Gigi's Gym: University

University

The Degree

I am currently reading a BSc IT (Hons) degree at the University of Malta. The course attempts to cover a bit of all areas an IT professional would be expected to deal with in industry.

My main interests so far have been in Systems Programming, Network Programming and Machine Learning.

1st Year Subjects

Freshman subjects are mostly introductory units. They provide a background in various areas, including computer engineering, mathematical techniques, various programming paradigms, and algorithmics. Most of them are not too interesting, but those that are interesting provide important foundations for any person seeking to work in Information Technology.

CCE1002: Computer Logic and Organisation I
CCE1003: Introduction to Computer Systems
CCE1101: Introduction to Communication System
CCE1201: Introduction to Signal Processing
CIS1021: Fundamentals of Information Systems
CIS1041: Introduction to Databases
CIS1051: Introduction to Business Modelling and Office Automation Software
CIS1061: Structured Design and Applied Operating Systems
CIS1071: Further Programming
CSA1010: Principles of Structured Development
CSA1011: Algorithmics
CSA1012: Object Oriented Programming
CSA1060: Mathematics of Discrete Structures
CSA1080: Declarative Programming
MAT1091: Mathematical Methods I: Matrices and Differential Equations
MAT1803: Mathematical Transform Techniques

2nd Year Subjects

The Sophomore year is where the fun begins. There are several subjects that many of us consider as unnecessary, and in which many people tend to fail unfortunately. However, some of the other subjects are so nice that they make up for all the rest. For example, in Systems Programming, we had to write various programs and libraries that communicate with the Unix kernel directly, among which was a game server and client. In Network Programming we became familiar with networking protocols, and also with Windows Programming. In Core Computer Science II, we covered some AI techniques, and had to write a neural network that learns to recognise digits.

CCE2001: Computer Logic and Organisation II
CCE2112: Telecommunications I
CIS2030: Systems Analysis and Logical Design
CIS2051: Physical Design and Implementation of Object Oriented Application
CSA2070: Core Computer Science I
CSA2130: Object Oriented Modelling using Java
MAT2402: Networks
MGT2021: Business Management
SOR1211: Probability
CCE2002: Microprocessor Systems
CIS2090: Practical Design and Implementation with DBMS
MAT1401: Discrete Methods
CSA2080: Core Computer Science II
CSA2150: Fundamentals of Network Programming
CSA2090: Systems Programming

Year 3 Semester 1

The first half of Third Year consists of a few advanced study-units that contain a lot of material. All of them are chosen by us, and this means that there are less subjects forced on us, so we can learn the things that really interest us.

CSA3150: Concurrent & Distributed Systems
CSA3220: Machine Learning, Expert Systems and Fuzzy Logic
CSA3190: Internet Technologies & Java Server-Side Programming
CIS3051: Information Systems Engineering 1
CIS3081: Advanced Client/Server Computing & Distributed Databases
CIS3031: Scientific & Quantitative Aspects of IS

Assigned Practical Tasks

The second semester of Third Year breaks away from the classic lectures-and-exams routine and allows us to choose how to allocate our own time to research, design and implementation of three large projects.

CIS3001: Design and Implementation of Client/Server Applications
CSA3001: Web Science
CSA3006: Portskan