TechHui

Hawaiʻi's Technology Community

What are three ways that the UH ICS program could improve?

If you can think of more than three things, then please limit your response to your top three!

Views: 12289

Replies to This Discussion

Three bad things about being an ICS student

1.Cost of textbook, and computer, software and so on.

2. More class availability

3. Flipped class for most of courses, sometime hard to learn

On reflection  of the UH ICS program, I find these three things areas of improvement:

-graduation numbers. I understand that there is a lack of funding going into the program, as that is the reason we were told that the program requires a B in the gateway classes in order to obtain the degree. However, the computer science degree is in high demand in the workforce in all areas including the State Department, so I am surprised that more funds are not being given to the program to increase graduation rates, instead of decreasing them. While the areas of money are out of the hands of the professors in the department, I can't help but feel for those student who come with bright ideas for the Computer Science field and fail out because they do not do well with tests.

-teaching course material. In most of these classes, I have been self-teaching myself the materials. The class instruction on the programs, theories, and methods have not been adequate for me to complete assignments or pass exams. Google has been my instructor, and those at the college have been the ones who just give me assignments. I am not certain if this is due to the way in which I normally educate myself or if others feel the same, but even some of the 'flip-flop' classes required me to outsource to grasp all the material required. I understand that some codes and methods have not changed in 40 years, but watching a 5 year old YouTube video from a professor who is not teaching the class and loves to talk about taking pictures of fish and birds gives me the impression that the professors are not really interested in teaching the material- which makes it even harder for me as a student to get enthusiastic about the course.

-testing proficiency in programming classes. The only way to accurately demonstrate knowledge in a code is to code, but when a professor is teaching a notes only course without any study review, how can it be expected that the students will know exactly what is being asked in the exams? Questions on vocabulary not defined in class were thrown in, and when asked what to study for these exams, was told that 'doing the programming work should adequately prepare you for these tests'. Make exams accurate to the materials directly covered, especially if the course is only notes based.

-

Three bad things about being a UHM ICS student:

1) Location. Unfortunately, the local tech community (in Hawaii) is not attractive enough for a lot of graduates and they end up working on the U.S. mainland. Also, there's a lot more diversity in certain areas of Computer Science jobs overseas. For example, finding a job in Game Development in Hawaii would be really tough, but is a lot easier on the mainland since a lot of game companies are stationed there.

2) ICS 314. Getting into ICS 314 has been ridiculously difficult. I wanted to take the course a year ago in my sophomore year, but I had to resort to taking other classes instead. With a course that seems to provide (I say seem because I haven't completed the course yet to explicitly talk about it) a lot of fundamental knowledge of software engineering which can prove helpful in other courses, it annoys me that the course is not as available as it should be. I don't think this is at fault of the instructor, but it might just be a problem that's out of the department's control.

3) Teaching methods. For some courses, the methods in which the instructors taught the material was ineffective. In some cases, I felt like I needed to teach the material myself through other sources (i.e. YouTube) to fully understand it. This might be a controversial opinion, but I think the introductory courses need to have higher standards and introduce students to important tools like GitHub. I wished I didn't have to discover Git through talking to upperclassmen and teach myself how to use it.

Here are my thoughts as a computer engineering student on how the UH ICS program could improve:

  • Limited class seating. Reading some of the other posts from ICS students, it seems that some classes are hard to get into because they fill up too quickly. Since ICS 314 is now a required course for computer engineering students, there will be more competition for seats and it may end up setting some students back from graduating. There’s probably no easy solution to this but maybe one option would be to put more emphasis on students to follow a specific track so that the department can gauge the demand ahead of time and adjust class sizes accordingly.
  • More interaction with local companies. This is something that computer engineering faces too. There aren’t a lot of opportunities here in Hawai’i (relatively speaking) so a lot of graduates feel like they have to go to the mainland if they want a good job. However, some people don’t want to leave Hawai’i for one reason or another (e.g. family). That said, it would be good to improve the visibility of the companies and opportunities that are here so that new and soon-to-be graduates can be made aware and pursue those opportunities.
  • More interaction with computer engineering. Although computer engineering deals with more of the hardware and low-level concepts, many of us love programming just like ICS students. I think a joint hackathon or a programming competition would be a great way for ICS and computer engineering students to learn about each other’s program and to develop their programming skills.

Three ways that the UH ICS program could improve.

Once again, coming from a Computer Engineering student, I don't have much experience with the ICS program; however, here are my thoughts.

1) More focus on building your professional portfolio. 

ICS 314 is one of the first classes I've taken that really stressed on building our professional portfolio and our professional persona. Being such a highly competitive field, it's extremely important to build your portfolio early on and continue adding to it throughout college.

2) Encourage out of class projects/side projects.

Sure, adding class projects to our portfolio looks nice, but working on side projects outside of class shows motivation and that you're willing to work on something other than to just get a good grade in the class. As a EE/Comp. E, we're required to work on a Sophomore, Junior, and Senior project in order to graduate. It would be cool to see the ICS department integrate something similar, it doesn't have to be a huge project, maybe the only requirement would be to participate in some sort of hackathon every year, anything to encourage outside of class work.

3) Hackathons within the school.

The ICS program could host a hackathon at school that could encourage other majors to join. The ICS students can get practice using what they learned and also serve as a mentor for students of other majors that may not have as much coding experience. Teaching is always the best way to learn and to see if you really know your stuff.

I am a computer engineering student but aspects of the ICS department share many similar problems and although my experiences within the ICS department are limited, I will expand on similarities that the ICS program could improve on.

1) Industry connections. Although the ICS and CENG departments differ in curriculum, both struggle to find opportunities for tech students as only a limited selection of mainland tech companies come to career fairs on the island. Thus, students looking for jobs on the mainland are forced towards online applications and are unable to meet potential employers in person. It would be great to see more companies at career fairs since UH students looking to work at mainland companies have a disadvantage. Possible improvements would be to bring more attention to UH to provide more opportunities for graduates who do not want to stay in Hawaii. 

2) Limited class size. Both departments also face the problem of limited class seating as only a fixed number of students can enroll in a course. Students who need specific courses may be blocked from registering which may delay graduation since most upper division classes have prerequisites. For instance, CENG students must compete with EE students for classes since both majors require the same electrophysics and circuit analysis courses. Although there is no simple solution, potential solutions may be to increase class size, open additional classes, and possibly open sub-ICS tracks that will alleviate the bottleneck for specific classes.

3) Project classes. In CENG, there are courses that focus around implementing a single project. These projects offer students the opportunity to join an existing project or propose a completely new project by applying knowledge learned in one's classes to a practical application. By offering similar courses in the ICS department, these project-based classes will enable students to highlight their creativity and skills, which may provide students with more hands-on-experience in real world applications. 

Three areas the UHM ICS department could improve upon :

  • Class availability. In my opinion there has always been a "fight" to get into some of the upper division ICS classes here at UH. A lot more students are taking longer to graduate because sometimes they are not able to get into the classes they need. One example is ICS 314, I know many students, including myself, who really needed to get into 314 in order to graduate within 4 years. Since the class is also required by computer engineering majors now it just makes the situation a lot more complicated.
  • Inverted Classrooms. I personally know a lot of students who really do not like the teach at home, come to class and practice in the classroom type of teaching. Some of the material is really hard to get a grasp on and sometimes you go to class with very little understanding of the subject and the professor immediately sets you up with work to do that you don't even know how to do. I personally prefer a traditional setting where a professor can teach you the material while showing examples of it on a board.
  • Being in Hawai'i. Being in Hawai'i only cripples the future job opportunities of ICS students. We all know there are very few tech related job opportunities for Hawai'i residents because we're in the middle of an ocean. While the career fairs are very helpful and provide a lot for the students, there just isn't as much involvement as schools on the mainland would get. 

As an Engineering Student, 3 bad things about being an ICS student are

  1. More courses that are focused on specific subjects for a more focus pathway in one's degree.
  2. As others have said a better study area for ICS students,
  3. More classes that meet UH focuses.

As a CENG student, I would note some of the following common pitfalls:

1. Physical Fitness -- Sitting down for extended periods can be very taxing physiologically, maybe the STEM students could be incentivized in class to participate in PT.

2. Fresh Food -- High quality food becomes less available after 6 PM, maybe we can schedule a Food Truck for late night meals.

3. Traffic -- Current traffic situation makes the commute to the Manoa campus very difficult for 8:30 AM courses, perhaps alternative class times can be devised.

Since this is my first ICS course, I will limit this to CENG

1. The course load is a lot. I have a lot of family obligations and I had to down-size from three jobs (which I had while attending full-time at WCC) to one job. 

I don't know much about the ICS program so I don't think any other commentary would be appropriate since the program, services, etc. seem to be different in terms of negative feedback.

1. It is frustrating that most ICS courses here do not count toward UHM's focus requirement (5 credit of writing intensive, 1 credit of ethical studies, and oral communication). It can force the student to take class that they have almost no interest in, and add an extra year or semester before they can graduate.

2. Discrete mathematics, there is not enough resources provided help the student to learn or understand such a difficult topic. I feel that raising the passing grade from a C to a B for ICS 141 and ICS 241 does not help as well.

3. A Slack group or similar, so that the students have a method other than Google or e-mail to seek help or advice on their coding or topic that they are having trouble to understand.

Three bad things about being an ICS student.

1) ICS course need to take more times than other courses.

2) when you are coding, you probably need to try so many times to pass test code.

3) something have to forget our human brain and think like a computer.

RSS

Sponsors

web design, web development, localization

© 2024   Created by Daniel Leuck.   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service