Computer Science 2010

BarbiePink

Anyone else starting it this year?? Is there many girls in the course, or whats the ratio of girls and fellas? :rolleyes:

rainbow kirby

BarbiePink wrote: »

whats the ratio of girls and fellas? :rolleyes:

My 4th year class was about 90% guys.

Don't forget: The odds are good, but the goods are odd.

BarbiePink

No way haha .. Is there only 40 in the class? Easy to make friends?

rainbow kirby

There's more than 40 in first year anyway (or at least there was in my day... /oulwan), it's just that between people dropping out, changing courses and repeating the numbers shrink quite considerably by the time you get to the end.

Xhristy

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bigred100

BarbiePink wrote: »

Anyone else starting it this year?? Is there many girls in the course, or whats the ratio of girls and fellas? :rolleyes:

Friend of mine did it last year, said there is very few girls. I'm joining this year, can't wait...:rolleyes:

Fad

I'm second year and am part of the last year who can do comp sci through science (ie I can joint major with it and Chem (My other stream) should I have some lapse in sanity) so I amn't entirely sure what the CS class's gender ratio is, but afaik there's <10 girls continuing on to do CS this year.

ie very few!

On the making friends front, try and get to know people as early as possible, and if you can, try and get to know people in Science Omnibus, being stuck in the Comp Sci building all day, everyday isn't healthy!

rainbow kirby

Fad wrote: »

On the making friends front, try and get to know people as early as possible, and if you can, try and get to know people in Science Omnibus, being stuck in the Comp Sci building all day, everyday isn't healthy!

Would agree with this - CS is a real bubble and it's good to get to know people outside of the course too.

pljudge321

On a slightly related note, would I be mad to do the processor design module as an elective?

rainbow kirby

pljudge321 wrote: »

On a slightly related note, would I be mad to do the processor design module as an elective?

Yes. I absolutely hated it back in the day (assuming it's the 3rd year module you're referring to)

pljudge321

Yup thats the one, Im doing electrical engineering so its one of the modules I don't get to do. Back to looking for another elective.

Jeboa Safari

Xhristy wrote: »

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Are there only 20 people doing the 4th year? How many complete the degree, or do 3 years of the course, compared to how many started in 1st year?

Tom1991

the girl numbers are quite low prob 13 doin denominated last year id say.but some were on year exchanges etc so they could be back at home.Found it tough last year getting to know people and kinda skipped as much college as i could because of it. have to repeat four modules of the course this year.so id recommend diving in with the making friends thing at the start the longer you leave it the harder it gets i found tht the hardest being a quiet bloke myself.made friends outside the class but its better to know atleast a couple of people in there makes getting help with assignments and passing time in the labs alot more enjoyable.

rainbow kirby

Jeboa Safari wrote: »

Are there only 20 people doing the 4th year? How many complete the degree, or do 3 years of the course, compared to how many started in 1st year?

There were about 40 of us in total, split between BSc and BA, finishing 4th year in 2009.

Jeboa Safari

rainbow kirby wrote: »

There were about 40 of us in total, split between BSc and BA, finishing 4th year in 2009.

Would that be a big drop from 3rd year? Also, if you just do 3 years of the joint major course, do you get some sort of diploma or anything in computer science do you know?

rainbow kirby

A lot of the BA class would leave after third year if they wished to continue with postgraduate studies in their arts subject. If you have a GPA less than 2.48 at the end of 3rd year then you just get a BSc (General).

Fad

Jeboa Safari wrote: »

Would that be a big drop from 3rd year? Also, if you just do 3 years of the joint major course, do you get some sort of diploma or anything in computer science do you know?

If you dont get above a certain mark in 3rd year, you dont get into 4th year and graduate with a general BSc (level 7).

Edit:RK beat me to it >_<

TDOie

I think there's 2-4 girls in my year. It was difficult to get to know anyone on till near the end of this (2nd) year.

SCD

I'm a boy.

Healium

I'll be doing CS

JonB

Tom1991 wrote: »

the girl numbers are quite low prob 13 doin denominated last year id say.but some were on year exchanges etc so they could be back at home.Found it tough last year getting to know people and kinda skipped as much college as i could because of it. have to repeat four modules of the course this year.so id recommend diving in with the making friends thing at the start the longer you leave it the harder it gets i found tht the hardest being a quiet bloke myself.made friends outside the class but its better to know atleast a couple of people in there makes getting help with assignments and passing time in the labs alot more enjoyable.

Are you repeating Tomo? I tought you where gonna drop it. If you need help this year i'll my best to help you
I found it hard to make friends in the first semester as you didn't do that much CS specific modules. But in second semester I found myself more and more in the Comp Sci building and met more people there.

bigred100

Anyone know what the bootcamp is in orientation?? Sounds fun!!

E0inz

What he said ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

also going to be doing Computer Science this year!!! see ya's there

MariaBabii

I cant wait to start it this year!! Whats up with the CSI bootcamp? What we doing there lol?:p

bigred100

What kinda hardware are people brining to the table? I seriously need a new laptop :cool:

Fad

bigred100 wrote: »

What kinda hardware are people brining to the table? I seriously need a new laptop :cool:

Lots of people just had netbooks last year. I assume they had desktops at home though.

I had a macbook, which worked perfectly for me, you guys'll probably be doing less moving around this year because of your modules being different, so the benefit of a netbook might be minimalised.....kinda.

bigred100

Yeah, I'm seriously considering trying to get a macbook, I was recommended to get one last year when I was going to do Comp Sci, ended up repeating though.

Jack Bracken

OSI wrote: »

Trying to dev on a netbook must have been the most enfuriating experience ever. A tiny screen coupled with a crap processor would make programming and compiling a wholly unenjoyable experience...

Even the 13" screen on my Macbook can be to small at times.

Heh, my Samsung netbook was more than enough. The charge lasted long enough to go through all of my labs and lectures, and I'd just leave it turned on with the lid closed in my bag when going from one class to another. And you adjust to the screen size pretty quickly. Only downer is it takes aeons for Eclipse to load up. Never really waited too long for anything to compile, maybe 5 or 6 seconds for some of the bigger java apps we made.

rainbow kirby

OSI wrote: »

Try saying that in Second, Third and Fourth year when your programming spans hundreds of line, multiple files and requires regular referencing and compiling/debugging.

Moved from an old 12" iBook to a 15" Macbook Pro in third year... that extra screen real estate was priceless. I'm going to have to say I can't imagine doing anything beyond 2nd year on a netbook.

Xhristy

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Walnut.

Can anyone tell me, does this course get more interesting or consistent in Second Year?

I found most of first year to be all over the place, it was sometimes difficult and even insanely frustrating at times with Software Engineering 1 and Computer Architecture. And the rest of the time, especially in the first semester when there were virtually no computer science modules, I was almost bored due to lack of a challenge. Am now considering switching to Engineering...

Joneser

Walnut. wrote: »

Can anyone tell me, does this course get more interesting or consistent in Second Year?

I found most of first year to be all over the place, it was sometimes difficult and even insanely frustrating at times with Software Engineering 1 and Computer Architecture. And the rest of the time, especially in the first semester when there were virtually no computer science modules, I was almost bored due to lack of a challenge. Am now considering switching to Engineering...

I'm going into 4th year now and I have found that the further through the course you get, the more each of the modules start to relate to each other.

Also I have found that there is a big step up between each year, so expect 2nd year to be more of a challenge than 1st year was. And then 3rd year is a lot more difficult than 2nd.

Walnut.

Sounds good, Joneser. Does the course involve a lot of programming? I'm still not sure what I personally am going to do. Doesn't help that after one year I feel like I still know shag all about Computer Science!

Fad

Walnut. wrote: »

Can anyone tell me, does this course get more interesting or consistent in Second Year?

I found most of first year to be all over the place, it was sometimes difficult and even insanely frustrating at times with Software Engineering 1 and Computer Architecture. And the rest of the time, especially in the first semester when there were virtually no computer science modules, I was almost bored due to lack of a challenge. Am now considering switching to Engineering...

Science students/CS through arts got more that slightly fúcked over with SE 1 >_<

Seems to be much more real CS in 2nd year anyway. I cant wait! But my Java is still not remotely as good as I need to get, next two weeks will be fun!

Xhristy

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Joneser

Walnut. wrote: »

Sounds good, Joneser. Does the course involve a lot of programming? I'm still not sure what I personally am going to do. Doesn't help that after one year I feel like I still know shag all about Computer Science!

The course does involve more and more programming as you go along and lots of assignments which I suggest you begin as soon as you can, because if you leave them too late then it can start snowballing on you.

And as was said above me, you will get massive benefit from doing your own programming and learning different programming languages outside of the course. Android would be a good choice as it's really taking off at the moment and it is basically Java but with different libraries, C++ would also be a good choice.

You will feel like you know a lot more after 2nd year, I think 1st year is just a taster really so people know whether or not if they want to continue it.

Healium

How many Boardsies are going into 1st year CS?

Edit: I guess, "Thank" this post if you're going into 1st year, rather than streams of "Me! " posts

bigred100

If the boardsies meet up doesn't go to plan, we should definitely do a Comp sci one.

Healium

bigred100 wrote: »

If the boardsies meet up doesn't go to plan, we should definitely do a Comp sci one.

I think we should have a pre-BBQ BBQ

Gaeldor68

This is a question for anyone who has done second year and its about the maths modules. I am going into second year myself and I'm finding picking the maths modules difficult.

I have a core module on discrete maths and I'm wondering is there any point in me doing Graphs and Networks the maths module? by that I mean will I just be doing the same stuff again or will any new stuff I learn be useful to me.

Secondly is Mathematical Logic like Formal foundations or is it totally different? I only did the easy maths in first year and it recommends that you have done the hard maths so I'm not sure about this one.

And finally would you not recommend doing all of the 3 maths modules in the first semester or do you know anyone who did that and it turned out fine for them?

Also did anyone do the UNIX programming module and is it any good?

Thanks in advance.

JonB

Gaeldor68 wrote: »

This is a question for anyone who has done second year and its about the maths modules. I am going into second year myself and I'm finding picking the maths modules difficult.

I have a core module on discrete maths and I'm wondering is there any point in me doing Graphs and Networks the maths module? by that I mean will I just be doing the same stuff again or will any new stuff I learn be useful to me.

Secondly is Mathematical Logic like Formal foundations or is it totally different? I only did the easy maths in first year and it recommends that you have done the hard maths so I'm not sure about this one.

And finally would you not recommend doing all of the 3 maths modules in the first semester or do you know anyone who did that and it turned out fine for them?

Also did anyone do the UNIX programming module and is it any good?

Thanks in advance.

Discrete mathematics and Graphs and Networks are really different. Out of all the Maths modules I think Graphs and Networks is acctually a good module that relates to CS compared to some of the other maths modules. It's a grand elective also not loads of work required for it. Go to the lectures and you will have no problem with it. I couldn't tell you what Mathematical Logic is like as I didn't do it.

Other math modules I did was Linear models in the Sciences. I liked this module. Was a bit lost in it with the first month but I kept going to the lectures and the tutorials and everything came together. I found the tutor in this module really good. Managed to get an A in it also so was well chuffed.

Other module I did was Group Theory and its applications I hated the course and felt completely lost in it and out of my depth. I have to repeat it this year thankfully its not a 100% final exam like last year.

Killer Pigeon

OSI wrote: »

Make sure you do Matrices and Vectors... Will come in very handy for Computer Graphics 1 and 2...

And Unix Programming is right up there with my favourite modules. Although it has changed a bit since I did it.

Isn't Matrices and Vectors compulsory for all 1st year science students (including denominated) unless you're doing the higher maths modules. Linear Algebra and Geometry would be similar to Matrices and Vector.

Xhristy

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bigred100

Sh*t load of 9am starts. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Xhristy

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Healium

Would it be really random to register for Animal Diversity and Evolution?

It seems like the majority of CompSci-related options are already core. With the Intro To Maths option required (didn't get a C3 or higher ), I only have 5 credits left I think...

bigred100

Healium wrote: »

Would it be really random to register for Animal Diversity and Evolution?

It seems like the majority of CompSci-related options are already core. With the Intro To Maths option required (didn't get a C3 or higher ), I only have 5 credits left I think...

You're my new best friend, congrats!!

How your schedule look?

Healium

bigred100 wrote: »

You're my new best friend, congrats!!

How your schedule look?

Can you not register for electives until the 11th, too?

Monday: 11-4
Tues-Friday: 9 ~ 3/4PM

Happy that I have Monday morning off

What about you?

Edit: My Semester 2 is so bare! Two days with only one class haha. Semester 1 is 40 credits, Semester 2 is only 20

bigred100

Healium wrote: »

Can you not register for electives until the 11th, too?

Monday: 11-4
Tues-Friday: 9 ~ 3/4PM

Happy that I have Monday morning off

What about you?

Edit: My Semester 2 is so bare! Two days with only one class haha. Semester 1 is 40 credits, Semester 2 is only 20

Same as you for semester 1, I'm doing 35 credits in 1 and 25 in 2. I haven't put down any electives, I have 60 credits from my core/option and everything is green, so yeah...

Healium

bigred100 wrote: »

Same as you for semester 1, I'm doing 35 credits in 1 and 25 in 2. I haven't put down any electives, I have 60 credits from my core/option and everything is green, so yeah...

Oh, the Electives count as part of the 60 credits, too? Damn, I only got to pick one module, then The rest were compulsory

I wanted to stick some Biology and a language in there

I stuck in Astronomy and Space Science haha. Can't be stuck with computers all the time...

bigred100

My entire schedule is maths and computers...