Masters in Applied Science - Mathematical Modelling & Scientific Computing

Brussels Sprout

This is a Masters that I'm interested in doing next year. Is there anyone who's currently doing this or has done it in the past? I just have a few questions:

1. What kind of jobs would graduates generally find themselves going for (it seems fairly broad based)?

2. Would somebody coming from an Engineering background as opposed to an IT background find it a lot more difficult?

3. Is it difficult to get into?

4. Did you find it enjoyable (and what background did you come from)?

(I've already contacted the course coordinator and he basically told me to go and find these things out for myself)

D-Generate

I suppose I am not necessarily doing exactly that course title but I am doing a MSc in Machine Learning which is pretty much just mathematical modelling and scientific computing!

I come from an Elec Eng background and my classmates are from a variety of backgrounds, maths, physics and comp sci. What I have found is that the ideal background would be a Maths and Stats degree and the least ideal would be Comp Sci. The Comp Sci folks just don't seem to have as broad a grasp of maths and haven't seemed to be familiar with maths outside Matrices. That is to say Linear Algebra and Calc is very rusty with them.

The programming languages you will probably use most often are Matlab and C and a bit of R or SAS. Basically its Matlab or Mathematica to do rough and ready testbed coding and then implement in C for efficiency reasons. As such there is no need for Python and Java and other languages that seem to be a mainstay of Comp Sci.

Recent graduates from my course are now working in a variety of industries. Some are in Investment Banking and working in Hedge Funds as a lot of modelling is required here. Others are working with Google, Microsoft and also medical and pharmaceutical companies. There is also a lot of start ups from graduates. Check out the below link to get an idea of what people go in to
http://www.csml.ucl.ac.uk/courses/msc_ml/?q=node/75

I am enjoying the course and its fascinating new work but I am finding it well tough and I had a very high 1H in engineering in UCC. Looking through the course you are applying for it seems that with an Engineering degree you will be well suited.

Brussels Sprout

D-Generate wrote: »

I am enjoying the course and its fascinating new work but I am finding it well tough and I had a very high 1H in engineering in UCC.

Wow that's not good news! I've heard that Elec ENg is pretty difficult so the masters must be extremely tough. From a persoanl point of view I did Chemical Engineering, which probably has less of a pure mathematical content than Elec Eng. and this was several years ago (and I didn't get a 1H :rolleyes:) so it sounds like I might have my work cut out there.

The main reason that I am interested in this course is that in my previous work I found that I was spending a lot of time doing fairly boring stuff such as writing safety reports, conducting risk assessments, writing proposals and other non technical work. My favourite part of my work though was getting stuck into calculations and using Excel to try and create spreadsheets to solve things easier and cleaner. Unfortunately this comprised a small part of my job and the calculations would generally be very simple equations.

I came across this course in the prospectus and although slightly vague it sounded very appealing to me. Reading through the prospectus and investigating the modules, it does look to be very advanced but as long as it's nothing that can't be overcome with a bit of study then I'm not too put off.

Thanks for the info.

KerryStar

Hello,

I am interesting doing the Msc in Mathematical Modelling.
I have Beng in Structural Engineering.
Just wondering did anyone do the course in UL.
If so, how did you find it and what are job prospects like?

I would really appreciate some feedback.

Brussels Sprout

Hi,

I see you've dug up my zombie thread from 6 years ago (man, that makes me feel so old).

I went ahead and did the course in UCC. I really enjoyed it I must say. It was a nice mix of maths and programming.

My only criticism is that it was perhaps spread a little thinly, in that it wasn't a programming course and it wasn't a mathematical course and despite the name the modelling component was limited enough.

Afterwards you know a decent bit about a lot of different areas without knowing a huge pile in any one area.

Conversely, this is possibly also it's greatest strength as it allows you to springboard into many different areas

There were 16 who started the Masters with me. 4 dropped out. 3 went on to do PhDs, 3 became software developers (including myself), 1 went into financial services, 1 became a lecturer, 2 were Chinese and returned home, 1 went off to do maths teaching and I'm not sure where the last person wound up.

At the time it was probably 45% C#, 45% Mathematica, 5% C and 5% Java

My first year as a software developer was really tough as I had to learn everything from scratch. I had learned the fundamentals of C# on the course but nothing about Web Applications and very little of SQL

As far as I know The UL version is a lot heavier on the mathematical modelling front. i remember seeing the course coordinator at a conference in UCC and he gave a very interesting talk on the mathematics of Networks.

KerryStar

Brussels Sprout wrote: »

Hi,

I see you've dug up my zombie thread from 6 years ago (man, that makes me feel so old).

I went ahead and did the course in UCC. I really enjoyed it I must say. It was a nice mix of maths and programming.

My only criticism is that it was perhaps spread a little thinly, in that it wasn't a programming course and it wasn't a mathematical course and despite the name the modelling component was limited enough.

Afterwards you know a decent bit about a lot of different areas without knowing a huge pile in any one area.

Conversely, this is possibly also it's greatest strength as it allows you to springboard into many different areas

There were 16 who started the Masters with me. 4 dropped out. 3 went on to do PhDs, 3 became software developers (including myself), 1 went into financial services, 1 became a lecturer, 2 were Chinese and returned home, 1 went off to do maths teaching and I'm not sure where the last person wound up.

At the time it was probably 45% C#, 45% Mathematica, 5% C and 5% Java

My first year as a software developer was really tough as I had to learn everything from scratch. I had learned the fundamentals of C# on the course but nothing about Web Applications and very little of SQL

As far as I know The UL version is a lot heavier on the mathematical modelling front. i remember seeing the course coordinator at a conference in UCC and he gave a very interesting talk on the mathematics of Networks.

Thanks very much for the reply.

I have more of a interest in pure maths than computers. As you suggested, the UL course would probably suit me better.

Do you think having a master's qualification is much of an advantage in the workplace?

Brussels Sprout

That's probably a matter of opinion. I think if you can get a job that you would like without a Masters then I wouldn't bother with one. In my case I wanted to pivot into a different area (from Engineering to IT) so I chose one that'd give me a new skillset with which I could get my foot in the door.
I've seen a lot of people in certain careers do a Masters part-time (which is pretty tough) and then continue on with the same career as before. In some cases the logic appears to be "A lot of other people are doing them so I need to have one too or I'll be left behind". In most careers the experience you get on the job will be worth far more to you, in that line of work, than anything you can learn from a Masters.