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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!

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1. More office hours of TAs and professors outside of class would be very helpful. I always have so many questions about homework and concepts that I have a hard time understanding. More tutors for higher ICS level classes in the learning Emporium would also be very helpful.

2.  A program that helps students to connect to professionals that are working in the ICS field. It would be really cool if students could actually go to a professional workplace and solve problems that the working professionals have to solve every day. This program could give students the opportunity to experience a real work environment and may help them to see what kind of job they really want.

3. Lower the difficulty of the really time consuming and challenging problems. There are some problems throughout the ICS courses that can be overly difficult. I feel that the same concept can be taught to students without making it so difficult. I understand that these difficult problems can really help to improve student's complex thinking but the difficulty could be lowered by maybe providing extra hints or having more lenient grading.

1.  More coding

2.  Less 311. algorithms and math.

3.  More extracurricular for coders.

Three bad things about being an ICS student: 

1) Dealing with the poor communication between professors about what is covered in which courses

2) Eyesight problems caused by staring at computer screens everyday

3) Unbalanced ratio of female to male students

Disclaimer: my major is computer engineering, not ICS

1) Time consuming coursework
2) Small class sections make it difficult to register for the course before it fills up
3) Need to offer more ICS courses that double as writing intensive or other graduation requirements

1) Course availability. The classes are fairly small which can be good but makes it hard for students to get in. 

2) Larger scale projects can give students experience working outside of the traditional classroom setting & will give them skills working in teams which are standard in the industry

3) In-class resources. ICS 314 is my first ICS course and I think that it would be nice, for all class where you are on your laptop, to have outlets readily accessible for students to use. 

1) I feel that there should be more classes because of the fact that both ICS and Computer Engineers are applying for ICS classes. However, that would call for more professors.

2) It is very time consuming. To become an effective programmer, I feel that you have to commit a lot of time to learning/practicing different coding language in addition to debugging your code.

3) Offering more specialized courses because of the different fields students want to be apart of.

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

1) Make courses like ICS 499 required like electrical engineering, ie ICS 299, ICS 399, etc so students get experience working with projects. 

2) Make one of the computer courses fall under a DP requirement for graduation so students who don't know much about computer science can try a computer course that also counts towards graduation. 

3) Add more class times for classes that often fill up.  

Three Negatives about Being and ICS Student at UH

1. The lack of courses devoted to compiler theory and implementation. For individuals like me who are interested in programming language theory and implementation, this could be viewed as a shortcoming of the current curriculum.

2. I feel like the difficulty level of the core curriculum courses should be more uniform and standardized, namely ICS 141, ICS 241, and ICS 311, which are more concerned with theoretical aspects. In my experience, there was a huge difference in difficulty between ICS 141 and ICS 241, which was initially difficult to come to terms with. This is likely due to the difference in teaching style of the instructors for each of these classes. If professors could somehow put their minds together to agree on a more uniform approach, that might make these courses more digestible, especially to those who aren't as theoretically inclined.

3. I wish that there were more professors here who were focused on conducting research in programming languages, although I am biased because this is the topic of specialty that I am most interested in exploring for my master's degree.

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

1. Encouraging more group work in courses to get students to work together and meet other ICS students.

2. Creating more extracurricular activities for networking and professional development.

3. More quiet 24/7 study areas and tutors. 

1. For the first couple of semesters you are only allowed to take x many ICS courses at the same time. This can be a problem for transfer students because it gates how quickly they can progress through the program. Perhaps allowing students to adjust their course-load accordingly would alleviate such problems.

2. Some homework is very redundant if you already have some experience programming, but it is also difficult to cater to all skill levels on a per class basis.

3. The quality of group work can be either very good or very bad depending on whom you're working with.

  • It is hard to get into classes which are needed to graduate when there is only limited space and students who get to pick first are students with the most credits. So, by the time sophomore and juniors need to take the class they have to wait for a semester or two.
  • Limited job experience from lack of future planning after graduating college, means its hard to get a job in the field, and its hard to start in the computer science field with no experience.
  • Taking higher division math, chemistry, and physics is more of a way to spend more time in college and doesn’t apply to computer science as much as intended. We should be focusing more on technology which apply those situations where you need math, chemistry and physics.

1. Course Load: I would say the amount of course work for an ICS student is more than the average student who is going for their bachelors degree. This takes more commitment and time away from your other activities. 

2. Speed of Learning: For students who have programmed a bit before, the speed of learning the material isn't too bad, but for those who are completely new it could come at you fast and might be a bit too much when the rest of the class is moving forward with advanced topics.

3. Projects for the community: At my previous school we would have final projects that had a specific goal to benefit our community. At the end of the semester when we have finalized our projects, we would present not only to the class for a grade but also to a community representative from an industry that related to our project. This gave us more motivation to do our best and also helped students get their foot in the door for future employment.

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