Okay, I'll check out some of the Computer Engineering courses; they are sounding more and more like what I am interested in. I think I'd like to be introduced to some of the professors. CS 142 is almost like a refresher course from what I've seen is rather basic. I've done my fair share of C programming, so the C++ syntax will not be difficult, it may just be learning the C++ standard libraries, and I've explored Object Oriented Programming in Python when I was dealing with some crypto stuff earlier this year.
As for the Math... I really enjoyed my Calculus class this last year. I like the whole process of solving problems in both Math and Programming. It won't be a problem, I think, to ignore the whining and grumbling from my peers. -Oliver Reed On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 8:33 PM, Jonathan Kunkee <jonathan.kun...@gmail.com>wrote: > Here's my nickel: > > About a year and a half ago I decided that I liked low-level development > and wanted to do kernel-y things. I was early enough in the CS program that > I switched to Computer Engineering and planned a kernel dev track for > myself. (The earlier comments about the breadth of CS/CE are quite > accurate.) That said, I definitely did enough CS to get a minor. > > It does take a while to get specialized in CS, and I'd recommend enjoying > the ride and not worrying too much; however, I say you can't start to > browse too early. I was writing a CPU in Verilog my sophomore year because > I happened to take CS124 and ECEn 224 in sequence as soon as I could, and I > think this branch of courses is often overlooked. > > For OS design I highly recommend CS345, ECEn425, and ECEn324. These > introduce you to basic concepts of physical and kernel architectures. If > you get the right professors, you'll hear cool stories from Sun's T2 doing > 128 threads long before Intel did even two threads to rockets exploding > from firmware bugs. > > For Embedded Systems, CS124 gets your feet wet, and if you like it then I > would shoot for the new ECEn Embedded Programming class (ECEn 330 I > think?), ECEn 425, and ECEn 427. I'm a big reprogammable logic fan, and I > absolutely loved > ECEn427<http://www.et.byu.edu/news/academic-arcade-students-use-%E2%80%98space-invaders%E2%80%99-learning-tool>. > I also hear that the IT department has a class where you get to play with > Arduinos and that some department might have an app development class, but > I don't know. > > As for security, ECEn 324 has a lab where you write a very simple buffer > overflow attack. Also, I'd look into the CS department's capture the flag > team; they regularly bring home rewards. If you time things right and take > the right classes, there is a 400-level crypto course that is, I think, > shared between the Math and CS departments, and you'd probably enjoy that. > I recommend talking to Dr. Zappala; if he isn't doing security research > himself, he knows who is. > > Bio is another world, so you might consider a minor. I once introduced a > Chem PhD student to Bash scripting; when she picked it up and ran with it, > her productivity skyrocketed; it's amazing what a little CS in the right > place can do. I believe DNA sequencing has already been mentioned. On this > tangent, you might also consider grad school. (Bioinformatics as an > undergrad degree needs a grad degree to flesh it out. My coworker ended up > working straight CS while knowing far too much about real-time PCR. :) > > CS 236 and ECEn 224&320 all cover boolean logic, set theory, state > machines, and some functional programming. I'm glad I took all of them, as > 236 delved into database theory and 224&320 were much more practical and > hardware-oriented. > > For any of these fields, *talk to professors*. Most are extremely > helpful. There are, as I recall, a few at BYU that specialize in security > research. They'd love to tell you which classes to take to be good fits for > their labs. The ECEn department has some great low-level guys. I recommend > chatting with Dr. Archibald's (RTOS development, embedded coding) Dr. Wilde > (CS PhD working in EE), Dr. Hutchings (FPGA research), and Dr. Penry > (polycore architectures). I'd be happy to introduce you to any of these > professors this fall if you're bored with CS142 and feel inclined to do so. > > Please don't be afraid of math. It's quite handy at times, and I recommend > not learning from your classmates to grumble every time it's mentioned. > > Alas, that was more like a dime... > > Cheers, > Jon Kunkee > > > On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 7:33 PM, Matt Gardner <m...@cs.cmu.edu> wrote: > >> On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 9:28 PM, Peter Konrad Konneker < >> pkonne...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>> https://cs.byu.edu/research_computer_science_byu >>> >>> also: https://cs.byu.edu/gradrecruiting/ >>> >>> That'll give you a good idea of what the labs are and who is doing what >>> currently. >>> >> >> You might note from poking around those sites a little bit, though, that >> they are _incredibly_ out of date. They are very much out of date from my >> days there, and that was two years ago. So those are ok on general areas >> of research (minus Jay's programming language theory stuff), but not at all >> on specifics. There are a lot of faculty that aren't represented on those >> pages. >> >> -------------------- >> BYU Unix Users Group >> http://uug.byu.edu/ >> >> The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their >> author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. >> ___________________________________________________________________ >> List Info (unsubscribe here): >> http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list >> > > > -------------------- > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their > author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list >
-------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
