The Applied Computer Science program at Birmingham-Southern College began Fall 2017. We quickly grew from 0 majors/minors to roughly 40 as of Fall 2020. It is a unique, interdisciplinary program with four tracks:
- Applied Computer Science
- Software Engineering
- Computer Engineering
- Creative Media Manipulation
Graduates of the program (including majors and minors) have continued their education in graduate school at UAB (MS in Data Science), UAH (MS in Computer Engineering), and USC (MS in Data Analytics). Other students have joined the workforce at companies around the country including the Department of Defense, BBVA, Cofense, and Hexagon, PPM.
For more information about the program, check out the department website!
Here’s a video we created to highlight a few aspects of the program!
E-Term
At BSC, January is affectionately referred to Exploration Term or E-Term. This mini-term allows students to focus on one course for the month. Courses are intended to be something not offered during the regular term and often explore an interesting area. The past three E-Terms I have taught are described below.
E-Term 2019
We strapped Arduinos to tap shoes to see how we could manipulate the tap sounds. It was fun to learn to tap, and we learned some foundational knowledge about Arduinos and the accelerometer.
E-Term 2018 and 2020
Using Arduinos and a mobile app, Blynk, we analyzed the kinesthetics required in different sports. We primarily used the accelerometer and gyroscope to better understand how acceleration and direction impacted different movements in sports. In lacrosse, there is a point at which too much acceleration will cause the shooter to miss a goal. Overhand pitching in baseball is a smoother process than submarine pitching, and running with shoes has more force than running without shoes.