Studying Comp Sci in CSE (or, why a CS Coop Scholarship is the right choice for you ) John Shepherd Senior Lecturer, School of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Coordinator of Postgraduate Coursework Programs Coordinator of Computer Science Program CSE Co-op – p.1/44
� � � � � Contents Philosophy (what’s it all mean?) Terminology (what did that acronym mean?) CS Study (how things work here) Life in the Lab (how other things work here) Life outside the Lab (or, at least, in some other lab) CSE Co-op – p.2/44
Nerd Pride Welcome to CSE@UNSW! CSE Co-op – p.3/44
Nerd Pride Welcome to CSE@UNSW! Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ... CSE Co-op – p.3/44
Nerd Pride Welcome to CSE@UNSW! Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ... Wait a minute!? ... Nerds? CSE Co-op – p.3/44
Nerd Pride Welcome to CSE@UNSW! Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ... Wait a minute!? ... Nerds? Do I really want to hang out with nerds ...? CSE Co-op – p.3/44
Nerd Pride Welcome to CSE@UNSW! Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ... Wait a minute!? ... Nerds? Do I really want to hang out with nerds ...? Worse ... if I want to study here ... does this mean ...? CSE Co-op – p.3/44
Nerd Pride Welcome to CSE@UNSW! Home of some of the top IT nerds in the country ... Wait a minute!? ... Nerds? Do I really want to hang out with nerds ...? Worse ... if I want to study here ... does this mean ...? Well, yes ... you should be proud to say “I’m a Nerd” CSE Co-op – p.3/44
Nerd Pride (cont.) But the word “nerd” has unfortunate connotations ... CSE Co-op – p.4/44
� Nerd Pride (cont.) But the word “nerd” has unfortunate connotations ... Nerd Stereotype: Geeky, thick glasses, no life, computer obsession. CSE Co-op – p.4/44
� Nerd Pride (cont.) But the word “nerd” has unfortunate connotations ... Nerd Stereotype: Geeky, thick glasses, no life, computer obsession. E.g. CSE Co-op – p.4/44
� � � � Nerd Pride (cont.) Nerd Reality: Passionate about a field of study, keen to contribute. For IT nerds, this makes other people jealous ... you know more about computers than them you can do fun stuff all day and get paid for it you have a chance change the world Like, for example ... CSE Co-op – p.5/44
A Famous Nerd CSE Co-op – p.6/44
� � � � � � A Famous Nerd (cont.) Invented (during the 1960’s and 1970’s) Doug Engelbart the mouse 2-dimensional display editing (e.g. Notepad, vi, emacs, Word) windows-based interfaces (e.g. Mac, Windows, KDE, fvwm) hypermedia collaborative groupware etc. etc. etc. CSE Co-op – p.7/44
The Original Mouse (photo circa 1963) CSE Co-op – p.8/44
Another Famous Nerd CSE Co-op – p.9/44
� � � � � � Another Famous Nerd (cont.) Web Pioneer Tim Berners-Lee Invented the Web distributed hypertext linking heterogeneous documents a universal naming scheme (URL) Founder of W3C Now Professor at MIT CSE Co-op – p.10/44
The Original “Web” Design (from his proposal document, 1989) CSE Co-op – p.11/44
Yet Another Famous Nerd CSE Co-op – p.12/44
� � � � Yet Another Famous Nerd (cont.) Marc Andreessen Web Browser Pioneer 1992: Mosaic project, Uni of Illinois 1994: founded Mosaic Communications 1994: changed name to Netscape 1995: Netscape IPO Internet boom CSE Co-op – p.13/44
A Pair of Famous Nerds CSE Co-op – p.14/44
� � � � � � � A Pair of Famous Nerds (cont.) Larry Page Co-founders of Google 1995: both started PhD at Stanford U New ideas on Web searching use keywords like “normal” search engines Sergey Brin augment document ranking by “credibility” credibility related to inbound links 1998: founded Google 2004: Google floated ($$$$$$) CSE Co-op – p.15/44
And Yet Another Famous Nerd And, of course, how could we forget ... ? CSE Co-op – p.16/44
And Yet Another Famous Nerd And, of course, how could we forget ... ? CSE Co-op – p.16/44
� � � � � � � And Yet Another Famous Nerd (cont.) William H. Gates III Computing System Pioneer? Basic? ... (existed in mid-60’s) MS-DOS? ... (from Tim Paterson) Windows? ... (from Apple) Explorer? ... (from Spyglass) the Internet? ... (hah! he wishes) However, he is ... Chief Software Architect, Microsoft World’s richest man ($80bn) CSE Co-op – p.17/44
� � � � And Yet Another Famous Nerd (cont.) 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! CSE Co-op – p.18/44
A Cautionary Tale We said before that nerds are passionate about something ... CSE Co-op – p.19/44
A Cautionary Tale We said before that nerds are passionate about something ... But there is such a thing as being passionate too ... to the point of obsession ... e.g. CSE Co-op – p.19/44
A Cautionary Tale We said before that nerds are passionate about something ... But there is such a thing as being passionate too ... to the point of obsession ... e.g. CSE Co-op – p.19/44
� � � Terminology and Jargon Information Technology theory/practice/application of computer systems Information Systems effects of IT on businesses/organisations (effects of applying software packages) Computer Science and Engineering foundations and technological basis for IT (how to build software packages) CSE Co-op – p.20/44
� � � � � � � Terminology and Jargon (cont.) Training learning 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 Education learning 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 CSE Co-op – p.21/44 However, not just theory ... we do illustrate ideas by
� � � Terminology and Jargon (cont.) 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 qualification that you get when you finish a program CSE Co-op – p.22/44
� � � � � 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, ... CSE Co-op – p.23/44
That’s all very nice ... but what’s it like to study in CSE? CSE Co-op – p.24/44
The F .F .D. of C O M P Fun CSE Co-op – p.25/44
The F .F .D. of C O M P (cont.) Frustration CSE Co-op – p.26/44
The F .F .D. of C O M P (cont.) Discovery CSE Co-op – p.27/44
� � � � � 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 of these is one of the most important things that you’ll get from CSE. CSE Co-op – p.28/44
� � � � What are our degrees really about? Our overall goal is for ... all of you to have a deep understanding of computing all of you to be technically skilled all of you to be potential information technology innovators some of you to create the next generation of IT CSE Co-op – p.29/44
But what languages/systems do we learn? CSE Co-op – p.30/44
� � � � � � 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, Java/JDBC, PHP artificial intelligence: Prolog ....... networks: Java operating systems: C, assembly language graphics: Java, OpenGL Typically, use state-of-art (or research) technology CSE Co-op – p.31/44
Languages and Systems (cont.) Languages and pre-requisite structure of CSE courses 2021 Hardware (asm) 2011 Systems 1011 1021 (Java) (C,Java,asm,...) (Haskell) (C) AI,DB,Graphics 2041 Networks,SE,... (Perl,...) (Java,Prolog,SQL,...) CSE Co-op – p.32/44
How are courses run? What do we actually do? CSE Co-op – p.33/44
� � � At the “coal face” Lectures we present theory via lots of on-line examples (watch, listen, learn) Tutorials clarify theory, practice abstract problem solving (develop design skills) Lab Classes write small programs, with tutor available to help (develop practical/implementation skills) CSE Co-op – p.34/44
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