The lab where I TA the C programming class

I’ve definitely learned a lot from my last attempt at TA-ing the previous semester. That time around I helped with an m68k assembly language class. It was quite difficult, especially since it was a class that many students found challenging. It ended up being a good experience though because it helped teach me the importance of being prepared for the weeks labs. The biggest challenge was trying to anticipate what types of questions would be asked and how to prepare myself. By the end of the first couple of labs, I started to get the hang of it and made myself a routine. Since it had been sometime since I last worked with m68k assembly, I decided the best way to prepare was to fully complete the labs myself before the students. While it made for quite a bit of work, I got to learn quite a bit, and I could answer the questions with confidence. In the C class, since I work with it quite a lot more often than assembly, I didn’t need to review the labs nearly as much. I found just bringing a textbook that I could quickly reference was always useful.

It’s amazing how ta-ing helps you to remember and cement concepts in your mind. Certain things that might have been a bit fuzzy or hard to remember have been recalled and re-clarified since I am forced to know the material in-depth in order to prepare for the weekly labs and assignments. Also the questions from the students help me to consider things I wouldn’t normally. I would definitely recommend being a TA for any CS grad student (or upper year undergrad) who might be considering it!

Example Office Environment

10. Not Labour Intensive

In terms of physical labour, on a list of 100, a job in the computer industry would likely be ranked 98 or 99 behind participants in sleep studies. You will likely end up with a nice ergonomic chair and a more comfortable working environment than your own desk at home (unless of course your a researcher at a university, in which case it will be the other way around). If you manage to land a job at a large software company there are often ample breaks, lots of snacks and many other perks. On the other hand, if you are so inclined you might even be able to get gym memberships for free or on the cheap to make up for the lack of “real work” you do all day.

9. No Longer and Insociable Career Choice

While you still can be an isolated programming coding away for hours on end this is becoming more of a rarity. Projects are often large and require enormous collaborative efforts in order to be completed. Conferences and workshops allow you to connect with other professionals and keep up on the latest ideas in the field.

8. Surrounded by Motivated, Young & Intelligent People

Often times tech departments are full of young people fresh out of school who are still very motivated and get excited about new ideas. For instance I work with many people who are still students and we often exchange links to interesting new technologies we find on the Internet. Additionally, if someone gets stuck on something many people can end up searching through the vast information to find a solution quicker. This keeps the work going quickly and makes it more interesting. This is a good environment to work in as opposed to a factory / warehouse where most people hate their job and can’t wait to leave at the end of the day.

Always connected to the Internet, coworkers and valuable information

7. Always Connected

It is a requirement these days to be connected to the Internet if your business has anything to do with technology and this can be a very a good thing. As mentioned previously, this allows for easy communication and collaboration between people and departments. Even if the people are separated across the office, or in a different city / country etc they can still share files, reports and more. Techniques can be researched online and solutions can be found without having to reinvent the wheel each time. Eventually I suppose almost every career may be exposed to this type of thing once the Internet becomes completely pervasive.

6. Often Interesting

Computers in some form have become involved in almost every discipline around. This means that even if your passions isn’t necessarily computers, you could still apply computer science to your own field to help it improve. Computers can help with identifying chemicals in Chemistry, DNA, genes etc in Biology, complex equations and systems in Physics, calculate statistics for Political Science and the list goes on. In each of these fields however there are major obstacles that prevent the experts from doing an even better job at what they do because of the limitations of current computer systems. It may be that they aren’t user friendly enough, powerful enough, or that the problem is just plain impossible to compute in a reasonable time with the methods we have today. Even in the more “average” computer jobs like web design and programming, the job isn’t boring because each day there are new problems. There is always new content to be added to websites, new features to be added to programs and something will often go wrong. This problem solving is what makes it interesting.

IT / Computer Professionals often earn at
least average salaries or higher in Canada

5. Good Pay

In my experience, in Canada at least, most technology workers seem to earn at least the average income or higher. There are usually good promotions, benefits and perks because the companies want to retain the workers since they have paid to keep up their training and education. I’ve also heard a few stories about systems that are running ancient software. Apparently there is a nuclear power plant near where I live that is running COBOL code on a robot that changes the spent nuclear rods from the plant. Since this is a such a vital function they have avoided upgrading the system or changing as much as possible. Now it turns out there is only one person left in North America who knows how it works so they pay lots of money for him to fly in from the US to fix it whenever there is trouble. So the lesson here: outlive everyone else who has worked on the system you are building

4. All Skill Levels Required

Another reason why you may want to switch into computer science is because computer and IT jobs need people of all skill levels. You can get the jobs with everything from basic certification courses to community college diplomas, bachelor degrees or PhD’s. There is also a wide range of job titles you could hold: IT / Tech Support, Web Designer / Developer, Programmer, Analyst, Administrator, Database Designer, Resarcher, Team Leader etc… Once you are in the door at a company if you keep upgrading your education you should be able to keep climbing the ladder as well. Experience and Education are valued at many places.

3. Retraining Encouraged

Retraining is often encouraged for technology workers. Especially at the larger, successful companies. They want to maintain a competitive advantage and do not want to be seen using old technology. This means they may even pay for you to take upgrading courses or even for portions of diploma or degree programs. This is also extremely beneficial for the employee because as training increases they can demand more money, and at the same time they become more valuable to the competition. It also ensures that if you do loose your job later that you may have an easier time being rehired somewhere else.

2. World is Dependent on Technology Now

Try imagining a world without any computers, calculators or modern technology. Think slide rules, pen and pencil calculations, tables of sin and cosines etc. It would be impossible for us to keep track of our economies, banking systems, inventories etc. There would be no more long range communications and global business would essentially stop. Technology is ingrained in our lives now and there is no way of going back anymore.

On the other there are still people who do not understand much of modern technology. There are still CEOs who are unable to understand how to apply technology to problems in an effective way. This is where people trained in computer science may be able to help. There is a strong need for people who can communicate highly technical ideas in a way other people can understand so they can make informed decisions.

Computer Researcher

1. Many Problems Still to be Solved

The most compelling reason why you should study computer science is because of the vast amount of problems still to be solved. Computer Science is extremely young compared to Physics, Chemistry and Biology. To me this means that popular ideas are easier to challenge, people are still willing to accept change fairly easily. On top of this, the computer field itself changes so rapidly that what works at one time may not be applicable later. For over the last fifty years or so we have developed many techniques that work wonderfully on “electrical” computers. What happens if we change to computers that use light, or if we use quantum computers? More specifically than that even there are questions like “What is the best way to schedule packets in a wireless network?” in the subfield of wireless research. There are many other questions in many other subfields of computer science as well.

Conclusion

Yet despite all of these questions, we do not have enough people to answer them. Enrolment in recent years in Computer Science hasn’t been great (except since video game courses became popular). Alot of people were afraid after the dot.com bust a few years ago and many people were probably discouraged from taking computer science then. I was fairly worried then as well since I was in the middle of my undergrad degree at the time. Now with the economy doing poorly, computer jobs are quite secure. In the area where I live some of the largest technology companies are still hiring thousands of people (RIM, OpenText). On top of that think of how many businesses require some form of computer expertise. Almost every business larger than a small business where the one person does the job of the technologist themselves. Now is the best time to go and get retrained in computers. If you are Ontario, many of the colleges are even offering money to support it through the Second Career Program.

The people I met last year ranged from successful entrepreneurs to those just climbing the corporate ladder to those who were in more of a management position in the company. Talking with the people can also be an important connection that could help you find a job more easily when you finish at Guelph as well! The night runs from 6:30 until 8:30 pm. Here is a Facebook event you can check out for more information: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=113507310606

Comic from phdcomics.com on Grad School

Get to know your Undergrad Profs Well!

This point cannot be stressed enough. When I was going through my undergrad I rarely got to know any of the profs. Especially early on. I kept to myself and did my work, even went above and beyond on many of the assignments, but still almost none of the profs knew me. This became a huge problem when it came time to get those required reference letters to get into grad school. Some of the profs I asked didn’t know me well and I suspect wrote just that in their reference letters. One school I applied to seemed very interested in the early stages, but after they got my entire application package they declined, perhaps this was because bad references. If possible, the best type of profs to get to know are those which are working in fields you are interested in. Another good reference is a prof who is well known, or profs who often collaborate with the schools you are intending to apply to. Another important point here, is DO NOT ASK FOR A REFERENCE LETTER AT THE LAST MINUTE!! I have seen students ask professors for grad references with only a week or less left before the deadline. Often the prof gives a bad reference or will refuse it outright.

Find Potential Supervisors

It is best if you can identify researchers you would like to work with. At some schools you can contact these people directly to see if they have enough funding available to take you on or to pitch them your research plan / idea. At more popular schools, the profs may be too busy to respond to everyone’s email, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to identify potential supervisors. You can still try to determine if this person will be a good match for based on several things. You can look at their websites to see if they give any hints to what their personality is like, if their research is compatible with your ideas etc. It is very important to be a good match with your supervisor because not getting along should you get accepted would make for a long couple / few years. Additionally, in getting to know the potential supervisor, you can tailor your research proposal to what you think they might be interested in, so that when you are compared against other students who have applied you stand a better chance of catching the profs eye.

Have a Research Plan

From the last point you can see why it is important to have a research plan. You need to convince one of the profs or someone at the school that you are worth spending time and money on. At least have a general idea of what direction you want to head in if / when you start your studies.

Try For Good Marks (Early On If Possible)

Most schools (in Ontario) have a requirement of around a B/ B+ average. As far as I understand, some schools (Waterloo, Toronto) consider this requirement across all four years of your undergrad degree while other schools (Guelph, Western maybe) consider your last two years. I speak from experience when I say you should try your best to get good marks. It will save you alot of stress. I just barely made it in and was admitted on probation. I am now a normal grad student after getting an A average the last couple of terms, but it definitely puts alot more pressure on. Also, if you want funding it may be impossible if you entered on probation like me. For OGS and NSERC, they look at your last 20 courses while you are in your first two years of grad school. Over these 20 courses you need an A- (80%) average. So the point is, if you plan to go to grad school (which many people don’t even know until near the end of undergrad like me) get good marks ASAP! Try to make the choice as early on in your undergrad as you can. Be strategic about your marks, drop classes you know you aren’t doing well on and take them again another term (You will be surprised how much this can help), take distance ed courses if your school offers them and make sure to mix your hard courses with some easier ones so you don’t get too discouraged by an overly hard semester.

Consider Attending Different Schools for Each Degree

This is perhaps one of the most controversial points of all of the grad school tips. Depending on who you speak to, some people will tell you should not under any circumstances stay in the same school for more than one degree. You should attend different schools so that you are exposed to new ideas, new people and team dynamics. Often times a given department is biased toward thinking in a certain manner or using certain methodologies and it may help you to experience different ways of thinking in this regard.

Of course, there is also considerations to be made for the other side of this argument. For example, if you already have a great supervisor lined up, already know a project well and have a good plan to get alot of work done then perhaps it may be better to stay. Also consider how much it may cost to move around to different schools. If the school is in another city, province or country it may require paying more for rent, getting a part time or whatever else to keep the bills paid. I would recommend avoiding part time work like the plague while you are attending grad school. (I know from experience, it is very difficult to balance it all). If you are in another country it may be more difficult to get funding as well since some scholarships are only available to citizens. (Although there are also scholarships specifically for students who aren’t citizens as well.

Apply for Scholarships & Awards Whenever Possible

This one is important, not only because you get money but also because it beefs up your resume so it’s useful for jobs if you feel like getting into industry or whatever else later on. I think that profs like to see students who are able to get scholarships themselves because it means they will be less reliant for funding on the professor. Even if you don’t get them often (or at all) it can be helpful to at least get into the habit of writing the applications out, because they are similar to applications for grad school and for practise for more important awards later on in grad school (NSERC, OGS etc).

Ask Questions & Attend Meetings

If your school offers meetings regarding grad school applications, go to them. Even if you don’t plan on applying until the following year. It takes quite a while to get organized for grad school applications so start early. Ask any questions you have and make sure you understand the whole process well. Contact the departments you are applying to if anything is unclear or look around online. (One great place to ask questions regarding grad school is PhDComics Forums. Another place more specific to computer science (and in Canada) is CompSci.ca Forums. Often both of these sites have a wide range of students from undergrad right up to professors who can answer many of your questions. Additionally, you can leave me a comment here (however I am no expert).

Be a Motivated Student

Personally, I think this is one of the most important factors in being accepted and being a successful grad student. Graduate school can be at times very trying. It can sometimes feel like you will never find the solution to the problem you are working on, or that there are a million deadlines and things to do. The only way through this is with absolute passion for your subject of study. Sometimes you might have to create this for yourself. Take a break from your normal work, read things related to your subject that are interesting (Personally I <3 reading websites like Digg, Slashdot and technical magazines like IEEE and ACM to see all the new and exciting ideas... but whatever works). Passion not only affects you in a positive way, it also rubs off on those around you. Profs and other students will want to work with you if you show genuine enthusiasm for what you are working on. (This can also be a factor in deciding where you want to study, because if you get a good environment where everyone is like this, you can feed off one another).

Comic from phdcomics.com on Grad School

Related Links

• NSERC – National Sciences and Engineering Research Council
• OGS – Ontario Graduate Scholarships

Conclusion

So thats it for my tips for now, I’ll add to this from time to time as I think of more and feel free to add any suggestions you think should be including in the list.

http://www2.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/focusonwireless

(I know this doesn’t benefit me directly since I already belong to those societies and could probably get access to them through my libraries, but they seem interesting enough and I will likely read at least a few the next chance I get). It’s also helpful for those people who don’t necessarily have normal access to IEEE articles a chance to try them out. Topics include Pervasive Computing, Internet Computing, Security, RFIDs and more. Check it out if you get a chance!

Perhaps in response to this, Zeroth posted about computer science on his blog with an article entitled “What is Computer Science?” He commented that many people in other disciplines make use of computer science as a way of expressing some of their complex ideas that would otherwise be very difficult to express.

I’m always quite interested in this kind of debate and will continue to follow anything further on the subject. After all the time I’ve been in school and all the profs and other computer type people I’ve encountered I still have to side closest to Zeroth and his post. Computer Science is separate from anything else we have right now. It’s a tool used to help describe complex phenomenon and ideas that could not be otherwise expressed well. It’s not completely math, engineering or an art.

Computer Science is like connection between everything. With computers we can express math through equations and logic within the computer. We can use computers to aid in engineering with CAD and blueprints and models that help with simulation of structures and devices. We can use a computer to create, enhance and distribute music, paintings and video. To me computer science should be trying to do what physics has always aimed for. Since we can use computer science to connect everything we know and understand, we should try to understand everything through the use of computer science. The aim of physics is some magical grand unified theory of everything and I think this theory or “concept of everything” will only be possible from advances in computer science.

An example of a Brain-Computer-Interface

One interesting way I’ve heard it described both in the lecture and on the laboratory website is that is roughly the opposite of virtual reality. This definition seems strange to me because with the computers everywhere it almost is like the boundary between what is real and what is virtual becomes blurred.

What happens if in the future we can interface the computers with the human mind? While the definition of virtual reality is a human inside a computer created world, ubiquitous computing of the future could become a mix of computer created worlds and the imagination of the individual user. This area is quite interesting to me, and there are still many questions, perhaps this wil be a future area of research.

The definition of a “weasel word” varies depending on the source but generally they are words which are misleading, make baseless claims or are exaggerations to make ideas sound better.  Or like a weasel sucks the insides out of an egg, the weasel word sucks the value out of the document it appears in.

When I watched the defense I found out one reason why they should be avoided.  The person defending used the word “understanding” in his thesis. One of the goals of his thesis was to “understand” the field and as a result, at the conclusion of his thesis he claimed an “understanding” of the field. However it is impossible to ever have a complete understanding of a topic. It is very easy to point to something related to his thesis that he doesn’t fully understand and thus this type of language should be avoided.  It may seem like a small detail but imagine how a paper would sound if it were full of this type of language.  It would be like one big exaggeration leaving the reader doubting the real knowledge of the person who wrote it.

The reason I’m writing this entry is to compile a list of computer science related “weasel words” which similarly should be avoided.

• Understand / Understanding: As in I “understand” the field I am studying thoroughly and completely
• Optimal, Optimized: As in “My algorithm is the optimal solution to the problem” when you really mean it is a “better solution than currently exists”. All someone has to do is find something slightly better or a small improvement to make your work invalid. At the very least this will require a mathematically proof to show your idea is truly optimal so if you don’t like math it may be best to avoid this word.
• Best: See above for optimal
• Proved / Proven: Many people like to use this word after some experimental results agree with a hypothesis they have proposed. However a hypothesis is never really proven completely. It can only be verified. If something has been proven it is usually mathematically proven and as such there should be no need for an experiment or hypothesis at all.
• Theory: I hear people using theory all the time and think they are talking scientifically. In science a theory is a well verified, time tested hypothesis or group of hypotheses. In common english many people try to use “theory” when they really mean idea or guess. For instance on television the other day someone asked “whats your theory on this?” to another character on a show. If you use theory in your thesis make sure you use it correctly.
• Hypothesis: Similarly to theory, many lay-people use this word incorrectly.  A simplified defintion of a hypothesis is an “explanation of a phenomenon”. Like theory many people will use it when they really mean idea or guess.
• (more to come as I watch more defenses / come across more on the inter webs)

The following are some links I found on weasel words and other language to avoid when writing formal academic documents:

• Wikipedia:Avoid weasel words
• How to Write A Dissertation – Purdue

So if computer science should not be a science then what is it? Many people argue that it should be considered engineering. They point to areas such as software engineering, circuit design and computer engineering as evidence of this. At McMaster University the Computer Science department is housed within the Engineering faculty.

On the other hand some people consider computer science to be mathematics. This is the case because many concepts in computer science are based in mathematics, for example, networks make use of graph theory and Boolean logic at the core of most computers. The University of Waterloo has the Computer Science department located within the faculty of Mathematics.

Finally, there are some who view computer science as a real science. What is the evidence for this? Fields like HCI (Human Computer Interaction) rely on methods similar to those of psychologists and sociologists turning to surveys, studies and experiments to determine the best ways in which a computer and a human can interact. For example, at the University of Guelph there are graduate students researching where to best locate items on a webpage to make the site easier to use or to maximize the information being conveyed to users. In AI and Neural Network research, many algorithms have performance and behavior that is difficult to predict so experimental design is used to investigate hypotheses based on the algorithms. At the, University of Guelph the computer science department is part of the science faculty.

Perhaps most recently however, many people have begun advocating that computer science cannot be defined by any of these distinct classifications alone. For example, at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, the Computer Science department is located within its own faculty. In Making Modern Science by Bowler and Morus they claim that modern views of applied research (engineering) and pure research (science) are losing their distinction. The blurring of the lines between the fields may be contributing to why it is so difficult to classify computer science in any three of the fields. Additionally, the founders of the field are polarized in each of the three camps. According to “Is Computer Science Science?” appearing in ACM by Peter Denning, many of the greatest computer scientists such as Dijkstra, Sussman and Abelson argued that Computer Science should be considered engineering or mathematics. Others identify computer science with an art form. Denning goes on to predict that the in the field, science will become more prevalent in the near future. This is the case because many of the youth getting started today are less awed by the technology since they grew up with it. They are more open to critical thinking, which is important in science.

Being one of the younger people in computer science myself I agree with this point. In the first two semesters at Guelph I have encountered many situations in which scientific method could be applied to further research in an area of computing. Many problems are mathematically intractable and systems have grown so large and complex that their behavior and performance are unpredictable (AI, Parallel Computing). The effects a system has on an external system or vice versa cannot be studied effectively using mathematics or engineering (HCI, Network Loads, Robotics, and Faulty Networks). In a famous quote by Dijkstra he stated “Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes”. This may be true however that doesn’t make the field any less a science. Where astrology has stars, constellations, the laws of physics and chemistry, computer science has algorithms, networks, software, computability, number theory, logic and much more. Using scientific method, forming hypotheses, designing experiments and collecting evidence will keep computer science moving forward in the future. There is still much to be discovered in computer science. Research in quantum computing, artificial intelligence, HCI and many other areas will likely cause the field of computer science to become unrecognizable from today in the future.

Update: I have started this thread for people to discuss this topic at the CompSci.ca forums.

Here is a link to a blog named “See Jane Compute” from a Computer Science prof who I found wrote an entry on the exact same subject around the same time as me. Her blog seems to explain similar points to mine in a more eloquent manner.