You can choose to start this course in October 2020 and in January 2021. This is because we've changed some of our teaching arrangements in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Whenever you start, you'll get the same great learning experience with lots of support to do your best.
The basis for a wide range of computer-based careers, computer science studies opens up opportunities across all sectors – from software development to systems engineering and everywhere in between. Our course helps you develop the skills, knowledge and experience that will attract employers and help you achieve your computer-based career goals. You also have the option of extending your studies to 4 years and gaining an MComp qualification.
You’ll gain an understanding of the key principles of computer science while you develop your programming, system engineering, and project experience skills. You’ll also get the support, encouragement and confidence to put your skills into practice through individual and group projects. Your first year will be entirely project led, ensuring you practice your skills from the very start.
In the past our students have worked on a project with the prestigious Pink Shoe Club , creating prototypes for a unique digital self-assessment tool.
You’ll have the opportunity to take a year-long, paid work experience placement as part of a four-year study path. Placements are subject to availability of employer organisations and opportunities may be limited as a result of Covid-19. We’ll also give you access to industry professionals and work experience opportunities to help you further develop your professional skills.
We ensure you get the skills, knowledge and experience that will help you launch a successful computer-based career.
We’re in the process of gaining BCS (British Computer Society) accreditation for our computer science degrees, which means you’ll be able to gain BCS membership once it’s awarded.
During your course, you’ll get personalised support from your Personal Tutor, Student Learning Assistant, and Graduate Academic Assistant. Their first-hand experience in your subject area means they understand how to best support you.
We’re also ranked 176–200 in the world for computer science (THE World University Ranking 2019).
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You will develop a thorough grounding in the foundations of computer science through the use of project-led laboratory-based activities. Each project is carefully designed to allow you to learn at your own pace and to build important skills in a carefully-designed and progressive way. Your foundation skills will be complemented with knowledge and practical skills in systems engineering techniques typically used in industry.
After your second year you will have the opportunity to take an optional placement year in a computer-based industry. To support you financially while you benefit from industry experience, we will cover your tuition fees for the year.
In the final year of your degree, you'll be able to choose from a wide range of specialist topics in computer science, in addition to completing an individual project with a project supervisor who is a leader in their field.
All modules, and in particular labs, are available through online teaching. Year 1 robot labs are supplied with online simulation allowing students to test their programmes.
To provide students with an understanding of the foundations of programming.
The aim of this module is to provide students with experience of a range of Computer Science projects that reinforce First Year teaching and learning and provide opportunities to apply this learning in a supported and structured environment.
This module provides students with an understanding of the foundations of Computer Science. On completion of this module, the successful student will be able to explain the key concepts underpinning the discipline of Computer Science.
To provide students with an understanding of the organization of computer-based systems from the small-scale (for example gates, processors and memory), through the medium-scale (for example personal computer organization), to the large-scale (for example the Internet).
This module aims to provide the student with an understanding of the concepts involved with object-oriented programming. To this end, the student will cover the fundamentals of objects, classes, inheritance, composition, encapsulation and polymorphism. In addition, the module will expose the student to GUI frameworks, introduce some basic software engineering design principles and patterns, and provide a more abstracted view of system design in terms of layered software architectures. It is expected that on completion of this module students will be able to design, implement and test nontrivial object-oriented programs.
This module will give you practical experience with the development of dynamic websites using HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript. You will learn how to store client-side data and get first-hand experience with the server-side storage of data using databases. You will also obtain a deeper understanding of the operation of large-scale websites, such as Facebook and Google, and the security, privacy and legal issues that affect web applications.
This module builds on the programming fundamentals developed in the first year through the study of algorithm design and the properties of several data structures; concurrent programming; networked programming and database design and implementation.
This will enable writing efficient concurrent and/or networked programs which store data efficiently and reliably in a well-designed database. Throughout the course software engineering tools and techniques will be introduced and utilized in the design, management and testing of software being developed.
Computer systems have become pervasive and increasingly more powerful enabling users to run many different kinds of applications. The power available on modern day computing devices and the ever increasing usage being found for them has led to the redefinition of the roles, responsibilities and design of Operating Systems.
The aim of this introductory course is to review the design principles, performance, security and system management issues in Operating Systems design. It provides an understanding of the operation of the underlying hardware and software and gives practical systems-level experience of client-server based applications. It lays the groundwork needed for more advanced engineering applications in the area.
The module will provide students with an opportunity to gain practical level experience of Operating System management techniques in a realistic and flexible environment. Access is provided to a 64-bit Linux Enterprise system to promote active learning and reinforce lecture material. This module lays the groundwork needed for more advanced engineering applications in the area.
This module aims to provide you with a twelve-month (36-48 week) relevant work placement opportunity to reflect critically on your experience of learning through practical work. It also aims to enhance students’ intellectual and inter-personal skills, augmenting your critical understanding of the practical applications.
This module provides you with the opportunity of choosing and working on a project that reflects your interests and aims and outcomes of your programme. It should constitute a practical problem-solving project relevant to your programme of study. The primary aim of the module is to consolidate and deepen your understanding of material taught on your programme, to exercise professional judgement, to undertake individual research and to conduct an investigation and/or develop a product, process or application relevant to the focus of your programme. It provides you with the opportunity of engaging in significant system development, the typical output of which represents the solution of a problem akin to those that you as a fledgling professional practitioner are likely to encounter in future employment. The module intends that your choice of individual project will provide you with a significant opportunity to reflect on your learning progress and to develop your learning for life-long and career development.
An important criterion for the implementation of Industry 4.0 is the amalgamation of machines and industrial components in a network infrastructure, to support operational communication amongst machines and other applicable IT systems in an automated network. This will enable the optimization of conventional industrial processes in many facets.
The central theme of this module is to equip students with the skills necessary to design and implement network infrastructures to support industrial communication and to integrate Industry 4.0 enabled machines to facilitate a Cyber-Physical Factory. In doing so, students will embrace the practice of setting up TCP/IP communication between modules, IP-address design and allocation, secure wireless LAN communication, switching and routing services to support communication, deploy VPN for remote services, and to explore the integration of the CP Factory with the Internet of Things.
Computer systems are almost never perfect, exhibiting errors, crashes and hangs whose implications range from benign to fatal. This module will examine the different notions of correctness relevant to computer systems, and how these are applied to the different parts of a computer system. Automatic and user-guided methods that attempt to find possible problems within systems will be covered and demonstrated on practical examples. Also, methods for ensuring that no problems can possibly exist within a system design will be examined and applied.
The module will focus on the teaching of computer science within the secondary school (age 11-16) setting. You will observe, analyse and prepare materials for teaching practice. You will start to apply your knowledge of computing to teaching practice. You will develop an understanding of the Teachers’ standards, thus supporting your preparation for application of initial teacher training courses. You will complete reading on education pedagogy to critically analyse practice. The module will also support your development of public speaking.
Many modern websites store and process large amounts of data. Typical examples are property search websites, price comparison websites and financial websites. This module aims to give students the ability to download, store and process large quantities of data and build websites based on this data using advanced JavaScript frameworks. At the end of the module successful students will have gained advanced skills with Java, JavaScript, web development and big data, which are highly sought after in industry.
Interactive technologies are developing continually, and new devices that offer novel ways of interacting with computer-based systems are constantly finding their way into our homes, workplaces and lives. Students on this module will encounter and study a range of innovative and emerging interaction technologies. The module affords an opportunity to become familiar with the technologies and devices themselves as well as ways of analysing their applicability for particular uses and situations, and approaches evaluating their use. By understanding how computing devices and products are used and studying the ways that usage changes over time, students will gain a critical awareness of the processes by which interactive products gain in popularity and become successful. After completing the module, students will therefore be better equipped to anticipate and select the successful interaction technologies of the future, analyse situations of use and potential users, design using the latest interaction technology, and evaluate novel and innovative designs.
The aim of this module is to examine in depth the concepts and techniques needed in the construction of interactive graphics systems covering advanced graphics programming techniques. It will cover theory and mathematics as required. It aims to provide students with practical experience via significant individual project work developing computer graphics programs using an industry standard environment.
Designing secure computer systems is a cross cutting discipline: from organisational policies, via programming languages and network protocols all the way down to physical layers, security controls need to be installed at all levels of a computer system. This course aims at giving students an overall apprehension of the meaning of security and privacy, teaching them standard techniques of designing, developing and assessing secure computer systems. At the end of the module, participants will have acquired skills and knowledge in basic cryptology, security protocol design, threat analysis, security models and security engineering techniques.
The aim of the module is to introduce students to a range of AI theories and techniques, including the most commonly used. This will extend to the ability to implement these techniques, and the students will extend their own development skills.
Students of this module will gain understanding of underpinning concepts and practical techniques relevant when considering humans, both in the organisation of design and design processes, and as a way of incorporating a user perspective in the design of products and services. The module also includes analysis of user experience, the characteristics of users and their tasks, and the technical, organisational and physical environment in which products or systems may operate.
This module provides you with the opportunity of choosing and working on a project that reflects your interests and aims and outcomes of your programme. It should constitute a practical problem-solving project relevant to your programme of study. The primary aim of the module is to consolidate and deepen your understanding of material taught on your programme, to exercise professional judgement, to undertake individual research and to conduct an investigation and/or develop a product, process or application relevant to the focus of your programme. It provides you with the opportunity of engaging in significant system development, the typical output of which represents the solution of a problem akin to those that you as a fledgling professional practitioner are likely to encounter in future employment. The module intends that your choice of individual project will provide you with a significant opportunity to reflect on your learning progress and to develop your learning for life-long and career development.
This module aims to develop understanding of the integration of modular robotic and sensor systems. It will enable students to acquire practical skills of robotic software/hardware integration and validation. In addition it aims to develop understanding of human robot interaction.
This module aims to develop a deep understanding of the latest web-based app programming techniques, frameworks, and methodologies used by the industry to develop the next generation software that can be deployed on any mobile devices (both Android and iOS). The module will investigate, develop, and deploy latest programming language standards that are fundamental to app development and currently being widely employed in industry. Modern programming frameworks will be introduced to provide the essential software architecture for large-scale software development and the ability to target either the Android or iOS platform. The module will cover the three most important components of a complete mobile app: front end, back end, and system administration.
To provide students with an understanding of the foundations of programming.
The aim of this module is to provide students with experience of a range of Computer Science projects that reinforce First Year teaching and learning and provide opportunities to apply this learning in a supported and structured environment.
This module provides students with an understanding of the foundations of Computer Science. On completion of this module, the successful student will be able to explain the key concepts underpinning the discipline of Computer Science.
To provide students with an understanding of the organization of computer-based systems from the small-scale (for example gates, processors and memory), through the medium-scale (for example personal computer organization), to the large-scale (for example the Internet).
This module aims to provide the student with an understanding of the concepts involved with object-oriented programming. To this end, the student will cover the fundamentals of objects, classes, inheritance, composition, encapsulation and polymorphism. In addition, the module will expose the student to GUI frameworks, introduce some basic software engineering design principles and patterns, and provide a more abstracted view of system design in terms of layered software architectures. It is expected that on completion of this module students will be able to design, implement and test nontrivial object-oriented programs.
This module will give you practical experience with the development of dynamic websites using HTML, CSS, PHP and JavaScript. You will learn how to store client-side data and get first-hand experience with the server-side storage of data using databases. You will also obtain a deeper understanding of the operation of large-scale websites, such as Facebook and Google, and the security, privacy and legal issues that affect web applications.
This module builds on the programming fundamentals developed in the first year through the study of algorithm design and the properties of several data structures; concurrent programming; networked programming and database design and implementation.
This will enable writing efficient concurrent and/or networked programs which store data efficiently and reliably in a well-designed database. Throughout the course software engineering tools and techniques will be introduced and utilized in the design, management and testing of software being developed.
Computer systems have become pervasive and increasingly more powerful enabling users to run many different kinds of applications. The power available on modern day computing devices and the ever increasing usage being found for them has led to the redefinition of the roles, responsibilities and design of Operating Systems.
The aim of this introductory course is to review the design principles, performance, security and system management issues in Operating Systems design. It provides an understanding of the operation of the underlying hardware and software and gives practical systems-level experience of client-server based applications. It lays the groundwork needed for more advanced engineering applications in the area.
The module will provide students with an opportunity to gain practical level experience of Operating System management techniques in a realistic and flexible environment. Access is provided to a 64-bit Linux Enterprise system to promote active learning and reinforce lecture material. This module lays the groundwork needed for more advanced engineering applications in the area.
This module aims to provide you with a twelve-month (36-48 week) relevant work placement opportunity to reflect critically on your experience of learning through practical work. It also aims to enhance students’ intellectual and inter-personal skills, augmenting your critical understanding of the practical applications.
This module provides you with the opportunity of choosing and working on a project that reflects your interests and aims and outcomes of your programme. It should constitute a practical problem-solving project relevant to your programme of study. The primary aim of the module is to consolidate and deepen your understanding of material taught on your programme, to exercise professional judgement, to undertake individual research and to conduct an investigation and/or develop a product, process or application relevant to the focus of your programme. It provides you with the opportunity of engaging in significant system development, the typical output of which represents the solution of a problem akin to those that you as a fledgling professional practitioner are likely to encounter in future employment. The module intends that your choice of individual project will provide you with a significant opportunity to reflect on your learning progress and to develop your learning for life-long and career development.
An important criterion for the implementation of Industry 4.0 is the amalgamation of machines and industrial components in a network infrastructure, to support operational communication amongst machines and other applicable IT systems in an automated network. This will enable the optimization of conventional industrial processes in many facets.
The central theme of this module is to equip students with the skills necessary to design and implement network infrastructures to support industrial communication and to integrate Industry 4.0 enabled machines to facilitate a Cyber-Physical Factory. In doing so, students will embrace the practice of setting up TCP/IP communication between modules, IP-address design and allocation, secure wireless LAN communication, switching and routing services to support communication, deploy VPN for remote services, and to explore the integration of the CP Factory with the Internet of Things.
Computer systems are almost never perfect, exhibiting errors, crashes and hangs whose implications range from benign to fatal. This module will examine the different notions of correctness relevant to computer systems, and how these are applied to the different parts of a computer system. Automatic and user-guided methods that attempt to find possible problems within systems will be covered and demonstrated on practical examples. Also, methods for ensuring that no problems can possibly exist within a system design will be examined and applied.
The module will focus on the teaching of computer science within the secondary school (age 11-16) setting. You will observe, analyse and prepare materials for teaching practice. You will start to apply your knowledge of computing to teaching practice. You will develop an understanding of the Teachers’ standards, thus supporting your preparation for application of initial teacher training courses. You will complete reading on education pedagogy to critically analyse practice. The module will also support your development of public speaking.
Many modern websites store and process large amounts of data. Typical examples are property search websites, price comparison websites and financial websites. This module aims to give students the ability to download, store and process large quantities of data and build websites based on this data using advanced JavaScript frameworks. At the end of the module successful students will have gained advanced skills with Java, JavaScript, web development and big data, which are highly sought after in industry.
Interactive technologies are developing continually, and new devices that offer novel ways of interacting with computer-based systems are constantly finding their way into our homes, workplaces and lives. Students on this module will encounter and study a range of innovative and emerging interaction technologies. The module affords an opportunity to become familiar with the technologies and devices themselves as well as ways of analysing their applicability for particular uses and situations, and approaches evaluating their use. By understanding how computing devices and products are used and studying the ways that usage changes over time, students will gain a critical awareness of the processes by which interactive products gain in popularity and become successful. After completing the module, students will therefore be better equipped to anticipate and select the successful interaction technologies of the future, analyse situations of use and potential users, design using the latest interaction technology, and evaluate novel and innovative designs.
The aim of this module is to examine in depth the concepts and techniques needed in the construction of interactive graphics systems covering advanced graphics programming techniques. It will cover theory and mathematics as required. It aims to provide students with practical experience via significant individual project work developing computer graphics programs using an industry standard environment.
Designing secure computer systems is a cross cutting discipline: from organisational policies, via programming languages and network protocols all the way down to physical layers, security controls need to be installed at all levels of a computer system. This course aims at giving students an overall apprehension of the meaning of security and privacy, teaching them standard techniques of designing, developing and assessing secure computer systems. At the end of the module, participants will have acquired skills and knowledge in basic cryptology, security protocol design, threat analysis, security models and security engineering techniques.
The aim of the module is to introduce students to a range of AI theories and techniques, including the most commonly used. This will extend to the ability to implement these techniques, and the students will extend their own development skills.
Students of this module will gain understanding of underpinning concepts and practical techniques relevant when considering humans, both in the organisation of design and design processes, and as a way of incorporating a user perspective in the design of products and services. The module also includes analysis of user experience, the characteristics of users and their tasks, and the technical, organisational and physical environment in which products or systems may operate.
This module provides you with the opportunity of choosing and working on a project that reflects your interests and aims and outcomes of your programme. It should constitute a practical problem-solving project relevant to your programme of study. The primary aim of the module is to consolidate and deepen your understanding of material taught on your programme, to exercise professional judgement, to undertake individual research and to conduct an investigation and/or develop a product, process or application relevant to the focus of your programme. It provides you with the opportunity of engaging in significant system development, the typical output of which represents the solution of a problem akin to those that you as a fledgling professional practitioner are likely to encounter in future employment. The module intends that your choice of individual project will provide you with a significant opportunity to reflect on your learning progress and to develop your learning for life-long and career development.
This module aims to develop understanding of the integration of modular robotic and sensor systems. It will enable students to acquire practical skills of robotic software/hardware integration and validation. In addition it aims to develop understanding of human robot interaction.
This module aims to develop a deep understanding of the latest web-based app programming techniques, frameworks, and methodologies used by the industry to develop the next generation software that can be deployed on any mobile devices (both Android and iOS). The module will investigate, develop, and deploy latest programming language standards that are fundamental to app development and currently being widely employed in industry. Modern programming frameworks will be introduced to provide the essential software architecture for large-scale software development and the ability to target either the Android or iOS platform. The module will cover the three most important components of a complete mobile app: front end, back end, and system administration.
This module aims to contextualise, exemplify and consolidate analytical and technical knowledge and skills in relevant programme areas through group project work. It will provide you the opportunity to develop your competence in team-oriented project work through all aspects of the product development process and formal project management approach.
It specifically aims to develop your abilities in problem solving, team working, written and oral presentations. This course will closely reflect processes that you may encounter in the workplace.
The module covers the software development process from requirements elicitation and design, to development, documentation, maintenance, and quality assurance. The development paradigm will be object-oriented, and you will employ an integrated development environment for code management, and utilise associated tools for modelling, version control, testing, and system documentation. The module also aims to guide you through agile principles and practises. The aim is not to focus on one specific documented agile method, but to expose the you to agile developmental stages that are core to a range of contemporary approaches. That is to say, the management of the software life-cycle from an agile perspective.
Blockchain Technology is changing how organisations communicate and operate, with this change there is a challenge and opportunity for Blockchain developers. This module aims to convey the required knowledge underpinning blockchain technology in order to enable you to apply it to develop solutions to practical problems.
This module aims to develop the key skills required to understand and circumvent cyber incidents and how to implement security of systems and data. This module will review a range of related topics, including information security including cryptographic techniques, risk management, network penetration, protection and ethical hacking.
This module serves two main purposes. Firstly, the module will act as a container for several short courses in contemporary areas of research within the field of computer science. These short-courses will be presented by specialists from the department on topics such as, AI and machine learning, ubiquitous computing, algorithms and computation, quantum computing and algorithmic biology. However, the intention is that the choice of research topics can vary each year, and that the selected courses for any given year are decided by invitation of research specialists within the computer science department for that given year. Secondly, the module will also focus on the preparation of a project proposal to be taken forward to the dissertation phase of the programme. To this end, a number of teaching weeks will aim to prepare students in research methods and project planning appropriate to an individual project. These sessions will be integrated at several points within the standard 24 week teaching framework with a view to underpin research and development activities within all the taught modules on the programme.
This module is based on the development of cross-platform applications and the context in which they work, that is, the Internet. These technologies and frameworks allow distributed client/server systems because of their cross-platform capabilities and APIs for accessing backend resources. This allows developers to create dynamic data driven Internet applications.
The module looks at how such systems can be developed and deployed, the tools, protocols and security needed to do this in an efficient and security-aware manner.
This module provides you with an understanding of core concepts in the theory and application of interactive data visualisation, including those relating to visual perception, sense-making, data preparation, visualisation patterns, dashboard design and interaction. You will learn principles relevant to designing interactive data visualisation and gain the experience of interactively eliciting requirements for and developing visualisation solutions to real problems using off-the-shelf toolkit.
More information about this course
See the course specification for more information:
Optional modules are usually available at levels 5 and 6, although optional modules are not offered on every course. Where optional modules are available, you will be asked to make your choice during the previous academic year. If we have insufficient numbers of students interested in an optional module, or there are staffing changes which affect the teaching, it may not be offered. If an optional module will not run, we will advise you after the module selection period when numbers are confirmed, or at the earliest time that the programme team make the decision not to run the module, and help you choose an alternative module.
Our BSc Computer Science degree prepares you for a wide range of IT-based careers. Career prospects and the range of potential employers will be vast across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. The average full-time salary for graduates from this group was £24,000. Based on data from the respondents of the 2009-10 Destination of Leavers in Higher Education survey, six months after graduating 75% Computing and Multimedia Technology graduates were in employment or further study.
We are seeking BCS (British Computer Society) accreditation for this course and you will be eligible for BCS membership retrospectively when it is awarded.
We’ll carefully manage any future changes to courses, or the support and other services available to you, if these are necessary because of things like changes to government health and safety advice, or any changes to the law.
Any decisions will be taken in line with both external advice and the University’s Regulations which include information on this.
Our priority will always be to maintain academic standards and quality so that your learning outcomes are not affected by any adjustments that we may have to make.
At all times we’ll aim to keep you well informed of how we may need to respond to changing circumstances, and about support that we’ll provide to you.
Start: October 2021, September 2021: EU/INT induction, January 2022
Duration: BSc: 3 years full-time, 4 years with placement, MComp: 4 years full-time, 5 years with placement
Code: BSc: G522, MComp: G50M
