- Hello everyone, my name is David Allison
and I'm the coordinator
for the Bachelor of Computer
Science program here
at Conestoga and I'd like to
introduce you to the program.
Computer science surrounds
us in our daily lives.
It impacts how we work and how we play
and how we live our lives
and the Bachelor of Computer
Science program is gonna
teach you the skills you
need to pursue a career
in this very exciting and
incredibly varied industry.
Our four year program includes
three co-op work terms
where you get to go out,
get paid, work in industry
and get that real life
experience that you need
to work with your skills and knowledge
that you learn in the classroom.
Our program builds on the
recognized foundations
of computer science.
Things like math and algorithms and coding
and teaches students knowledge and skills
in areas such as software
quality, reliability,
security, emphasis on things
like testing methodologies,
software project management, security
and privacy issues as well.
We also are keeping an eye on the future
and it's a very fast moving industry.
So we want to make sure that
we know where things are going
so when you begin your degree,
by the time you're done four years later,
you're still learning
things that are relevant.
So, we'll be looking at things
in the latest edges of computer science.
Things like big data
analysis, cyber security,
cloud computing and
the internet of things.
So, just some overall
highlights of the program,
those three paid co-op work
terms are really a highlight
of the program that
you get to go out there
and learn in industry from
people that are doing the jobs
that you hopefully want to get one day.
It's project based learning,
so we want to make sure
that we aren't just learning
from textbooks and slides
but that you're constantly creating
and developing projects both
individual and in groups.
There's a capstone project
at the end of the program,
so it's a four year program,
in that fourth year there's
a semester-long project
where you get to work in a
team to create a real product
that you can demonstrate to industry
and to your fellow students
and to the school as a whole.
We do focus on those emerging trends
and the latest things in
computer science as well
and there's lots of applied
research opportunities
at the college for you to
participate in as well.
I'm just gonna share a slide here for ya,
some more information.
This program is build your,
bring your own device.
So, BYOD you'll hear a lot of
and that is where you want
to bring your own device
to the program, so your
own laptop typically.
So, we want to make sure that
that laptop meets the minimum requirements
that we set out for you.
You do have to maintain
your own laptop as well,
so if it breaks or you lose
it or whatever happens,
it's on students to maintain that
and you want to make sure
that you have a laptop ready
for the first day of school
so we can hit the ground running,
there's only 14 weeks in the semester
and we want to make sure
that you're ready to go
right out of the gate.
The minimum specs for this
program, it's a Windows,
we recommend that you get
a Windows machine, okay?
Windows 10, if you have
an Apple device already,
it needs to run Windows on it, okay?
So, there are tools out there,
things like Parallels that
will allow you to do that
and you can get a copy of
Windows 10 free from us
at the college to put
on your Apple device.
i5 processor or newer,
16 gigabytes memory is the
one I want to highlight,
we do want to make sure
that you have ample ram,
it is a program that we're going
to be doing some complicated
things with computers,
so you want to make
sure that you have that,
a discrete graphics card with a minimum
of two gigs of memory.
Also, solid state drive
we highly recommend,
will make your computer much faster.
Even if it isn't the biggest
hard drive in the world
that would be something I
would definitely invest in.
Screen size not super important,
you just want to make sure
you can carry it around
without hurting your back.
All the rest of it is sort
of very much standard,
that last one there,
a lot of laptops don't come
with the RJ45 jack anymore,
so you can get a USB dongle as well
that will allow you to connect your laptop
to a wired network,
just in case you need to
download some big files
or when doing something that
requires a lot of speed,
a wired connection might be the way to go.
I just want to give a quick tour of,
virtual tour of our campus for you.
Just gonna switch over to my browser,
so this is our brand new campus,
our Waterloo campus as we call it.
It's right in the City of
Waterloo on University Avenue
and Weber is the main intersection
if you know anything about the city.
So, it's a beautiful new
building, just opened recently,
home to us and culinary arts.
Right down this avenue here,
that's University Avenue,
that's where Wilfrid
Laurier University is,
Waterloo University as well,
so it's a great corridor
for innovation and education
and we could not be set
in a better location,
I don't think in the country.
Here's the cafeteria, just a
very popular area of course,
lots of room for people to sit and eat,
this little, that blue
checkered wall right there,
that's where the Tim Hortons
is around that corner,
that's also very popular,
just areas for people to socialize
and meet and relax a bit,
those TVs there in the background
have game systems on them
that you can play, ping pong table,
things like that in the back here
and that blue, that's
the library area as well.
And here is a typical
bring your own device lab
that you would be working in.
So, you can see the size of it,
not a giant lab by any means
that you might see somewhere else,
so these typically seat
around 35 to 40 people,
depending on the room
but you would bring your
own device, sit down,
there's lots of plugs
and network cables there
for you to connect into or network ports.
You can see that there is
projectors on every wall,
so no matter where you're sitting,
you can see what the professor is doing
as they walk around the room and teach.
But yeah, not every room
is exactly the same,
but this is the type of
thing that you can expect,
nice rooms, very nice to teach in
and very good to learn in as well.
Careers, things that you can pursue
in Bachelor of Computer Science,
as I mentioned it's an
incredibly varied industry.
You can end up almost anywhere.
The sort of typical jobs that you'd see,
software developer of course,
sort of the main one
that you would hear of,
software designer,
quality assurance analyst,
software security designer or developer,
cybersecurity analyst,
someone who looks for problems
or looks to solve problems,
business intelligence analyst,
someone who looks to
gather data from a business
to see how they can improve the business
or solve business problems.
Data scientist as well,
lots of data out there
that needs to be
collected and learned from
and sorted through and
gain knowledge from.
So, I just wanted to answer
some frequently asked questions
that I get a lot here at the college.
So, what's the differences
between a college BCS
and a university BCS?
At Conestoga we do pride ourselves
in our polytechnic approach to education.
So, this approach emphasizes
applied, hands-on learning.
So, we do have a more personal experience
that you would get here
with smaller class sizes,
our first intake is gonna
be around 70 students,
much smaller than you
would get at a university
with hundreds of students
in the first year.
Our tuition fees of course
are smaller than a university
which is always a bonus,
particularly these days.
But our Bachelor of Computer
Science is government approved,
it meets all the ministry standards,
the same standards that
university bachelors have to meet.
So, at the end of the day,
it's the same degree that you
would get at a university.
The admission requirements
for the BCS at Conestoga,
you need to have the Ontario
Secondary School Diploma
or equivalent to that with six U,
4U or 4M courses including
ENG4U, any of the math,
any of the 4U math and then
four additional courses.
The minimum average
that is required is a 65
but higher averages are required
for admission due to competition
or often required for admission due
to competition for available
spaces in the program,
okay but that 65 is the
minimum bar you have
to clear to be looked at.
Are there opportunities
for graduate studies?
Yes, so graduates of this
program will graduate
with thorough knowledge in the field
as well as that co-op experience
from those three co-op terms.
So, you are definitely very well situated
to leave the program and get a job
and begin working right away.
But for those who are looking
to pursue further education,
you will have the opportunity to do that
in the graduate studies
in computer science
and software engineering.
Our degree can be considered
just like any other
university bachelors degree
for entry into a masters level study.
So, it's a true bachelors
that you would need
to get into a masters study
and we do have a number
of articulation agreements
with universities worldwide as well.
Are there pathways from
other programs into the BCS?
So, yes there are.
So, perhaps you are a
graduate of Conestoga
in one of our IT, our applied
computer science degrees
or diploma programs.
The specific pathway for
your program will differ
depending on what that program is
but in general our two year
diploma programs will be mapped
into the BCS second year entry
while our three year diploma
programs' gonna be mapped
into the BCS third year entry
but for more details on
that you can email me
and we can look at what your
particular situation is.
So, you're currently a
CPA or an STC student,
can I be transferred into the BCS?
Not currently, there's no
spare capacity for that
so right now we're only considering
completed diploma students
for path for entry
into the program.
Any other cases will be eventually handled
by prior learning assessment
and credit transfer requests
but for right now
just the completed
diplomas are a pathway in.
So, what is applied research?
I mentioned that at the beginning,
that we have a lot of applied
research opportunities
at the college for
students to participate in.
We do specialize in
applied research projects
that meet the needs of our industry
and our community partners
as well as drive growth in our
local and regional economies.
So, the difference between
applied research is you
are solving a business problem,
you're creating a solution for a problem
where traditional research is
you're out there theorizing
about a possible solution,
you might write a paper on it
but you may not actually develop anything,
it might just be an idea
where applied research
you're definitely developing
a product, you're creating something
where at the end of the
project you'd have a solution,
you'd have a solution
built that you can show.
Our current areas of focus
at the college include augmented reality
and virtual reality,
training for industry,
so instead of needing a big
piece of industrial equipment,
you can put on some goggles
and train in virtual reality
or augmented reality.
Artificial intelligence, machine learning
for advanced e-waste recycling,
so being able to smartly
sort digital waste
to be better recycled and
make for a greener planet,
cybersecurity is another area of research
that we are heavily invested
in, precision agriculture,
software solutions for supply chain
and transportation logistics
and as well, COVID-19 projects
where we're investigating new
manufacturing opportunities
to address the PPE shortages
exposed by the pandemic.
How many hours outside of
my classes can I expect?
And can I work at the same
time as I'm in the program?
A very common question
that we get as well.
We recommend that you budget
about two to three hours outside of class
for every one hour that you're in class.
Every student's gonna need
their own amount of time,
obviously that's not a hard and fast rule
but we encourage you to think about this
sort of rule of thumb when
you're planning your semester
and your years here at the college.
We want you to think of
it as a full time job.
We understand that everybody's work
and study balance is
gonna be different, okay?
But we do recommend that
you don't pursue more
than sort of in that 10 to
12 hours of work each week
in order for you to be
successful in your studies.
Remember that we do
refer to your course load
as full time studies for a reason, it is,
it should be your primary focus
when you're in the program
and everything else should
be secondary to that.
So, that's my introduction to the program,
if you have any further
questions you can contact me.
My email there on the
screen that you can pause
and write down, it's
just dallison@conestogac,
don't forget the C at the end
of Conestoga, dot O-N dot C-A.
And I can answer any other
questions you might have
about the program but it's
a very exciting program,
we are really looking forward to it
and we hope to see you in it
and I hope to see you
at the college as well.
Thank you everybody.
