A Brief History of ISE 3
These are all 3rd or 4th year options. I haven't put in any 1st or 2nd year ones since they're all compulsory and you lan lan also have to take all. Solutions to all the courses I took are with Raymond Yap in softcopy.
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Artificial Intelligence |
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96-97 was the second year that Pitt was teaching this class, the first year everything was really hard and no Singaporean took. My year (97-98), the course was made much easier, instead of coding homework in Prolog, we only had to do it in pseudo-code. There is a lot of logic, predicate and proposition but just go through all the homework and you should have no problem. Pitt is very helpful with tutorials and if you go to his office to ask him about coursework. Ming Hai (78%) |
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Multimedia |
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Interesting course, lively lecturer, easy homework. And the exam very scorable. Learn about wavelets and MPEG. BUT, next year I think Flogel teaching so ... (see Neural Networks) Ming Hai (80%) |
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Very easy course, don't take stupid! :) If the course content stays the same, then actually the bits on MPEG and compression technology is quite useful. Also the stuff on MHEG and other Mark-up languages is really quite up to date and current. Shay (90%) |
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HCI |
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Interesting course, coursework is pretty easy but don't know why exams didn't score. Talk a lot about vague concepts and stuff. Ming Hai (57%) |
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One of those intangible courses that you have to take and crap through. Interesting to sit and listen to. Don't know why I didn't score either. Aras did better, he got an A or a high B I think. Shay (51%) |
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Databases |
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Recipe driven course. Just find out how to go through the various processes, do the homework and exams should be no problem. If not sure of anything, make appointment to see her, she's very helpful. Ming Hai (72%) |
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Clear lecturer, fair exam. Scorable. Shay (75%) |
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Neural Networks |
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A lot of ground covered, tutorials are pretty straightforward and easy but exams were hard to study for cause quite deep understanding required. Approachable lecturer but disorganized. Ming Hai (57%) |
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Communication of Scientific Ideas |
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One hour a week. Geraldine is really friendly and rather lenient when marking. But I hear some of her colleagues aren't afriendly/lenient. Might be worth whie checking to see if she's teaching. My house mate had another lecturere and he got a C average. Shay (73%) |
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Quite relax course with some reading to do. 4 pieces of coursework account for 80% of total marks so exam not much pressure. Unlike other humanities, it is possible to get an A for coursework. No other homework, lessons are just discussion sessions and some writing, no need to prepare. Ming Hai (70%) |
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Operations Research |
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Hopeless lecturers, if you think Istvan is bad, just wait till you get Rustem for the 2nd part of the lectures. Generally bad notes but make sure you hang around for the tutorials. Tutorials are where you learn all the examanable stuff. Very recipe driven course so easy to score in exams. Ming Hai (83%) |
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Both lecturers are equally bad and unhelpful. Rustem is just plain mean and attitude problem. Istvan is slightly better, but you need to ang-ka (make him feel important and clever) him a bit. Generally the course is very useful in both combinational problem solving and in system optimisations. As Ming Hai mentioned, stick around for the tutorials, you'll need them. In fact just going to the tutorials is probably enough, that way Rustem can't insult you. D on't show ignorance in OR, and don't fall into the trap of saying you don't understand when Rustem that bald p***k asks.Shay (85%) |
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Computer Graphics |
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Not very articulate lecturer but notes are pretty clear and if you approach him with queries, he's pretty helpful. Homework was a bit tough for me. Ming Hai (63%) |
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Digital Systems Design |
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Interesting course, funny lecturer and repetitive exams, what more can you ask for? Learn about neat digital designs, bit serial designs, more complex Digital systems. Hear funny and informative anecdotes about industry. Very applicable to custom design technology like FPGAs and certainly very trendy research opportunities. :) Shay (87%) |
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Digital Signal Processing |
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As with all Naylor's lectures, very clear and organised. Lab work is a bit siong but do able and learn a lot. But This year's exam was really difficult. Unlike previous year since Naylor just took over the course this year. Shay (53%) |
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Control |
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Better lectures than in the second year. Quite interesting and if you have time to mug and do lots of past papers quite okay, but certainly one of the harder EE course.... but Teck How swears by it :) Shay (60%) |
Just some final comments: If you need someone to write your references for you, don't get Morris Sloman unless you're in line for a first class. I asked him to write for me 'cause I did quite well in his OS class so I thought he'd write something favourable. When I emailed him my request and told him the universities I was applying to: Caltech, Stanford, etc, he said those places would only take someone with a first class degree. I of course emailed back that I intended to get one. He then emailed me back saying that he had checked my results and I wasn't on course for a first and I shouldn't waste his time, the universities' time and my time. Well I got my first and I'm in Cornell so the moral of the story is don't listen to moronic idiots.