Second year student Vasilii looks to a future in Computer Science

Hi, my name is Vasilii and I am in my seconds year of studying Computer Science BSc at the Exton Park Campus with a view to building my career in a Computer Science-related field.

Chester is a lovely place to study

I love being a student in the city of Chester, the city centre and the riverside are lovely, and I regularly visit the Chester Market and the Storyhouse. The city's small size forces you to really get familiar with it and explore every corner, and when you get bored, Liverpool and Manchester are easy to get to by train.

Portfolio building opportunities

Our course involves working on personal and group projects, even more so in year 2.  
Knowing how to code helps, but you can definitely learn on the course, as it is taught from the ground up, so you just have to make sure not to fall behind.

I recently took part in a 3-day Hackathon called Create Chester, when I led a team of students from each year of the course on a bonfire themed challenge, with industry judges.

I made an AR app in Android Studio using Kotlin and a framework called "Sceneview". This proved quite the challenge and it took a lot of time figuring out how to use all the features properly.

I really enjoyed working on the hackathon, my team did an amazing job in terms of both management (with all 7 members staying together until the end of the hackathon) and development, with the final project being a lot more than just my app, every part of it being well implemented and going beyond our course.

I won a Fitbit Charge 3 for "Innovation” and was praised for my Kotlin application for fireworks and brilliant grasp of the language.

Looking to the future

I am looking forward to a career in computer sciences, possibly somewhere between software development and engineering.  I am currently actively applying to do an industry placement next year, which will give me invaluable experience to help when applying for graduate jobs.  I also work in a bar part-time alongside my studies which is also useful experience for the future.

A really useful resource to help you with your future career planning are the Careers and Employability team. They can help with part-time and placement opportunities whilst you are studying as well as applying for graduate jobs.

My top 3 reasons to study Computer Science at Chester

1. Great staff that are always available to help you, I would like to mention all the staff as amazing lecturers.
2. Facilities are good and seemingly only improving every year.  The new library building is great, and the computer laboratories are well equipped.
3. There are a lot of opportunities to get even more out of the course, either through events such as CreateChester, getting career help from the careers department.  The CV cafes on Tuesdays have helped me out a lot! There is also the chance to participate in societies like the Game Development Society which I'm a part of. It regularly holds Game Jams and other events that help you both rapidly develop skills and meet passionate like-minded people.

Want to find out more?

Please visit the webpages for the course if you want to find out more about Computer Science, or our related Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence or Computer Science and Electronic Engineering degrees here at Chester. You can also book onto an Open Day to visit us, have a look around our specialist computer science labs and talk to staff.