Most important and useful CS courses?

Jay520
Fri, 17 May 2013 02:39:09 +0000

@Turbo

I see it depends on what the SE class encompasses. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get there then. It is a Major Design course, if that’s indicative of its criteria.

As for Computer Architecture, thanks for the info. I don’t often hear that the hardware aspect is that useful for Computer Scientist. That, plus the fact that it had the second hardest workload in the EECS department (right behind EECS 381), has steered me away from considering that course as a possibility.

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@blahblah


- “Computer scientists make good software engineers. People who focus on software engineering don’t make good software engineers.” - -


Well, I’m not focusing on it…I’m just taking one class. It’s not like it’s going to eliminate everything else I’ve learned. What would you recommend over Software Engineering?: Computer Architecture, Game Design, or App Development.


- “Who cares? Does every class you take have to help you get a job?” - -


Uh…that’s kind of the main point we go to college, right?


- "Have you heard of Google, Facebook, or other big companies who work with large amounts of data? " - -


Yes. I have heard of these companies from occasionally. I am also aware that they handle lots of data. That was a funny question.


- “They use AI. In fact, Google does a lot of funding for AI.” - -


I have no doubts that Google and other really big companies are making groundbreaking innovations in fields like AI. But I’m going to be honest with myself - It’s extremely unlikely that I’ll be working for any company even remotely as innovative as Google.

I guess you could say I don’t have much ambition and you would probably be right. I’ve accepted that I probably will only be an average “Computer Scientist” and won’t do anything major with my career. And I’m okay with that so long as I make a decent living doing something that I enjoy. Sure, working for Microsoft or Google would be nice, but I don’t see a realistic shot of that happening.

My future could change drastically though. In which case, I would change my plans accordingly. If in my first year or two, I realized I was some sort of late-blooming CS genius, then sure, I would go into the more exciting specializations like Artificial Intelligence; so don’t think I’m completely ruling it out. I’m just looking at the most likely scenario. And from what I have observed, it does not appear likely that I will get a job where AI is very important…that would be nice though.