Need advice on Computer Science course's

Picasso711

Hi,

If all goes well this year I will be studying CS in ITT or CSSE in NUI Maynooth. I am trying to decide what course better suits me. I have some programming experience in Java and have an Oracle SE 7 Cert, so I am not a complete noob.

I really like both college's for different reasons but my main motivation is to pick one that will give me the most benefit with my programming. I would love to be a master of programming.

I have read on old post's that NUIM graduates and not all that comfortable programmers, again this is all I read and I hope its wrong. I have read some negative things about ITT on other posts. Could someone please shed some light on what they think from their experience would be the best place to leave a well able, confident programmer. Again I understand its all opinion but would really appreciate any advice...

CSSE09

The only way to get confident at programming is practice and neither will make you a master at programming, what's done in college is very different to what's done in the work place.

aaabbbb

CSSE09 wrote: »

The only way to get confident at programming is practice and neither will make you a master at programming, what's done in college is very different to what's done in the work place.

Is it true you've to programme on paper for your exams ? :pac:

CSSE09

aaabbbb wrote: »

Is it true you've to programme on paper for your exams ? :pac:

Yep, looking back that was the nicest part of the exams, for the most part they don't look for everything to be perfect though, as long as you clearly show a way of solving a problem and making a decent attempt at writing the code.

aaabbbb

CSSE09 wrote: »

Yep, looking back that was the nicest part of the exams, for the most part they don't look for everything to be perfect though, as long as you clearly show a way of solving a problem and making a decent attempt at writing the code.

As a non computer science person that actually is pretty funny !

Then again I'm imagining you using the pen as a mouse/keys and paper as you would a computer and then ferociously tapping the page and cursing while the paper just sits there and well be's paper ! :pac:

Although if you've to use paper for your exam that does not necessarily demonstrate that you could do it on a computer surely and so theres a bit of a flaw there or what have you ?

I mean I know its essentially the same thing but hypothetically someone could be really stupid and not know where a button is etc and still pass 'cos all they've ever had to do was be able to use a pen and paper

I know theres labs and stuff but the point of exams is to test you on stuff you've learnt and prove you know it so all you're really being tested on is if you can write code on paper and not if you can actually write code with a computer and make it work

Though thats all pretty hypothetical of course. Likelihood is if you can do it on paper you can use a computer to do it :pac:

CSSE09

aaabbbb wrote: »

As a non computer science person that actually is pretty funny !

Then again I'm imagining you using the pen as a mouse/keys and paper as you would a computer and then ferociously tapping the page and cursing while the paper just sits there and well be's paper ! :pac:

Although if you've to use paper for your exam that does not necessarily demonstrate that you could do it on a computer surely and so theres a bit of a flaw there or what have you ?

I mean I know its essentially the same thing but hypothetically someone could be really stupid and not know where a button is etc and still pass 'cos all they've ever had to do was be able to use a pen and paper

I know theres labs and stuff but the point of exams is to test you on stuff you've learnt and prove you know it so all you're really being tested on is if you can write code on paper and not if you can actually write code with a computer and make it work

Though thats all pretty hypothetical of course. Likelihood is if you can do it on paper you can use a computer to do it :pac:

That's the thing though if you can solve the problem on paper than it's just a matter of putting it in the computer. In first year we got to use some lego robots and one of the tasks was to get it to drive itself in a specific shape or spell out a word. Say you were asked to make it drive in the shape of a square how would you do it?

Move forward 10 centimeters, turn right, repeat.
Take that English and put it in to code it might be something like this,
moveForward(10)
turnRight()
moveForward(10)
etc.

The cursing does happen though

Seeing as this is a topic for advice on the cs course, that's pretty much what first year is all about, learning to think how to solve a problem in a way that you can program so the computer can understand it too.

Picasso711

Cheers CSSE09,

thats good advice. Soumds really interesting breaking down the solution...

Have you graduated ? If not what year are you in ? Also did you study CSSE through arts ir science ? Is there a big difference between them ?

CSSE09

Picasso711 wrote: »

Cheers CSSE09,

thats good advice. Soumds really interesting breaking down the solution...

Have you graduated ? If not what year are you in ? Also did you study CSSE through arts ir science ? Is there a big difference between them ?

Graduated through science, no difference other than 1st year where science does 4 subjects and arts do 3 I believe.

marko93

Of you are doing CSSE through Arts or Science I think you have an extra/different module when doing it through Arts!

CSSE09

marko93 wrote: »

Of you are doing CSSE through Arts or Science I think you have an extra/different module when doing it through Arts!

I believe in that case the database module is in first year and a "reading" module is then in second year. From what I heard that module is just a filler you'd go off and write up some small report on a particular technology.

Picasso711

CSSE09 wrote: »

Graduated through science, no difference other than 1st year where science does 4 subjects and arts do 3 I believe.

That is good. I taught there may be a significant difference. I have the option of doing the arts side. When did you Graduate? How was it seeking work after Graduation? Did you do a work placement?

CSSE09

Picasso711 wrote: »

That is good. I taught there may be a significant difference. I have the option of doing the arts side. When did you Graduate? How was it seeking work after Graduation? Did you do a work placement?

Graduated last year, I found it easy but I had high grades and good experience, everyone does a placement for the most part. Placements up to yourself though, you apply for jobs and do interviews, if you don't get one you have to work in the college.

Picasso711

CSSE09 wrote: »

Graduated last year, I found it easy but I had high grades and good experience, everyone does a placement for the most part. Placements up to yourself though, you apply for jobs and do interviews, if you don't get one you have to work in the college.

That's cool.. Where did you do your placement? Did you end up working with them when you Graduated? Where you straight out of school when you started this course? Did you do much android on the course ? Any robotics ? Sorry for bombarding you with questions really interested...

CSSE09

Picasso711 wrote: »

That's cool.. Where did you do your placement? Did you end up working with them when you Graduated? Where you straight out of school when you started this course? Did you do much android on the course ? Any robotics ? Sorry for bombarding you with questions really interested...

Not going to say where, to easy to figure out who I am :cool: Didn't work for them after graduating, yup straight from secondary, I did no android but a few friends did, there is a robotics module but you don't work on real physical robots you do the maths and theory behind how they work and you make up all the different combinations of robotic joints in matlab.

Picasso711

Ok cool. So what modules did you pick as you progressed through the course ? Do you think you will ever go on to do the masters ?

Alt_Grrr

Picasso711 wrote: »

Ok cool. So what modules did you pick as you progressed through the course ? Do you think you will ever go on to do the masters ?

There isn't a choice until final year.
Which is a bit of a pain sometimes, but in fourth year you really enjoy the choices.

Alt_Grrr

Picasso711 wrote: »

I have read on old post's that NUIM graduates and not all that comfortable programmers, again this is all I read and I hope its wrong. I have read some negative things about ITT on other posts. Could someone please shed some light on what they think from their experience would be the best place to leave a well able, confident programmer. Again I understand its all opinion but would really appreciate any advice...

The programming problem is common to universities vs IT's. IT's tend to focus on getting the nuts and bolts of programming tight. Universities tend to care more about theoretical CS and Algorithms. Its possible therefore to have a bachelors degree in computer science and be a terrible programmer.

Universities and Institutes of Technology tend to be very different things as well, teaching is the main focus of most IT's and Research is the major focus of universities. But its important to recognise that both teach you the most important parts about programming, the bare basic ideas and how to read the fine manual. Stuff you learn could be one day obsolete and you need to be able to learn about the next new thing.