Engineering Trinity

Boston

Could someone please give an account of engineering in trinity for the first two years, and then what ever specific field of engineering you are doing.

Or, there is an open day coming up soon it a few weeks, and if you could provide the names of the people i should talk to it would also be a great help.

damnyanks

I remember looking at the prospectus. You choose which field you want to go into at 2nd or 3 rd year. My friend is in first year he seems to be in college for 9-5 most days of the week. Very science / maths orientated, they take on twice the amount they can hold cause of so many drop outs

Man U babe

Fcuk sake dont go to tcd, we're planning to hit it with a flaming projectile!

strawberry

You're plannning to hit TCD with a what now?

I think that would probably result in my death and lots of angry people who know who you are...................

Besides, trinity is great, trinity is the life-giving mother, trinity is to be loved and feared.........................

Paulg

First year is a very busy year, mostly 9-5.
You do Civil, Mechanical, Computers and Electronics.
This involves doing Physics, chemistry, tech drawing, maths, applied maths, materials, computer programming, and probably a few other subjects.. it was awhile since i did them. 2nd year is similar, more free time thought, the first 2 years have alot of projects, and lab time, probably 16 hours a week, so only about 24 hours in lectures.

In third year, you decide which discipline you want to specialise in:
Civil, Mechanical, Computers ,Electronics and Computer/Electronic combined.

Borzoi

All engineering courses are pretty much 9-5 for the whole 4 years, with a lot of labs and projects to do as well.

Most courses are heavy on maths and physics, with a dollop of chemistry and computing, at least in the early years. When you stream, the subjects will become more specialised but sill lot and lots of maths. BTW if anybody offers a foreign language as part of the course, that should be a huge plus.

What you want to look at Boston, is what you want to do after you've qualified. ie if you want to be a Building Services Engineer, trinity just dosn't do it. Another thing to watch out for, and talk to people at the open day about this. How do they stream the course? Is your choice of specialisation dependant on your grade through college. I know that Food Engineering in UCD can be a bit of an intellectual backwater, if you get my drift.

Later on, if you go into industry you'll find about 10% of what you did is relevant, and that 90% of time common sense can be used, something, eh, you don't have a great rep for:D

BTW I went to DIT Bolton St, am a Mechanical Eng. Hung around a lot of friends in Trinners. If you want more info PM me. :cool:

saik

I failed first year, repeating it now. You really need good maths and physics or applied maths for the course. that stuff is 3/8 (nearly half) of the first year. the course is pretty much 9-5, some days it's 9-6. you do get days where you dont have labs etc, so it wont be 9-5 every day , every week. You get graphics assignments 3 weekly, maths assignments (2) weekly , computer science assignments weekly, chemistry and physics post/pre lab work 2weekly, you get work to do before tutorials.. you also have 3 labs for introduction to engineering to write up over the year. (ez) maths, maths (hard) again, comp sci, app maths (eng science tis called),chemistry, physics, drawing, introduction to engineering - (basically glimpses into various fields of engineering) i know people who had solid leaving certs who had physics applied maths drawing etc, flew through the year, no bother to them. but it is a lot of work. if you are lazy, dont expect yourself to change, do arts or something : ) the majority of my mates hate the course, and now in second year they say it is just as bad as the first. you have to learn about cement and fluids and sh*te, in second year, even if youve decided on comp eng. that said, they have a few hours less p/week than me. apologies for grammer punctuation layout etc.

Chaos-Engine

Trinity OPEN DAY 2002
Wednesday 11 December 2002


http://www.tcd.ie/Senior.Lecturer/Admissions/OpenDay.html

Come to trinity. Its too good to be anywhere else. Other colleges haven't got an arts block that was originally designed as a gallery for hanging catholics... lol

The Engineering is alot more broad to start than most colleges. But in 3rd and 4th year the specialisation is powerful.

I'm in Comp Sci(Engineering Faculty) and the way they teach engineering type subjects is spectacular...

Boston

Situation is that im not to sure weather I want to do electronic engineering and specialize in communications, or mechutronics, which is mechanical and electronic engineering combined. In this sense Trinities approach would be decent as you would have time to try different things, but I can see my head getting done in by doing a load of stuff I’ve absolutely no interest in. I’m very mathematically driven and completely inept and languages and chemistry/biology, I don’t have them in the leaving. And I’d only have pass French which wouldn’t be a good enough grade to do it as part of the course.

I have to say I went out to DCU and I was extremely impressed, it seemed much more stream lined and focused then most other college’s ive looked out, although I haven’t been to trinity yet. Also they have, or at least promised, extremely small class sizes.

Chaos-Engine, I was giving Computer science in trinity and once over as well, and words of wisdom on that front would be most appreciated.

If anybody has any suggestions on the type of questions I should be asking at these open days, please shoot.

Chaos-Engine

Well you don't have to do a language for a start in Engineering in TCD. Its not mandatory(one of the reason its my college of choice)...

Computer Science in Trinity:

It doesn't get any better than Trinity. Its the best Comp Sci Degree in the country. It is one of the 4 computer science courses that is accredited by the IEI which means after you get your degree you will be an MEI(member of the Engineers Institute) and after 5 years work in the industry you will be listed as a "Charted Engineer"... thats marvelous. And its also a BA... so you get everything. Don't let the BA fool you. I did. I was pissed that it wasn't a BSc till i got into the guts of the course. It truely is better as a BA. Why?
Because we learn how to design everything from the ground up. We are creators. Trinity isn't in the business of making programmers. It makes Computer Scientists

The fact that the Comp Sci BA is under the Engineering Faculty also gives us a unique angle as in most otehr colleges Comp SCi is in the Science faculty. In Comp Sci in TCD in first year and second year most alot of work is electronic engineering from a Comp Sci prospective. Are lectures are engineers. They make use think like engineers...

I could go on and on.... I'll stop there. I'll just add a few non-academic reasons why to come to trinity and some of my PERSONAL reasons...

The Social life in trinity is unbeliefable. Its not so much a college life but more a Trinity Life. There is a serious difference as I have studied in both UCD and DIT, Trinity is just leeps ahead. The people are so helpful and very very friendly to all. There is no cleeches like in some other colleges(well not near as much anyway). No one likes BESS students cuz they are blonde and have STDs... lol
IF you hate languages come to TCD. You don't have to do them even to get in. I'm Dyslexic and trinity accomadates me more than any other college in the Irish Free State. I started a Diploma in Applied Computing in DIT a year ago and left because there was a business module and a language aswell as computers... I mean I applied to do comp sci not another fecking leaving cert...

If you want to get to know the course go to the open day and maybe even sit in on a lecture or two. I'll sneek you in if you liek


DISCLAIMER: Comments regarding other colleges are my Personal opinions and if you wish to contradict them do so in a private manor(via email). It isn't my fault that most other Dublin based colleges have an inferiority complex when it comes to Trinity. You know we don't bitch about UCD all the time. We just wonder why you hate bitch about us most of the time thats all...

Boston

Sounds really positive, I looked at the computer app course in DCU, really wasn't my thing, to much software if you know what I mean. I've nothing against software, just that if I wanted that id be a programmer. You say you look at computer science from a electronic engineering point of few, could you go into abite more detail.

Probably sounds stupid, but you know robot wars on TV, that's the type of thing I see my self as having a drive for, like building circuits and programming machinery, and at the end of the day you have a robot or something to show for it and not just something on a pc screen. probably not making allot of sense.

anyway if you going to be there at the open day, tell me where about and ill make it over to where you are and talk abite about it.

Ps its nice to know there's no cliques as I'm not a cliquey type person

jd

Originally posted by Boston
Sounds really positive, I looked at the computer app course in DCU, really wasn't my thing, to much software if you know what I mean. I've nothing against software, just that if I wanted that id be a programmer. You say you look at computer science from a electronic engineering point of few, could you go into abite more detail.

I f I remember correctly-going back a few (cough) years, the C stream in TCD is Electronic Engineering, the D stream is Computer Engineering, and the CD stream is a mixture of C and D

Boston

Originally posted by jd
I f I remember correctly-going back a few (cough) years, the C stream in TCD is Electronic Engineering, the D stream is Computer Engineering, and the CD stream is a mixture of C and D

I dont follow.

jd

Originally posted by Boston
I dont follow.

sorry i was tired

From the website
http://www.tcd.ie/engineering/Courses/BAI/index.html


The Sophister Years
The last two years of the course are the Sophister years. Students specialise in one of five area of Engineering. The choice is made towards the end of the Senior Freshman year.

For further information about a specialisation, click one of the links below.

Sophister Specialisations
Civil, Structural & Environmental Engineering (Stream A)
Computer Engineering (Stream D)
Electronic & Computer Engineering (Stream CD)
Electronic & Electrical Engineering (Stream C)
Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering (Stream

Boston

So your saying Comp Sci in trinity is like Comp eng?

Chaos-Engine

Originally posted by Boston
So your saying Comp Sci in trinity is like Comp eng?

Not at all. We are just as good as them. Thats all...
BUT doing Comp Sci in TCD will make it easier to understand a Comp Engineer than most other Programmer Monkey based computer courses...

If COmputer Engineering is what you want there is the Steams as mentioned... I think you can get into Comp Eng from 1st... BUt i might be wrong on that one

Chaos-Engine

Originally posted by Boston

Probably sounds stupid, but you know robot wars on TV, that's the type of thing I see my self as having a drive for, like building circuits and programming machinery, and at the end of the day you have a robot or something to show for it and not just something on a pc screen. probably not making allot of sense.

No more talk... This is the course for you. We mostly do low-level languages and assembly and Digital Logic. Thats what i mean by where the course is coming from. For example for my Xmas assignment in 1st year i had to design a assemble program for a robot to navagte around a Beehive... I won't go into detail on that. But basically from the 2nd week we were physically programming robots in the lab using MC68332 assemblers...
All this is done in "1BA3- Intro to Computing" which is basically machine code, assembly, comp architecture and as much...

"1BA4 - Digital Logic Design" is based around Logical Electronics and Logic gates technology... You get to take the coolest briefcase home to do experiments(gates)...

"1BA5 - Electrotecchnology" is Analogy Electronics. More based around what you might have done in 6th year physics in school. Much more depth and very very interesting(i.e. physics behind wireless communications - "one change in an electric field here can be detected there and ala mobile comm"

WoW... You seems to want the exact thing i did when i was looking for my comp sci course...

Borzoi

Originally posted by Chaos-Engine
It doesn't get any better than Trinity. Its the best Comp Sci Degree in the country. It is one of the 4 computer science courses that is accredited by the IEI which means after you get your degree you will be an MEI(member of the Engineers Institute) and after 5 years work in the industry you will be listed as a "Charted Engineer"... thats marvelous.

OK, to clarify this: Yes the course is accredited by the Institute of Engineers of Ireland, and yes, once you graduate you can become a member of the IEI, and whack the letters MIEI after your name. However, becoming charterd is NOT an automatic procedure. Generally speaking, you need to be graduated for over 4 years, and working in a position of resposibility before you can apply. The application consists of writing a number of essays/projects before goinf in front of an interview panel, who will or will not pass you.

Being charterd is recognition by your peers that you have an acceptable level of expertise. TBH it's of most use in the consulting field, but it's usually worth a few quid in your pocket too.;)

Nietzschean

Originally posted by Chaos-Engine
No more talk... This is the course for you. We mostly do low-level languages and assembly and Digital Logic. Thats what i mean by where the course is coming from. For example for my Xmas assignment in 1st year i had to design a assemble program for a robot to navagte around a Beehive... I won't go into detail on that. But basically from the 2nd week we were physically programming robots in the lab using MC68332 assemblers...
All this is done in "1BA3- Intro to Computing" which is basically machine code, assembly, comp architecture and as much...

"1BA4 - Digital Logic Design" is based around Logical Electronics and Logic gates technology... You get to take the coolest briefcase home to do experiments(gates)...

"1BA5 - Electrotecchnology" is Analogy Electronics. More based around what you might have done in 6th year physics in school. Much more depth and very very interesting(i.e. physics behind wireless communications - "one change in an electric field here can be detected there and ala mobile comm"

WoW... You seems to want the exact thing i did when i was looking for my comp sci course...

i wouldn't jump into the course based on this, your hardware experence/eduction won't be amazing at the end of it, and if low level stuff is what you are most interested in then i would suggest to stick with your idea of comp eng. Things like java become important in cs and alot of theory that you might not be interested in, just first year introductary content isn't really something to go by, find a 3rd year or 4th year of both and then compare what they have to say. Sorry chaos engine to be going against ye here, but i feel someone who is in a higher year would be a better source of info as your year like my year is an introductary year into the general topics of what we are doing...........

Raskolnikov

Serial is right, if you've got no interest in some of the higher level programming languages like Java and other CS related stuff like Unix, computer architecture etc you'll hate Computer Science. You should stick with engineering Boston, more choice and if you decide you like CS you can do it from computer engineering.

As for the best computer science course in the country? Computer applications in DCU is highly regarded, incidently you can also get IEI certification from there too.

Although i'd love to hear what people think are the worse computer course, mine i think would certainly rank amoungst them

coco

Well if you want to go to do engineering my sis did it in trinity she said it was one of the best experiences of her life and the lectures really help one of the lectures over eingineering in trinity is Roger West you could try look up trinity website and get in contact with him!