Electric/electronic engineering or computer science

Felix Randel

will someone who is doing any of these courses outline to me what exactly is involved,
I find it hard to get an answer on this that isn't complete spin.

A few questions.

What do you do in each year.
What exactly are the different subjects about
What's the most enjoyable aspect of doing the course
What's the most challenging

This type of thing which I have trouble getting information on

I'm thinking DCU or DIT based on that other computer science thread. I started a new thread because where isnt really a problem its what

leeroybrown

I've just completed Computer and Electronic Engineering in NUI, Galway. I don't really know much about the DIT based courses but I'll say a few bits about mine.

Firstly its a cross between IT and Electronic Engineering (The pure Electronics course in Galway).

Covers basics in first two years. Mainly the Maths, Physics etc you need to know to do Eng.

Final Two years consist mainly of actual Computers and Electronics based subjects. Including Programming(C), Object Oriented Programming (C++, Java), Software Engineering, Digital Electronics, Analogue Electronics, Signal Processing (Analogue and Digital), Semiconductoir Technology, Telecommunications, Microprocessors, Embedded Systems etc.

(By the way I would say that there are better courses than mine available but I thought that it (combined with Galway) was pretty good over the last 4 years)

It would be well worth your while looking into how the course you're going to do is biased between Computers/IT and Electronics and how that suits you.

The good thing about Engineering courses is that they gve you a good broad knowledge of the technologies that things are built on. A good Engineering course will also build problem solving skills and an ability to learn rather than just a learned off bulk of knowledge.

Computer Science on the other hand will be largely composed of Maths and Physics (both to an Honours college level) and Programming/Algorithms.

Hopefully someone will read these that has done one of those Dublin based courses and learned a lot from it.

memphis

I donno if this info will be of any help, but I just wanna say a few short things to ya.

I am a 2nd year Software Development student in Tipperary Institute - Thurles, and I'm finding it quite hard. If your reasonably academic and its programming that ya wanna get into then i'd say go ahead and do software. The course is quite broad and is mainly programming based. It covers such things as java, software engineering, networks, business studies, maths, physics, object oriented programming, Operating systems, and all that.

If you feel that a more hand on course would suit ya, with a greater emphasis on the technical side of IT then I would say software is not for you, but only you alone know what you wanna do. If its the technical side you would rather do then i recommend ya look into courses that take in engineering/electronics and such course, which Leeroybrown has discussed.

Hope this helps in some way!!

Felix Randel

Software programming isnt really my thing, I'm more geared towards hardware, but at the same time computer science seems very interesting to me. One thing ive read says its about 40% programming 30% hardware 20% OS including unix and windows 2000 and 10% others like CAD and the like.

I was more interested in an EE degree but i havent a clue what each course intails.

beserker

i just did stage 1 electronics in cit, waiting on results. i personally found it hard and as far as i know so did my mates in the class. all maths and physics except for a subject called engineering practice. its interesting but be wary of it like. having honours lc maths and physics and youd prolly fly through it (i did pass maths and no physics in my lc so maybe thats why i find it hard:))

mondeoman

Hi,

I work in the dept. of EE in NUI, Galway. Why not have a look at the dept. web page http://www.ee.nuigalway.ie ? There's a lot of detailed information about the courses (Both Electronic Eng. and Electronic & Computer Eng.). You may not understand all of the terms used, but it will give you a feel for what's going on in each course.

There are some links to research projects underway, so you can get an idea of the kind of work the dept. is capable of. There are also some links to online courses that you can work through and see if the material is to your taste. Some of the stuff here is hosted in the dept., others are located elsewhere, but there are some nice demos of circuits and technology like "How does a laptop screen work" or "what does a transistor do?" etc.

If you're interested in finding out more about electronics, then IMHO this is a pretty good site in which to spend half an hour or so. If you have any specific questions, you could always email one of the staff and we'd be happy to answer any questions you might have!

Good luck

leeroybrown

Nice to see there is some more NUIG reps around (apart from the obvious of course ).

If you do an Eng based course (the deadline for change of mind has probably passed by now) you'll have to put up with a lot of Mathematical stuff in the fitst two years without seeing any real applications for it.

<BlatantAdd>Oh and anyone coming to NUIG, remember to come to Clubs and SOC's day and join CompSoc.</BlatantAdd>

po0k

In the Electronics Course in first year you'll do C programming, a pile of maths (Algebra and Calculus), Maths Physics (I found it hard enough), crash course in chemistry (fun), crash physics course (fun too), Analogue Electronics, Digital electronics, crash course in CAD/tech drawing, Fundametals in Mech. Eng. and Electronic Systems where we put what we had learnt in other lectures into practice introducing us to methods for doing project reports, soldering and team work (we were grouped into pairs).
We had labs for Analogue, Digital, Systems, Tech drawing+CAD (alternated each week), Chemistry and Physics and programming.

I'm enjoying it so far, though I had a bit of a scare round teh exams

One thing - push yourself to take an interest in the course and study for it.
Practice what you learn, especially do and assignments(homework) the lecturer hands out. Invaluable.

phobos

Originally posted by SyxPak
One thing - push yourself to take an interest in the course and study for it.
Practice what you learn, especially do and assignments(homework) the lecturer hands out. Invaluable.

I am now a postgrad (I love saying that ), and I can honestly say I wouldn't be if I hadn't done what Syx suggested above. I was doing Computer Science as opposed to Engineering, but this rule of thumb applies to every course. Prior to college it is most important to select a course that you have an interest in. I don't mean, let's do computers because you can make lots of money. Actually if money is all that is on your mind, you will be out before the end of first year. Research the course, and make sure you select the right one, coz if you don't, you most definately won't last too long. You can be the next Einstein, but if you don't don't have an interest in what you're doing, you won't look very intelligent at all.

Right how many more ways can I say that

;-phobos-)

po0k

true.

Think of how many people ahte their jobs.
Now imagine getting paid doing something you enjoy to a lesser or greater degree.
Sounds a little better then ramming your head into a wall 9-5 5 days a week to pay the rent only to blow the rent money on going out at the weekend to get wasted cos you "hate this job".

BUKKA

spuddy

i'm studyin comp sci in ucd - just finished my 1st year. basically the course is a lot like 1st science - u do 4 subjects: maths, 2 computer subjects and then have a choice of physics, chemistry, biology, or mathsphysics (might be some others i cant think of off the top of my head)

You can study either honours or pass maths (i did pass - its slightly easier than honours maths for the leaving)

The first computer subject covers software programming (java) and some very basic hardware (1st science students can take this subject as part of their course)

The second computer subject covers hardware/electronic engineering. its definitely the more difficult of the two - you learn about digital circuits, gates etc aswell as stuff like propositional logic - this subject is only for ppl studyin comp sci

We also did a project in this subject (which contributed to my final mark) - a basic computer game (again written in java). the project was done in groups of three between xmas and summer - we were given certain parts of the code which had to be ready each week and were shown how 2 do it step by step. wasnt too bad either

i didnt find the 1st yr course too hard (xcept the prop logic stuff) - crammin at the end got me passes in all my subs (just!) - its prob not the best course in the world and it aint 4 eveyone but i liked it