Studying Computer Science at Royal Holloway is a lot more than acquiring knowledge ...
... it's an opportunity for you to explore who you are!
We challenge you and we stimulate your creativity by giving you plenty of opportunities to explore your own ideas.
One of our students returned the following comment in the National Student Survey, which neatly summarises our ethos:
"The course is intellectually stimulating, leaving enough room for creativity. If the student has any innovative ideas, they have the chance to work on it on their own time with excellent advice from the lecturers and academics. The Department gives countless incentives to improve oneself such as the group projects.”
This is because:
- Throughout your degree, you will face constant challenges that match your abilities and respond to your expectations.
- From Year One, you will have plenty of room to design and program robots, games or Web apps, limited only by your imagination.
- The wide choice of electives allows you to choose topics that excite you, from discovering the world of Bioinformatics to developing critical and creative skills in media production.
- The final individual project is an opportunity for you to learn new topics or develop applications that meet your ambitions.
Several of these challenges happen outside the curriculum, which is perhaps as important as what you learn in the lecture theatres or the labs. Many come from your own initiative, such as entering competitions, which we support as far as we can. Here are some of the organised activities that you can join:
Undergraduate Research Opportunities (UROP)
UROP is a bursary scheme through which you can become involved in our cutting-edge research.
UROP projects are individual research projects conducted under the supervision of academics, often in collaboration with other members of their research groups. They allow undergraduate students to experience research first hand and provide training in relevant research skills including literature research, algorithm development, prototyping, and experimentation.
Code Groovers
Code Groovers is the company that that we set up in the Department to develop software systems for real clients.
Its software developers are our students, managed by Giorgios Koutsoukos, who has over 20 years of industrial experience, and supervised by Jasper Lyons, who graduated with us and has created several start-ups.
Lab support
Some of our final year students give support to our first-year labs, which is an excellent opportunity to acquire personal skills in coaching and mentoring.
The Computing Society (CompSoc)
You will be able to join the Computing Society, which is run by our students who stand for election every year.
CompSoc does exceptional work in welcoming new students to the Department, helping them settle into university life, and supplementing the curriculum with activities that stimulate your creativity – regular social events, programming workshops, hackathons, industry and careers lectures, quizzes, and trips to external events, among others.
Twitter: @RHULCompSoc E-mail: ComputingSociety
Girls Who Code
The Computing Society has a dedicated Women Ambassador and a subgroup dedicated to female students: Girls Who Code.
They engage with national activities and with companies where, like in Centrica, female employees organise initiatives that promote the role of women in IT.
Several seminars are also organised throughout the year that bring female academics or professionals who can act as role models.
Women are still under-represented in the global IT professions, so it is important that our female students feel empowered to take on roles that match their skills and ambitions.
