Computer science BSC

Thank you My university has a computer lab, do students who are working in groups tend to not use this place and use their own devices instead?

We use computer labs often when we have group assignments and even when we don't have assignments and just want to get some coding practice done in between classes. The annoying thing is that sometimes there are classes in the labs so we aren't allowed to use them, so this is when we usually use our own devices, it's also quite a nice feeling to be able to work on the go and sitting wherever you want instead of going to the same place each time.

Some other perks of using your own devices would include things like getting a lecturers' help on installing software or troubleshooting a problem, unless you're great at organising things with onedrive or saving your files to cloud, it can get exhausting having to constantly send files back and forth. That's another reason i prefer using my own machine, the fact that every piece of work is saved in one place makes it easily accessible for me. My lecturer does this too, even though he has his own setup in his office he still carries around a separate laptop and ipad to get work done on the move.

For me it's really convenient to use my own device, I've had my laptop for almost 2 years now and it's been beneficial to use on the go and for getting projects done, recently my group had to do a software engineering project with a client and we used our own devices for presenting our work and working on the assignment the whole time. I've probably written too much of a long response here but honestly do whatever works for you, bringing my own devices might seem unnecessary to some people - but I like the comfort it gives.

(I hope this is useful! )

Hi, I’m going to study CS at southampton. However I have a question for all CS students.
I have both an ipad and gaming laptop I’m taking to uni. But for lectures, which one should I take? The laptop is expensive and heavy and I don’t want to risk the chance of it getting stolen. Will an ipad be suitable for lectures? Or do i need to definitely buy a new laptop to take to lectures?

Hi! This depends on your preferences honestly. I'd suggest leaving the laptop at home for work there if it's heavy and not very portable. An iPad is definitely viable for taking notes and if you prefer typing on a keyboard, there are always keyboard cases for the tablet.

As for labs, this probably depends on the university but here in Lancaster, we have Linux machines in every lab which you can use. There's also the virtual machine which students can access on their own devices so it's possible to work from only the university machines/VMs so you don't always have to be copying files over from your device to the university's. See what tools Southampton offers and if something like this is an option for you. Otherwise, transferring files isn't really all that bad with a OneDrive or another cloud platform.

Hope that helps!

- Sophia (Student Ambassador)