4th Year Projects - Dept of Computing

WIT_Weary

Hey all,

Just wondering if there's any past SSD/IT/MM/AC/ES (sorry if I left out a course) students that graduated with a level 8 degree in the last 5 years floating about? If so, could ya help a brother out with some info?

I'm hoping someone can give me a rough figure of how ya did with the final project, grade wise, and what your project contained? Not the topic or anything, but what you demoed. Like an android app, web app, database etc, or any combination....

We're being told conflicting things by our supervisors. One guy has been told that having just an android application won't bring good marks, regardless of the nature of the app or how much work has gone into it, so he's hoping for 50-60% grade when the same app would have brought 70-80% in a Java module. Another fella has been told that that his supervisor never saw anyone score over 80%, and they had no explanation for why. We're also hearing that certain classes are graded easier than others, for instance an IT student and a SSD student could do the same type of project, same technologies, same level of work, but the IT student will be graded easier.

Hopefully someone can bring some clarity to this, with so little time left and with the project being doubly weighted it's hard to know whether to give over the remaining time to the project or focus on the other 4 modules...

Digital Society

I believe that there's 1 supervisor for every 2 or 3 non chinese students so you're gonna get conflicting info.

From my SSD class of 9 or 10 (Excluding Chinese) grads i believe 2 got over 80. Maybe 1 or 2 got 40 then the rest around 60.

You get half the marks for the first half so you could do very well in that and not implement it well or vice versa.

So lets say you are doing an Android App. You could do a lot of research and preparation of the first half and get about 80% for that. Then implement a well polished, complete app and get 65% to get an overall 72% for an Android app. However the effort you would put in would be better spent on creating a web app that goes with your Android App. Marks go for using technologies that you weren't shown in college so that why you will get much better marks by having several platforms to add features to. To get top marks with just an Android App with would have to be incredible.

Stands to reason that the more you use the more you can show off and the more boxes you can tick that gives marks.

Also the point with the IT makes sense alright. Im not sure why but its probably because IT doesn't do programming in 4th year so if they were to build an Android App and Web App there would be a lot more that fall into the category of features that you weren't shown how to do. IT projects were definitely weaker than other courses when i graduated but the ideas where just as good.

Overall when it comes to graduating and work all that matters is passion and a portfolio. I believe that as of now all Software Courses have a 100% employment rate. That means that anyone with a degree in Software that WANTS a job has a job within a year of graduating. If you are at project stage now you've just been through the hardest 4 years of your career. Trust me when i say it will all be worth it. 40 years of not having to lift bricks or stack shelves just to buy yourself nice **** and pay a few bills.

WIT_Weary

Thanks for answering the call Digital Society, the info is much appreciated

counterpointaud

Digital Society wrote: »

Marks go for using technologies that you weren't shown in college so that why you will get much better marks by having several platforms to add features to.

Can confirm. I wanted to get high marks in final project and ended up implementing a back-end REST API (with auth) in .Net for the Android app. PM me if you want details.

counterpointaud

counterpointaud wrote: »

Can confirm. I wanted to get high marks in final project and ended up implementing a back-end REST API (with auth) in .Net for the Android app. PM me if you want details.

Did you get the goood marks for it in the end? I just did my demo yesterday, any chance you know what the average grades people got for their projects when you were there?

counterpointaud

Deleted User wrote: »

Did you get the goood marks for it in the end?

Yes, I did. I probably resulted in slightly lower marks in some other modules though, because of the time investment. I was ok with that.

Deleted User wrote: »

I just did my demo yesterday, any chance you know what the average grades people got for their projects when you were there?

No, sorry... I would guess 40 - 60 ?

counterpointaud

counterpointaud wrote: »

Yes, I did. I probably resulted in slightly lower marks in some other modules though, because of the time investment. I was ok with that.



No, sorry... I would guess 40 - 60 ?

Yeah regarding the project grades I was just wondering are they marked very toughly? I heard that even with a goodish project you can still get in the 40s :eek:

WIT_Weary

Ditto, did the presentation this week, didn't go well as I just don't do presentations well, ever. Got a feeling the project is going to be savaged when the results come out too, was disappointed after the demo but I've come to a place now where I really don't care what four people, at least two of which have never worked outside of academia, have to say about how industry would look on what I've done and what I could do.

There's been no consistency from WIT throughout the final project, and there was no consistency with the panels grading the projects this week, in terms of the make up of panel and the projects they were grading. Only one group, Computer Forensics I think, had the same panel grading each of their projects. It should have been like that for all groups. Ah well, what's done is done, I really can't wait to see WIT fading away in the distance on my last day leaving the place, it can't come quickly enough

Digital Society

Wouldn't be too worried about it.

The presentation is actually not about your presentation its about ticking boxes. Its more consistent than you would think on each course. Varies across courses as explained about IT vs SSD already. There's a section of marking that gives for things you weren't thought in class.

The next thing is job hunting. Literally the only hard thing to do with your career now is to get the first job. After that you're laughing.

Get your CV ready. Get your LinkedIn ready. Get a list of Recruitment agencies ready. Get your shirt, slacks, tie and shoes ready.

Well done lads.

Digital Society

Digital Society wrote: »

Wouldn't be too worried about it.

The presentation is actually not about your presentation its about ticking boxes. Its more consistent than you would think on each course. Varies across courses as explained about IT vs SSD already. There's a section of marking that gives for things you weren't thought in class.

The next thing is job hunting. Literally the only hard thing to do with your career now is to get the first job. After that you're laughing.

Get your CV ready. Get your LinkedIn ready. Get a list of Recruitment agencies ready. Get your shirt, slacks, tie and shoes ready.

Well done lads.

You reckon recruitment agency is needed? Won't the college be sending around a list of companies who are looking for graduates? Or do they forget about ya pretty quick after you graduate haha

DefinitelyMarc

I'm a bit late to the party, but mine got something like 58%. I honestly neglected it in semester 1 so I could do better in other modules. That and I had no imagination when it came to personal project at the time. I paid for this in semester 2 though, hence the bad grade:

Human Resource Support System (Rails)

Honestly, the code was ****e and the idea not particularly inspired. I still plan on fixing this crappy codebase, but I have a million other project ideas and I'm always working on something else, so haven't had the time. It didn't help that my supervisor grinded my motivation into nothing by heavily implying that I was going to fail, only to reveal after my presentation that he was just doing it to get me to work harder. I can't really blame him, since it really did look like I was lazy in the first semester. He only saw the disinterested side of me, where I had doubts about my project and tried to compensate with the rest of my modules. The rest of my modules dragged my average up almost into the seventies, but the project being double-weighted took my semester 2 average down to 66.5%, reducing my overall average to 69% if I recall correctly.

For anyone looking at this post in the years to come, don't neglect your design document in semester 1! It's not the end of the world if you do, but you're potentially in for a world of pain if you do. Also use the summer to think up of something truly imaginative and get used to using technologies you haven't used before. Enjoy it, and you'll learn a kind of development competence that only experience can provide.

counterpointaud

Deleted User wrote: »

You reckon recruitment agency is needed? Won't the college be sending around a list of companies who are looking for graduates? Or do they forget about ya pretty quick after you graduate haha

College may send around a list of companies looking for people, however, these may not be the companies you want to work for necessarily. Worth looking yourself as early as possible.

counterpointaud

counterpointaud wrote: »

College may send around a list of companies looking for people, however, these may not be the companies you want to work for necessarily. Worth looking yourself as early as possible.

I have sent out some CVs myself already, looking to start working asap.... Felt like I needed a break when semester ended but after two days off, I am already feeling rested and ready to go haha.

Have interviews with two tech companies within next few weeks, one with a big multinational in Dublin and another with a Waterford Insurance company.

My problem is I want to make sure I got the grades I am think I am going to get before I get a job, I should be fairly safe grades wise but if a company says 2.1 minimum I want to make 100% sure I have that. (Should be safe)

Just to let people know incase future students are reading this. The project grading was actually very fair in the end, my project grade was in the 70s in the end I was worried that I might get in the 40s haha

Happy to finally have the degree over and down with now and start job hunting...... There seems to be no graduate jobs in Waterford though, people might have to move to Dublin/Cork for their first job.

chickensoup11

What did you do your project on? if you don't mind sharing, it would be interesting to hear what sort of projects the fourth years do.

chickensoup11

chickensoup11 wrote: »

What did you do your project on? if you don't mind sharing, it would be interesting to hear what sort of projects the fourth years do.

I wont go into detail in public but if you want to ask questions you are welcome to pm me