Information Technology
Testimonials
Below are testimonials from some of our recent graduates.
Aurora Constantin
I got both my BSc (1986) and PhD (2000) degrees in Physics from the University of Craiova, Romania. My goal was to change my career to the human–computer interaction field. There were four reasons for which I chose the University of Glasgow: its reputation, the centre of research in human–computer interaction, the conversion masters programme in IT and its wheelchair accessibility. I enjoyed the programme very much due to the great lectures, tutorials and laboratories, but more for the variety of the well-designed assessments which helped me acquire effective software development and team communication skills. My project was a study into the possibility of using very short tactons (structured, abstract, tactile messages which can encode and transmit information through the touch sense) to indicate the proximity of different contacts and to get information about the presence of an individual at a specific location. A short paper based on this research has been presented at HCI 2010 and published by ACM Press. Presently, I am a PhD student at the University of Edinburgh, School of Informatics.
Rosanne English
My first degree was in Pure Mathematics at Glasgow University. I looked at several universities who offered a MSc Information Technology (or similar); I chose Glasgow University due to my knowledge of the substantial facilities and excellent teaching staff. Though the MSc course was demanding, I found it extremely rewarding. I particularly enjoyed the range of subjects taught within the course. My project involved implementing and comparing steganography algorithms; I developed software which could hide any type of file (e.g. an mp3 file, or a text document) in an image file without the results being noticeable to the human eye. It was during the second term in the “Security & cryptography” course that I rediscovered my passion for security and indeed for learning. As a result of this, I am now pursuing a PhD at Glasgow University on the security of graphical passwords.
Mozhgan Kabiri Chimeh
I finished BSc in Computer Engineering Hardware in Iran, 2007. Having a structured MSc programme has enhanced my learning. During my masters degree, I felt passionate about the course “Systems and networks”, and decided to pursue this topic after graduation. My project involved adding extensions to a non-pipelined architecture. The aim of this project was to modify a circuit design and adding some extensions to it. After my experience of research during my MSc, I felt that I really wanted to try research at a higher level, therefore I decided to do a PhD that involves accelerating circuit simulation. I was made welcome from my first day here, and I've made friends from all backgrounds and from around the world. Studying in Glasgow University for four years was one of the most enjoyable experiences in my life, and I have made significant achievements not only in the research area but also in my personal life. I have struggled but enjoyed adapting my life culturally, professionally and socially. Glasgow is a lovely city with friendly people. The architecture and scenery never fail to impress and are the perfect antidote to a busy day. I loved my time in Glasgow for both social and work reasons.
Ioannis Psorakis
I got my first degree from the Technical University of Crete, in Production Engineering. I chose Glasgow because the Department of Computing Science is one of the top-ranked departments in the UK, with an excellent curriculum, research record and a rich history. The best part of my MSc programme was the interaction with my tutors; all of them where highly qualified and extremely helpful – I feel very privileged for the opportunity to work with them. My MSc project was on developing fast machine learning algorithms for classification tasks. This work was later published at the IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks journal. I am currently conducting my PhD at the University of Oxford, with a scholarship from Microsoft Research. My research focus is on studying complex biological networks using methodologies from statistical inference.
Melissa Quek
My first degree was BSc Psychology & Physiology at Glasgow University. I chose the MSc Information Technology at Glasgow because I expected to learn a lot through the course as it sounded challenging. The course does not assume any previous programming experience, gives you a grounding in programming and software development concepts, and provides an overview of computer systems and how they work. For me, the impact of the heavy workload was lessened by the lecturers' approachability and collaboration among course mates. My project involved building a mobile phone application which can detect muscle tremor in order to determine if a person is holding the phone in his or her hand. I'm currently a PhD candidate in the Inference, Dynamics & Interaction group (still at the University of Glasgow), where my aim is to improve existing brain-computer interfaces for people with severe physical disabilities.
Oleg Zhoglo
My first degree was a BS in Finance, at the University of San Francisco. I came to Glasgow because I was looking for a business to technology masters conversion degree and I wanted to study in Europe. The University of Glasgow has a highly ranked computer science department and a very interesting MSc IT program. Glasgow is a wonderful city with great people, culture and history. I liked the fact that the programme gave me an excellent high level overview of many software development topics – from quality assurance to project management to web development. This allows the MSc IT graduate to figure out what part of the IT field fits them best and what interests them more. My project was an economic simulator game written in Java. I am now a QA engineer for a startup in San Francisco, hoping to move on to a product manager role.