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I Just Finished My First Year of BSc Computer Science at University, Ask Me Anything!

Henry 👨‍💻 on June 02, 2019

Hi, just finished my first year about a week ago, if anyone's starting after the summer or wants to compare experiences, ask away!

Sarad • Jun 2 '19

Hi Henry! I also finished my first year as Computer Science student. What languages did you learn (if any) in first year? For me, I was exposed to Java, Python, C# before I joined University however, I learned a lot more about Generics, Command Line Arguments, Inner Classes and Anonymous Classes (a lot of Java)

Henry 👨‍💻 • Jun 2 '19

Hi Sarad! I learnt Python and Java this year as part of the course, going into university I had done VB.net (in college/high-school) and a bit of Python years earlier (in secondary school). The module was an introductory programming module, and expected to teach people who hadn't necessarily programmed before so wasn't really a challenge for me given my prior experience. We didn't do anything on generics or command line arguments, any CLI stuff I know has been self taught, sounds interesting though 😁.

Nathan Tamez • Jun 2 '19

Henry remember this.

Dim output As String
    'Old Delete Block
    If File.Exists(fileName) = True Then
        File.Delete(fileName)
        Debug.WriteLine("file deleted ")
    End If
    'Using fs As FileStream = File.Create(fileName)
    '    For Each t In coastalTowns
    '        output = New UTF8Encoding(True).GetBytes(String.Format(myFormat, t.name, t.county, t.population, t.area))
    '        fs.Write(output, 0, output.Length)
    '    Next
    'End Using
    FileOpen(2, fileName, OpenMode.Random, , , 43)
    Debug.WriteLine(Len(town))
    While EOF(2)
        For Each T In coastalTowns
            If Not T.name = "" Then
                output = (String.Format(myFormat, T.name, T.county, T.population, T.area))
                FilePut(2, output)
            End If

        Next

    End While

The obsolete code we had to use. haha

Henry 👨‍💻 • Jun 3 '19

My god, yes I do. FilePut(), FileOpen() and FileClose() are bring back horrid memories from my A Level coursework hahahaha. One of the reasons I'm very glad my VB days are behind me.

Lautaro Lobo • Jun 3 '19

Have you used some kind of technique to manage your time? Did you have a place to study or you just studied on the go?

Were you involved in some side projects during the year?

What coding background did you have?

I'm in my first year in CS and well... heck of a ride dude xD

Henry 👨‍💻 • Jun 3 '19 • Edited

Hi Lautaro, great name btw (if ya don't mind me saying, haha).

Time Management

Ok, really asking the wrong guy here mate, hahaha, still something I struggle with honestly. I often have anxiety about starting things which is almost always worse than doing the thing I'm worried about. Once I do start though I'm usually super productive, especially if it's programming related. Also, if I'm interested and engaged in the subject it helps a lot.

In terms of places I've gone to study, I usually go to the silent area of the library to work in between lectures and practical sessions, I usually find it much easier to focus in a quieter environment where I can sink into my headphones.

Side Projects

Alright, this one I can give a bit more insight on, haha. During the year I attended a hackathon being run on the campus, me and my friend Nathan started making a stupid Raspberry Pi game that unfortunately didn't work fully due to a latency issue. We have since resolved this issue using an arduino instead, we plan to finish this project as part of... my next side project!

The second side project I've been involved with this year is a collaborative podcast/blog with the same friend, Nathan. We're almost done working on the website and hope to launch in the coming weeks. Drop a follow if ya wanna stay tuned for that one 😉.

Coding Background

I went into the degree with about 2 and a bit years of programming experience in VB.net and a splash of Python. I have found this to be highly beneficial to me this year as its meant that instead of having to try and wrap my head around all the fundamental concepts for the first time, I've been able to focus on maximising the amount of marks I can get on each programming assignment. There's been a fair bit of room for this in the course as it facilitates both people that have done CS before and haven't. There's always been a "challenge" feature for an extra marks boost for those more experienced to attempt.

Well done for getting through the first year too, my friend, it certainly has been a wild ride for me too, a lot different to how I expected but definitely a fun and fulfilling experience.

Nathan Tamez • Jun 3 '19

cool

Andrew Healey • Jun 2 '19

What did coding-related thing you find difficult this year?

Henry 👨‍💻 • Jun 2 '19

That's a hard question as it was the programming module that I probably found easiest overall. I'd have to say wrestling with the educational graphics library graphics.py, which was quite unstable. Also, I hadn't done OOP before so that was an interesting challenge to adapt to.

Andrew Healey • Jun 3 '19

Ah, yes. OOP can be quite strange the first time you came across it 😊

Niklas Jona • Jun 2 '19

Would you say your courses gave you insights into concepts independent of specific technologies, but applicable to many of them? What were the most useful?

Henry 👨‍💻 • Jun 2 '19 • Edited

I'd say so, yeah.
For a start my programming module taught fundamental concepts which apply to pretty much all modern high-level languages (OOP, abstraction, etc).

Another module where this applies is Computer Architecture, it covered topics such as boolean algebra, logic gates and binary, which apply to almost all computer systems that exist in the world today!

Our database module covered database theory which applies to the vast majority of relational databases no matter the DBMS.

The web dev module was quite technology specific as it was mainly focused on HTML and CSS, but general concepts such as accessibility and good design were covered.

I'd say the most tech specific was the networking module, relying on specific standards and components, however topologies aren't tech specific and were a significant part.

Great question, thanks 😁.

Abdur Rehman Khalid • Jun 5 '19

I just Finished My 3rd Year in BSCS and I would like to Congratulate on your achievement and best of luck for your future. If you like to ask me anything then you can!

Henry 👨‍💻 • Jun 5 '19

Thank you and well done for finishing your degree! What's the most useful thing you learnt during your studies?

Abdur Rehman Khalid • Jun 5 '19

Learning the Object Oriented Programming, Data Structures and Database Modeling and Database Creation was very fun and both very interesting for me. And more interestingly these all concepts can be implemented in the real life scenarios as well. Currently working on my Final Year Project and Object Oriented Programming is supporting me very well there as well!