Anybody doing Computational Thinking?

graate

Thinking about going for the new Computational Thinking degree as the course content looks a HELL of a lot better than anything Trinity are offering and it's only 3 years. Only thing is I'm a tad apprehensive about jumping into a two year old course.

Anybody doing the course have anything they would like to share about it? Would you think its the better option than trinity?

Seren_

Computational Thinking is actually just brand new this year, so there's only first year students of it so far. Might be an idea to contact the course co-ordinator (details will be on the nuim website, in the computer science dept section) and they might be able to give you some info, or even put you in touch with some of the students doing the course.

graate

Seren_ wrote: »

Computational Thinking is actually just brand new this year, so there's only first year students of it so far. Might be an idea to contact the course co-ordinator (details will be on the nuim website, in the computer science dept section) and they might be able to give you some info, or even put you in touch with some of the students doing the course.

Thanks mate.

McMenzie

Well boy! I'm one of the first years doing comp thinking this year. I had the exact same problem as you last year. I wanted to do a decent maths degree, and IT is where the jobs are atm. This course was definitely the best option.The course is really accelerated, were in with second year computer science students, and were all flying. We covered first year in 3 days like, and if your good at maths, you'll have no bother, but be prepared for some challenging maths assignments!

Pepperr

Also in the course myself, a few of the guys I know are doing the computer science and engineering and it sounds completely different! So far the course has been fairly interesting! We are in with the second years for computer science, and doing slightly more advanced maths modules then most students (We are mixed in with people doing Theoretical physics and maths).

It can be hard but it's good craic and rewarding!

RuaidhriCF

Computational thinking is a challenging course that is a lot different to modules taught for the leaving cert (apart from the Maths). I am also doing the course and know the work that has to be put in! It is strange in the sense that the mixture of Philosophy, Maths and Computer Science can be made into one course, but in hindsight it works.

The course is tough in that we already put in the work and are with the Second year Comp. Science students. We are also pretty much up to that standard of Comp. Science!

Maths is hard enough, however this is expected since we all got at least a B1 in higher maths in the Leaving Cert. Be prepared for the challenging assignments.

Philosophy is to keep your written skills ticking over and helps in other ways to strengthen the course.

Overall, it is an interesting tough course and is bound to get get you thinking .... computationally hopefully!

graate

RuaidhriCF wrote: »

Computational thinking is a challenging course that is a lot different to modules taught for the leaving cert (apart from the Maths). I am also doing the course and know the work that has to be put in! It is strange in the sense that the mixture of Philosophy, Maths and Computer Science can be made into one course, but in hindsight it works.

The course is tough in that we already put in the work and are with the Second year Comp. Science students. We are also pretty much up to that standard of Comp. Science!

Maths is hard enough, however this is expected since we all got at least a B1 in higher maths in the Leaving Cert. Be prepared for the challenging assignments.

Philosophy is to keep your written skills ticking over and helps in other ways to strengthen the course.

Overall, it is an interesting tough course and is bound to get get you thinking .... computationally hopefully!

Thanks a ton for the replies.

Have you done much programming yet? What are the lecturers like at NUIM?

RuaidhriCF

We had three intense days of programming at the start that brought up practically up to second year standard. Since then we've had labs and lectures to keep us ticking over!

Pepperr

The lecturers are grand! You might get the odd one that can be.. hard to follow, but they are helpful and so far we haven't run into any problems with them.

Just my POV though, there are 12 others that could say differently!

Raeral

Hi, I'm currently in sixth year and am also interested in this course. Just wondering if any of you have thought about your career prospects and where you hope to be working when you're finished. Also, with regards to that do you feel that because you went to Maynooth, employers might not recognise you as much as if you had gone to say, trinity or ucd (although neither has a course quite like the one in Maynooth)

RuaidhriCF

National Unversity of Ireland Maynooth (NUIM) has been recognised as one of the leading new universities in the world, and is the highest placed Irish university in the new Times Higher Education (THE) 100 Under 50 rankings.

Also many employers today look at universities including DCU and NUIM, recognising the students as very academic, hard working and intelligent!

Jackobyte

Bump!

Rather than start a new thread, I'll just add to this one, and hope the students are still subscribed to it.

How are you finding it at this stage? Has your opinion changed since the above comments?

As a course, it is an amalgamation of various facilities within the university. What I'd like to know is whether it is weighted substantially in any particular direction? I'm trying to decide between this and Computer Science in one of the Dublin colleges, and was wondering whether the finishing degrees would offer the same career directions. Is it a case of the same + more opportunities, or do you lose out on some of the aspects of a CS course.

Pepperr

I haven't checked in detail but as far as I'm aware, you don't lose out on many (if any) aspects of the normal CS courses.

Here you can check the modules that we do: http://www.nuim.ie/courses/?TARGET=QS&MODE=VIEW&QUALIFICATION_CODE=COMPT&TARGET_SOURCE=QUALIFICATION
and as you can see, in third year you have the option to choose from plenty of modules in either CS or Maths. I'd imagine it covers the majority of the modules the other CS lads take.

You can compare them to these: http://www.nuim.ie/courses/?TARGET=QS&MODE=VIEW&QUALIFICATION_CODE=CSEN&TARGET_SOURCE=QUALIFICATION

Keep in mind, some of our modules are combinations of others, for example our CS225 in the first semester covered the content of the equivalent first year database module, networking module and also some history of computer science.

EDIT: After reading over the modules, it seems our course does skip over a lot of the software related modules, so anything like software engineering or programming might be better studied in another degree!

I think one of the best aspects of the course in terms of comparing the degree to other CS degrees is that the maths modules we take are more difficult than most of the ones they would encounter. (We are lumped in with the pure maths and the theoretical physics & maths guys, and I think it is the highest entry requirements for any maths related course in the country).

On top of all this, the fact it's a year shorter than the rest, and that we get the opportunity to attend additional academic lectures/problem solving labs makes this probably one of the best degrees you can get if you are going into any maths or computer related course! (I may be a bit biased though )

Ask away if you have any specific questions, one of the guys or myself will be happy to help.

Alt_Grrr

Raeral wrote: »

with regards to that do you feel that because you went to Maynooth, employers might not recognise you as much as if you had gone to say, trinity or ucd (although neither has a course quite like the one in Maynooth)

In the real world its less about where you went and more about what you did.
If you have a keen interest in being a software engineer, then CT is not for you.

If your more interested in doing the other stuff, then maybe it might be for you.
Since the course is quite young we can't be sure what the early career prospects are.
(to be fare, after a few years its a case of experience being as important as the letters after your name)

After meeting the Computational Thinking class, I'm sure they'll do fine in the real world.
Some of them may go on to do masters in Computer Science, Software Engineering or Maths (can't see any of them doing philosophy tbh)