ga570- computer and electronic engineering

padmick

Hi all :-) i have accepted this course and i was wondering if anyone else is starting this course or if anyone in this course could tell me what they think of it

carja

Congrats padmick, a great choice of course. I am starting 4th year and I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 3. The best advise I can give you is to turn up to all your lectures and more importantly all of your labs as they count to end of year results. Buy yourself a few tools such as small screwdrivers and wire cutters and an electronic breadboard for prototyping circuits. The lectures are sound too and easy to talk to. Most of all enjoy the whole experience. Good luck

bluestripe93

Hi, I'm starting this course this year too, I got the information/registration pack a couple of days ago and it says we start on Tuesday the 10th

Edit: @ carja, apart from a toolkit what kind of things will we need? do we have to buy books or need a laptop?

carja

Congrats bluestripe93. If you have a laptop it will come in handy but you will manage without one no problem as there are dedicated computer labs for the electronics department. From what I can remember an engineering lab coat, a pair of safety boots/shoes and a pair of safety glassses but you won't need to get them for a week or two. As for books, you don't have to purchase any particular ones but the lecturers will advise you on specific books that you you can either buy or are available in the GMIT library. Best of luck and most of all enjoy the whole college experience

padmick

hi its great to know someone starting too. what are the hours involved in this course?

carja

Hi Padmick. There are about 24 hours of lectures and labs for first year your subjects(If my memory serves me right) are:
Digital Electronics
Electronic Principles
Web Design and Software Animation
Maths
Learning to Learn
PC's and Multimedia
Technology and Graphics

I may have missed a subject but you'll find out next week. Most subjects are graded by continueous assessment with either a 50/50 or a 40/60 split with labs and exams, hence the importance of attending all the labs. Most of the people that fail a subject do so because their attendance at labs is low. A couple of subjects are 100% contineous assessment.:eek:

padmick

thanks just one last question, i do a lot of coding like java, python and ruby. is there any programming on this course? thanks :-)

carja

:pac:
padmick, you already have a head start with those high level languages. You will start to learn c programming as this is essential for microcontollers. As you progress through the course you will use a language called processing, which is built on Java. In third year you will move on to C++. Fourth and fith year you move on to Java. Hope this gives you a good insight...

infodox

padmick - keep up the programming, and start learning straight C now*. Will give you a great advantage later on when programming microcontrollers and doing other things, and generally is bloody useful set of skills to have.

I hate to say it, but almost inevitably some of the information in college courses is slightly dated, so I would advise doing a bit of personal research into the parts of your field that you find most interesting and keeping "ahead of the curve" per-se. Will save you a lot of time post-graduation, and generally will be good for you.

* C, and by extension of getting to grips with a debugger and actually learning things, assembler

Sierra 117

This is a minor point but I would recommend buying the Sharp ELW-506 calculator. It's around €25 but it'll see you through the three years of maths as it has pretty much every function you'll need.

carja

Have to agree with Sierra 117. The maths lecturer for first year requires every one to use the same calculator. Sounds crazy but the ELW-506 has all the functions required for the maths you will do. You can actually purchase it from the shop on campus.

christy_weezer

just finished 5th year, had been in sligo for the first 3 years there so I can't give much advice on the first 3 years in gmit, but 4th and 5th year are excellent, I highly recommend you choose to do the add on when it comes time for your decision in a few years, the work intensity rises dramatically but the lecturers are excellent, well most of them anyway...*cough cough*..ah no I kid they're all top quality and very easy to get on with, there is a real focus on the software side of things when you reach 4th year with Java playing a major role so any experience you have with it will help a lot come 4th year...

carja

christy_weezer well done on finishing the five years. Can you give the new starters an idea of what the career prospects are like for you and your classmates. For example what are they, and you doing now since you finished the course.

Sierra 117

I know a lot of the lads who finished fifth year this year. Three of them have already found employment, all with the companies they did their fourth year work experience with.

nunchuks

carja wrote: »

Congrats padmick, a great choice of course. I am starting 4th year and I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 3. The best advise I can give you is to turn up to all your lectures and more importantly all of your labs as they count to end of year results. Buy yourself a few tools such as small screwdrivers and wire cutters and an electronic breadboard for prototyping circuits. The lectures are sound too and easy to talk to. Most of all enjoy the whole experience. Good luck

Did you go straight into a 4 year course or take the 3 year and then decide to do another year?
I'm doing the 3 year course in a few days and dont quite understand how l go from the 3 year to 4 year course.

carja

Hi nunchuck. Yes I did the three year B.Eng Ordinary degree first. In third year they give you an option to do the add on for the the B.Eng Honours. There are only about 22 places available on this course and it is open to external applicants also e.g. Sligo IT, Athlone IT and NUIG, but if you pass all of your exams in third year you are pretty much guaranteed a place so study hard especially for your third year.
More info on the Level 8 course can be found here:
http://www.gmit.ie/engineering/electronic/level-8-programmes/beng-cee-hons.html
Good Luck!