I am currently a Computer Science major/ Neurosciene Minor at UNC Asheville. Yesterday we had our undergrad research symposium day, and to be honest it was kind of pathetic. I went to the coolest sounding lectures ( those were: Visual and Cognitive Electrophysiology at UNCA, Visualizing Fractals, Art in the Eyes of a Computer, and Ferroelectric Lithographic Nanostructures... I avoided the 50+ lectures on women's rights and literature etc.) but every single one of them was a let down. This was mainly due to the students not giving a shit about their own research, but (maybe) also due to the university not having decent equipment. Or maybe the students didn't know how to use it properly? I don't know. It just sucked in general.

Anyway, I am thinking I need a more tech/math savvy school because I am starting to feel out of place here. I noticed UNCA does the 2+2 engineering program and I am thinking about CSE or EE. Kinda wish I could just do the CSC program, but that isn't part of 2+2. I would also want to do the Cognitive Science minor. If you haven't guessed already I want to do AI. Can anyone here tell me the pros and cons of each path? What is your personal experience with these programs? tia

11/29/2012 1:50:33 PM

do you want to do interesting undergraduate research or do you want to enroll in interesting undergraduate courses? b/c if you care more about pursuing your own research, i would say worry less about your major, just get a degree and spend more time in undergrad pursuing independent studies in the areas you are interested in, and leverage that into a good grad school placement.

if you don't think you will end up in grad school, make your undergrad more challenging and give more weight to the 2+2 option. CSE/EE academics can certainly be useful for AI studies, and honestly a CSC program might be more "how to be a developer in the workplace" program rather than a "learn cool math and research" program.

[Edited on November 29, 2012 at 2:12 PM. Reason : also, i think this was going to be a printf 2+2 type thread]

11/29/2012 2:11:26 PM

Quote :

"Kinda wish I could just do the CSC program, but that isn't part of 2+2."

I can tell you that I regret doing EE/CPE instead of CSC because I really wanted to do CSC all along. Mainly because employers are going to question why you did that.

But I think qntmfred is right about grad school. If you "want to do AI" that's probably going to mean some graduate work and you shouldn't have any problem transitioning from EE/CPE to graduate level CSC. I'm doing a masters no thesis now and I don't believe I'm missing any prereqs at all. YMMV with other engineering degrees.

[Edited on November 29, 2012 at 2:27 PM. Reason : also, i think this was going to be a printf 2+2 type thread]

11/29/2012 2:18:47 PM

what is a 2+2 program? this thread is relevant to my interests

11/29/2012 2:39:28 PM

I'm definitely more interested in doing my own research. I have several big ideas for learning algorithms, video processing tools, natural language processing, character recognition, etc. I just want a good place to develop these ideas. I do need to get a good programming foundation though, but I could even learn that on my own. Engineering seems more like something I want to be taught. Another reason I am considering transfer is because I am hoping to find a better mentor. UNCA faculty seems to be just as unmotivated as the students.

11/29/2012 2:39:51 PM

^^
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=2%2B2+unca&l=1

^Then why don't you quit college altogether and take free classes online (there are several highly regarded AI ones).

11/29/2012 3:00:40 PM

man.. I went to NCSU for mechantronics in 2003 and because they had such low enrollment, they ended the program and told me i had to transfer to unca if I wanted to do it. I thought 2+2 was something more universal than unca.

11/29/2012 3:10:23 PM

Where are you at in your degree right now?

11/29/2012 4:14:39 PM

I'm at beginning of my 2nd year for Computer Science.

11/29/2012 5:34:13 PM

Quote :

"students not giving a shit about their own research"

Quote :

"UNC Asheville."

Quote :

"undergrad research"

11/29/2012 7:42:56 PM

This is my point exactly. This is why I must leave.

11/29/2012 8:14:48 PM

Also I think its kind of funny that they named it "2+2" because that seems to be the extent of the average UNCA student's math abilities.

11/29/2012 8:16:17 PM

lmao, damn

11/29/2012 8:19:32 PM

document.write(2+2);

11/29/2012 10:41:44 PM