Studying Computing at UNSW (notes)

Studying Computing at UNSW

(viewing version)

Studying Computing at UNSW

(or, What we do here ... and how you can
best exploit it to succeed in COMP courses)

John Shepherd

(Postgraduate Coursework Academic Advisor,
formerly Director of Computer Science Program)

... Studying Computing at UNSW

Nerd pride and role models
Terminology and jargon
CSE courses and programs
Life in the Lab
Life outside the Lab
(or, at least, in some other lab)

Nerd Pride

Welcome to CSE@UNSW!

Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ...

Nerd Pride

Welcome to CSE@UNSW!

Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ...

Wait a minute!? ... Me? ... A nerd?

Nerd Pride

Welcome to CSE@UNSW!

Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ...

Wait a minute!? ... Me? ... A nerd?

Well, yes ... you should be proud to say

"I'm a Nerd".

... Nerd Pride

So what is a nerd?

A geeky guy with thick glasses, no life and a computer obsession?

E.g.

In CSE, we say

"Nerd is Good"

So why does everyone else say

"Nerd is Bad"

... Nerd Pride

Because other people are jealous ...

that you know more about computers than them
that you can do fun stuff all day and get paid for it
that you have more chance to change the world than them

For example ...

A Famous Nerd

... A Famous Nerd

Doug Engelbart

Invented (during the 1960's and 1970's)
- the mouse
- 2-dimensional display editing
  (e.g. Notepad, vi, emacs, Word)
- windows-based interfaces
  (e.g. Mac, Windows, KDE, fvwm)
- hypermedia and collaborative groupware
- etc. etc. etc.
had 2nd host on ARPANET (Internet precursor)

The Original Mouse

(photo circa 1963)

Another Famous Nerd

... Another Famous Nerd

Tim Berners-Lee

Invented the Web
- distributed hypertext
- linking heterogeneous documents
- a universal naming scheme (URL)
Founder of W3C
Now Professor at MIT

Tim Berners-Lee's original "Web" design

(from his proposal document, 1989)

Yet Another Famous Nerd

And, of course, how could we forget ... ?

... Yet Another Famous Nerd

William H. Gates III

Chief Software Architect, Microsoft
World's richest man ($80b)
Contributions to Computing:
- Basic? ... (existed in mid-60's)
- MS-DOS? ... (from Tim Paterson)
- Windows? ... (from Apple)
- Explorer? ... (from Spyglass)
- the Internet? ... (hah! he wishes)

... Yet Another Famous Nerd

And Microsoft's major "contribution" to computing ... ?

The Windows operating system ... which is ...

reasonably cheap (targetted at novices)
incredibly popular (via suspect corporate behaviour)
rather unreliable (poor software engineering)
the main reason why the general public thinks that computers are inherently unreliable

Thanks, Bill ... you've done the IT industry proud!

And finally ...

... there's last year's hottest Nerd ...

Terminology and Jargon

Information Technology

overall term covering theory, practice and application of information processing via digital computers

Information Systems

application of IT to businesses/organisations
(need to understand software and organisations)

Computer Science and Engineering

foundations and technological basis for IT
(need to build and apply software)

... Terminology and Jargon

Training

being taught specific skill-set for current products/packages
knowledge that dates quickly as technology changes
the kind of thing they do at TAFE and industry training-courses
"planned obsolesence" keeps you coming back for more

Education

being taught foundations on which products/packages are based
knowledge that dates far less rapidly (foundations change slowly)
the kind of thing we do here at UNSW
afterwards, we expect that you can train yourself

However, not just theory ... we do illustrate ideas by specific technologies.

... Terminology and Jargon

Course

a single-semester (14-week) unit of study (aka "subject")

Program

a collection of courses that make up a comprehensive study of an area of knowledge

Degree

the piece of paper (qualification) that you get when you finish a program

CSE Courses

Foundations (1st year)

introduction to programming, mathematics

Core (2nd year)

algorithms, data structures, hardware, s/w engineering

Specialisations (3rd year)

artificial intelligence, cryptography, databases, graphics, ...
architectures, operating systems, compilers, networks, ...
advanced algorithms, theory of computation, ...

That's all very nice ...

but what's it like to study in CSE?

The F.F.D. of C O M P

Fun

... The F.F.D. of C O M P

Frustration

... The F.F.D. of C O M P

Discovery

A side note: Acronyms

Computing is full of new ideas and terminology to describe them.

However, IT people are lazy, and like to say as little as possible, so they abbreviate everything using "acronyms".

For example ...

A side note: Acronyms

Computing is full of new ideas and terminology to describe them.

However, IT people are lazy, and like to say as little as possible, so they abbreviate everything using "acronyms".

For example:

IBM ... International Business Machines
CPU ... Central Processing Unit
DBA ... Database Administrator

A side note: Acronyms

Computing is full of new ideas and terminology to describe them.

However, IT people are lazy, and like to say as little as possible, so they abbreviate everything using "acronyms".

For example:

IBM ... International Business Machines
CPU ... Central Processing Unit
DBA ... Database Administrator

And, of course, the grand-daddy of them all ...

TLA

A side note: Acronyms

Computing is full of new ideas and terminology to describe them.

However, IT people are lazy, and like to say as little as possible, so they abbreviate everything using "acronyms".

For example:

IBM ... International Business Machines
CPU ... Central Processing Unit
DBA ... Database Administrator

And, of course, the grand-daddy of them all ...

TLA ... Three Letter Acronym

What are COMP courses really about?

Most COMP courses have a number of goals:

for you to learn about some aspect of computer technology
for you to understand the principles behind the technology
for you to develop skills in using this technology
for you to further develop general problem-solving skills
for you to learn how to learn about new technologies

The last one of these is one of the most important things that you'll get from CSE.

What are our degrees really about?

Our overall goal is for ...

all of you to have a deep understanding of "computation"
all of you to be capable of being information technology innovators
some of you to create the next generation of information technology
(and, maybe, become extremely rich in the process :-)

But what languages/systems do we learn?

Languages and Systems

We use languages/systems appropriate for each topic e.g.

introductory programming: Haskell, C, Java
software construction: Perl, Unix shell, HTML
databases: SQL, Oracle/PostgreSQL, Java/JDBC, PHP
artificial intelligence: Prolog ....... networks: Java
operating systems: C, assembly language
graphics: Java, OpenGL

Typically, use state-of-art (or research) technology

... Languages and Systems

Languages and pre-requisite structure of CSE courses

How are courses run? What do we actually do?

Cast of Characters

Students

should be at University because they are interested and want to learn
required to perform in exams and assignments to demonstrate learning

Academic Staff

should be at University because they are interested and want to learn
required to do research, teaching, administration

... Cast of Characters

General Staff

provide invaluable support for academics and students (under pressure)
School Office, Computer Support Group, Admin Staff, Technicians, ...
some advice: you can never be too nice to General Staff ...

University Administration

see comments for General Staff ...

How are courses run? What do we actually do?

At the "coal face"

Lectures

we present the "theory" via lots of on-line examples
(watch, listen, learn)

Tutorials

clarify theory, practice abstract problem solving
(develop design skills)

Lab Classes

write a small program, with the tutor there to help you
(develop practical/implementation skills)

... At the "coal face"

Assignments

"write a program to do XYZ"
(you take home and solve in your own time on a computer)

Practical Exams

"write n small programs"
(you have 2-3 hours to get the programs working)

Written Exams

questions on a selection of topics
(typically a mixture of multi-choice, programming, written)

Learning Environments

Place	Stude:Staff Ratio	Hours/Week
Lectures	500 : 1	3
Tutorials	15 : 1	1
Lab Classes	15 : 1	2
Assignments	1 : 0+	3 (in bursts)
Self Study	1 : 0+	??

Note: this is a substantial time commitment
and does not mix well with part-time work;
consider a 3/4 load if working >10 hours/week

How do you know you've succeeded?

You know you've succeeded when ...

you leave the exam saying "Yes! ... Easy."
you start adding bells and whistles to your assignment, a week before it's due
you make suggestions to your tutor on how to improve their solution to a tough tute question
your Great Idea becomes a program ... then a product ... then a company

... How do you know you've succeeded?

Don't ever say "I just want to pass this subject" ...

Why not?

a mark of 50 means that you know only half of the material

most courses lead onto others, so you've got shaky foundations

There are benefits available to people who maintain an average mark > 65

You will have maximum choice of 4th-year thesis topics if your average mark > 80

How to succeed in CSE Courses

Assessment in CSE courses is based primarily on ...

How to succeed in CSE Courses

Assessment in CSE courses is based primarily on ...

How well you can do things

Not just on how much you can remember.

So ...

... How to succeed in CSE Courses

Practice, practice, practice

Explore, think, create

... How to succeed in CSE Courses

Practice, practice, practice

Explore, think, create

... and install Linux on your PC ...