My experience on the department

This blog post is basically an overview of the computer science department from how I’ve experienced it so far. Because I’m a third year student, I’ve had 2 full years of the university. There are a lot of positive points about the university. I firstly think that almost all of the lecturers and professors are friendly. Even the demonstrators are friendly and will help out where ever they can. Basically if anyone needs help on any topic in the computer science field, there generally is someone who is willing to help you, even this is out of “learning hours”. I’m not saying that 11PM on deadline day that they will help. But if you approach most of them with problems you are having and show that you’ve actually been working on a certain project/topic. From my experience they will help. Not that I’ve emailed a lot for help, but I know there are some cases with deadline dates and what is actually due.

There is always a machine to work on. Even if that means going to the LRC and working on some written work, you generally can get a machine with specific hardware/software you need on a daily basis. I know that I can get access to 3Ds max which is specialist 3D software almost whenever I want. I can’t obviously talk for other departments in the Computer Science field, but from my first year experience, I know that networking departments seem often free for those who don’t have their own machine with expensive hardware and software on. Because not all students can afford to buy the hardware needed.

A good example of that is today, we had a quick demo of the motion capture room. If a student books in advance, they can get access to this kit. This is a very cool thing for students like me, knowing that they can get access to very expensive kit which wouldn’t be possible while being at home.

I don’t have experience at other universities so I can’t really compare. But from what I have experience at the university of Bedfordshire, it is a very up to date university with kit almost always available.