[plug] Uni Course - UWA or Curtin?

[Jason Nicholls]

Hello!

On Thu, Nov 15, 2001 at 05:36:11PM +0800, Andrew Simmonds wrote:
> Okay, I was wondering what people here reccommend that have studied or
> are currently studing these courses. 
> Also what degree of integration/exposure do these courses have with
> linux and which would be most helpful to get a good job?
> 
> I'm basically looking at the following courses:
> Curtin Computer Science
> Curtin Software Engineering

I've done 3 semesters of comp sci at Curtin (finishing this year, job offers
;)), and prior to that 1 semester of soft eng also at Curtin. Prior to that I
was studying for a B.Eng. Computer Systems Engineering degree in Sydney...

The soft eng degree is not mature. It's basically a comp sci degree with some
units removed and replaced with Electrical Engineering units. Also, rather
than having a choice at doing some of the Software Engineering units they are
part of the course core. IMO some of the EE units don't relate to
software engineering or the comp sci stuff and that was the sort of thing I
was trying to get away from when switching from the Computer Systems
Engineering degree (ran by the old Electrical Engineering dept at UTS).

There are some benefits though. There is an industry partner program where
groups of students work with the partner on a "large" software project. I
believe 2 such projects must be completed during the degree. However, I could 
be wrong as the course has already gone through quite a bit of changes since 
it's introduction 3 years ago.


OK, comp sci. Well it's comp sci and I don't really have much to compare it
to. The one thing I do know is that Curtin doesn't have a cool (geek cool)
computing club like the UCC at UWA. If it'd known that I'd have chosen UWA in
the first place ;) Oh, I suppose a bonus is the amount of linux you get to use
at Curtin.  The comp sci department run all their own labs. From memory
there are about 8 labs, only 1 or 2 run Windows, the rest linux! FYI redhat
linux.


Later,

Jason Nicholls
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