Computer Science

Academic English Skills aims to provide thorough training in the language and related academic skills which will enable international students to best achieve their academic potential at university. Our Academic English programme is validated by UK ENIC, the UK government agency responsible for providing information and expert opinion on qualifications and skills worldwide.

You will develop awareness and competency in a range of language-related academic skills, including the processes of academic writing, effective and extensive reading strategies, effective participation in seminars and delivery of presentations, and listening to and recording information effectively from lectures. You will also develop the accuracy and range of written and spoken language required to use language effectively and appropriately, with clarity and confidence in an academic context.

Alongside your classes, your studies will be supported by an online learning platform, providing you with a range of tasks and activities specifically designed to develop and extend your language and academic skills outside the classroom and to give you more control over your own learning.

This module aims to introduce you to the fundamental skills that underpin the practice of science within all STEM subjects, introducing core concepts and practical techniques. This module will also provide you with basic study skills and an understanding of good academic practice to facilitate effective engagement with all other modules within your programme of study.

Applications of Maths

The aim of this module is to provide you with opportunities to develop, practice and demonstrate core mathematical skills relevant to a range of undergraduate degree courses at the University of Sussex. Through seminars and independent study, the module will enable you to apply these concepts and skills, including the use of spreadsheets, to real-life situations.

Pure Maths 1

This module aims to provide a solid foundation in mathematics applicable across several disciplines including computing, engineering, life sciences and psychology. The module will develop your confidence in some of the basics such as algebra and calculus, which will prepare you for further study.

This module will provide you with an understanding of how to design algorithms to solve a range of real-world problems in the Java programming language. The module will teach you all of the core concepts required within a programming language from an object-oriented perspective. Throughout the module you will learn to analyse the requirements of a problem and design and develop solutions to solve the problem using Java.

This module will enable you to gain a thorough understanding of the essential algorithms and data structures in computer science. Algorithms are the fundamental building blocks of computer science and an effective knowledge of how to derive original algorithms in addition to an awareness of classic algorithms is an essential skill for all computer scientists. Through engaging activities and practical exercises, you will sharpen your computational thinking abilities, enabling you to effectively analyse and tackle real-world problems in the realm of computer science.

This module introduces you to the main concepts behind databases and their use in a variety of applications. You will develop an understanding of relational databases and the use of SQL (structured query language) which is used to extract and manipulate data. The use of databases and cloud computing is also examined in this module. 

This module introduces you to the techniques to implement the three fundamental abstractions of a computing system: memory, processors and communication links. The methods to implement memory include both the design of hardware memory devices such as RAM chips and that of higher-level memory systems such as file systems. The basic building blocks for the processor such as logic circuits will be introduced along with the Von-Neumann computer model and the assembly language instruction sets that are used to implement the processor abstraction. Implementations of communication abstraction that will be studied include internal communication in operating systems and external communication through network layers and protocols of the Internet.