Computer Science at Cambridge- Project Ideas

I want to apply to Cambridge for computer science, but I also want to be able to do something that will make me stand out from the rest of the crowd in terms of a programming project. I don't want to go too ambitious but something that might look good on UCAS.

Reply 1

Jabberjay_

11

I'm interested in this also, bump!

Reply 2

TVIO

12

For anyone that finds this thread: Cambridge CS really don't need you to have done any programming. Your PS is fairly irrelevant, and is used mostly just to find out what to talk about at interview (and because CS is so mathematical, my PS wasn't even mentioned at all). The most relevant things would probably be things you've done in Maths such as Maths challenges etc.
The best way of standing out from the crowd is excellent UMS scores in maths/further maths (and if taken, physics). I personally spoke about optimising a very simple prime number generator and discussed how it related to CS. I don't think it helped much/at all. Any interviews, tests and of course UMS (to an extent GCSEs as well) are the most important things, so don't worry about spending loads of time doing projects, just get excellent grades.
Source: Current CS offer holder at Cambridge.

Reply 3

GepingYi

4

Original post by TVIO

For anyone that finds this thread: Cambridge CS really don't need you to have done any programming. Your PS is fairly irrelevant, and is used mostly just to find out what to talk about at interview (and because CS is so mathematical, my PS wasn't even mentioned at all). The most relevant things would probably be things you've done in Maths such as Maths challenges etc.
The best way of standing out from the crowd is excellent UMS scores in maths/further maths (and if taken, physics). I personally spoke about optimising a very simple prime number generator and discussed how it related to CS. I don't think it helped much/at all. Any interviews, tests and of course UMS (to an extent GCSEs as well) are the most important things, so don't worry about spending loads of time doing projects, just get excellent grades.
Source: Current CS offer holder at Cambridge.

I was told the same by my teacher as well, could you explain why math is the only thing they care about please? I don't see how math has so much thing to do with computing?
Plus their course list doesn't seem to have much thing to do with math?

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foundations of computer science, taught in OCaml

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Java and object-oriented programming

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operating systems

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digital electronics

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graphics

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interaction design

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machine learning

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theory – including logic and proof, computation theory

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systems – including computer architecture, computer networking

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programming – including compiler construction, programming in C/C++

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human aspects – including Human Interaction design, Artificial Intelligence

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computer architecture

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applications (including bioinformatics and natural language processing)

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theory

Reply 4

mesub

Volunteer Team, Clearing and Applications Advisor

22

Original post by GepingYi