First Year Computing

All of our students obtain the same fundamental computing skills regardless of which of the four Degree Programs they undertake.

In first year all of our students study Computing 1. This is taught without any assumption of previous computing experience, but with enough challenges to keep even keen programmers interested. ENGG1811 Computing for Engineers is not designed for students with a computing major.

All computing students do MATH1081 Discrete Mathematics which is about the role of proof in mathematics, logical reasoning and implication, and different types of proofs. They also have an option, depending on Year 12 results, between MATH1131 Mathematics 1A and MATH1141, the higher version.

All Computer Engineering students are required to take ENGG1000, and it is highly recommended as an elective for Computer Science and Software Engineering. Students in computing majors are encouraged to select ENGG1000 in Semester 1, as the computing stream is not available in Semester 2. In 2008, students in the Engineering Design course worked in teams to build and program Lego robots. There are two competitive challenges for the teams: Robot Sumo and Robot Rescue.

In Robot Sumo, two robots are placed in a ring and each one tries to push the other out. The robots have light sensors so they can detect the boundary of the ring, and touch sensors so they can tell when they touch another robot.

In Robot Rescue, a robot must find its way through a maze containing twists and turns and dead ends, find a victim (represented by a small bottle) and carry the victim back out of the maze. The fastest robot to do this wins the competition.

See what a previous first year assignment is actually like!