Computer Science Degrees

amen

It's how to correctly engineer software, how to design and architect software correctly, how to manage software projects etc. Programming helps to gain and demonstrate a deeper understanding of the theory

Yes but there is no defined method/idea on how to do this. If I want to build a house there well understood and proven principles and methods to build a house in steel, wood, brick etc. In software engineering there a variety if engineering and project management methodologies none of which have yet to be truly proven to work. From my own experience the success(or not) of an IT project primarily depends on the people involved in the project not that methodology or language used.

Sure someone who does a physics degree can pick learn to program as well, but equally someone who does CS/SE can learn to do physics as well.

While you can take a CS grad and have them learn the physics undergrad themselves I think they would struggle. On the other hand I think it is relatively easy to learn and understand the principles of software engineering.

Traditionally must CS/Software Engineers were Maths, Physics and Electronic Engineers(actually if you look at the older faculty staff members in a lot of Universities Electronic Engineering lecturers are normally from a Physics background as Electronic Engineering is a relatively new discipline.) and programming was done to solve to real world problems such as bomb/artillery trajectories.

But then a CS/SE grad could just google whatever equations are needed and implement those

Or if I am a physics grad I can go google an efficient algorithm for sorting and implement that or even better just as in civil engineering I go and buy a prefabricated component( steel girder)

write physics software, in which case a physics degree might be an option

so wrong. Most science/engineering courses cover a very broad range of subjects including maths,business, computing (including programming) etc and these encourage you to think and rationalise problems.

These skills are invaluable in solving real world problems using computers.

Most of the big finances houses, banks, bio chem companies etc recruit maths/physics grads to design, implement and programming their financial, drug interaction etc models due to their maths,skills problems.

tehjimmeh

amen wrote: »

In software engineering there a variety if engineering and project management methodologies none of which have yet to be truly proven to work.

I disagree.

http://programming-motherfucker.com/

amen

http://programming-mother****er.com/

that is funny

srsly78

amen wrote: »

Most of the big finances houses, banks, bio chem companies etc recruit maths/physics grads to design, implement and programming their financial, drug interaction etc models due to their maths,skills problems.

The most common qualification among quants is physics. Having a physics degree opens a lot more doors than a compsci degree.

Neodymium

BostonB wrote: »

If I was looking at college again, I wouldn't restrict myself to just Ireland.

Find out what the best graduates are doing internationally and find the college thats closest to achieving that standard, that you can get to.

I have been thinking about this alot lately. The computer science degree at the University of Edinburgh seems very impressive. It's ranked 1st in the uk by the guardian newspaper for computer science (see here),even above cambridge which is very impressive. University of Edinburgh is also ranked 22nd worldwide across all subjects. Course info. for the Edinburgh computer science degree is here

What separates the comp. science degree in Edinburgh from the degrees in Ireland, from my research is that it has many options within the degree. Many people have expressed concern that the people from physics/engineering/mathematical backgrounds are more rounded than computer science grads. In Edinburgh there is the option to do computer science along with maths, artificial intelligence and software engineering (see my first link).

Do you think that this degree in the University of Edinburgh would offer sufficent advantages over a computer science degree in Ireland. After seeing this degree I feel excited , it seems to be perfect for me.

Thanks again for reading, any input would be appreciated especially from anyone who has studied in Scotland or anywhere else in the UK. Thanks again.:)

Neodymium

YourNameForMe wrote: »

Can I make a recommendation, If you want to move to the next level of web development, try learning Python (its fairly similar to JavaScript) and use it to create an application or website on Google App Engine. Its completely free and a great way to experiment with web technologies. It would be a bit of a challenge but I'm sure you'll be able for it :-)

Thanks, for letting me know, seems very interesting.
I learned a bit of python ages ago, it was quite easy to learn and was the first programming language I encountered, I had alot of fun messing around with pygame at the time. After researching the google app engine's website I see it also supports java along with python. Would there be any reason to chose python over java or vice versa. I know that python is an easier language to learn than java at least the syntax seems easier to me anyway, but would it be ok if I started to learn a bit of java now seen as it is one of the most important programming languages I will be doing in college, and starting to learn it now will give me a bit of a advantage later on.
Overall the google app engine looks very cool and is definately something that I would be interested in using some time. Thanks for letting me know.:)

everdead.ie

Just finished the IT course in NuiG and I thought it was great there is a lot of programming, Databases some Maths and Theory but most classes have a practical project which counts for 30% of your grade in that class. It's now CS&IT but it also does a module software engineering in 2nd third and fourth year covering real projects and project Management from time&cost management to development techniques like agile development. Using techniques to find source problems testing methods lean sigma and a tonne of other stuff. So it's pretty comprehensive. It also offers courses in new technologies like mobile development, green technology, medical informatics(I created an ECG machine in class and a lung measurement system).

I do think though that the courses will vary little from the main colleges and maybe you should think about where you want to live Cork, Galway, Limrick and Dublin all offer very similar courses as far as I am aware.

stevenmu

amen wrote: »

Traditionally must CS/Software Engineers were Maths, Physics and Electronic Engineers(actually if you look at the older faculty staff members in a lot of Universities Electronic Engineering lecturers are normally from a Physics background as Electronic Engineering is a relatively new discipline.) and programming was done to solve to real world problems such as bomb/artillery trajectories.

As you already mentioned Comp. Sci is really a specialisation of Applied Maths, it's also a relatively recent one (it's not that long ago that only the 3 richest kings of europe could afford on after all ), so it's not really a surprise that older faculty members came from physics or pure maths backgrounds. I went to NUIM and it was the same story there, older faculty members tended to be originally from other disciplines, but they are now part of the Comp. Sci. faculty, and the younger staff were all Comp. Sci. grads, which says a lot IMO.

Most of the big finances houses, banks, bio chem companies etc recruit maths/physics grads to design, implement and programming their financial, drug interaction etc models due to their maths,skills problems.

And look how well they're doing now (I'm mostly only joking about that)

They also recruit a lot of Comp Sci people as well. They recruit maths/physics people to model the markets, derive equations and algorithms to predict market trends and so. They recruit Comp Sci/Soft Eng grads to implement high performance, high transactional volume, highly available, distributed systems.

jenniem01

http://www.csi.ucd.ie/news/computer-science-ucd-ranked-no-1-ireland-and-among-top-30-universities-europe

Supposedly UCD is!

boblong

jenniem01 wrote: »

http://www.csi.ucd.ie/news/computer-science-ucd-ranked-no-1-ireland-and-among-top-30-universities-europe

Supposedly UCD is!

TCD has a higher academic rating (25.4). Not that it matters, still not exactly clear where they pluck those numbers from.

Sparks

boblong wrote: »

still not exactly clear where they pluck those numbers from.

Quite a few academics have a rather succinct, if anatomically unlikely, answer to that particular question...

VirtualWorld

Hi everyone.

I'm cutting things fine here time wise I know but I'm about to put in my CAO applications for September in Computer Science. I don't have an LC Higher Level Maths Honour.

Can anyone advise which courses don't require it? I'm finding trawling through all the different websites to be very heavy going. Being a mature student I don't have the advantages of a career guidance teacher to speak to.

Thank you in advance.

KonFusion

ITB doesn't require higher maths.

srsly78

Only TCD required higher maths last I checked. Strangely this had the effect of LOWERING the points required (because it eliminated most of the applicant pool).

MacBoogerBalls

I thought mature students where assessed on application/interview as opposed to LC results.
UL seem to have a maths exam for those without LC requirement.

srsly78

It seems to depend on the uni.

For TCD mature students don't need points. They do need the minimum requirements for the course however, and this may mean hons maths in some cases. Not sure if the uni allows exemptions from this. When I was granted a place in physics as a mature student it was subject to Bs in maths and physics.

lstevo

Hi all,

Anyone know if the part time degree in Computing in NCI is any good?

MOC88

VirtualWorld wrote: »

Hi everyone.

I'm cutting things fine here time wise I know but I'm about to put in my CAO applications for September in Computer Science. I don't have an LC Higher Level Maths Honour.

Can anyone advise which courses don't require it? I'm finding trawling through all the different websites to be very heavy going. Being a mature student I don't have the advantages of a career guidance teacher to speak to.

Thank you in advance.

I think that's actually an advantage

DublinWriter

At the end of the day, I.T. is still an unregulated profession.

I know of many young IT people working for 'big six' organisations who were picked up on the milk-round with degrees in diverse as subjects as Zoology.

It all depends on what you see yourself doing in ten year's time.

liamog

lstevo wrote: »

Hi all,

Anyone know if the part time degree in Computing in NCI is any good?

I've just finished the part time degree in Computing at NCI, the college was somewhat infuriating when dealing with us part time students. The course had a variety of subjects and was great for giving you a place to start.

The course was suited towards web development so don't expect to play with any cool robots. I found the part time lecturers to be really good as most of them are from industry.

ChRoMe

DublinWriter wrote: »

At the end of the day, I.T. is still an unregulated profession.

Most are.

DublinWriter

ChRoMe wrote: »

Most are.

Name me any profession besides I.T. that is still unregulated.

Sparks

DublinWriter wrote: »

Name me any profession besides I.T. that is still unregulated.

If we're going to be snippy about things, I'm going to respond with "the oldest one" and wait for people to forget about Nevada and Australia and Germany when saying that it's not legal.

If it's a genuine question, you need to be talking about what "profession" means...

fergalr

DublinWriter wrote: »

At the end of the day, I.T. is still an unregulated profession.
[...]
Name me any profession besides I.T. that is still unregulated.

Honestly, I think that is a bit of a silly discussion. As Sparks says, it comes down to semantics.


If you think 'profession' means 'something regulated', then IT is not a profession as you said its unregulated.


If you think 'profession' means 'something people do as a full time career and maybe have trained specially for', then its easy to name lots of unregulated professions.

What about being a Writer, DublinWriter?
A corporate manager? An industrial designer? etc.

DublinWriter wrote: »

I know of many young IT people working for 'big six' organisations who were picked up on the milk-round with degrees in diverse as subjects as Zoology.

'big six' - I had to look that up - you refer to big accountancy firms in the uk?

Its great that people got jobs in IT in those companies, but if someone tells me they want a career in tech, I would not advise them to start out by doing a degree in zoology.

DublinWriter

fergalr wrote: »

Honestly, I think that is a bit of a silly discussion. As Sparks says, it comes down to semantics...
What about being a Writer, DublinWriter?
A corporate manager? An industrial designer?

By profession I mean Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering, Architecture...even Journalism was regulated until very recently (NUJ membership used to be essential).

I couldn't suddenly decide to be a dentist in the morning. There are professional qualifications to be awarded first and/or professional bodies that I would need to be a member of.

The problem with I.T. is that it is an unregulated profession. Right now, any delusional spoofer can establish him or herself up as a B.A. or Solutions Architect.

Sorry - probably showing my age with the 'Big Six' reference - I'm talking about the major tech consultancy companies in Ireland. They really don't care what your undergrad degree was in because they have their own corporate culture of taking a young graduate in as a 'blank sheet'.

Sparks

The "regulation" isn't quite so simple and clear-cut as that. I mean, sure you can't set up as a dentist or a heart surgeon without qualification, but who regulates (say) chiropractors? There have been cases of people being killed by chiropractic, so you'd think they'd be properly regulated, but not so much (there's a "voluntary, self-regulatory" body called the CAI but that's it). Rent an office, stick up a sign and start yanking on joints and congratulations, you can legally call yourself a medical professional.

Similarly in IT, there are areas that just aren't regulated and are full of cowboys, and there are areas where it's a lot better (recognised courses and accreditations and so forth). But a single, overarching regulatory body with statutory licence to prevent people practicing without qualification? As far as I know, no profession has that, not for every area.


And that's before we get to the point where you start asking whether or not that regulation is necessary, what form it should take, what qualifications should be needed to be allowed to work in IT, and the ten million other follow-on questions. Personally, I think we'll wind up there in the end, that's what tends to happen to jobs (professional or otherwise) that society comes to realise it depends on for its survival. And when that happens, we'll see a replay of what's happened in every other branch of engineering at one point or another. But is it gonna happen tomorrow? I doubt it

beans

Back in '98 everyone was saying the Computer Applications course in DCU was the place to be.

I notice it's not mentioned here at all - has it really gone down in people's estimation in recent years?