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Computing

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A graduate in computing typically will have the ability to:

  • demonstrate knowledge and understanding of essential facts, concepts, principles and theories relating to computing and computer applications
  • use such understanding in modelling and designing computer-based systems for the purposes of comprehension, communication, prediction and the understanding of trade-offs
  • demonstrate computational thinking and its relevance to everyday life, including redundancy and the diversity to achieve the development of safe and critical systems
  • use criteria and specifications appropriate to specific problems, and plan solutions
  • ensure a computer system meets the standards defined for current use and future development
  • recognise simplicity and elegance as useful concepts, but also bad and dangerous practices
  • deploy appropriate theory, practices and tools to analyse, specify, design, implement and evaluate computer-based systems, including trade-offs and quality attributes of a chosen solution
  • present succinctly to a range of audiences (orally, electronically or in writing) rational and reasoned arguments that address a given information handling problem or opportunity, including assessments of the impact of new technologies
  • recognise the professional, moral and ethical issues involved in exploiting computer technology and be guided by appropriate professional, ethical and legal practices
  • exhibit practical and transferable skills, including relevant approaches to group activity
  • work as a development team member, recognising the different roles within a team and different ways of organising teams
  • operate computing equipment, taking account of its logical and physical properties and any risk and safety aspects
  • deploy information retrieval skills (including using browsers, search engines and catalogues)
  • use available tools to construct and document computer applications
  • exercise numeracy skills and use effectively general IT facilities
  • take a disciplined approach to all aspect of computer design, sustaining own knowledge to accommodate rapid technology changes
  • manage own learning and personal development, including using time management and organisational skills, with a focus on lifelong learning and professional development.

Computing is a discipline that is constantly evolving, covering a spectrum that ranges from theory to practice embracing hardware, software, the study of computers and computation per se, through to applications-oriented studies. It is concerned with the understanding, design and exploitation of computation and computer technology. It blends theories (including those derived from other disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, psychology, graphical design or well founded experimental insight) with the solution of immediate practical problems; it combines the ethos of the scholar with that of the professional; it underpins the development of both small scale and large scale systems that support organisational goals; it helps individuals in their everyday lives; it is ubiquitous and applied to a range of applications, and yet important components are invisible to the naked eye.

This highly diverse subject overlaps with other adjacent subjects, such as engineering, especially parts of electrical and electronic engineering; physics, with concern for multimedia and device-level development of computing components; mathematics (logic and theoretical models of computation); business (information services); philosophy and psychology (human-computer interaction and aspects of artificial intelligence); physiology (neural networks); linguistics; and art and design (web and multimedia). Computing develops computational thinking, a basic analytical ability that has relevance in many aspects of everyday life.

Some students may be attracted to computing by the depth and intellectual richness of the theory, others by the possibility of engineering large and complex systems. Many study computing for vocational reasons or because it gives them the opportunity to use a creative and dynamic technology. Computing promotes innovation and creativity assisted by rapid technological change. It also encourages excellence and the platform for students to achieve their full potential. It requires a disciplined approach to problem solving with an expectation of high quality. Computing approaches design and development through selection from a wide range of alternative possibilities justified by carefully crafted arguments based on analysis and insight. It controls complexity first through abstraction and simplification, and then by the integration of components. It is a product of human ingenuity, and provides major intellectual challenges, yet this limits neither the scope of computing nor the complexity of the application domains addressed.

Graduates in computing are found in technical fields such as computer operations, computer systems sales and service, programming, systems analysis, software engineering and technical authorship, as well as professions that require a combination of computing and other capabilities.

Did you know graduates in this subject develop skills in teamwork, commercial awareness and interpersonal sensitivity?


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