Magdeline Huang:

I chose to come to Otago to study because of the vibrant student culture and also because of the rich history that Dunedin has.

Actually, quite a few of the students that study at the University aren't from Dunedin, and I think that’s further validation for how amazing it is to be a student here.

I actually didn’t start off at University studying Computer Science. I was studying something else in my first year, but then after that, I made the switch to Computer Science, and I haven’t looked back ever since. The transition was really smooth, and I wrote my first line of code at University.

So, why did I choose to study Computer Science? There are quite a few reasons. The main reason is that we are currently living in a digital age, and there is no doubt that technology will shape the future.

I believe that by studying it, we can learn more about what’s happening and also contribute to shaping the future. That being said, it’s no surprise that there is high demand for tech skills at the moment, which means great career prospects.

You don’t have to be a software engineer and just work in tech, for example. You can also create your own startup, or if you want a corporate role, you can become a consultant.

On a more personal note, what I like about Computer Science is that it involves a lot more problem-solving and thinking, as opposed to just reading chunks of text in a textbook and memorising them.

Professor Michael Albert:

I’m Michael Albert, and I’m the Head of the Department of Computer Science here at the University of Otago. I just want to tell you a little bit about our department, the things we do, and what you might be able to expect from us if you come to study here.

One of the things I really love about working in Computer Science is that anything you can imagine doing, you can try to do in a computer. You don’t have to worry about a machine breaking or a lab blowing up or anything like that. You can just do it, try it out, and if it doesn’t work, try something else.

That’s not to say we don’t work on lots of important problems as well. One of our lecturers, Dr. Alex Gavryushkin, is working in the Biological Data Science Institute. One of the things he works on is trying to model the mutations in cancer cells and in viruses.

The problem here is not that we don’t have enough data, but that we have too much data and we constantly get more. All the old models need to be restarted every time you add data, and that’s really, really expensive. He’s looking at ways we can modify existing models with new data without having to restart the process as a whole.

Another area we’re looking at is facial recognition in sheep, which may seem like a weird question, but when you’re trying to breed better sheep, you really want to know who their parents are. The only way to do that now is to do genetic testing, which is relatively expensive.

But if you could, just by looking at photos of the sheep, identify the ram and the ewe that were their parents, then you’d be able to analyse your stock much more easily. That would allow you to make good progress on developing better livestock, which is obviously an important thing in the New Zealand economy.

These are just a couple of areas that we work in, and there’s lots of other interesting projects going on in the department as well.

So, what will you see if you come to study Computer Science at Otago? We’ve got a brand new curriculum that’s rolling out starting in 2021. We’ve completely revamped our curriculum to bring it more up to date.

In the first year in the Computer Science department, you’ll take two papers, which are fundamentally programming papers. Now, Computer Science isn’t all about programming, but there’s no denying that programming is an important part of it, so we really want you to get started with that solid foundation.

These are assessed using something we call a mastery model, which is somewhat self-paced. You get to try a succession of tests to make sure you’re keeping up to date, and that stops you from getting overwhelmed.

Computer Science has links with all the other disciplines in the Sciences and many of the disciplines in the Humanities. There are lots of interesting things to work on, and it doesn’t hurt that it’s always easy to get a good job once you graduate.

Thanks.