computer science

IRISH DAYWALKER

hello everyone, i am thinking of doing computer science in ul in september and i was wondering what the course is like... is it hard etc??? will i be spending all my time on homework?? i have a little bit of experience with computers just with downloading music and other ordinary stuff will lack of computer knowledge make this course harder for me or are the basics thought??? thanks in advance

Mossin

Seriously mate, do a quick search on comp sys, and you will get more than enough responses to what you want to know..

The course has changed from what a lot of the posters [and mods] here did on the old comp sys course, but their statements and testimonials are still relevant in a lot of ways to the new course.

cronos

Computer Systems in UL is a very tough course. Prob the best CS course in Ireland. It takes a large amount of work but you still have plenty of time to socialize. If you got less than 300 points in the LC I would not do the course. Unless you just hated the LC subjects.

Dave147

My brother is just finished Com Sys, he struggled through but he is a natural talent, he's been fooling around with PC's MACs and messing around with Linux etc since he was very young. He got 295 in his Leaving and he's being offered jobs left, right and centre.

If you have weak maths then prepare to get grinds because he said the maths was killer.

Zeouterlimits

Just finished first year so I'll give it to you as simple as I can.
1) You have plenty of time to socialise. That's not a problem. Just attend your lectures, labs & tuts and do the assigned work and you'll be fine. You'll have too much free time even :P
2) Maths is a big part of the course, make sure you can do the tutorial work and you'll be fine. If you have any problem go to the Maths centre, it's great, they really help. I can't underline this enough, if you need help, get it, it's free.
3) It does start off slow, but you have to keep up. If you don't have much pc experience I'd recommend using a pc regularly. Perhaps you could try looking at a java tutorial online (that's the main language you'll be studying in first year).

Enjoy man, twill be a great year

IRISH DAYWALKER

cool thanks evreyone, im good in school i should be up around 400 points, but in relation to the maths part..... whats it like compared to honours maths for the leaving cert???? i went down to pass half way through 5th year and found it simple...... i did honours physics for the leaving and its one of my best subjects

kaimera

try googling college computer maths and see what pops up;

as long as u keep on top of the maths early it's ok...it's the later modules like say DSP that can be tough

IchigoFork

Hmm, I'm not actually in Comp Sys in UL, but I am in Comp Games, and we have a communal 1st year. Maths is grand really, I myself did higher for LC, and found the maths in 1st semester to be pretty tough. The main problem was that the lecturer was useless. But the tutorials were very good. Functions. Study functions. And the dy/dx things. Keep your LC maths book handy. And you learn a bit about graphs, but that's relitively easy. 2nd semester is sets and logic, the logic you do a bit of in Comp. Org in 1st semester anway so it's no too hard.
Best advice: go to tutorials. And Lectures. But mainly tuts, good practical work is easier to learn from. Not that lectures aren't worth our while, because they very much are. But if you had to pick
I've no iea what'll be like in 2nd year cos 1. Not communal for 2nd tyear and 2. Haven't got that far yet!

Good luck anywho, if you've more q's give us a shout.

kaimera

course outline over 4 years - http://www.csis.ul.ie/currentcourse/LM051/

computer maths

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Apply Linear Algebra to Computer Graphics, specifically animation.

2. Use numerical analysis methods for solving equations; specifically for roots of equations.

3. Apply graph theory for the design of circuits, scheduling problems, etc.

4. Employ sequences and series for an efficient representation of mathematical functions in algorithms, as well as approximating special functions.

5. Abstractise problems into their functional elements; specifically related mathematical function theory.

No material online atm.

comp maths 2

1. Use the language of Discrete Mathematics.

2. Formulate, analyse and solve problems in Discrete Mathematics.

3. Apply methods of Discrete Mathematics to solve problems in Computer Science.

4. Simplify compound propositions.

5. Use standard proof methods.

Data Structures

On successful completion of this module, students should be able to:

1. Given a function or functions in pseudo-code, analyse their asymptotic running time.

2. Given an executable program in black-box form, determine its asymptotic running-time behaviour.

3. Given a fictitious customer's requirements for data storage and their data retrieval patterns, propose appropriate data structures.

4. Identify appropriate sorting and searching algorithms for contrasting scenarios.

5. Understand the trade-offs of various graph representation schemes.

6. Formulate data access and optimisation problems as graph algorithms.

I may have some notes if you wanna PM myself or rmacm; not sure if the material has changed however.

mid

does anyone know if I can view last years computer systems timetable online (1st year)? thanks

BossArky

Do they still give 10% of the maths marks in 1st and 2nd year for just turning up to the tutorials?

I think it was something like 1% for each tutorial if you turned up from weeks 1 to 10.

I did Comp Sys from 98-02. Back then we had loads of free time. There was maximum 20 hours of course work if even that (lectures, labs and tutorials combined).

Make sure you go to the majority of labs and tutorials. You can miss lectures and just learn the stuff from someones notes later to catch up.

Of course, back then there was ~250 in the class so no one noticed if you didn't turn up for a semester or two

I remember one fellow I knew didn't log in to his linux account for about 2 years and then went to get his password reset. The admin guy went mental when he saw he hadn't logged in for so long. Lol i.e. you're supposed to log in each week when doing lab work.

I'm sure the course has changed by now though so this is probably old news.

mid

thanks for that BossArky, wasnt sure how many hours to expect per week, 20 doesnt sound too bad for lectures, labs and tutorials combined

SmurfX

Its not "that" bad. I think it's a really tough course to be getting high grades consistently in so if you're after a 1:1 well good luck to you! :rolleyes:
But it's a fairly reasonable course to get through, challenging but not so much that it was too difficult, and I wouldn't worry too much about the Maths. I found that it was more or less on the level of Leaving Cert Higher level stuff rather than anything a step above.