Published: March 25, 2021
As a computer science student at the University of Sunderland, I have found my overall experience amazing so far.
I have enjoyed all of the modules in my course so far and I have studied some very interesting topics, such as web development, the internet of things, software development and so much more. All the topics I have studied have been great, even when some have been difficult it is fun to be able to challenge yourself and find solutions. Even the assignments are fun. For example, in first year we had an assignment called the “mini-project” where we could choose from different projects. I chose the project where we had to build and code a Lego robot to perform different tasks. This was fun as I got to play around with the robot for a few weeks. My robot was called Megatron. Then when we got to show our work to the lecturers and the rest of the class, there was a race/obstacle course for the robots to race against each other.
The lecturers in the computer science course at the University of Sunderland are great. They are very supportive and helpful. Also, their way of teaching is engaging and I have learnt a lot so far thanks to them.
Another great thing about Sunderland is that I feel like most people are friendly here. Thanks to the many opportunities to meet new people presented here, I have made a lot of friends. For example, during fresher’s week, the Student Union run a lot of activities where you can meet new people. Back in my first year, I went to a bowling night and I am still friends with some people I met on that day. Even in our computer science lectures/seminars, we have chances to make new friends as we often do group work and have to discuss with our peers the topics we are learning.
During my experience studying here, I have also been given the chance to do a placement year. This has made me a better professional, developing my technical skills as well as my personal skills. The university has helped me get my placement year too in many ways. Firstly, Sunderland Futures (the career service) checked my CV several times to help me express my strengths and experience and format my CV properly. This made me feel more confident in applying to placements too. Sunderland Futures also helped by doing practise interviews with me. Before applying to placements I was not confident at all in applying to jobs, especially doing interviews and writing CVs but Sunderland Futures helped me a lot to become more confident.
In addition to this, in my course, we have modules to develop professionally, which means I could be confident for my placement too. In second year we did a personal skills development module where we worked on ourselves and we chose our own ways of developing our skills, then we documented this in an e-portfolio with evidence to show that we have learnt these skills. This was helpful as it made us dedicate time to become better professionals and be more career-ready. I can also say that the Software Enterprise Project module that we did in the second year was very useful to become better professionals. This is where we got to work with a real client in a team to develop something that they wanted. This meant that we could put into practise all of the skills we learnt about the software development life cycle and we could use our personal skills to work effectively in a team. Plus, our team won for the project we did for Sage.
Something else that has made my experience studying computer science great, is the number of opportunities I am given in the University of Sunderland. For example, I was given the chance to go to a hackathon in my first year with a group of other women in my course which meant we were able to go to London for a few days, for free. This was such a fun experience and our team did manage to win a prize for the best chatbot, so that was great.
Ana Castillo Bottto
BSc Hons Computer Science
Topic: Course