Lancaster University

Lancaster

Any Computer Science students?

I have an unconditional from Lancaster and pretty convinced with firming them. Just wondering if there are any current/past CS students who attended Lancaster that can give their views on the course? Such as how much help you get from staff, equipment, facilities, time schedule etc.

Thanks! :smile:

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Reply 1

b0l33

Hello. I am currently in my first year of CS in Lancaster.. I dunno. I don't really enjoy it tbh, the course are boring, and the lecturers are mostly rubbish :/ have a read of what the course content is, and see if that interests you. Cause I didn't do that.

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Reply 2

Id and Ego seek

Original post by b0l33

You're an idiot.

:colonhash:

Reply 3

Sheep

I'm also on first year

I don't really have any positive or negative to say, it's just pretty much what I expected

It is quite often extremely boring but if you were expecting Computer Science to be one big bag of excitement then you're clearly a fool

Lancaster is a good place, I can't imagine other universities being very much better

Reply 4

b0l33

¬¬ I wouldn't know what it meant anyway even if I did look at the course content. I never done any computing before so I didn't know what to expect, it was completely new to me. And I wanted to come to Lancaster and it's ranked quite highly for comp science, so..

Reply 5

Not Guilty

Original post by b0l33

Why do you think the lectures are rubbish? Explain.

Reply 6

The Magic Manatee

Hey there,

I'm an ex-student of the Computing Department (Graduated 2010) and my honest opinion is that it can be a bit of a mixed bag, lectures especially.

Like any subject, you can get your boring lecturers and you can get your good ones. Saying that, I found that were were quite a few good ones floating about that seemed to be genuinely excited and interested in what they were doing (Joe Finney, Francois, Alan Dix etc).

Also, the course can be taken as a minor in first year. The problem with this though is that you can get a few people that have never done any computing before and will really slow things down (i.e. heard people still struggling with "if" statements in the third term).

Saying that, if you talk lecturers and current students / grad students, then you can always delve as deep as you want into any interesting topics and even do extra stuff if you really like.

As for your original questions:

"I have an unconditional from Lancaster and pretty convinced with firming them. Just wondering if there are any current/past CS students who attended Lancaster that can give their views on the course? Such as how much help you get from staff, equipment, facilities, time schedule etc. "

You can get a lot of help from staff, but bearing in mind it's computing and programming, a lot of the stuff you learn will be through a mixture of independent study plus people showing / telling you things.

The equipment is ok overall (bog standard computers and that), but more specialised courses can get you more interesting things (i.e.playing about with PIC chips, servers etc.)

Facilities are alright (24 hour lab helps a lot), but expect the timetable to be quite heavy in terms of lectures and practicals, I was one of the busiest on my corridor anyway!

Hope this helps!

Reply 7

Tiffany_Robin

I've just finished my second year. Expect it to be devoid of girls (there's two majoring in computer science in second and third year combined, myself and one other girl), full of sweaty, smelly nerds, heavy on lecture and lab hours, and pretty boring.

I can't really talk much about content, because it has all changed since my first year. I hear that in your first year you'll be doing Python, C, Java and suchlike

Reply 8

Tathrim

Original post by ifstatement

I'm a second year CS student, but I was one of the reps for the course in my first year, and can therefore give information with regards to the Part I course, as I was one of those consulted on it.

The new course (in my opinion) is better than the old course. More is covered, and in more detail than before, which makes things easier in general. The labs next year are all spec'ed with reasonably powerful machines and decent widescreen monitors. They are also (for the first time) going to be year independent. Help is a case of go to the lecturer or postgraduate that you think is best suited to help you, contacting them through emails, and such.

Nobody can really give you an overview on what Part II will be like, but there are some useful pieces of information at http://scc-intranet.lancs.ac.uk/Part1 (including next year's part II structure).

Reply 9

Erratic

The link you provided requires users to login. We don't have an account on there, do you mind copying and pasting the information (if it isn't a vast amount)?

Thanks

Reply 10

Tathrim

Original post by Erratic

The link you provided requires users to login. We don't have an account on there, do you mind copying and pasting the information (if it isn't a vast amount)?

Thanks

Oh. Damn and blast. I will see what I can do later this afternoon, I'm a tad busy right now. :biggrin:

Reply 11

Tiffany_Robin

Original post by Tathrim

Oh. Damn and blast. I will see what I can do later this afternoon, I'm a tad busy right now. :biggrin:

Craig?

Reply 12

Tathrim

Original post by Tiffany_Robin

Craig?

Bingo.

Original post by Erratic

The link you provided requires users to login. We don't have an account on there, do you mind copying and pasting the information (if it isn't a vast amount)?

Thanks

Original post by ifstatement

Anyways, your course information.

The Part I course consists of 6 modules:

SCC 110: Software Development
SCC 120: Fundamentals of Computer Science
SCC 130: Information Systems
SCC 140: Creative Technology
SCC 150: Digital Systems
SCC 160: Fundamentals of Communications Systems

Normal CS majors take SCC110-130 and SCC 150, and the others are taken if the student wants to as their minor subject (which I assume you are all aware is how Lancaster likes things to be done). Some take MATH101-105, Linguistics or something like that to balance the stuff around, but it's your choice.

the Creative Industries course swaps out 150 for 140, Comms and electronics take only 110 and 160, Managmenet and IT students only take 110 and 140, with system's engineering and minors students taking 110 and 120.

More detail on these modules can be found in the courses handbook here (not needing a password, as it's not on the intranet): http://www.lusi.lancs.ac.uk/OnlineCoursesHandbook/ModuleCatalogue/Listing.aspx?ModuleID=SCC&Year=000111&Category=000622

NB: SCC162 is not a CS course module, it's an adapted module for Electrical Engineering students.

Part II

Part II doesn't have that much information about it as of yet, as it's only just been finalised.

However, the core module titles taken with ALL degrees (except Management and IT - will post more details if needed) are as follows:

SCC201 Databases
SCC202 HCI - User interfaces (Except CS&E)
SCC203 Computer Networks
SCC204 So5ware Design
SCC205 Prof. Issues/ Research Method
SCC306 Advanced Internet & Mobile Applications - (third year module)

There are a further set of modules that are taken as part of different degrees. I will just be posting the standard CS ones, any questions for the other schemes can be answered later, so the post isn't too cluttered. Needless to say that CI, CS&E, and SE have differences in second and third year.

Second year:

SCC210*Group*Project*
SCC211*Operating*Systems*(including threads, concurrency)
SCC212*Advanced*Programming*(likely to be functional programming - suggestion of using Scala)

Third year core:
SCC300*Final*Year*Project*(30*Credit)*
SCC311*Distributed*Systems*
SCC312*Languages*&*Compilation*
SCC361*Artiﬁcial*Intelligence

3rd year options (choose 2)*
SCC360*Computer*Science*Seminars*
SCC365*Advanced*Networking*
SCC366*Media*Coding*&*Processing*
SCC369*Embedded*Systems*
ICTF301*Security*and*Risk*

I can't give much more detail than that, I've been out of the loop for a year, but I can cover any additonal questions in a PM.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 13

JASApplications

I would too like to know this. Thinking of applying to Lancaster myself. :smile:

Reply 14

Tathrim

Original post by JASApplications

I would too like to know this. Thinking of applying to Lancaster myself. :smile:

The answer to all of your questions is yes. 100% yes. Plus, the course is only getting better with age, and covers more as a core module than almost any other course there. (details in my last post)

The lecturers know what they are talking about, though one or two are a little difficult to understand on occasion, it would make sense to regularly attend lectures, especially with the pace that the new course appears to be taking. They've always been helpful for questions you may have with the course, as are the postgrads, if you really get to know them.

The PC's are all running Windows 7, and are either 1st or 2nd generation core i5 series all in one machines. CS have their own labs in the engineering building with decent monitors (1920*1080, 24") for use with the programming assignments that are used. You can also hook your own laptop up to the monitors if your machine has a HDMI port, something done by some of those in Part II, like myself.

Reply 15

Tathrim

It still is one of the best courses covering CS in the country, it's far more relevant than other courses I have taken a look at, especially the new form of the course. You have to take into account that the 2nd year's are focusing on an old course, not representative of what you will actually be taking. Things are improving.

Reply 16

panda192

In regards to the last part. Very few females apply to computer science courses in general. You do get females but it's mostly males.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC Desire

Reply 17

Tiffany_Robin

Yeah, in all seriousness Lancaster is a really good uni for computer science. The lecturers are nice, and the course is very practical so you get a lot of time in the labs programming. The course has changed since I was in first year but I can't imagine the practical aspect of the course has changed too much.

Reply 18

ADG

While I've had some problems with the department over the past two years I've been here, mostly it has been great.

My biggest gripe would be that feedback on coursework can take anywhere from one week to the end of time (still waiting for one coursework mark now despite finishing lectures/labs in April :mad:

). Certain lecturers are very hard to get a hold of if you need something explaining, however there are internal forums available now to ask questions for specific modules.

Other than that, the course is great. It's your regular CS course, with the fundamentals taught in the first year and more advanced topics in later years. You have (or did have for my year) optional modules in the second and third year, which can be both more interesting and challenging than the core syllabus.

Reply 19

jordan.uni

It kind of sucks that it will be full of sweaty, smelly nerds and devoid of girls, but what else is there to expect on a computer science course?

However in my opinion there's no point in choosing a course just because of the male:female ratio.

I was told over the phone that the course is more focused on practical work as opposed to concentrating on theory. How about the maths also? Is the degree fairly maths intensive and if so, is all the maths material necessary provided? I.e lectures, material, etc.