PHYS1601 Comp. Applic'ns in Exp. Sci (1 Viewer)

[venom]

For this coming session I have one more elective choice. I want to do MATH1081 because:
+I failed it last year, want to redeem myself by taking it again (and doing well)
+I really like the topic covered (eg logic, proofs, modular arithmetic)
+The course is generally good exercise in problem solving

BUT

I also want to do PHYS1601. Because:
+I know nothing about computer hardware (and want to learn)
+...well thats about it

So I'm asking for the opinions/advice of anyone who's done PHYS1601. Can someone give me an overview of what the course is like? I'm a bit of a nerd; is the course challenging, in-depth, and stimulating? What are the projects like? Do they give you a spec like in COMP courses, or are they more open?

And lastly- is there a higher year COMP course which would effectively cover the same or more material?

 

[J0n]

So I'm asking for the opinions/advice of anyone who's done PHYS1601.

Well, IMO if you want to do an interesting course, try PHYS1601 - it will definately be more interesting than discrete math (especially if you've already done it before).

So I'm asking for the opinions/advice of anyone who's done PHYS1601. Can someone give me an overview of what the course is like? I'm a bit of a nerd; is the course challenging, in-depth, and stimulating?

Basically, it is quite a general course - it covers many of the low-level concepts about how 'computers' work (not just PC-type computers).

If you have done some programming and logic gates etc, the course probably won't be *too* challenging, but I guarentee you will learn lots of interesting things.

What are the projects like? Do they give you a spec like in COMP courses, or are they more open?

Well, you only really get one real 'project', but even that is optional, and I think very few students do it. It is very general compared to a COMP assignment. Its basically just a chance to show off as many things you've learnt as possible.

And lastly- is there a higher year COMP course which would effectively cover the same or more material?

Well, I can't say for sure, since I haven't done any 'higher year' COMP courses yet, but I would say that there probably isn't a very similar COMP courses.

The programming involved in this course is very 'BASIC' (pun intended). No programming knowledge is assumed, as opposed to COMP, and it made up only small part of the course.

Also, the material was much more low level than I think COMP courses would be - it dealt with the electronics etc. I did find there was a bit of an overlap with COMP1721, in the bits that involved microcontrollers. There still was a clear difference though, as COMP went into much more details of how programs/software worked, but PHYS went into more details of how the hardware worked.