in web development or games programming?

Yes. It could lead anywhere really. It will all depend on what you are interested in and how much work you are willing to put in. My personal opinion of a course like IT is that there is so much that could be done its impossible for it all to be covered. Take programming languages, after learning one you should be able to learn any but simply getting a book and googling. If you are willing to do IT things in your spare time or do already you are on the right track and will be better equipped than the people who come in and do the bare minimum.

synacron trion

TheCosmicFrog wrote: »

Excellent, thanks synacon trion and KevR.

I know some of the basics of C++. I've been reading a book on it over the past two years or so. Is it of any use? I know Java is popular in Uni's these days.

Any experience will help. Java is the main language taught and used but a language is just a language.

TheCosmicFrog

Great thanks. Was the course difficult to get into last year? Did many apply?

synacron trion

TheCosmicFrog wrote: »

Great thanks. Was the course difficult to get into last year? Did many apply?

I haven't a clue to be honest. I think the points were around 350. There aren't many in 1st year this year so as long as you meet requirements you shouldn't have a problem getting in at all.

KevR

I did C as my programming language in 1st year. Java in 2nd year. Java again in 3rd year and also a bit of C# in semester 1 this year.

df_h

Is there anyone out there on boards.ie who is doing Information Technology (GY350) in NUIG, or has done it recently?

I finished few years ago, now finishing a Masters and running own company the course helped a lot and i am happy with the way my life went in last few years

I would love to hear your insights into the course. I placed it in the coveted "Number 1" spot on my CAO form, after an engrossing lecture from the head of I.T. on a visit to our school.

Sure I can go into great detail, but to summarize i loved the course and my time in NUIG :P made friends and learned a ton

1). What language(s) do you learn?
2). What type of programming do you learn, network, graphics, application development, etc..?
3). What kind of options do you have for the 4th year project, can you give me an example of what type of stuff you will be asked to do?
4). How many hours a week?
5). Could this course lead to a career in web development or games programming?

1) firstly its not all programming, but u will learn a lot (either by being taught or by being guided to learn yourself) I learned C in first 2 years, JAVA in last 2, learned PHP due to work on projects on my own, and learned C# on my own on work placement (which is the highlight of the course and a great laugh )


2) alot of networking (Des Chambers still teaching?) and I loved it

3) the projects are very varied and are chosen by your supervisor but you have a choice of course in what direction you want to go, some interesting ones were billing systems for voip systems, remote sensor devices, neural algorithms, applied image recognition and so on

4) i cant remember now, first year maybe 25? i was working part time then so missed abit, second year maybe 30? alot lectures, 3rd year first semester was very hard as they had to compress 2 semesters in one due to placement, 4th year we spend alot of time working on projects wasnt uncommon to be in 10 to 10 in lab (gosh i make it sound terrible :P)

5) yes i myself run a few huge sites now (10x the size of boards) and got big into networks and linux and programming web apps, if you have your head screwed on you shoulders the course will set you up nicely with some great skills (do note its up to yourself to learn you can float thru 4 years and learn nothing)

df_h

KevR wrote: »

I'm in 3rd Year IT in NUIG. I find it quite interesting but pretty tough at the same time.

Similar to the OP, I only decided to do IT when I came to the NUIG open day and went to a very interesting presentation about it. Before that I never really considered it, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do.

Glad I chose IT and good chance of a job when I (hopefully) get my degree because numbers doing IT in Galway and (as far as I know) around the country are very low..

you would have no problems getting a job I had friends in other colleges doing IT and the numbers are even lower, but even in this downturn there are hundreds of opportunities

you can always go on and start own business or go onto higher education yet again (recommended as knowledge is what gives us an edge)