This week marks the start of the autumn semester, and our campus classrooms are filling up with new students. Starting at DTU can be a lot to take in for new students.
The various introductory activities primarily focus on the social side of university life, helping students get to know their fellow students and find their way around campus. In contrast, the introductory courses in programming are designed to make it easier to get started with their chosen degree programme.
This year, DTU Compute welcomed 100 incoming students to our three-day introductory programming course.
Students from three Bachelor of Science and three Bachelor of Engineering programmes were offered the opportunity to take part in the course, which is aimed at students with little or no programming experience.
Wide variation in students’ backgrounds
The participants came from both STX and HTX high school programmes, because even students with a technical high school background may not necessarily have studied programming, explains Professor Inge Li Gørtz:
“When students begin their studies, they are all taught the fundamentals of programming. We find that there is an enormous difference in how much they already know. Some have worked with programming before, while for others it is completely new. We are trying to give them all a better starting point so that they are not afraid to get started.”
PhD student Christian Møller Mikkelstrup, the organiser of the course, was supported by 12 teaching assistants who provided participants with a basic introduction to programming in the two programming languages.
“Although it is not an admission requirement, it is useful for some students to have seen it before they have to learn mathematics, data analysis and machine learning at the same time as learning how a computer works,” explains Christian Møller Mikkelstrup.
Degree programme decides whether it is Python or Java
The teaching was tailored to different degree programmes. While students on Applied Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence and Data use the programming language Python, students on Software Technology, Computer Engineering (both BEng and MSc Eng) and IT and Economics use Java.
On the first day, participants were grouped according to their degree programme. On days two and three, they were further divided based on how far they felt they had progressed.
“It was very important that the students were allowed to sit at the keyboard themselves, make mistakes and ask questions, rather than having the person next to them answer everything because they had more experience,” says Christian Møller Mikkelstrup.
A couple of participants on the introductory course were almost too skilled for the programme.
“However, they were so excited about starting university that they could not wait for the semester to begin,” Inge Li Gørtz says.
