[clug] Software Engineering

[Robert Edwards]

Just as a data-point, back in the dark ages when I was at Uni. there
were no Engineering courses at all in Canberra, and no such thing as
a Software Engineering program anywhere else, so I studied a double
degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (BE/Bsc) at UNSW.
Neil Brown (kernel NFS and RAID maintainer, currently employed by SuSE/
Novell) and I travelled up to UNSW and he did the straight Comp. Sci.
course (with honours) and did really well. We took many classes together
and studied Operating Systems under Dr. John Lions.

Anyway, as an employee of ANU, I thought maybe I should say something
about the BSEng vs. BIT degree here.

Firstly, our BSEng degree is already accredited by the IEAust (Institute
of Engineers, Australia) (not normally known as the AIE!)

Secondly, BSEng requires twice as much first year maths as the BIT
course, with the extra maths being more "discrete" (pure) than the
applied maths required for the BIT students in first year. There is
more maths in second year for BSEng and some mathematically-oriented
computing courses (Algorithms etc.) in later years. All I can say here
is that maths is really good for you and it is worth (in the long run)
putting in the effort to "grok" it, no matter what sort of job/
position you may be looking for. Employers know this.

Note that I'm not normally part of the BSEng teaching team, although
I do teach the 3rd year Computer Networks course, which BSEng students
can take as an elective.

Also importantly (from my point of view - not necessarily the ANU's) is
that we are a predominantly FOSS-based Dept. which serves our teaching
needs really well. Almost all of our teaching labs run Linux and almost
all of our teaching and research staff use Linux on their desktops and
laptops. And we run Linux on several big systems here as well ("Bunyip"
won a world-record back in 2000, running Linux).

Anyway, enough from me.

Cheers,

Bob Edwards.

Tarrant wrote:
> Hey all,
> 
>  
> 
> I'm considering studying either Bachelor of IT, or Software Engineering at
> ANU (not next year, but the year after - deferring to earn that precious
> thing called money) but I am having difficulty making the decision between
> the two for a list of reasons. Just wondering if any of the fellow members
> are currently studying, or have studied software engineering - and if you
> are happy to answer some questions I may have, could you please drop a
> message to Tarrant at aeria-design.com
> 
>  
> 
> Greatly appreciated,
> 
> Tarrant
> 
>  
>